NJPW Kizuna Road Review 05/20/17

This is one of the many road shows that NJPW is doing, 3 of which have title matches and those are the shows i’ll be reviewing. First is yesterday’s show which featured a NEVER Open Weight 6 man title defense with Los Ingobernables De Japon taking on Taguchi Japan.

Shota Umino, Tiger Mask IV, Jushin “Thunder” Liger vs Suzuki-Gun (TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

Usually I don’t mess with the young boy matches but this was not too bad, I can dig Umino. This match started hot and heavy when Suzuki-Gun attacked their opposition to start the match. Besides short bursts of offense from Liger, Tiger Mask, and Umino this was Suzuki-Gun’s match. Desperado got the win for his team here. Solid match, not much else to say.

Match Rating: ***1/2

Dave Finlay and Yuji Nagata vs Manabu Nakanishi and Katsuya Kitamura

For those that have read my previous reviews you know I enjoy Kitamura so i’ll watch this match as well. With the big boys in full force this was a fun match. The segments with Kitamura and Nagata was fun as hell. The spot with the double Torture Racks on Nagata and Finlay by Kitamura and Nakanishi and I popped for it haha. All around a fun match that some might not enjoy but some will, I am a part of the latter who really liked it, maybe it’s because I like Kitamura a lot.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Togi Makabe and Ten Cozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and and Satoshi Kojima) vs CHAOS (Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, and Jado)

This was decent but I found myself getting bored and falling in and out of it. Solid work but just didn’t click for me. Makabe gets the win after a wild finishing sequence. As this show is all tags this has to be the weakest one. Ishii and Kojima put in work as always though.

Match Rating: **1/2

Hirai Kawato and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi

With characters like Naito and Takahashi you know some wacky stuff would happen and that came in the form of the newest L.I.J member, Darryl the cat. Yes Takahashi has a stuffed cat that he brought down to the ring. Ok enough about the best member of LIJ but this match was pretty damn fun. Kawato really showed why NJPW put so much stock into him. He showed a loot of fire for a young talent and held his own with three of the best in the company. Takahashi won with a Boston Crab which I found pretty funny considering that is all the young boys finishers.

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, YOSHI-HASHI, and Hirooki Goto) Vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr, and Taichi)

This was very good and it should be considering all the talent in the match. Also helped build up the title match between HASHI and Suzuki very well. The segment where Suzuki and HASHI were locked in a forearm battle even going as far as almost knocking HASHI out. Suzuki looked as if he had HASHI handled with a Sleeper and a Gotch Style Pile driver but YOSHI-HASHI was able to pull away the victory by submitting Taichi with the Butterfly Lock and locking on the same submission on Suzuki  until Okada stopped him. I’m really excited for HASHI/Suzuki as it should be a fresh new match up and HASHI deserves the spotlight as he is really talented.

Match Rating: ***3/4

Los Ingobernables De Japon (EVIL, SANADA, and BUSHI) vs Taguchi Japan (Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA, and Juice Robinson)

This is a title match and an extension from the gauntlet match from Dominion where LIJ retained the belts in the finals of the gauntlet. That was against an injured and tired Taguchi Japan though so fully healthy maybe this is Taguchi Japan’s time. This was a really good tag match, I recommend it to people who might even be sour on Taguchi Japan because of their goofy antics. I personally really enjoy them and they killed it hear with LIJ here. I was rooting for Taguchi Japan here but they weren’t able to pull through sadly. I am glad that a team is actually getting a reign with the 6 man belts longer than 1 defense so i’m cool with LIJ winning. Just put Darryl on the team instead of SANADA and we’ll be good.

Match Rating: ****

Also during the show NJPW announced the competitors for their annual G1 Climax tournament, here are the competitors

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi
2. Togi Makabe
3. Michael Elgin
4. Kazuchika Okada
5. Hirooki Goto
6. Tomohiro Ishii
7. Toru Yano
8. YOSHI-HASHI
9. Kenny Omega
10. Bad Luck Fale
11. Tama Tonga
12. Tetsuya Naito
13. SANADA
14. EVIL
15. Satoshi Kojima
16. Yuji Nagata
17. Juice Robinson
18. Minoru Suzuki
19. Zack Sabre Jr.
20. Kota Ibushi