Day 6 – Quarter Finals
Date: July 2, 2020
Hiromu Takashi def. Tomohiro Ishii
Match Time: 19:29
You won’t get any new opinions from me other than what’s already been said by the rest and I agree, this match was that damn good! How can it not be? It’s two of the most reliable workers in the roster and what we got was everything I loved in Puroresu. The heavyweight-junior heavyweight dynamic was played off well, the hard hitting strike exchanges, Hiromu surviving the onslaught brought forth by Ishii. Even though there really isn’t any past history between these two, it didn’t need that because them being in the ring together at this stage of their careers carries enough heat to have a compelling match from start to end. I was quite surprised to see it open the show but with what’s in store later on, it makes perfect sense. If Wrestle Kingdom 14 didn’t happen earlier this year, then this is seriously a strong contender for MOTY. After a hard fought battle, the reigning junior heavyweight champion got the win with the Time Bomb II.
EVIL def. YOSHI-HASHI
Match Time: 2:00
Coming off a legitimate injury he suffered in the BUSHI match, YOSHI-HASHI was visibly limping in his entrance and EVIL immediately worked on his injured foot. Hitting it with chairs and repeatedly stomping on it before the bell could even ring. YOSHI-HASHI attempted to fight when the match became official but it’s clear there’s not a scenario for him that grants victory and what we got was a literal squash match. A referee stoppage after locking in YOSHI-HASHI with the Scorpion Deathlock. It was the best way to follow up the previous match, made EVIL look dominant and good for YOSHI-HASHI to prevent any further damage to his foot.
Kazuchika Okada def. Taiji Ishimori
Match Time: 16:52
On paper this seemed like it’d make for a great match. Two all-around type wrestlers who have great track records of high quality matches. Unfortunately what we got was kind of underwhelming and sometimes that just happens. There are cases in wrestling where two top level performers just don’t mesh well with one another for one reason or another. Gedo interfering didn’t help at all and I get it that Ishimori is the only representative of the Bullet Club with enough credibility as most of their top rank members are out due to travel issues but they didn’t play off with the heavyweight-junior story well at all. It wasn’t a horrible match by any means but not entirely great either. It’s a shame too that this match will likely go down on both men’s careers as something that isn’t memorable. Perhaps if a crowd was present it could’ve been elevated. Okada got another win with the Cobra Clutch.
SANADA def. Taichi
Match Time: 22:50
People have mentioned what Milano Collection AT said on commentary how this match up is interesting as both men were mentored by two AJPW top stars of different eras. SANADA with Keiji Mutoh and Taichi with Toshiaki Kawada, even though at some point those two legends did interact with one another as Kawada was the one that stayed when everyone else left for NOAH but that’s a story for another time. That’s an element I enjoy in wrestling is tracing back roots of the past with present day match ups, it adds intrigue to me personally as someone who enjoys learning history. As for the match itself, it was fine. Kind of a slog at times if I’m being honest, not too bad though. Taichi playing the annoying heel while SANADA for the most part remaining to be the stoic cold individual that he is. Taichi’s cheating ways were thwarted this time around though with Kanemaru failing to interfere. Another sneaky pin victory for SANADA with an O’Conner Roll.
Day 7 – Semi Finals
Date: July 3, 2020
Master Wato Emerges
For weeks NJPW has been showing us these vignettes for a debuting wrestler. Everyone and their mothers pretty much know it’s Hirai Kawato returning from excursion with a new “kung fu master” gimmick and turns out it was. It was interesting to say the least. I know most gimmicks for future top stars begin in an odd manner, like the Rainmaker or Switchblade took awhile for fans to take them seriously but Master Wato was far from having a great first impression. At least with Okada and Jay they were immediately slotted in to feuds with Hiroshi Tanahashi, making them feel like a big deal. Kawato on the other hand received a beating from DOUKI, who’s position in the card is literally lower than a young lion! I get it, there’s the Lucha connection but what a lame start to his re-debut. I’m still hopeful though that this is just the start of something eventually great for him.
EVIL def. SANADA
Match Time: 20:13
I have always enjoyed EVIL and SANADA’s G1 matches in the past, being tag-team partners for a long time, they have just as great chemistry when it comes to being opponents in the ring too. But clearly in their catalogue of single matches, albeit not that many yet, this one is by far the worst. Not saying it’s a bad match, in fact I thought it was decent, but the lack of an audience and SANADA’s dangerous landing on his head got some demerits from me. It wasn’t as hard hitting as their past encounters too, felt like they were not putting in 100% this time around. There was a lot of counters and back-and-forth but once again though, EVIL going full heel on us by intentionally bumping SANADA to the referee and then began to beat up his stable mate and taking some lessons from Toru Yano with the low blows. This would ultimately lead to his victory and reach the finals. A lot of fans predicted we’re going to get another Okada vs. SANADA and thankfully not as it’s been too much of that last year, EVIL isn’t really that better in my opinion but with this brand new attitude, we might get more of an interesting match up this time around.
Kazuchika Okada def. Hiromu Takahashi
Match Time: 27:00
A first time encounter between these two, kind of a dream match really and it was solid all throughout. Hiromu has been great against the heavyweights and it’s no different with Okada here, obviously he’s the most challenging one yet but his tenacity had him keeping up with the former 4x IWGP Heavyweight Champion from start to finish. It did follow the rest of the usual formula to Okada’s matches of slow paced start building up to the climax and heated conclusion which what this exactly was. The last two minutes of the match was the most intense it could get but once again, had there been a crowd it would’ve even been more exciting. A testament to Hiromu as so far in this tournament Okada has yet to hit the Rainmaker but this time around, he needed three back-to-back to put the reigning Jr. Heavyweight Champion down for good and then finish it off with a referee stoppage by locking him in with the Cobra Clutch. In the end, Okada being victorious wasn’t surprising but I do wish Hiromu would have gotten the win for something special in the finals an LIJ vs.LIJ which also leads to Naito 100% facing one of his boys but I get why Okada is the winner. Hiromu really did well in this tournament and he’s the MVP of the entire thing for me, he had a good match against a nearly crippled Honma, a fun comedy affair with Yano, a hard hitting contest with Ishii, and now he went toe-to-toe for nearly a half an hour with the most dominant wrestler in the entire roster.
