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Wrestling Dontaku, May 3rd, Fukuoka:
Yoshitatsu & Hirai Kawato defeated Katsuya Kitamura & Tomoyuki Oka. Tatsu wasn't exactly the guy to bring out the best in the young lions, in fact they're more competent in the ring than him. Oka & Kitamura make a hell of an imposing tag team and put a beating on the smaller Kawato. Kitamura used his size on Tatsu, until Tatsu went after the knee and won with a leg submission.
YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay defeated Chase Owens & Yujiro Takahashi. Nothing special here. It was just a match. YOSHI was worked over until Ospreay picked up the pace after a hot tag. Owens looked really good, hitting some really innovative moves. Ospreay took out Yujiro with an amazingly perfect Sasuke Special, while YOSHI made Owens submit to the Butterfly Lock.
Togi Makabe, Tiger Mask W & Tiger Mask IV defeated Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Jushin Thunder Liger. This was a fun tag. W & Nagata had a great exchange, with lots of kicks from W. The crowd went nuts when he starts flying around the ring. Nakanishi & Makabe ran at each other like two trucks. The Tigers took out Liger & Nagata with dives, which allowed Makabe to pin Nakanishi after a King Kong Knee Drop.
Hirooki Goto, Beretta, Rocky Romero, Toru Yano & Jado defeated TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Minoru Suzuki. This wasn't much different to every other Suzuki vs Goto tag on this tour. Beretta stole some of Romero's taunts, which was very funny. Jado was in the ring for a very long time before he was able to tag out. Goto & Suzuki tore into one another and everyone else just vacated the ring to let them go at it. The finish of the match saw Goto hit TAKA with the Ushigoroshi and the GTR. After the match Suzuki & Goto continued to brawl. Suzuki then decked Kitamura with a right hand as he left ringside, because why the hell not?
Cody defeated David Finlay. This was pretty much a showcase for Cody. The match was fine for what it was, but it was almost an extended squash. Cody carries himself like a star, and he did that here. He is extremely confident in the ring and the crowd reacts to him because of it. He is definitely getting over with the crowd. Cody won with Cross Rhodes and cut a good promo afterwards saying that he wants NJPW to send him more competition.
Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito defeated KUSHIDA & Juice Robinson. This was really good. KUSHIDA was out for revenge on Hiromu in his first appearance since being squashed at Sakura Genesis. Lots of fiery action from KUSHIDA as he took it to the Jr. Heavyweight champion. Naito & Juice clashed again, but their story wasn't the focus of the match. The finish saw Hiromu do it again, and once again pin KUSHIDA with the Time Bomb with relative ease. Hiromu has KUSHIDA's number and was put across as being broken and beaten down.
IWGP Tag Team Championship: Raymond Rowe & Hanson defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima and Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa. This wasn't a long match, but it was a hell of a sprint. Lots of hard hitting fast paced action with lots of double team. G.O.D. really stood out here and were very fired up! War Machines power is insane. Some of their big moves were cut off by GOD, which got a great reaction from the crowd. Kojima & Tenzan got to do all their signature stuff, but they were the background to the other two teams. The finish saw War Machine hit Fallout on Tenzan.
After the match G.O.D attacked War Machine with the title belts, so it's looking like that will be the next title match.
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship: BUSHI, SANADA & EVIL defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ricochet. These titles have been treated as if mean absolutely nothing, so it's very hard to get invested in this sort of match. That being said, this was a really fun match with too much going on to recap. Taguchi's partners ate his a** attacks when LIJ turned things around on him. EVIL blocked a High Fly Flow from Tanahashi. The babyface team had three submissions applied at the same time. Lots of big sequences that ended with all six guys going down. It was impossible to keep up with, but fun to watch. The finish saw Taguchi make BUSHI tap to an ankle lock, but the referee was distracted. BUSHI then misted him and hit two Codebreakers to win the match and start the third title reign for the LIJ team.
Kenny Omega defeated Tomohiro Ishii. This was an outright match of the year contender. Just an incredible pro wrestling match that started off at full throttle. In the first couple of minutes we had powerbombs, lariats and V-Triggers. Kevin Kelly described it perfectly on commentary. Five minutes into this it looked like they had been through a thirty minute war. Omega went after the neck of Ishii. An amazing moment saw Omega spit at Ishii and the Stone Pitbull fired up like only he can. Ishii destroyed Omega with more lariats than I could count, each one stiffer than the last. Omega hit big moves and stiff knee strikes. The moment of the match saw Ishii counter a One Winged Angel into a reverse hurracanrana! The last few minutes saw them hit each other with every strike they had until Omega dropped Ishii with two knees to the jaw and hit the One Winged Angel. Omega got his win back after losing to Ishii in the New Japan Cup. This is a match you need to see. No one sells like Ishii. He can make anyone believe he is near death. We all know how great Omega is, but Ishii is a guy that really doesn't get the credit he deserves. He's truly special.
IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada defeated Bad Luck Fale. This was a grueling war for New Japan's top prize and one of the best matches that Fale has ever had. Fale dominated right from the start and looked like a monster. He cut Okada off with everything he did. He hit one of the highest back body drops I've ever seen. Okada slowly fought his way back in, but Fale would continue to have the momentum. The story of this feud has been the Tombstone. Okada hit Fale with it, which was quite the sight. Fale, who has beaten Okada with the move, hit it for the near fall of the match. Okada countered the Bad Luck Fall into a hurracanrana and would then hit a Rainmaker. Fale was able to battle out of a second one, but Okada then hit a spectacular German suplex and a further two Rainmakers to put Fale down. No one ever believed that Fale had a chance, but he had a great showing and Okada yet again proved that he is the best big match performer around.
After the match, Okada called Omega into the ring, and it was a simple gun shot from Omega, so it looks like we will be getting Okada vs Omega 2 at Dominion.
This show is available now at njpwworld.com with English commentary.
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