wrestling / TV Reports

Kevin’s NJPW Summer Struggle In Sapporo Night One Review

July 11, 2021 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
NJPW Summer Struggle in Sapporo
6.5
The 411 Rating
Community Grade
12345678910
Your Grade
Loading...
Kevin’s NJPW Summer Struggle In Sapporo Night One Review  

NJPW Summer Struggle in Sapporo Night One
July 10th, 2021 | Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena in Hokkaido, Sapporo | Attendance: 1,542

I know I’m a day late but I’ll do my best to review both Summer Struggle in Sapporo shows today, though work and the Italy/England game may push at least one of these back another day. We shall see.

Master Wato vs. Yuya Uemura
Uemura has had some really impressive outings against some of the top stars in recent weeks. This wasn’t that, but that’s expected since Wato is still not on a high level yet. This was set to be Kota Ibushi apparently but he was taken off the card. Although Wato is no longer a Young Lion, this had some of the energy of one of those and he never really went that far above the moveset he had in that era. Uemura impressed me more, hitting a sweet German suplex as the match’s high point. Alas, Wato got going late and won with the RPP in 9:09. It was a fine match but nothing more. [**¼]

Dick Togo and EVIL vs. Tomohiro Ishii and YOH
Commentary said that EVIL is 2-7 in his last nine singles matches, which is putrid for a guy who was your top champion last year. The main storyline here is the EVIL/Ishii issues. Apparently, EVIL wants Ishii but not the NEVER trios titles. They brawled a lot outside while Togo wore down the smaller YOH inside. YOH looked like he put in the effort and Ishii is typically solid but this was mostly a night off for the bigger named. The heels isolated YOH as much as possible and used cheap tactics to keep Ishii at bay. I did pop for YOH getting a near fall on EVIL. That would’ve been hilarious. As Ishii got put in a crossface by Togo, it left YOH to tap to the Scorpion Lock in 11:37. Another relatively fine match. Ishii took a post-match beatdown. [**¼]

El Phantasmo, KENTA and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi
More from the Bullet Club. On paper, this match is nothing special but I can’t help but enjoy the babyface trio. Rocky and Ryusuke are fun veterans, while Tanahashi is the GOD. They had some goofy shenanigans early on before Taguchi became isolated. I liked little moments like him daring to be kicked in the rear since it’s powerful and ELP hitting him with his own hip attacks. Rocky got the tag from there and it looks like we’re setting up Rocky/Ryusuke getting a junior tag title shot. I won’t mind that, especially since Rocky/ELP was great a few years back. Beyond that, this match also worked as a preview for an apparent Tanahashi/KENTA feud. They had a strike exchange that felt like it belonged in the G1. In the end, Tanahashi beat Yujiro with High Fly Flow after 15:16. The first thing I enjoyed on the show. It was a little long for a midcard multi-man tag but I had a good time. KENTA jumped Tanahashi after the bell. [***]

The Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. Kazuchika Okada and SHO
O-Khan reminds me of early EVIL in that his gimmick is ridiculous but he buys into it well enough. This was mostly another quality tag. Regardless, the focal point seemed to be on a future Cobb/Okada feud. If done right, that could be really good. Okada feels so listless without the title, which is the problem you get when you make his whole persona the gold for so long. Anyway, like the tag with YOH, the junior heavyweight was somewhat isolated. Of course, SHO is stronger, so he could hang better with the likes of O-Khan and Cobb. Okada came in and did his thing but tried for the Money Clip, which continues to fail. SHO nearly did a deadlift German on Cobb but the big man got free and caught him with Tour of the Islands to win in 11:41. That runtime was ideal for this and it was quite good. [***]

BUSHI, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. The Dangerous Tekkers, DOUKI and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Here we have our preview of Naito/SANADA vs. Tekkers for night two. A big fight got this started and it was along the lines of the traditional New Japan multi-man tag. The main focus was that SANADA’s shoulder was targeted, seemingly setting up something to watch out for in the title match. Sabre Jr. is always so good at working a body part and this was no different. There was a dope spot where Sabre Jr. trapped both SANADA and Naito in submissions, adding to his master technician thing. Once it came down to DOUKI and Shingo, you just knew where this was going. The IWGP World Champion beat the junior heavyweight with a Pumping Bomber at the 13:40 mark. Another good multi-man tag that did its jobs. [***]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado [c] vs. Taiji Ishimori
As far as I can tell, their only prior meeting was in last year’s BOSJ (***¾). You could tell that this was going long in the early stages as they worked at a slower pace and felt one another out. As they fought outside, Ishimori targeted the shoulder after kicking the arm into the guardrail. From there, he assaulted the shoulder, twisting it in uncomfortable ways. It’s a smart idea for the match given Ishimori was the one who put Hiromu on the shelf with a shoulder injury. There were some good ideas in the middle portion of this, like the Bloody Cross onto the guardrail. It prevented Ishimori from doing the move on his banged up knee and also made the move even more painful, while getting a potential countout. I was hoping that this would wrap up soon after the 20 minute mark. Instead, we got run-ins from El Phantasmo and then Yoshinobu Kanemaru to combat him. From there, the closing stretch was sweet and Desperado retained with two Pinche Locos in 28:54. Never have I watched a good 20 minute match and said, “Hey, that would’ve been better with 5-10 more minutes.” This was a great 20 minute bout that got stretched longer than it needed to be and caps out at just very good because of it. [***¾]

Post-match, a video played where Robbie Eagles issued the next challenge to Desperado. I know people harp on WWE for wins/losses not meaning much and praise AEW for how it matters there, but where’s the disses for NJPW? Eagles hasn’t competed here since December. Don’t get me wrong, I love this move because Desperado/Eagles sounds sick but I’m just saying.

6.5
The final score: review Average
The 411
That was a solid show. Most of the multi-man tags were at least mildly entertaining and some were good. The main event was very good but just shy of great so I can’t really put it over the edge.
legend