We’re now on the third night of the New Japan Road, and whilst it’s clear some guys are showing fatigue, there were still some great moments. The main events were well worth watching, especially the IWGP Tag Team Championship match, where Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi joined forces to take on the Guerillas of Destiny in a match steeped in history. Unfortunately, most of the undercard was lacklustre, acting more as a stopgap for the action that went down in the two title matches.
Undercard Results
Gabriel Kidd & Tiger Mask Def. Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura // Uemura tapped out to an arm bar from Tiger Mask
Roppongi 3K (YOH & SHO) & FinJuice (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) Def. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Taichi, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) // Finlay finished Kanemaru with an Acid Drop
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI HASHI, & Hirooki Goto) Def. Toa Henare, Tomoaki Honma, & Togi Makabe // YOSHI HASHI submitted Honma with the Butterfly Lock
Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyashi Tenzan, & Manabu Nakanishi Def. Bullet Club (Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Gedo, & Jado) // Nakanishi submitted Gedo with the Argentine Backbreaker
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito, & SANADA) Def. CHAOS (Rocky Romero, Will Ospreay, & Kazuchika Okada) // Takahashi finished Romero with the Time Bomb
IWGP NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Match: LIJ (Shingo Takagi, EVIL, & BUSHI) (C) vs Colt Cabana, Toru Yano, & Ryusuke Taguchi
Before the match got going, we were treated to more of the comedy stylings of Yano, where the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team belts were missing after he stole them. After pulling them from under the ring, Yano, Cabana, and Taguchi almost walked out of Korakuen Hall with them until Red Shoes asserted his authority and got them to return to the ring. The three of them fought over who was going to start the match, with Taguchi making the decision to jump into the ring with only a second left before being counted out.
When the action finally started to get going, there were some good spots, although it was clear how guys like Shingo Takagi were showing the effects of three consecutive nights of wrestling. Yano exposed two of the turnbuckles, but Colt ended up tasting the metal at one point. The ‘King of Bum Style’ Ryusuke Taguchi dished out plenty of B Triggers towards the end of the match, but it ended with BUSHI spraying mist in Taguchi’s face, following it up with a roll-up.
Winner: LIJ Retain Rating: 5 out of 10
IWGP Tam Team Championship Match: Kota Ibushi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga) (C)
It’s been a while since Tanahashi has had a good run in a tag team, and there could be no better a partner than the guy who he passed the torch to in the form of Kota Ibushi. The match took a while to get going, but once Jado struck Tanahashi with the kendo stick, the Guerillas started to gain the upper hand. Ibushi got a nasty cut above his eyebrow, which gave Tanga the opportunity to hit a spinebuster, followed by a neckbreaker courtesy of Tama.
The champs nailed Guerilla Warfare on Ibushi, but he kicked out.The G.o.D. continued to dominate by dropping Tanahashi with the Magic Killer, refusing to pin him and instead asserting their dominance through arrogance. Ibushi broke up a super powerbomb attempt and got struck with a Gun Stun for his troubles. The tide started to turn for the challengers as Tanahashi hit two Twist and Shouts followed by a slingblade, but after a High Fly Flow, Jado pulled the referee out.
Tanga Loa hit Tanahashi with the belt as the referee was outside the ring, and the G.o.D. tried to do the same to Ibushi, but he ducked and Tama Tonga smashed his brother in the face. This led Ibushi to nail Tonga with the Kamigoye, and Tanahashi to connect with the High Fly Flow for the victory. We have new Tag Team Champions!
Winner: Ibushi & Tanahashi become new champions Rating: 7 out of 10
After the match, Hiroshi Tanahashi’s victory speech was cut short after an attack from Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. Dangerous Tekkers stormed the ring and dropped the new champions with a Zack Driver and Zack Mephisto. The speech Zack Sabre Jr. delivered was gold, calling the crowd dickheads and burning one individual with an amazing comeback revolving around not getting sick because he’s vegan. Asking Taichi to “talk to these idiots in Japanese” was also a highlight. Taichi claimed the tag team division was dead, and the only ones to revive it was them. This was a great set-up for a future match between these four men, creating yet another enemy for Zack Sabre Jr. (Jon Moxley hasn’t forgotten what you did, Zack).
All images courtesy of NJPW1972.com