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Csonka’s NJPW Road to New Beginning (Night Two) Review

February 1, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7
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Csonka’s NJPW Road to New Beginning (Night Two) Review  

Introduction
As a reminder, this will not be another traditional recap, but instead it will be a mash up of the Rs, Instant Analysis and my usual Twitter ramblings I would do during the shows; completely uncensored and as the ideas flow unfiltered to the old keyboard. Remember, this is a review; and I am here to review the show. As always, I encourage discussion and even disagreement, just do so in a respectful manner. I will be doing the review for Raw and most PPVs and iPPVs going forward.

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NJPW Road to New Beginning (Night Two)


OFFICIAL RESULTS
~ reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) defeated Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu (9:29) [***¼]
~ Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV defeated Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan, Mascara Dorada & Jay White (9:21) [***]
~ Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Bullet Club (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Kenny Omega) (11:23) [***½]
~ Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma (9:00) [**]
~ Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) defeated Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi (9:10) [**]
~ Yuji Nagata & Togi Makabe defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii (15:24) [***¼]
~ Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata defeated Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi) (17:00) [**¾]


reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) defeated Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu: I have been so happy that Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish have received the chance to work with New Japan. They have really done well and showed why they are one of the best tag teams in wrestling. They have been able to take the opportunities given to them, and what was originally scheduled for a short-term expedition is turning into something special for them. The match was really enjoyable, and a great way to kick things off. It wasn’t too much, but just enough to get things started of fin a positive way. I felt that Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu looked very good, and that they could be used better this year to shore up the ranks of the junior divisions, which both need more bodies and stronger, more dedicated booking.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV defeated Manabu Nakanishi, Captain New Japan, Mascara Dorada & Jay White: Eight man tag action next, the trademark of these lower level shows really. This was a simply worked, but really fun tag match, similar to when WWE does a six-man tag on Raw or Smackdown. It’s a match that isn’t great, but is filled with fun and is something you sit there, enjoy and then think, “Oh, it’s over already? Well that’s a shame”. This just had good action and flew by for me and I enjoyed it. We’re off to a nice start here tonight.

Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Bullet Club (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson & Kenny Omega): And we’re three for three tonight, as we had another tag match and another tag that delivered. They only had a little over 11-minutes, but they more than used all of the time to the best of their abilities. The Time Splitters and Bucks are two of my favorite teams these days, and Kenny Omega is simply great. This was the style you’d expect from the juniors, in the best way possible, with the Splitters hitting the double team sliced bread #2 on Nick Jackson for the win. That was a lot of fun, and the best match on the show so far. ReDRagon ran out to beat down the Splitters, setting up the three way for the titles on February 11th. Good work overall here.

Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Tetsuya Naito & Tomoaki Honma: This was our comedown match, as we saw a drop in quality here. It wasn’t bad, but didn’t hold by interest like the first three matches did, that’s for sure. Yano was a dick, low blowed Honma, allowing Sakuraba to kick him and Yano to score the win with a roll up assisted with a grab of the tights. It was fine.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga) defeated Kazuchika Okada & Yoshi-Hashi: This was another match that was just fine, but the story is that like last year with Nakamura, they are building up Fale for a big match with Okada this year. The Bullet Club got the heat, Okada got the hot tag and looked to set for the Rainmaker, but Fale cut him off with a clothesline. He then hit the Bad Luck Fall and scored the win. Again, the match was just there, but this was all about setting up Fale vs. Okada.

Yuji Nagata & Togi Makabe defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii: After two “just there” matches, we had another upgrade in quality. The story of this match is Nagata is challenging for the IC Title, so the match is really all about he and Nakamura. Nagata’s team won the previous night, but he did not finish off Nakamura. Tonight he did, sending the message that he can beat the champion. I am not always a fan of the finish, but Nakamura has been very protected, so I don’t mind it so much, especially since they do not over use it. Overall another quality match, with a really fun final couple of minutes where they really turned up the volume.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata defeated Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Yujiro Takahashi): The main event saw Team Tanahashi once again take out the Bullet Club. These tag matches have been designed to set up the Tanahashi vs. AJ Styles IWGP Title match coming up. Overall it has worked fine, but the match wasn’t what you’d expect from New Japan, even on a smaller scaled show. Just like on night one, I loved that Tanahashi used the clash. For those that do not know, Tanahashi had also used the move, but when Styles came to New Japan, he stopped. We’ll call him using the move now “shots fired” and again, a way to build to the title match without the challenger being there.

* End scene.

* Thanks for reading.

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“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.0
The final score: review Good
The 411
This was a nice upgrade from night one, which wasn’t a bad show, but overall the in ring product was more consistent here. I also feel that the show had a much better flow and went by very quickly for me. I do wish that they would toss in a singles match here and there to break up the monotony of the tag format, but I also realize that these shows are designed to lighten the workload and also build to the bigger shows.

As I stated with night one, these shows are basically house show, similar to the old Road to WrestleMania tours WWE used to run. I will also say again that these shows do help to build to the New Beginning events, and while not great shows would be a good jumping in point for new fans of New Japan. You’ll get familiar with the main players and can then watch the New Beginning shows and go on from there.

legend