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NJPW WORLD TAG LEAGUE DAY 1 REPORT FROM KORAKUEN HALL

By Matthew Macklin on 2017-11-18 18:51:00

NJPW World Tag League, Day 1, Korakuen Hall:

Hirai Kawato & Shota Umino defeated Ren Narita & Tetsuhiro Yagi.  There was a lot of energy to this, with the young lions getting in each other's face before the bell. Umino is putting on weight, so he might be heading towards heavyweight. Kawato's kicks are absolutely lethal. He is very close to being ready for his excursion.  He pinned Yagi after a spinning Enzuigiri, which makes a change from a Boston Crab.

Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga & Leo Tonga defeated Tomoyuki Oka, Hanson & Ray Rowe.  Tonga & Oka started off, both bigger men, so they blasted each other with shoulder tackles. Tonga hit a big suplex which took control for his team. Oka caught Loa with a belly to belly to get his side back into the match. Rowe & Hanson came in off the hot tag, with Hanson running forever, back and forth across the ring with splashes. Oka kicked out of a Blue Thunder Bomb from Loa, before he was pinned after a sit down Rikishi Driver, which he now calls Ape Shit.  Yes, really.  

Chuck Taylor, Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano defeated Katsuya Kitamura, David Finlay, Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin.  This saw the New Japan debuts of Cobb & Taylor.  The Best Friends team of Taylor & Beretta has always hurt Beretta in my opinion. He's at his worst when he's involved in a comedy act, so hopefully it doesn't go down that road in this tournament.  Cobb was the standout here.  He got tagged in and suplexed the world.  He went at it with Ishii, even rolling through on a pin and muscling Ishii up for a delayed suplex. Cobb will get over huge in NJPW, just like Elgin did.  This match was designed to introduce the debutants.  Best Friends his a double chokeslam on Kitamura, but he kicked out.  Taylor finished him off with The Awful Waffle piledriver.

Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi defeated Chase Owens, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page.  This was okay.  Nakanishi attempted a torture rack on Fale. It did not go well. Owens got plenty of heat by mocking both Tenzan and Kojima.  Fale & Nakanishi ran into each other like two bulldozers.  Page looked really good when he collided with Nagata, hitting his slingshot lariat.  The finish saw a TenKoji Cutter and a Lariat finish off Chase Owens.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Henare defeated El Desperado, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.  This was Henare's return after a serious Achilles injury.  KES were dominant here. They went after Henare straight away, targeting his leg. Makabe was tagged in and was cut off straight away. Tanahashi got into the match, and again, was quickly cut off by the IWGP Tag champions. Henare created an opening with a shoulder tackle off the top which allowed Tanahashi to hit a Slingblade and High Fly Flow on Desperado to sneak out a win. 

BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito defeated Gedo, Will Ospreay & Kazuchika Okada.   Okada & Naito squared off at the start of the match and the crowd was 90% in the favour of Naito.  Every time an Okada chant would start, it was quickly drowned out by a much larger Naito chant.  Gedo was worked over by the LIJ team until Ospreay got the tag and unleashed some flips. He was suplexed into the corner by Hiromu, which might stop him tweeting for a while. Okada & Naito traded counters. The finish saw BUSHI pin Gedo after two versions of MX. 

After the match Naito attacked Okada with the Wrestle Kingdom briefcase. He went to speak, and as he went to, Okada pulled the microphone away from him, to a large chorus of boos. The NJPW audience and primed and ready to see Naito take the top spot on January 4th.

A Block

Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka. This was a wild, out of control brawl.  They brawled all over ringside, with Suzuki-Gun then taking control of Goto in the ring. Suzuki-Gun dominated the match, with YOSHI only getting a small amount of offence once he tagged in.  Goto & YOSHI hit a nice Russian leg sweep/neckbreaker combo to take Iizuka out of the match. YOSHI superkicked Suzuki to break up a submission, which allowed Goto to hit Ushigoroshi and the GTR to score the first points of the tournament. This was also a pin on the NEVER Openweight champion, so it's possible that could set him up as Suzuki's opponent at Wrestle Kingdom.

A Block

Juice Robinson & Sami Callihan defeated SANADA & EVIL.  This was the NJPW debut of Callihan. He isn't a guy I ever imagined in New Japan, and it will take some time to see how he fits, but this was a solid start.  He and Juice are an odd team, with Juice being the purest of babyfaces, and Callihan using some tactics that got him boo'd here. His grittiness and intensity could very well get him over with the crowd.  

This was a very good main event, that was given a lot of time.  Callihan was worked over until Juice got the hot tag. There was lots of great stuff between Juice and SANADA. Juice got a big near fall with a powerbomb and SANADA's athleticism is scary. LIJ hit a Magic Killer, but the pin was interrupted.  The grittiness of Callihan was the difference maker.  He bit his way free of an EVIL STO, which gave Death Juice the opening the needed. Callihan hit a double underhook shoulder breaker on SANADA, followed by Pulp Friction to give the debuting team their first points.  NJPW seem to have plans for this team having gave them a big win in the main event here.  

This show is available for free on NJPWWorld.com and here:  

 

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