Csonka’s NJPW Kizuna Road Day 1 & 2 Previews

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview the NJPW Kizuna Road days one and two events. I will breakdown and preview the events together today. Feel free to make your picks in the comment section. Thanks for reading! It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful, and don’t be a dick.”

Day One (June 16)

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura: The junior lions will face off on back to back shows, getting back into the swing of things. These are always a bit hard to call, I could see two draws, but I think that they will trade wins and will go with Tsuji here. WINNER: Yota Tsuji

Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma, & Ren Narita vs. Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & DOUKI: Big Tom Ishii just won the NEVER title from Taichi, making things all well in the world. Big Tom is great, but Suzuki-gun are a unified force, and even Big Tom isn’t good enough to overcome the handicap of Honma and Narita in the scope of how NJPW books, and we all know it’s be cause Narita’s hair game sucks. He doesn’t have those flowing Tanahashi-like locks Umino sports. WINNER: Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & DOUKI

Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls, & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, & Jado: Bullet Club looks to pick up some momentum here, but are facing a babyface team coming off of rough losses (Juice & Taguchi) and one looking to really probe himself in NJPW. A Juice or Nicholls win could possibly lead to a tag title shot, which would be refreshing since the tag title scene is so shit. Unfortunately, it’s more likely that Jado just eats the pin and the babyfaces prevail. WINNER: Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls, & Ryusuke Taguchi

Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV & Shota Umino vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI: Naito & Shingo are coming off big wins at Dominion, while EVIL & SANADA took a loss trying to win the tag titles. The babyface team is your random collection of talent that will work hard and have a fun match as LIJ multi-man tags are usually very good. LIJ is just a great team, and I expect them to pick up the win here, with Umino likely taking the loss to Shingo, EVIL, or SANADA. WINNER: LIJ

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, & Toru Yano vs. Jay White, Yujiro Takahashi, & Chase Owens: Yujiro is returning to action here following an injury, but he’s not the Takahashi we’re looking for. This is the continuation of White vs. Tanahashi, as Tanahashi lost to White at the BOSJ finals but got some revenge in a tag match at Dominion. Tanahashi and another group of friends go back into battle here against Bullet Club, and it feels like the kind of match that the Ace wins to help get his momentum back after the loss to White. Hopefully he doesn’t use that shit alternate finish he used at Dominion. WINNER: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, & Toru Yano

Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI, & Toa Henare vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., & Lance Archer: This match will see the continued build to HASHI vs. Sabre, and also feature the return of Lance Archer. Outside of that, there doesn’t really appear to be much to this other than to give Suzuki-gun a win and to torture young Henare. WINNER: Suzuki-gun

Champions Roppongi 3K vs. Taiji Ishimori &El Phantasmo: And here we come to the main event of the evening, a match that was setup during the BOSJ finals, and a fresh match for Roppongi 3K. As mentioned several times, the booking of the tag divisions is the shits, and they need completely overhauled. Unfortunately, Gedo’s idea of overhauling the junior tag booking is just random title switches. The thing is that I would be good with a title change here, as it would freshen things up and also add into the dissention between Phantasmo & Eagles. The only thing that may stop that is the fact that Ishimori is still so banged up. But while a title change would play into the current Bullet Club angle, it wouldn’t save or even fix the division, which needs it. If Ishimori is doing well, this certainly has the potential to be great, but we just won’t know until it happens. WINNER: Bullet Club

---

Day Two (June 17)

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura: The junior lions will face off on back to back shows, getting back into the swing of things. These are always a bit hard to call, I could see two draws, but I think that they will trade wins and will go with Uemura here.WINNER: Yuya Uemura

Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino vs. Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare: This should be a solid tag match at worst, as three of the guys are really good, and Honma tries hard. This should be a win for Honma &Henare, with Henare picking up the win on Umino to possibly give him some momentum if he’s getting a G1 spot. WINNER: Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare

Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Thunder Liger, & Tiger Mask IV vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi, & BUSHI : This is Tenzan’s return match following an injury. Naito & Shingo are coming off big wins at Dominion, while EVIL & SANADA took a loss trying to win the tag titles. The babyface team is your random collection of talent that will work hard and have a fun match as LIJ multi-man tags are usually very good. With Tenzan making his return, I think his team picks up the win in a rare loss for a fully assembled LIJ. WINNER: Kota Ibushi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Jushin Thunder Liger, & Tiger Mask IV

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls, & Ren Narita vs. Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, & Taiji Ishimori: This is the continuation of Tanahashi vs. White, and I also feel part of the possible build to Juice & Nicholls vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny. When it comes down to it, the real weakness of the match for the babyfaces will be Ren Narita’s lack of hair game. You can’t tag with the ace and bring that lackluster hair to the table. It will be that weakness that will lead to the babyfaces failing and Bullet Club picking up the big win. WINNER: Bullet Club

NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, & Ryusuke Taguchi defending against El Phantasmo, Yujiro Takahashi, & Chase Owens: Much like the regular tag titles, the trios titles are booked poorly and could have been so much more, and could have been used to headline smaller shows like this. Instead, they simply exist and a title change can happen at any time for any reason, so a title change here wouldn’t shock me at all. I am sure it will at least be fun with Yano & Taguchi’s shenanigans, but who knows how good the actual match will be. I think the champions retain, but again, I won’t be surprised if the titles change hands. WINNER: Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, & Ryusuke Taguchi

ELIMINATION MATCH: Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO, & YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Lance Archer, Taichi, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru: And we main event with a NJPW elimination tag, which are usually rather fun. This will continue the Taichi vs. Big Tom issues, while also building to HASHI vs. Sabre. I think we may also see teases for Okada vs. Suzuki in the G1, which would be cool. I think this will be really good, and ideally, HASHI should end as the lone survivor to further hype his chances against Sabre on the 25th. WINNER: Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO, & YOH

– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 28. On the show, the good brother Steve Cook joins Larry Csonka as the guys discuss the fallout of WCW & ECW dying, the invasion, the issues with it, and then look at the night ECW was brought in to save the angle (July 9th, 2001)… and how WWF blew through six-months of booking in under one hour. The show is approximately 128–minutes long.

* Intro
* Raw 7.09.2001: 3:05
* The deaths of ECW & WCW: 47:00
* The early days of the Invasion: 1:05:00
* Looking at Episode One of Viceland’s The Wrestlers: 1:14:30
* The guys reflect on their time at 411: 1:36:00

You can subscribe and listen to the 411 on Wrestling Podcast via the above player on Transistor, or on the following platforms:

* iTunes
* Spotify
* Stitcher
* Google Play