NJPW was live from Osaka, Japan and had an attendance of 7,040 people and was live on 6/4. I didn’t get to catch up with it until now, and wanted to review it because of course I’m a fan of pro wrestling and have time on my hands, so I wanted to drop in and say what’s up.
Will Ospreay defeated Lance Archer
I’ve seen Will Ospreay before but I don’t remember a lot of
Lance Archer matches. This match was hard hitting, but it wasn’t without some
interesting maneuvers throughout. There was a lot of slams, and flying around
the ring from both men. Lance Archer is impressive as a big man that can fly. Ospreay
is known for his high flying moves, and he did a few here, fast as lightning
mind you. Even though Ospreay was smaller, he was able to hit Archer with some
stellar moves. There were some nice near falls as Archer kept hitting big
moves, but it was Ospreay that got the victory. A great opener, smart and
cunning, good hits, great moves, fun overall.
Los Ingobernables de Japon defeated Just 5 Guys in an 8
Man Tag
There’s a lot of action to try and comprehend with this
match. There were a mix of moves, fast paced action, and lots of back and
forth. This broke down several times into a brawl at times, and the ref
kept having to get control over the match.
Los ingobernables really put the boots to the 5 Guys, and I found them to be
fascinating overall. This was a fun match, although hard to keep up with all
the action moving forward. I liked it a lot, and definitely think it was a
great display from 8 top guys on the NJPW roster.
Catch 22 (Francesco Akira and TJP) defeated Intergalactic
Jet Setters (Kevin Knight and Kushida)
A fast paced affair was had here, and it was fun to watch.
Catch 22 were flying all over the ring, and outside of it to boot. The Jet
Setters were good too, Kushida is impressive to me. He moves so fast, and Kevin
Knight was good too, throwing down some great moves including one incredible
drop kick with height. Catch 22 though was too much, and their team work is
tandem, in stereo and just fun to watch. I haven’t seen a pair so in sync in a
long time, and they definitely pushed things through to a fun match, even if it
wasn’t too long.
Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Jeff Cobb in the NJPW World Television
Title Match
Jeff Cobb is a beast. He was able to throw around Zack Sabre
Jr. throughout this match at various times. Zack had to fight from below, and
really put on a technical showcase, which he did. He’s one of the best
technical wrestlers in the world, and it showed here with a lot of reversals
and submission moves. However, Cobb kept powering through many of the options,
but even though he had the easier time in some moments, Zack Sabre Jr. was able
to defeat him. Sabre did a move that ended in a crucifix for the pinfall victory,
and it was really cool to see.
Bishamon defeated House of Torture, and United Empire in
a three way tornado match for the IWGP Tag team / NJPW strong openweight tag
team titles
There was a lot of frenetic action in this match. A three
way tornado match basically means everyone is fighting all at once, and it was
fun overall. This was more of a hard hitting, strong style match. There were
some moves, brawling, and just overall harder hitting moments than the previous
matches. I found this to be a little change of pace for the night, and just
didn’t think it was that great. Yeah, it was ok, and there were moments that
made me like it, but something was missing throughout, and perhaps it just was
the change of pace. There were some good moves, and tandem wrestling at times
too, but it was lacking a little. Bishamon won the match, and it wasn’t
terrible, just different I guess.
David Finlay defeated El Phantasmo in the Never Openweight
Title Match
Another strong match. Finlay and Phantasmo put each other
through the ringer in this one. Solid back and forth action, with some nice lucha
style elements at times, and some technical wrestling too. The two put their
best foot forward in this match, and it was a fun battle to see unfold. It didn’t
favor any one person, this was truly divided evenly, but Finlay had a little
extra in the tank, with a solid performance. The announcers said it was
dominant, but I didn’t think so, Phantasmo put up a good fight here.
Hiromu Takahashi defeated Master Wato in the IWGP Junior Heavyweight
Title Match
Fans of Takahashi will no doubt love the performance put on
by the champion. He really did fly around the ring, and put a lot of action
into effect. Takahashi seemed poised to get this one easily, but Wato did turn
the tables a few times, and things looked tough for the champion. I haven’t
seen a lot of Takahashi matches, so I was impressed with his speed and
precision throughout the match. Wato put some work in here, especially some
technical wrestling and submissions, which was interesting to see. Takahashi
had to drop his opponent twice with the timebomb to win, and it was quite good.
Great match!
Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii) and Hiroshi
Tanahashi defeated The Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Casstagnoli, Jon Moxley)
and Shota Umino
This match had a good mix of modern wrestling, strong style,
and Japanese wrestling as well. The Blackpool boys did well here, and they
really shined against Chaos and Tanahashi. This was a back and forth battle,
and somewhat slow at times. There were rest holds at times, and submission
moves, but you’ll find that the hard hitting balance was there, making this a
fun match to see. There was a lot of hard hits, and some quality moments, with
Chaos and Tanahashi picking up the victory.
Sanada defeated Yota Tsuji in the IWGP World Heavyweight
Title Match
The main event was featuring two guys I haven’t seen work
before. The match was a solid Japanese style match, with a great deal of back
and forth. There was a focus on submissions, rest holds, and the occasional
high spot. Sanada was definitely impressive to me, he was technical, versus Tsuji
that wasn’t as tech forward. I mean, I type that, and I recall some major top
rope moves from both. A solid ender to a good event, with a lot of action to
speak of, and not really sure how to top the pure wrestling stylings that NJPW
brings forth.
Overall Thoughts
For the purist, this was great. I loved the majority of
wrestling that was on this show, and it really did push things forward for the
company. While I can appreciate wrestling in all forms, I found that the NJPW
product has a little extra focus on the wrestling rather than stories, but then
again, I don’t speak Japanese so maybe I’m just missing that aspect. Either way,
this was a good night of wrestling and I recommend it to anyone that loves pro
wrestling.
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