NJC '15 - Round 1

New Japan Cup 2015

(2015/3/5)

1.       Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Mascara Dorada, Sho Tanaka vs. Jushin Liger, KUSHIDA, Yohei Komatsu, Jay White

Good, energetic opener with constant movement, loved all the pairings. The Young Lions shined and Taguchi’s ass attack sequence was the highlight.

***

2.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Yujiro Takahashi vs. YOSHI-HASHI

Good match! Y-H carried the useless Yujiro whose offense sucked for the majority, which resulted in a heatless affair saved by Y-H’s great work, especially in the closing run.

***

3.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Tomoaki Honma vs. Togi Makabe

Excellent match, they made few tweaks and tricks to avoid a Honma formula repeating, and I loved everything. Honma sold Makabe’s offense like death, and in matches like this you can see how important is the hierarchy in New Japan – Ishii is obviously way rougher than Makabe, but Makabe is higher on totem pole, therefore Honma must sell Makabe’s blasts better. Heavy smacks and nifty counters, this was great.

****

4.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Katsuyori Shibata vs. Satoshi Kojima

Good match, but not great. I wanted a great match. The reason it wasn’t awesome is because they worked a Shibata match instead of a Kojima match. There were some “all over the place” moments that I didn’t particularly care for. Kojima fell for Shibata’s pace and it made for a not-great match. His chops and lariats were brutal, though, smashing shit right there.

***1/4

5.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata

Hard hitting, smashmouth strikefest, and naturally I dug it very much.

****

6.       Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi, Cpt. New Japan

Awesome 6-man tag with everyone looking great, but man, Tenzan was simply glorious, the match workhorse. Dude was holding his own against Ishii and Shinsuke like it was 2005, not 2015.

***3/4

7.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Doc Gallows vs. Kota Ibushi

Damn fine power vs. speed story with both dudes having one thing in common – hard strikes. Doc’s palm strikes and punches looked particularly vicious, he even threw a nasty superkick at Ibushi. The finish was beautiful. Kota is on the major roll this year, and Doc’s been having a severely underrated New Japan run.

***3/4

8.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Karl Anderson vs. Tetsuya Naito

Amazing match! Knew it would rock because these two have a fantastic chemistry (G1 23 anyone?), but they outclassed each other here. This was totally amazing, bell-to-bell, Karl ambushed Naito to start the match and was kicking his ass silly, while Naito was bumping like a damn madman for him, he landed onto his neck and head few times, I fucking cringed. I’ve never seen Karl this aggressive, awesome shit. Naito worked from behind and the crowd really got into him and his inevitable comeback. Such an outstanding G1 style match, Karl’s best match ever and Naito displayed the magic that made him a rising star few years ago.

****3/4

9.       NJC 2015 – Round 1: Toru Yano vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Short, sweet and priceless.

***

10.   NJC 2015 – Round 1: Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada

Here we go, after exactly two months of feuding through all the tags, it’s time for some one-on-one. Kind of colorless and dry in the middle during Fale’s dull workover, but the whole second half was awesome, Fale redeemed himself with some great sequences and Okada did a helluva job in making him look badass. Good match and we’ll see more of these two, I’m looking forward to it because the chemistry is there, mos def.

***1/2