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Post by The Kevstaaa on Mar 26, 2018 12:33:12 GMT -5
NJPW Strong Style Evolved March 25th, 2018 | Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, California | Attendance: 4,372
After a successful first trip to the United States, NJPW returns with Strong Style Evolved. Last year’s shows crowned the first IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion and featured a handful of standout matches. This year’s card looks much worse on paper. Other than the novelty of the main event, it plays out like a “Road to” show for the company. Those are usually fine shows, but it feels very lackluster to put on one of those for a rare trip to the US. As always, I’m optimistic that the show will be great, so let’s dive in.
Jim Ross and Josh Barnett were on commentary again. JR was a trip last time. The opening video package ran down the card, with a lame voiceover guy.
Rocky Romero and Roppongi 3K vs. SoCal Uncensored SoCal Uncensored is Christopher Daniels, Kazarian, and Scorpio Sky. When I see Scorpio, I just wonder if it’s somehow 2005 again. Watching him and Rocky start took me back about a decade. Roppongi 3K worked great together, as always. They’ve just been hampered by bad booking. Lots of fast paced action in this one, with everyone working hard. I got a kick out of seeing Scorpio and Daniels take to the skies like younger men. In fact, Sky had the highlight with a very cool neckbreaker variation. After things broke down and set up a frantic finish, Roppongi 3K got the win with their 3K finisher in 11:03. Good choice for an opener. Lots of energy and some fun spots. Can’t ask for much more than that from the guys involved. [***]
David Finlay and Juice Robinson vs. Gedo and NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto This helps build Goto vs. Juice, since Juice recently beat him in a tag. I’m all for Juice winning a title, especially since it became hard to care about Goto once Okada bitched him out. I may not be a fan of Gedo as a booker, but I mostly enjoy him as a foul-mouthed trash talking wrestler. Juice was introduced as the “Flamboyant” Juice Robinson. Everything involving Juice and Goto was really good, while Gedo provided some good comedy moments. Finlay continues to be an underrated piece of the NJPW roster. I miss his short-lived team with Ricochet. I was happy to see him get the win, hitting Gedo with a stunner in 7:26. That was quite entertaining. I dig this Juice/Finlay team. [**¾]
Chuckie T and Toru Yano vs. The Killer Elite Squad A comedy duo against a vicious, bruising tag team. Loud “Yano” chants. As Suzuki-Gun members, it was a given that KES would attack before the bell. This was more fun than expected. The fans ate up each one of Yano’s antics. Seeing a hot tag go to him was a great change of pace. His reactions to everything were perfect. After a Chuckie dive, he faked his own dive and instead pulled off the turnbuckle pad. Chuckie got a few flash near falls on Archer, but fell to the Killer Bomb in 10:48. Again, this was a blast. KES remained strong ahead of their eventual title shot, while Yano and Chuckie were booked as great underdogs. [**½]
Before the next match, Cody cut a promo to say that the Bullet Club is fine and the booking of this match was pointless. He called Tama a Bullet Club OG and put them over. However, Tanga Loa said the match would happen and that they aren’t Team Cody.
Cody and Marty Scurll w/ Brandi Rhodes vs. The Guerrillas of Destiny Marty had some fun early, getting happy when Cody was dumped outside and siding with GOD, only to hug Cody when they tackled him down. From there, Cody spent most of the match playing up to the heel tactics that got the crowd going. Cody’s ring work since leaving WWE has been unspectacular, but the dude always nails his character work. They did well to further the Bullet Club issues, while having a decent match. Though the ring stuff wasn’t great, the character work on display allowed this to be an enjoyable match. Cody won via Cross Rhodes in 10:53. [**¾]
BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, IWGP Tag Team Champion SANADA, and Tetsuya Naito vs. Dragon Lee, Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, and Ryusuke Taguchi It makes me sad that this is the most important match KUSHIDA has had since Wrestle Kingdom. Though this was a step away from Naito and Tanahashi’s current feuds with Suzuki-Gun, I can’t hate them facing off. In fact, they started the match and the fans loved it. The same went for the always insane interactions between Lee and Takahashi. They’re so good together. It was also great to see KUSHIDA getting to do something of note. He reminded everyone how good he is. The fans loved LIDJ and it made for the best atmosphere on the show up to this point. Naito got the win after nailing Destino on Taguchi in 12:14. The best match on the card to this point. LIDJ never fail to deliver. Great fun. [***½]
Jushin Thunder Liger vs. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay This was originally scheduled to be Liger vs. Rey Mysterio. In fact, Mysterio cut a promo before the match to say that will still happen, but he’s just hurt right now. Ospreay is a poor replacement, as we’ve seen this pairing before and it’s always just good and nowhere near great. That was the case here again. Liger hit a brainbuster in the aisle that kept Will down for about 18 second. Then, he miraculously sprinted up and beat the count. You’ve got to make it look better. The frustrating thing about Will is that we’ve seen him do much better (look at his first match with KUSHIDA for example), he just chooses not to and it hurts his matches. He often struggles to put together key things that make a match great. The execution in this one was mostly right, but the crowd didn’t care that much, which was surprising. When Ospreay kicked out of a super brainbuster, it didn’t get the response they hoped for. Will’s floppy selling was also a troublesome point. He won with the Oscutter in 10:36. The match told a fine story of the ageless Liger still bringing quality effort, but some of the technical stuff kept it from being what it could’ve been. Like their BOTSJ matches, it disappointed. [**½]
After the match, Ospreay challenged Mysterio to a match at some point. He was jumped by Marty Scurll, because why book something fresh for the juniors division?
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii vs. IWGP Intercontinental Champion Minoru Suzuki and Zack Sabre Jr. Nothing against the main event, but this was the match that I was most interested in on the card. The stuff between Sakura Genesis opponents Okada and Sabre were great. Okada’s usually a cocky prick, but Sabre, just as cocky, was easily twisting him around. He made Okada kind of look like a chump instead of a dominant champion. Their match is going to rule, even if the result is obvious. However, it wasn’t just their stuff that worked. Ishii and Suzuki are two of the baddest wrestlers on the planet. Watching them beat the hell out of each other was fantastic. The strikes they exchanged were cringe worthy in the best possible way. Sabre earned more momentum when he bested Ishii via submission and ref stoppage in 19:56. In an awesome moment, Sabre easily trapped Okada in another submission. The new best match on the show, as four talented guys put together a compelling tag that beautifully built to the PPV. [***¾]
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Jay White [c] vs. Hangman Page This has been building for a while. The problem is, Hangman Page just isn’t that compelling of a character or wrestler. He’s been find in multi-man tags, but being asked to go over 20 minutes in the semi main event is a lot. This was built at a very slow pace, without much flow to it. Some of the moments, like a fight outside and one on the top, seemed to go on forever in an effort to extend things. The mostly hot crowd for the night was pretty dead for this. Page got a hot run late that picked up the pace, but it wasn’t enough. He fell to the Blade Runner in a long 25:01. This seemed like another case of NJPW’s thought process that going long = great match. Shave off about ten minutes and this would’ve worked better. It was still good, just probably not at the level it could’ve been. White still seems to be figuring out his ne character in the ring, though he does well with it outside. [***]
Post-match, David Finlay speared Jay White. He came off like a heel and challenged Jay for the title in April. Like Ospreay/Scurll, this should be a good match, but another case of something unoriginal happening. Also, Finlay is like 0-12 against Jay. What gives him the right to a title shot?
The Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks I didn’t watch live, so I came into this hearing all the high praise that this might’ve been the greatest tag team match in history. After seeing it, I wouldn’t go that far, but make no mistake. This ruled. For years, my least favorite thing in all of pro wrestling was the Young Bucks. However, for the past year or so, they’ve been so much better. They’ve cut most of the grating personality stuff, improved their selling and, most important, began telling compelling stories in the ring. This was their magnum opus. For 39:23, both teams brought out their big offensive guns, but it never felt like moves for the sake of it. There was meaning behind it all. Omega was conflicted about beating up his pals, Ibushi was happy to do it, and the Bucks had their own ways of responding to it all. Matt sold the hell out of his lower back, which he’s been doing so well since the Tokyo Dome. His back giving out when he applied the Sharpshooter was great. When Omega hoisted Matt up for the One Winged Angel, he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Matt, who had antagonized Kenny throughout, demanded he go through with it and put the nail in the coffin. It was a splendid moment that should’ve been the finish, but Nick broke it up. That it continued wasn’t bad, it just would’ve meant more to me if it had finished there. The Lovers used the Golden Trigger on Matt to seal it. All this, without mentioning that these guys all pulled out some of the wildest spots you’ll ever see in tag team wrestling. I’d put it behind DIY/Revival II and the Tag Title match from No Mercy 2002 off the top of my head, but this was tremendous. EASILY the best Bucks match ever and certainly Kenny’s best work of 2018 so far. [****¾]
After the match, Cody arrived and yelled at Matt, before shoving Nick. The Golden Lovers made the save and Omega hugged Nick. Matt refused and the Bucks left together. Kenny ended the show by saying the Golden Lovers were here to stay and that they would be in featured matches come NJPW’s July 7th return to the US.
Overall: 7/10. It was basically a two match show on paper and that’s mostly how it played out, though the LIDJ/Taguchi Japan tag was also a highlight. Most of the show felt like a typical NJPW “Road to” event, even the standout Sabre tag. However, the main event was stellar and arguably the best match NJPW has put on this year. The biggest problem with the show was the production. Don’t get me wrong, NJPW production is normally top notch. But, it seems like AXS was running this and it made for bad sound, crap camera angles, and commentary was really bad. Go see Bucks/Lovers, though.
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Post by A-Rob on Mar 26, 2018 13:38:19 GMT -5
Strong Style Evolved was a good show. The Golden Lovers vs. The Young Bucks was a masterpiece in story telling. It's easily The Young Bucks best match of their careers. Hangman Page vs. Jay White was ok, White needs more time to get over since he is a good worker but the gimmick is dying while Page trying to kill himself with his illogical offense was just stupid. Loved the Ishii/MiSu forearm spot, Ishii is such a great seller, can't wait for them to face each other.
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BASTARDKING
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jan 6, 2008 15:51:46 GMT -5
Posts: 1,160
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Post by BASTARDKING on Mar 27, 2018 9:18:50 GMT -5
Whoever was behind the AXS production for SSE did a horrible, horrible job imo. Sound wasn’t the best, pre-match entrance graphics were sometimes incorrect, the english commentary was cringe worthy at times and all i could think about was if I was a new watcher to the program, at times I wouldve been confused who was who, and what was going on.
Solid show tho
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Post by The Natural Eddy Valintino on Mar 27, 2018 10:24:08 GMT -5
I watched SSE. Good show. The main event was amazing. Showed what the Young Bucks are capable of, storyline wise. I would have liked it better if Kevin Kelly and Don Callis did the commentary. They actually follow the product, they know the storylines. When they do their next show, i hope AXS lets them do the commentary. I will forever love JR as a commentator, but he doesn't have it anymore. Both him and Barnett seemed a little uninterested in the show.
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Post by A-Rob on Mar 27, 2018 15:43:41 GMT -5
Full card for Sakura Genesis;
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the IWGP heavyweight title *Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi vs. Cody and Hangman Page *Will Ospreay vs. Marty Scurll for the IWGP junior heavyweight title *Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado vs. Roppongi 3K vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Bushi for the IWGP junior heavyweight tag titles *Minoru Suzuki and Killer Elite Squad vs. Tetsuya Naito, EVIL & Sanada *Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto, Jay White & Yoshi-Hashi *Bad Luck Fale and Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Togi Makabe, Michael Elgin & Ryusuke Taguchi for the NEVER six-man tag titles *Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs. Taichi and Takashi Iizuka *The Young Bucks vs. Chase Owens and Yujiro
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Post by The Natural Eddy Valintino on Mar 27, 2018 16:41:18 GMT -5
I gotta say, I'm liking this match card more than SSE.
Oh, BTW, if Taguichi Japan wins those NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag titles, im gonna get pissed off and bitch here lol. F*** Taguichi.
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Post by The King Of Crisps on Mar 27, 2018 18:03:21 GMT -5
why the hell are the Bucks fighting Chase and Yujiro? I dont get some of these Bullet Club in fighting matches
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Post by The Natural Eddy Valintino on Mar 27, 2018 19:08:39 GMT -5
why the hell are the Bucks fighting Chase and Yujiro? I dont get some of these Bullet Club in fighting matches The Cody/Scrull vs GOD doesnt make much sense. Bucks vs Chase and Yujiro makes a little sense. Matts not really for Team Kenny, Chase is Team Kenny, Yujiros teaming only cause he teamed with Ibushi during the New Japan Cup. Its adding on to the in fighting in Bullet Club.
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Post by theMOESIAH on Mar 27, 2018 21:58:38 GMT -5
Did anyone catch Josh Barnett cussing during Strong Style Evolved? It was during the first commercial break. Instead of going to commercials they stuck with the live feed. The audio cut out for a moment and then immediately came back so they clearly thought the mics weren't live. Josh said something to the effect of "They (referring to Roppongi 3K) need get out of the ing ring, they don't need to stick around so long. But overall it was okay." I'm exactly sure how broadcast TV works but I have Sling TV so I don't know if I got a different feed. Did anyone else catch this?
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Post by The King Of Crisps on Mar 28, 2018 11:43:42 GMT -5
I dont think you got a different feed, everyone had Josh and Jim on commentary. Sadly I wasnt really paying attention to the Roppongi match
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Post by The King Of Crisps on Mar 28, 2018 11:45:17 GMT -5
why the hell are the Bucks fighting Chase and Yujiro? I dont get some of these Bullet Club in fighting matches The Cody/Scrull vs GOD doesnt make much sense. Bucks vs Chase and Yujiro makes a little sense. Matts not really for Team Kenny, Chase is Team Kenny, Yujiros teaming only cause he teamed with Ibushi during the New Japan Cup. Its adding on to the in fighting in Bullet Club. Chase was only on team Kenny cause he sank that basketball shot lol I guess that makes sense with Yujiro even thought I always thought he would side with Tama and Fale since he seems to hang with them the most.
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hammer
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jun 12, 2009 2:30:31 GMT -5
Posts: 2,619
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Post by hammer on Apr 1, 2018 6:13:15 GMT -5
okada/zsj and ospreay/scurll were superb, and being two opposite matches really made both of them stand out. cody/page vs golden lovers were solid, nothing overly special.
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Post by The Natural Eddy Valintino on Apr 1, 2018 9:59:44 GMT -5
I watched the majority of Sakura Genesis. MOTN was Ospreay vs Scrull. Great story told between them. I did want Scrull to win cause hes becoming a favorite of mine, but i like Ospreay so him winning is fine. It told a better story. I fell asleep during Golden Lovers vs Cody and Hangman cause i was getting tired. Sucks it happened cause i was gonna sleep after the match. Had no interest in watching Okada vs Sabre Jr.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Apr 1, 2018 11:08:41 GMT -5
Me when I see people calling Scurll/Ospreay a MOTY candidate
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hammer
Main Eventer
Joined on: Jun 12, 2009 2:30:31 GMT -5
Posts: 2,619
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Post by hammer on Apr 1, 2018 12:32:04 GMT -5
personally i liked okada/zsj more. i only sprung for njpw world a couple days ago because my boy kept telling me how great golden lovers/bucks was... so i figured id spring for genesis too while i was at it. honestly, i regret not having it the whole time, if i get too cheap to pay 10 bucks a month for njpw and wwe, id cancel the network before njpw.
i went on a tangent there, sorry. the whole point of that story, is i didnt see the new japan cup, so i dont know if the slow methodical switching from submission to submission to submission is how zsj has been working the whole time in njpw... but i was totally on board with it. i wish okada wouldve hit a crisper rainmaker to end the match, but thats my only complaint.
i really dug the neck work by scurll by ospreay. i think moty is a bit higher praise than id be willing to go, but i thought they told a fine story (with cyrus and kelly mentioning throughout how scurll is ospreays kryptonite). both those matches stood out.
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Post by The Kevstaaa on Apr 1, 2018 16:54:48 GMT -5
NJPW Sakura Genesis April 1st, 2018 | Ryogoku Kokugikan Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 9,882
The April Sumo Hall show. Usually, this is one of the stronger NJPW events of the year. It features the fallout from the New Japan Cup, while setting up the rest of the spring shows and even starts some of the Dominion talk. However, this is the weakest April card I’ve ever seen NJPW put out, with only the main event feeling like an interesting matchup. I’m intrigued to see if they can over deliver.
Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi w/ PIETER vs. The Young Bucks Shoutout to the Young Bucks for moving to the heavyweight division and STILL being in the opening tag. This continued the Bullet Club battles, with the guys “TOO SWEETING” each other. Also, Yujiro had PIETER with him, so I instantly enjoyed this more than expected. The action in the match was fine. Matt continued the trend of selling his back since January. He went to do his Sharpshooter spot where he’s in too much pain and can’t keep it locked in, but Yujiro broke it up, which messed it up. He eventually slapped the hold back on and made Chase tap at 9:23. Like I said, it was fine and nothing more. The Bucks got a rebound win. [**¼]
Taichi and Takashi Iizuka vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano Ah, so this is the time of the year when Ishii wastes time. By the way, NJPW ran this EXACT match during the New Japan Cup and it was the first Ishii match I ever gave the DUD rating too. So, good job on booking it again, Gedo. The good news is, this was better than that match. The bad news is, this still sucked. Lots of Suzuki-Gun bullcrap, mainly from lazy ass Iizuka and not enough of what makes Ishii and Yano work. Yano rolled up Iizuka after an Ishii lariat to win in 7:42. Yea, that wasn’t good. Please give Ishii something interesting to do. [½*]
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: Bad Luck Fale and the Guerrillas of Destiny [c] vs. Michael Elgin, Ryusuke Taguchi, and Togi Makabe I feel like people would’ve given WWE hell if they kept booking and pushing Michael Elgin the way NJPW has. Anyway, Elgin took the heat segment for his team, leading to the hot tag to Makabe. It’s a bad move to have Elgin as the face in peril because A) Taguchi is better in the position and B) nobody really has any sympathy left for Elgin. He gets beat up and we’re all like, “Good.” The champions withstood a flurry by the challengers, before Taguchi got put away with Gun Stun in 11:20. Having Elgin take the heat was a bad move and easily the sluggish part of the match. Other than that, this was decent. [**¼]
David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Juice Robinson vs. NEVER Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto, IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White, and YOSHI-HASHI The ongoing stories here were the upcoming Finlay/White US Title match and Juice’s rivalry with Goto. I hope Juice dethrones him. Fittingly, White and Finlay beat the hell out of each other at the start. Finlay got thrown into the guardrail and took the heat for a while. Juice was just delightful in his run against Goto. Their singles match should be better than the one last year. After Tanahashi got tagged, everyone came in and got some stuff in. It was a fun run. Juice hit Goto with Pulp Friction again, to a very strong pop. Tanahashi was the legal man, though, so he pinned HASHI with High Fly Flow in 9:18. Hey, some good wrestling on this show. I appreciate it finally. Lots of strong interactions and build for future matches. Pretty much what I want from my multi-man tags. [***]
Tetsuya Naito, and IWGP Tag Team Champions EVIL and SANADA vs. The Killer Elite Squad and IWGP Intercontinental Champion Minoru Suzuki LIDJ remains the best stable in the world and have been the only guys to make Suzuki-Gun watchable on a consistent basis. They’re also typically the saviors of an NJPW undercard. An early attack by Suzuki-Gun backfired. Minoru’s need to go after Naito allowed the LIDJ leader to turn the tables. Naito’s attitude is a great foil for Suzuki, because the IC Champion gets angrier when Naito is nonchalant about everything. Lance Archer stole the show by making a kid cry in the front row. Amazing. Naito got isolated until he found an opening and tagged in SANADA. He gave us a strong hot tag segment. In the end, Suzuki held Naito back as KES planted SANADA with the Killer Bomb. EVIL fought it off, but also fell to the same move and lost at 11:27. This was very good and built to Suzuki/Naito and KES/EVIL & SANADA II. Good back and forth that made me more interested in what’s coming next. [***¼]
After the match, Naito challenged Suzuki for the Intercontinental Title. I’m hype for the match, but it continues to feel like Naito’s character is lost. Why would he care about going back after the title he treated like trash? It’s been three months and the loss at WK makes less sense every day. I’m sure people will still grasp at straws in an attempt to defend it. Anyway, Suzuki vs. Naito should be great. I’m assuming it main events Wrestling Dontaku.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru [c] vs. BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Roppongi 3K w/ Rocky Romero NJPW ran this exact same match at the Anniversary Show, which was where Suzuki-Gun won the titles. Unlike that match, which was surprisingly good, this one lacked a ton. This was just kind of a mess, with seemingly no rules and a bunch of tropes. Like, there would be one team thrown outside at a time and it just never clicked. Hiromu was the best thing about this match, like he is in almost everything he does. In the end, Kanemaru pulled the referee out following Time Bomb and Desperado used a shot with the title to retain in 12:45. Nowhere near the level of their solid Anniversary Show match. Disappointing and another in a long line of forgettable Jr. tags. [**]
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay [c] vs. Marty Scurll This is one of the most uninteresting Jr. Title matches NJPW could put on. Don’t get me wrong; these guys have great chemistry. It’s just been so overdone and their NJPW matches have never reached the level of their stuff in RevPro or PORGRESS. They’re familiar with one another on a crazy level, leading to tons of counters and reversals. It’s all good stuff. Marty targeted the neck, which made sense as it still allows Will to do his flippy stuff and not look like a fool who can’t sell. Remember, he only sells when he feels like it. However, Will went out and just keeping doing offense that would further damage his neck. He came across as dumb. Some of their counter stuff was natural and great looking, while some felt very contrived. Like they felt they just had to get it in, rather than because it made sense within the flow. Will had a nasty moment on a Spanish Fly off the apron, when he cracked his head on the apron. It led to a gross looking cut. It felt like that would be the end for Will, but he continued to fight valiantly. The visual is the best part of the match. Scurll kept dropping Ospreay on his head and Ospreay kept surviving, to the point where it felt way over the top. There’s such a thing as “diminishing returns.” Ospreay hit the Oscutter out of nowhere to retain in 30:44. Yea, this had no business going thirty minutes. It had some good moments, like some of the counters and the bloody Ospreay stuff, but it also had several contrived moments and way over the top stuff near the end. I wouldn’t call it bad, but it tried way too hard to be something epic and missed the mark by a lot. [**¾]
Post-match, Ospreay called out KUSHIDA, who was on commentary, to prove that his win over him wasn’t a fluke. I mean, I get the story they’re telling with Ospreay, but it’s causing us to get way too many rematches. Especially since Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA hasn’t come close to the level of their first encounter.
Cody and Hangman Page vs. The Golden Lovers The Bullet Club are at war, in case you forgot. Cody draws a ton of draw, probably the most in NJPW. He did great at the psychological stuff here. He’d attack Kota Ibushi viciously to upset Kenny and the fans. It felt like everything he did was done to bother Kenny or the crowd. Kenny took a chair to the face from Cody, which set up some isolation on Kota. Kenny ended up isolated for longer and Cody nearly put him through a table. However, the Young Bucks showed up to voice their displeasure with this idea. Cody ended up getting busted open the hard way, just as the Golden Lovers truly got rolling. Page cut off their Golden Shower (yikes) and then went into a series of good offense. The finishing stretch was as wild as you’d expect. Kenny set Cody up for One Winged Angel off the apron and through a table, but he fought it off and Kota went for the dead lift German. Instead, Page came in and get hit a doomsday dropkick. The finish was great, as Page grabbed Kota’s leg to prevent Cody from eating Kamigoye. Cody then rolled him up with a handful of tights to steal it in 23:52. This was very good. Cody played a great heel and there was some dynamite storytelling throughout. Kota and Kenny continue to have fantastic chemistry and Cody is a great foil for them. [***½]
After the match, Cody and Page attacked Ibushi. Cody went to use a chair, but Omega took it from him and ran them off.
IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [c] w/ Gedo vs. Zack Sabre Jr. w/ TAKA Michinoku Okada is at his best in matches that take him out of his formulaic comfort zone (Shibata, the third Omega match, etc.). Sabre is just the kind of guy who can do that. Sabre wasted no time taking Okada to the mat, where he was clearly superior. In true Okada title defense form, he was obsessed with beating Sabre at his specialty, so he worked him on the mat too. Okada tried, but Sabre responded by twisting him up with relative ease. One of my favorite moments came when Sabre caught Okada’s signature dropkick into a submission. I love that because if a guy does the same stuff over and over, the way Okada does, a smart wrestler would counter. There was also his counter of Okada’s signature neck breaker by going right into an octopus hold. Sabre began to pick apart Okada’s Rainmaker arm. Okada realized that he’s in more trouble than he thought and can no longer focus on trying to beat Sabre at his own game. He’s overmatched. Sabre also had a submission counter for the flying elbow and even did one for the Rainmaker pose. Incredible. There’s also a great moment where Sabre caught Okada in the same submission that Okada tapped to in the G1 25 against Shinsuke Nakamura. It’s the only time Okada tapped in his career. Okada survived and went into Rainmaker mode. Sabre had a counter or two ready, like everyone else when Okada goes into his finishing stretch, but he eventually hit one that ended this at 34:58. A great main event that did enough to pull Okada out of his formula. They told a stellar story, where Okada tried to match Sabre on the mat and fell way short, but fought valiantly enough to withstand it all. Sabre did his homework and had answers for everything. I do think the finish was a bit too similar to many other Okada matches, which took away from some of it. Still, this ranks only behind Okada’s defense against Shibata and right up there with the first Omega and the Marufuji ones. [****¼]
After the match, Hiroshi Tanahashi showed up to challenge Okada for the title now that Okada has tied his defenses record. I’m sure it’ll be a great match (all but their WK10 match were), but I’m not interested in seeing it again.
Overall: 5.5/10. Easily the worst April Sumo Hall show I’ve ever seen. The main event delivered and was mostly the great match I was hoping for. The Jr. Heavyweight Title match was the worst I’ve ever seen from those two and everything else on the card, sans the Golden Lovers tag, was forgettable or kind of just there. It worked to set up some future shows, but that’s about it. Major disappointment from a show that usually delivers.
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Post by Jonathan Karate on Apr 1, 2018 23:20:29 GMT -5
Okay so maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen their previous matches together but I thought Marty/Ospreay was really damn good.
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Post by Jonathan Karate on Apr 1, 2018 23:20:29 GMT -5
Okay so maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen their previous matches together but I thought Marty/Ospreay was really damn good.
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Post by The Natural Eddy Valintino on Apr 2, 2018 9:02:42 GMT -5
Okay so maybe it’s just because I haven’t seen their previous matches together but I thought Marty/Ospreay was really damn good. I agree, very good match between them. That spot with the Spanish Fly on the outside was scary looking back at it where Ospreay lands right on his neck on the apron coming down. Overall i enjoyed the show. I missed the end of the Golden Lovers vs Cody and Hangman match cause i was asleep, and i was planning on missing Okada vs Sabre Jr cause i wasnt convinced Okada would lose, and im getting tired of seeing 30 mins+ matches with Okada. Im sure Okada and Tanahashi will have a great match when it happens, but im not convinced Tanahashi will win, and if he does, its still better than Okada but a step down for the Heavyweight Title
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Post by Jonathan Karate on Apr 2, 2018 11:41:46 GMT -5
Good god if Tanahashi is the one that ends Okadas reign of terror I will forgive WWE for their awful booking.
That would be just as bad if not worse then Lesnars first loss being against Taker after ending The Streak.
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