NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2015 review

Back at the start of the month New Japan presented their twelfth Wrestling Dontaku show. Plenty of people have reviewed it in the weeks since but I thought I'd add my voice to the cacophony. Because I've been enjoying New Japan since Wrestle Kingdom and I thought "Why not, right?" Plus there's that sweet poster.

The show kicked off with a peculiar all-babyface eight man tag. The team of Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Mascara Dorada and Yuji Nagata took on Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Kushida, and Captain New Japan. The crowd were really into it, presumably because of the involvement of Liger and Tiger Mask, but it wasn't anything special. Nakanishi looked good though. He's a guy I'd like  to see involved in the NEVER title scene. He was on the losing team though: Nagata got the win off an Exploder suplex on the Cap'n.

Match two saw Kota Ibushi and Yohei Kamatsu team to defeat Sho Tanaka and Tetsuya Naito. Ibushi and Naito were the respective stars of their teams, both guys frequently being talked about (by people more knowledgeable than me) as being amongst New Japan's next batch of headliners. I definitely see it in Ibushi. He's had two dazzling matches this year at Wrestle Kingdom and Invasion Attack, opposite Nakamura and Styles respectively. He lost both but was elevated by lasting as long as he did and entering solid showings. I've yet to see anything similar from Naito. He's not been put in a position to shine in the same way but there's nothing abou him that makes me want to see him have the chance, and his tag work has been wholly uninspiring. It doesn't help that his haircut is amongst the ugliest on the roster.

The Bullet Club made their first appearance of the night after that, represented by the dream team of Tama Tonga, Cody Hall and Bad Luck Fale. They would lose to TenCozy and Tomoaki Honma. It was Cody who took the loss again as he was pinned after a Honma top rope headbutt. That he keeps losing to Honma, the man who never wins, is presumably leading to something, probably a singles match where Hall finally gets a win. The match was fine for what it was but what it was wasn't much. Which was the intention. It was more a way of getting Honma, TenCozy and Fale onto the show and keeping Hall's stream of losses flowing.

The junior tag straps were up for grabs in match four. Roppongi Vice defended against former one time champions reDRagon and former two times champions the Young Bucks. It was, unsurprisingly, the best match of the night until that point. Highlights included: a Bucks double super kick on Baretta as he went for a tope; stuff shots from O'Reilly as he mounted Baretta; Baretta suplexing Nick onto the ropes and Rocky following up with a top tope knee; reDRagon's assisted wheelbarrow DDT and backbreaker-top rope knee combo; Baretta suplexing Matt from the top rope onto their respective teammates, reDRagon, and some young boys at ringside; the Bucks' buckle bomb-enziguri combo on O'Reilly onto Fish and Romero slumped in the corner; a run-up top rope German suplex from Baretta to Matt; the Indy-Taker to O'Reilly on the floor; and a series of super kicks on Baretta followed by a match-winning More Bang for Your Buck.

Taken as spot-fests with little psychology and no proper selling these matches are always good fun. All the teams involved here (plus former frequent contributors Time Splitters) have a good range of moves that can be mixed and matches in new ways to ensure there's always something new and-or interesting on offer. That said it wouldn't hurt to mix the division up a bit and get some new pairings involved.

The first of only two singles matches on the show, Kenny Omega v Alex Shelley, was preceded by a video package. It reminded us all that Omega has been on a mission to "clean up" New Japan's junior division and that Shelley is a fightin' babyface with the support of the deity Hiroshi Tanahashi himself. It did its job of elevating the match and reminding us that Omega's not a nice guy.

Shelley entered wearing a biker helmet for whatever reason (I suspect this was a gaming reference lost on me) and had Kushida and Taguchi with him. Omega entered in his Matrix-style leather jacket (get with the times, mate) and had the Bucks in his corner. Omega kicked the match off by offering a handshake. Shelley gave him a middle finger, earning himself cheers. The sequence seemed a bit off because Omega, the clear bad guy, had seemed pretty genuine. Maybe we were just meant to assume he'd cheap shot Shelley or something during the handshake but that sort of negativity is no way to go through life.

The pair exchanged the advantage in the opening moments and did a tonne of running about. Omega was the first to get in some extended offence when the Bucks distracted the referee and he countered a Shelley suicide dive with a trash can to the head (because he's cleaning up, geddit?). He stayed on the challenger with a camel clutch, a backbreaker and a nice bicycle kick into the corner before reintroducing the trash can. After belting Shelley in the face with that he gave him a fisherman buster, from which the Time Splitter kicked out.

On the outside Omega continued to use the bin (can) and also brought in a broom. A power bomb onto the bin (can) was countered by Shelley and was followed up by a vault over the top rope, catching hold of Omega and driving him down to the floor with a DDT. 'The Cleaner' took more damage when he rolled back into the ring in the form of a top rope double stomp but he managed to kick out. He withstood a super kick and attempted a power bomb but Shelley countered with a DDT. The challenger tried to follow up with a top rope splash but Omega got his knees up then gave Shelley a modified blue thunder bomb.

Shelley kicked out of that and escaped an attempted electric chair drop before hitting a dragon suplex. The pair exchanged blows, Shelley getting the better of Omega with an enziguri then giving him a super kick and Automatic Midnight for a convincingly close two count. Sensing their boy was in trouble the Bucks hit the ring but were cut off by Taguchi and Kushida and wiped out with some sweet, sweet Time Splitters double teaming. Shelley then hit Sliced Bread Number Two on Omega but only got a two.

Back on their feet Omega heelishly thumbed Shelley's eye. That was enough to open up Shelley for the Croyt's Wrath electric chair drop, which lead to a three count for the reigning champion. Afte the match Omega cut a heel promo about being too good to wrestle in the Best of the Super Juniors tournament but wished all the lads at ringside good luck in it. Kushida seemed particularly irate with Omega's behaviour. Having him win the tournament and going on to take the gold from Omega would make sense. It would establish him as a singles force and would play into Omega's defeat of his Time Splitters partner here.

After a lethargic intermission the show continued with Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows and Amber Gallows facing The Kingdom trio of Michael Bennett, Matt Taven and Maria Kanellis. The story was that Anderson was still smitten with Maria and Amber had been roped in to counteract her effect on him. It was pure silliness made worse by the lack of clear faces. Were we supposed to root for massive perv Anderson? Or were we supposed to cheer for Maria, who hadn't done anything wrong but seemed very happy to be presented as nothing more than an object to be ogled? It wasn't clear, and the only clue offered by the production team was that the match's biggest star was Maria's backside.

In terms of match quality this was adequate. The four lads are good in tag situations, although Anderson was hampered at points by his weird Maria-fixation gimmick. Maria's not bad, Amber is, but neither was bad enough to make the match a stinker. The match ended, fittingly enough, with Anderson stroking Maria's face only for her to kick him the privates. Amber then came in and went for a suplex on Maria but got rolled up with a small package.

After the match Anderson grabbed Maria and threw her to the ground. Seemingly unsatisfied by this the Bullet boys pulled her back up and gave her the Magic Killer. Then they ran off as Bennett and Taven returned to the ring to make the save. Anderson seemed unremorseful about possibly having broken the neck of his object of lust. I'd like it if this match were the end of the unpleasant Maria aspect of the Kingdom versus Bullet Club rivalry but I don't think it was.

More tag action followed that. First Togi Makabe, Katsuyori Shibata and Hiroshi Tanahashi teamed to defeat Tomohiro Ishii, Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano in a lively tussle when Tana fell on top of Yano in an awkward, botched-looking exchange. Then AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi defeated Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi when Styles dropped Hashi with a brainbuster and a Styles Clash. This was a particularly good match that did its job of reigniting the Styles-Okada dispute. Okada having the champ's number was hammered home after the match when 'The Phenomenal One' went to give Okada the Clash and Okada slipped out and came close, twice, to walloping Styles with the Rainmaker. It was 'The Ace of the New Era' who stood tall at the end of the segment.

The main event of Intercontinental champion Shinsuke  Nakamura defending against Hirooki Goto was preceded by a prime video package that established Nak as the cocky, charismatic champion and Goto as the underdog who wouldn't give up on his pursuit of the gold. It was also made clear that Nakamura simply didn't consider Goto a real threat to his title reign, something which carried over into the story of the match.

Nakamura refused to take Goto seriously until the halfway point of the match, by which point it was too late. The combination of the wearing down he'd already taken and Goto's tenacity meant he was unable to mount the comeback he needed to to retain his championship. Goto gave it his all, surviving a pair or Boma Yes in the closing moments before finishing Nakamura off with a Goto Shiki from the second rope and a Shouten, showing up the bigger star and earning the prize he'd bee determined to reclaim (he'd held the title in 2012 and had been the man beaten to start Nak's first reign, something I imagine the commentary team touched on during the match). A return bout between the two could be really interesting.

Overall this show wasn't bad but it was clear it wasn't intended to be taken as one of New Japan's better offerings. The IC championship match and Omega v Shelley were both very good and the junior tag match and semi-main event were both enjoyable offerings but nothing was better than it needed to be. It was a decent show and that's all it was intended to be.

***

Results summary:

Jushin Liger, Tiger Mask, Mascara Dorada and Yuji Nagata defeated Captain New Japan, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi and Kushida
Kota Ibushi and Yohei Komatsu defeated Tetsuya Naito and Sho Tanaka
Tomoaki Hona, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima defeated Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Cody Hall
The Young Bucks defeated reDRagon and Roppongi Vice to win the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team championship
Kenny Omega defeated Alex Shelley to retain the IWGP junior heavyweight championship
Michael Bennett, Matt Taven and Maria Kanellis defeated Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows and Amber Gallows
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe and Katsuyori Shibata defeated Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazushi Sakuraba
AJ Styes and Yujiro Takahashi defeated Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi
Hirooki Goto defeated Shinsuke Nakamura to win the IWGP Intercontinental championship

NJPW Invasion Attack 2015 review

The night before WrestleMania 31 New Japan presented their third annual Invasion Attack show. Unlike the offerings from Ring of Honor and the WWN this show wasn't held in the state of California. It wasn't even held in the US. That's what kept me from reviewing it at the time: it was happening on WrestleMania weekend but it was so detached that it didn't feel like a part of it. Not that it was intended to be, of course. New Japan is big enough that it doesn't need to tie itself into WWE's schedule.

The opener pitted the Time Splitters, Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu and Yuji Nagata against Ryusuke Taguchi, Manabu Nakanishi, Sho Tanaka, Tiger Mask and Jushin Liger. It was a fun but instantly fogettable ten man tag. Shelley pinned Nakanishi with a belly-to-back piledriver for the win.

Tomoaki Honma and the Tencozy lads, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima, versus Bullet Club representatives Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga and Cody Hall was second. Takahashi was accompanied by a girl in a bikini because he's been corrupted by The West. Cody Hall was sporting a slightly altered look channelled Brock Lesnar, while his mannerisms channelled his father. Sadly this didn't translate to a super-hot match or even anything memorable from him. Hall ate the pinfall after a Tencozy 3D and a top rope headbutt from Honma. The thing that most sticks with me is that Hall looked incredibly uncertain a lot of the time. That and the gratuitous shots of Takahashi's gal pal.

Rocky Romero and Trent Baretta had their first two-on-two NJPW tag match as Roppongi Vice after that. They'd wrestled six matches in the company before this but all had featured additional partners. In a slightly surprising move the match was for the junior tag straps. In an even more surprising move the new team defeated the Young Bucks for the titles. This evelopment seemed like something that could have been built to a bit more but it did get a pop and provide a nice surprise.

The match was really good fun. Baretta was sharp and gelled well with Romero. The finish saw Romero tagged by Baretta as Romero was being hoisted up for More Bang for Your Buck. Romero then got his knees up as Nick hit him with the 450 and Baretta, the legal man, dashed in to hit Matt with a top rope German suplex. Romero took out Nick with a suicide dive before the Vice boys hit an inverted Tombstone-springboard combo on Matt, Baretta pinning him to win. That pin sequence was notable: Baretta is the junior member of his team and Matt is the senior member of his. You'd usually expect Nick to be the one laying down in this situation. Clearly the intention was to make Baretta look good by not only having him get the winning fall but doing it against the more impressive member of the opposing team.

The junior heavyweight singles gold was up for grabs in match four. Máscara Dorada challenged Kenny Omega. Dorada had various junior heavyweight babyfaces (among them the Time Splitters, Jushin Liger and Tiger Mask) with him at ringside to ensure there was no Bullet Club-related foul play. Even being unable to utilise his teammates Omega got the win, pinning Dorada with the electric chair driver. After the match Omega challenged Alex Shelley to a title match. Shelley accepted. That should be a highlight of Wrestling Dontaku in May.

The non-Japanese action continued with Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defending the IWGP tag straps against Matt Taven and Michael Bennett. It was below the standard of the usual Anderson 'n' Gallows match but it was better than anything else I've seen The Kingdom pairing do so far. There were a bunch of spots involving Maria interfering, all of which seemed to really excite the commentary team. Maria ended up distracting Anderson after grinding on the apron, leading to him being hit with a double spike piledriver (prompting cries of "Massacre! Massacre!" from an excited commentator) for the surprising loss. Gallows screamed at Anderson after the match. I'm assuming this title change was done to set up a return match on the ROH-New Japan co-promoted shows in May. Bullet Club, faces in ROH, can take the gold back from the hated Kingdom there.

Two tag matches preceded the show's closing singles bouts, each featuring one of the promotion's top acts. The first saw Shinsuke Nakamura team with Chaos teammates Yoshi-Hashi and Tomohiro Ishii against Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito and Togi Makabe. The second saw Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katauyori Shibata face Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano. The six man was the more enjoyable of the two. It was nice to see Ishii and Makabe's rivalry flaring up again after it had stalled following Makabe's illness in February. Plus I never fail to enjoy a Nak match. The Tana match was fine but I find it hard to get passed my feeling that he's a little overrated, an opinion I've developed because I've yet to see him in a great match that doesn't involve a lesser worker. Anyone can shine against Okada and Styles. His average match against Michael Bennett last year spoke volumes.

The teams with the big stars lost in both instances. Nak was pinned by Goto after a mad lariat and what I believe was a Shouten Kai. That set up an Intercontinental title match between the Goto and Nakamura for Wrestling Dontaku. In the tag match Shibata submitted to a Sakuraba armbar. I'm less clear on the intention there. Perhaps a singles match between Tanahashi and Yano? I'd enjoy it even if no one else would.

The semi-main event was Bad Luck Fale versus Kazuchika Okada, a match-up with a nice story going into it. Okada had been overconfident ahead of his Wrestle Kingdom 9 title challenge against Tanahashi and that overconfidence had led to him being beaten. The following night, confidence shattered, he'd been beaten by Fale in a tag match. Which isn't a soul-crushing embarrassment in itself because Fale is kept strong by New Japan, but it was a further blow to the former two time world champ and company golden boy.

Since that match Fale and Okada and met in a variety of tag and six man matches, with 'The Underboss' being on the winning side more often than not. This singles match was Okada's chance at retribution, his opportunity to change his fortunes, show that he was above the likes of Fale and get his career back on track. Naturally he did so. Just as naturally the match was very good. Not that I'm especially well-versed in Fale matches (nor do I want to be) but this was certainly the best work I've seen from him. Fale managed to make Okada look strong without making himself look weak, a useful skill to have for someone who's clearly meant to be a big ol' monster.

Highlights of the match included a lovely Rainmaker reversal into a choke slam attempt and a sequence that saw Okada escape the Bad Luck Fall, counter a choke slam in mid-air with a drop kick, and avoid a Fale Rainmaker before hitting a Tombstone (something he'd attempted several times during the match). There was also a very nice top rope splash from Fale.

The main event featured IWGP champion AJ Styles defending against Kota Ibushi, who'd earned a title shot by merit of his victory in the New Japan Cup tournament. It seemed designed to reinforce the standing of both guys as bona fide headline stars by having them close out the show without Nak, Tana or Okada around. You can't fault New Japan's star-building process. Nor can you fault their storytelling: Kenny Omega was the lone Bullet Club member at ringside. This was notable as the two men have (or possibly have, at this point) tagged together as Golden Lovers since the beginning of 2009. They primarily teamed in DDT but did make a couple of appearances together in New Japan, capturing the junior tag straps when they did so. Both transferred over to New Japan from DDT and took up new singles roles unaffiliated with one another until this point, and stationing Omega at ringside was a superb move. It allowed for a genuinely interesting "what will he do?" scenario to play out throughout the match, something that's tried fairly often and usually fails.

The match started with Ibushi and Styles locking up a few times. Styles got the better of them and loudly proclaimed Ibushi wasn't ready for him. Ibushi responded with a hurricanrana that sent the champion rolling out of the ring. They ran through a nippy exchange of near falls, as well as a Styles Slash attempt, with Ibushi getting the final word with a very close two count. The champion was then sent out of the ring again, this time with a drop kick.

Ibushi tried a moonsault to the outside. First AJ blocked it. Then, after Ibushi had fought him off, he sidestepped it and tossed Ibushi with a wild German suplex. Ibushi just made it back into the ring before the twenty count was reached but he was left at the mercy of 'The Phenomenal One'. The challenger absorbed punishment for several minutes, including a guardrail to the face and an Indian deathlock.

Styles targeted Iushi's leg when he started throwing out kicks. Ibushi fought overcame that and managed a desperation double stomp as Styles went for a low drop kick. Styles rolled outside, allowing 'Golden Star' to finally hit the springboard moonsault he'd tried for earlier. Ibushi stayed on the champion with a springboard drop kick, a power slam, and a Lionsault, all which scored him a two count. A German suplex got him the same result. Styles reversed a suplex and dropped Ibushi into a turnbuckle then hit his moonsault into a reverse DDT.

Ibushi kicked out so Styles signalled for the Styles Clash. Ibushi fought out with a series of strikes. AJ responded with strikes of his own then hit a Pele kick. Ibushi stayed on his feet long enough to hit a Pele kick of his own. After a brief pause Ibushi pulled Styles to his feet and tried to dragon suplex him off the apron into the ring. Styles elbowed out, hit a springboard elbow, then dropped Ibushi on his head with a "Styles buster" (as named by the commentators) for two.

Frustrated, the champion gave the challenger a high Bloody Sunday. Without going for the cover he tried for the Clash again. Ibushi escaped but immediately found himself locked in a Calf Killer. It took him a while but Ibushi made it to the ropes. Back on his feet he kneed Styles in the face but hurt himself doing so and so couldn't capitalise. Styles floored him with a lariat and hauled him to a corner to take another stab at the Styles Clash. Ibushi fought out and tried a hurricanrana. Styles fought out of that and tried for the Clash again. Ibushi escaped that and rolled onto the ring apron, where he leapt up to the top rope to finally catch AJ with the hurricanrana.

Styles kicked out. Ibushi botched a power bomb. Styles escaped on the correction attempt and got walloped with a lariat for his efforts. Ibushi tried for the power bomb a third time and finally got it. But Styles kicked out in a great near fall.

Ibushi went to the top rope. Omega finally made his move, scrambling to the apron to stare at Ibushi. The two men paused before Omega shook his head and returned to the floor. But that brief pause was enough: Ibushi went for the phoenix splash but Styles was on his feet to catch him, turning the move into a Styles Clash to win the match at the twenty-seven minute mark.

This lad's on... another level.

Takahashi and Tama Tonga hit the ring to proudly celebrate with AJ as Ibushi was helped backstage. Omega joined them in the ring but looked distraught. Clearly he had mixed feelings on the plight of his former teammate and felt that his momentary distraction and cost him a win and the title. But we weren't allowed to dwell on an evil Bullet Club member having feelings for long: Okada hit the ring to destroy everyone and lamp Styles with a Rainmaker. The final major shot of the show was Okada standing over the champion as Gedo said words and smirked.

Invasion Attack was a great show. There were matches that weren't all they could have been but there were no flat-out stinkers and we got a couple of title changes. More importantly it got Okada back on track as a title challenger, solidified the standing of both Styles and Ibushi, and set up something for the future involving Kenny Omega. Not bad for what was not intended to be a A-list show.

***

Results summary:

Yuji Nagata, Time Splitters, Captain New Japan and Yohei Komatsu defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi and Sho Tanaka
TenCozy and Tomoaki Honma defeated Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga and Cody Hall
Roppongi Vice defeated The Young Bucks to win the junior heavyweight tag team championship
Kenny Omega defeated Máscara Dorada to retain the junior heavyweight championship
The Kingdom defeated Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson to win the tag tea championship
Hirooki Goto, Togi Makabe and Tetsuya Naito defeated Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii and Yoshi-Hashi
Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata
Kazuchika Okada defeated Bad Luck Fale
AJ Styles defeated Kota Ibushi to retain the IWGP heavyweight championship

NJPW New Beginning in Sendai 2015 review

Three days after the opening half of New Beginning took place in Osaka the New Japan crew hit Sendai for the closing half. I say the New Japan crew but new IWGP champ AJ Styles was noticeable by his absence from this card. A peculiar booking decision, but not a catastrophic one as there was already a strong main event announced in Nakamura versus Nagata. In fact it's possible that relegating Styles to a tag match days after his big win would have lessened the impact of the title change.

The show kicked off with a pair of tag matches. Captain New Japan and Manabu Nakanishi defeated Satoshi Kojima and Yohei Komatsu in an average opener when Nakanishi hit an inverted TKO on Komatsu. That was followed by reDRagon taking on Jay White and a Tiger Mask. They won a ten minute match after they hit Chasing the Dragon on White. It was a surprisingly competitive bout considering Fish and O'Reilly's status as former tag champs and White's status as a young boy. I suppose it can be attributed to veteran Tiger Mask's involvement. For the record he was off whatever remains of his game here. There was a lot of sloppiness from him.

A six man tag match tying into the Osaka show's junior title matches followed that. The Time Splitters teamed with Máscara Dorada to take on the Young Bucks, whom the Splitters had faced in Osaka, and Kenny Omega, who'd been confronted by Dorada after his successful defence against Taguchi in Osaka. All the junior champions on one side of the ring with leading challengers on the other. The match was great, especially considering how low down the running order it was. The match culminated with Dorada hitting Omega with a sunset bomb off the apron before the Bullet Club members hit stero Indy-Takers on the Time Splitters, only for Omega to be pinned off a sunset flip from Dorada moments later. The result was predictable considering the confrontation on the previous show.

Match four saw Chase Owens unsuccessfully challenge Jushin Liger for the frankly meaningless NWA junior heavyweight championship. Bruce Tharpe was again at ringside and was again dressed like a game show host. The match was perfectly adequate but unmemorable. Liger got the best of a brisk sequence of rollups to retain.

Tharpe would return to ringside after Liger had cut a post-match promo. About stuff, I guess. This time he was managing NWA world heavyweight champion Rob Conway in his defence against Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Conway would lose the world's most prestigious indy belt when Tenzan hit a top rope moonsault. The match featured an abundance of manager interference, belt shots and various other heel shenanigans. It wasn't bad but it stood out in comparison to much of the rest of the card.

Following an intermission, in which Yuji Nagata chatted to a young lad in a dapper suit while drinking beer and shilling merch, the show resumed with Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito v Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano. The former struck me as an interesting pairing, both guys being names who've been singled out as prospective headliners. Yano and Sakuraba were the aggressors, isolating Naito and working him over before he managed to tag out to Ibushi. Naito would get the win for his team when he halted a Yano rollup mid-way through. Good match but not especially memorable.

Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi defeated Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi when Okada floored Takahashi with a drop kick and a Rainmaker. The crowd was invested in the match thanks to Okada's status as a top guy and the fact that Fale's been successfully established as a dominating monster. It speaks to the importance of characters in wrestling. More specifically it speaks to the fantastic job Gedo and Jado have done building Okada up as a somebody since he returned from his sojourn to the US.

This happened for some reason.

The evening's second and final six man tag team match saw former tag champs Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata team with former seven time heavyweight champ Hiroshi Tanahashi to defeat Bullet Club members Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga (who were all sporting KISS face paint). It was very different to the junior six man that had taken place earlier on the show but was just as good. Tanahashi was worked over before making finally dodging an Anderson charge and tagging out to Goto. The Meiyu Tag boys took it to Bullet Club from there before Tana came back in to throw Tama Tonga around. He would again find himself isolated and triple teamed before Goto and Shibata made the save on a cover and brawled to the outside with Gallows and Anderson. Tama Tonga soon found himself on the wrong end of a sling blade and a High Fly Flow, ending the match just after the twelve minute mark.

The evening's penultimate match was held to crown a new NEVER openweight champion. Togi Makabe had won the title at Wrestle Kingdom 9 and contracted influenza a month later. The decision was made to strip him of the title and crown a new champion. Sentimental favourite Tomoaki Honma and former champion Tomohiro Ishii were chosen as the men who'd battle for the vacant gold.

Within minutes the two were throwing out stiff elbows. Ishii would gradually gain the advantage, wearing down Honma with alternating elbows and chops in the corner. Honma willed himself back into the fight and the pair engaged a lengthy exchange of chops. Honma got the better of it after a slow start, the audience applauding loudly when he finally sent Ishii down to the mat and hit his falling head butt.

Honma hit a Blockbuster before Ishii took control again. Honma survived a power bomb and a second rope stalling suplex, bringing the crowd to life. His reversal of a clothesline into a DDT was sold expertly by Ishii, the audience sensing that it was Honma's opportunity to take control and win. They ran into one another with clotheslines and took turns to fall and get straight back up but it was Honma who got the best of the exchange, flooring Ishii with a lariat.

Ishii returned to his feet on the apron. He was lariated to the floor and hit with a ridiculously dangerous head butt from the top rope to the outside. Back in the ring Honma turned a staggered Ishii upside down with a lariat. Despite all the damage he'd taken 'The Stone Pitbull' was able to return to his feet and drop Honma with a belly-to-back suplex. Honma fired off elbows but that only fired Ishii up, leading him to lamp Honma hard and hit him a stalling superplex.

Honma kicked out of that and was pulled to his feet. He was struck with three clotheslines and slumped down to the mat where he again kicked out of a cover at two. Ishii tried suplexing him but Honma sprang away into the ropes, coming back with a head butt. When he dropped Ishii with a deadlift brainbuster moments later the audience seemed convinced the match was over.

It wasn't. Ishii kicked out. He was pulled to his feet and given another head butt and a fire thunder driver for another two count. Honma went for more head butts, aiming for Ishii's injured shoulder. He got the first but Ishii avoided the second. Honma got straight back up after taking a German suplex and kicked out at one after an enziguri. Not to be outdone Ishii did his own kick out at one following a lariat.

Going back to the start of the match the two exchanged strikes and slaps. Ishii got a two count following a big lariat. Honma escaped a suplex but was staggered by a head butt, dodging a second before dishing out head butts of his own. Honma again kicked out but he couldn't survive a stalling brainbuster. That finally put him down for a three count and earned Ishii his third NEVER championship reign. It was the match of the night.

That left only the main event: Yuji Nagata challenging Shinsuke Nakamura for the Intercontinental championship. A video package came first. It was heavy on piano music and seemed to present Nagata as a humble family man who's been around forever and wants to show that he can still go. It was light on Nakamura but whenever he appeared it seemed like it was being made clear that he respected Nagata. It was a good video package. Even with the language barrier it got me invested in Nagata.

Nakamura still IC champ there.

They told a good story. The veteran Nagata had more tricks up his sleeve and wasn't intimidated or thrown off balance by his opponent's silliness but Nakamura had speed on his side and a more vicious streak. Nagata was resilient, surviving multiple Boma Yes and kicks but it wasn't enough to get him the victory. He came close to a victory with some stiff blows, a perfect top rope belly-to-belly suplex, a vicious German suplex, a belly-to-back suplex and an armbar but ultimately Nak polished him off with a desperation knee to the temple. It was a great main event.

On balance I think the Sendai show was the stronger offering. It only had the two standout matches (the two championship matches that closed the show) but both were of a higher quality than the key matches of the Osaka card. The undercard again failed to disappoint and featured fun outings for Tenzan, the junior heavyweight champions and their challengers, Tanahashi and Meiyu Tag. I wouldn't say either show is a must-see event but they both boasted must-see matches.

***

Results summary:

Captain New Japan and Manabu Nakanishi defeated Satoshi Kojima and Yohei Komatsu
reDRagon defeated Tiger Mask and Jay White
Time Splitters and Máscara Dorada defeated the Young Bucks and Kenny Omega
Jushin Thunder Liger defeated Chase Owens to retain the NWA world junior heavyweight championship
Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Rob Conway to win the NWA world heavyweight championship
Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito defeated Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba             
Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi defeated Yujiro Takahashi and Bad Luck Fale
Hirooki Goto, Katsuyori Shibata and Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Tama Tonga
Tomohiro Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma to win the NEVER openweight championship
Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Yuji Nagata to retain the Intercontinental championship

Second Opinion: RPW Uprising 2014

I wasn’t the only person at last Saturday’s RPW Uprising show. Michael King was there too. Sitting next to me, as it happens. On Sunday I asked him if he fancied contributing some thoughts to my write-up (you can find that here). What he sent over ended up being over one thousand words long. Which, y’know, is easily a blog post in its own right so I decided to present it in full. It’s presented below, with anything in italics added by me. Because why not?

***

Lionel Richie’s All Night Long runs four minutes 19 seconds. Rich Swann’s entrance, based around the song, felt significantly longer. By the end of the match the crowd had cheered itself out, much to the detriment of what followed. It’s a shame this didn’t go on after the interval.

The match was good. Think a PPV/Network Special opener, or post Cena-promo Uso tag match on RAW. Lots of reversals, combos and dives to the outside, all pulled off with exceptional timing and little to no regard for psychology. Aries is as crisp in person as he is on TV. 2 Unlimited bad-guyed it up despite their adorable denim waist coats and propensity to move their mouths as if to taunt the crowd, but not actually say anything. Maybe they have very silly voices (They’re Irish so they probably do). Aries took the mic after the match to tell the crowd to keep the energy up. He obviously knew what was happening before we did.

Britain's premiere hoss. That'd be a good moniker for him, actually.

The next match featured Dave Mastiff against Karl Anderson. You’d think Anderson, being used to wrestling to the sound of a dripping tap in the Tokyo Dome men’s room (and only getting a pop for re-entering the ring) would have adapted better to the lack of atmosphere, but it seemed to put him off. Mastiff lives his gimmick and generally held up his end of the match. On reflection this match was pretty decent. A good ol’ meat bash (Oh!) with some big spots and a decent finishing sequence, but it felt a little flat whilst it was going on. We have Swann and Richie to thank for that.

To take us into the break we saw the best wrestler in the world face Adrian Neville’s old tag partner. To be fair Joel Redman is a much better singles wrestler than viewers of NXT would believe, but he was the wrong opponent, in the wrong slot. A big part of these RPW shows is being part of the reaction these big ticket foreign stars receive. Seeing Hiroshi Tanahashi burst through the curtain twelve months ago (in the main event) was surreal, and the reaction appropriately massive. Okada got some weak chants and a single streamer. The crowd wasn’t ready for him.

The match itself was decent, despite a complete lack of chemistry between the two men. Redman seemed a little unsure of his role and Okada’s deadpan arrogance didn’t work with the smaller crowd in the same way as Tanahashi’s stiff  arm air-guitar or Nakamura’s nuanced epileptic routine. I can’t stress enough how insane it was that this went on pre-interval. Okada, at 26 years old, is the biggest star in the world’s number two promotion, and will most likely be on top for at least another decade. Anyway, enough of that. Okada won.

The show resumed with the Revolutionists facing Too Cool. I should preface this by saying that I spent a long time where my only access to WWE was VHS tapes and Sunday Night Heat, which at the time seemed to consist of lovingly framed shots of Trish Stratus; Mick Foley going to theme parks; and Too Cool main events. This probably goes some way in explaining why I enjoyed this so much (Amazingly other people enjoyed their tedious routine too. I think I was the only one who didn’t see the appeal in a former light heavyweight champ, a grossly overweight Samoan, and Jerry Lawler’s estranged son). I wanted to be angry for Okada, but seeing these three men go through their old routine moved me in a way I wasn’t prepared for. This was so, so, so stupid and I loved it.

That said, Sha Samuels is great and deserves better than this. (I couldn’t agree with this more)

The championship match was set up with a video package. I didn’t hear a word but most of it still came across. Stone was angry because he is less well thought of than Mojo Rawley. Scurll is crazy now because he has a beard and an umbrella and that’s why he is the best Martin. These two had by far the best match of the evening, with plenty of outside brawling, near falls, heelish shenanigans and Scurll’s Vince McMahon impersonation. Scurll seems a little restless with his gimmick and it’s easy to see why. He is so far ahead of those round him in terms of presentation, pacing, crowd interaction and work rate that he probably changes things up so frequently to keep himself entertained. I can’t get into Stone. As a wrestler he’s fine, but his ring gear, promo delivery and lack of personality give him the feel of a fill-in main eventer.

Michael isn't one for national pride.

The post-match angle involving the (wonderfully panto) Knight family was a fun bit of wrestling nonsense. It went on far too long, but so did everything on the show. Dave has said all that needs to be said about the pacing, so instead I’ll complain about the constant references to the UK made on the show. This was the first RPW offering in a while to not feature anyone in Union Jack trunks (the UK wrestler equivalent of black wrestlers wearing animal print), but we still had it incorporated into the set (see right for one of Michael’s least favourite aspects of the show), and the Knight family patriarch (who based on the relative appearances of his sons and daughter (Paige), is a dismal producer of XX chromosomes) referring to the invaders as The UK Hooligans.

No-one in the building was confused about where we were, neither will anyone be when watching a DVD. The ostensible main event featured a man called Martin fighting another man called Martin. Wrestlers used scarfs and umbrellas as foreign objects. Not one reference was made to college football. All the UK references make the production look as indy as anything.

Ospreay vs Sydal went on last. There were flips. I question the decision to put an amiable face v face crusierweight match on after a number a genuine star attractions and a hard fought, angle heavy, championship match. But hey I also like my brief intervals to last less than 40 minutes (He wasn’t interested in a picture with Austin Aries and former TNA megastar Rosita).

A strange show, bafflingly less than the sum of its parts. Too Cool were oddly perfect, but with so many indy free agents now snapped up by NXT and the NJPW roster tapped, I wonder whether RPW can channel some of it’s momentum into building the size and profile of its home grown roster. Scurll versus Gangrel at Summer Sizzler?

RPW Uprising 2014 review

In October 2013 Revolution Pro Wrestling revived the Uprising name previously associated with the FWA for what was billed as their biggest show ever. In addition to using some of the best British wrestlers available they brought in foreign stars Michael Elgin, Prince Devitt, Ricochet, Davey Richards and Hiroshi Tanahashi. Colt Cabana was also there. It was an approach designed to do two things: demonstrate that the promotion was a big deal and attract fresh eyes. It certainly achieved the latter. Whether it achieved the former depends on your perspective, but I think they did a solid job and put on an excellent show.

This year RPW returned to York Hall for their second Uprising card, once again bringing in foreign stars. This time they took the form of Matt Sydal, Austin Aries, Karl Anderson, the triumvirate that is Too Cool, and Kazuchika Okada. There were actually a greater number of imports on this card than there had been the previous year, but somehow the event didn’t seem as significant leading into it.

Part of the problem here was that RPW had booked a second show the night after (it was originally titled Okada vs Ricochet although I suspect it will end up changed to Okada vs Aries). It’s possible that the company stretched itself a little thin by splitting some of the fly-ins over two cards. Concentrating everyone on this show would have added one or two matches and made better use of the time the show got.

The line-up for Uprising 2013 was incredibly strong. There was almost no way it could be topped. It was Tanahashi, the man who had carried New Japan through a rough patch and come out the other side as their unquestioned top star, wrestling in front of a thousand people in East London. That was very obviously a big deal. Using Nakamura and Okada since has almost made it an expected thing that New Japan talent will appear on the larger RPW cards. Tanahashi benefited from being the first (Liger had appeared a few months before him, at York Hall, but the show did not receive anywhere near the hype Tana’s did), and from being presented as the star attraction.

It also seemed hard to get into the rest of the import line-up to the same degree this year. Elgin and Richards were bona fide ROH main eventers (and personally I was delighted at the opportunity to heckle Richards). Devitt was a New Japan upper mid-carder who everyone was beginning to expect would move to WWE (which he did) or move up to New Japan main events. Ricochet could accurately be described as one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world (and it’s worth noting he went on to become the first non-Japanese grappler to win the Open the Dream Gate championship in March of this year).

By contrast Sydal was benched by WWE for years, Aries is booked pretty poorly by a flailing TNA, Anderson is a tag guy in New Japan, and Too Cool are Too Cool (but not too cool). Only Okada had flawless, unbridled star power. And none of the matches looked as though they’d be able to hold a candle to the 2013 match of the night Ricochet v Prince Devitt.

I know how unfair these complaints sound but it’s what was going through my mind going into the show, even though everyone had something to offer. For all of the poor booking they’ve been subjected to Aries and Sydal are very talented wrestlers. And ‘A Double’ wasn’t initially booked for the show, he was a last minute replacement for Ricochet following a scheduling conflict with Lucha Underground. Anderson is enjoyable enough if taken on his own terms. Okada is world class. Even Too Cool can be enjoyed as a nostalgia act. There was the British roster too, of course. But still there was a nagging sense that Uprising ’14 was not going to live up to its 2013 counterpart.

Sadly, these fears were merited. Uprising 2014 had some significant flaws.

One of the biggest problems was something that occurred before the first match started. It was Rich Swann’s entrance. He danced his way out to Lionel Richie’s All Night Long, a long-time staple of his act. It was very entertaining and the crowd got into it. But it went on. And on. And then it went on some more. It lasted so long, in fact, that the audience was burnt out from it. By the time match two rolled around reactions had died down considerably.

The second problem was the evening’s running order. This biggest misstep in that regard was Okada going on before the intermission. The audience clearly didn’t expect to see him that early in the night. He got a good response, but it was nowhere near what I’d expected. This wasn’t a result of the audience not knowing who he was: Tanahashi and Nakamura had got much louder responses in the same building for their RPW work. Everyone knew who he was, cared about him, and wanted to see him perform. They’d just expected him later.

The second half kicking off with Too Cool wasn’t the worst decision in and of itself, but their shtick would have been a better fit for the slot Okada was placed in, dancing people into intermission. And the final two matches should have been swapped around. The fifth match saw Martin Stone unsuccessfully challenge Marty Scurll for the British heavyweight championship. The sixth saw Matt Sydal defeat Will Ospreay. Each was followed by its own angle. They could have been combined and used to close the show, which would have trimmed the running time. Which was the other major problem the card had: it was far too long. Entrances were lengthy, there was a lot of stalling from pretty much everyone, the post-Stone-Scurll match angle featured a promo that was far too long, and matches were given too much time. Things could have been tightened up considerably without losing anything of value.

This man has a lot to answer for.

There were good points, and before I get to them I’ll run through the card itself. The opener saw Rich Swann and Austin Aries defeat 2 Unlimited in an exciting tussle. Swann, as already noted, milked the crowd, but he was able to do so because he was so over. I’ve knocked him for his lack of psychology in the past (and his willingness to eat up heat when he’s on first proves my point nicely, I think) but he’s fun to watch. Aries was, obviously, very popular too. Which meant the Irish lads were left to play heel, which they did a cracking job with.

The match featured flying spots, dancing, and some solid double team work from the brothers. Swann was worked over for a while before tagging out to ‘The Greatest Man Who Ever Lived’, who came steaming in to clean house. The faces picked up their win after Swann wiped out one of 2 Unlimited (I apologise for still being unable to tell them apart) with a dive to the floor and Aries dropped the other with a brainbuster. All four shook after the match and Aries cut a promo thanking the fans and telling them to keep the energy up (which I now suspect meant he knew Swann’s grandstanding would have a negative effect long term).

Match two pitted IWGP heavyweight tag team champion Karl Anderson against ‘Big Bad’ Dave Mastiff. I adore Mastiff for his Henry VIII look and kids’ TV facial expressions. The crowd favoured him too, although there were still a lot of people inexplicably into Anderson. Their timing was a little off throughout the match but they still pulled off some good power spots, including a ‘Double A’ spinebuster from Anderson, a deadlift German suplex from Mastiff, a German suplex into the turnbuckle on Anderson, the Swivel Gun Stun, and a cannonball reversed into a traditional Gun Stun. The last earned Anderson the win.

After the announcement that AJ Styles had been booked for the February 15 return date (which ring announcer and promoter Andy Quildan plugged incessantly, one of the many timing cuts that could have been made) it was time for the Okada match. As already noted the crowd were not expecting to see him that early on, which meant he received a slightly subdued response and no streamer treatment. The bout also suffered because Okada’s opponent, former NXT Superstar™ Joel Redman, didn’t seem to want to play heel. His build and the fact that he was facing a man who nobody in the building was going to boo meant that he should have switched to the antagonist role for the match.

Okada? He doesn't deserve to go on after an intermission?

The crowd didn’t get into the action until its second half. I suspect this was a combination of the surprise at seeing Okada so early, Swann burning people out, and nobody believing any of the early pin attempts. Things did eventually warm up when Okada went for a Tombstone piledriver and Redman reversed it, resulting in the best false finish of the night. From there we got a suplex from the apron into the ring, a lovely Okada drop kick, and, after a failed attempt earlier the night, a match-winning Rainmaker.

The intermission was another contributing factor to the unnecessarily long running time. It was closer to half an hour than the usual ten or fifteen minutes. The explanation for this was that Austin Aries and Rosita were at the merch stands signing pictures. Because there was money to be made from these pictures the break was extended to fit in as many signings as possible, a classic Quildan move.

The second half kicked off with the Revolutionists striding to the ring. They did their usual crowd-bullying stuff, Terry Frazier wading into the audience to shout at a particularly boisterous group of lads that I assume are regulars at RPW shows. To be fair the trio had a serious amount of heat on them. Too Cool also spent a long time milking their entrance, although as a nostalgia act that seemed to make more sense.

The match was not good but avoided being actively bad. Rikishi struggled to climb on to the ring apron so actual wrestling was obviously going to be tough for him. Meanwhile all Brian Christopher contributed was bad dancing and looking astonishingly like his dad. It was left to Scotty to do the bulk of the work for his team. He got worked over to set up a hot tag to Rikishi, who came in, pulled his trunks down, and gave Sha Samuels a bare Stinkface in the corner. It was not pleasant to watch. I can only imagine what it was like to take. The move got a loud reaction but I think Terry Frazier would have been the right man to take the “move”. He’s by far the most irritating member of the group.

Surprisingly it was Too Cool that won. As the promotion’s top heel stable I’d expected The Revolutionists to win after cheating and then get chased off by the faces. But no, they went down clean to the guys who have wrestled on TV. After the match Brian Christopher told us Rikishi had pulled his calf muscle (perhaps he has a doctorate nobody knows about) and said that celebratory dance may not happen. Rikishi took the mic and said it would happen… and then it did. There’s very little to say about it. An underrated wrestler, Jerry Lawler’s overly tanned 42-year-old son, and the out of shape father of the Usos boogied to WWE music they didn’t have a license to play. That’s it. Everyone else seemed to love it though, so clearly I was missing something.

The British heavyweight title match was preceded by promos played on the video screen. Marty’s was hard to make out but it seemed to be about Martin Stone moving to America and having to come back after he was released by WWE. Stone’s promo was about not getting the opportunities he felt he deserved and the demoralising atmosphere in which he worked while with WWE. He dropped some F-bombs that were bleeped out, but he managed to slip in a C-bomb that went unedited. Good work by Quildan there.

The crowd had heated up by this point and were evenly split between champion and challenger. Before the match Stone spoke to Norwich-based wrestler (and father of WWE’s Paige) Ricky Knight, who had been sat in the front row all evening. Scurll entered carrying an umbrella. This went unexplained. It was probably linked to the new character traits he was exhibiting: he had mostly dropped his bantering with the audience in favour of pulling peculiar facial expressions and generally trying to make out that he was unhinged (which basically meant he’d occasionally tilt his head to a funny angle). I always enjoyed Scurll’s Butlins circuit comedy but this was a welcome change of pace from him. He was also back to being introduced as the star of ITV’s Take Me Out and TNA’s British Boot Camp. The more time passes since his sole appearance on Take Me Out the funnier the gimmick gets.

Marty 'Penguin' Scurll there.

The match was styled on WWE main events. There was a lengthy brawl around the building, including a fireman’s carry on the entrance ramp by Scurll and a variety of guardrail bumps. Back in the ring Stone acted more and more like a Steve Austin knock-off, prompting me to ask Michael (yeah, Michael was with me) if he thought Stone was deliberately trying to evoke ‘The Rattlesnake’. He said “A little bit.” Then Stone did a Thesz Press.

Stone gave Scurll a running RKO, prompting cries of “Out of nowhere!”, taking chant of the night honours. Scurll skinned the cat but got caught with a concrete slam before he could right himself. Stone followed up with a power bomb and then went to the top rope for a superplex. ‘Party’ Marty ended up countering that and muscled Stone up for a crucifix bomb. It was a bit wobbly but he managed the move well enough.

Scurll hauled Stone back to his feet and set up for a Pedigree, screaming “You’re fired!” in a Vince McMahon voice before hitting it. Stone kicked out of that at one (probably designed as a metaphorical middle finger to WWE in general) and smashed the champ with a wild lariat and a top rope draping DDT. He locked in a Crippler crossface (it’s been seven years, jog on with your complaints) and Scurll tapped. The referee didn’t see it as Terry Frazier and Sha Samuels had rocked up at ringside to provide a distraction.

Moments later there was a contrived ref bump. Samuels got into the ring to crack Stone over the head with a steel chair. Scurll made the cover, the ref came to enough to make a slow count, and Stone just got his shoulder up before three, getting a great reaction. Stone tried to fight back but Scurll applied the crossface chickenwing, trapping ‘The Guvnor’ in the centre of the ring. There was no tap out. Instead the referee ruled the match in Scurll’s favour when he realised Stone could take no more.

It was a good finishing sequence. Stone looked strong in defeat and Scurll’s submission finisher got over as a powerful match-ender. I was initially against the use of the chair but because it was only used once it ended up being an effective addition to the match. Considering the finish, the heat, the storyline (which we’ll get to momentarily) and the fact that it was for the promotion’s top title Scurll versus Stone should have gone on last.

After the match Stone took a microphone to cut a textbook babyface promo. He said he’d tried his best and then moved on to the topic of his sojourn to NXT. Apparently he was told he was awful every day, although I find it hard to believe all WWE trainers would be that blunt. He put over Andy Quildan, saying the RPW boss picked up his phone the day Stone was released and offered him his old spot in RPW on the roster.

Then the angle went down. Ricky Knight left his seat and got into the ring. He called Stone a failure and said his boys Roy and Zak would have succeeded in NXT. He also referred to Joel Redman as Noel Edmonds, claimed Quildan wouldn’t pick up the phone for the Knight family, and announced that he’d never heard of Kazuchika Okada (which could very well be true). The holding down of the Knight family that he mentioned has been an aspect of his character for at least twelve years. I remember him calling into the Talksport radio show to claim that host and wrestling promoter Alex Shane was holding down The Zebra Kid (Roy) by not booking him. He’s nothing if not consistent.

Stop holding these lads down, Quildan.

Stone eventually had enough of this and grabbed hold of Ricky. Zak and Zebra left their seats and barged passed security, getting into the ring to attack Stone. Redman came out for the save but he was taken out too. There was an extended beatdown of Stone and Redman, who are the tag champions, and then Zebra and Zak took a turn on the microphone. Zebra responded to a “Who are ya?” chant with the classic playground heel response of “Ask your mum” while Zak said the Knights weren’t worried about bad write-ups from internet fans (they won’t be getting one here).

The Knights then walked out of the building’s (referred to as an arena during Knight’s promo) front door with the tag belts. Amusingly Zak went to walk backstage before remembering he was part of a worked shoot invasion angle. Redman and Stone recovered and gave chase, amusingly asking fans which way the heels went.

I liked the angle a lot. All the wrestlers played their parts well and it was about as believable as it was going to get. The only let-down was Quildan, who should have seemed more flustered as the promoter. He simply said he wouldn’t dignify the invasion with a response and went into announcing the main event like an idiot. That aside it was a sensible, interesting way to introduce a tag team and get a new feud underway. Presumably the angle will carry over to Okada vs Aries and we’ll get a match at the February 15 York Hall show.

Sydal vs Ospreay.

The main event couldn’t compete with the angle or the previous match in my mind. It was a babyface versus babyface cruiserweight encounter, ideal opening match material and out of place headlining a card that had featured a main event style match and Kazuchika Okada. It was a good match, it was just in the wrong spot.

Sydal won with the Shooting Star Press. After the match The Revolutionists returned to attack the faces. Scurll ended up alone in the ring and was confronted by his old British Boot Camp rival Rockstar Spud (hence the reference to that show during Scurll’s intro). Marty was sent packing and another fresh feud was established. Spud said a few words to send everyone home happy.

The planning for the future exhibited with Spud’s return and the introduction of the Knight lads was nice to see. It was one of the show’s greatest strengths, providing plenty of reason to give RPW’s next major show a try. And taken at face value all the matches delivered exactly what was expected. Even the Too Cool match avoided being actively bad. I imagine it would make a solid DVD.

But those positives were outweighed by the mistakes that were made. I can’t understand why Okada, easily the biggest draw on the card, went on third. Having him in the semi-main event spot would have made more sense, allowing the Brits-only title match to go on last. That could have been followed by the angle with the Knights and then a Revolutionists beatdown of Stone and Redman with Spud making the save. It felt as though there was no faith in Okada’s rep with British fans and that everything was built too heavily around the angles. And, for the record, only the match that didn’t involve a foreign talent featured a Brit winning. I’m all for fly-ins getting wins, but for them all to go over on what is apparently RPW’s biggest show of the year doesn’t seem quite right.

But hey, at least Terry Frazier didn’t spit at anyone. That’s something, right?

Results summary:

Austin Aries and Rich Swann defeated 2 Unlimited
Karl Anderson defeated Dave Mastiff
Kazuchika Okada defeated Joel Redman
Too Cool defeated Sha Samuels, Terry Frazier and Josh Bodom
Marty Scurll defeated Martin Stone to retain the British heavyweight championship
Matt Sydal defeated Will Ospreay

ROH and New Japan Global Wars review

It was in February at the 12^th Anniversary weekend that Ring of Honor announced they had formed a partnership with New Japan Pro Wrestling. It was big news, obviously. Firstly, it came with confirmation that ROH and New Japan would be co-promoting a pair of shows in May. It’s not every day that New Japan wrestlers appear in North America, especially on the same card as one another. That alone made it a big deal.

Most people were understandably only bothered by the chance to see New Japan talent either live or on an internet pay-per-view with English language commentary (the latter is not currently something NJPW offers). That meant that the importance of the partnership to Ring of Honor was overlooked. Which is understandable but still a pity because it’s a significant thing for ROH.

Less than a year before their February announcement Ring of Honor had been in a partnership with Pro Wrestling NOAH. The gap between NOAH and New Japan is enormous. Over the last several years, through a combination of poor judgement and bad luck, NOAH has fallen from being the jewel in the puro crown to a promotion struggling desperately to stay afloat. For anyone wanting to know more I’d suggest taking a look at articles by Cewshof Cewsh Reviews and Joe of Voices of Wrestling (click the names for the links).

New Japan has rebuilt itself in the same period. New stars have been built and scores of great matches and hot shows have been promoted. In 2014 New Japan is miles ahead of any other wrestling promotion in Japan. They are easily the number two company in the world, and I’m sure there are people that would argue they’re number one.

That such a successful company wants to affiliate itself with Ring of Honor is a compliment and a vote of confidence. New Japan would not want to be associated with a second rate operation as it would only harm their painstakingly rebuilt image (note how they distanced themselves from TNA as it became increasingly evident that TNA had no idea how to succeed). The partnership was a signal that ROH is a company of significance with a good standing in the eyes of its peers.

The first of the co-promoted shows replaced Border Wars and mostly featured matches presented by one of the two promotions. There was an inter-promotional match on offer (Michael Elgin v Takaaki Watanabe) but for the most part the ROH versus New Japan matches were saved for the following weekend’s War of the Worlds event. It struck me as a strange decision at first. There are, after all, enough stars from both companies to put on several ROH v NJPW cards without worrying about repetition. But having seen the show I think it worked well. I suspect it was intended as a primer designed to introduce people with little or no knowledge of either company (though let’s face it I mainly mean New Japan because this came across as an ROH show guest starrign New Japan) to the main players.

The show started, as wrestling shows tend to, with a video recap. This one started out focusing on Kevin Steen, who said he's refocusing on the ROH world championship after a year of being side-tracked with peripheral feuds. Current champ Adam Cole said he'd beat him. That was followed by shots of New Japan wrestlers wrestling matches. No voiceovers or anything with that though. The language barrier wasn't an issue, Kevin Kelly (or whoever) could have been given something to read over it, which makes me wonder why ROH didn’t bother getting him to.

Live in the Ted Reeve Arena the audience were rowdy and Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino were on commentary. Having 'The King of Old School' was a boon for ROH here, his history in Japan allowed him to bring additional knowledge and insight. It lent an air of credibility to the commentary booth. Had Kevin Kelly had to research the background knowledge Corino dropped in throughout the night the play-by-play would have been drier than usual. And I think we can all agree Double K’s commentary is not known for being packed with personality.

ACH v Michael Bennett was the opener. It was a satisfactory match, a good choice to go on first because of the popularity of ACH and the intense dislike most fans have for Bennett. The action centred around Mr Attitude, Charisma, Heart targeting Bennett's knee, which was apparently injured last year but wasn't operated on. It was a way of evening things up between the two men. Bennett won with a Dominator after he'd knocked Todd Sinclair, causing him to crotch ACH on the top rope. 'The Prodigy' continued to sell his knee after the match, although he also slung Maria over his shoulder(necessary because ACH had avoided a Bennett spear and she’d ended up taking it) and carried her backstage. Consistent selling continues to be a problem in Ring of Honor.  

Takaaki Watanabe was the first New Japan wrestler to enter the arena. His opponent was number one contender to the IWGP heavyweight championship, Michael Elgin. Both got good reactions. Elgin's was slightly better because he's Canadian (national pride and all that). They set a faster pace than the opener, impressive when you remember ACH had been involved in that.

Elgin did his stalling suplex spot then booted Watanabe in the face. His corkscrew senton attempt wasn’t as successful, Watanabe rolling out of the way and dropping Elgin with a running neck breaker. Big Michael returned with an enziguri, a code breaker from the second rope, a rolling elbow and a stalling German suplex for a two count. Watanabe avoided the apron suplex but was nailed with a spinning back fist as he leapt from the top rope. A buckle bomb and Elgin bomb did him in.

It was a short match that didn't allow Watanabe to leave much of an impression. The focus was more on giving 'The Unbreakable One' a solid win over a New Japan guy in preparation for his challenge for the IWGP strap. Watanabe is not NJPW's biggest name so it wasn't surprising the match went this way. It was good for its length but not amongst Elgin's best offerings. I can't imagine it was a notable Watanabe outing either.

Match three was the first of two three-way tag team matches. Decade members BJ Whitmer and Jimmy Jacobs were accompanied by new young boy Tadarius Thomas. They all got booed. reDRagon got cheered, because they've gradually slotted into the cool heels role (or perhaps it’s because wrestling fans can’t resist tough-guy hipsters). Team three was Jay and Mark Briscoe. They got the most cheers. Because they're massively over. I've never fully understood why.

It was another short, action packed encounter. The Briscoes won after Jay hit a gorilla press into a Death Valley driver on Jacobs, following up with a Doomsday Device. They haven't been teaming much lately so it was a good decision to give them the win. reDRagon didn't need it and The Decade are a middle of the card pairing. The Briscoes going over reminds everyone of why they're so highly regarded. The less they lose the more it means when they do. After the match Bobby Fish complained that Todd Sinclair had had no control in the match. That might lead to some sort of future story. But it probably won't.

The Roderick Strong v Cedric Alexander match was preceded by a video package looking at their feud. They've been given a good story: Strong and his Decade pals feel that young wrestlers, Cedric in particular, need to respect the locker room veterans. Cedric felt he'd been respectful and that he needed to stand up for himself. Part of the reason it's been effective is that the "newcomers must earn respect" mentality seems prevalent in wrestling, and has occasionally been linked in interviews and on commentary to Strong. They've implemented other real life aspects like The Decade questioning whether Cedric's wife and child are proud of him, which wasn't entirely necessary but hasn't hurt anything. Cedric in particular has entered some spirited microphone performances. It's a good example of everyone involved striving to turn something good into something better, a mentality from which everyone benefits.

It was a spirited, storyline driven match. Cedric wanted the win to prove he belongs. Strong wanted the win to prove he doesn't. The fans got behind Cedric and his offensive flurries. Back breakers played a part too: they'd been the original spark for the feud with Roddy, 'The Messiah of the Back Breaker' remember, feeling that Cedric should be respectful and not use "his" moves. That setup various near falls. A particularly good one saw Cedric catch Roddy as he attempted a sick kick, hoisting him up and nailing him with a back breaker. That was seconds before the finish: after kneeing Cedric in the head Strong went for a suplex but got caught with a surprise small package.

After the match Jacobs, Thomas and Whitmer ran to the ring and smacked Cedric about. The most significant moment saw Strong hitting a release suplex through four tables. The feud's clearly not over yet, which is good as there are plenty of matches that can still be booked. A stipulation rematch between Strong and Alexander is almost certainly at the top of the list.

Match four was the first New Japan match of the evening. Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) and Time Splitters (KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley) challenged the Young Bucks for the IWGP junior heavyweight tag team championship. The three teams have worked against one another a lot in New Japan so I expected slick exchanges and plenty of double team work. And I was right to. The match was easily the best thing on the show until that point, and it had by no means been bad beforehand. What's more it ended up as the match of the night too. The six men put on an incredible performance that elevated the entire card, not to mention the junior tag belts they were scrapping over. The Bucks won an electric encounter with More Bang For Your Buck on Koslov.

The second half opened up with RD Evans (now 104-0) and Ramon walking to the ring. They got a mixed reaction. I didn't appreciate that. Evans is tremendous and deserves standing ovations for being one of the most entertaining acts in Ring of Honor. He reminded us he had wrestling's only current winning streak. After the usual shenanigans (during which Evans dubbed himself 'Papa Bear') The New Streak continued with Evans cleanly defeating mighty ring announcer Bobby Cruise with a schoolboy.

Part two proper kicked off with NJPW Intercontinental champion Shinsuke Nakamura teaming with Jado to take on Jushin Liger and 'Mr Air Guitar' Hiroshi Tanahashi. The IC champ and Tanahashi are among New Japan's three biggest stars (they could arguably be considered its top two) while Jado is half of highly respected junior heavyweight tag team The World Class Tag Team with his partner Gedo (with the two also being the company's bookers, being credited with the resurgence over the last few years). Liger is one of the most accomplished junior heavyweights in wrestling history. Basically there was a lot of star power in the match.

Tanahashi and Nakamura, who have had a spirited rivalry dating back years, started off in the ring and gave an enjoyable, if not overly elaborate, sequence. From there the match delivered what it needed to. Liger delivered his signature light routine spots. Nak and Tana had further energetic exchanges. Jado acted like a heat magnet, a role he was particularly well suited to because he is not as prominent a figure as the match's other figures. The faces took extended beatings before making spirited comebacks. Tanahashi got the popular win when he hit a frog splash (not the High Fly Flow because he didn't do the double) on Jado. It was a good match but it never felt any of the four were striving to do more than was required. Perhaps it was simply that they didn’t want to upstage anyone.

Jay Lethal ,the first ever two time ROH TV champion, followed that, defending his title against Silas Young, Matt Taven and Tommaso Ciampa. The first thing I'd like to note is that Taven, while a good wrestler, is not as popular as he could be. His split from Truth Martini late last year may have been a little premature. Conversely I think ROH made the right decision turning Lethal. The crowd got on him from the moment he entered and they stayed on him throughout the match. Not only that but he's got new opponents to face and a fresh twist to put on his matches with the new dynamic being a heel and having a manager brings.

The match started with some ringside brawling. Highlights there included Ciampa taking a wild back drop into the audience, Young performing a superplex off the guard rail, and MTV performing a beautiful plancha. Once they hit the ring the four started swapping signature moves and stiff shots, as is the ROH way. The near falls racked up quickly. Ciampa hit the Celtic Cross. Taven dazzled with a moonsault from the turnbuckle to the outside. Young walloped various people with lariats.

It was another good match that left us wanting more thanks to a shorter than usual running time. The finish came when Truth wound up in the ring, where he distracted Taven with his punchable face long enough to allow Lethal to perform a Lethal Injection for the win.

The penultimate match saw Gedo team with Kazuchika Okada against 'Machine Gun' Karl Anderson and AJ Styles. Anderson is a longstanding member of Bullet Club, NJPW's lead heel faction, and half of the IWGP tag champions (alongside former Aces and Rights stalwart 'Handsome' Doc Gallows). Gedo is the other half of The World Class Tag Team mentioned above, and also the manager of Okada. Okada is a former two time IWGP heavyweight champion whose second reign had been ended just seven days before Global Wars by Styles. That had been Styles's first bout as a contracted New Japan performer, making winning the strap an even bigger deal. Plus he's the first westerner to hold the title since Brock Lesnar vacated it in the summer of 2006. 'The Phenomenal One' has also taken over as the head of Bullet Club. All of this makes it pretty clear that New Japan consider him a big deal and want their fans to as well.

The champs played heel, a peculiar choice considering his popularity in North America. That Okada was until recently about as close to a top heel as NJPW had further highlighted the peculiarity. Not that the match was bad. It wasn't. It was a satisfying affair, more so than the earlier New Japan tag offering. The decision to have AJ work as the bad guy worked out well, fans booing his and Anderson's cheating and rallying around super worker Okada. Either this match or the main event were the second best match of the night.

Gedo fell to a Pele kick, an Ace crusher and a Styles Clash, all while Okada was held back by Anderson. After the match Elgin showed up and bickered with Styles in the ring. Okada briefly got in on that. A three-way between those guys wouldn't go amiss. Not that that seems likely.

Adam Cole defended the ROH championship against Kevin Steen in the main event. A slugfest kicked proceedings off. Steen got the better of that, naturally. They spilled outside the ring where Steen remained in control, smashing the champ into turnbuckles and guard rails. Eventually Cole managed to take the advantage, super kicking Steen's knee and following up with a kneeDT, smacks into the ring apron and knee-centric submission holds. Cole even busted out Bret Hart's hanging figure four. Considering they were in Canada the use of the move didn't get as much heat as I would have expected. Maybe the fans no longer associate the move with hit man.

Steen gave Cole apron bombs on every side of the ring then rolled him into the ring and hit a Swanton bomb for a close two count. Cole escaped an F5 into a Death Valley neck breaker. Steen avoided a top rope hurricanrana and hit a fisherman buster for a two count which got a loud reaction. The champ avoided a cannonball. His package piledriver attempt didn't work because of his weakened knee, allowing Cole to spin out and apply a figure four leg lock. Steen flipped over to force a break. Moments later he hit a pop up power bomb on Cole and applied a Sharpshooter. It wasn't on for long but it get one of the loudest reactions of the night. That's one move Canadian fans do react for.

Steen nailed a sleeper suplex for two. Bennett showed up to try and aid his pal Cole but was swiftly eliminated by a package piledriver. Cole super kicked the challenger in the back of the head and gave him a Florida Quay for a convincing two. He was once again in the Sharpshooter shortly afterwards, this time getting a break using the ropes. A boot to the head floored Steen, giving Cole time to climb to the top rope. That proved a bad decision: Steen dropped him with El Generico's top rope brainbuster for the false finish of the night.

Cole got a small package for two. Steen went for a package piledriver but Cole rolled off his shoulders and thumped him with a super kick. That got him the three count and kept him the title.

Global Wars can’t be considered anything but a success. I don’t know how many people watched online but it was the fastest ticket sell-out in ROH history. That indicates that there was plenty of interest in the event, which should have resulted in big business on Ustream. In the ring it was a great show. I’ve mentioned that several of the matches were shorter than expected but that ended up a good thing: Ring of Honor matches tend towards the too long over the too short. It was (quite literally) a nice change of pace. The quality of the matches never dipped below good and there were three matches I wouldn’t be surprised to see crop up on many match of 2014 lists come December (the junior heavyweight tag match, Styles and Anderson v Okada and Gedo, and the ROH championship main event). I’m eagerly looking forward to War of the Worlds, and any future collaborations the two leagues care to throw our way.