Tag: lion’s gate

NJPW Lion’s Gate Project results: The seventh installment

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Tokyo’s Shinjuku Face was home to another edition of the Lion’s Gate Project, the seventh show featuring New Japan young lions, veterans, and a mix of wrestlers from other promotions. Here are the results from today’s card:

Shota Umino and Ren Narita went to a time limit draw

Narita is the newest graduate of the New Japan dojo. With a birthdate of November 29th, 1997, he is officially the youngest member of the New Japan roster at 19 years old, surpassing Hirai Kawato who was born in March of that year.

He looked good here in his debut. After escaping the Boston crab once, Umino managed to drag him in the middle for another one, but Narita wouldn’t submit as the time limit expired. The two shoved and slapped one another after the match, a sign of their strong style determination.

Taka Michinoku defeated Tetsuhiro Yagi

Yagi is the second-newest young lion, having made his debut last month at Lion’s Gate Project 6. I wouldn’t say he’s a standout yet, but he’s perfectly able and is doing really well for someone who has wrestled for a month. He looked good here before eventually submitting to a crossface.

Dinosaur Takuma & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Katsuya Kitamura & Manabu Nakanishi

Kitamura’s been talked about on here as someone with probably the most potential just based on his look — he’s an overly tan giant of a man who has shown some really good charisma during his matches. Dinosaur Takuma, who is a regular for Kaientai Dojo, has none of that save the charisma and a tail.

Nakanishi has been mentoring Kitamura on these shows, so they did some tandem work with one another during the match, including a double torture rack spot. Takuma managed to keep Nakanishi on the outside, allowing Tenzan to sink in the Anaconda Vise for the win.

Dick Togo defeated Hirai Kawato 

Kawato is one of the more advanced young lions, debuting last year. He’s grown into a great babyface-type wrestler who always shows a great amount of tenacity and intensity in his matches.

Dick Togo has been wrestling for decades, competing regularly in Michinoku Pro and even wrestled in WWE briefly in 1998-99. This is his first appearance at a Lion’s Gate Project show.

This was a good back-and-forth match. Kawato showed the intensity he’s known for, and Togo was great at being the general of the match. He took out Kawato and pinned him with a giant senton off the top rope.

Satoshi Kojima defeated Tomoyuki Oka

Oka is another top heavyweight prospect. With Yuji Nagata as his mentor, he’s a high-class amateur wrestler who has continually shown improvement and star quality. This too was a good back-and-forth match. Oka kicked out of a brainbuster, but Kojima responded with a lariat and picked up the win.

YOSHI-HASHI defeated Koji Iwamoto

Iwamoto is a regular with All Japan and has wrestled since 2012. This was a nice, easy back-and-forth match that people got into towards the end. Iwamoto had a submission locked in for a long time until YH finally made it to the ropes. YH made his comeback, hit a lariat, then locked in the butterfly lock for the submission.

Yuji Nagata defeated Go Asakawa

Asakawa is a Kaientai Dojo regular, wrestling since 2015. He’s replacing Ayato Yoshida, who suffered a jaw injury recently and will be out of action for a while.

This was a fun main event. I liked the story of Asakawa giving it everything he has, while Nagata brought it back and continued to absorb whatever Asakawa would give him. Asakawa did manage to escape from Nagata’s armbar submission, but he eventually fell to the backdrop suplex. 

Nagata cut a promo to end the show, possibly teasing a future Young Lion’s Cup for the next event (though it wasn’t outright confirmed).

NJPW Lion’s Gate Project 5 results: Tag match main event

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Here are results from this morning’s Lion’s Gate Project 5 show, a collaboration between New Japan and other promotions held at Shinjuku Face:

Hirai Kawato defeated Tetsuhiro Yagi

Yagi is another New Japan young lion making his debut here. There seem to be a lot of new lions coming out of the system lately. For his first match, he looked perfectly fine. It was a short match overall, and fine for what it was. Kawato submitted Yagi with the Boston crab.

El Desperado defeated Syota Umino

This felt pretty long and plodding. Desperado worked a lot of the match. He’s not a bad worker, but he’s not someone I would call special. He eventually won with the Guitarra de Angel.

Tiger Mask & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Dinosaur Takumura & Toru Sugiura

Takumura is from Kaientai Dojo, with his gimmick being an actual dinosaur, complete with tail. Sugiura is from FREEDOMS and currently holds the King of FREEDOM tag titles with Mammoth Sasaki. Tenzan submitted Takumura while Sugiura kept Tiger Mask busy on the outside in a pretty solid match.

YOSHI-HASHI defeated Daisuke Kanehira

This was fine. YOSHI-HASHI dominated a lot of the match early on, but Kanehira (who is from HEAT UP) made a comeback. This was another solid match overall, with YOSHI-HASHI gaining the submission win with the butterfly lock.

Satoshi Kojima defeated Ayato Yoshida

Yoshida is also from Kaientai Dojo. They had another solid match, like many others on this card. It felt just kind of there crowd-wise.

Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi defeated Tomoyuki Oka & Katsuya Kitamura

Lo and behold, this too was just a solid match, nothing more, nothing less. All of the matches tonight were pretty basic, though nothing was terrible. Oka and Kitamura looked good here and could totally be stars in a few year’s time if given the right direction. Both are really green, but it’s easy to see their potential, even beyond the impressive size.

Nagata cut a promo to close out the show.

NJPW Lion’s Gate Project results: The fourth installment

Posted on by Bryan Rose

New Japan held their fourth Lion’s Gate card this morning at Shinjuku Face. While the first three shows featured NJPW and NOAH wrestlers, the fourth featured talent from All Japan, FREEDOMS, and Michinoku Pro. 

– Taka Michinoku defeated Shota Unno with a crossface.

Unno is the son of popular New Japan referee Red Shoes, who happened to officiate this match. For his first match, Unno looked decent but obviously green, doing the usual young lion counters like the Boston crab. Michinoku transitioned into the crossface and after a while Unno tapped out.

Michinoku helped Unno to his feet, which Unno responded to by slapping the taste right out of his mouth. Michinoku no sold it and walked away.

– El Desperado defeated Hirai Kawato after pinning him with the Code Red.

Kawato has noticeably improved over the last few months and looked good here. They traded some really good near falls before Desperado pinned him.

Desperado wanted to shake hands after the match. Kawato obliged, but Desperado sucker punched him and left him out to dry.

– Jado & Gedo defeated Yuma Aoyagi & Koji Iwamoto when Jado submitted Aoyagi with the crossface.

The latter two both wrestle for All Japan, and Aoyagi also was in the Best of the Super Juniors last year. Gedo & Jado were in control for most of the match until Iwamoto took Gedo down with a judo throw as he has a background in the martial art. From there it was a solid match until Jado gained control and submitted Aoyagi.

– YOSHI-HASHI defeated Toru Sugiura after he submitted him with the butterfly lock.

Sugiura is part of the FREEDOMS promotion. They had a mostly solid match, though there were one or two mistimed spots.

– Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Dinosaur Takuma & Ayato Yoshida when Kojima pinned Takuma with the lariat.

This was a pretty decent match, but nothing to write home about. I liked Takuma’s mannerisms. Both he and Yoshida represented Michinoku Pro here. 

– Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata defeated Katsuya Kitamura & Manabu Nakanishi when Nagata pinned Kitamura with the backdrop driver.

The young lions focused on each other and vice versa. Nakanishi and Kitamura did a double torture rack spot. Kitamura and Nagata squared off until Nagata took down Kitamura with a crossface. Nakanishi broke it, but Oka took him back to the floor as Nagata delivered the backdrop driver for the win.

The main event was another solid, decent match and the young lions looked good doing their spots. Nagata cut a promo to close out the show.

Overall, this wasn’t a show you absolutely need to go back and watch, but if you want to see younger wrestlers from other promotions that don’t get this kind of spotlight, this is up your alley.

Lion’s Gate Project 1 results: Nagata vs. Kitamiya; NJPW and NOAH rookies shine

Posted on by Bryan Rose

Announced last year, this morning’s Lion’s Gate event was the first in what is to be a regular series of events highlighting rookies from New Japan, NOAH, and other associated promotions with New Japan. Tonight’s card is a mixture of NOAH and New Japan rookies and veterans squaring off in a nice mix of singles and tag matches.

Takumi Honjo vs. Shuhei Taniguchi

Taniguchi is the former Maybach Taniguchi who I guess has taken off his mask in recent weeks and has sided in NOAH in their battle against Suzuki-gun. This is Honjo’s debut match, graduating from the New Japan dojo. The former Maybach isn’t the best first match to have. Honjo looked like someone in his first match and Taniguchi wasn’t that good. Honjo got some chants going for him at least. Taniguchi got the win quickly with a Boston crab.

Kawato Hirato vs. Hitoshi Kumano

Kawato is the really young NJPW lion, only 18 years old. He looked good here and showed some fire with his offense, and his strikes look good. This didn’t last long either. Kuwato him have some offense, cut him off and pinned him with a fisherman’s suplex.

Kaito Kiyomiya vs. Ryusuke Taguchi

Kiyomiya is a NOAH rookie, wearing green tights as I guess that’s the rule over in that promotion. He has a good dropkick and handled basics pretty well. It was very much in the same formula as the previous two matches. Taguchi eventually cut him off and got the win with the dodon.

David Finlay vs. Taiji Ishimori

Pretty good while it lasted. Ishimori came off looking really good, doing some great dynamic spots throughout the match. I wonder why he didn’t get a spot in the Super Juniors tournament last year. Finlay got some great near falls and submissions, including the stretch muffler. Ishimori gave him a lot. ishimori gave him a uranage then followed with a 450 for the win.

Jay White vs. Yoshinari Ogawa

Another good match. White looked good here too. He’s the best out of the current crop of the young lions in terms of overall athleticism and ability. He would have been my rookie of the year if Chad Gable hadn’t come along. He took a lot of this match and people were behind him big time. He even handled some mat wrestling with Ogawa well. He cut him off with an eye poke and tried to go for a superplex but White stopped him. Ogawa avoided him, gave him a dragon screw and put him in a figure four, submitting him.

Lion’s Gate Project 2 was announced for 5/19.

Quiet Storm vs. Manabu Nakanishi

I haven’t seen a singles bout from Nakanishi in forever. There’s a good reason for that. Storm is an interesting story as he wrestled in the very early era of Ring of Honor, was mostly a small independent level guy, then went to Japan in the mid 2000s and has pretty much found consistent work there ever since. They did a lot of big guy spots even though Nakanishi is about a head taller than Storm. Wasn’t bad. Nakanishi can only do so much, but he got all of this spots in and was fine. After Storm teased putting the Rack on Nakanishi, he cut him off and put him in the rack, with Storm quickly submitting.

Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Genba Hirayanagi & Captain NOAH

Genba was billed as Captain Genba as he was wearing a mask like Captain NOAH’s. Kojima & Tenzan dominated a lot of the match. Genba got heat momentarily by cutting off Kojima with a testicular claw. That’s one way of halting a comeback. The masked duo got double submissions on Tencozy but they didn’t submit. Kojima came back with a diamond cutter and a brainbuster but NOAH broke it up, only to get a 3D. Genba tried to get a cheap win with the claw again and a roll up, but Kojima hit the ropes and scored a lariat for the win. Perfectly fine match.

Juice Robinson vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima

This was pretty good. Robinson was given a lot and has improved a lot in his time here with New Japan. He’s that weird situation where it doesn’t seem like he’s a young lion, but not really a pushed guy either in New Japan, so he was given a lot more here than other young lions in previous matches. Nakajima is riding a big wave of momentum as he’s pinned Minoru Suzuki and is probably next in line for the GHC Heavyweight title. Robinson also got over big time with the crowd as they were with him from the start. Lots of back and forth great action. Nothing too fancy, but a really well worked match that people got into. Nakajima picked up the win after a brainbuster.

Yuji Nagata vs. Mitsuhiro Kitamiya

Kitamiya looked good against Nagata, who did a good job in this match. There’s the occasional showing his age signs here and there, but he’s still a tremendous preformer and looked great here. He gave Kitamiya a lot and they had a pretty good back and forth match, as was the theme for many of tonight’s matches. Nagata hit the backdrop driver but Kitamiya kicked out. Kitamiya laid into Nagata with some slaps but Nagata no sold them and fired back with another backdrop driver for the win. Very nice main event with a great finish.

Nagata said a few things to close out the show.

Overall, this was a solid show. Quality wise, maybe about your average New Japan house show, maybe a little less. Nothing really bad, mostly solid to good. The unique matches really added a lot to the show and made it a fun watch.