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Wrestling Toyonokuni, April 29th:
Tomoyuki Oka, Hirai Kawato & Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Shota Umino, Katsuya Kitamura & Tiger Mask IV. The opener here spotlighted the young lions. Kitamura showed more speed here than he has before. Umino has one hell of a dropkick for someone so inexperienced. There were some rough patches with some miscommunication from Oka. It came down to him and Umino. Umino fought to the ropes to escape a Boston Crab, which played off their last match. Oka then hit a powerslam and another Boston Crab to this time get the submission.
Beretta & Rocky Romero defeated El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. This was very good. Desperado in place of Taichi made it a different match with less cheating. Lots of fun wrestling in this. Beretta hit a great dive. Kanemaru nailed a nice looking Guillotine leg drop across the guard rail. Beretta sold his ass off as usual. He continues to be extremely underrated. Kanemaru hit some great DDT's for near falls. The finish saw RPG finally single out Desperado and hit Strong Zero for the win.
SANADA & BUSHI defeated Yoshitatsu & Ryusuke Taguchi. A basic tag match here. Tatsu & Taguchi had some awkward moments, which were by design. BUSHI took control of Taguchi for a while and we saw some comedy when Taguchi would fail miserably at some of his ass attacks. Tatsu looked awful after a hot tag and hit a reckless looking Pedigree on SANADA. The finish saw SANADA get the submission win on Tatsu with the Skull End.
Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi defeated David Finlay, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. GOD mocked Kojima's chops and taunts again. Tenzan got a lukewarm tag and really didn't seem to be moving well at all. Finlay was tagged in and looked great in his couple of minutes on top. Loa was presented like a beast. He was able to clothesline both of TenKoji on his own and finished Finlay decisively with a Piledriver. GOD & TenKoji challenge War Machine for the IWGP tag titles on May 3rd at Wrestling Dontaku.
Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeated TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Minoru Suzuki, This was a really good six man tag. Goto was pisses at how he lost his NEVER title, so he went right after Suzuki. Suzuki & YOSHI had some good exchanges and Taichi controlled part of the match using a hammer. His act never changes, is predictable and gets no reaction. Suzuki & Goto ended up in the ring together and picked up where their match left off. They had a really physical back and forth with lots of counters to each other big moves. The finish saw Goto save Ospreay from a Suzuki Piledriver, hit an Ushigoroshi on Taichi, which allowed Ospreay to finish TAKA with an OsCutter. Yet another win for Ospreay here.
Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Chase Owens, Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale. Omega & Ishii switches roles here at one point as Ishii hit a dragon suplex and Omega caught Ishii with a lariat. Yano was worked over by Bullet Club. Fale had the advantage over Okada for the majority of the match and generally looked like a monster. The finish saw Okada finally get one up on Fale when he hit a neckbreaker. Okada then got the win over Owens after a Tombstone & Rainmaker. After the match Fale got one final shot in on Okada outside the ring before walking away.
IWGP Jr Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi defeated Ricochet. This was crazy! It started with two huge dives from Ricochet and a springboard 450 Splash. Hiromu then turned it around with a dropkick of the apron into the guard rail. Ricochet had some of Hiromu's big moves scouted, such as the apron sunset bomb, which was countered into a hurricanrana. Some of the counters and lightning quick reversals here were nuts. Ricochet caught Hiromu on the floor and hit his northern lights/suplex combo on the floor, which knocked the wind out of the champion. Hiromu hit the quickest pair of rolling Germans you'll ever see. Ricochet took lots of moves onto his injured neck. He was hit with a belly to belly into the corner and was drove into the corner twice in a Death Valley driver position. Ricochet kicked out of a version of the Time Bomb. Hiromu kicked out of a Benydriller and blocked a shooting star press. Some of the near falls at the end were tremendous and completely believable. The finish saw Ricochet miss a 630 splash before he was put down to the Time Bomb. This was great and Hiromu just oozes charisma.
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated EVIL. This had the excitement that you can only get from a Tanahashi match. This started with a very uncharacteristic move for The Ace when he hit EVIL with a baseball slide during his entrance. EVIL turned the match with a chair attack on the floor. This match was very physical, with EVIL doing all he could to rough up Tanahashi. Tanahashi hit the High Fly Flow to the floor and just as the match was getting into high gear, the ref went down and BUSHI & SANADA hit the ring. Taguchi soon made the save and the match relay kicked into fifth gear after this. They exchanged suplexes. EVIL got a big near fall with Darkness Falls. Tanahashi finished it with two versions of the High Fly Flow. Tanahashi might be the greatest finisher in wrestling. No one creates the excitement and sense of urgency that he does in the closing moments.
IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Tetsuya Naito defeated Juice Robinson. The push of Juice Robinson in New Japan over the last few months has been expertly done. Here he entered the main event of a show in a major championship match with one of the top guys in the promotion and he didn't look out of place. That says a lot about New Japan's ability to take a guy who was a midcarded at best in NXT, and turn him into a believable title challenger. This was the biggest match of Robinson's life, and he delivered a great performance, while being made to look great by one of the best in Naito. The story of the match was the knee of Juice, which Naito did his best to destroy, as he viciously picked it apart throughout the match. Every time Juice would find a way back in, Naito would go back to the knee and apply another variation of a hold. Juice was an incredible sympathetic babyface as he sold and sold. He got back into it and hit a spinebuster into the edge of the apron and a cannonball into the railing. There was a scary moment when Juice powerbombed Naito off the top rope, with Naito looking like he had been knocked out. This really took the crowd into the match. We had some excellent false finishes. Naito hit two versions of Destino, and Juice's kick out was the biggest near fall of the match. They went back and forth with Naito countering Pulp Friction four or five times, knowing that Juice had beaten him with that move before. They both had awesome near falls with roll ups as they battled out of each other's finishers. Naito finally hit Destino one more time to retain the title. This was definitely a stature enhancing performance from Juice, who proved that he could hang with a top guy in a major match.
After the match Hiroshi Tanahashi hit the ring to challenge Naito, a match that will likely take place at Domonion.
The final three matches of this show were all excellent and it is available now at njpwworld.com.
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