{"id":13636,"date":"2019-11-05T14:14:55","date_gmt":"2019-11-05T14:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=13636"},"modified":"2019-11-05T14:15:04","modified_gmt":"2019-11-05T14:15:04","slug":"njpw-power-struggle-2019-results-and-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/11\/05\/njpw-power-struggle-2019-results-and-review\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW: Power Struggle 2019 Results and Review"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Written by: Super Mastodon (<\/strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/supermastodon\"><strong>@SuperMastodon<\/strong><\/a><strong>)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">NJPW&#8217;s Power Struggle 2019 is now in the history books. What a show from top to bottom, once again New Japan delivered to us an exciting show with a lot of great moments building up to Wrestle Kingdom which is just two months away! So without further ado, let&#8217;s take a rundown of the card.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<!--more-->\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #1 &#8211; 8 Man Tag Team:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>TJP, Titan, Volador Jr., Clark Connors def. Jushin\nLiger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuya Uemura<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">To start us off we got\nan eight man tag featuring the wrestlers involved in this year&#8217;s Super Junior\nTag League tournament and Jushin &#8220;Thunder&#8221; Liger as well. This was\njust a fun little match to hype things up for bigger things to come. This will\nbe Liger&#8217;s final Power Struggle event as he is retiring from in-ring action\nnext year. Honestly I did not get to watch a lot of Super Jr. Tag League\nbecause of busy schedule but from what the little glimpses I&#8217;ve seen and the\naction with this match, thought it was a fun tourney overall. TJP got the win\nfor his team with a Detonation Kick delivered to Uemura at the 5 minute and 43\nsecond mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #2 &#8211; Tag Team:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>El Phantasmo &amp; Taiji Ishimori def. Robbie Eagles\n&amp; Rocky Romero<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A classic Bullet Club\nvs. CHAOS match up this time featuring the reigning IWGP Jr. Heavyweight\nTag-Team Champions: Phantasmo and Ishimori took on the duo of Eagles and Rocky.\nOnce again this was more of a match to showcase the tag champs and add fuel to\nthe Eagles vs. Phantasmo rivalry. It was pretty good especially by the end,\nRocky and Phantasmo have an interesting past already since the BOSJ and their\ninteractions in the match were pretty fun too. Phantasmo delivered the CR II to\nRomero at the 8 minute and 42 second mark. It won&#8217;t be the last time we&#8217;ll see\nthis Bullet Club pair tonight.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #3 &#8211; 6 Man Tag Team:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>SANADA, EVIL, &amp; Shingo Takagi def. Minoru\nSuzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Lance Archer<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It&#8217;s LIJ vs. Suzuki-Gun\nonce again. This match was more of a chaotic brawl more than anything as\nexpected. Just gotta say, Lance Archer looked great with the IWGP US Title\naround his waist. A lot of action both in and out of the ring, the ones I\nespecially enjoyed were the strike exchanges between Suzuki and Shingo, seems\nlike they&#8217;re building up a potential rivalry there which is interesting. If the\nrumors of Minoru Suzuki leaving were to be true, then putting over someone like\nShingo would definitely benefit The Dragon in the long run. ZSJ and SANADA had\na crazy back-and-forth cradle pin attempts at the concluding part of the match,\nwith the Cold Skull getting the better of the reigning RevPro Champion in the\nend at the 9 minute and 7 second mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #4 &#8211; Tag Team:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hiroshi Tanahashi &amp; Kota Ibushi def. Kazuchika\nOkada &amp; YOSHI-HASHI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">A special tag-team\nattraction featuring three of the greatest wrestlers in the entire planet\ntoday&#8230;. Anyway, it&#8217;s obvious this is more of a build up towards Okada vs.\nIbushi more than anything. At least that&#8217;s what we initially thought. It&#8217;s been\nmade official that they will headline the January 4th event in the Tokyo Dome\nfor the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Okada&#8217;s best friend and trusty old pal:\nYOSHI-HASHI was there to eat the pin and that he did at the 10 minute and 51\nsecond mark receiving a High Fly Flow from Tana. I remember a storyline\ninvolving those two maybe a year ago where YOSHI-HASHI was being personally\nrecruited by Tana to take him under his wing but that went nowhere.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Chris Jericho Challenges Tanahashi at Wrestle Kingdom<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/C5ltX32bP3U?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent&#038;enablejsapi=1\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The real story of this\nmatch was afterwards, a vignette started playing with some people shown rocking\nto Tanahashi&#8217;s theme song but then they got kicked on by a mysterious man. Well\nhe wasn&#8217;t mysterious for long as he revealed his identity, it&#8217;s none other than\nChris Jericho! The reigning AEW World Heavyweight Champion is back at New\nJapan, the last time we saw him was at Dominion where he failed to capture the\nIWGP Heavyweight title from Okada. It was then where the seeds were planted for\nthis storyline as after their match, Y2J repeatedly attacked Okada but\nTanahashi, who was at the commentators booth, helped out his former rival and\nattacked Jericho himself. It&#8217;s going to be an interesting war to say the least\nbetween these two living legends. Once he finally shares the ring with Tana,\nY2J pretty much completed his matches with the former Four Pillars of New\nJapan, first with Omega, then Naito, followed by Okada, and his last challenge:\nThe Ace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #5 &#8211; Special Singles:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Tetsuya Naito def. Taichi<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The rivalry that&#8217;s been\nbrewing on for months and has its roots for a long time, Tetsuya Naito and\nTaichi exchanged blows once again but this time with larger stakes at hand by\nbeing the de facto number one contender for the IWGP Intercontinental\nChampionship. Unlike their previous bouts where a methodical pace was followed\nbut this time both men mean business, right from the get go they started\nbrawling which is pretty rare for Naito but Taichi has really pushed him\nthrough his limits. A nonstop action throughout the whole match which is\nprobably their best outing in terms of speed. Naito was triumphant in the end\nthough as Taichi receives a Destino at the 12 minute and 56 second mark. I&#8217;d\nsay their first match was better since it really put Taichi on the map moving\nup to the heavyweight division, but if you like a fast match packed with action\nthen this one will definitely suit your flavor better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #6 &#8211; Super Jr. Tag League Finals:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Roppongi 3K def. Yoshinobu Kanemaru &amp; El Desperado<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.njpw1972.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/6_12-13.jpg?w=696&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The finals of this\nyear&#8217;s Super Junior Tag League is set and it is a re-match from last year (sans\nBUSHI and Shingo) only this time it&#8217;s the endless rivalry between Roppongi 3K\nand Kanemaru &amp; Desperado. This was El Desperado&#8217;s first tournament ever\nsince making his return from injury. Him and uncle Nobu did well in the\ntournament scoring 10 points to finish as RP3K did the same as well which all\nled to this match. For a match that lasted under 15 minutes, it sure felt long\nand not in a bad way. Both teams told a great story that really encapsulated\ntheir rivalry. Desperado in particular looked pretty strong but it was a sign\nthat he&#8217;d eat the pin in the end receiving a 3K from SHO &amp; YOH. For the\nthird straight year in a row, Roppongi 3K are your winners of the Super Junior\nTag League. But the reigning Jr. Tag Champs begged to differ as they would\nattack their eventual challengers and steal the trophies, claiming they were\n&#8220;cheated&#8221; and their spot in the finals were busted out because of\nRP3K.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #7 &#8211; NEVER Openweight Championship:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>KENTA def. Tomohiro Ishii<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.njpw1972.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/7_6-13.jpg?w=696&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The first title match\nof the night is another re-match this time for KENTA&#8217;s NEVER Openweight\nChampionship against former champ himself: &#8220;Stone Pitbull&#8221; Tomohiro\nIshii. Their first bout was a little controversial in the UK show where KENTA\nwon but suffered a concussion in the process leaving a sluggish feel to the\nmatch. This time around, they definitely improved and it is worth noticing that\nKENTA had no interferences from Guerrillas of Destiny as he has always relied\non them in his past victories over Ishii, but they aren&#8217;t around this time.\nIt&#8217;s just purely 1v1 action and it was pretty good. It can feel pretty slow at\ntimes but it is to be expected from a match with KENTA nowadays, he is far from\nhis prime years but with all that said, they still delivered a fine match with\nthe champion successfully defending the belt with a Go To Sleep at the 20\nminute and 12 second mark. Not entirely sure where both men go from here\ntowards WK so we have to wait and see what is in store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #8 &#8211; IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Will Ospreay def. BUSHI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\"><figure class=\"aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.njpw1972.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/8_5.jpg?w=696&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\"\/><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Go ahead and boo me but\nby god to me, this is without a doubt, the match of the night! It was a match\nthat was booked out of nowhere too but man did they deliver. Will Ospreay, we\nexpect him to have a great match against anyone, especially with the year he is\nhaving, it&#8217;s just another match for him. But BUSHI, my boy, he&#8217;s been shunned\nupon by the majority of the New Japan fans, they only see him as a tag-team\nwrestler at best, the lowlight of the LIJ faction, but he has proved all those\ndoubters wrong with this match! I&#8217;ve been telling everybody this, BUSHI is\ncapable of having a great match, he just knows when to have them when the\nstakes are higher and there are many other heavy implications involved. In my\nopinion, he stole the show and yes it might just be bias on my part being an\nLIJ fanboy but you cannot deny this was a good match because it damn was. BUSHI\nwas able to hold his own against Ospreay&#8217;s highflying offense but my favorite\nspot through it all was the champion stealing BUSHI&#8217;s mist directly from him\nand having him taste his own medicine in the process. BUSHI would deliver it\nright back later and had everyone at the palm of their hands when he hits\nOspreay with the MX for the near fall. Even though the result was obvious, they\nmade it into a wonderful set of action from the moment the bell rang till the\npin as the Stormbreaker gets Ospreay his 3rd title defense win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Hiromu Takahashi Returns<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/GUvKE75cbok?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent&#038;enablejsapi=1\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will Ospreay has pretty\nmuch beaten everyone in the division at this point. Shingo Takagi in the BOSJ\nFinals, Dragon Lee for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship, he would\nsuccessfully defend the belt against Robbie Eagles, El Phantasmo, and BUSHI.\nPractically everyone is out of the equation. Who is left? Well another member\nof LIJ and a familiar face to the champion makes his return after a long hiatus\nfrom injury, it&#8217;s the Ticking Time Bomb; Hiromu Takahashi! Personally, I was\nspoiled of this on Twitter but it didn&#8217;t matter, yes it could&#8217;ve been better if\nI watched live but I digress, what is important is the moment itself. A lot of\nfans have been speculating when will Hiromu return, if he will at all. Neck\ninjuries are no joke and we&#8217;ve seen careers end because of them, but man is it\ngreat to see him back in full form and his shenanigans were sorely missed.\nHiromu just has that enigma in him that is unlike any other wrestler in the\nworld today. He challenged Ospreay for the belt at Wrestle Kingdom and the\nmatch has been made official. I&#8217;m hyped. You&#8217;re hyped. The world is hyped! It\nwas a great night to be an LIJ fan for sure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline\">Match #9 &#8211; IWGP Intercontinental Championship:<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>Jay White def. Hirooki Goto<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Final match of the\nnight we got the rivalry between Jay White and Hirooki Goto potentially finding\nits conclusion, this time for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. It&#8217;s a\nfeud that&#8217;s been building up for months and it all led to this after Goto gets\na victory over Switchblade at the G1. Personally, I enjoyed their G1 match\nbetter in terms of the technical stuff but for the moment and the drama that\nsurrounded this whole match, this was better by a mile. Katsuyori Shibata and\nKENTA got involved in the middle of all this for their respective\npartners\/friends. Overall the match was good and deserving of the main event\nspot, Goto had moments where it seemed like he will finally get back to the\npromise land by getting the win but it wasn&#8217;t the case unfortunately. Jay got\nhim with the Bladerunner with some help from KENTA to successfully retain the\nIntercontinental Championship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><strong>The Big 4 in 1 Ring<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-youtube wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"696\" height=\"392\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/U_tf5aSnqX8?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent&#038;enablejsapi=1\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation allow-popups-to-escape-sandbox\"><\/iframe><\/span>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">After the match, Jay\nWhite celebrated his victory but it wouldn&#8217;t be long before he would be joined\nby the three other men in the main event picture heading into Wrestle Kingdom.\nFirst was Tetsuya Naito, the man Switchblade defeated to earn the IC belt in\nthe first place. He challenged him and told Jay that he will get the belt back\nand eventually challenge the winner of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match\nthe following night at the Dome. Kota Ibushi followed suit, the G1 Climax\nwinner said that he will be the one to take on the double belts. However, The\nRainmaker, reigning 200+ days IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada had\nsomething to say. He is not a fan of this whole &#8220;double champion&#8221;\nthing as he thinks the only belt that matters is the title he is holding. The\ntop prize for New Japan for several decades, a belt filled with prestige and\nhistoric background. He doesn&#8217;t care about the IC Belt, to him it will always\nbe the &#8220;number two belt&#8221; after all, the only thing Okada has won his\nentire career is the IWGP Heavyweight title. So there we have it, all four men\nstared at each other in one ring, they will be the deciders for the future of\nNew Japan Pro Wrestling, lead it&#8217;s way ahead the upcoming decade as they enter\nthe Tokyo Dome for Wrestle Kingdom.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Written by: Super Mastodon (@SuperMastodon) NJPW&#8217;s Power Struggle 2019 is now in the history books. What a show from top to bottom, once again New Japan delivered to us an [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":35,"featured_media":13647,"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":[44],"class_list":["post-13636","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews","tag-njpw"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-3xW","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/qA1i0db.jpg?fit=600%2C400&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13636","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\/35"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13636"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13636\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13648,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13636\/revisions\/13648"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/13647"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13636"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13636"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13636"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}