wrestling / TV Reports

Views from the Hawke’s Nest: Road To Power Struggle 2014 – Day 1

October 26, 2014 | Posted by TJ Hawke

I normally don’t watch non-PPVs from NJPW, but the combination of the juniors tag tournament, the loaded main event, and the fact that the show was happening in Korakuen made interested enough in watching the whole thing.

October 25, 2014
Tokyo, Japan

CHAOS (Gedo, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka)
The match started as a big brawl on the floor. I think that’s a rule for Suzuki-gun undercard matches. They eventually settled down into a tag match. Suzuki-gun eventually worked over YOSHI-HASHI. Toru Yano made the hot tag. He undid a turnbuckle pad. Iizuka crashed into it. Iizuka choked him with his rope or chain. Suzuki and Yano then did their contractually mandated interaction. Suzuki applied a kimura on Gedo twice. The second one got him the victory.

Suzuki gave a young boy a kimura after that.

This opener had its moments, but it just felt too similar to every match involving these guys. Suzuki and Yano never need to be in another match together.
Match Rating: **

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma), Captain New Japan, Kota Ibushi & Tetsuya Naito
This match also started as a big brawl. Things settled down faster than I expected though. The Bullet Club eventually worked over Honma. Honma avoided a corner splash from Fale, and Makabe made a comeback. Makabe got cut off though, and Naito then had to make a comeback for the tecnicos. He and Yujiro went at it. It was more enjoyable than any of their many singles matches. He got cut off as well, and Kota then made a comeback. The match broke down. Lots of movez were traded. Kota eventually finished Tonga after a Last Ride and a Phoenix Splash.

Makabe coordinated the team celebration after the match. That was easily the highlight of the match.

Everyone worked hard for sure, but I just do not care about these giant Bullet Club tags anymore (if I ever did). The most notable thing about this match was that Kota got the win. I hope he has a singles match at 1/4.
Match Rating: **3/4

Super Junior Tag Tournament 2014 First Round Match
BUSHI & Mascara Dorada vs. reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly)
Kyle and Fish debuted at the G1 Climax Finals in a failed challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championships. This is their first time back in NJPW.

RD went after BUSHI’s left arm. BUSHI eventually escaped the beatdown. RD avoided their stereo dives attempt. The teams brawled into the crowd. Dorado and BUSHI hit stereo balcony dives. The teams went back and forth in the ring after that. Fish took out BUSHI with a dive, and Dorada then ate the buzzsaw/brainbuster combo: 1…2…3

Other than the result, this was a bit of a disappointment. The match felt very disjointed. The early arm work on BUSHI went absolutely nowhere, and the crowd brawling seemed very out of place. The action was just fun enough to redeem the match. Dorada really stood out to me here, and I wish the match was built around a Dorada hot tag.
Match Rating: **3/4

Super Junior Tag Tournament 2014 First Round Match
Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Taichi)
I’ve never seen Fuego before. Unless he is the second coming of Ric Flair, I don’t see how this match is going to possibly be good.

Taichi/Desperado’s lip-synching act is fairly great. Too bad they have to wrestle afterwards. Suzuki-gun jumped Fuego and Taguchi right away and then worked Taguchi over. He escaped fairly quickly though, and Fuego tagged in. Okay, Fuego is great. Not Ric Flair great but great. Taguchi sadly tagged back in. He got cut off, and Suzuki-gun worked over his right leg. He eventually hit a couple of flying ass attacks, and Fuego then made a solid hot tag. Taguchi fucking tagged back in and used his ass as a weapon. Fuego took out Desperado with a genuinely awesome tope suicida, as Taguchi had Taichi in an ankle lock. Taichi reversed it. Fuego made the save. TAKA interfered to allow Taichi to hit Taguchi with an avalanche Air Raid Crash: 1…2…3

Despite having some genuinely fun moments (almost all of them provided by Fuego), I found this to be a pretty big mess. Everything just felt random and sloppy. It felt like the match was here just to continue the build for Taichi vs. Taguchi for the junior title, which sounds like a fucking disaster in the making. The absolute state of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship scene at the moment.
Match Rating: **1/4

Super Junior Tag Tournament 2014 First Round Match
Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)
Liger got cut off with a double superkick and then worked over. He eventually escaped, and Tiger Mask made a comeback. Liger saved Tiger from the tandem tombstone. Nick used Liger to tackle the ref to save Matt from losing to the tiger suplex. Nick made a wild comeback. The Bucks then double teamed Tiger Mask and finished him with More Bang for Your Buck.

This was the best first round match from the tournament so far. The other match featured more shit, but this match was just laid out way, way better. Tiger Mask didn’t even look bad here. The power of The Young Bucks.
Match Rating: ***1/4

Super Junior Tag Tournament 2014 First Round Match
Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov & Rocky Romero) vs. Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA)
Their best of 5001 series MUST continue.

Koslov’s shoulder was taped up after he injured himself on a failed dive at King of Pro Wrestling. Koslov teased that dive again, but Rocky wouldn’t allow it. They did a slight variation of their hug it out “comedy” spot. KUSHIDA was worked over briefly. Shelley started a comeback, but he then got cut off and worked over. He eventually escaped, and KUSHIDA made a hot tag. The teams went back and forth. KUSHIDA went for the tilt-a-whirl kimura on Koslov, but Koslov held onto KUSHIDA for the Contract Killer: 1…2…3

I’m conflicted about this match. On one hand, they worked really hard, did some decent stuff, and the match got over with the crowd. On the other hand, these guys did not do a single thing to make me care about their 10,000th match together. Is that my own personal bias coming in? Absolutely! I did not enjoy this, but it succeeded on a level that it would be rude for me not to acknowledge.
Match Rating: ***

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata
They did alternating entrances for the teams. It was awesome. I assume they do this regularly for these kinds of matches, but I do not watch these matches often.

Nakamura and Shibata started the match. They will be main eventing the Power Struggle iPPV. Okada/Tanahashi then did a sequence. They’re obviously main eventing 1/4. Ishii and Goto followed it up. Will then have a singles soon? Remember how randomly awesome Goto and Tenzan was in the G1 this year? I love when matches come out of nowhere like that. Ishii won that exchange, and CHAOS then worked over Goto. Goto escaped. Tana and Okada did another sequence. Shibata and Nakamura then went at it. Goto and Ishii then went at it again. They’re definitely teasing a match between these two, which does nothing for me. The teams started going back and forth until everyone was down. Ishii and Goto went back at it again. Goto connected on some big strikes and then hit Ishii with Shouten Kai: 1…2…3

The biggest compliment that I can give this match is that I actually cared about every second of it. There was no point where I was tempted to check out of it and scan Twitter. It wouldn’t be a top ten NJPW match this year for me (and I’m probably overrating it a tad), but it was super enjoyable the entire time.

The biggest consequence of this match is that Goto is probably getting a shot at the NEVER Championship soon. I would prefer that to happen at Power Struggle than 1/4 personally, but I’m not the biggest fan of Goto.
Match Rating: ****

The 411: I thought this was a fun B-show from NJPW and very easy to watch. A lot of their PPVs can feel like marathons; this made for a nice change of pace. Check it out on the internet machine.

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