{"id":12181,"date":"2019-04-22T04:55:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-22T03:55:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=12181"},"modified":"2019-04-23T07:39:32","modified_gmt":"2019-04-23T06:39:32","slug":"njpw-sengoku-lord-review-20-4-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/04\/22\/njpw-sengoku-lord-review-20-4-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Sengoku Lord Review, 20\/4\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shota Umino &amp; Ren Narita def. Yuya Uemura &amp; Yota\nTsuji \u2013 fun Young Lions match to open the show, with a really nice bridging\nfront suplex from Narita for the win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru\n&amp; El Desperado def. Jyushin Thunder Liger, Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, Yuji\nNagata &amp; Satoshi Kojima \u2013 standard Suzuki-gun multi-man tag match, notable\nthat Taichi won again with his new submission move.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Dragon Lee, Toru Yano &amp; Togi Makabe def. Taiji Ishimori,\nTama Tonga &amp; Tanga Loa \u2013 the best parts were the interactions between Lee\nand Ishimori, Yano got a rollup pin on Loa to continue the tag title feud.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Mikey Nicholls def. Chase Owens \u2013 they both tried, but the\ncrowd was dead and the match was very average.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hirooki Goto &amp; Ryusuke Taguchi def. Jay White &amp; Hikuleo \u2013 weird tag team combinations, Goto got the win over Hikuleo to build up to the White vs. Goto match at Hi no Kuni.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI &amp; Shingo Takagi def.\nKazuchika Okada, SHO, YOH, Tomohiro Ishii &amp; YOSHI-HASHI \u2013 fun ten-man tag\nmatch that highlighted the upcoming Jr. Tag Title match, and the EVIL vs. Ishii,\nand Okada vs. SANADA matches, Naito pinned YOSHI-HASHI with a Destino.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IWGP US Title Match<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Juice Robinson def. Bad Luck Fale \u2013 slow match that was built\naround Juice trying to overcome his injured back to slam Fale, finally Juice\nwon with a Pulp Friction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">IWGP Intercontinental Title Match<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Kota Ibushi def. Zack Sabre Jr. \u2013 decent main event, which Ibushi won with a Kamigoye to move ahead to 3-2 in New Japan matches against ZSJ.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This was the first Sengoku Lord show that New Japan has run,\nreplacing the Sakura Genesis show in between the New Japan Cup and Wrestling\nDontaku in Fukuoka in May. Nagoya is usually a good crowd for wrestling shows, and\nNew Japan drew over 4,700 fans to the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium for this show.\nHowever, this show lacked the intensity of Sakura Genesis shows in the past,\nand ended up as an eminently skippable filler show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u6628\u65e5\u306e\u540d\u53e4\u5c4b\u5927\u4f1a\u3082\u6ca2\u5c71\u306e\u304a\u5ba2\u69d8\u306b\u3054\u89b3\u6226\u3044\u305f\u3060\u304d\u8aa0\u306b\u3042\u308a\u304c\u3068\u3046\u3054\u3056\u3044\u307e\u3057\u305f\uff01\u660e\u65e54\u670822\u65e5\uff08\u6708\uff09\uff5e24\u65e5\uff08\u6c34\uff09\u306f\u300cRoad to \u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u3069\u3093\u305f\u304f 2019\u300d\u5f8c\u697d\u5712\u30db\u30fc\u30eb3\u9023\u6226\u3067\u3059\u3002\u7686\u69d8\u306e\u3054\u6765\u5834\u3092\u304a\u5f85\u3061\u3057\u3066\u304a\u308a\u307e\u3059\u3002<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/70Zbh45bsf\">https:\/\/t.co\/70Zbh45bsf<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njdontaku?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njdontaku<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njsengoku?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njsengoku<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/8ooUHl6maL\">pic.twitter.com\/8ooUHl6maL<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e\u55b6\u696d\u90e8 (@njpw_nyao) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpw_nyao\/status\/1119786777747714048?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The highlights of the show bookended the card \u2013 the Young\nLions\u2019 match at the start and then Ibushi vs. ZSJ in the main event for the\nIntercontinental Title.&nbsp; Uemura and Tsuji\nfinally broke their run of time-limit draws on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku\ntour, with Tsuji getting the first win of the pair, then Uemura levelling the\nscore before Tsuji took a 2-1 lead after the third show. On this card the two\nteamed together against the older Young Lion team of Umino and Narita, but they\nhad a strong showing in defeat. Both Tsuji and Uemura have come on in leaps and\nbounds since their debuts, and Tsuji particularly looks great as a bigger, power\nfighter Young Lion. Given the hierarchy of Young Lions the result of this match\nwas never in doubt, but the younger team had some good hope spots, and Narita\nwon with a beautiful front bridging suplex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The main event between Ibushi and Sabre was also a solid\nmatch, between two wrestlers who have good chemistry together. Coming into this\nmatch both men had a 2-2 record \u2013 Sabre with two victories in the New Japan Cup\nand Ibushi with two in the G1 Climax. In this match they took advantage of\ntheir previous meetings in countering each other\u2019s signature spots, something\nthat Sabre is always good at doing. As the match went on it devolved into a\nstriking battle, which favoured Ibushi although Sabre did hit a big Zack Driver\nand try to work over the head and neck with his submission holds. Ibushi missed\nthe Bomaye, and the first Kamigoye attempt, but finally he was able to counter\nSabre\u2019s submission into a Kamigoye for the three count. I generally enjoy seeing\nIbushi go up against Sabre, and this match was worth checking out if you\u2019re a\nfan of either. After the match Naito came to the ring to challenge Ibushi,\nagain. Their matches are always good, but we literally just saw this match at\nthe start of April. I guess they can stretch it out until Dominion, but it\u2019s a\ntired move to go straight back to this rematch again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u5185\u85e4\u300c\u3055\u3042\u3001\u98ef\u4f0f\uff01 \u4ffa\u306b\uff01 \u305d\u3057\u3066\u3001\u4eca\u65e5\u3001\u611b\u77e5\u770c\u4f53\u80b2\u9928\u306b\u96c6\u307e\u3063\u3066\u304f\u3060\u3055\u3063\u305f\u305f\u304f\u3055\u3093\u306e\u304a\u5ba2\u3055\u307e\u306b\u98ef\u4f0f\u306e\u7b54\u3048\u3092\uff01\u805e\u304b\u305b\u3066\u304f\u308c\u3088\uff1f\u300d<br>\u98ef\u4f0f\u300c\u30c8\uff5e\u30e9\u30f3\u30ad\uff5e\u30ed\uff01 \u2026\u3057\u3083\u3079\u3093\u306a\u3088\uff01\u300d<br>\u2606\u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u306e\u30b9\u30de\u30db\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u30674.20\u611b\u77e5\u5927\u4f1a\u306e\u8a73\u5831\u30a2\u30c3\u30d7\uff01<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/bMP9lHi7b6\">https:\/\/t.co\/bMP9lHi7b6<\/a>   <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njsengoku?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njsengoku<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/L5QwNodHHu\">pic.twitter.com\/L5QwNodHHu<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e (@njpw1972) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpw1972\/status\/1119781779521490945?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">April 21, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rest of this show was unremarkable to say the least. The other two singles matches on the card were not great, although at least the crowd was invested in Juice Robinson trying to overcome Bad Luck Fale. The story of the match was Fale targeting Juice\u2019s back so that he couldn\u2019t bodyslam him, which led to lots of slow Fale beatdowns. Fale just really doesn\u2019t seem particularly motivated and the long sections of this match that he spent on offense were quite bad. Finally Juice managed to overcome the punishment he had taken and slam Fale, then hit a Pulp Friction for the win. I\u2019m glad Juice won here and got a chance to defend his title since New Japan have booked the US Title quite terribly, but Fale needs a really top opponent to produce anything like a good match these days. Unfortunately the other match between Mikey Nicholls and Chase Owens didn\u2019t even have the crowd invested, beyond the very end of the match when Chase nearly hit a package piledriver. It\u2019s clear that the crowd don\u2019t care about Nicholls at all yet. He\u2019s been put in a bad spot by debuting in the New Japan Cup when no one knew anything about him, but he hasn\u2019t really given the crowd much to care about either. Hopefully he can win the crowd over \u2013 and being in a tag team would probably help \u2013 but this was a very average match.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The tag matches on the show were fine for the most part, with the highlight being the ten-man CHAOS and Los Ingobernables de Japon match. The matches were mostly used to further storylines for the future \u2013 GOD vs. Makabe and Yano, Goto vs. White, Roppongi 3K vs. Shingo and BUSHI, EVIL vs. Ishii, and SANADA vs. Okada. That\u2019s not a bad thing per se, but given that there was only one good singles match on this card it had the feeling of a glorified Road To show rather than a major event. The card for Wrestling Dontaku looks more promising at least, with a number of interesting matches booked for those shows. The multi-man tag matches in New Japan are fine for setting up future storylines, but they\u2019re no substitute for good singles matches on a big show.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Overall, this is a show to skip unless you really like Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. Save yourself the time of watching Fale go through the motions, and Owens and Nicholls battle against crowd apathy. Coming up on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku is Sengoku Emaki in Hiroshima on April 26<sup>th<\/sup>, which features Roppongi 3K defending against Shingo Takagi and BUSHI (again) and the Wrestling Hi no Kuni in Kumamoto, headlined by Goto vs. White. There are a lot of multi-man tag matches too though, so we will most likely have to wait until Wrestling Dontaku itself to get another standout show from New Japan. The G1 Supercard at the start of April ended up taking all the focus for the big matches, which makes sense, but it means that we&#8217;re now in a reset period before Dominion.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Shota Umino &amp; Ren Narita def. Yuya Uemura &amp; Yota Tsuji \u2013 fun Young Lions match to open the show, with a really nice bridging front suplex from Narita for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":12182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,204,37,22],"tags":[371,44],"class_list":["post-12181","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews","tag-new-japan-pro-wrestling","tag-njpw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3at","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/04\/D4lVW_tX4AECe10.jpeg?fit=992%2C554&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12181"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12195,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12181\/revisions\/12195"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/12182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12181"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12181"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12181"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}