wrestling / TV Reports

Csonka’s NJPW World Tag League (Day Five) Review 11.27.15

November 28, 2015 | Posted by Larry Csonka
7.5
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Csonka’s NJPW World Tag League (Day Five) Review 11.27.15  

 photo NJTL_zpslk1efjhp.jpg

NJPW World Tag League (Day Five) Review 11.27.15

OFFICIAL RESULTS
* WTL B Block: Tetsuya Naito & EVIL defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima @ 11:08 via pin [**]
* WTL A Block: Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin @ 14:59 via pin [***½ ]
* WTL A Block: Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian defeated Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI @ 12:06 via pin [***]
* WTL B Block: AJ Styles & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii @ 14:56 via pin [***¾]


Similar to the G1 and the Super Juniors tournament, this is streamlined coverage of just the tournament matches. A lot of the tournament will now be recorded and released on VOD as we go forward.

Tetsuya Naito & EVIL defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima: This was the usual outing from Naito & EVIL, it was fine and fits their gimmick well, but wasn’t anything special to really make it worth watching from a match quality standpoint. Naito & EVIL got the heat on Kojima, Tenzan did his best to keep the team alive and they went to the home stretch. Naito avoided the lariat from Kojima; BUSHI gave him the mist after the ref bump, leading to Naito hitting a low blow and destino for the win. I do appreciate the character work form Naito & EVIL, but was just an ok match overall.

Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin: As expected with the match up, this picked things up nicely and we got a really good match here. The first portion of the match was solid and set the foundation, but then it kicked into high gear and got damn enjoyable as Elgin and Honma. They got a good heat on Honma, and then worked a great homestretch including a doomsday kokeshi on Tanahashi. This gave me all of the great action that I was missing from the opening match, as Honma continues to be the ultimate underdog and Elgin continues to deliver in New Japan. Honma and Makabe finally got control, and Elgin fell to the DVD, Kokeshi and then King Kong knee drop combo. This one is worth checking out.

Christopher Daniels & Frankie Kazarian defeated Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI: This was a really competitive feeling back and forth match, with a good pacing and action through out. Kazarian especially was on point tonight from a selling standpoint, making sure to make everything Okada and HASHI did look even better than usual. Daniels continues to be great, especially given him age, and showed a lot of fire here. The guy is so good, and has found a great way to extend his career working in a tag team with a good friend. Daniels was running wild, but then got cut off and it appeared that he was about to eat the rainmaker. Daniels and Kazarian worked together to take out Okada, and then hit Celebrity Rehab on HASHI to pick up the victory. You put a good tag team in there with one of the best in the world and you get a good match.

AJ Styles & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii: Going into the match the one thing I really liked was that this also served as a preview of the Styles vs. Nakamura match set for WK 10. Since this was a match with bigger names and the main event, they got plenty of time to work and used it really well. On top of the interactions between Styles and Nakamura, I also really enjoyed the interactions between Styles and Ishii; watching Styles work out of his comfort zone is fun because he seems to like to try new things. Styles and Takahashi got the heat on Ishii, Nakamura got a hot tag and near fall on Styles with the boma ye. We didn’t get a ton of Styles vs. Nakamura, but what we got was an appetizer that made me look forward to their match even more. Styles put away Ishii with bloody Sunday and the clash. This was a damn fine piece of business right here.

BLOCK A
* Hiroshi Tanahashi and Michael Elgin (4 points)
* Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi (4 points)
* Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano (2 points)
* Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi (2 points)
* Christopher Daniels and Frankie Kazarian (2 points)
* Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (2 points)
* Tama Tonga and Bad Luck Fale (0 points)

BLOCK B
* Tetsuya Naito and Evil (6 points)
* Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata (4 points)
* Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2 points)
* A.J. Styles and Yujiro Takahashi (2 points)
* Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson (2 points)
* Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii (0 points)
* Michael Bennett and Matt Taven (0 points)

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

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

7.5
The final score: review Good
The 411
This was one of the better nights overall, with everything but the opener getting a recommendation.
legend