NJPW Kizuna Road Review 17/06/18, 18/06/18, and 19/06/18

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By Tokyo Wrestling Fan @twf87

Following the epic show that was Dominion, the Kizuna Road tour fills in some of the gap before the G1 Climax tournament starts on July 14th.  The tour started on June 15th, but the only shows that were televised are three shows from Korakuen Hall on the 17th, 18th, and 19th.

Sunday June 17th

Yuya Uemura vs. Yota Tsuji – Time limit draw

Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata def. Shota Umino and Tomoyuki Oka

Taiji Ishimori and Yujiro Takahashi def. Ren Narita and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Jeff Cobb, Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA, Toa Henare, and Togi Makabe def. SHO, YOH, Rocky Romero, YOSHI-HASHI, and Toru Yano

BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito def. TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, and Takashi Iizuka

Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, and Kazuchika Okada def. David Finlay, Juice Robinson, and Hiroshi Tanahashi

 

NEVER Openweight Championship 

Hirooki Goto vs. Michael Elgin (c) – Elgin won the championship at Dominion last week, crucially pinning Taichi in the triple threat not the champion Goto, which led to this rematch.  Goto and Elgin had an absolute war in this match, pulling out all the stops to try and claim the NEVER title.  The match started at a normal pace, but with some stiff strikes and hard chops, until a ref bump led to a Taichi run-in.  While Red Shoes was down outside the ring Taichi hit both competitors with his microphone stand, but then Jeff Cobb ran in and suplexed him out of the ring.  Cobb ran Taichi to the back, and Elgin and Goto went back to trying to kill each other.  The match slowed down a bit when Elgin put Goto on the turnbuckle, and spent a long time seemingly trying to hit a Burning Hammer, but Goto turned the tables with a sunset flip powerbomb.  The action really heated up in the final stage of the match as Goto and Elgin both looked for the knockout blow.  Elgin scored a near fall with a sitout powerbomb, but finally Goto put Elgin down with a GTR.

The final few minutes of this match were excellent as Elgin and Goto consecutively countered each other, until Goto was able to hit a PK and finally a GTR.  This was a good NEVER match, and Elgin and Goto left it all in the ring, but I thought that the ref bump and the turnbuckle moment slowed things down unnecessarily.  If they’d trimmed five minutes off the match and cut both of those moments down it would have flowed better.  I also don’t completely understand the thought process behind giving Elgin an eight day title reign, other than giving him a bit of a rub at Dominion.  After the match Jeff Cobb came out and challenged Goto, who said that he’s a fighting champion and he would happily take on any challengers.  Presumably this will be added to the G1 Special at the Cow Palace, which would be another really solid match.

Winner: Hirooki Goto, 30:57

 

Monday June 18th

Yuya Uemura vs. Yota Tsuji – Time limit draw

Yujiro Takahashi and Taiji Ishimori def. Ren Narita and Shota Umino

Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi def. Tomoyuki Oka and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

YOSHI-HASHI, SHO, YOH, and Toru Yano def. Toa Henare, Ryusuke Taguchi, David Finlay, and Togi Makabe

BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito def. TAKA Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, and Takashi Iizuka

KUSHIDA, Jeff Cobb, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, and Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Gedo, Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, Hirooki Goto, and Kazuchika Okada

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi (c) – Hiromu won the title at Dominion, where he defeated Will Ospreay, but Desperado beat him during Best of the Super Juniors, which led to this title match.  Going into this match El Desperado had beaten Hiromu 17 times, dating back to when they were both Young Lions, and he entered with a cockiness underpinned by his winning streak against the champion.  Hiromu entered with a guitar case, which he opened in the ring to reveal a bouquet of flowers that he offered to Desperado before the bell rang.  Instead Desperado attacked him with the flowers, which left a trail of petals all over the ring.

This was another intense match in their feud, and just like their BOSJ match it involved a lot of brawling outside the ring.  Hiromu at one point hit a senton from the top of the turnbuckle to the outside, then stopped Red Shoes from finishing a count out because he wanted to keep the fight going.  This was the second title match in a row on the Kizuna Road shows that involved a run-in, as Desperado’s tag team partner Kanemaru came out to the ring and distracted the referee while Desperado beat up Hiromu with a chair.  This time BUSHI came to Hiromu’s rescue and took out Kanemaru to loud cheers.  The most shocking part of this match happened when Hiromu ripped Desperado’s mask off – previously whenever a luchador lost their mask they hid their face until they could cover it again, but Desperado’s desire to hurt Hiromu overcame that and he showed his face for long enough to hit Hiromu and take his mask back.

Hiromu managed to lock in the triangle choke towards the end of the match, but it was finally a Time Bomb that brought him a victory and left his record at 17-2 against Desperado.  In the press conference after the match Hiromu issued a challenge to Dragon Lee, so presumably at the Cow Palace show we will get a rematch between the two old foes.  This match was very good, but I didn’t think it quite lived up to their BOSJ match.  Again it felt overbooked, and could have done without the run-in angle.  Their match at BOSJ was so good, and just violent, that it was always going to be hard to top it so soon afterwards.  The Hiromu-Desperado story has more room to run though, so hopefully it will lead to more good matches in the future.

Winner: Hiromu Takahashi, 28:16

 

Tuesday June 19th

Yujiro Takahashi and Taiji Ishimori def. Ren Narita and KUSHIDA

Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask, and Jyushin Thunder Liger def. Tomoyuki Oka, Shota Umino, and Toa Henare

El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and TAKA Michinoku def. SHO, YOH, and Rocky Romero

Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii def. Takashi Iizuka and Taichi

Jay White, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, and Kazuchika Okada def. Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Jeff Cobb, and Michael Elgin

Super Strong Machine 69, Super Strong Machine Don, Super Strong Machine Justice, Super Strong Machine Buffalo, Super Strong Machine Ace def. BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Naito Tetsuya, EVIL, and SANADA

 

G1 Climax

The biggest news to come out of the Kizuna Road shows was the announcement of the participants in this year’s G1 Climax, and the makeup of the two blocks.

 

A Block

Togi Makabe

Michael Elgin

Hiroshi Tanahashi

Kazuchika Okada

Jay White

YOSHI-HASHI

Bad Luck Fale

Hangman Page

EVIL

Minoru Suzuki

 

B Block

Juice Robinson

Hirooki Goto

Tomohiro Ishii

Toru Yano

Tama Tonga

SANADA

Tetsuya Naito

Zack Sabre Jr

Kenny Omega

Kota Ibushi

The line-up for the G1 this summer looks absolutely stacked, Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima will be absent from last year, replaced by Jay White and, more surprisingly, Hangman Page.  I’ve been really impressed by Page this year so I think his inclusion is a good thing, but I can’t help feel like Taichi was robbed of a spot in the tournament.  Maybe he will take someone out with his microphone stand and steal their spot…

On paper B Block looks absolutely stacked, and should be harder to predict than A Block.  Any one of Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, or Tetsuya Naito could realistically win B Block, whereas A Block looks like it’s between Kazuchika Okada, Jay White, and Minoru Suzuki, with Okada a clear favourite (for now.)  There are some tantalising first time G1 and New Japan matchups in these two blocks, and I’m particularly looking forward to seeing Jay White and Hangman Page in their debut G1.  Zack Sabre Jr. going up against Yano should be excellent too – they teased a bit of this match at Dominion and I can’t wait to see ZSJ’s inventive counters to Yano’s cheating.

Looking at the two blocks now, I think there are two ways that the G1 could play out.  The first, and probably more logical way, is that Okada wins A Block and then loses in the final to Ibushi, which would set up Omega vs. Ibushi for Wrestle Kingdom 13.  The second option is that Okada wins A Block and wins the whole tournament, but in the process Naito gets a win over Omega in the tournament, which would give him a title shot later this year.  Naito beats Omega to go into Wrestle Kingdom 13 as champion, and then beats Okada to redeem himself from his defeat this year.  I don’t think there’s much likelihood of the second option happening, so I have to say that my prediction for winner (subject to change at any point once Ibushi starts losing) is Kota Ibushi.

 

Final Thoughts

The three televised Kizuna Road shows were all decent shows, headlined by two good title matches, and a fun retirement match for New Japan veteran Super Strong Machine on the final night.  Both title matches deserve watching, and Goto and Hiromu have both had a really good 2018 so far.  The tag team matches on the undercards built towards the upcoming match between Jay White and Juice Robinson for the US title at the Cow Palace, with Jay being a slimy heel throughout and attacking Juice after the matches.  White really has been doing good work in this feud, and I’m excited to see Juice hopefully get his revenge at the Cow Palace and take home his first title.  The other notable story has been Okada dealing with the fact that he’s no longer the IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and he’s been doing some great subtle things like not posing on the turnbuckle during his entrance now that he doesn’t have the title.  He looks lost not being the champion, especially since the focus has been on Jay White, who was the only CHAOS champion coming out of Dominion (until Goto won back the NEVER title.)  Going forward it will be interesting to see how this mindset affects him – A Block of the G1 all points towards an Okada victory, but you can never count out Gedo throwing in a surprise.  Maybe this year will be Suzuki’s year, after all it is his 30th anniversary of being in the business this year.  Regardless of the outcome, the G1 promises another spectacular summer of wrestling.

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