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Road to Tokyo Dome, Korakuen Hall, December 15th
Shota Umino & Ayato Yoshida vs Ren Narita & Teuyaki Kanemitsu - 15 minute time limit draw. This saw young lion Kanemitsu make his return after suffering a neck injury last February. This match didn’t have the pace that you would usually see from a young lions match and felt like it was dragging. It then became obvious that we were heading towards a time limit draw. Narita has a belly to belly suplex that Scott Steiner would be proud of. Kanemitsu was worked over for a long period and struggled to create any offense. The bell rang as Umino had Kanemitsu locked into a Boston Crab.
SHO, YOH & Rocky Romero defeated Tiger Mask IV, Jushin Thunder Liger & Toa Henare. YOH and Henare did some good stuff early on. Henare blew off some dropkicks and used his power to take control of YOH for his team. Rocky got the hot tag and Henare impressively caught him in mid air as he went for a running rana. Tiger started dishing out hard strikes on SHO towards the end of the match and he kicked out of a Tiger Driver. The finish saw SHO and YOH pin Tiger after they hit 3k.
Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto defeated Takashi Iizuka & Minoru Suzuki. It was wild and no young lion was safe. Ishii & Suzuki slogged the hell out of each other with strikes until they both collapsed. Iizuka has his muzzle taken off and was unleashed on Goto. This was just a really fun, wild brawl. The finish saw Ishii hit a Brainbuster on Iizuka. After the match Suzuki beat up some young lions in the crowd.
EVIL & SANADA defeated Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi. Owens was very proud of himself when he thought he locked SANADA in the Paradise Lock, but SANADA easily escaped and put him in one. This was pretty basic stuff. SANADA showed off his incredible leaping ability. The finish saw LIJ hut Yujiro with an Indytaker and then hit a Magic Killer on Yujiro as they sent a message to their two Wrestle Kingdom opponents.
Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & Taichi. Very good match. There was a ringside brawl that ended with Shingo being cut opened. He was the worked over by the Suzuki-Gun team, which added some heat to the match. Shingo was great as he fired back and fought from underneath. Shingo blasted Kanemaru with the Pumping Bomber and Naito hit Gloria for a near fall. Naito then finished Kanemaru with Destino.
After the match Chris Jericho hit the ring and attacked al three LIJ members with a chair. He dropped Naito with a Codebreaker and left the ring. This was in response to a brawl they got into earlier in the day at a press conference, where Naito got the better of Jericho. Jericho then went into the crowd and got into the face of fans in LIJ merch. This was great stuff. Jericho is an incredible unhinged heel in NJPW.
Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, Taiji Ishimori, Jay White & Bad Luck Fale defeated Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe, KUSHIDA, Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano. This saw three different groups coming together, and still unable to bring down Bullet Club. There was lots of brawling after a hot start as everything boiled over. KUSHIDA was beaten down the by Bullet Club side. White and Okada faced off in the ring, but again it was White that was able to get the advantage. Honma put up a big fight against GOD in the final minutes, but an Ape Shite from Loa was too much for him to handle. Bullet Club are being put over as a major dominat force and White is a guy that could believably beat Okada at Wrestle Kingdom. After the match Okada couldn’t stop himself from attacking Bullet Club, but he was laid out with Bladerunner.
Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi defeated Will Ospreay and Hiroshi Tanahashi. This is a late runner for match of the year and one of the greatest tag matches I’ve ever seen. This was just sensational. With all the bullsh** and drama that goes on in wrestling, the crap that WWE put out and all the insufferable talk about contracts, this was a match that will remind you why you love pro wrestling and why it is the most incredible thing when it’s done properly.
These four guys absolutely tore it up in the last NJPW match of the year and set the tone for Wrestle Kingdom. There were at last three times where I was convinced that this match was over. The near falls were just so perfectly done. Ospreay had his ribs viciously worked over, but that didn’t stop him from hitting a double top rope Spanish fly on both Golden Lovers! There was an awesome near fall when Tana hit Omega with a High Fly Flow followed by an Ospreay shooting star press, but Ibushi made the very late save. Some of the stuff here between Ibushi and Ospreay here was mind blowing. Good luck to whoever has to follow them on January 4th, because they’re gonna need it. At one point Ibushi accidentally kicked Omega, which I think is a very important moment in how things might play out in the future. Ospreay countered a One Winged Angle into a rana for another sensational near fall. Golden Lovers hit an Indytaker, again for another one. Ospreay ate everything they had until he was put down with the Golden Trigger. This is one that my words won’t do justice to, just go and watch it.
Kevin Kelly and Chris Charlton provided excellent English commentary and it is available now at NJPWWorld.com.
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