New champions were crowned at NJPW Dominion on Sunday.
Francesco Akira and TJP regained the IWGP Junior Tag Team titles from KUSHIDA and Kevin Knight. Akira scored the win for his team, pinning Knight after both he and TJP connected with running knees. This is their second reign with the titles.
Later in the show, Bishimon (YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto) won the IWGP Tag Team and New Japan Strong Tag Team titles, defeating Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL and Aaron Henare & The Great-O-Khan after hitting their powerbomb/GTR combo on Takahashi. Bishimon won the vacant titles after Aussie Open were forced to vacate the titles last month due to Mark Davis suffering an injury.
After the match, Alex Coughlin and Gabriel Kidd came out wearing Bullet Club t-shirts, revealing they had joined the group. They attacked Bishimon, making it clear they were next in line for a title match.
Elsewhere on the card, SANADA retained the IWGP World Heavyweight title against Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi retained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title against Master Wato, Zack Sabre Jr. retained the New Japan World Television title over Jeff Cobb, David Finlay retained the NEVER title over El Phantasmo, and the team of Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii retained the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team titles against Shota Umino, Jon Moxley, and Claudio Castagnoli.
The NJPW Summer Struggle tour continued today in Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
The only notable angle on the show came after Kazuchika Okada was victorious in a six-man tag. His Tokyo Dome opponent from this past Sunday, Jeff Cobb, appeared and laid Okada out with his Tour of the Islands finisher. That program will likely continue until the September 4 and September 5 Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome events.
After EVIL and Dick Togo attacked IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi at Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome, Shingo teamed with BUSHI to face EVIL and Togo in today’s main event.
Shingo will defend the IWGP World title against EVIL in the main event of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome on Sunday, September 5.
After two days off, NJPW returns Friday, Saturday and Sunday with three shows. All of the events will also be held at Korakuen Hall and will begin at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time.
NJPW’s Road to Castle Attack tour continued today with the fourth consecutive night of action in Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
The originally scheduled main event of Tetsuya Naito & SANADA vs Kota Ibushi & Yuji Nagata did not take place due to a knee injury suffered by Naito on yesterday’s show. Instead, Naito opened the show with a promo, apologizing to the crowd and addressing Ibushi. SANADA then face Nagata in a singles match in the semi-main.
According to NJPW’s Chris Charlton, the severity of Naito’s injury is unclear, but Charlton speculated that Naito will likely still wrestle Ibushi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at Castle Attack in Osaka-Jo Hall on February 28.
The Road to Castle Attack tour continues this weekend with untelevised events on Friday and Saturday. The tour returns to Korakuen for broadcast events on Monday, February 22 and Thursday, February 25. Castle Attack will be a two-night event in Osaka on Saturday, February 27 at 2 a.m. Eastern time and Sunday, February 28 at midnight Eastern time.
Here are the results from today’s show:
Great-O-Khan, Will Ospreay & Jeff Cobb (w/Bea Priestley) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Gabriel Kidd (11:39)
Cobb pinned Kidd after hitting a Tour of the Islands.
Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Toru Yano went to a no contest with Jay White, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Chase Owens (w/Gedo & Jado) (11:41)
Christopher Daniels picked up the win for his team in a superb six-man tag main event that featured an excellent Dick Togo, Ikuto Hidaka, Los Maximos, and Quiet Storm.
CW Anderson and Crowbar battled in a very solid match with Anderson picking up the win after a spinebuster on a steel chair.
Show Review:
We opened with Daniels cutting a promo backstage, flanked by his partners for the night, Ikuto Hidaka and Dick Togo. He said just when you think MLW can stack the deck against him, he pulls out an ace from the pack: The Far East Connection.
Joey Styles then welcomed us to the Manhattan Center in New York City as he ran down the card for the night.
CW Anderson defeated Devon “Crowbar” Storm (7:52)
The ring announcer called him Devon Storm, his graphic named him Crowbar, and Styles told us he would be known by his given name Chris Ford. Whatever you choose to call him, the former WCW Hardcore, Cruiserweight and Tag Team champion looked the part here against the no-nonsense Anderson.
Crowbar, as I will call him due to another “Storm” appearing later in the night, suplexed Anderson out of a wristlock to end a smooth chain sequence in the early going. He then came off the second rope with a clothesline, hit a springboard middle rope crossbody followed by a “sky high” pop-up powerbomb and a slingshot somersault legdrop that only got a two count. A baseball slide dropkick through the ropes followed as Anderson tried to take a breather from the early onslaught.
Crowbar then sat Anderson on a chair at ringside before flattening both he and the chair with a pescado from the ring. After a short commercial break, Anderson waffled Storm in the top of the head with two unprotected chair shots. The referee grabbed the chair and stopped Anderson from going further which gave Crowbar the opening to get a shot in and fire up. Crowbar hit a belly-to-back suplex and a slingshot splash before a middle rope moonsault that got another close two count.
Anderson hit a desperation superkick out of nowhere to stop Crowbar in his tracks and went to use the chair again, but Crowbar caught him with a low blow before using the chair and hitting a northern lights suplex. Anderson still kicked out at two. Crowbar then lay the chair flat in the middle of the ring, but it was he who felt the full force of an Anderson spinebuster on the chair, taking him out of the game and giving the victory to the Extreme Horseman member.
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– We then caught up with Steve Corino, fresh off a loss to Terry Funk at the previously well-advertised May 9th match from Taboo in Orlando. He said he was overconfident, but is now angry and determined. He challenged Funk to bring Dusty Rhodes, Steve Williams or any legend on June 20th. It doesn’t matter to him, he wants a legend, and he is taking one out.
– Anderson and Simon Diamond told us they had predicted they would win the MLW tag titles many months ago. With only Steve Williams and PJ Friedman in their way, they will become the franchise of the tag division. They named the Rock’n’Roll Express, Midnight Express and the Andersons, but said they were the best tag team in history.
– Another tag team were up next:, the Samoan Island Tribe: Samu and Mana. They were very upbeat and shouted a lot about coming for the tag team titles.
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Christopher Daniels, Dick Togo and Ikuto Hidaka defeated Los Maximos & Quiet Storm (22:34)
This was a great 20+ minute six-man tag featuring some action that wouldn’t look out of place on AEW Dynamite. The action was quick, heavy, and action packed throughout.
Togo was lightning quick, something I didn’t see in his late 90s WWF run. Daniels was excellent, as he was in 2003, and looked like a star and was treated as such by the New York crowd. For the few times we have seen them in recent weeks, the Maximos looked like a very underrated tag team that didn’t get the exposure they deserved, possibly breaking in just a year or two too late to have a proper mainstream run.
The Maximos locked on Maximo Impact (a pancake submission combination of a camel clutch and Boston crab) on Daniels and Togo while Storm locked in a cross armbreaker on Hidaka. Togo showed his worth for his team with a perfect tornado DDT and senton bomb off the top rope. It was then Daniels’ turn to showcase his athleticism with a springboard middle rope moonsault and an enzuigiri. Hidaka then launched himself in with a springboard somersault senton as the heels were in full control. Styles summed up my thoughts, saying “Dick Togo is just fantastic.”
As the match broke down at the 15-minute mark, Storm took out Daniels at ringside with a huge tope con hilo. This started a train of dives. Next was Togo with a baseball slide tornado DDT, then Jose Maximo assisted by his brother who then was low bridged out by Daniels who followed with an Arabian press. That left Hidaka to take everyone out.
Hidaka hit a German and smoothly transitioned into a cross knee breaker on Storm who quickly recovered to hit a Gory Special moments later. A northern lights suplex followed but Hidaka hit a spinning heel kick. Daniels and Joel Maximo came in next for a 100 mph sequence, culminating in a triple jump moonsault by Daniels but Jose broke up the pinfall for his brother. Jose hit a frog splash on Daniels and it was Togo’s turn to make the save. The former Kaientai member hit a powerslam and a reverse rolling snapmare but ate a german suplex and a sit-out powerbomb for a pair of close two counts.
Daniels and Togo hit a flapjack into an X-Factor, but the Maximos fought back and hit Togo with a top rope double Spanish fly with one of the Maximos crushing and probably breaking Togo’s ankle as he landed right on top of it on impact with the ring.
Joel then took out Togo while Hidaka took out Jose with dives to the outside, which left Daniels and Storm in the ring together. It was a look at the current day SCU veteran version as he caught Storm with a dragon sleeper into a rolling DDT to pick up the win.
– We closed with Raven backstage saying that Vampiro has felt the Raven Effect for the first time, but probably not the last time. Vampiro will feel Raven’s pain and he will stop irritating him, aggravating him, tormenting him, and bothering him. If he has to, he will hit the Raven Effect again and again, and again, and again. “Quote the Raven nevermore.”
It was likely inevitable that EVOLVE would eventually encounter streaming troubles on FloSlam, but the timing couldn’t have been much worse than during Saturday night’s main event between Chris Hero and Dick Togo.
The stream went out completely for a decent portion of the match but returned with some minor issues for its conclusion. In what seemed to be the caliber of bout that everyone hoped it would be, the Japanese veteran pinned Hero with his second Pedigree of the night and a senton from the top rope.
FloSlam tweeted that they’re trying to get the full replay of the main event up as soon as possible and blamed the problems on a cable getting accidentally unplugged.
Hero put over Togo after the match and praised the crowd at La Boom in Queens, New York, by calling it a special place. That brought out DUSTIN with a chair. DUSTIN offered to face him right there instead of tomorrow at EVOLVE 75, but Hero struck him and walked off while flipping him off.
Prior to the stream issues, EVOLVE 74 was one of the most fun cards that the promotion has put on all year. The highlight of the show came prior to the main event when EVOLVE Tag Team Champions “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams and Fred Yehi successfully defended their titles against the team of Ricochet and Peter Kaasa in an excellent match.
The finish came when Kaasa attempted a shooting star press on Williams but missed and got caught in a crossface. Yehi prevented Ricochet from breaking up the submission and the Catch Point team held onto their titles as Kaasa tapped out. The match was at its best when Ricochet and Yehi were in the ring, but Williams and Kaasa managed to shine as well.
Williams appeared earlier in the show in an in-ring interview segment with former stablemate Drew Gulak. The returning Larry Dallas interviewed Gulak after his win over Jaka. Dallas asked him if Catch Point was dead, to which Gulak replied that Catch Point is a failure and it’s time to focus on the next chapter of his career — maybe the WWN title.
That brought Williams out to the ring, where he said that Catch Point is bigger than Gulak and always has been. The two will face off in Melrose, Massachusetts, tomorrow.
Gulak was able to get back on the winning track against Jaka in the show’s opener. The match was really good and it was by far the best Jaka has looked in an EVOLVE ring. He held his own with Gulak, who was also excellent in the bout. Gulak won with the dragon sleeper after a great slapping sequence.
Jaka’s tag team partner was also unable to get a victory on the show as Chris Dickson fell to DUSTIN after he hit the Awful Waffle. Dickson and Jaka will take on Darby Allin and Kaasa tomorrow, with Dickinson and Jaka getting EVOLVE contracts if they win.
Allin was in action against Brian Cage tonight. The two put on the exact type of match that you would want to see them have. Allin dove onto Cage as he was making his entrance and then hit a trust fall inside of the ring. Cage took control on offense after that and was victorious after launching Allin onto the stage. Allin lost by countout despite his best efforts to dive back into the ring, but he was able to keep his promise that he wouldn’t be pinned by Cage.
Ethan Page and one of the Gatekeepers (Blaster McMassive) then came down to the ring. Page handed Cage a check and thanked him for taking care of business after his problems with Allin. Page cut a promo on Cody Rhodes before the Bullet Club’s newest member came out for their match.
The overbooked contest saw shenanigans at the end with ref bumps and interference. The Gatekeeper and Cage interfered, causing Allin to come back out and attack Cage. Rhodes gave him a too sweet, but then threw him onto the pile on the outside. Rhodes won with a low blow and the Cross Rhodes.
In his EVOLVE debut, Jeff Cobb defeated Matt Riddle with the Tour of the Islands. The two put on a good match that culminated with Riddle almost getting the win after the Bro to Sleep and jumping tombstone. Riddle tried to apply the Bromission, but Cobb was too big to put the hold on. The two were previously booked against each other in a tag match in PWG and a singles match in AAW before bringing their rivalry to EVOLVE.
Stokely Hathaway hit the ring after Cobb’s win. He said that for the first time in his life he was almost speechless. He attempted to recruit Cobb to the Dream Team by saying that he’d never have to work for anything in his life again. Hathaway said that if there was a dictionary that defined what a professional wrestler should be — the three examples would be TJ Perkins, Timothy Thatcher, and Cobb.
Hathaway offered him a contract to join the Dream Team, but Cobb said the only contract he wants is one for a shot at the EVOLVE Championship against Thatcher.
Final thoughts:
Despite the stream problems at the end, this was a fun show that is worth going out of your way to see. The tag title match was the obvious highlight for me, but Cobb vs. Riddle and the opener with Gulak and Jaka were also very good.
The highlights of tomorrow’s show look to be Williams vs. Gulak, Ricochet vs. Riddle, and Cobb vs. Yehi. I’ll be in the building for it and Beyond Wrestling earlier in the day.
EVOLVE 74 results:
Dick Togo defeated Chris Hero
EVOLVE Tag Team Champions “Hot Sauce” Tracy Williams & Fred Yehi defeated Ricochet & Peter Kaasa
