Hamilton’s New Japan Road to the New Beginning – Night Ten 02.02.2021 Review

Quick Results
Gabriel Kidd pinned Yota Tsuji in 7:21 (***)
Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo pinned Yuya Uemura & Ryusuke Taguchi in 10:45 (***)
Kota Ibushi, SHO, Master Wato & Tomoaki Honma pinned BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito & SANADA in 15:16 (***¼)
Jay White, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa were the last men standing in an Elimination Match at 27:10 (***½)

— If you’re on Twitter, give me a follow over on @IanWrestling – and check out the GoFundMe that’s still open for Larry’s family.

After yesterday’s surprise return, Jay White has been added to cards – he’s replaced Dick Togo in tonight’s elimination match. Kevin Kelly’s running solo once more.

Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji
A rematch from yesterday, and we start with Kidd taking Tsuji into the ropes for a clean break.

Another lock-up sees Kidd roll Tsuji to the mat, before the pair traded wristlocks, with Kidd eventually muscling Tsuji down again. Kidd torques away on the wrist, but Tsuji countered with a headlock takedown, before Kidd broke in the ropes. He throws some chops on the break, then went for a headlock takedown of his own.

Tsuji fought back with a hiptoss as Kidd hit the ropes, following up with a chop in the corner before a right hand dropped Kidd in the corner. A whip takes Kidd from corner to corner, with Tsuji following in with an elbow and a cravat, turning it into a snapmare and then a camel clutch. Tsuji lets go and hits the rope for a splash on Kidd’s back for a near-fall, before Kidd finally replied with a back body drop. A slam followed, along with a back senton for a near-fall for Kidd, before a struggle for a suplex led to Kidd finally landing his for a two-count.

Kidd keeps going as he looks for the butterfly suplex, but Tsuji blocks and starts an exchange of elbows. Tsuji hits back out of nowhere with a spear for a near-fall, but Kidd manages to slip out of an Oklahoma Stampede, and puts Tsuji away with the butterfly suplex. A nice finish, with Kidd then going to poke the proverbial bear by having a go at Shingo on commentary. Death. Wish. ***

Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuya Uemura vs. Bullet Club (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori)
Of course, this is non-title…

Taguchi and Ishimori start us off, and of course Taguchi mocked Ishimori’s past by doing one of his old dances. Ishimori hits the ropes, but slides outside as Taguchi was trying to turn him into an endless runner… but Taguchi just does the Sailor Boy routine again. After getting calmed down, tags take us to ELP and Uemura, but Uemura’s not in the mood for dancing, as he runs at ELP with elbows. Back elbows take Phantasmo down, with an elbow drop getting us a two-count, before ELP busted out the back rakes. Ishimori flies in off the top with one of his own as well. A “frog scratch” gets ELP some two-counts, as he then decided to twist Uemura’s nipple for the hell of it.

More back rakes. Ishimori hangs Uemura into a Tree of Woe, then charged in with baseball slide dropkicks as ELP threw in some forward rolls as he set up the Gas Pedal. They keep Taguchi at bay, while ELP goes ropewalking… only for Uemura to pull him down for a back suplex. Taguchi finally tags in and goes wild with hip attacks, including a springboard hip attack to ELP for a near-fall. Uemura makes a save and reverses a double suplex as the Bullet Club tried to pull ahead – he then tagged in and elbowed ELP into the corner as the Young Lion pushed on… but going for a Boston crab was an undoing of his as ELP knocked him into the corner.

Ishimori distracts Uemura as ELP attacks from behind, leading to a bicycle-knee assisted UFO (the whirlibird neckbreaker) for a near-fall, before Uemura rolled his way out of a Bloody Cross for a near-fall. More roll-ups follow, but Ishimori stops Uemura in his tracks with a Yes Lock… but Taguchi breaks it up. Taguchi sends ELP flying to the outside as Ishimori was sent flying with a Kanuki suplex for a near-fall, before a Boston crab had Ishimori in trouble. ELP gets free of Taguchi and cracks Uemura with the Sudden Death superkick, and it’s academic from there. A fun tag match with Uemura coming closer than you’d expect, but in the end the superkick of doom was more than enough to get a win here. ***

Uemura sells the Sudden Death like, erm, death, as he needed to be carried to the back. I absolutely adore that whole thing…

Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI) vs. Kota Ibushi, Tomoaki Honma, SHO & Master Wato
Honma instigates a jump start on LIJ, going after Naito as he growled away like a terrier.

He and Naito trade elbows in the corner, before Naito mocked Honma with his own growl, trading elbows as they go. A slam from Honma looked to set up for a Kokeshi, but Hiromu blocks him before Naito just sidestepped the diving headbutt. Business as usual. LIJ hit the ring and put a stomping to Honma before a quartet of low dropkicks set up for a high-angle Boston crab, with the Lion tamer turning into a regular Boston crab as Honma had to get to the ropes. Eye rakes from BUSHI earn him an elbow as Honma tagged out to Master Wato, who lands a tiltawhirl backbreaker before he began kicking away on BUSHI.

A springboard from Wato’s stopped as Hiromu yanked him off the apron, before we saw SHO and Honma getting flung into the railings. Back inside, BUSHI kicks Wato’s leg in the rope, then tagged in SANADA to soften the leg up some more as a double clothesline from Naito and Hiromu gets a two-count. Taking Wato to the corner, Hiromu chops away… as does BUSHI, who then rolled Wato down for a brief STF. Wato got to the rope, but Naito nonchalantly kicks the hand away to add extra insult before Wato finally responded with a rear spin kick. A leaping leg kick knocks Hiromu down, before SHO tagged in to clear the apron, focusing on Hiromu with a series of kicks for a near-fall.

A sunset flip from Hiromu’s countered into a cross armbar, but he gets to the ropes almost instantly before countering a SHO spear into a suplex attempt. That goes nowhere as SHO lands it at the second try, getting a two-count for his efforts. More back-and-forth ends with SHO taking a thrust kick, before Hiromu won a battle of clotheslines.

Tags bring us back to SANADA and Ibushi, with a diving kick from the latter hitting before a standing moonsault gets a two-count. SANADA tries for the double leapfrog, but instead low bridges Ibushi to the outside for the plancha. Back inside, SANADA traps Ibushi in Skull End as LIJ cleared the apron, but Ibushi gets free and swings for Kamigoye… SANADA ducks and replies with a Magic Screw.

Naito and BUSHI combine with a see-saw sunset flip and low dropkick to Ibushi, before a Fisherman screw from BUSHI nearly got him the win. A running Codebreaker’s blocked as we start a big ol’ Parade of Moves, ending with BUSHI eating a running knee from Ibushi for a near-fall, before the Kamigoye put him away. A more spirited tag than we’ve seen from this set-up before, as we inch closer to the big matches next week. ***¼

ELP joined the English commentary for the main event…

Elimination: Bullet Club (EVIL, Jay White, Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI
Tama Tonga’s taped the Iron Fingers to his tag title belt…

We’ve a big jump start as Tomohiro Ishii darted out and went for Jay White… he’s taken care of on the outside as White baited Ishii into the Bullet Club pack, before things calmed down. White tags in Tanga Loa after winding up Ishii some more, before Hirooki Goto tagged in. Loa begs for calm, and gets it as Loa then hit the ropes, only to get taken down as Goto dumped him, then suplexed Yujiro onto him.

Goto elbows away in the corner, only to get caught in the corner with a leaping splash as bedlam again ensued, with the ring announcer getting Okada charged into him, while the camera focused on Ishii being choked out by Jay White and a camera cable. Goto’s rolled back inside and eats a clothesline as Jay White tagged in to put the boots to him.

Ishii runs in to try and get him some White, before a low dropkick from Yujiro drew a two-count. EVIL throws Goto through the middle rope as we get more, erm, chaos, as we actually see Okada getting shoved into the timekeeper’s table this time. Back inside, the Garvin stomp from EVIL leads to Tama Tonga tagging in for some right hands and elbows.

Goto fight snack with some right hands, but Tanga Loa attacks from behind only to eat his share of a clothesline. A second one drops Loa, as Goto rolls down EVIL ahead of a Saito suplex. Okada tags in and goes after EVIL, eventually landing a back elbow off the ropes, before a DDT scores a near-fall.

EVIL comes back with a thrust kick and a Fisherman Buster for a two-count, as the Bullet Club then flooded the ring. It settles down as Everything is EVIL got countered into a Money Clip, but EVIL breaks in the ropes before some misdirection led to a thunderous clothesline from EVIL… who then tosses Okada over the top. Okada lands on the apron, then low bridges EVIL for the first elimination at 10:35.

Dick Togo tries to pull Okada off the apron, but the referee misses a chairshot from EVIL as Yujiro looked to knock him off… but Okada just leaps off the apron at 11:15 to eliminate himself in the name of vanquishing EVIL. An attempted tombstone on the floor’s broken up as we continue the build for EVIL/Okada.

Toru Yano declares himself legal and undoes a turnbuckle pad. Yujiro commandeers it, but misses a swipe before clotheslining Yano with it. Yujiro charges into the exposed buckle and almost gets eliminated with a roll-up, then bit back as a Fisherman buster drew a near-fall on Yano. Yujiro blatantly telegraphs some biting, then took Yano into the ropes… but he’s low bridged onto the apron before Yano distracted the referee and shoved Yujiro off at 14:09 – when Yujiro was getting back in. At 14:18, Jay White just tosses Yano out for the easy elimination, then had to deal with YOSHI-HASHI, whose chops had the Switchblade down.

Tanga Loa runs in to help neutralise YOSHI-HASHI as White then dragged YOSHI-HASHI into the corner. A suplex from Tama Tonga gets a two-count, before a slam set up for sentons atomico from the Guerrillas. Tanga’s running powerslam drew in Ishii and Goto to break it up, but that distracts the referee as Jay White yelled at the referee to take care of Ishii.

YOSHI-HASHI is kept in the corner as White tagged in to ground him with a chinlock. White charges at YOSHI-HASHI but misses… but YOSHI-HASHI is worn down too much and couldn’t immediately go for a tag, as he needed to counter a suplex into a Bunker Buster before bringing in Ishii. White tries to deck Ishii, but to no avail as he’s taken into the exposed corner by Ishii, who rained down elbows from above.

Ishii shoved away the referee, then took White outside for some trips to the railings. Tanga Loa’s attempt at a save went nowhere, as White took more of the railings, before Ishii flung a chair at White’s head. Luckily, he moved. Ishii brings the chair inside, then bounced up from a Saito suplex to knock down White once more. White sidesteps and DDTs Ishii out of the corner, before a Blade Buster dulled Ishii for long enough for him to get thrown over the top rope.

The Guerrillas try to help pull Ishii down, but Goto clears them away before distracting the referee. Ishii looks to suplex White to the floor, but a low blow from Gedo allows White to easily knock Ishii off the apron at 21:45. Goto’s in to kick away at White, landing a spinning heel into the corner, then a bulldog out of it for a two-count.

White rakes the eyes to escape an ushigoroshi, then looked to lift Goto over the top. It comes to nought as White then went for an ushigoroshi of his own. It helps drop Goto onto the apron as the Guerrillas again get involved. White distracts the referee as Jado whacks Goto with the Kendo stick, which led to the cheap elimination at 23:10. YOSHI-HASHI is the last man left for CHAOS, and is instantly cornered by the Guerrillas.

YOSHI-HASHI side steps a charge in the exposed corner as he clears away the tag team champions, then looked to catch White with Karma… but instead eats a Gun Stun from Tama Tonga. White pulls up YOSHI-HASHI at two from the cover, so Tanga Loa dumps him with Apeshit as White again pulls up YOSHI-HASHI at two.

The toying around leads to a sleeper suplex from White, dumping YOSHI-HASHI on his head for another two-count as White feigned a kick-out. Goto teases throwing in the towel as a Magic Killer drops YOSHI-HASHI… but he “kicks out” at one! All that’s left is a Blade Runner… but Goto throws in the towel and that’s all folks. A weird finish, by New Japan standards, but an effective way to bring back Jay White with a different killer instinct. The toying around will get old if they keep going down that road, but it worked well here against the perennial underdog. ***½

Post-matches, Blade Runners drop YOSHI-HASHI and Ishii, before Jay White declared he and the Guerrillas as the “real” Bullet Club, then issued a challenge for the NEVER trios titles…

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

A big step up from last night’s card, this one at least felt like it had some juice behind it - but again, a four-match house show is always going to be tough to throw any kind of roses at.