Kobe

Destruction 2015 in Kobe

(2015/09/27)

Okayama

Destruction 2015 in Okayama

(2015/09/23)

Dominion

Dominion 2015

(2015/5/7)

Wrestling Dontaku '15

Wrestling Dontaku 2015

(2015/5/3)

Wrestling Hinokuni

Wrestling Hinokuni

(2015/4/29)

Road to Invasion Attack

Road to Invasion Attack 2015

(cherry-picked)

Invasion Attack

Invasion Attack 2015

(2015/4/5)

The New Beginning in Sendai

The New Beginning 2015 in Sendai

(2015/2/14)

1.       Manabu Nakanishi & Cpt. New Japan vs. Satoshi Kojima & Yohei Komatsu

Look, I know Komatsu must lose, but why the fuck give the win to Nakanishi and not the Captain? Makes no sense, Nakanishi has nothing to gain, nothing at all. Bad match.

bad

2.       reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) vs. Tiger Mask & Jay White

Man, O’Reilly and Fish are awful but somehow the match did not bomb, that’s because TMIV and White were awesome in this, especially Jay White, dude’s extremely talented, I see bright future for him. Maybe it’s because of slightly different Young Lion booking, but he already looks better than Tanaka and Komatsu.

**3/4

3.       Bullet Club (Matt Jackson, Nick Jackson, Kenny Omega) vs. KUSHIDA, Alex Shelley, Mascara Dorada

Nice 6-man tag with Mascara Dorada owning inside and outside the ring. The match got enough time to tell effective stories, also the FIP session on Shelley was good. Omega looks good without Taguchi dragging him down, the Bucks brought some of their classic PWG gags with them, all in all this was fun.

***1/2

4.       NWA World Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Chase Owens vs. Jushin Liger ©

Solid little match with cool finish. Glad Liger retained. Tharpe is still trying WAY too hard. Liger’s next title opponent is none other than his tag team partner Tiger Mask, I’m looking forward to it.

**3/4

5.       NWA World Heavyweight Championship: Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Rob Conway ©

Man, this was such a feelgood moment, reminded me of Tenzan’s shocking win over Goto at the G1 in Korakuen, Tenzan being the new NWA Champion is both fabulous and surreal at the same time. Very good match, both competitors worked hard and the result was more than visible, props to Conway for being a suitable foe to Tenzan.

***3/4

6.       Tetsuya Naito & Kota Ibushi vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba

This was actually very good, Sakuraba and Ibushi seem to have one helluva chemistry that looks straight out of an UWF match, and Yano/Naito stuff was fun enough to keep the other half interesting. Typical Yano tricks worked in this environment, loved the finish. Sakuraba/Ibushi needs to happen.

***1/2

7.       Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI

Decent. Yujiro is truly hopeless without Ishii carrying him. I like Fale and can’t wait to see how’ll his singles match with Okada turn out.

**3/4

8.       Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata vs. Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Tama Tonga)

Too by-the-numbers to be good, but enough to be solid. But still, these wrestlers can and know better than this.

**3/4

*** Makabe couldn’t make it, so the NEVER title has to be vacated. It’s Honma/Ishii for the strap. THANK YOU, FLU! Now, I don’t know how and why is Honma eligible to fight for a title (other than giving a guaranteed stellar performance) after losing dozens and dozens of matches, but I don’t really care because the match is bound for glory. ***

9.       NEVER Openweight Championship (vacant): Tomoaki Honma vs. Tomohiro Ishii

They brutalized each other in a sinister fashion and everybody loved it, that’s pretty much everything I can say about the match. Truly fantastic stuff all around, just incredible.

****3/4

10.   IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ©

So, the story here is the veteran Nagata trying to overcome the newer generation prototype of fancy pants stars for the IC strap, and Nagata is backed by Tenzan, Kojima and Nakanishi who came to show support. Nice touch there. The match was good but they had the impossible task to follow Honma/Ishii, which in the end proved to be impossible. They grappled in the beginning before smacking each other silly with all the rough strikes. Seriously, some of those shots gave Honma/Ishii a run for their money. However, the story wasn’t as captivating and there lies the problem. Overall good match and main event, but not great, although Nagata proved once again he can still go full throttle.

***3/4

The New Beginning in Osaka

The New Beginning 2015 in Osaka

(2015/2/11)

1.      Yohei Komatsu vs. Sho Tanaka

So awesome seeing these two Young Lions facing each other on their biggest stage yet, this was a highly energetic little match, loved all the intensity and tenacity displayed.

***1/2

2.      Manabu Nakanishi & Cpt. New Japan vs. Tiger Mask & Mascara Dorada

Generic Manabu Nakanishi match. Dorada needs better opponents than this.

**

3.      Rob Conway & Chase Owens vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Jushin Liger

Average double title prelude match, acceptable stuff. I’m sick of Tharpe’s forced antics.

**1/2

4.      Tomoaki Honma vs. Kota Ibushi

Lustrous G1 style skirmish, words can’t do this justice.

****1/2

5.      3-WAY for IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) ©

I’m happy the Bucks won, but this was shite. I totally expect to see four star ratings thrown at this, but all these multi-man tags between these teams don’t do it for me.

bad

6.      IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Kenny Omega ©

Finishing stretch saved this one from mediocrity, the earlier portions were very meh and I could’ve done without “Attack on Taguchi’s Anus” subplot that led to the ridiculous flag driven interference. But even without it, they still struggled with chemistry, which was painfully obvious during mid-match portions. Hopefully Taguchi is out of the title picture for the time being, it seems Mascara Dorada is next potential challenger, that’s so fucking good.

***

7.      Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano, Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga)

Good 6-man tag centered around Okada trying to restore some of his mojo.

***

8.      CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Tetsuya Naito

Osaka fucking HATES Naito.

***1/2

9.      IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows vs. Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata ©

Well, fuck me sideways, I didn’t see THAT outcome coming. Wow! Too bad everyone’s talking about shitty teams such as TMDK and Dangan Yankees and not about these two duos whose chemistry is off the charts, as this was another glorious clash between the bitter rivals. Not as great as their World Tag League epic (the story was bigger there), but dammit they came very close. Very dramatic and exciting match-up, seriously though, the last chapter was fucking neat. Goto and Shibata are back into the hell of chasing the belts again.

****1/4

*** Oh no, the entire Bullet Club is ringside with AJ, I have a bad feeling about this. Poor Tana and Captain, brace yourselves for holy overbooking. ***

10.  IWGP Heavyweight Championship: AJ Styles vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ©

Well, not going to lie, I thought this was pretty damn awesome. Sure, Bullet Club was interfering but that was mostly early in the match, it also gave us the double low-blow fouls from both guys, which I thought it ruled, Tanahashi fouling AJ was some sweet despair revenge. Tana also bled hard after that wicked plancha onto Bullet Club, his head collided with Matt Jackson’s and it looked nasty. It added to the match, IMO. However, my favorite part of the match was the long ass feeling out process that covered basically half the match, loved all the careful defensive wrestling with lots of armlocks. It’s so good when done right. I’m a sucker for sluggish epics with heavy selling, and these two gave me just that. The match also contains probably the nastiest Dragon Screw spot ever. Shit man, I cringed at that one. Also loved the German Suplex struggle before the finishing run. Thinking about it, there was hard struggle for literally EVERY move out there, they had to dig deep and earn it, I loved it. The finishing sequence was properly based on Styles Clash danger, all the teases and battles were incredible and highly dramatic, that last chapter at least 3-4 min long. Just the fantastic match-up.

****3/4

DDT 9/21

Wrestle Koyama Hyotei 2014

(2014/9/21)

2.       Nuru Nuru Brothers (Michael Nakazawa & Tomomitsu Matsunaga) vs. Yukio Sakaguchi & Saki Akai

**

3.       DJ Nira vs. Super Sasadango Machine vs. Antonio Honda

bad

4.       Akito & MIKAMI vs. Danshoku Dino & Makoto Oishi

bad

*** Two bad comedy matches in a row? Even DDT flops from time to time, I guess. I mean, this is a small C-show, but still, kind of strange to see. ***

6.       KUDO & Masa Takanashi vs. HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano

Quality tag team wrestling that reminded me to re-watch the two KUDO/HARASHIMA title matches from the first half of the year.

***1/2

7.       Konosuke Takeshita & Tetsuya Endo vs. Kenny Omega & Daisuke Sasaki

Fucking excellent, this was a prelude to the tag title match that’s highly praised, here we got the 3/4s of that match and it was so good. Omega is pissed at the young guns and is there to kick some ass, Takeshita and Endo think it’s a good day to die, while Sasaki is a more than suitable replacement for Ibushi.

****1/4