The WWE finished its last major event, Fast Lane, prior to WrestleMania with a few minor surprises in the booking and a lackluster overall show.
In the last few weeks, there have been only minor changes to the original plans for WrestleMania. It is now, officially:
*Bill Goldberg vs. Brock Lesnar for the Universal title. Whether this is positioned last or not, this was told to us from the start as the main event on the show. Unless plans change, Lesnar will win the title. Goldberg’s contract expires with this show but they can always sign a new deal. But the reason Lesnar put Goldberg over so quickly at Survivor Series and the Rumble is that this would be the end result. Goldberg having two quick matches would indicate this also won’t be a long match.
*Bray Wyatt vs. Randy Orton for the WWE title.
*Undertaker vs. Roman Reigns. No matter what the long-term plan is as far as Reigns and a heel turn, he will be the biggest heel on the show.
This morning’s show takes place in Yamagata, and it will be the final G1 show before the last three shows that will take place at Sumo Hall. Just a reminder, those shows will have English commentary (Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino) for those interested.
Ryusuke Taguchi defeated David Finlay with the Dodon.
Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Satoshi Kojima, Manabu Nakanishi, & Juice Robinson when Tonga pinned Robinson with the Gun Stun.
BUSHI & SANADA defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Captain New Japan when SANADA submitted Captain New Japan with the Skull End.
Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Gedo, & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, KUSHIDA, Jushin Liger, & Tiger Mask when Goto pinned Liger with the GTR.
Kenny Omega defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima
This was a pretty good back and forth match. Omega seemed on tonight and looked great, doing a lot of the offense early. Omega went for the kick but Nakajima avoided him and tried for a German suplex.
Omega got to his feet, laid him out with the kick, and went for the One Winged Angel but Nakajima escaped.Nakajima eventually hit the Penalty Kick, but Omega came back out of nowhere with the reverse rana and hit the One Winged Angel for the win.
EVIL defeated Toru Yano
Not much of a match and pretty short. Yano did the exposed turnbuckle bit. He slingshotted EVIL into the exposed buckle but EVIL dodged and Yano ran into it. Didn’t last long as EVIL won clean with the STO.
Tetsuya Naito defeated YOSHI-HASHI
Another good match. YOSHI-HASHI’s matches get a lot of heat and this one was no different. This picked up a lot towards the end. Lots of cool back and forth counters. Naito went for the Destino but YH countered with a slam.
YH hit the senton for another near fall. YH took Naito to the ground and went for the butterfly lock. Naito escaped and hit a flurry of offense (though he botched a reverse DDT) then hit Destino for the win.
Katsuyori Shibata defeated Yuji Nagata
Solid stuff, but they’ve had way better matches in recent years. They brawled and exchanged shots. Nagata went after Shibata’s bum shoulder, doing the white eyes armbar. He tried the backdrop driver but Shibata blocked it. When Nagata went for a flurry, he shot back with a dropkick.
Nagata fired back with more shots but Shibata caught him in a sleeper. Surprisingly, Nagata was trapped and ended up passing out, giving the win to Shibata. Hey, cool finish, that puts the sleeper over as a possible match ending move down the line.
Michael Elgin defeated Tomoaki Honma
Awesome match, the crowd was totally into Honma and wanted him to win. Elgin looked the best he has on this tour so far, same with Honma and that equaled a great match. Honma missed his Kokeshi early. Elgin waffled Honma with a lariat but he rebounded and hit a Kokeshi on Elgin’s arm and made a comeback.
The crowd was totally into Honma; if he were to win, it would likely mean he’d get a title shot down the line. Honma came back with two more Kokeshis and a brainbuster, then tried for the big one but Elgin fired back.
Elgin gave Honma a Death Valley Driver on the apron and powerbombed him into the post, then followed with the deadlift Falcon Arrow slam for a near fall. Elgin hit a buckle bomb but Honma immediately bounced back and hit the Kokeshi. He hit the sit-out piledriver then tried the top rope Kokeshi but Elgin dodged.
Honma tried to fight back, but it didn’t work. Elgin hit the buckle bomb and the spiral bomb for the win.
This morning’s Kizuna Road show, live in Iwate on New Japan World, is highlighted by two title matches and an eight man elimination tag team match.
Send your feedback and thumbs up/down/in the middle and a best and worst match to [email protected]
The main event has Katsuyori Shibata, who just won back the NEVER title a few weeks ago at Dominion, defending his championship against Tomoaki Honma, the perennial underdog. It’ll be interesting to see who wins here as they are also scheduled to meet again later this summer in the G1. In another title match, NEVER Openweight Six Man champs The Elite (Young Bucks and Kenny Omega) defend against veteran Satoshi Kojima and former Junior tag champs Ricochet and Matt Sydal.
In between those two matches we have a big eight man elimination match as Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay and Yoshi-Hashi take on Los Ingoberables de Japon – Evil, Bushi, Tetsuya Naito and Sanada.
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CHASE OWENS VS. DAVID FINLAY
Owens won a short, solid match after a package piledriver. Finlay is good, and also getting popular. Owens was animated, sold well, but comes across as just a guy.
Better than usual for this slot. Baretta survived some near falls with Tenzan. It ended with Taguchi using a plancah on Ishii, Tiger Mask did a tope on Romero, Liger did a plancha on Sakuraba and in the ring, Tenzan pinned Baretta after a moonsault. The crowd was pretty hot seeing Tenzan deliver the move. Match kept moving, was good.
Tenzan did a promo after the match. He’s mad he’s not in G-1 this year, and the crowd wants him in.
YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & HANGMAN PAGE VS. YOSHITATSU & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN
Fans were into chanting for the Hunter Club. Match was okay with Page actually the best of the four. Captain got some near falls on Page before Page put him away with the Omori driver. Whenever Page does that move, it looks like the guy is going to get hurt because he drops them on their head.
Page hung Captain over the top rope after the match. Page cut a promo announcing that in August the tag titles come back to Bullet Club. That means that tag title match with Briscoes vs. Page & Takahashi is likely on the final day of G-1 at Sumo Hall.
TOGI MAKABE & JUICE ROBINSON VS. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI
As you would expect, Nagata pinned Robinson with a bridging back suplex for the win. Robinson worked most of the way and sold. Nakanishi did more than usual including a top rope superplex and a crossbody off the top. Best stuff was Nagata vs. Makabe. Right before the finish, Nagata & Nakanishi did a double-team on Robinson with Nagata doing a high kick and Nakanishi coming off the top rope wth a chop.
It’s intermission time. They ran through the entire undercard in barely an hour.
YOUNG BUCKS & KENNY OMEGA VS. SATOSHI KOJIMA & RICOCHET & MATT SYDAL FOR NEVER TRIOS TITLES
Young Bucks & Omega were all wearing New Day T-shirts. Nick still has his ribs taped up. He was also doing the Big E pelvic thrusts.
Super match, great from start to finish with the belts changing hands. With the Bucks as tag champs, losing the trios belts makes sense but they bounce these belts around too much. The finish saw Kojima hit Omega with a lariat and then, he lariated both Bucks at the same time. Sydal hit the shooting star press on Matt, and Ricochet hit the shooting star press at the same time on Nick with Sydal pinning Matt.
Nonstop action and moves, but at times, it was the Ricochet highlight show. Everyone was at their best here. The Bucks twice tried the Meltzer driver but both times it was stopped. Lots of dives. The Bucks & Omega also did a “The Elite” chant to the cadence of New Day sucks.
Kojima called out Tenzan. He talked about Tenzan not being in G-1, and then offered Tenzan his spot. He really didn’t do much here so maybe he’s hurt, but on paper, that’s a backward move for the tournament.
KAZUCHIKA OKADA & HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI & WILL OSPREAY VS. TETSUYA NAITO & SEIYA SANADA & EVIL & BUSHI IN AN ELIMINATION MATCH
Another excellent match. It came down to Ospreay and Bushi and they were great. Bushi blew the mist but Ospreay moved and it went into Sanada’s eyes. Ospreay won after a standing Spanish fly and the Oscutter, a diamond cutter off the ropes. Pretty heated match. Naito and Okada did their big spots early to make it clear they were going over the top together. Evil clotheslined Goto off the apron to eliminate him. Yoshi-Hashi superkicked Evil off the apron to eliminate him. Sanada revesed a cradle by Yoshi-Hashi to pin him. This left Ospreay with Bushi and Sanada. Ospreay dropkicked Sanada off the apron to eliminate him. Ospreay was booked to be, and was, the star of the match.
KATSUYORI SHIBATA VS. TOMOAKI HONMA FOR THE NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE
Another excellent match but a little predictable. I think everyone pretty much knew how the match would go and the ending. Honma got a lot of offense but nobody ever bought him winning. Everything was laid in hard. A highlight was Honma coming off the top rope to the floor with a diving headbutt and escaping a guillotine by turning it into a brainbuster. Lots of hard elbows. Honma did his headbutts.
The finish saw Honma do a Mascaras style headbutt and Shibata caught him with a choke. He choked him almost all the way out, let go and hit the penalty kick for the pin. It just felt from the start that this is a showcase win for Shibata. Because of that, it wasn’t as good as the match they had a few years ago in G-1 which was a match of the year candidate. Last three bouts were all totally different and all delivered.
Shibata helped Honma to his feet and then threw Honma out of the ring and raised the belt.
More New Begining coverage is on the menu for today’s New Japan on AXS, as we return after two weeks with a match of the year contender. The most interesting thing to remember on this show is that Tomoaki Honma was never scheduled to be on this show – Togi Makabe was set to defend the NEVER title against Ishii, but pulled out the day of the show due to suffering a flu. Fate is a funny thing sometimes.
Today’s bouts are from the February 14, 2015 New Beginnings show in Sendai.
Kota Ibushi and Tetsuya Naito vs. Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba kicks things off. I’ve said this before, but man has Naito totally changed his look and persona in the last few months. This was only about ten months ago, but Naito has changed himself so much in that timespan this looks like a match from years ago, especially when you consider Ibushi’s been gone for a while. Ibushi and Sakuraba had some cool exchanges. It’s unfortunate that Ibushi and Sakuraba’s proposed match at the Toyko Dome isn’t taking place as they had some pretty good chemistry. Considering I’ve seen many World Tag League matches in the last couple of weeks which feature formulaic, solid wrestling, this was refreshing. A really good match with everyone getting some shine, and didn’t feel formulaic in the least bit. Everyone worked hard, even Yano, and that made this an exciting bout. Yano did his shoving opponent into the ref/low blow spot, but Naito transitioned during the execution and pinned Yano in a flash pin. Nice to see Naito beat Yano at his own game.
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata took on the Bullet Club, consisting of Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, and Tama Tonga. This was fine, but felt like I’ve seen it before. A better version of a six man tag you’d see on any New Japan house show this year. Tanahashi gave Tama Tonga the slingblade, high fly flow, then pinned him
Main event hype time. Ishii said that he knew that Makabe couldn’t fight him due to getting the flu, but he didn’t know why he was facing Honma since he just lost to Ibushi a few days ago. He hasn’t thought much on Honma as his eyes were only on Makabe heading into this fight.
The match aired, and it hurt. Hurt bad. These two chopped and slapped the crap outta each other, repeatedly dropped each other on their heads and decapitated them with lariats in one hell of a match. Dave gave this ***** when it aired earlier this year, and I would have to agree with his. It’ll be on many people’s top 10 lists this year, and not a bad match to watch this time of year considering the Observer awards coming next month. Just a hellacious battle that proves that you can book a guy to lose all the time, but he can still be over if he’s given the opportunity. Honma very rarely pins a guy, but he gives it his all so much in every match people are into him, and makes his matches that much more special. The near falls in this match were so incredible. Even though you KNEW Honma wasn’t winning, this match was so great in making you believe he might be the next NEVER champion. After Honma kicks out of a sliding D to the side of the head (!), Ishii lays him out with a brainbuster and pins him in an excellent match.
Honma questioned himself why he couldn’t win in a situation like this. He promised a win next time. He’s not going anywhere, and that’s not changing anytime soon. Ishii says it’s only a temporary belt and won’t wear it until he beats Makabe. Prepare yourself.
Ishii, again a man of few words, says he doesn’t have much thoughts on the match. He wants to surpass the IC title with the Never title. He wants to win the belt and wear it in front of Makabe. Deep down, he feels the same with all opponents, and when he faces them he wants them to be fired up just as much as he does.
Excellent show this week, very much recommended if you haven’t seen this match yet. Be warned, however, as it’s not for the weak of heart.
