NJPW Power Struggle

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Power Struggle
8th November 2014, BODYMAKER Colosseum, Osaka

The final real supercard of the year indicates much intrigue with Bullet Club touting a new member, the next stage in the Shibata revival story and a raft of title matches with some big hitters. Let's dive straight in.

featuring translations from Yottsume of puroresushop.com
and lots of images from the excellent Sports Navi

Forever Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero) (CHAOS) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (Bullet Club) vs. TAKA Michinoku and El Desperado (Suzuki-gun)

Perhaps this is indicative of a lack of depth in the junior tag division but this match does feel like we've been here before on numerous occasions. Nonetheless, the very basic fact is that these guys in their overfamiliarity can trump most in their enigma, so it's best gone along with.(Dr. Fujiwara recommends merging the tag belts, but then again I would).

There's no real pretence at a structured wrestling match. It's just six guys flying around and performing some convoluted spots and having a great old time diving this way and that. The Young Bucks dominate much of the running and pick up the rightful win with More Bang For Your Buck after everyone has done their signature spot, taunt, sell and dive. Plus points for El Desperado's carefree Cannonball to the outside, during which he manages to skirt self-decapitation by landing in the third row. ***1/4

Young Bucks d. Forever Hooligans and Suzuki-gun

Toru Yano and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka (Suzuki-gun)

A very short and sweet encounter with plenty of fiery jabs between Suzuki and Sakuraba (whose upcoming Gracie match prevents him from really doing much), with humorous asides from Iizuka and Yano. We have seen this match a lot of times recently so the two new things to mention are i. Sakuraba won with a pinfall on Suzuki after Suzuki has his man wrapped in a sleeper and ii. that Suzuki takes the mic after the result and appears to challenge Sakuraba to a UWF rules match for Wrestle Kingdom 9. People appear to approve. **

What Suzuki actually said was:

Are you really satisfied with the way you won? Is this your UWF way of pro-wrestling? Is this your ‘UWF’!? Huh? Does 3 count exist in your UWF? Answer me, you weak son of a bitch! We should settle this once and for all! We don’t need any partners! We don’t need any 3 counts! Come at me with your ‘Puroresu’!

NWA JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Chase Owens (c) w/Bruce Tharpe vs. Jushin 'Thunder' Liger

Bruce Tharpe introduces his champion, Chase Owens (who looks much better than his last outing in the attire department), with all the spirit in his body but surely he cannot back this horse against Jushin Liger. Liger pretty much is the reason for international junior heavyweight style wrestling, and even at his advanced age and limited movement has still got the ability and love behind him.

Just fucking asking for trouble mate!

It's a second decent showing for Owens, looking good in spots as he levels Liger with a Prince's Throne to Liger's aging mid-section. But for all of Tharpe's proclamations and Owens' youthful guile, he cannot stop the legend from smashing him with a glorious wheel kick and ending his title reign with two unstoppable brainbusters to take the title. Tharpe, predictably, is furious. ***

Liger d. Owens to become new NWA Junior Heavyweight Champion

Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Tetsuya Naito and Captain New Japan vs. Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, Bad Luck Fale and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club)

A completely fun and watchable house show style multi-man match that advanced no stories and where everybody did their thing and nobody looked above or below the position that they are on the card. Of note: Anderson and Gallows (due a tag defence, surely!) had their heads painted white to match Tama Tonga. Bad Luck Fale took the win with a Bad Luck Fall on Captain New Japan. ***

Bullet Club d. Makabe, Naito, Honma and Captain

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA) (c) vs. reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly)

A well-awaited rematch from their G1 Final encounter which may have caught the Seibu Dome crowd a little cold, with many never having seen reDRagon before. Surely they would have been impressed, but a tour of the regions has helped Fish and O'Reilly settle in even better with the crowd. Between losing that encounter and taking Time Splitters on again here, they captured the Super Jr. Tag Tournament, an 8-team roundelay contested on the tour leading into Power Struggle.

Again the pairs have a first-rate encounter. KUSHIDA and Kyle's chemistry feels worthy of a serious singles program, mixing lightning speed with convincing groundwork – but Fish and Shelley are no makeweights, with all four contributing strongly to the perfect way to close the first half of the show. Shelley's patented babyface in peril routine maybe goes on a shade too long here, though there's a touch of levity with a spot where he keeps rolling away from a double team headbutt to seek the safety of the corner. When reDRagon plant him, he manages to escape the move before it hits.

The stretch, as with many matches of this type, is a breathless whirlwind of moves and reversals and nearfalls. Fish goes near with the top rope Falcon Arrow. KUSHIDA dives over the ringpost to wipe his opponents out on the floor. Shelley saves KUSHIDA's bacon twice but cannot a third time when hooked into Chasing The Dragon (O'Reilly hoists into brainbuster, Fish kicks the head, brainbuster, pin) for the end of the match. It's 1-1 in the series. I want more. ****1/4

reDRagon d. Time Splitters to become new IWGP Jr Heavy Tag Champs

Young Bucks and Forever Hooligans come out to stare the new champs down. Time Splitters also want another tilt, so I presume this spells 4-Way Dance for the Dome Show. Standard. Cool.

The halftime show announces NJPW World, a possible WWE Network aping thing that appears to be in association with a TV network, so less chance of pissing people off. Also Hiroshi Tanahashi is seen out on a walk and then arrives at the steps of Osaka Castle Hall. Dominion 2015, two weeks later than usual in July rather than June, will take place here at the 16000 seat venue. Ballsy!

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Taichi w/El Desperado and TAKA Michinoku (Suzuki-gun)

Taichi opens, insistent upon a handshake. To prove his sincerity, his shakes referee Asami's hand and pledges fealty to the rules. Taguchi then shakes Taichi's hand and nothing happens. All is fair. TAKA bounds onto the apron and offers his hand. Taguchi shakes and again, all is good with the world. Trouble comes in threes, however, as Desperado offers a hand and won't let go, causing Taichi to get the early advantage. Stupid Taguchi!

Don't worry, he's fine

In a match that became more interesting than it appeared on paper (not much), Taguchi works a classic match that is about outsmarting the ringside clique as much as the in-ring opponent. It nearly looks like a grim time for Taguchi as he is trapped by Taichi on the apron and laid out with a Gotch-style piledriver through a quickly arranged table at ringside.

Problematically for the logic of kayfabe, Taguchi is up and wrestling and performing intricate transitions way too soon. He defeats the three at ringside without exhibiting a mild migraine, let alone the pain of head-first impact through wood onto unforgiving floor. Yeah, he wrestles pretty well, but this kind of magical rebirth is beyond 'fighting spirit' and enters into the John Cena fantasy world. Taguchi wins, though I am now a little grumpy. **3/4

Taguchi d. Taichi

After the match, Bullet Club return to ringside and announce their new member: Kenny Omega, who has apparently adopted the nickname 'The Cleaner'. Looking part-Masa Chono and part-Whitehouse singer William Bennett (which ties into the 'Cleaner' nickname, as they sang a couple about a murderer who referred to himself as the Street Cleaner), Omega cuts a promo in English (sigh) about how he lied about loving the Lion Mark and just wants New Japan's money.

Oh you dick Kenny

He then faces Taguchi down in his mirrored aviators and long trenchcoat and calls the champion 'bustah' before leaving. Taguchi gets a good pithy barb in English back on Bullet Club. It's pretty cool but also I was really up for babyface Kenny having some good matches rather than cheaty Kenny McAsshole. We'll see how it turns out.

Backstage, Omega continued his verbal assault:

Are you all surprised that I joined the Bullet Club? They’re all my friends. There’s nothing to hide. And I didn’t mean to deceive you either. The members of the Bullet Club are true Professional wrestlers. We’ll collect every belt there is. And that’s why Anderson approached me. Same with Young Bucks. Taguchi, I’ll tell you this. You know who we are, right? You’re getting one chance and one chance only.

AJ Styles w/Jeff Jarrett and Scott D'Amore (Bullet Club) vs. Yoshitatsu

More Bullet Club shenanigans. It is at the opening of this match where I realise that I really don't know much about Yoshitatsu at all. I never saw his original New Japan run as Naofumi Yamamoto, nor did I see much of his supposedly good stuff in ECW/WWE. The most I would get to see was his Japan-flagged shorts walking to the back after getting tossed out early in a Battle Royal. Rumours abounded prior to his release that he had regressed and that he wasn't in the best physical shape. But he's here. And people seem pleased to see him. And it's my fault that I haven't seen him. And also AJ Styles is very very good.

"What do I do next?", he almost seems to say

Branding Yoshitatsu as 'the Bullet Club Hunter' is a nice move, though (perhaps it is buried in the Japanese) there is no sense of any motivation why he hates Bullet Club so much. Sure, they're annoying, but starting a one man war? Commentary burbles hushed tones of a WWE v TNA match, probably selling the whole thing short.

Styles did his best here to help Yoshitatsu but, much as I thought when I saw Yoshitatsu in WWE, the overriding impression that I got was that his recent company probably weren't exactly missing much upon releasing the guy. The match falters. It attempts take off and then lands. With no expectation, it should be clear skies, but often it is drizzly and slippery.

Yoshitatsu may very well be a future star but working as a sympathetic babyface against the former world champion and his two cronies in a mid-length match is not something in his woodshed right now. He takes the rightful defeat, but even this displays a layer of work that needs to be done, as he forgets to tilt his head back for the Styles Clash and takes to the top of his head. Fortunately he appears okay.

Yoshitatsu picked a bad day to return to the office

Maybe they just didn't click too well. Styles seemed to pull good stuff out of Toru Yano and Lance Archer, so it feels less likely than Yoshitatsu not quite being up to it. I shall wait on my judgement. Jarrett and D'Amore add insult to injury with a loaded guitar shot to Yoshitatsu, though help is at hand as Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma prevent things getting gruesome. Naito and Styles face down, indicating a match at a certain large baseball stadium in the Suidobashi area in 2015. **3/4

Styles d. Yoshitatsu

Backstage, Naito accounted for his intrusion:

You know that I’ve actually defeated AJ Styles at G1 CLIMAX fair and square, right? And yet, AJ chose Tanahashi as the challenger at Ryogoku. And he may have dropped the belt, but I know very well that he’s caught the heart of the fans during his reign. Let’s do this again, Styles. Don’t you want to get even with me? Looking forward to hearing from you, the Phenomenal One.

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) (c) vs Hirooki Goto

Oh god. This was a war. From bell to bell these two hammered the crap out of each other.

Indicative

That's not to say there was nothing else. As backyard wrestling has proven, any two Joe Lunchboxes can hurt each other legitimately and it can mean nothing. With proven quality like Ishii and Goto, you have all the thrill of two brutes laying in their strikes and peacocking like they aren't hurt, but you get all the extra layers that expert match construction provides.

Neither guy has a particularly wide-ranging arsenal. Neither guy could be argued to be an innovator of holds or novel reversals. What they both do is utilise the right thing at the right time more often than most. During this match, one of the biggest pops (of several loud explosions of joy) is when Ishii catches Goto in the cradle position and utilises Goto's own Ushikoroshi neckbreaker. It might not seem like much written down but it just worked, drawing from history and the present to generate meaning as much as 'cool move bro'.

Though I am on record as a huge Ishii fan, I was okay at the outset with the possibility of a Goto win. Goto has begun a new crusade against the factions of NJPW and it makes sense for him to burst the bubble of the CHAOS #3. That said, it is only Ishii's first defence, and in announcing 'no more stupid matches' on defeating Yujiro, it would be sad for him to lose so soon.

Ishii & Goto saved the show, woke up the crowd and had me jumping up and down in joy. These guys are amazing #njpwpowerstruggle
— ωяešтłıиgđνđ~! (@wrestlingdvd) November 8, 2014

In a match where I covered my face a couple of times at the intensity of what I was seeing and marked out more furiously and earnestly than at any juncture in my early wrestling watching days (1990-2002), two men earned the respect of the entire hall. The match never left the ring in 17 glorious minutes. They did not go to German suplex spots upon running out ideas. They held true and firm and did not flinch in the face of the gruesome. Ishii won with a brainbuster. ****3/4

Ishii d. Goto

In the post-match, Togi Makabe comes out to stare Ishii down for the belt and presumably a Dome Show shot. Yes!

In a rare burst of lucidity, Ishii talked up his animus for this match:

It all goes back to that IWGP Intercontinental title match with Goto two years ago. That’s where my road of revenge has started. There’s no way I could lose to him today. If I lost here, I had to start over from the beginning. That’s why I knew I couldn’t lose. And did you see that when I called out Makabe? You surprised, huh? The NEVER title will never be the same again. I told you. The NEVER belt that is around my waist is the true NEVER title. Makabe has won both the IWGP Heavyweight title and the G1 CLIMAX. He’s a perfect opponent for me. And he accepted my proposal without hesitation. I know for sure that he wants to have the kind of match I’m having. He’s had a lot of rivalry with lots of different opponents, but none of them ever stood out to me. None of them. So Makabe, I’ll be your best opponent ever. I’ll show you that ‘Real Puroresu’ that you always speak of.

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi vs. Kazuchika Okada and YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS)

It would be a mistake to describe this as a pure buffer match because it does at least do more than just trail the Tanahashi-Okada match for Wrestle Kingdom 9. Ibushi is still making the running as a heavyweight, YOSHI-HASHI is still learning how to step beyond being a jobber and also Okada and YOSHI-HASHI are likely to be a confirmed team ahead of the upcoming Tag League. Only small details, but worthy of note.

typically elegant stuff from Okada

It's actually a really quite good match that the four have, with Ibushi standing above the rest and taking a deserved win with a Phoenix Splash on HASHI. Everyone gets a great reaction and hits their coolest of moves in an order that could come across as arbitrary were it not for little details that hinted at construction.

YOSHI-HASHI and Okada have a team move where the former catapults their opponent into a DDT from the latter. Tanahashi takes one, but Ibushi kips out of the catapult and hurricanranas Okada. Genuinely fun encounter, probably meaningless in the long run, but bridges the gap perfectly with stars and familiarity. ***3/4

Tanahashi and Ibushi d. CHAOS

Tanahashi got all moon-eyed and reflective backstage:

A lot is going on heading into Tokyo Dome. It must be shocking for Ibushi that his former partner Kenny Omega has joined the Bullet Club. And for me, the tombstone piledriver that Okada executed on me brought back bad memories… It was the same tombstone piledriver that cost me my longest IWGP Heavyweight Championship reign two years ago. At Tokyo Dome, the new chapter of the Tanahashi reign.

Ibushi was even more distant:

I must embrace the fact that Kenny joined the Bullet Club. I have to take it in slowly though.

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
Shinsuke Nakamura (CHAOS) (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata

I'm going to start with the unthinkable and criticise Shinsuke Nakamura. There's no denying the man's wrestling ability and complete charisma. He looks equally at home working a match, talking in the ring or to camera, he's an expert at gaming social media, pretty good at surfing, a hit with the ladies and is possibly the last man on earth who can wear a fedora and still look like an okay guy.

A slight difference in personality

But as his character has developed into this world-straddling cool guy phenom, it has taken on a similar dimension to The Rock or Stone Cold Steve Austin at their pomp. A good thing, you might argue, possibly correctly. But. Nakamura is now so cool and above it all that nobody really can get to him. Fights are now 'delicious' possibilities, challenges, potential situations of interest. His three match series with Tanahashi, his four with Fale and his pair with the Gracies in 2014 looked more like a fine sporting rivalry in the Corinthian spirit. His G1 Final defeat to stablemate Okada was taken in gentlemanly spirit. Can anything get to this guy?

According to the video, Katsuyori Shibata can and has. We jump back to 2004, as Shibata defeats Nakamura and mocks him on-mic, causing the then-Super Rookie to blow his cool and run back to the ring for a pull-apart brawl. Shibata wouldn't be long for the company after that and ten years would elapse until their next singles meet at this year's G1 Climax. Shibata also won that encounter. Cutting in suggestive footage that plays on the history of Shibata, Nakamura and Tanahashi as the New Toukon 3 (only for Shibata to throw it all away) elevates this encounter to the same level of supposed-real enmity as Shibata and Tanahashi exhibited.

The match is really good. As Nakamura main events often do, it opens with personality rather than power, inviting the crowd into the headspace of the spectacle rather than trying to blow people away with stiffness or technique. Nakamura attempts his bag of psychological tricks; the taunting vibro-head rope break, the struts and the poses, but Shibata is having none of it and pounces on any exposure.

Dropping Nakamura on the apron, Shibata hits a sprinting lunge kick that crashes the champion into the guard rail. Calmly as one can, Shibata crawls outside and boots Nakamura in the chest, sending him sprawling over the commentary position. Shibata then returns to the ring and awaits the count. From here on, Nakamura realises that this is a dogfight instead of a posedown, and the match generates momentum through the big spots of both men, the sinewy grappling and the rough strikes. Shibata finds his mark with his stomach-churning backfist and we charge towards a new champion tease.

A potential blackspot would be an ending that felt at the time a little rushed. After Goto and Ishii's exploits two matches earlier, this felt like the moment to stretch the clock a little longer and exchange nearfalls and desperate haymakers. Instead, Shibata hits the Go 2 Sleep. Nakamura doesn't pop up for the PK, so Shibata covers. Only a two count, so Shibata attempts the PK, which Nakamura catches, expertly reverses, leaps to his feet and hits a Boma Ye and another for a 2 count. Signalling the finish, Nakamura hits the higher knee to an upright Shibata and retains. Nonetheless it was a fine match, though many were clamouring for more.

After the match, Nakamura takes the mic and says a few words as he usually does to close the show.

Now, I can head to Tokyo Dome without any doubts! But I’m out of hands now that I’ve defeated Shibata. No more cards in my hand… I could really use a Joker here. A joker to give me the heat! New Japan Pro-Wrestling…. I’m not taking ‘no’ for an answer! The answer is…

Out of nowhere, Kota Ibushi rushes the ring and scoops the champion for a German Suplex and issues a challenge for the Dome Show!

Ibushi rushes Nakamura!

Nakamura-san, the crazy guy is here. Am I not good enough to give you the heat?

The G1 23 rematch that was denied us by Ibushi's concussion will happen! HALLELUJAH! ****

Nakamura d. Shibata