By TokyoWrestlingFan@TokyoWrestlingFan
Wrestling Hi No Kuni this year has a special significance – it was created in 2015 as an event in Kumamoto just before Wrestling Dontaku in nearby Fukuoka, but in 2016 Kumamoto was hit by a series of earthquakes just before Wrestling Hi No Kuni was scheduled to take place. The earthquakes did severe damage to Kumamoto, killed at least 50 people, and led to the cancellation of the event. This year’s Wrestling Hi No Kuni took place 745 days after the Kumamoto earthquake, and marked the first time that New Japan had run an event in Kumamoto since the earthquake. They showed a nice video package before the show, including Tomoaki Honma talking about his experiences in Kumamoto during and after the earthquake.
Shota Umino and Tomoyuki Oka vs. Yuji Nagata and Ren Narita
A fun Young Lions and New Japan Dad tag match to open the show. Umino and Oka both wanted to start the match, and had a bit of pushing and shoving before finally Oka got his way. There were some stiff strikes thrown in this match, mostly at and by Nagata. Nagata caught both Oka and Umino in the armbar during the match, but couldn’t get a submission until he finally put Umino in the Nagata Lock and forced him to tap out. All three of the Young Lions looked good, although Narita had less to do with Nagata on his side. After the match Oka grudgingly helped Umino out of the ring, looking particularly annoyed with him.
Winners: Yuji Nagata and Ren Narita, 9:41
Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, and David Finlay vs. Roppongi 3K (Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero), and Jay White – Roppongi 3K got a night off from their interminable feud with low-ranking Suzuki-gun. Rocky tried to take off Tiger Mask’s mask, and CHAOS generally acted like heels. There were some good comedy spots with Taguchi hitting everyone with hip attacks and his best Nakamura impression, then getting dropkicked by the entire opposing team. Finlay showed some fire in his exchanges with Jay White, and hit a stunner on Rocky for the win. Short and forgettable.
Winners: Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, and David Finlay, 7:18
Togi Makabe and Toa Henare vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Yano Toru – Yano and Makabe started things off, and immediately Yano started his shenanigans by trying to untie the ring post cover. These two teams have faced each other a lot recently, which led to Makabe imitating Yano’s mannerisms by hanging on to the ropes after an Irish Whip. Ishii and Henare continued to brutalise each other, including a near fall after Henare speared ishii, and some vicious headbutts. The final stretch saw Ishii get a near fall with a big lariat on Henare, then hit him with a brainbuster for the win.
Winners: Tomohiro Ishii and Yano Toru, 7:56
Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, and Taka Michinoku vs. Golden Lovers (Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi), Chase Owens, and Takahashi Yujiro.
Pre-match Taka did his hype-man routine, calling out Bullet Club. Kenny led out the Bullet Club team with freshly dyed blonde hair. Suzuki-gun attacked before the bell and generally did their usual heelish tricks, including a lot of Iizuka biting people. Taichi and Yujiro faced off in a battle of the sleazy guys with female valets (neither of whom were with them for this match). When Kenny got the tag he came in with Ibushi and they hit the Golden Lovers’ double-team moves, culminating in a Cross Slash on Taichi and Zack, at the same time as Yujiro and Chase hit Iizuka and Taka with tope suicidas. Chase fought to hit Zack with the package piledriver, but Zack kept finding a way out of it, and finally he reversed it into the octopus hold, which forced Chase to tap out. After the match, Kenny and Zack exchanged words.
Winners: Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, and Taka Michinoku, 8:51
Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Juice Robinson, and Michael Elgin vs Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI, and Hirooki Goto
Okada came out wearing a t-shirt featuring Kumamon, the mascot of Kumamoto, which is extremely cute and looked hilarious when he was doing the rainmaker pose on the turnbuckle. This was a fun little match, where everyone got to show off their stuff, and the storylines between all the people involved moved forward. Okada continued his quest to hit a tombstone piledriver on Tanahashi outside the ring, but Tanahashi ended up escaping and hitting Okada with a Sling Blade on the entrance ramp. The Japanese commentary team played up the fact that, two days after their NEVER title match, Goto had a lot of taping on his shoulders, whereas Juice didn’t have any. Goto made a point of going after Elgin, who came out after the NEVER title match to challenge him. Ospreay and KUSHIDA also look good in this match, being treated like the equal of the heavyweights, and Ospreay debuted a new move that he’s apparently calling “Storm Breaker,” which KUSHIDA sold like it killed him. Tanahashi won after hitting YOSHI-HASHI with the High Fly Flow, then stared down Okada.
Winners: Hiroshi Tanahashi, KUSHIDA, Juice Robinson, and Michael Elgin, 10:13
Taichi appeared after the final bell and attacked Goto and Elgin with his mic stand, to loud chants of “Go home Taichi.” After he backed off, Okada came sprinting back to attack Tanahashi, and they both had to be restrained by Juice, Elgin, and the Young Lions at ringside. They eventually made it back into the ring, where they faced down with duelling Okada and Tanahashi chants. Gedo managed to talk Okada down, and as he left Tanahashi posed in the ring. Okada is clearly emotional and seems rattled before the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the second night of Wrestling Dontaku.
BUSHI vs. El Desperado
The first of the four Los Ingobernables vs. Suzuki-gun matches on the card tonight. BUSHI had a very cool half black-and-white, half rainbow coloured mask on as he made his way to the ring. BUSHI got the drop on El Desperado and attacked him before the bell. This was a pretty short match, with a lot of brawling on the outside, and a lot of focus on El Desperado trying to remove BUSHI’s mask. The highlight of the match was when BUSHI hit a hurricanrana on Desperado as he stood on the second rope, having been crotched by BUSHI moments earlier. When he wasn’t trying to remove BUSHI’s mask, Desperado showed off his wrestling credentials by hitting a crisp spinebuster on BUSHI, and locking in a stretch muffler. The final stretch of the match saw Desperado try to hit his double underhook face buster, which BUSHI escaped from, and hit a standing MX for a near fall. When he went to the turnbuckle for the MX, Yoshinobu Kanemaru ran in and attacked him for a disqualification. Overall, pretty underwhelming given how much focus there was on Desperado getting heel heat by focusing on BUSHI’s mask, and not on wrestling.
Winner: BUSHI, 9:58
After the match Desperado and Kanemaru started attacking BUSHI until Hiromu Takahashi ran in to help his tag team partner, which led straight into the next match.
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru
This match started out with Kanemaru attacking Hiromu on the outside, which led to Hiromu just getting back into the ring before a twenty count. BUSHI and Desperado were still outside the ring recovering from their match, and Kanemaru made good use of his partner by distracting the referee several times to allow Desperado to attack Hiromu. Kanemaru spent a lot of the match focusing his attacks on Hiromu’s back, at one point trapping him in a Boston Crab in the centre of the ring. Hiromu managed to fight his way out, urged on by the crowd, who were massively behind him in this match. There was some good wrestling in between the interference and LIJ managed to get a measure of revenge for their Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship loss last week when Kanemaru accidentally spat whiskey in Desperado’s face, then BUSHI spat his poison mist in Kanemaru’s face. Hiromu followed up by hitting the Time Bomb for a near fall, then a Death Valley driver into the turnbuckle and another Time Bomb sealed the victory.
Winner: Hiromu Takahashi, 11:28
IWGP Tag Team Championship
Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) vs. SANADA and EVIL (c)
Archer came out wearing a demon mask, and did his water-spitting bit into the crowd. This was a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 12, and only SANADA and EVIL’s second title defence, since EVIL broke his orbital bone in February. SANADA and EVIL charged the ring before the bell, and it devolved into a brawl between all four men to start the match. This match followed a similar pattern to their Wrestle Kingdom match – KES used their power to beat down EVIL and SANADA, who used their speed and skill to overcome their larger opponents. EVIL in particular looked fired up and eager to make up for lost time. KES got some good heat when they put SANADA through a table outside the ring with a Killer Bomb from the apron. This led to a long period of KES beating down EVIL in the ring, while SANADA convalesced outside. KES finally hit a Magic Killer on EVIL for a close two count. They attempted a Killer Bomb following that, but SANADA had recovered and saved his partner by hitting DBS Jr. with a missile dropkick. The LIJ team proceeded to make a come-back and hit their own Magic Killer on DBS Jr., but this time Archer saved his partner by pulling the referee out of the ring. EVIL did his chair around the neck spot on DBS Jr., and got a near fall with Darkness Falls, then got the three count with Evil (his STO). This match wasn’t as good as their match at Wrestle Kingdom, but it was good nonetheless. EVIL and SANADA have a lot of potential opponents that they can face in the future, so this was the right result.
Winners: SANADA and EVIL, 17:58
They showed a video recap of Naito and Suzuki’s feud before the next match, highlighting Naito’s disrespect of Suzuki.
IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Natio vs. Minoru Suzuki (c)
Naito came out in his white suit and a very cool white mask. Suzuki got a pretty decent chorus of “kaze ni nare” when he entered the ring, but Naito was far more over with the crowd in this match. The commentary team played up the fact that Naito had lost his IWGP Heavyweight Championship match at Wrestle Kingdom 12, and his first round New Japan Cup match this year. The opening exchanges of the match were cagey, although a highlight was Suzuki imitating Naito’s taunt of running the ropes then lying down in the middle of the ring. As with all Suzuki-gun matches, there was a good deal of brawling outside the ring, and Naito at one point only just made it back to the ring before the twenty count. After a relatively even opening period, Suzuki began to take control with strikes and hit Naito with two PKs. Naito showed huge perseverance not to tap out from a long knee bar submission that Suzuki applied in the middle of the ring, even refusing to let Red Shoes end the match by referee stoppage. He finally made it to the ropes and forced Suzuki to break the hold, who sarcastically applauded him. Suzuki went for the sleeper in the centre of the ring, and Naito started to fade, but eventually escaped and countered into a neckbreaker. At some point Suzuki got busted open and was bleeding from his nose. Suzuki tried to apply the sleeper hold again, but Naito countered into a brainbuster, and then hit a Destino for a slightly surprising victory.
Winner: Tetsuya Naito, 30:22
After the match the other members of Los Ingobernables de Japon came out to celebrate with Naito, who had an ice pack taped to his knee to highlight the submission damage. Naito cut a post-match promo emphasising the importance of the event in Kumamoto, and saying that LIJ hope to inspire people through wrestling. The show finished with LIJ posing in the ring covered in confetti.
Final Thoughts
As far as New Japan shows go, this was relatively average, with a good Tag Team Championship match, and a very good Intercontinental Championship match. The rest of the card was pretty forgettable, although the ten-man tag team match with Okada and Tanahashi was fun. Most of this card was continuing storylines for the upcoming Wrestling Dontaku matches, and the two days in Fukuoka have the potential to be excellent. I didn’t expect Naito to win the IC title here, so it will be interesting to see what plans they have for him going forward. Presumably they are thinking of making him into a Shinsuke Nakamura-type, very popular IC champion while Okada is heavyweight champion. I still think there’s an outside possibility that we see Chris Jericho challenge Naito for the IC title at some point, maybe the G1 Special in San Francisco, but if not then it seems that they are moving Naito on to new matchups as the new champion.
