Invasion Attack

Invasion Attack 2015

(2015/4/5)

1.      Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho Tanaka vs. Yuji Nagata, Cpt. New Japan, KUSHIDA, Alex Shelley, Yohei Komatsu

Fun, dynamic, energetic opener that served its purpose, no complaints here, everyone did their job.

**3/4

2.      Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga, Cody Hall) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma

Good match! Another fun sprint, Honma scored another win and Cody Hall looked the best so far.

***

3.      IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Berreta) vs. Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) ©

Solid match that would’ve been good with some unnecessary comedy cut off. RPG Vice didn’t impress me. Their theme song does rock, though, very catchy shit.

**3/4

4.      IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Mascara Dorada vs. Kenny Omega ©

Good match with Dorada hitting some of his jawdropping topes, and Omega toning down his DDT/PWG persona, but they were still rough around the edges, some things weren’t very smooth. I feel like they could’ve done better in few instances. But still, the match was good enough and it should only get hotter if they meet again. This was a significant improvement over the Taguchi matches.

***1/2

5.      IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Michael Bennett & Matt Taven vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows ©

Maria’s ass is spectacular, I get it. But she shouldn’t be the centerpiece of a tag fucking title match. Fuck Maria and fuck this shit. Bennett and Taven holding a New Japan gold is so wrong. Karl looking like the dumbest motherfucker in the world was some retarded WWE/TNA crap.

bad

6.      Togi Makabe, Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito vs. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI)

Damn neat sprint, all the match-ups were good, and YOSHI-HASHI didn’t eat the pin! Let that sink in for a moment. Goto/Nakamura chemistry looks promising.

***1/4

7.      Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba

Another very good tag, clearly building towards Tana/Yano and Shibata/Sakuraba. Sakuraba was great here.

***1/2

8.      Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada

Excellent blow-off match that felt big, and it was big indeed. Best Fale match ever, Okada is such a fucking workhorse. Great build, great peak, great resolution, great damn match!

****1/4

9.      IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kota Ibushi vs. AJ Styles ©

Good main event that ultimately failed to live up to the massive hype and expectations. If this was a G1 style sprint it would’ve been a legit MOTYC, but as an epic it simply did not work. The match felt kind of disjointed and without the proper flow, the pacing was all over the place and Ibushi displayed some of his old well known flaws. Many spots and transitions were really impressive and jawdropping, but as a whole the match lacked that main event glue (things Tanahashi, Nakamura and Okada do) that would put together the entire thing, I don’t know how to put this differently. The pacing was on and off, stop and start, so naturally the crowd wasn’t really into the match for the big majority. That’s the problem when you don’t do your epics right. When it comes to Kenny Omega stuff, I both liked and disliked it, I liked it as a storytelling/foreshadowing/character tool, but didn’t like that another AJ title match ended uncleanly.

Loved the post-match stuff with Okada getting some upper hand on AJ in the same fashion exactly one year after AJ attacked him to challenge for the strap.

***1/2