Views from the Hawke’s Nest: NJPW New Year Dash 2016

 

In the ultimate hipster move that I genuinely feel bad about, I reviewed all of New Year Dash while not even watching all of Wrestle Kingdom. I did review Okada vs. Tanahashi, Nakamura vs. AJ Styles, and the RAMBO match from the show though. Check ’em out.

 

Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
January 5, 2016

Commentators: Kevin Kelly, Matt Striker, & Yoshi Tatsu

 

Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shiro Koshinaka, Sho Tanaka & Yuji Nagata vs. Cheeseburger, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Yohei Komatsu & Yoshiaki Fujiwara

This was a genuinely fun opener due to the excellent diversity in character and talent. Cheeseburger stole the show and got over with the Korakuen crowd in a manner that suggests he would be a worthwhile regular act for the company. Good stuff! Taguchi won cleanly with a Dodon on Komatsu. (***)

 

David Finlay & Jay White vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet

Despite doing similar things in the ring, Ricochet and Sydal are really gelling well as a team. They’re pacing their matches like they’ve been teaming together forver and timing all their spots in an effective manner. White and Finlay continue to display a lot of talent and chemistry as a team as well. Despite never really having a chance to win, they did an effective job of making the match seem competitive. They could have a HUGE 2016 if given the chance to do so (they won’t be). Sydal & Ricochet won cleanly with their stereo shooting star presses. (***1/2)

 

Jay Lethal (w/Truth Martini) vs. Juice Robinson

This was yet another solid match. It was not quite as engaging as the first two matches on the show, but I was never bored. There was just nothing really about it that was notable enough to recommend anyone go out of their way to watch this one. It worked well enough though within the context of the show at least. (**3/4)

 

BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, & King Haku) vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima), Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) & KUSHIDA

This match was not really all that compelling except for when Meng was in there, and it set up a rematch in the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship scene. Thus, I cannot consider this a success. It was inoffensive though and not a chore to watch.

It did really make me want to see Meng get a PPV singles with Shibata though. What is the NEVER division for if not to book random shit like that? Doc and Karl pinned Honma cleanly with the Magic Killer. (**1/2)

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Mascara Dorada & Michael Elgin vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito)

This was yet another fun match that mostly focused on the strengths of the performers in there. Los Ingobernables did some shenanigans. Tanahashi took the beating. Elgin got to a do a lot power spots. Dorada flew around the ring and reminded everyone why NJPW was foolish not to build the juniors division around him during his excursion. The finish was pretty weak though with BUSHI using a mist/low blow to set up the diving Codebreaker on Dorada to win. Regardless, I’m really enjoying this NJPW version of Los Ingobernables. (***)

 

BULLET CLUB (AJ Styles & Kenny Omega) vs. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura & YOSHI-HASHI)

This was genuinely one of the best tag matches that I have seen in NJPW in quite some time. AJ and Omega worked incredibly well together. YOSHI did a great job as the FIP. Nakamura was Nakamura. It was all just a very good time with a meaningful (if ominous) finish: Omega pinning Nakamura cleanly with the One-Winged Angel. (***3/4)

After the match, NJPW ran the big angle of the Bullet Club turning on AJ Styles. This was reportedly AJ’s last date for NJPW, and it is a tragedy that he would never get a babyface run in NJPW. Just terrible. Then again, NJPW would probably just waste his final match on Kenny Omega like how they wasted Devitt’s last match on Ryusuke Taguchi. Omega called out Nakamura and is presumably getting a title shot. I actually like the randomness of the match, but the idea of Omega taking AJ’s spot as a main-eventer for NJPW with Ibushi out and Nakamura on his way to the WWE is absolutely terrifying based on his 2015.

 

CHAOS (Beretta, Kazuchika Okada, Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. reDRagon (Bobby Fish & Kyle O’Reilly), Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata

This was one of those matches that had a long heat segment and then just went on way too long afterwards. I lost interest early on in the back-and-forth sequence and long gave up caring by the time Goto won cleanly by submitting Trent?. The idea of more Goto/Okada and Shibata/Ishii matches getting teased also made me sour on the whole match. This was the real weak link of the show so far. (**)

 

The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe) & Toru Yano (c) vs. BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale, Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) [NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship]

This was a solid main event. The heat segment on Yano really dragged, but the closing sequence (which the Briscoes and Bucks mostly did by themselves) was super fun and redeemed the rest of the match. The Briscoes ended up cleanly winning their NJPW main event debut by giving Matt a Jay Driller and a Froggy Bow. The process in which the NEVER trios title was created was incredibly lazy, but the combo of the Briscoes and Yano could lead to some fun stuff. (***)

 

Read 255 NJPW match reviews!

 

Watch NJPW for free:

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuji Nagata

Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson

Prince Devitt vs. Kenny Omega

PAC vs. BUSHI

La Sombra vs. Davey Richards

KUSHIDA vs. Kota Ibushi

Kurt Angle vs. Yuji Nagata

Masaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii vs. Gedo & Jado

7.5

The final score: review Good

The 411

This was such an easy show to watch and reinforced my belief that I should concentrate the majority of my 2016 NJPW viewing on random Korakuen shows while only cherry-picking select matches from the PPVs. The Korakuen environment is just the most consistently enjoyable in wrestling. As for the booking, none of the big upcoming matches excite me. Goto/Okada, Ishii/Shibata, and BC/GBH are just blah, and Omega/Nakamura signals the unfortunate rise of Kenny Omega to a main event role. This is an ominous time for NJPW, and their margin of error the next years just got a lot smaller. Let's hope for the best but be ready for the worst.