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Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo Review 2.05.17

February 5, 2017 | Posted by Larry Csonka
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Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo Review 2.05.17  

Csonka’s NJPW New Beginning in Sapporo Review 2.05.17

OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado defeated KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato @ 7:46 via pin [**½]
– Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima defeated Yoshitatsu, Yomoyuki Oka & Henare @ 7:55 via submission [***]
– Will Ospreay, Gedo & Jado defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV @ 6:48 via pin [**]
– YOSHI-HASHI defeated Takashi Iizuka @ 7:17 via pin [**]
– Tanahashi & Friends defeated Los Ingobernables @ 13:25 via pin [***½]
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta) defeated TAKA Michinoku & Taichi @ 14:10 via pin [***]
– IWGP NEVER Openweight Title Match: IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto defeated Juice Robinson @ 14:50 via pin [***¾]
– IWGP Tag Team Title Match: IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & The Killer Elite Squad @ 14:00 via pin [***½]
– IWGP Title Match: IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Minoru Suzuki @ 41:03 via pin [****½]

KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado: KUSHIDA’s shoulder is still all taped up, Kawato started off for his team as KUSHIDA was sent to the floor. Kawato was sent to the floor as Suzuki-gun took the heat on the young lion. Kawato tried to fire up, finally hitting the dropkick and tagging in KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA ran wild on both of his opponents, scoring with a German suplex and pinning combo on both. Kanemaru used the ref as a shield, teasing the ref bump but KUSHIDA survived and fought back, Kawato tags in and gets in some offense on Desperado, hitting a missile dropkick for the near fall, He then locked in the crab, KUSHIDA helped to clear the ring but Desperado hut a spinebuster and worked the single leg crab, but Kawato made the ropes. Good fire from Kawato, constantly going for various pinning combos. Desperado hit the spear for a good near fall. The blue thunder bomb by Desperado put Kawato away. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado defeated KUSHIDA & Hirai Kawato @ 7:46 via pin [**½] This was a nice and rock solid opener. Kawato continues to improve, and KUSHIDA is a great babyface, fighting through injury.

Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yoshitatsu, Yomoyuki Oka & Henare: NEW JAPAN DADAS UNITE! Yoshitatsu’s team attacked at the bell, taking it to the dads. They isolated Kojima, but he quickly fought back with machine gun chops for all. Kojima then hit an elbow drop off the top to Henare, Nagata in and he and Tenzan worked over Henare. Tenzan controlled with ease until Henare moved out of the way of an elbow drop. Yoshitatsu got the mild tag, hit a spin wheel kick but Tenzan fired back with chops and the Samoan drop. Nagata back in and lit up Yoshitatsu with kicks. Yoshitatsu tried to fire up, but Nagata would have none of that. They kept trading forearms, Oka got tagged in and he and Nagata fired away on one another. Nagata then slapped him and they then both tried shoulder blocks, but Oka hit an overhead belly to belly; he locked in the crab and it broke down and bodies spilled to the floor. XPLODER by Nagata on Oka, locked in the cross face and Oka actually powered out, but Nagata transitioned to the other arm and Oka tapped. Yuji Nagata, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima defeated Yoshitatsu, Yomoyuki Oka & Henare @ 7:55 via submission [***] This was one of Yoshitatsu’s better performances, he worked hard and felt motivated for once. Oka continues to work very well with Nagata (who is training him) while Henare continues to work with really good confidence. This was a good, back and forth match, with a nice layout.

Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV vs. Will Ospreay, Gedo & Jado: This is really here to hype Shibata vs. Ospreay on the next New Beginning event (which is for the REV PRO British Heavyweight title). Ospreay and Shibata started, and Ospreay tried to grapple with Shibata. Liger and Jado in now, Geo helped out and then worked over Liger. They isolated him in their corner, using quick tags to beat down Liger. Ospreay back in, and while Tiger Mask tried to help, Liger was still in trouble. He finally hit a double DDT, tag to Tiger Mask who hit a high cross and then a series of kicks. Tiger Bomb on Gedo connects for the near fall. But Gedo quickly fought back with a jawbreaker. Ospreay tags back in, attacked Shibata and then ran wild on Tiger Mask and Shibata saved Tiger Mask and then beat on Ospreay until he ran into a dropkick. Ospreay then hit the spin kick on Tiger Mask and hit the cutter for the win. Post match, Shibata attacked Ospreay, but Ospreay hit him with the cutter and stood tall with the belt. Will Ospreay, Gedo & Jado defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask IV @ 6:48 via pin [**] The match was ok, just there really but it did it’s job in selling Shibata vs. Ospreay. They have had some great interactions; I am really looking forward to their match.

YOSHI-HASHI vs. Takashi Iizuka: they brawled on the floor to begin. Desperado got involved, allowing Iizuka to take control. Iizuka beat down HASHI and used a chair to do so. HASHI survived the count and made it back in, Iizuka just mauled him and used the mic cord to choke him out and then hung him over the ropes with it. Iizuka worked a slow heat, doing his mad man routine. HASHI fired back with chops and a neck breaker. Good fire by HASHI here, bringing some life to the match. HASHI had to repeatedly fight off Iizuka choking him. HASHI then brought out a little rope and choked out HASHI with it to take control back. Iizuka grabbed his iron hand gimmick as Desperado took the ref. HASHI avoided the attack, hit karma and picked up the win. YOSHI-HASHI defeated Takashi Iizuka @ 7:17 via pin [**] This was all about giving HASHI a win in an undercard feud to give him something to do. The match was solid, better than I expected, as HASHI got the important victory.

Tanahashi & Friends: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Lee vs. Los Ingobernables: Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi: This is here to set up Elgin vs. Naito for the IC Title, Dragon Lee vs. Takahashi for the Junior Title and the others in a match for the Trios Titles. That’s some economic booking to get the most out of the match. Also, Tanahashi’s new theme is still absolute shit. Lee and Takahashi started things off at a rather brisk pace, doing some really great and fast paced counter work. We then got Elgin in, Naito in but gave large Michael some traquilo. Elgin fought off SANADA and BUSHI, and then hit the staling suplex on Naito. Taguchi in now, ass attacks to Naito and then Tanahashi and Nakanishi did some ass attacks, followed by Elgin. Naito took a lot of asses to the face there. Taguchi made Naito look silly, running the ropes for no real reason, and sent him to the floor. Lee scored with a sweet dive, but SANADA tagged in and worked over Taguchi. Los Ingobernables took the heat on Taguchi as the other s sent Nakanishi to the floor. Taguchi kept trying to fire back, but EVIL was one step ahead of him and avoided the ass-based comeback. Elgin got the tag, worked over EVIL, BUSHI and Takahashi, including tossing around the little flippy boys at the same time. Elgin then hit Germans on Naito, SANADA and EVIL as he ran wild. LARGE MICHAEL CLEANING HOUSE! Nakanishi and Tanahashi then cleaned house for a bit, Tanahashi and EVIL had some really nice exchanges here (I want to see a singles with them soon). Lee and Takahashi returned, turning up the volume action wise, dueling Germans and then a superkick by Takahashi cut off Lee. It broke down, Los Ingobernables all hit signature stiff on lee, but Nakanishi made the save. Elgin then snatched up Naito, powerbombing him to the floor onto the rest of Los Ingobernables. Tanahashi then hit a dive onto the pile off the top rope. Dump suplex into the powerbomb by Lee was enough to put away BUSHI. Tanahashi & Friends defeated Los Ingobernables @ 13:25 via pin [***½] Los Ingobernables owned the various versions of Tanahashi and friends on the FantasticaMania tour to set up the title re-match. So them picking up the win here works, positioning them well for their title matches. The crowd was not as into it as you would expect, and the match started a bit slow but they worked their way into a very good tag match at the end of the day.

– INTERMISSION TIME. The first half here wasn’t great, but largely did its job of setting up matches for next weekend and it felt fun.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta)vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi: Kanemaru & El Desperado helped out early as Taichi and TAKA attacked. RPG Vice made the comeback, hitting stereo dives. TAKA knocked the ref down, allowing Desperado and Kanemaru attacked Beretta on the floor. Taichi stole the bell hammer, TAKA raked the eyes of Beretta to keep control. Taichi then used the bell hammer on Beretta, allowing he and TAKA to take the heat. Beretta fired back with a desperation lariat, but Desperado pulled Romero to the floor. Beretta hit a tornado DDT on Taichi and again looked for the tag and got it. Romero talked shit to Taichi, hit the forever clotheslines on both opponents and fired up the crowd. Sliced bread fought off by Taichi, but Romero battled back with a kick. Taichi hit the head kick, but Romero kicked out at 2. Romero then hit a knee stroke and running sliced bread. Beretta back on and they followed with double teams, but TAKA made the save. Taichi’s chick into the ring stopped strong zero, Beretta wash hit with a chair shot but kicked out of Taichi’s pin attempt. TAKA hit a knee strike, but Romero makes the save. Beretta sent to the floor, TAKA then wiped out RPG with a moonsault to the floor. Back in and Beretta survived the knee strike/superkick combo. Beretta ate a doomsday spin kick, survived that but TAKA locked in a crossface variation. Beretta fought, but TAKA transitioned into the side headlock, cranking back and then covering for 2. Michinoku driver countered into the dude buster for the near fall. Romero gets beat don on the floor by the Kanemaru and Desperado. Beretta fights Suzuki-gun off with a chair, Romero back in and stereo knees to Taichi followed. Strong Zero to TAKA and the champions retain. Post match, Desperado and Kanemaru attack the champions and lay them out and look to make a challenge for the titles. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta) defeated TAKA Michinoku & Taichi @ 14:10 via pin [***] Through all of the bullshit, they ended up putting on a good match. I think it was overkill at times, and would have been much better without a lot of it, but the heroes overcame in the end. Beretta was particularly great here, he’s a great post WWE success story that doesn’t get enough love.

IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Juice Robinson: Robinson fired up and attacked right away, laying into Goto in the corner, hitting the cannonball and then the top rope head butt for the near fall in the first minute.

Goto retreated to the floor, Robinson followed and they brawled on the floor, with Robinson keeping control. He then missed the cannonball against the barricade. Back in and Goto was not amused by Robinson and started to beat on him, focusing on the back. Good aggression by Goto here as he tried to destroy the back of Robinson, working the crab. Good fight shown by Robinson as he struggled for the ropes, but Goto maintains control. Robinson makes it to his feet and then clotheslines Goto to the floor. Robinson followed up with the slingshot senton, sent Goto back in but is slow to follow up due to his back. Robinson followed with a senton and a running splash for 2. They traded strikes center ring, Robinson escaped the ushigoroshi and then followed with jabs. Jump kick by Robinson cuts off Goto, hits the toss up gut buster and covers for the near fall. Robinson up top, but crashes and burns on the moonsault. Robinson looked to fight back, went up top and Goto cut him off. They traded strikes up top, Robinson slipped out and hit the powerbomb and covered for a great near fall. Robinson looked for pulp friction, Goto countered and hit a German (dumping Robinson on his head); Robinson fires up and they trade lariats. Robinson then leveled Goto and covered for a good near fall. Goto counters pulp friction, but Robinson counters the GRT. Goto hit a draping GRT, but Robinson kicks out! Goto with a kick to the chest, but Robinson again survives. GRT by Goto, and Robinson is finally done. IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto defeated Juice Robinson @ 14:50 via pin [***¾] This was a very good match, laid out just the way it needed to be. From Robinson‘s attack early on the champion, to his selling, to the fact that he scored believable near falls and survived some of Goto’s signature stuff before finally falling. Robinson continues to improve, looked really strong here and lost nothing in defeat. A performance like this should place Robinson solidly into the NJPW mid-card, which is a good thing for him.

IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. The Killer Elite Squad (Smith & Archer): They all brawled before the bell, spilled to the floor and then the KES cornered him and tossed him into the ring. Yano ran away and tagged in Makabe. Makabe ran over Archer, Yano tagged back in and undid the buckle pad. Hair pull on Archer, but Archer quickly hit the full nelson slam, he backed off when Ishii threatened to enter the match. KES took the heat on Yano, isolating him, but Smith ran into the exposed buckle; Ishii in and he hit suplexes on KES. Archer then ran into the exposed buckle and Ishii is fired up, taking out Makabe and Honma. Ishii and Smith did some back and forth power spots, Smith hit the running bulldog, but Honma blind tagged in. He ran wild on Smith, the falling kokeshi hits, but KES double-teams him. They then took out Yano, Smith kept working over Honma and got a near fall off of the belly to back suplex. Honma hit a the jumping kokeshi, Makabe in to clear house and work double teams with Honma, Honma hit two kokeshi variations and then went up top, top rope Kokeshi but Yano blind tagged in ad covered for the near fall. Archer hit a rope walk into a high cross onto Yano and Honma. Chokeslam to Yano, but Honma broke it up. Makabe in, KES cut him off momentarily but he hits a series of clotheslines. Makabe hit the exposed buckle, but hits lariats on KES. It breaks down, Honma and Makabe work over Yano and Makabe looks for the spider German and dumps Yano on his head. KES looks for the killer bomb, Honma makes the save, but KES hits a Hart attack. Ishii returns and kicks ass, low kick by Yano after a ref distraction and he rolls up Makabe for the win. IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & The Killer Elite Squad @ 14:00 via pin [***½] The finish worked great, because you don’t want to pin KES here, they lost due to Yano’s shenanigans, when the other team lost. This had a slow start, and the crowd wasn’t wild about it a lot of the way, but it was another example of everyone working hard, finally getting the crowd into things, they picked up the pacing really well down the stretch and actually used the hectic nature of the three-way to their advantage.

– We get a cool video from Suzuki-gun’s clubhouse.

IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki: During the press conference for the event (yesterday), Suzuki attacked the knee of Okada, so the story is that he’s coming in injured. Okada’s knee is wrapped up. They worked a slow beginning, with Okada doing his best to keep his injured leg as far away from Suzuki as possible. Suzuki teased a clean break along the ropes, but kicked at the legs and quickly locked in a knee bar. Okada took a powder, when he came back in, Suzuki worked leg kicks. They traded strikes, Okada took Suzuki down and hit a sliding dropkick o the floor. Okada fought off the arm bar in the ropes, and then sent Suzuki to the floor. They then brawled, Okada hit the draping DDT on the floor for the countout tease. Back in, Okada hit the neck breaker and then worked the straightjacket. Okada sent Suzuki to the apron with a series of uppercuts, but as Okada controlled on the floor, Taichi distracted Okada, allowing Suzuki to attack the knee with kicks and chair shots. He even wrapped it around the barricade as Taichi took out Gedo. Suzuki just smiled as he punished the champion. Suzuki then beat on Gedo a bit before mocking Okada. Suzuki laughs off Okada’s attempts to fight back, but just goes back on the attack on the leg. Suzuki is using a nice variation of attacks on the leg, seamlessly transitioning between holds. Okada finally makes the ropes after a long struggle as Suzuki grins like the ultimate villain. Okada tries to fire up with strikes, but he’s having issues standing, which allows Suzuki to easily cut him off. Suzuki is coming off like the ultimate prick here, mocking Okada at every chance he gets and then attacking without mercy. Okada tries to pick up speed, hits the corner elbow and then the limping uppercut for 2. Okada up top now, but Suzuki pops up and Okada has to jump over him, but that causes him to grasp at the knee and Suzuki slaps him around. Okada with forearms, but Suzuki slides into the knee bar. Okada sits up and tries to kick away with the good leg, and then rolls to the ropes but Suzuki maintains the hold and works the count. Suzuki then stomps away on the knee, and works a knee crank. Okada sets him up top, manages to hit the dropkick but is down and can’t follow up. Okada up top, and hits a missile dropkick as Suzuki rolls in. Okada then hits the top rope elbow drop, but Suzuki counters the rainmaker into another knee bar. Suzuki keeps cranking on the hold, the crowd tries to rally Okada, he teases tapping and Gedo teases tossing in the towel but Okada makes the ropes. Suzuki is such a beautifully mean son of a bitch. Okada crumbles to the mat as Suzuki shoots him to the ropes and then looks for the figure four. Okada fights, but Suzuki locks it in. Okada fights as Gedo again teases tossing in the towel. Okada makes the ropes for the break, but Suzuki slaps him around and dares him to keep fighting. Okada hits a desperation death valley driver to get some separation. They trade strikes, but Suzuki fires up and laughs. Okada tries the tombstone, but can’t get him up. Suzuki shoves the ref into Okada, Taichi and KES hit the ring and Ishii and Yano then arrive. We get the big brawl, Okada fights off Taichi, dropkick to Suzuki! Gedo and Taichi brawl, Okada looks for a Gotch tombstone, but Suzuki slides into the knee bar. Suzuki is relentless here, Okada fights, screams, and teases tapping but Suzuki pulls him back center ring. Okada kicks at Suzuki, Suzuki stands and drops back down to sink the hold in deeper. Okada looks for the ropes, Suzuki SSTs the leg ad cuts him off as he continues to crank on the leg. Okada makes a final attempt with kicks to escape, Gedo is not here to throw in the towel as he brawled away with Taichi. Suzuki then ties up both legs, the ref checks on Okada, but he reaches for the ropes and refuses to tap and finally makes the ropes. Suzuki is pissed, delivers knee strikes to Okada and covers for 2. More slaps by Suzuki, Okada fires up and slaps him back. They slap each other back and forth, chops by Suzuki follow and then more slaps. Sleeper by Suzuki, goes for the Gotch piledriver, but Okada counters out and hit the neck breaker. Dropkick by Suzuki cuts off Okada’s comeback, strikes follow, more slaps and then locks in the sleeper. Okada drops to the mat, but he fires up one last time but Suzuki will not let go. Gotch piledriver countered, and Okada hangs onto the wrist and hits the rainmaker. He hangs onto the wrist, but Suzuki hits left-handed slaps and a head butt. Okada grabs Suzuki, they trade counters of the rainmaker and sleeper. German by Okada, RAINMAKER and Suzuki is finally done. IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Minoru Suzuki @ 41:03 via pin [****½] If Suzuki was going to lose, that was a good way to do it; they did a great job here, giving him so much as he dominated Okada and made it very believable that he could win here (the story had built in outs for him to lose). I am glad they kept the shenanigans to a minimum, because the story was the injured Okada overcoming an opponent that took the fight to him on a completely different level of violence, and the champion’s resilience and ability to overcome. The first half was really solid, like setting the base coast for what was to come, but like many Okada matches, the finishing stretch was really excellent. Overall, Okada’s selling was really strong here, some great spots of desperation, collapsing to the mat and the screams of pain all resonated; but what I did hate was in the middle, when he just starts to run around with little difficulty. This was a great match with a tremendous story, and came across as a very different match than the usual NJPW main event. That’s the benefit of Suzuki being gone for so long, he is amazingly fresh. This is a match that some people will absolutely hate (to long, Okada was too much a Superman, ect, ect, ect) but while I can see those arguments, I also felt that they did a lot right. Suzuki was made to be a total bad ass and freshens things up, also I have no issue with Okada overcoming al of that because of how they built to it. This was a basic story of Good vs. Evil, good won out in the end and didn’t just pop up, hit one move and win. I get if some have their reasons for not digging this, but there was really a lot to love, including re-establishing Suzuki as a legit and relentless badass. With all of the Suzuki-gun losses on the show, they die a great job of making me think there would be a title change here

– In the post match interview, Okada said that he’d be interested in Tiger Mask W doing well in the New Japan Cup.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

photo fe36ffd0-0da4-4e3b-a2d3-b026b341dd87_zps41ef5d61.jpg
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
I listened to the English feed, Don Callis was fine, and mostly stayed out of the way of Kelly. He dropped in some stuff from time to time, wasn’t bad, but I wouldn’t say he was good either; he was there and didn’t take away from the show, which is a positive. I thought that the show was a good one, with a lot of strong wrestling and build to the show next weekend. It was a quick comeuppance for Suzuki-gun, who came up empty in the title matches, which was a bit surprising. They did a great job of making me excited for next weekend’s show, which has a chance to be excellent.
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