Csonka’s NJPW Wrestling Hi No Kuni Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview tonight’s NJPW Wrestling Hi No Kuni event. As always, I’ll be breaking the show down mach by match. 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.” How we got here…

– NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.13.18.
– NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.14.18.
– NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.23.18.
– NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.24.18.
– NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Review 4.27.18.

Ren Narita & Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka: This should be a good opening match, all three lions have really bending well, having consistently good matches as they are upping their game. I expect more of the same here as they’ll be working hard to make Nagata a proud dojo dad. It’s two lions vs. a lion and a veteran, and that usually means that the lion and veteran win. WINNERS: Ren Narita & Yuji Nagata

Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, & Jay White vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, & David Finlay: It’s really nice to see Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero away from Suzuki-gun, as they had some bad matches with them and had been completely downgraded in those matches. White and Finlay will continue their issues that go all the way back to their time as young lions. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask, & Jushin Liger are always fun in these undercard tags, and always please the crowds. The boys from CHAOS should take this one, and hopefully Sho, Yoh, and Rocky Romero can start to get some momentum back. WINNERS: Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, & Jay White

Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano vs. Toa Henare & Togi Makabe: The war between Ishii & Henare will continue! These two have great chemistry and they finally gave us our singles match on the 24th. Their feud should carry this match, with Yano & Makabe playing supporting roles to their battle. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano were on a hell of a run until KES beat them to earn a title shot, but since then have been on a roll again, and with a win here, should be net up for the winners of LIJ vs. KES. WINNERS: Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano

Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Kenny Omega, & Kota Ibushi vs. Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Iizuka, & Zack Sabre Jr: It’s Bullet Club vs. Suzuki-Gun, well the Suzuki-Gun B team and Zack Sabre Jr. With Sabre, Kenny Omega, & Kota Ibushi involved, there is a lot of potential for fun, but Iizuka & Taichi (depending on what mood he’s in) and Yujiro (the same) could really hold this one back quality wise. This will likely be a mixed bag, filled with the usual Suzuki-gun bullshit. But with Ibushi & Omega having big matches coming up, Bullet Club should take the win here. WINNERS: Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Kenny Omega, & Kota Ibushi

KUSHIDA, Michael Elgin, Juice Robison, & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, & Kazuchika Okada: This one is all about hyping KUSHIDA vs. Ospreay & Tanahashi vs. Okada on the second Dontaku event. That will be the focus of the match and likely carry the key action. But look at this lineup of talent, this match could be and honestly should be great. KUSHIDA and Ospreay’s interactions will be great; Tanahashi and Okada’s interactions are always great. Juice & Goto have really good chemistry, HASHI is always good in these tags, and Elgin gets to play into his strengths as the power guy. But the goal is the singles matches for the titles on NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Day II. This should be really great and don’t be surprised if Elgin pins Goto here to officially set their title match. WINNERS: KUSHIDA, Michael Elgin, Juice Robison, & Hiroshi Tanahashi

BUSHI vs. El Desperado: This is the first of two singles matches, and fallout from the junior tag title match between champions Suzuki-gun and challengers LIJ on the 23rd. Suzuki-gun retained the titles, but the war is far from over. Both guys are good performers, but I feel are overall better suited for tag teamwork. They are both capable of good singles matches, and hopefully we get one here. I think that the teams will split these singles matches, and with BUSHI being the lesser star in LIJ, and Takahashi eating a ton of losses as of late, I think Desperado wins here. WINNER: El Desperado

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru: Again, this is fallout from the junior tag title match between champions Suzuki-gun and challengers LIJ on the 23rd. Takahashi is an absolutely great performer, and I think Kanemaru is very good, but that he’s often ignored due to the Suzuki-gun shenanigans. If the Suzuki-gun shenanigans are kept to a minimum, and Kanemaru is just allowed to work, I can see this being a very good match. With my pick of BUSHI losing the first match, I think that Takahashi takes this one. WINNER: Hiromu Takahashi

Champions EVIL & SANADA vs. Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr: Following their WTL victory, EVIL & SANADA defeated Champions KES at WrestleKingdom 12 and were off and running as the new champions. Unfortunately, the momentum was short-lived, as EVIL suffered a broken orbital bone and spent some time on the shelf. The good news was that SANADA got some time to shine as a single, and after some time off, KES returned with new fire, and started racking up wins and dominating. The turning point was KES defeating Ishii & Yano (who were on a big roll and racking up wins), which put KES in prime position for a title shot. They got the shot by pinning EVIL in a multi-man tag, which brings us to this match. With all of that being said, it feels too soon to take the titles off of EVIL & SANADA, as they haven’t had time to do anything with them yet. EVIL & SANADA are very good and KES have shown good fire as of late, so I think that this will be good, but that the champions retain. WINNERS: EVIL & SANADA

Champion Minoru Suzuki vs. Tetsuya Naito: Naito lost his bid at the New Japan Cup, losing to the dominating Zack Sabre Jr, who put together an amazing tournament run. Then, during the New Japan cup tour, Naito started to intentionally frustrate and disrespect Minoru Suzuki. Minoru Suzuki is not a man you intentionally do this to, because he’s a mean motherfucker that wants to kill you under normal circumstances. These interactions between the two have been really great, Naito was constantly and intentionally pissing off Suzuki, and did so it much that Suzuki got pissed enough and agreed to a title match just so that he could get Naito alone in the ring to properly rip a limb off and end him. I honestly think that something would have to terribly wrong for these two not to have a great match. Naito is still over huge, has an ability to lay pout great big time main events, and as usual, is having a great year in the ring. Minoru Suzuki is 49 years old and may be doing the best work of his career in 2018. They have done an excellent job of setting up the match and if they can transition that intensity to the match, we may be in for something special. If Chris Jericho is still planning to work with NJPW and finish the program with Naito, this would be a prime time for him to return to the mix. Timing wise it could work as well. He’s working the WWE Greatest Royal Rumble on the Friday 27th. If he can fly out of Jeddah by 7PM ET, the flight to Tokyo takes 14-hours, so even with a delay; he can be there by around 10PM ET Saturday night. This show starts at 2AM ET on Sunday, and this match is the main event, and won’t even be going on until 5AM ET Sunday. It can work if he’s coming back. He’s been really quiet, signed on to do the WWE show, and then claimed he wasn’t going to work with NJPW anymore; these are the kinds of moves that Jericho does to deliver a surprise. I think that Minoru Suzuki retains here, and that it sets him up for a title match with Okada at Dominion, and possibly Jericho vs. Naito if that’s still a thing. WINNER: Minoru Suzuki

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– End Scene.

– Thanks for reading.

“Byyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyye Felicia!”