NJPW has revealed details regarding their qualifying match for the AEW All-Atlantic title four-way at Forbidden Door later this month.
The company announced that two qualifying matches will take place on the June 20 New Japan Road card in Korakuen Hall. Those two matches will have Tomohiro Ishii take on Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Tomoaki Honma facing off against Clark Connors. The winners of those two qualifying matches will then face off the following night at Korakuen Hall. The winner will then qualify for the four-way match at Forbidden Door on June 26 in Chicago.
AEW announced the All-Atlantic title on this past Wednesday’s edition of Dynamite. The first qualifying match took place on the show, with PAC defeating Buddy Matthews. Another qualifying match, Miro vs. Ethan Page, will take place on this week’s Dynamite. The final qualifying match will have Penta Oscuro face Malakai Black.
Forbidden Door, a joint card featuring talent from both AEW and NJPW, will take place June 26 at the United Center in Chicago. Jon Moxley vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the interim AEW World Championship has been confirmed for the show.
After being pulled from Sengoku Lord this past weekend as a precautionary measure, Tomoaki Honma and Yota Tsuji have been cleared to return by NJPW.
NJPW announced on Saturday that Honma and Tsuji would both miss Sengoku Lord due to taping a television show with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19. NJPW wrote that Honma and Tsuji were both in good health and weren’t in close contact with the person who tested positive.
On July 25, Yota Tsuji and Tomoaki Honma were both pulled from the Sengoku Lord in Nagoya as a precautionary measure.
Since then, both wrestlers have undertaken PCR testing and are confirmed negative for Coronavirus. They are both cleared to return to competition from Wednesday July 29’s non-televised event in Hamamatsu.
Honma, Tsuji and NJPW thank you for your support.
Honma and Tsuji also missed Summer Struggle nights one and two on Sunday and Monday.
Night four of the Summer Struggle tour is taking place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan this Friday and will air live on New Japan World. Honma will team with Togi Makabe against Shingo Takagi & SANADA at the show, while Tsuji, Satoshi Kojima, Ryusuke Taguchi & Gabriel Kidd will face Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI.
A match at this morning’s NJPW Sengoku Lord event was changed due to two wrestlers missing the show as a precautionary measure.
NJPW announced that Tomoaki Honma and Yota Tsuji would both miss Sengoku Lord as a precautionary measure due to taping a television show with someone who later tested positive for COVID-19. It was noted that Honma and Tsuji are both in good health and weren’t in close contact with the person who tested positive:
On July 17, Tomoaki Honma and Yota Tsuji recorded a television show with another cast member who tested positive for COVID-19 yesterday, July 24.
Both are in good health and were not in close contact with the infected party. They will not be appearing on Sengoku Lord out of an abundance of caution.
We apologize to fans who were looking forward to seeing Tsuji and Honma wrestle, and appreciate your understanding.
Honma, Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima & Ryusuke Taguchi were supposed to face Tsuji, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Gabriel Kidd at Sengoku Lord. It was changed to Makabe, Kojima & Taguchi defeating Ishii, Yano & Kidd in a six-man tag match. Makabe pinned Kidd to get the win.
A Six-Man Tag Team title defense is now set for Monday’s New Japan Road show.
NJPW has announced that NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi will defend their titles against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI at the October 7 event.
The match was originally announced as being non-title, but it was made a title match after Tanahashi, Honma & YOSHI-HASHI defeated the champions in non-title action at Friday’s New Japan Road show.
Makabe, Yano & Taguchi have held the NEVER Six-Man Tag Team titles since January.
Tanahashi is having a series of four matches to mark the 20th anniversary of his debut. The Six-Man Tag Team title match will be the third in that series. The fourth match will take place at King of Pro Wrestling on October 14, with Tanahashi & Honma facing Makabe & Yano.
Monday’s New Japan Road show will air live on New Japan World with Japanese commentary. It’s taking place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and will begin at 5:30 a.m. Eastern time. Here’s the updated card for it:
Kazuchika Okada & Kota Ibushi vs. SANADA & EVIL
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi defending against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI
Honma suffered a cervical vertebrae injury while taking a draping DDT from Jado during a six-man tag on March 3rd, 2017. The match was stopped right away and Honma was stretchered out of the ring. He began to regain movement in his arms and legs in the days after the injury and spent three and a half months in the hospital as he underwent surgery and continued to recover.
Dave Meltzer wrote last November that Honma, whose goal was always to wrestle again, was back training for a return and taking bumps at NJPW’s gym.
Welcome to My Favorite Wrestler (This Week). Each week, the Wrestling Observer team chooses, you guessed it, their favorite wrestler of the week.
Fastlane was a drag, NJPW’s 45th anniversary show was great, the Hardys have joined ROH, and Rick Rude’s going into the WWE Hall of Fame. It was another week of ups and downs in pro wrestling. Here are our favorite wrestlers this week. Who’s yours?
My favorite wrestler this week is one of my favorite wrestlers in general, Tomoaki Honma.
On March 3rd, Honma took a routine draping DDT and had to be carried out of the ring as he was, in the words of NJPW medical trainer Takeshi Misawa, quadriplegic. Fortunately, he’s since regained some movement in his legs and can grip objects, and is reportedly making progress.
It’s a terrible reminder of just how quickly things can go wrong, and not just for wrestlers in the ring, but for all of us. Sometimes fans like you and me get too caught up in our opinions about booking decisions, who should be getting pushed, or who’s not being utilized, that we sometimes take for granted just how dangerous pro wrestling really is. It’s important to appreciate the good things in wrestling, and in life in general, which is basically the whole point of this column.
Speaking of good things, in typical, amazing Honma fashion, Misawa also said that Honma apologized for making fans worry, and is basically in good spirits and keeping positive. I’m pretty sure if I was in the hospital and could barely move, positive would not describe my mode. I guess that’s the power of kokeshi.
Also huge props to last week’s My Favorite Wrestler Satoshi Kojima for his awesome Honma tribute during his match at New Japan’s 45th anniversary show.
Here’s to a full and speedy recovery. Kokeshi is happy!
Neville
By Arya Witner
Sometimes it’s hard to pick one person as the best of the week, but this week it took me four seconds to realize it is your reigning, defending, undisputed Cruiserweight Champion of the world: Neville.
The cruiserweight division returned in September, and with very few exceptions the matches and segments have been forgettable and played in front of dead crowds. Neville returned in December, doing great heel promos and showing more personality than he has in the four years he has been under contract.
This week Neville managed to have two great matches, one with Jack Gallagher and one with Rich Swann, both of which took crowds accustomed to sitting on their hands and made them incredibly excited and were arguably the two best matches on their respective shows.
Now after the division seems to have finally gained some traction, we are going to get Neville vs. Austin Aries, which should be even better.
Goldberg
By Ryan Frederick
I can remember the days of being in middle school during the Monday Night Wars, and every Tuesday everyone was talking about what happened on Raw and Nitro. Goldberg was one of my favorite wrestlers during that period, and here we are in 2017, and he is the new WWE Universal Champion.
It’s a crazy world we live in, isn’t it? I know fans are upset that it was a 21-second squash of Kevin Owens, but it played perfectly into the stories of both mens’ WrestleMania future. It also brought back memories of when Goldberg used to squash random opponents on his way up the WCW ladder.
For those memories alone, and for Goldberg being champion and heading into the WrestleMania main event for what could be his last career match, I’m going with him as my favorite wrestler this week.
Kevin Owens
By Alan Boon
My favorite wrestler this week is Kevin Owens. The world of wrestling is unique — one where the loser in any contest plays as big a part as the winner, and never more so than when a competitor is requested to be a part of a momentous loss.
We can argue the merits — or lack of — of the Goldberg title win, and the 21-second match that brought it, but for a professional wrestler to engage in such career-threatening fantasy with the aplomb with which Owens approaches everything he does is notable.
He regained his heat the next night — as much as that is possible on a show on which everything seems intent on leaving everyone involved a lukewarm nothing (unless they are a part-timer from a previous era) — and will play a big part in WWE going forward.
But for this week, if you’ll excuse my rather business-exposing indulgence, Owens’ professionalism and sheer joy in anything he does wins him the award for me.
Tomoaki Honma has started to get some movement back after a scary injury that took place on Friday.
Honma took a draping DDT from Jado in a six-man tag team match held in Okinawa. Most likely the finish of the match would have involved his side winning, but after taking the move, he laid prone on the mat and couldn’t move. Jado pinned him and medical assistance was provided and he was carried out, almost motionless, on a stretcher. He was fully conscious and talking at the time.
Honma, according to sources at New Japan, has regained movement in his arms and legs but is still very weak. He is as of yet unable to sit up.
Japanese media reports state that the injury was to the C-3 and C-4 vertebrae in his neck and that he’s been moved out of the emergency room. He has said that he is getting better and vowed that some day he will return to the ring.
There are a couple of changes on the UFC and New Japan shows due to the situations with Tomoaki Honma and Khabib Nurmagomedov yesterday.
There is still little in the way of updates on Honma. New Japan has only released that Honma is off the show due to a neck injury. As of last night, even those in the company were not told anything new.
The last news, which was as of yesterday afternoon, is that Honma was able to speak and move his head, but he could not move his arms and his legs. He was able to speak when he was in the ring as well after taking a DDT off the middle rope from Jado and losing all movement on impact.
Honma is hospitalized in Okinawa right now.
Makabe & Honma were to challenge Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Instead, Yano & Ishii will defend against Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and the undercard has been rearranged.
New Japan’s anniversary show at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, which takes place Monday morning at 5 a.m. ET on New Japan World, has this new lineup:
Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoyuki Oka
Gedo & Jado & Yoshi-Hashi & Hirooki Goto vs. Minoru Suzuki & Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Taka Michinoku & Desperado
Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata & Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask & David Finlay vs. Kenny Omega & Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi & Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa
Rocky Romero & Baretta vs. Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the IWGP jr. tag titles
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the British heavyweight title
Ishii & Yano vs. Kojima & Tenzan for the IWGP tag titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Elgin & Juice Robinson & Kushida vs. Tetsuya Naito & Seiya Sanada & Evil & Bushi
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi for the IWGP jr. title
Kazuchika Okada vs. Tiger Mask W (Kota Ibushi) in a non-title match
This is the new show for today’s UFC 209 from the T-Mobile Arena in Las Vegas:
Fight Pass at 7 p.m. ET —
Albert Morales (135.5) vs. Andre Soukhamthath (136)
Paul Craig (204) vs. Tyson Pedro (205)
FS1 at 8 p.m. ET —
Mark Godbeer (241.5) vs. Daniel Spitz (240)
Iuri Alcantara (135.5) vs. Luke Sanders (135)
Mirsad Bektic (145) vs. Darren Elkins (145.5)
Luis Henrique (248.5) vs. Marcin Tybura (251.5)
PPV at 10 p.m. ET —
Cynthia Calvillo (115.5) vs. Amanda Cooper (116)
Mark Hunt (265) vs. Alistair Overeem (256)
David Teymur (156) vs. Lando Vannata (156)
Rashad Evans (185) vs. Daniel Kelly (186)
Tyron Woodley (170) vs. Stephen Thompson (169) for the welterweight title
In a trivia note, Sanders is the boyfriend of WWE performer Becky Lynch.
Tomoaki Honma was injured earlier today in a match in Okinawa and carried out of the ring, seemingly immobile after taking a DDT off the middle rope from Jado.
About 9:00 into the match at the Okinawa Prefectural Budokan Gymnasium, with Honma, Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Jado, Jado delivered the move. Honma couldn’t get up and the match was immediately stopped.
Evidently in coming off the ropes, Honma’s foot got caught on the ropes, changing the trajectory of his landing.
The match was immediately stopped and medical personnel came into the ring. They removed the top rope and carried him out of the ring on a stretcher. He was able to talk to doctors but did not appear able to move.
Honma, 40, is known for an extremely physical style including diving head-butts, which when used as often as he has done them, including sometimes off the top rope to the floor, is going to do significant wear-and-tear on the neck.
Honma & Makabe were scheduled to face Ishii & Yano for the IWGP tag team titles on Monday’s New Japan 45th anniversary show at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo.
We will update when more information is available.
Here are results for this morning’s Togi Makabe 20th Anniversary show. There’s not a lot to talk about, but overall it was a solid show with some build towards the New Japan Cup.
A nice tribute video started us off, highlighting Makabe’s career starting from 1997, when he made his debut against Shinjiro Ohtani, to winning the G1 in 2009 as well as winning the IWGP title the following year.
“Immigrant Song” played for what I’m pretty sure was the first time ever on NJPW World as Makabe came to the ring. They aired a video where Akira Maeda and Kazuyuki Fujita said what I’m sure were nice things about him. Riki Choshu came out in person to hand him flowers.
Tomoyuki Oka defeated Henare
This was stopped due to injury. Henare suffered some sort of injury to the ankle a few minutes into the match that was severe enough for it to be stopped. Hopefully nothing too serious.
Gedo & Jado defeated Taka Michinoku & Desperado
A lot of this was nothing early. The work was fine, but the crowd was just kind of there. Things picked up a bit when Jado went for the crossface, but Michinoku countered with one of his own. Gedo broke up Michinoku’s which allowed Jado to sink his back in for the win.
Shibata and Suzuki brawled around the ring early. A lot of work on the faces led to a big Yuji Nagata comeback that people were into. Shibata and Suzuki were in and did some great submission work.
Suzuki wore Shibata down with forearms. Shibata came back with a kick but Suzuki grabbed his leg and took him down with a leglock. Kanemaru and Tiger Mask were in as Iizuka distracted the ref with a chair. All of Suzuki-gun held the babyfaces down as Kanemaru pinned Tiger Mask with a top rope DDT.
Kanemaru ripped off Tiger Mask’s mask after the match, I guess because he’s mean. Suzuki cut a promo after the match berating Shibata, but Shibata came in and beat him up until the rest of Suzuki-gun came in and cleared house.
Ryusuke Taguchi, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay & KUSHIDA defeated BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito
Lots of good tags and interactions with one another here. There were a lot of interactions between Takahashi and Taguchi, as they are the next junior heavyweight title program. Finlay, who is returning from injury, had his arm worked on a lot during the match. It boiled down to Robinson and BUSHI, with Robinson getting the win with the Pulp Friction.
Okay match, though it was nothing special. Pretty solid for the most part. Nakanishi had control of Okada for a long time, even putting him in the torture rack. He scored a lot of near falls, but fell to an Okada dropkick, then ate the Rainmaker.
Yano jumped Makabe on the outside and choked him with a chair. He had the momentum until Makabe started mounting a comeback. He traded a lot of offense with Ishii. Honma also worked with Ishii a lot. Yano low blowed Makabe and hit the press powerbomb but Makabe kicked out to a big pop.
Yano and Ishii tried to use Makabe’s trademark chain against him, but he broke free and smacked both of them with it while the referee was down on the outside. Makabe gave Yano the spider German suplex then flew off with the King Kong Knee Drop for the win.
This week’s show was part two of AXS TV’s look at WrestleKingdom 10, which took place on January 4th, 2016.
Togi Makabe welcomed us to the show.
The Briscoes & Toru Yano defeated Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga to win the NEVER Six-Man titles
I’m still not sure why NJPW needed another set of titles, let alone ones with the NEVER brand, but hey, here we are. This was fine, but just felt like something was missing. It was clear the Briscoes were the best workers in the match, but the crowd didn’t know them so they only reacted for big moves. Yano hit Tama Tonga with a chair and the Briscoes executed the Doomsday Device for the win.
Hirooki Goto defeated Tetsuya Naito
This was one of those matches that was pretty good, and pretty heated, but not all that memorable in the grand scheme of things. There was the usual ref bump that allowed LIJ to run in, but didn’t last long as Goto warded them off and hit the Shouten Kai not too long after that for the win. It’s tough to remember what I thought of this match earlier this year, so in the end this was pretty good, but nothing memorable.
After the match, Goto said it was a refreshing victory because it was the tenth WrestleKingdom, mentioning how he’s never headlined a show. He wants to make this a turning point, to become one of the top wrestlers. This year, he will become the face of NJPW.
Makabe put over Honma, saying he is always over even without a belt. It was honorable to have won the Tag League with him. He has nothing to say about Gallows and Anderson. They have power and height, particularly Gallows. They have that X factor.
Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship
Anderson and Gallows dominated a lot of the match. It wasn’t that interesting, to be honest. They were always decent to okay in New Japan, very rarely was there anything out of this world. Once Homna started making the comeback, things got better and the crowd picked up a bit. Honma got the win for his team with the Kokeshi headbutt. Nice storyline conclusion for Honma — he was always the underdog in NJPW, and he’s gone from getting his first big win to winning gold.
Makabe said now that we have a belt, it’s just the beginning. We must show the fans a dramatic fight. Honma said it’s been his dream since he was little, this is a dream come true. He is happy he won with Makabe and he plans to be champions with him for a long time.
In a post-match interview, Makabe said his opponents were incredible, but he won the honor and the belt. It was great that we got the result we wanted. Where we go from here is up to Honma. He shouldn’t be a show off, but he can be a show off and get results.
This week was pretty okay, but nothing special. These three matches weren’t bad by any means, but not the best on this card.
Seems like yesterday I started doing these reports, but in fact we’re at night 10 of the G1, this time held in Kagawa. As usual, here are the results:
David Finlay, Juice Robinson, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Tiger Mask, Captain New Japan, & Jushin Thunder Liger when Robinson defeated Captain New Japan with the Unprettier.I guess it’s a nice change from him losing to Yujiro 1023 times on this tour.
Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, & Bad Luck Fale defeated Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, & Manabu Nakanishi when Tonga pinned Nakanishi with the Gun Stun.
Hirooki Goto & Naomichi Marufuji defeated SANADA & BUSHI when Goto pinned BUSHI with the GTR.
Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & KUSHIDA defeated Gedo, Kazuchika Okada, & Tomohiro Ishii when KUSHIDA beat Gedo with a moonsault.
YOSHI-HASHI defeated Katsuhiko Nakajima
Good action to start. Both guys have done really well in this tournament so far, especially YOSHI-HASHI. Nakajima blasted YH with a crazy looking kick to the chest, and YH responded with a superkick right to Nakajima’s jaw.
YH hit the swanton bomb, but Nakajima came back with three superkicks. YH came back with a lariat, then hit Karma for the win. Really good match.
Michael Elgin defeated Yuji Nagata
They smashed each other early with some forearm shots. They ended up in a corner where Elgin tried to fight off Nagata, but he no sold an overhead suplex to the floor. Elgin countered with a buckle bomb, but Nagata came back and transitioned into the white eyes armbar.
Elgin laid out Nagata with a Death Valley Driver on the apron. Nagata came back and they had a nice brawl until Elgin smashed him with a buckle bomb and a powerbomb for the win. Nice, tough match.
Toru Yano defeated Katsuyori Shibata
Shibata went into business mode the minute he entered the ring, laying out Yano with the dropkick to the corner and virtually knocking him out. Yano freed himself long enough to undo the turnbuckle. Shibata ran into the exposed corner, then Yano got a near fall after a low blow.
Shibata went for the sleeper but Yano grabbed his leg from under him and sat on his chest for the shock win.
Kenny Omega defeated EVIL
They went outside early and teased some steel chair shots but both managed to miss. It became a pretty decent back and forth match. Omega was looking to finish but EVIL exploded with a German suplex and lariat. Omega blocked the STO and, after an exchange, hit the reverse rana.
Omega hit a knee strike then pinned him with the One Winged Angel. Pretty good last few minutes, but felt pretty short. Would have been nice if this got more time.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Tomoaki Honma
After their initial exchange, they brawled into the crowd where Naito dropkicked Honma in the leg for a countout attempt. Didn’t work.
Honma sold his leg well and that played into the match as Naito worked on it with his new submission. Honma made his comeback with a Kokeshi and started to go to the top rope, but Naito met him on the way.
Honma kept fighting his way back, got a Kokeshi and the sit-out piledriver, but missed the Kokeshi off the top rope. Naito eventually came back with the Destino for the win. Pretty good match.
Way better than last night’s show. Most of the main card is worth checking out!
Night two of the G1 is upon us. We pick up where we left off at Korakuen Hall as we go through the prelims, then the start of B Block action:
Tencozy & Manabu Nakanishi defeated David Finlay, Captain New Japan, & Juice Robinson when Satoshi Kojima pinned Captain New Japan after a lariat. Very short, even for a tag match. In an interesting note, they didn’t mute Kojima’s or Tenzan’s music, which is weird as they were muted at the start of the tour.
Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, & Naomichi Marufuji defeated Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, and Bad Luck Fale after Marufuji pinned Takahashi with the shiranui.
KUSHIDA, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger when KUSHIDA pinned Tiger Mask with a bridge. Tiger Mask and KUSHIDA had good chemistry towards the end. Makabe and Tanahashi had a staredown.
SANADA & BUSHI defeated Kazuchika Okada & Gedo when BUSHI pinned Gedo after the codebreaker.
Onto the G1 matches themselves:
Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Toru Yano
Yano is most interesting in these tournaments as he usually gets some quick wins out of nowhere.
He attempted a few of them in here, but it didn’t work. He tried to use the ref, but Nakajima persevered and gave him a drop toe hold into the post, then pinned him with a penalty kick and brainbuster. Not much of a match.
Kenny Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI
This started off with a very good pace. This is one of YOSHI-HASHI’s first singles matches in a while and he looked great. He’s very over as an underdog in these kind of matches.
Omega cut him off and wrapped him around the mats on the floor, then followed that with a double footstomp. YOSHI-HASHI made a comeback, but got derailed with the knees to the back following a failed senton attempt.
Omega struck him with the knees and went for the One Winged Angel, but YOSHI-HASHI countered into a DDT. Omega kicked out of the senton and managed to get to the ropes after a submission attempt.
Omega made another comeback, but YOSHI-HASHI came back with a knee strike to the back of the head. But that still didn’t do it. Finally, YOSHI-HASHI hit a modified Michinoku driver and pinned Omega in a big upset. Great match with tons of fantastic near falls towards the end.
Michael Elgin vs. EVIL
About as stiff as you’d expect. A lot of back and forth stiff shots. EVIL’s excelling in this type of match. Elgin hit a frog splash that the announcers called the Big Mike Fly Flow, which is a pretty nice name.
EVIL hit a crazy half nelson suplex then soon followed that with the STO for the surprise clean win. Well, there’s going to be a lot surprise wins in the first few shows. Good, stiff match.
Tetsuya Naito vs. Yuji Nagata
Naito went to work on Nagata’s leg, taking him to the outside, wrapping a post around the leg, and dropkicked it. Nagata kept giving it to Naito, but he remained focused, staying on the leg, and wrapped Nagata’s legs into an ankle lock.
Nagata came back and drilled him with a backdrop driver for a cool near fall. Naito tried to mount a comeback, but Nagata drilled him with a kick to the temple then bashed him with a bridging back suplex for the win.
Nothing totally wrong with this, as it built well and overall was a pretty good match, but it felt like it was missing something until the last few minutes.
Tomoaki Honma vs. Katsuyori Shibata
This was another match where the action was good, but something was missing. I think there’s an element to Honma that’s missing as well as the underdog story from last year isn’t here this year, and as a result he just comes off as just a guy.
They worked hard and there were some stiff spots, but it wasn’t out of this world or anything. The finish was cool as Honma hit a sitout piledriver, then a reverse sitout piledriver (which is the best I can explain it), then hit the Kokeshi from the top rope for for the win.
Honma cut a promo after the match, saying he’s lucky, and that will take him to the finals.
Overall, a pretty fun show from top to bottom. Most of the tags were fine and most of the G1 matches were good, one reaching great. Check out Omega vs. YOSHI-HASHI for sure.
Did you watch Wrestle Kingdom 9? Did you see the IWGP Tag Team Championship match between The Bullet Club and Meiyu Tag? That is, for all intents and purposes, the same match we’re getting at Wrestle Kingdom 10, except Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata (Meiyu Tag) are being replaced by two balding, ageing men with blonde dye jobs, also known as Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma (G.B.H.), near identical backstory and all.
Firstly, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson of The Bullet Club are heading into Wrestle Kingdom as long-time champs again. They had held the tag titles for an entire year before losing them to Meiyu Tag at Wrestle Kingdom 9. For reasons I’ll never understand, they won the titles back from Meiyu Tag in little over a month. They later lost them to The Kingdom (Maria and some guys) at Invasion Attack 2015, but regained them at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall in July, and have held on to them ever since.
Another similitude is how the challengers for the belts at Wrestle Kingdom 10 were determined. Meiyu Tag earned their title shot at Wrestle Kingdom 9 by winning the 2014 World Tag League, though they had defeated Gallows and Anderson in a non-title match (and lost a title match) earlier in the year. Surprise! Honma and Makabe also earned their chance at the gold at Wrestle Kingdom 10 by winning the 2015 World Tag league. At least Meiyu Tag had some history with The Bullet Club which gave the match a little extra spice. Honma and Makabe, on the other hand, have both been involved in the Never Openweight Title picture throughout 2015, and only recently reteamed for the World Tag League. So not the most compelling lead up to their January 4th showdown.
One aspect that provided the Wrestle Kingdom 9 match with some added intrigue, and does the same for Wrestle Kingdom 10, is the undertone of the challengers not being able to win the big one. In 2014, Hirooki Goto challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight, Never Openweight, and IWGP Tag Team Championships, and failed at all. Katsuyori Shibata challenged for the Intercontinental and Tag Team championships, and also failed. While Togi Makabe has had some recent championship success with the Never title in 2015, Honma is the walking, talking (well, kind of) definition of coming up short, and it’s that trait that makes him such a perfect underdog character. Honma’s ability to lose so often but still manipulate the audience into believing he can actually “do it this time” is second to none.
And thus, the stories of the two matches are nearly identical. Goto and Shibata proved at Wrestle Kingdom 9 that they could get the job done and finally got their mitts on some gold. I’m putting my hypothetical money on Honma and Makabe achieving the same goal at Wrestle Kingdom 10. It will of course be a team effort, but Wrestle Kingdom 10 will be a truly defining, individual moment for Honma as he does what he’s never been able to do in New Japan, win a title. And there’s no better venue than the Tokyo Dome. Or, he’ll lose, as he is wont to do. Either way, the crowd be with him for every twist and turn in the emotional rollercoaster ride that is a Honma match.
Following the trend of the majority of Wrestle Kingdom 10 matches, the build up has left a lot to be desired, but the match itself ought to be a barn burner with the potential to create an unforgettable Wrestle Kingdom moment. Personally, I’m just hoping Gallows and Anderson lose the titles so that I no longer have to be subjected to Gallows flapping the belt around like it’s an extension of his willy.
