Csonka’s NJPW on AXS TV Review 3.17.17 (Ep. 2)

Csonka’s NJPW on AXS TV Review 3.17.17 (Ep. 2)

– Tomohiro Ishii is our guest for the interviews this week.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Naomichi Marufuji @ 19:05 via pin [****½]: They worked a slow and measured opening stretch, likely to allow the crowd to recover a bit from the previous match. Tanahashi worked to ground Marufuji and targeted his legs. Marufuji fired back and they worked to the apron, where Marufuji hit a sick kick and then a FUCKING APRON PILEDRIVER. After a count out tease, Marufuji took the heat and was viciously chopping Tanahashi down. Tanahashi battled back, hitting the senton off the ropes, but Marufuji cut him off with the dropkick and then another sent Tanahashi to the floor, where Marufuji would join him after a plancha. Tanahashi wanted to trade chops with Marufuji, which is always a bad idea as Marufuji was beating his chest Raw. Marufuji started to light him up with kicks, but Tanahashi managed to catch one and hit the dragon screw leg whip to try and slow Marufuji down. It didn’t because Marufuji decapitated him with more kicks and scored a near fall. Tanahashi then countered the sliced bread into a sling blade. He then followed with the regular sling blade, but ate a kick when he went for the high fly flow. But the earlier work on Marufuji’s leg took hold here, as he crumbled to the mat and was slow to follow up. He then hit a beautiful kick to the face and a knee strike for a near fall. It broke down into a great back and forth segment, and then Tanahashi hit the high fly flow to a standing Marufuji, and followed with another to pick up the win. They had a tough task ahead of them to follow that previous match (Okada vs. Ishii), but they were the right men for the job.

– Tomohiro Ishii fell in t a reputation of losing, and his G1 did not start fell as he lost to Tenzan. He knew facing a great champion in Okada was the chance he needed he was willing to knock out Okada if he had to.

Tomohiro Ishii defeated Kazuchika Okada @ 18:48 via pin [*****]: Okada made the mistake of messing around a bit, which led to devastating lariats from Ishii for some near falls in the first minute that the crowd actually bought into. Ishii took control from there, working over Okada and doing those little tap kicks to mock him while he was down. He then lit him up with chops, telling him “come on motherfucker!” Okada’s forearms looked like little old lady strikes compared to Ishii’s. Outside of the forearms, Okada made a strong comeback, and planted Ishii with a sick looking DDT. Dropping Ishii on his head only pissed him off as he lit into Okada with chops. Okada did the corner dropkick spot t send Ishii to the floor, but Ishii’s foot got caught up, delaying his trip to the floor. He looked in pain on the floor and favored his leg. Okada hit the hangman’s DDT on the floor, which led to him hitting the elbow drop in the ring. Okada went to do his rainmaker pose, but Ishii fired up and attacked with a chop to the throat, and then hitting a backdrop suplex and powerbomb for a near fall. They did some great things down the stretch, constantly fighting back and not only countering each other’s trademark stuff, but Ishii did the big dropkick. They then got an awesome reaction to a near fall off of a superplex as well as Ishii’s sliding clothesline. This was straight up fire here. Okada was able to keep escaping the brainbuster, and the crowd was INTO this shit, as was Liger on commentary; he was going insane. Okada hit repeated dropkicks for a near fall, went for the tombstone but Ishii fired up and fought out, only to run into a dropkick. Ishii countered the rainmaker, ran into a German but then countered again and laid into Okada with head butts! They both fought for the tombstone, Ishii PLANTED Okada with the sitout version and then destroyed him with the lariat, AWESOME near fall. BRAIN BUSTER by Ishii and HE WINS! THIS FUCKING MATCH! The crowd is losing their shit, Liger is losing his shit, and I am losing my shit! This was simply amazing, everything done at the right time with a purpose all culminating with the perfect climax point. I LOVE THE WRESTLING! Seriously, everything meant something, the reactions were perfect, it never felt long and just all came together; it just all happened and never felt like they were trying for the epic match, it was the perfect storm.

– In the final interview, Tomohiro Ishii said the match was the same as usual, even though he was in there with Okada and had watched him grow over the years. He had disappointing results in previous years and felt that this match changed things for him.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

10.0

The final score: review Virtually Perfect

The 411

This is a must see episode; WATCH IT WITH YOUR EYES, NOW!