The first New Japan Pro Wrestling show took place on March 6th 1972, headlined by Antoni Inoki against Karl Gotch. The Anniversary Show that took place on March 6th commemorated that date, and the past forty seven years of the promotion. Last year the show was headlined by a match between the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the Jr. Heavyweight Champion, this year the IWGP Champion took on the NEVER Openweight Champion. Other matches included the Jr. Heavyweight and Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles being put on the line, as well as a fun six-man tag team match between Los Ingobernables de Japon and the powerhouse team of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, and Hirooki Goto.
The headline match of this show was a solid contest between Jay White and Will Ospreay, which ended with a Jay White victory via Blade Runner, although Ospreay was able to get in some credible offence. There was very little chance of an upset win here, since White has been booked very strongly, and they surely wanted him to stay strong in the leadup to the Madison Square Garden show in April. Ospreay pulled off some of his crazy dives, including a Sasuke Special, and came close to hitting a Storm Breaker, but he couldn’t quite get the job done. Post-match White attacked Ospreay until Kota Ibushi ran in from commentary to make the save. The rest of Bullet Club joined in the attack briefly, but they were scared off by Tanahashi, Okada, and Goto. The end of the show featured a pose-off between five of the main competitors in the upcoming New Japan Cup, who were all very keen to suggest that they would be winning.
For me, the best match on this card was the Jr. Heavyweight Title match between Taiji Ishimori and Jyushin Thunder Liger. Ishimori challenged Liger after his victory over Ryusuke Taguchi in Osaka last month, and spent the build-up to the matchup mocking Liger on social media. Liger is in his fifties now, but he can still go at a very high level, and he brought his working boots to this match. Liger got some near falls in the match, and hit a great looking powerbomb, but Ishimori was able to weather the offense and forced Liger to tap out after an excellent fifteen minute bout. The day after the Anniversary Show Liger announced that he will be retiring at Wrestle Kingdom in 2020, after an amazing thirty year career as the character of Jyushin Thunder Liger (he debuted in 1984 under his real name of Keiichi Yamada). Liger showed in this match that he can still go in the ring at a high level, and I’m excited to see his final match at the Tokyo Dome next January. Post-match Dragon Lee came to the ring to face down Ishimori, and it has now been confirmed that Ishimori will take on Dragon Lee and Bandido at Madison Square Garden.
The other title match on the show saw Roppongi 3K take on the Los Ingobernables de Japon team of Shingo Takagi and BUSHI. Shingo and BUSHI won the titles at Wrestle Kingdom, and defended them in Sapporo against Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado. The junior tag division’s glaring weakness right now is the lack of teams given that Roppongi 3K, LIJ, and Suzuki-gun basically end up facing each other in a series of never-ending matches. This match wasn’t bad though, and had a very hot ending sequence that saw Roppongi 3K avoid LIJ’s finisher, and finally hit the 3K on BUSHI to reclaim the tag titles. This result made sense – Best of the Super Juniors is on the horizon and Shingo will undoubtedly have a big singles run in that, so getting the tag titles off LIJ is sensible. I really hope that SHO and YOH won’t immediately go back to feuding with Suzuki-gun, but that NJPW will put together some new teams to challenge for the belts.
The rest of the focus of this show was on the lead-up to the New Japan Cup, with prospective opponents facing off against each other in tag matches. Tomohiro Ishii’s team defeated Yuji Nagata’s, in a preview of a first round match on night one, while Tomoaki Honma’s team defeated Taichi and Suzuki-gun, in another first night preview. Ibushi watched on from commentary in the six-man tag match that featured his first round opponent in Tetsuya Naito. Goto picked up a win against SANADA, who he will face in round one, and then his team argued amongst themselves about who will win the cup outright. With the field expanded to thirty two entrants this year, and an IWGP Heavyweight title shot guaranteed at MSG, the NJC this year promises to have even more drama than usual. My belief is that Okada will win the tournament and go on to face White at MSG, but lose there to solidify White’s title reign. Firstly, White has beaten Okada several times already so it’s clearly been established that White has the upper hand on the Rainmaker. Secondly, it seems like White has clearly been chosen as the face of the Western expansion, so having him lose his first title defence would undermine the attempts to position him as a top tier performer. The other option would be Kota Ibushi, if they decide that they don’t want to have Okada lose to White again. However, I expect that Ibushi will beat Naito in the first round to transition into a feud for the Intercontinental Title, which would most likely begin at the Garden.
Overall, the Anniversary Show was fun and an easy watch, with some decent title challenges for the Jr. Heavyweight titles. Nothing was particularly must-see, although Liger vs. Ishimori was very good, but it was nice to watch a show that felt fun and wasn’t dragged down by running the same undercard several times (looking at the New Beginning shows here). Most of the matches set up the upcoming matches in the New Japan Cup, which promises to be intriguing with the expanded format. With a Madison Square Garden main event in the balance, the month of March and the NJC have become exponentially more interesting in 2019.
- Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, HIKULEO, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa def. Ayato Yoshida, Ren Narita, Shota Umino, Togi Makabe & Toru Yano, 9:12
- Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI def. Toa Henare & Yuji Nagata, 12:09
- Dragon Lee, Ryusuke Taguchi, Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma def. El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru, 11:05
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi) (c), 16:51
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match: Taiji Ishimori (c) def. Jyushin Thunder Liger, 15:51
- Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada def. EVIL, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito, 12:58
- Jay White def. Will Ospreay, 29:07
