NJPW 4/30/15

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Sho Tanaka vs. Jay White

 

These guys work real hard in the time they are givenThis is a real meat and potatoes match. All of their variety of strikes look good and hurty .Both guys do a great job of selling. . The 1st 1/2 crab Tanaka goes for is as smooth as silk in how he transitions into it. He goes back to it later in the match for the win. Good stuff from these guys. 2 3/4*

 

KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi & Yuji Nagata vs. Yohei Komatsu, Mascara Dorada & Manabu Nakanishi

 

Seeing Nak go to the mat made me smile. Dorada of course gets over with his flying. Kushida is good in this. Taguchi as FIP was good. I also like his taunting of Nak. The targeting of Taguchi's butt and selling was humorous in a way. Komatsu has a lot of upside. 2 1/2*

 

Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

 

This was ok. I thought Hall's spinning clothesline looked really great here. I loved the reversal of the double Irish whip early that lead to a Takahashi bump off of a Hall shoulder block. It seemed the finish was done pretty quick and not really built to well. 1 3/4*

 

More later on

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Alex Shelley, Captain New Japan & Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenny Omega, Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson

They're playing up Maria into some fun comedy early on. Omega's mocking of Shelley is pretty bad. The crowd is going Marie, and Anderson is going Marco. Fuck that's funny. I enjoyed the match early. Naito plays FIP and he's okay. He gets the hot tag to Shelley. Shelley is on fire and gets cut off. I like how Shelley and Naito try not to tag in Captain NJ knowing he's a recipe for disaster. Overall this was fine. 2 1/2*

Tiger Mask, Jushin Thunder Liger and & Togi Makabe vs. Baretta, Rocky Romero & Tomohiro Ishii

Makabe and Ishii do their normal stuff to start. Romero and TM pair off and are doing some rope running spots that TM gains the advantage. TM catches Romero with a dive. Liger and Romero have a fun sequence. All 6 are brawling on the floor. Liger's tease of the countout was so well done. I will say that Liger's and Ropongii Vice are really showcasing their charisma. Liger FIP was really entertaining. Hot tag to Makabe. He beats up Romero and Baretta. Ishii in to turn the tide. They both beat on each other. They seem to work better as tag opponents for each other. TM and Baretta are in and it seems we're building to a pretty fun finish. Great nearfall on a counter to Ropongii Vices finish. They fuck with TM mask at the finish for the win. This was really good stuff. By far the best TM has looked since I've gotten NJPW World 3 1/2*

Gedo & Kazuchika Okada vs. Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale

We start the match and pretty much Gedo is FIP. He's really good at it. He's clearly watched his Southern wrestling. Okada with a hot tag and is cleaning house. Fale cuts him off and Tonga is in there. We get our 2nd FIP section. They use high impact stuff on him. Gedo tries to help to no avail. Okada makes his own comeback. 1 3/4*

Tomoaki Honma, Katsuyori Shibata, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Hirooki Goto vs. YOSHI-HASHI, Kazushi Sakuraba, Toru Yano & Shinsuke Nakamura


I need a Sakuraba/Shibata singles match ASAP. We get different pairings. Eventually Tanahashi is FIP. We get a couple of teases of hot tags, but he would always get cut off until he tagged Shibata. Shibata is a great hot tag.Nak and Goto go at it. Everyone is fighting outside leaving Nak and Goto in the ring. Now it's Honma and Nak in the ring that turns into a wild sequence involving eveyone. It comes backs down to Nak and Homna. Nak gives Honma some great nearfalls. More great close calls till Nakamura pits Honma away. Man that was a tremendous finishing stretch on an other wise mediocre match. 2 3/4*


Another solid NJPW houseshow. They give me enough action to keep me coming back. Come WO year end ballots it makes me wonder if the NJPW hardcores will put any stock into these shows for their wrestler of the year discussion. To me you have to. The coolest thing about these shows is their seems to be a different best performer on each one. Looking forward to the 5/3 show. We'll get a lot of strong matches mixed in with a mixed bag of stuff. Will last months Kenny Omega show up. Will Nakamura keep his rep as the best big show performer around. Check it out and see for yourself. We'll probably have a Reaction Show for you.