NJPW Kizuna Road 2016 Dual-Review (from Joe and Jordan)

NJPW Kizuna Road 2016 (Day 6) Review

David Finlay vs Chase Owens (Bullet Club, unfortunately)

Joe: This was just about what I expected from these two. David Finlay continues to impress, I can’t wait for him to go on excursion to the US. I see huge potential in him. Owens on the other hand, yikes. He’s fine in the ring but just overall bores me to death. No character, no charisma, just overall unimpressive and has no business being in Bullet Club whatsoever. This match was fine, but you don’t have to go out of your way to see it. Just a fun little under 10 minute match. Okay start to the show.

Rating: 2.5/5

Jordan: This match was a lot better than I was expecting. Chase Owens is far from the best wrestler that I’ve ever watched and David Finlay is an average worker, not bad at all but I’ve never seen a classic David Finlay match. These two work pretty well together however and put on a solid nearly 7 minute match. Good opener.
Rating: **1/2

Tomohiro Ishii, Kazushi Sakuraba, Beretta, Rocky Romero (CHAOS) vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV and Ryusuke Taguchi

Joe: I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again, CHAOS tag matches RULE. This one was probably the best I’ve seen. Everyone played their part, especially Taguchi and Beretta. Every interaction those two had was golden. Tenzan and Ishii also had a great face off, and I can’t wait to see that in G1. If the Tenzan that showed up in this match shows up in G1, we’re in for a treat folks. Go out of your way to see this match, it was awesome.

Rating: 3.25/5

Jordan: This was a lot worse then it looks on paper. It was basically all the dads hitting their spots on Beretta and Romero (as Ishii was barely involved and Sakuraba was only involved to hit some very weak strikes). The closing sequence was rather fun and the match itself wasn’t the worst thing in the world, but the idea behind it and the execution of making RPG Vice look like total chumps was not good. I honestly felt bad for Ishii for having to be involved in this. I don’t remember Taguchi doing much else besides hitting people with his ass which was highly annoying and Tenzan (as per usual) did nothing memorable. Tiger Mask and Liger did well because they both can still go (Liger more so than Tiger Mask).
Rating: *

Adam (No, I’m not calling him Hangman Page) Page and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club) vs Captain Fookin New Japan and “Not Triple H” Yoshi Tatsu (Bullet Club Hunters)

Joe: First thing’s first, Adam Page has a BADASS entrance video now. It’s really, really cool, and if they make a Page Bullet Club shirt, I will get it. Second, fuck the Bullet Club Hunters. They legitimately have the WORST gimmick in all of wrestling currently. Seriously. Yoshi is a fucking joke these days, and CNJ has always been one of my absolute least favorite wrestlers. As for the match, it was just bad. Yujiro and Page are a good fit as a team, as Page’s awesome wrestling and Yujiro’s undoubtable charisma bring the best out of each other, but this was just terrible. During it, I got Twizzlers. They were much better than this. Skip it for your own sanity. Regardless of this being shit, I’m still looking forward to Hangman Pimps vs The Briscoes, that should be great.

Rating: 1.5/5

Side Note: (Only reason it got this much was Page’s entrance video and seeing the Captain planted with the Rite of Passage and hung over the ropes by a noose.)

Jordan: I absolutely despise the Bullet Club Hunters and Tatsu’s Triple H knockoff gimmick. I like Yoshi Tatsu so it sucks for me that I have to dislike him so much but when your gimmick is jobber Triple H who is failing miserably at taking out the Bullet Club then I can’t say I’m going to like you very much anymore. The saving grace of this match was Adam Page and the surprisingly good teamwork between Page and Takahashi. Yujiro isn’t a very good worker but he is charismatic as it gets and him and Page actually hit some good double team moves and the finish was awesome. Page’s Rite of Passage on Captain New Japan was absolutely devastating. Not bad at all but not the best thing in the world. It would’ve gone down in rating had Tatsu and CNJ won, but that wasn’t expected as Page and Takahashi are on their way for a shot at the Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
Rating: **

Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi vs Togi Makabe (GBH) and Juice Robinson

Joe: A Nakanishi/Robinson faceoff is the stuff of nightmares. Unfortunately, it came to life. I wish it hadn’t. Juice has some of the cringiest selling ever, and Nakanishi is the closest thing to a real life statue. It wouldn’t be that bad if it was just a few minutes, but it was 90% of this match. You have Nagata and Makabe who are both exceptional workers, — USE THEM. Please just skip this, I’m only looking out for your best interests.

Rating: -3/5

Jordan: This was as bad as it gets. This is quite possibly my new worst match of the year. For starters, Nakanishi can barely move. His best offense is a weak punch. Makabe was barely involved but it’s not like he would’ve been the saving grace. Shockingly, Nagata didn’t even look that great here, and this is coming from a Nagata fan. This match was basically one of my least favorite wrestlers on the planet Juice Robinson trying to salvage an obviously slow and dull match but failing miserably. I actually give kudos to Juice for the effort he put in but the other three men sure did not help. Highly skippable unless you want something to fall asleep to.
Rating: 1/2*

NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championship – Kenny Omega, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson (Bullet Club, c.) vs Satoshi Kojima, Matt Sydal and Ricochet

Joe: Going into this, I had really high expectations, as all six of these guys are awesome wrestlers, and the Elite always put on some fun matches. This more than lived up to the hype. Kojima worked really well with his new partners, complimenting their high flying with his more ground based striking. The MVP of this match was easily Ricochet, who continues to prove why he’s one of the best wrestlers in the whole world. These NEVER 6 Man matches are just total chaos and a ton of fun. If you don’t go out of your way to see this, you will absolutely regret it. As for the title change, I don’t even mind anymore. As long as the matches continue to be amazing, the belts can be on anyone and I wouldn’t care.

Rating: 4.5/5

Jordan: Now the pace has finally picked up on this show after a tremendously weak undercard outside of the opener. This was fast paced, full of near falls, and just a very entertaining 6 man tag team match. The Elite are obviously one hell of a team, but Kojima, Sydal, and Ricochet worked very well together too. Sydal and Ricochet were able to hit some highly impressive maneuvers as they always do and Kojima looked good at the points he was in the match, at one point hitting a brutal lariat on Omega followed by a double lariat on the Bucks. Even though I knew the outcome going into this match, they still had me on some of those near falls including the triple superkick The Elite hit on Sydal (which was sick). Omega took 2 reverse hurricanrana’s in this match so I gotta say I feel bad for him. Just an overall enjoyable tag match and while these tag titles have been hot potatoed, they have produced some very fun matches on these New Japan shows, so that’s a positive. Definitely a must-watch from this show.
Rating: ****

Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Will Ospreay, and YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS) vs Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, BUSHI, and SANADA (Los Ingobernables de Japón)

Joe: I’ll be 100% honest, I had no idea this was Elimination until Goto got out. It certainly didn’t affect my rating though, this match was exceptional. All the individual feuds played themselves out really nicely, and I especially loved seeing Okada and Naito go at it again. It’s fun to watch YOSHI improve so much throughout these matches, he easily wins Most Improved this year. His feud with SANADA is also really interesting, and another awesome branch in LIJ vs CHAOS. Definitely check this one out, just a ton of exciting and constant action and storyline progression.

Rating: 4/5

Jordan: This was an exciting match and one of the better LIJ vs. CHAOS matches. I think the elimination rule enhanced the match and while some may criticize the over the top rope elimination, I think it really worked here to get Okada and Naito out without either man suffering a pinfall loss. Ah of course, you can’t have a big tag team match without some good old shirt choking as BUSHI used his shirt to choke Ospreay out in the early goings. Naito hit a brutal Destino on the apron on Okada to eliminate both men first. YOSHI-HASHI actually didn’t look bad here, he hit a nice looking Superkick on EVIL at one point. The closing moments when the match got down to BUSHI and Ospreay were highly entertaining as both men are fantastic Jr. Heavyweights. The counter from BUSHI where Ospreay went for the Springboard Cutter and BUSHI ended up hitting a backcracker in mid-air was tremendous looking. I thought this match was very good and this half of the card has been great and is almost making up for the three rather poor matches from earlier in the night.
Rating: ***1/2

NEVER Openweight Championship – Katsuyori Shibata (c.) vs Tomoaki Honma

Joe: This match was one I was really excited for coming in. Shibata is one of the best in the world, and easily one of my absolute favorites. Honma is someone who I’m also a big fan of, and a guy I consider criminally underrated. I hoped this match would allow Honma to show just how good he is, akin to the Ishii series last year. And it did just that. Honma was able to hold his own against the NEVER Champ, and put up one hell of a fight. Multiple Kokeshis, including one to the floor from the top rope, and a nasty looking driver made Honma look like a credible threat to Shibata, which is great for a borderline comedy character like Honma is. The strikes towards the end of the match were brutal, and really helped enhance the dogfight like aura about this match. Easily Honma’s best performance of the year, here’s hoping we see this in G1. Shibata also heads into G1 with a strong win, so maybe we see him win his block. He’s definitely a darkhorse pick for me. As for this match though, it was amazing. Strong recommendation from me.

Rating: 4.25/5

Jordan: This match started and I was just waiting for Honma to use his head to do his lame ass headbutt… It only took about a minute for him to fall on his head when Shibata moved. If you know me, you know I’m not a Honma fan at all, but he was actually pretty impressive in this match. I commend him for doing the Kokeshi headbutt from the top rope to the floor spot because that was crazy and he hit a very nice brainbuster out of a Dragon Sleeper from Shibata. This started off slow but it was a nice, relaxing pace of the two men feeling each other out and then it got going. Shibata’s selling of Honma’s chops was excellent. He tried to fend them off but it caught up to him the more he took and he fell to the mat and started coughing his lungs up (not literally, obviously), which I loved. All of Shibata’s offense is so brutal and he’s such a badass, I doubt I could last more than 10 seconds against him in a legit fight, he’d knock me out pretty quick. This was actually a lot better than I was expecting it to be going in and I enjoyed it. It was hard hitting with some very cool spots and Honma put up one hell of a fight. Solid main event.
Rating: ***3/4

Joe’s Final Thoughts: This was a pretty average show. If you’re gonna watch anything from it, I’d honestly just watch the second half. The first half, especially the last two matches, was very poor. The 1.5 and -3 star matches really took away any energy from the first two solid matches. The second half absolutely saved this show, with 3 consecutive matches earning a minimum of 4 stars, which is rare. If it didn’t have that, this show would be much worse. Mild thumbs up.

Overall Rating: 7/10

Jordan’s Final Thoughts: Overall I did enjoy this show even though the undercard was very weak. The uppercard made this show worth it because all three matches were very good and I really liked the 6 man tag. It was honestly just a decent show but it also featured one of the worst matches I’ve seen this year, if not the worst match I’ve seen this year. I’d suggest going out of your way to watch the 6 man tag and in your free time definitely watch the CHAOS/LIJ match and Shibata/Honma.
Show Rating: 6/10