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NJPW World Tag League Day 1 Results, Korakuen Hall, Nov 21
Mascara Dorada & David Finlay defeated Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
This was great. Dorada in the mix with the young lions made it even more fun than usual. Tanaka looked really good, matching speed with Dorada and hitting a big dropkick, right in the face of Finlay. Dorada was incredible, flying around the ring. He hit a nice double jump cross body, and walked across the top rope into a Swanton Bomb. He pinned Komatsu after a Dorada Screwdriver. Dorada will be missed when he leaves NJPW in the new year.
Christopher Daniels & Kazarian (The Addiction) defeated Juice Robinson & Tiger Mask IV
This was the NJPW debut of The Addiction ahead of their first tournament match. They were the clear heels here. Daniels feigned a knee injury as Kazarian attacked Tiger from behind. They hit all their usual double team moves. Robinson got the hot tag and continues to improve. He got in a lot on Daniels. Tiger hit a Tiger Driver and Robinson followed up with a diving headbutt, but Kazarian broke up the near fall. Daniels missed the Best Moonsault Ever and just as Robinson was setting Daniels up, Kazarian got involved and The Addiction hit Celebrity Rehab to pick up the win. Good debut for The Addiction.
Michael Bennett, Matt Taven & Gedo w/Maria Kanellis defeated Captain New Japan, Ryusuke Taguchi & KUSHIDA
KUSHIDA was the only one on his team that didn't fall for the charm of Maria. Captain couldn't resist when Gedo coaxed him into looking at her. This was a fun match. The Kingdom are such a great heel tag team. There was lots of nice back and forth between them and KUSHIDA. KUSHIDA did his best to put Taven in the Hoverboard Lock, but Taven escaped. Captain was again distracted by Maria and even took off his belt until he was superkicked by Taven. He and Bennett then hit Hail Mary, with Bennett pinning Captain to get the win for the CHAOS representatives.
Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga, AJ Styles, Bad Luck Fale & Cody Hall defeated Jay White, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata
This was your usual NJPW ten man tag as Bullet Club battled the NJPW veterans along with Jay White. Bullet Club took control of Tenzan after a low blow from Styles. Nagata was extremely fired up when he came in off a hot tag, kicking Tonga and managing to put Fale in the Nagata Lock. There was an exchange between Fale & Nakanishi that wasn't pretty at all. It came down to White & Takahashi as the legal men. White looked incredible and stood out even with so many big names in the match. He eventually fell when Tonga speared him and Takahashi hit Miami Shine to pick up the win in his return to action for the first time since the G1 Climax.
Block A
Toru Yano & Kazushi Sakuraba defeated Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe
This turned out to be much better than you'd think. Sakuraba & Honma grappled. Sakuraba countered a Kokeshi into a guillotine choke and controlled Honma. Makabe got the hot tag and took it to Makabe. There were some fun exchanges at the end with Honma missing a Kokeshi. He then accidentally hit a Kokeshi on Makabe. Yano low blowed Honma. Honma then ate a kick from Sakuraba and was rolled up by Yano, who causes an upset on day one to score two points for his team. It's an early loss for one of the favourite teams to win the block.
Block B
Tetsuya Naito & EVIL defeated Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson
We thought Naito was making his entrance, but when he removed his mask it was none other than BUSHI. So it looks like this Naito led, Los Ingobernables group is growing in numbers. This match was a brawl with Bullet Club in the babyface role. They brawled through the crowd. Anderson threatened to powerbomb Naito in the crowd. He ended up tossing Naito out through an emergency exit half way up the building. This left EVIL on his own for a time. Naito made his way back as EVIL wrapped a chair around the neck of Anderson and drove him into the ringpost. EVIL & Naito worked over Anderson until Gallows got the hot tag. Something that we haven't seen before, but the crowd were surprisingly into it. It shows how over Naito is as a heel. There was plenty of back and forth with Bullet Club hitting all their double team. EVIL hit Anderson with and STO and distracted the ref. BUSHI then sprayed Gallows with mist allowing Naito to hit Destino to pick up a huge win over the IWGP tag team champions. After the match Naito attacked the ref and Los Ingobernables posed in the ring. Everything about this whole thing was great from start to finish.
Block B
Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto defeated Tomohiro Ishii & Shinsuke Nakamura
This was awesome! The intensity of this was off the charts. This match saw the renewal of a lot of big time rivalries that have taken place over the last couple of years. Nakamura tangled with Shibata for the first time in a good while and Ishii met Shibata again, which brought back memories of their battle in the 2013 G1. Ishii and Goto beat the hell out of each other. Ishii & Shibata exchanged heavy blows with neither guy going down. Shibata got the best of Nakamura, hitting his corner dropkick. He locked Nakamura in an abdominal stretch while Goto did the same to Ishii. The battle broke down to Ishii vs Shibata and it was awesome. Nakamura was booted out of the ring as Goto and Shibata hit a killer combo of moves on Ishii, finally finishing him off with an Ushikiroshi from Goto and a PK from Shibata. Shibata picks up a pin on the NEVER champion. Depending on what happens in this tournament, we could be looking at Shibata challenging Ishii for the title at Wrestle Kingdom.
Block A
Michael Elgin & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated YOSHI-HASHI & Kazuchika Okada
This was an absolutely killer main event. Go out of your way to see this. Elgin started the match by completely overpowering YOSHI so much that it brought the commentators to laughter. There are no more friendly wrestling exchanges between Tanahashi & Okada. They tore into each other with Okada immediately going for a Tombstone. They brawled into the crowd with with Okada targeting the knee of Tanahashi. Elgin came in and took it to both YOSHI & Okada with an unbelievable display. He picked up both guys at one point. We had more from Okada and Tanahashi as they had a great exchange of counters. It finally came down to YOSHI vs Elgin. The crowd ate up every second of this. Both guys had some awesome near falls on the other. YOSHI came so close to pulling out the win, but Elgin would not die. Elgin press slammed Tanahashi out of the ring onto Okada. This allowed Elgin to hit a buckle bomb and an Elgin Bomb to pick up the win. Elgin is so over with the Korakuen Hall crowd. An incredible main event.
This was a great show. All four tournament matches were great, with the final two something you should go out of your way to see.
The VOD of this show is FREE on NJPWWorld.com. You don’t even have to sign up to watch it. It’s available at this link: http://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00357_1_1
Tomorrow Tag League matches:
Block A:
Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs Yuju Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI vs Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga
Block B:
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs AJ Styles & Yujiro Takahashi
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