Csonka’s NJPW on AXS TV Review 6.02.17 (Ep. 1)

Csonka’s NJPW on AXS TV Review 6.02.17 (Ep. 1)

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Roppongi Vice (Romero & Beretta) defeated TAKA Michinoku & Taichi @ 13:37 via pin [***]: Kanemaru & El Desperado helped out early as Taichi and TAKA attacked. RPG Vice made the comeback, hitting stereo dives. TAKA knocked the ref down, allowing Desperado and Kanemaru attacked Beretta on the floor. Taichi stole the bell hammer, TAKA raked the eyes of Beretta to keep control. Taichi then used the bell hammer on Beretta, allowing he and TAKA to take the heat. Beretta fired back with a desperation lariat, but Desperado pulled Romero to the floor. Beretta hit a tornado DDT on Taichi and again looked for the tag and got it. Romero talked shit to Taichi, hit the forever clotheslines on both opponents and fired up the crowd. Sliced bread fought off by Taichi, but Romero battled back with a kick. Taichi hit the head kick, but Romero kicked out at 2. Romero then hit a knee stroke and running sliced bread. Beretta back on and they followed with double teams, but TAKA made the save. Taichi’s chick into the ring stopped strong zero, Beretta wash hit with a chair shot but kicked out of Taichi’s pin attempt. TAKA hit a knee strike, but Romero makes the save. Beretta sent to the floor, TAKA then wiped out RPG with a moonsault to the floor. Back in and Beretta survived the knee strike/superkick combo. Beretta ate a doomsday spin kick, survived that but TAKA locked in a crossface variation. Beretta fought, but TAKA transitioned into the side headlock, cranking back and then covering for 2. Michinoku driver countered into the dude buster for the near fall. Romero gets beat down on the floor by the Kanemaru and Desperado. Beretta fights Suzuki-gun off with a chair, Romero back in and stereo knees to Taichi followed. Strong Zero to TAKA and the champions retain. Post match, Desperado and Kanemaru attack the champions and lay them out so that they can challenge for the titles. Through all of the bullshit, they ended up putting on a good match. I think it was overkill at times, and would have been much better without a lot of it, but the heroes overcame in the end. Beretta was particularly great here; he’s a great post WWE success story that doesn’t get enough love.

IWGP Tag Team Title Match: IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & The Killer Elite Squad @ 14:00 via pin [***½]: They all brawled before the bell, spilled to the floor and then the KES cornered him and tossed him into the ring. Yano ran away and tagged in Makabe. Makabe ran over Archer, Yano tagged back in and undid the buckle pad. Hair pull on Archer, but Archer quickly hit the full nelson slam, he backed off when Ishii threatened to enter the match. KES took the heat on Yano, isolating him, but Smith ran into the exposed buckle; Ishii in and he hit suplexes on KES. Archer then ran into the exposed buckle and Ishii is fired up, taking out Makabe and Honma. Ishii and Smith did some back and forth power spots, Smith hit the running bulldog, but Honma blind tagged in. He ran wild on Smith, the falling kokeshi hits, but KES double-teams him. They then took out Yano, Smith kept working over Honma and got a near fall off of the belly to back suplex. Honma hit a the jumping kokeshi, Makabe in to clear house and work double teams with Honma, Honma hit two kokeshi variations and then went up top, top rope Kokeshi but Yano blind tagged in ad covered for the near fall. Archer hit a rope walk into a high cross onto Yano and Honma. Chokeslam to Yano, but Honma broke it up. Makabe in, KES cut him off momentarily but he hits a series of clotheslines. Makabe hit the exposed buckle, but hits lariats on KES. It breaks down, Honma and Makabe work over Yano and Makabe looks for the spider German and dumps Yano on his head. KES looks for the killer bomb, Honma makes the save, but KES hits a Hart attack. Ishii returns and kicks ass, low kick by Yano after a ref distraction and he rolls up Makabe for the win. IWGP Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma & The Killer Elite Squad @ 14:00 via pin [***½] The finish worked great, because you don’t want to pin KES here, they lost due to Yano’s shenanigans, when the other team lost. This had a slow start, and the crowd wasn’t wild about it a lot of the way, but it was another example of everyone working hard, finally getting the crowd into things, they picked up the pacing really well down the stretch and actually used the hectic nature of the three-way to their advantage.

IWGP NEVER Openweight Title Match: IWGP NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto defeated Juice Robinson @ 14:50 via pin [***¾]: Robinson fired up and attacked right away, laying into Goto in the corner, hitting the cannonball and then the top rope head butt for the near fall in the first minute. Goto retreated to the floor, Robinson followed and they brawled on the floor, with Robinson keeping control. He then missed the cannonball against the barricade. Back in and Goto was not amused by Robinson and started to beat on him, focusing on the back. Good aggression by Goto here as he tried to destroy the back of Robinson, working the crab. Good fight shown by Robinson as he struggled for the ropes, but Goto maintains control. Robinson makes it to his feet and then clotheslines Goto to the floor. Robinson followed up with the slingshot senton, sent Goto back in but is slow to follow up due to his back. Robinson followed with a senton and a running splash for 2. They traded strikes center ring, Robinson escaped the ushigoroshi and then followed with jabs. Jump kick by Robinson cuts off Goto, hits the toss up gut buster and covers for the near fall. Robinson up top, but crashes and burns on the moonsault. Robinson looked to fight back, went up top and Goto cut him off. They traded strikes up top, Robinson slipped out and hit the powerbomb and covered for a great near fall. Robinson looked for pulp friction, Goto countered and hit a German (dumping Robinson on his head); Robinson fires up and they trade lariats. Robinson then leveled Goto and covered for a good near fall. Goto counters pulp friction, but Robinson counters the GRT. Goto hit a draping GRT, but Robinson kicks out! Goto with a kick to the chest, but Robinson again survives. GRT by Goto, and Robinson is finally done. This was a very good match, laid out just the way it needed to be. From Robinson‘s attack early on the champion, to his selling, to the fact that he scored believable near falls and survived some of Goto’s signature stuff before finally falling. Robinson continues to improve, looked really strong here and lost nothing in defeat. A performance like this should place Robinson solidly into the NJPW mid-card, which is a good thing for him. It got him on the road to an IC Title shot, he delivered big there, and wouldn’t be surprised to see him get a shot in the G1.

– With the shows being expedited to play catch up and now being produced in house by AXS TV, it appears that the sit down interviews have been dropped, since that was produced by the Japanese TV that previously produced the shows.

– End scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”

7.4

The final score: review Good

The 411

This is a good episode, featuring a nice mix of action overall, but nothing must see…