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Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Osaka Review 2.11.16

February 11, 2016 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7.2
The 411 Rating
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Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Osaka Review 2.11.16  

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Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Osaka Review 2.11.16

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Jay White defeated David Finlay Jr. @ 7:00 via submission [***]
– Jushin Thunder Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask defeated Gedo, Kazushi Sakuraba & YOSHI-HASHI @ 7:25 via submission [**]
– Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima defeated Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata @ 11:00 via pin [**½]
– BUSHI, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito defeated Juice Robinson, KUSHIDA & Michael Elgin @ 8:50 via pin [**¾]
– Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe & Toru Yano to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man titles [**]
– Matt Sydal and Ricochet defeated Champions The Young Bucks and reDRagon to win the NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles @ 15:00 via pin [***¾]
– Champion Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tomohiro Ishii to retain the NEVER Openweight Title @ 18:50 via pin [****½]
– Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson & Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma @ 17:10 via pin [***]
– Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Hirooki Goto to retain the IWGP Title @ 25:25 via pin [***½]


Jay White defeated David Finlay Jr.: With Komatsu and Tanaka off to CMLL, Finlay and White get the job of opening the shows. I greatly enjoyed watching the rise and growth of Komatsu and Tanaka, and hope the same happens for these two. I’ve come around a bit more on young Finlay, but still feel that White is ahead of him as an all around performer. This was a quality opener, worked at a nice pace, it was competitive and not only worked to make it enjoyable, but it was clean. So far so good for these two as far as taking over the opening spot, I may say this a lot, but while I do appreciate a good story and such, there is something to be said for a clean and quality match to kick off a show.

Jushin Thunder Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask defeated Gedo, Kazushi Sakuraba & YOSHI-HASHI : This was a very basic undercard tag, playing off of personality and names more than actual work. It had its moments and felt more of a match designed to make the live crowd happy, and while there is nothing wrong with that, outside of Gedo’s stuff, it was just there for me. There’s nothing wrong with the match, but it was just sort of there for me.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima defeated Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata : I really wasn’t sure that to expect here, this was a match with three veteran performers I mostly enjoy and a planet, so it was a toss up. Basically, if you’re not a fan of Nakanishi, you’re not going to like this too much. When Tenzan, Kojima and Nagata were in it was smooth sailing a rather enjoyable; the problem for me was that planet Nakanishi worked way too much of the match, and at the end of the day, it hurt it. TenKoji won after a 3D and two lariats on Nakanishi in what ended up as a perfectly fine match.

BUSHI, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito defeated Juice Robinson, KUSHIDA & Michael Elgin: Los Ingobernables continue to be protected in these trios matches, which is a good thing. The match was really all about preparing BUSHI as a threat for the title match on the 14th, and this did a solid job of that. Elgin got a lot of run with his power stuff, which was the most over thing on the show so far. Elgin feels like a completely different guy in Japan, in a good way, I wish ROH could capture that. BUSHI misted KUSHIDA, and EVIL hit the STO on Robinson to take the pin. BUSHI again made the sign that he wanted the belt. This was rock solid overall.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe & Toru Yano to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man titles : This match felt way too similar to the Tokyo Dome match, with little fire, a decent crowd reaction but nothing too special overall going on. On top of that, it just felt disjointed, and had no real flow. They did stuff, they did more stuff, it started to feel long and Tonga Yano’d Yano with a low blow, and then hit his double arm DDT. Bullet Club walks out with the NEVER Openweight 6-Man titles, which I do not have a big issue with, but they really should have done the title change on a slightly smaller show, like a Road to, because these titles could be headlining those shows. If you do a title change on one of those shows, you may make them feel slightly more important. This simply existed, which is unfortunate.

Matt Sydal and Ricochet defeated Champions The Young Bucks and reDRagon to win the NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: To continue with my earlier point about the title change, the 6-man titles didn’t need to change hands if the junior tag titles were going to change hands. This was a very fun, athletic and quality match, it was easily the best thing on the show so far. These teams all work well together, and when given the chance can get the crowd very into what they do. But here is the problem, there is absolutely no booking of the division, and it continues to suffer. Outside of the clear protection of reDRagon, thanks to a Cody Hall kidnapping of O’Reilly, NJPW has no idea what to do with the juniors, because traditionally they haven’t drew money, so they continue to treat them like a complete under card act, force multi-man matches and then do titles changes and say “Look, BOOKING!” as a way to make fans thing that there is something happening, when in actuality, there’s nothing happening. At a time when the roster has lost Styles and Nakamura, maybe actually sitting down and planning out some actual shit for the juniors would be a good idea. It is completely frustrating to see such talent be booked like, well I would say shit, but they aren’t even booking the damn division.

Champion Katsuyori Shibata defeated Tomohiro Ishii to retain the NEVER Openweight Title : Sweet baby Jesus, these dudes went out there and busted their ass in an attempt to out do their WK 10 match and they nearly did it. They did everything you’d expect; the chops, the lariats, elbows, the big fire up no sell spots, some submission work and it all worked again. They worked in some man up spots, where they would challenge each other to suplex the other, and it got over really well. I felt that Shibata was really over big time with this crowd, which I am happy with because I really enjoy the guy’s work and feel he’s under appreciated. These guys have a way of working their match to where they can keep a great pace, never let it slow to a crawl, but they also never feel as if they are sprinting either. It’s just the right balance, and the matches ever feel long to me. They worked some great near falls down the stretch, and Shibata finally retained with the PK. This was fucking awesome and on par with their WK 10 match.

Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson & Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma : This was “Operation Get Kenny Omega Over” and they did a really good job of that. This was all set up to give Omega some serious heat heading into the Niigata match with Tanahashi, and was something they needed to do. Bullet Club was dominant here. They did a good job of making Bullet Club look like killers here, with the finishing stretch seeing the gunstun on Honma, the magic killer on Makabe, a reverse RANA on Tanahashi and then the one winged angel finished off poor Honma. This was the basic good NJPW six-man tag with a lot of attention paid to the guys that needed it. Post match Bullet Club did a huge beat down on Tanahashi, as they tried to destroy his shoulder with chairs and violence. Omega and the Bucks work well as a psychotic trio to lead Bullet Club, and should be a lot of fun as they soon move forward without Anderson and Gallows.

Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Hirooki Goto to retain the IWGP Title: Kazuchika Okada defeated Hirooki Goto to retain the IWGP Title in a match where there was no if doubt that Okada would win. I felt that they did a very good job of building to this match, and Goto even was sporting a new look. Unfortunately, the dude is 0-7 in IWGP Title matches, and no one bought that he could win. The beginning lacked the fire that the build had, and felt off from the beginning as far as the tone goes. After the slow and slightly boring Okada beginning, things picked up. They worked a technically fine wrestling match, but at no point did I think Goto had any sort of chance to win, I never bought on a single near fall and the crowd didn’t buy into this much at all. They loved Okada, but essentially gave no fucks about Goto. The homestretch was easily the best part of this, but at the end of the day this felt like a disappointment as a main event IWGP Title match.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.2
The final score: review Good
The 411
This was a good show overall, with a must see match and a nice effort to set up for the 14th in several ways. The booking of the junior tag division is still non-existent, which continues to be an issue with the shows, but I doubt that it will change any time soon. If you’re short on time, catch the final four matches, they are worth your time, the rest is solid, but lacking at times.
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