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Csonka’s NJPW Road to Power Struggle Review 10.21.17
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Csonka’s NJPW Road to Power Struggle (Blue Justice VII) Review 10.21.17
OFFICIAL RESULTS
– Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga defeated Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura @ 6:28 via pin [**½]
– Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, & Desperado defeated Shota Umino, Tetsuhiro Yagi, & Ren Narita @ 7:40 via submission [**¾]
– Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Dragon Lee & Titan defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, ACH, Kushida & Hirai Kawato @ 9:25 via pin [**¾]
– Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & TAKA Michinoku @ 11:09 via DQ [**]
– Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima defeated Kota Ibushi, Juice Robinson, & David Finlay @ 10:27 via pin [***½]
– Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Kazuchika Okada. Tomohiro Ishii, Gedo, Yoh & Sho @ 12:00 via pin [***½]
– Yuji Nagata defeated Manabu Nakanishi @ 17:47 via pin [***½]
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Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura vs. Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga: Leo and Kitamura hoss around to begin, with Leo hitting slams and a leg drop for a near fall. Yujiro tags in but is immediately met by chops from Kitamura. Yujiro cuts off Kitamura, takes control and works him over in the ropes. Kitamura counters the fisherman’s suplex and hits a delayed vertical. Oka gets the hot tag, runs wild on Yujiro and picks up a near fall. Leo makes the save; it breaks down as he and Kitamura brawl to the floor. Yujiro serves up pimp juice and pins Oka. Yujiro Takahashi & Leo Tonga defeated Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura @ 6:28 via pin [**½] This was a pretty average and basic match, Leo is still growing, but is slowly showing signs of improvement.
Shota Umino, Tetsuhiro Yagi, & Ren Narita vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, & Desperado: Junior lions battle junior members of Suzuki-gun. The lions surprise Suzuki-gun, attacking them before the bell with dropkicks and taking them to the floor for a brawl. Taichi takes control back in the ring, while Desperado and Kanemaru do damage on the floor. Back in and Desperado tries to rip a man’s eye out with a pen to take the heat. Umino finally gets the hot tag after the eyeball stabbing is done, and hits a diving elbow for 2. Kanemaru had enough of that shit, Desperado tags in and eats a dropkick. Yagi now tags in, the lions all work over Desperado as we get a brawl on the floor. Back in and Desperado rakes the eyes, and hits a spinebuster on Narita and locks on the stretch muffler; Narita taps. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, & Desperado defeated Shota Umino, Tetsuhiro Yagi, & Ren Narita @ 7:40 via submission [**¾] This was a pretty good little outing, with a good pace and the lions fighting hard until falling to the villains from Suzuki-gun.
Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Dragon Lee, & Titan vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, ACH, KUSHIDA, & Hirai Kawato: This is a bit of a preview for the upcoming Super Juniors tag that’s about to start. KUSHIDA and Titan in to begin, and they work a fun back and to start things off. Taguchi and Tiger Mask tag in, Taguchi hits an ass attack to cut Tiger Mask off and ACH is in, he tries to call the plays like coach Taguchi, which fails and allows tiger Mask and Liger to take the heat and work Taguchi over. Lee tags in, continuing the assault on Taguchi and tagging in Titan. He runs wild, hitting basement dropkicks and attacking the knee of Taguchi. Liger tags back in, Taguchi fires and hits the ass attack. ACH gets the hot tag, runs wild on Liger and hits an elbow press off the top for 2. They trade chops now, with ACH getting a la magistral cradle for 2. They battle up top, with Liger hitting the brain buster. Wholesale changes to Lee and Kawato, Kawato runs wild but gets cut off with shotgun dropkicks. It breaks down, as Titan wipes out KUSHIDA with a moonsault to the floor. Lee and Kawato have issues with a powerbomb spot, which looked bad, leading to Lee hitting a sitout powerbomb for the win. Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Dragon Lee, & Titan defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, ACH, KUSHIDA, & Hirai Kawato @ 9:25 via pin [**¾] This was also pretty good, and was going well until the Botchamania worthy powerbomb spot near the end from Lee & Kawato.
Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & TAKA Michinoku: Suzuki is carrying a bullrope to build to his upcoming title match with Yano. Suzuki-gun attacks at the bell and it immediately breaks down. HASHI works over TAKA, but Iizuka cuts him off and chokes him out with a chain as Suzuki beats down Yano with chair shots on the floor. This leads to mass floor brawling, chairs being used and Suzuki brutalizing a young lion. Back in and TAKA works over HASHI, and Suzuki-gun start to work quick tags and kick the shit out of HASHI. Suzuki talks mad shit to HASHI, and laughs him off as he tries to fight back. Suzuki then locks in a knee bar, but Yano tries to make the save, so Suzuki locks him in a knee bar as well. Iizuka tags in, and tries to eat HASHI’s foot. Iizuka strolls mildly as he works over HASHI, HASHI finally starts to make a comeback, hitting a spin kick and Suzuki runs in to stop the tag. HASHI fights, TAKA in and he eats a superkick. HASHI tags in Goto, he’s a house of fire as he fights off Iizuka and Suzuki. The Saito suplex on Iizuka connects and gets 2. Iizuka bites his foot and hits an atomic drop, but runs into a lariat. Wholesale changes to Yano and Suzuki, Yano tries to rip off the buckle pad but Suzuki stops that and beats him down. Suzuki-gun follows with corner attacks, the Suzuki PK follows and gets 2. Yano uses the ref to escape the sleeper and piledriver, uses the hair to cut off Suzuki, which only pisses him off. Suzuki gets the bullrope and chokes out Yano. Suzuki tosses the ref and continues his attack and we actually get a DQ. Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & TAKA Michinoku @ 11:09 via DQ [**] This was bland, boring and basically every CHAOS vs. Suzuki-gun match this year. But they get bonus points for actually doing a DQ finish for once and not making the ref look completely stupid.
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan. & Satoshi Kojima vs. Kota Ibushi, Juice Robinson, & David Finlay: Tanahashi and Ibushi in to begin, as they continue to hype their upcoming IC Title match. They keep a good pace, working a fun back and forth and making me look forward to their rematch even more. Both guys are so good, and make their stuff look effortless. Juice and Kojima tag in, it slows a bit as they transition to the power game. Kijima takes it dirty, raking Juice’s eyes. Juice counters back with a suplex, tagging in Finlay. He works over Kojima in the corner, follows with charging elbows and covers for 2. Ibushi tags back in and trades strikes with Kojima, quick tags from Team Ibushi follow as they isolate Kojima and beat him down in the corner. Kojima hits a desperation cutter on Juice, tags in Tenzan and offers Juice some prime Mongolian chops. Tenzan maintains control, slowly but effectively beating down Juice, but Juice cuts him off with a spinebuster, and tags in Ibushi. They trade strikes, Tenzan hits the mountain bomb and tags in Tanahashi. He and Ibushi trade strikes, but Ibushi cuts him off with the dropkick. Ibushi follows with rapid-fire kicks, but Tanahashi counters the moonsault, and hits a sling blade for the double down. Kojima and Finlay tag in, Finlay goes HBK with a flying forearm and kip up. Kojima is not impressed and lays in chops to Finlay & Juice. The corner elbow connects, it breaks down with Tanahashi and Ibushi brawling to the floor. Finlay fights for his life against TenKozy, but it wasn’t good enough as Kojima kills him with a lariat for the win. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima defeated Kota Ibushi, Juice Robinson, & David Finlay @ 10:27 via pin [***½] At the heart of it, this was a very basic and formulaic tag team match. But when you work a proven formula, have guys that are over and the fans care about and ass in good execution, those ingredients take average and can become very good, as they did here. This was the first thing on the show that felt as if it mattered, the work was string and everything worked together in an effortless fashion and delivered. I hope that Juice Robinson & David Finlay are paired for the WTL, they will be a fun and fresh team.
Kazuchika Okada. Tomohiro Ishii, Gedo, Yoh & Sho vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Hiromu Takahashi: CHAOS vs. LIJ tags are usually very good at the very least, so I am looking forward to this, especially with Yoh & Sho freshening things up. We opened up with Roppongi 3K working with Takahashi and BUSHI. The champs took early control, leading to Ishii & SANADA tagging in, Naito tried to join in but Ishii has no part of that bullshit, tossed him and worked over SANADA . It then broke down, and we got floor brawling, leading back to Ishii vs. SANADA. Takahashi tagged in and chopped away at Ishii, but couldn’t get him down until BUSHI joined in for the double teams. LIJ then continued the heat on Ishii, working quick tags and keeping the pit bull down. LIJ continued to work over Ishii, using the number games and keeping the rest of CHAOS on the floor. Naito made the mistake of slapping Ishii around, Ishii fired up and that led to a great counter exchange and suplex by Ishii. Okada gets the hot tag, runs wild and works over Naito but gets cut off by the numbers game. The champ fires up and run wild on LIJ, and tags in Sho. He and Takahashi work back and forth, Yoh in as well and Takahashi runs them together but they quickly fight back and work double teams. Takahashi fights back, and BUSHI & Gedo tag in and trade strikes. The superkick by Gedo gets 2. BUSHI cuts him off with kicks and a missile dropkick. Ishii cuts him off, but Ishii takes out EVIL as Naito and Okada work back and forth. They brawl to the floor, SANADA saves BUSHI and after a Takahashi superkick, BUSHI finishes him with MX for the win. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Hiromu Takahashi defeated Kazuchika Okada. Tomohiro Ishii, Gedo, Yoh & Sho @ 12:00 via pin [***½] As expected, we got a very good back and forth match here, with the right parties pairing off to build to future matches while they delivered a fun outing once again.
Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi 25th Anniversary Match: Yuji Nagata vs. Manabu Nakanishi: Two of the New Japan dads, long time friends, rivals and partners collide today. They work some slow back and forth to begin, Nakanishi looks to work the arm and gain an early advantage, but Nagata wants no part of that and escapes. Nakanishi works into a test of strength, taking control back and powering Nagata o the ropes. Chops follow, Nagata gets pissed and they trade strikes. Nagata fires away with leg kicks, and continues to light up Nakanishi with strikes and tosses him to the floor. Nagata follows, laying in kicks and knee strikes but Nakanishi hits a spear to cut him off. Nakanishi follows with chops, and back in we go. More chops by Nakanishi and Nagata is down. They trade big forearms center ring, but Nakanishi cuts of Nagata and hits the splash for 2. Nakanishi follows with chops and head butts, beating down Nagata in the corner. A clothesline follows, but Nagata goes back to the leg kicks to take Nakanishi down. Nagata is all pissed off now, following with more kicks and looks for an XPLODER, but Nakanishi stops that only to eat more kicks. Nagata breaks down Nakanishi with the kicks, lays in more to the head and chest as Nakanishi keeps daring him to throw more. Nakanishi hits chops to the throat, takes Nagata to the corner and sets him up top. He follows and hits a superplex! Nagata rolls to the floor, where Nakanishi follows with a rough looking plancha. Back in and Nakanishi heads up top and hits a missile dropkick, covering for 2. Nagata manages to fight off the back breaker, and they slap the shit out of each other until Nagata drops to the mat. Nagata digs deep, fires up with strikes but Nakanishi connects again and drops him. Nakanishi does his little dance, hits the lariat and that gets 2. Nakanishi locks on the back breaker, Nagata escapes and hits a T-bone suplex. The running knee follows, they work up top and Nagata hits the XPLODER off the ropes. Nakanishi battles back, hitting a German for a good near fall. Nakanishi now hits the Hercules cutter, but Nagata kicks out for a great near fall. Nagata fights off another German, and then locks on the arm bar. The eyes roll backwards as he tries to rip off Nakanishi’s arm. But Nakanishi powers out, Nagata lays in kicks, goes back to the arm and they trade strikes. Nakanishi hits a desperation spear, covering for 3. Nagata escapes the Hercules cutter, hits an enziguri and spin kick. The brain buster follows, but Nakanishi kicks out at 1! Head kick by Nagata and Nakanishi drops; XPLODER OF JUSTICE by Nagata and Nakanishi is finally done. Yuji Nagata defeated Manabu Nakanishi @ 17:47 via pin [***½] Much like last year’s match the two had, I feel that they had a very good match that over delivered. There was nothing fancy here, just a smart layout by Nagata, a measured pace, and Nakanishi working really hard with his friend, mixing in some moves he rarely does anymore and some crowd-pleasing striking exchanges and this was very good, and enjoyable.
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– End scene.
“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”
