NJPW KIZUNA ROAD 2013
July 20, 2013
Akita City Gymnasium, Akita, Japan
DARK MATCH: CHAOS (Yujiro Takahashi, YOSHI-HASHI, Jado and Gedo) vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Tomoaki Honma, KUSHIDA and Tiger Mask IV
Not much to say about this, so I’ll use this as chance to say the venue looks pretty cool. Big windows. It’s not quite the building Dragon Gate runs with the stained glass, but it’s still a neat visual. CHAOS worked on KUSHIDA for a while before Honma ran wild. When Honma missed his headbutt off the top he brought in Nakanishi, who survived a CHAOS flurry and pinned Jade with a big tomahawk chop off the top. This picked up by the end.
Winners via pinfall (8:54): Nakanishi, Honma, KUSHIDA and Tiger Mask IV (**)
MATCH 1: IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov) (CHAMPIONS) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi and TAKA Michinoku)
Koslov sung the Russian national anthem before the match, with Romero lip synching along with him. Taichi and TAKA then began singing the Japanese anthem, only to try a sneak attack. Forever Hooligans pretty quickly turned that around though. They were clearly playing the face role in this match.
Things were going along as normal, until TAKA seemed to hurt himself, doing a drop down of all things. He sold like his arm was limp and he’d blown out his elbow or shoulder and Taichi went it alone with the help of his crutch while TAKA was tended to. Then TAKA tagged back in and revealed he was fine! Usually the fake injury spot is pretty easy to sniff out, but I fully bought this one. It didn’t give TAKA much of an advantage, so I don’t know what the point neccessarily was, except shenanigans. Which there were lots of here. TAKA did Koslov’s cossack dance kicks to him, amongst other wacky antics, before Romero finally got a tag. Taichi got some close near falls on Koslov near the end, before dives from Romero, TAKA and Koslov. Koslov hit a shooting star on Taichi, but TAKA broke the pin. With the referee outside Taichi used a low blow and a Gedo clutch for another near fall. Koslov then used a low blow of his own to set up the Contract Killer to retain. If you’d given me 15 minutes for this, I’d have taken the under with no hesitation so I’m shocked they went as long as they did. It exceeded expectations in the ring too and turned out to be pretty fun. Seemed like the crowd were very ready to accept Koslov and Romero in the face role too.
Winners via pinfall and still champions (17:28): Forever Hooligans (***1/4)
MATCH 2: Minoru Suzuki vs. Tomohiro Ishii
Tension has been slowly building between these two all year and finally we got a match out of it. After starting out as a brawl Suzuki went after Ishii’s arm. Ishii fought back but got trapped in a rear naked choke. Suzuki hit a flurry of slaps before Ishii came back with a headbutt. He countered the Gotch piledriver with an air raid crash and almost won with a lariat, before the match turned into a forearm battle which Suzuki ended with a headbutt and then a running dropkick. Ishii tried another headbutt but Suzuki caught him with a slap, then hit the Gotch piledriver for the win. Realistically, this was never going to live up to my expectations. It was fine though. Hopefully they get a rematch in Korakuen at some point.
Winner via pinfall (11:52): Minoru Suzuki (***1/2)
The Bullet Club were interviewed backstage, where Devitt was busy warming up in his Republic Of Ireland top. Devitt countered a Rainmaker by Anderson as an example of what he’d do later.
MATCH 3: IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima (CHAMPIONS) vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano and Takashi Iizuka)
Kojima and Tenzan retained their titles at Dominion, but had them stolen by Yano after the match. He’s got a habit of that. Of course Iizuka beat up the commentator before the match and tore his shirt off. Again, bad habit. This went about 3 minutes of crowd brawling before ‘ending’ in a double count out. Kojima and Tenzan demanded the match be restarted though.
They teased another count out before an actual match broke out. Yano and Iizuka cheated liberally as you’d expect. Kojima and Tenzan each ran through Yano and Iizuka despite their best, illegal efforts until a chair got used on them. Iizuka then brought out the iron finger but Tenzan countered. A TenKoji Cutter got a two count. The champions then survived some more blatant cheating and stopped Yano using handcuffs. Kojima hit the lariat on Iizuka before handcuffing Yano to the post, while Tenzan finished Iizuka with a moonsault. With Yano handcuffed Kojima and Tenzan got their belts back safely after the match and Tenzan stomped on Yano’s DVD, which he’d taped to the belts.
Winners via pinfall and still champions (10:21): Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima (**1/4)
MATCH 4: NEVER CHAMPIONSHIP
Masato Tanaka (CHAMPION) vs. Tetsuya Naito
Has anybody pointed out that being the NEVER Champion is an oxymoron?
Tanaka tried to attack before the bell which lead to a fast start. Naito gave Tanaka a running dropkick on the ramp early on. Tanaka used a kendo stick on Naito and brought out a table. Naito avoided being splashed through it and teased a superplex through the table, which thankfully for both of them didn’t happen. And instead Tanaka hit the splash through the table second time around. Naito soon fought back, but then so did Tanaka. Naito avoided a Sliding D and got near falls with a german and a dragon suplex. He missed the Stardust Press though and that was his downfall. He did almost catch Tanaka with a roll up. But Tanaka hit a pretty brutal german and an even brutaler clothesline, got two with a sliding clothesline, before winning with the Sliding D.
Naito certainly looked better here than last month against Yujiro. Whether that speaks to him, his recovery time or Yujiro compared to Masato Tanaka I can’t say for certain. Tanaka is still the champion of NEVER, who I believe haven’t run a show since November.
Winner via pinfall and still champion (11:52): Masato Tanaka (***3/4)
MATCH 5: IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
La Sombra (CHAMPION) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
This was Nakamura’s rematch, after losing the title to La Sombra in CMLL in May. Shinsuke was all in red, which I assume is his CMLL look. And he seemed in CMLL mode for much of the match. Sombra started strong until Nakamura caught him with a kick through the ropes to counter a dive, before hitting a corkscrew dive of his own. That got quite a reaction. Safe to say he’s not doing that too often in Japan. Sombra came back and nailed Nakamura with his own dive this time. Sombra looked good, hitting a 180 split legged moonsault and after a dropkick sent Nakamura from the top to the floor, decided to climb up the lighting rig and hit a moonsault off of it. He’s also got some pretty nasty chops. After some good back and forth Sombra ended up hitting the Brillante Driver, which is how he won the title in Mexico, but Shinsuke kicked out. Shinsuke countered a springboard crossbody, before trying a springboard move of his own. Unfortunately, he slipped. Moves off the ropes really aren’t his fortay recently. He recovered ok though and hit a second rope Boma Ye and a second Boma Ye to regain the title. Slip up aside, this was very good and maybe Sombra’s best showing in Japan. There was a handshake afterwards and Shinsuke got a giant rice bowl as a prize for some reason.
Winner via pinfall and new champion (14:00): Shinsuke Nakamura (****1/4)
MATCH 6: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Jushin Thunder Liger and Captain New Japan vs. Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, Tama Tonga, El Terrible and Bad Luck Fale)
Since the last PPV, Tanahashi and Liger won the CMLL Tag Team Titles from Terrible and Tonga. Crowd seemed really into this. Tanahashi starting probably didn’t hurt. There was a fun spot early on where Liger gave baseball slides to Tonga and Terrible, before Anderson accidentally gave one to Fale and Liger hit a cannonball off the apron. The Bullet Club eventually isolated Liger. Makabe ran wild before being left with no choice but to tag Captain in. Which went about as well as you’d expect for him. Captain put up a fight though and kicked out of a TKO from Anderson, before countering the Gun Stun. Tanahashi then made a comeback and Terrible accidentally hit Fale. A three man effort took out Fale, before Tanahashi eventually hit the High Fly Flow to Terrible for the pin. This was a vast improvement on the Dominion Bullet Club match, both in terms of the match and crowd reaction. Fun match.
Winners via pinfall (12:08): Tanahashi, Makabe, Liger and Captain New Japan (***1/2)
MATCH 7: Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata
After their match at Dominion, this had a lot to live up to. Goto went after Shibata before the bell and went for the quick victory, forcing Shibata to roll outside to regroup. Shibata caught Goto in an ankle lock and focused on the leg with submissions. In between kicking the crap out of him, that is. After a battle of clotheslines and running boots Shibata hit an STO. They exchanged back suplexes and Goto took a hard german suplex. Goto gave Shibata a DVD off the second rope for two. An Ura Shouten got two as well. Goto survived a rear naked choke but Shibata hit a penalty kick. They teased a double KO, which since they did that finish in May got a loud reaction. Goto then hit a pair of headbutts before Shibata hit one of his own and this time neither man could beat the 10 count.
The problem with coming back with this the month after the Dominion match was obvious. Doing a double KO in May, an MOTY candidate match with a clean finish in June and another indecisive double KO in July makes no sense to me. They’re in the same G1 block, which means we’ll get this match yet again in August. The finish dragged this down for me, but it was good up until then.
Match ends in a double knockout (14:53) (***3/4)
MATCH 8: Yuji Nagata vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
Backstory here: Sakuraba dislocated his elbow in a tag team match at Invasion Attack in April, landing badly on a Nagata suplex. It was gross. They agreed to a singles match at Dominion like true fighters.
Sakuraba came out swinging. He tried a flying stomp with Nagata on the ground but Nagata moved. There was a lot of what I believe is called “ground work”. Sakuraba used mongolian chops on Nagata. The match got off the ground briefly before Sakuraba caught Nagata in a rear choke. Nagata went after the arm Sakuraba injured. Sakuraba countered the belly to belly suplex and they each fought for a submission before Sakuraba got a cross armbreaker for the win.
I’m not even going to try rating this, because I wouldn’t even know where to start. This wasn’t a match for me. If you watch MMA and like shoot style, you might enjoy this. Or you might not. It didn’t seem particularly exciting, but again, maybe don’t take my word for it.
Winner via submission (10:14): Kazushi Sakuraba (NR)
MATCH 9: IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Kazuchika Okada (CHAMPION) vs. Prince Devitt
Devitt beat Tanahashi at Dominion to earn this shot. He’s still the Junior Heavyweight Champion and defended that title against Gedo at Korakuen Hall in the lead up to this.
Crowd were solidly behind Okada. Okada tried a Rainmaker early and Devitt avoided it, so maybe practicing with Anderson worked after all. It didn’t take long for the Bullet Club to get involved, with Fale holding Okada for a double stomp on the apron by Devitt. Devitt exposed the turnbuckles in one corner and sent Okada into them. Anderson leant a hand on an abdominal stretch and gave Okada a powerbomb on the apron while Gedo took issue with Devitt mocking the Rainmaker pose after an Okada esque dropkick. Okada ended up reversing a whip into the exposed turnbuckles and fighting back. Devitt countered the Rainmaker again though and regained control. He took out Okada with a somersault dive and got a near fall with a pretty brutal double stomp to the back. A reverse Bloody Sunday got two before Okada avoided another double stomp. They traded forearms with Okada winning out and Okada dropkicked Devitt off the ropes to the floor, setting up a somersault dive of his own onto all of the Bullet Club. Okada hit Heavy Rain for two and locked on Red Ink but Devitt made the ropes.
After Okada blocked a Bloody Sunday, Devitt pulled the referee in between Okada and the exposed turnbuckles. That allowed Devitt to use a chair and, when that didn’t work, Anderson and Tonga to interfere. Okada took them out, then when Fale tried to hit the elevated samoan spike Gedo got involved and Okada dropkicked Fale outside. Devitt countered a tombstone though and gave Okada a chair assisted double stomp off the top for a close two. A series of Rainmaker and Bloody Sunday counters ended with Okada hitting a dropkick to the back. Okada then hit a tombstone and the Rainmaker to retain. And win a rice bowl!
The Bullet Club interference helped get the crowd behind Okada as expected. The whole Bullet Club thing isn’t really conducive to blowaway MOTY candidates, but it’s guaranteed heat and Devitt did enough in the way of wrestling to make this a good match and not just an interference fest.
Winner via pinfall and still champion (19:15): Kazuchika Okada (****1/4)
All in all, a pretty good show. It lacked the one (or more) standout match(es) other New Japan shows of this year have had, but there were plenty of good ones. And chances are there’ll be plenty of standout matches to choose from next month.