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Road to Tokyo Dome, December 14, Korakuen Hall:
Tiger Mask IV, Jushin Thunder Liger, KUSHIDA & Tomoaki Honma defeated Yuya Uemura, Ren Narita, Toa Henare & Ayato Yoshida. Very fun opener here. Narita had a great strike exchange with Honma, that ended with Honma mounting him with headbutts. Narita fought back into the match with a great belly to belly on KUSHIDA. He tagged in Henare, who looks more and more polished every time out. Uemura got the Boston Crab on Tiger, and refused to break the hold when Liger began chopping him. The finish saw a Kokeshi followed by a Tiger Driver on Uemura.
Shingo Takagi defeated Shota Umino. My mouth watered when this match was announced and it didn’t disappoint. This was as good as it possibly could have been. Shingo is the real deal. He toyed with Umino until Umino got back into the match with a big dropkick. Umino made the fiery comeback, but was cut off with a DDT. The counter of the match saw Umino avoid the Pumping Bomber and hit a bridging German suplex. Shingo hit Noshagami, but Umino kicked out, which was the near fall of the match. Umino almost scored an upset with a sunset flip, but he was then nailed with the Pumping Bomber Lariat and finished with Last of the Dragon. After the match Shingo slapped Umino across the face. Excellent match. Umino has a big future and Shingo is a guy that should be pushed to the very top of NJPW as soon as possible.
Rocky Romero & Hirooki Goto defeated Takashi Iizuka & Minoru Suzuki. Big upset in this one. The referee wrestled a chair out of Suzuki’s hands, then Suzuki just picked up another one and hit Romeo with it anyway, which was great stuff. Romero won some exchanges with Suzuki. Iizuka ran around like a mania biting people. Suzuki & Goto had a stiff strike exchange, ending with a Goto lariat. The finish saw Iizuka bring the iron fingers into the ring, only for Goto to lariat him into a Romero school boy. This was a huge upset win for Romero.
Tomohiro Ishii, SHO & YOH defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & Taichi. The first part of this saw Desperado and Kanemaru work over YOH, before SHO came in off the hot tag and showed his explosiveness. We then saw Ishii & Taichi go at it. Taichi tried to no sell some chops so Ishii chopped him in the throat. Kanemaru hit a diving DDT on Ishii for a near fall and hit him with a big lariat for another. The finish saw Ishii fire up and block some more lariats before he blasted Kanemaru with one and finished him with a Brainbuster.
Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, Bad Luck Fale & Taiji Ishimori defeated BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito. Good match here with the focus on continuing to build Bullet Club as a dominant faction. Naito was worked over for a while until he caught Fale with a DDT. Then we saw GOD and EVIL & SANADA go back and forth for a while, with some great exchanges between the teams. Jado hit BUSHI with a kendo stick and almost cost him the match. The finish saw Tanga Loa hit BUSHI with the super powerbomb. Naito played a very small role here.
Kazuchika Okada defeated Gedo. This was brilliant. Okada had his chance to get his hands on his former manager, but Gedo had other ideas. He came to the ring in a sling claiming that he had been hit by a drunk driver in a CHAOS shirt. This was classic cowardly heel tactics straight out of the Bobby Heenan play book. Gedo then maced Okada and took an advantage. He even DDT’d Okada on the floor, just as The Rainmaker regularly does. Once Okada made the comeback, Gedo ran for his life, but he was dragged back into the ring. It wasn’t long before Jado and Jay White got involved, and all hell broke loose after the ref went down. Rocky Romero tried to even the odds for his CHAOS mate, but it didn’t work. Okada was able to turn things around himself with some dropkicks. He then hit a Tombstone and a Rainmaker to get the win and some revenge. After the match Okada went after White, but White turned it around and dropped Okada on his head with a suplex. They meet one last time in tag competition tomorrow before their singles match at Wrestle Kingdom.
Will Ospreay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano & Togi Makabe defeated Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi. Again, Kenny Omega wrestled in a t-shirt, which made him look so incredibly bush league compared to everyone else in the match. He’s the IWGP Heavyweight Champion. He should look like the biggest star in the match, and he did not. The faction lines were taken down again with Makabe teaming with CHAOS. He has huge history with Toru Yano going all the way back to the formation of CHAOS. Tanahashi got the advantage over Omega in their exchanges, with Ibushi having to save Omega at one point. Makabe ran through The Golden Lovers with a double lariat, which was a nice moment for him. Ospreay & Ibushi had some red hot exchanges, with Ospreay selling his ribs again. Ibushi won this round with a big lariat. The finish saw Ospreay pin Owens after hitting Stormbreaker.
Tomorrow’s main event, the last match before Wrestle Kingdom will see The Golden Lovers take on Hiroshi Tanahashi and Hiroshi Tanahashi.
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