Kevin’s Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.24.16

Road to Wrestling Dontaku
April 24th, 2016 | Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan

Like the previous night, New Japan held a “Road to Wrestling Dontaku” show with some matches to build the upcoming big show. There will be another on 4/27 that I’ll check out too.

Jay White def. David Finlay in 10:15
These two have had countless matches with each other and even worked great as a team the previous night. This was more of the same from these two. Jay White holds the lead in the series and it showed. He was brash at times, even slapping at David’s head as if he was toying with him. David had his leg worked on and sold it rather well. He began to make a comeback and scored a very close near fall on a German suplex. He tried for the Young Lions special, the Boston crab, but Jay reached the ropes. Jay than took the leg work done and utilized it with his own Boston crab. Once he put his knee into David’s back and wrenched back, Finlay had to submit. Another win in the series for Jay, who I look forward to seeing on his potential excursion to ROH. They fist bumped after a solid match. ***¼

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice and YOSHI-HASHI def. Captain New Japan, Ryusuke Taguchi and Tiger Mask IV in 9:54
More shenanigans from Rocky Romero, who again his own version of Tiger Mask’s mask. Captain New Japan seemed to only bring one outfit for the weekend as he was still sporting his Bullet Club hunter attire though he faced Chaos here. A lot of fun was poked at the Captain being inept. His teammates wouldn’t tag him, while Barreta begged for him to become the legal man. Outside of that, this didn’t do much for me. Also, I still really don’t like Taguchi. Anyway, YOSHI-HASHI won via submission. I’ll give you one guess as to who tapped out. Poor Captain. Barreta put on the Tiger Mask afterwards and the real Tiger Mask looked on annoyed. Maybe he gets a partner and comes after the titles. **

Juice Robinson, NEVER Openweight Champion Katsuyori Shibata and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA def. Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata in 14:44
You just have to love the old man team of Nagata, Nakanishi and Liger. Seeing Juice come out with Shibata, to Shibata’s theme and be all happy go lucky was so strange. Shibata even seemed to look at him confused. Juice got his ass kicked by Nakanishi while we got previews of the two upcoming Wrestling Dontaku matches from the other four again. Again, you got the feeling that Shibata and Nagata wanted to kill each other. I enjoyed KUSHIDA wrestling Liger again but something about Nagata and Shibata felt special. Shibata put down Nakanishi for the win before putting Nagata to sleep with the sleeper hold after it was over. Surprisingly, Liger and KUSHIDA got more physical as they fought into the crowd and continued to do so after the bell. Again, this accomplished the job of making me want to see Wrestling Dontaku even more. ***

BUSHI and SANADA def. Gedo and Kazuchika Okada in 13:34
Obviously, this served as a preview of the upcoming Okada vs. SANADA match. With no Tetsuya Naito involved, Okada was the clear crowd favorite in this thing. They had a good back and forth trying to one up each other in the early stages. When BUSHI and Gedo were legal, SANADA and Okada still fought outside, with SANADA choking him with a baseball bat. By the way, all Gedo matches should have no commentary. Hearing him shout vulgarities is always great. There was a great moment where SANADA countered the Rainmaker into a dragon sleeper though it was broken up. He did win with the dragon sleeper, though it was on Gedo. This was a fine way to build to Wrestling Dontaku. After the match, Okada went after SANADA, even shoving a Young Lion down. BUSHI spit mist in his face, allowing them to beat him up. ***

Hirooki Goto and ROH World Television Champion Tomohiro Ishii def. EVIL and IWGP Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito in 16:26
With Ishii vs. Naito and EVIL vs. Goto set for Wrestling Dontaku, this worked as a perfect setup for those matches. Instead of allowing the laid back Los Ingobernables crew dictate the pace, Ishii and Goto attacked before the bell and beat them up outside for a bit, which I liked. Considering the attack at the end of the last show, it made sense. Brawling was the name of the game during the match. Fighting outside, choking with foreign objects and steel chairs were all part of it. There were some really close calls down the stretch as the final few minutes of this were certainly exciting. Ishii got the win for his team after some lariats and a Brainbuster on EVIL. Good effort from everyone involved, especially EVIL, who has really come on strong in 2016. ***½

Special Elimination Match: The Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, IWGP Tag Team Champions the Guerillas of Destiny, IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kenny Omega and Yujiro Takahashi) def. Great Bash Heel, NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin and Yoshitatsu in 27:48
Like the previous night’s main event, you could be eliminated via pinfall, submission or getting thrown over the top rope. Omega used his “Howard Finkel” voice to do his own intro before deciding against it and having the BC attack the faces. It was a while before we got any eliminations and it was Tanga Roa that went first. Togi Makabe went over the top and out shortly after. Tama Tonga was doing very well before fighting on the apron with Honma. Fale accidentally knocked Tonga out before using the Grenade to send Honma out. Tanahashi and Fale went at it until Fale dumped him over. Elgin ran in and clotheslined Fale right over, leaving it down to Omega, Takahashi, Yoshitatsu and Elgin. Using a powerbomb, Elgin pinned Takahashi to eliminate him. It seemingly came down to Omega and Elgin, who gave us a great preview of their upcoming title match. Omega managed to take Elgin over and eliminate him. He thought he won but Yoshitatsu was still alive. They went back and forth and teased the Styles Clash again. Yoshitatsu had some hope spots but fell to the One Winged Angel. Another solid elimination match from everyone involved. ***¼

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

Not as fun as yesterday’s show but still rather solid. The main event was pretty enjoyable, most things clocked in around three stars and the semi-main event was the best thing on the card. Again, it did a good job of setting up the upcoming shows so it succeeded there.