wrestling / Video Reviews

Views from the Hawke’s Nest: NJPW 2015 Blog #2

June 30, 2015 | Posted by TJ Hawke
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Views from the Hawke’s Nest: NJPW 2015 Blog #2  

You can also check out my New Japan blog and my 411 coverage of 2015 NJPW:

Wrestle Kingdom
New Year Dash
Blog #1
Invasion Attack
New Japan Cup

 

 

Wrestling Dontaku
Fukuoka, Japan
May 3, 2015

The first match from this show that I watched was Kota Ibushi & Yohei Komatsu vs. Sho Tanaka & Tetsuya Naito. Unlike a lot of tag matches on NJPW PPVs these days, this is a match where I’m interested in every person in the match to one degree or another. That in of itself makes it stand out. This mostly seemed designed to continue the budding in-ring rivalry between Ibushi and Naito (Ibushi defeated Naito this year in the NJC). They can do a story where Naito is jealous of Ibushi stealing his spot in the company! A lot of the action down the stretch was between Komatsu and Tanaka though. Tanaka was the injured party and had to survive lots of submissions and whatnot from Komatsu. Komatsu eventually put him away with a single-leg crab. This was a fun undercard match. (***)

 

The next match I watched featured Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero) defending their IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson). Despite Rocky upgrading his tag partner, the matches between the rest of these guys largely feel exactly the same to the matches this division has been giving us for the last year. There was a lot of shtick with Rocky’s team, an obligatory heat segment that did not matter in away, and then we got a lot of back and forth action. On top of that familiarity, this just went on so long. I was not a fan of it by the end, as the match bored me more than anything else. The title switch is also a little weird, and I’m bored of the hot potato-ing with these belts. (**1/4)

 

This show ended with Shinsuke Nakamura defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hirooki Goto. It is a shame that Goto has seemingly been moved away from the tag division, as he is so much better off here. I was hoping that he would actually control the match at least to changes things up from a typical Goto match. He worked from underneath though, and I just rarely find that interesting. This was not the exception. (Nakamura did not really do much while working on top to be fair.) The big problem with all that is that if the wrestlers do not make me care during those segments, I’m not truly invested in the comeback and the result. Nakamura took some great bumps for Goto lariats, and some of nearfalls were really executed well at least. In an unpleasant surprise, Goto won the match and title after connecting on Shouten Kai. The story of Nakamura overlooking Goto and not taking him too seriously makes it logical for Goto to win. It didn’t lead to an interesting match though, and now we have a bunch of Goto MAIN EVENTS to look forward to going forward. This was a disappointing match with an ominous result. (**3/4)

 

 

ROH/NJPW War Of The Worlds
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
May 12, 2015

Delirious took on Gedo in a battle of the bookers to kick off the tour. This seemed like a fun idea on paper. The crowd either didn’t get the jobe about this being a booker vs. booker match or did not care that it was. Gedo barely seemed to care about the match for that matter. Skip this one. (1/2*)

 

The next match on the tour was Roderick Strong (the best wrestler in the world) vs. KUSHIDA (possibly the most underrated wrestler in the world). This was a textbook case of expectations affecting my enjoyment of a match. When I heard the praise for this match, I assumed it was a 10-11 minute match worked at a blistering pace. That is the type of match Roddy excels at, and it seemed to fit with its position on the card. Instead, we ended up getting a far more methodical match without much substance to justify it. This was certainly a solid match though. It was just a bit of a letdown. I will have to watch it again one day. (***1/4)

 

Michael Elgin vs. Tetsuya Naito was the next match that I saw. I heard at the time that Elgin was booked for the G1 before this tour even happened. While I did not hear good things about his matches on the ROH/NJPW shows, I want to see how he looks in there with NJPW guys. I like how he’s working on busting out new stuff, varying up his arsenal, etc. to make his work stand out a bit more than before. However, he is now just working with a total lack of emotion in his matches right now. He’s not really all that over, and he needs to do more to make people care. This was easy to watch though despite all of that. I wouldn’t go so far to say it was good, but it was an inoffensive match. Elgin mostly controlled the match as the far bigger wrestler, and Naito eventually made comebacks with his speed. Naito won with a Victory Roll. (**1/2)

 

Watch some NJPW for free!

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Hirooki Goto

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Katsuyori Shibata

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bennett

Tomohiro Ishii vs. Hirooki Goto

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Yoshi Tatsu

Tetsuya Naito vs. KUSHIDA

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson

Tomoaki Honma vs. Masato Tanaka

Mistico vs. Averno

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Prince Devitt

Naomichi Marufuji vs. Prince Devitt

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masato Tanaka

 

Click here for a meticulously organized list of all of my wrestling reviews.

6.0
The final score: review Average
The 411
This was an okay set of matches. The Roddy/KUSHIDA singles and the tag match with Kota and Naito from Dontaku are both worth seeking out. The next set of matches will be reviewed soon. It's going to be NJPW/ROH for a while, and then I will get to the Best of the Super Juniors.
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