New Japan Pro-Wrestling General Discussion Thread

[Bort]

This is a MUST-SEE match.

 

[Leo C]

lol what is this shibata kicked him legit twice in the head 30 seconds in lol

 

[Leo C]

that was ace

 

[Bort]

Akiyama beating bajesus out of fools is always fun.

 

[Leo C]

Had never seen it before but it seems to be true, haha.

 

[Bort]

Makabe/Ishii was great, but it was all because of Ishii. He's a carryjob machine. Makabe should just change his style, he's not a very capable brawler and it shows against guys like Ishii.

Why the fuck is he the champ again? Smh...

 

[Prince Bálor]

Looking forward to this one, seems like a real solid show! The card has a chunk of tag matches, but oh well.

HINOKUNI Reults:

Spoiler

New Japan Pro Wrestling held their HINOKUNI event early this morning, and crowned a new NEVER Openweight champion in the process. Full results are below:

* Gedo & Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Beretta) defeated Jay White, Yohei Komatsu & Sho Tanaka via pinfall

* Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Cody Hall) defeated Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan via pinfall

* KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Mascara Dorada, Tiger Mask & Yuji Nagata via pinfall

* NWA Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Steve Anthony (c) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger via pinfall

* NWA World Championship Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan (c) defeated Big Daddy Yum Yum via pinfall

* Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Kenny Omega) defeated Tomoaki Honma, Tetsuya Naito, & Alex Shelley via pinfall

* Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Bullet Club (Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale) via pinfall

* Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano & Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto via pinfall

* NEVER Openweight Title Match: Togi Makabe defeated Tomohiro Ishii (c) via pinfall to become the new NEVER Openweight champion

 

[Leo C]

Main event was pretty good. I'm sad Ishii lost the belt but what can you do. A fine show overall, I'd say.

 

[Leo C]

I'm annoyed the Bucks got the tag titles back. That video package for the mixed 6-person was the best thing I've ever seen in wrestling I think, despite being really stupid.

 

[Stopspot]

Nakanishi off the ropes out of the ring :dawg:

 

[Leo C]

And Goto is your new Intercontinental Champion. I knew it

 

[Prince Bálor]

Hinokuni was a fine show. Makabe/Ishii was a great ME. I'm a bit bummed Ishii lost the title, but oh well...

Here's to hoping Honma is next in line to hold the NEVER OC, though.

Looking forward to watching Dontaku, by the way!

 

[Bort]

Eh, Hinokuni was a definition of "one match show", the undercard sucked.

 

[Leo C]

It did seem like a house show where they went "hey, why not have the NEVER title headline?" after the show was already booked and just switched the card around a bit and taped it. Don't think it was exactly the case but it's what it looked like

 

[Prince Bálor]

Dontaku was a pretty good show, if ya ask me!

- Nagata, Liger, Tiger Mask & Dorada vs Nakanishi, Captain New Japan, Taguchi & KUSHIDA was a very fun show opener! Again, I really liked seeing KUSHIDA and Dorada working together. This has got to be a tease for BOSJ. Also, Nakanishi off the ropes and flying to the outside was... 1:

- Kota Ibushi & Yohei Komatsu vs Tetsuya Naito & Sho Tanaka. Two young guns teaming with two established guys in Naito and Kota... Nothing but good stuff here. Aaand, I'm glad the young lions were involved in the finish of the match. Ibushi wanting to do nothing with Naito's handshake post-match is interesting. Speaking of the two, I loved Naito's bump to sell Kota's springboard dropkick. Both guys are absolute bumping machines.

- TenKoji & Tomoaki Honma vs Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Cody Hall was watchable, I guess. But it just wasn't up to par in comparison to the previous two tag matches.

- The Young Bucks vs Roppongi Vice vs reDRagon was a damn good and fun match. I enjoyed it. There was some comedy and some pretty cool spots like Trent doing a superplex on Matt and falling right on top of the remaining guys who were outside, and of course IndyTaker on the floor! While I have zero problem with The Bucks regaining the titles and I was also cool with RPG Vice winning it from them not long ago, they could perhaps cool off with this Jr. Tag title hot potato stuff they've been playing. Bring in some new teams, fellas. It wouldn't hurt.

- Kenny Omega vs Alex Shelley was good. Kenny Omega is greatness!
Talk about sweeping up the competition...

Some of my fave moments from the match:

Love this move!

Spoiler: Dat post-match promo, doe

- The Kingdom vs Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows & Amber Gallows was the worst thing of the show. So, once again they've decided to center this match around Karl acting like a lovestruck moron. I don't want this stuff from NJPW.

- Tanahashi, Makabe & Shibata vs Toru Yano, Sakuraba & Ishii was fine. I liked the fact this tag match was booked to set up the upcoming singles matches with all of the guys involved.

- AJ Styles & Yujiro Takahashi vs Kazuchika Okada & YOSHI-HASHI was fine.

- Hirooki Goto vs Shinsuke Nakamura was a pretty good ME. Goto being crowd the new IC champ is perfectly fine with me. Hopefully this means the ascension of Nakamura is looming.