Prince Bálor's NJPW Journey
Destination: POWER STRUGGLE - Osaka
Date: 7/11/15
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The Vets (Liger, TM IV, Taguchi & Dorada) vs Young Lions was a solid show opener, which the vets won. **½
Post-match, Liger officially challenged Tiger Mask for the NWA Junior Heavyweight Championship.
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Doc, Tonga & Hall vs Makabe, Juice & Captan New Japan was decent, but nothing to write home about. **
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Goto vs The King of Darkness EVIL was solid. **½
First off, I love Watanabe's new look, theme and entrance! He worked methodically here and controlled the majority of the match, with Goto bumping well for him. Naito eventually
ran in strolled in for the DQ, and the mission of this angle [to introduce the new character and get the angle over] was accomplished.
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TimeSplitters & reDRagon vs The Young Bucks, Kenny Omega & Chase Owens was an entertaining spotfest. ***
The team of TimeSplitters and reDRagon picked up the win when KUSHIDA tapped Owens out to the Hoverboard Lock!
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Ricochet & Matt Sydal vs RPG Vice was pretty darn good and I enjoyed the hell out of it! ***½
Ricochet and Sydal scored the win via double Shooting Star Press on RPG Vice.
Post-match, reDRagon and The Bucks arrived and (most likely) set up a fatal four-way at The Dome. [BARF]
It should just be Ricochet/Sydal vs reDRagon at WK10, but my guess is it'll be the same match from WK9, with the difference being TimeSplitters are out of the picture and replaced by Ricochet/Sydal and Trent replacing Koslov. The booking of Gaijin tag division strikes again! I mean, no matter the talent involved, lazy and repetitive booking will cool off any fresh stuff. I'm complaining right now, but I'll definitely watch the Jr. tag match at The Dome, have fun and then forget I was ever complaining... Or not. lol
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AJ Styles & Bad Luck Fale vs YTR & YOSHI-HASHI was a good match to get AJ back on track. ***
On paper, it screams "SKIP THIS!", but it's actually well-worth a watch, IMO.
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Ishii vs Honma was great and MOTN. ****¼
Despite this not being as excellent as their matches from The New Beginning in Sendai and G1 25, this match still ruled and you should watch it!
The tagline for this match should be: HEADBUTTS. There was a ton of 'em, by both men. They just violated each other and I really enjoyed it.
Ishii retained the title via Brainbustaaaah!
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Tanahashi & Shibata vs Okada & Sakuraba was good. ***
Everyone involved had their working boots on and ultimately, they delivered a good match.
Ace of the Universe worked a bit more edgy and cocky here, and if that's how he plans on working The Dome, then we're in for a treat.
Ain't we ever when these two collide? I'm hyped for the WK10 main event, that post-match segment was red hot!
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Nakamura vs The Machine Gun was a very, very good ME. ***¾
For whatever reason, I just couldn't buy Karl Anderson as the valiant threat to defeat Nakamura, despite him being good at what he does, especially when it comes to the fun homestretch. Also, the fact that Boma Ye has become the Attitude Adjustment 2.0 is annoying to me. Nakamura having to hit it at least 3 times before finally putting away his opponent does add a different kind of drama, but I just feel like once he nails you with that Boma Ye, you should stay down.
Post-match, Nakamura vs AJ Styles was set up for WK10! Hell yeah!
OVERALL THOUGHTS: Power Struggle was a great show with nothing bad on it. The show was a pleasure to watch.
