NJPW POWER STRUGGLE 2016

New Japan Pro Wrestling
Power Struggle
Prefectural Gymnasium, Osaka
5th November 2016

About a week ago here in my home country of the United Kingdom (not merely England) there was a taping of another attempt at rebooting the old ITV wrestling show known to most as World of Sport (though of course World of Sport was the name of a sports show of which wrestling was one of many delightful cultural strands alongside football, hockey, lacrosse, motorsport, and weird stunts like jumping over barrels. For some reason World of Sport has become synonymous with the wrestling alone). The previous attempt I sort of remember in the early part of the previous decade, where ITV2 (to my overseas readers, ITV is one of the original 5 channels UK viewers received on the basic package of the analogue era. It is mostly entirely filled to the brim with steaming hot piss. ITV2 is even worse) took over the FWA or maybe IWA:UK promotion, one of the ones that had Alex Shane and that Hammerlock guy who trained Devitt, and tried to tack on the old aesthetics of rounds and slightly camp grappling to the modern style of jumping and flipping and leaping. Needless to say it was a miserable failure on several levels (bored commentator roped in from real sports duty, set that looked like a bouncy castle, tiny joke ring) and cancelled so quickly that I can barely find trace of its existence online to the point where I feel I may have dreamed it.

The way we were

Regardless of the success of the new show (and I wish it well) the producers of the new show have drawn a firm line in the sand that I applaud. Here is someone on reddit who wrote out as a short one-act play of an interaction that they saw as a problem that is, to my mind, a big plus:

Announcer: The following contest is set for one fall
Crowd: ONE FALL!
Announcer: don't do that.

Apparently the nabobs behind this show are wise to the know-it-all/above-it-all tendency in the UK wrestling hardcore and sought to stamp on their little bullshit fire early in the camp. This aforementioned scenario might seem harmless enough and indeed, alone, it is just a little bit of back-and-forth. But this show-stealing aren't-we-so-goddamn-neat bullshit pervades pretty much every aspect of nearly every wrestling show I've attended in the UK in the last few years and frankly I am so sick to the back teeth of it that I have i. stopped writing reviews and ii. stopped attending shows. Big loss, cries nobody.

cool guys

Worse still there often are kids in this crowd having their natural cheer/boo reaction as suggested/dictated by the show and its characters shat directly upon by the smart guys in black t-shirts who have decided to reverse the polarity by knowing best. A brief list of their crimes - as one-offs occasionally amusing but now obligatory to the extent that they fill every moment in such a predictable manner that I would laugh if it wasn't so depressing - includes:

- Whenever like 15 seconds of mat work or reversals happens without a flip, strike, leap, or reaction 'out' to the crowd, people shout “WRESTLING!” God, does anything scream that one is going through the motions of being into something if they have to name the thing they are watching out loud to get a laugh? Fuck it, I'm going to the football to shout “PASSING!” I've paid my money. Don't tell me what to do.

- Counting ahead of counts. So if the action in a match goes to the outside and the ref starts a count, to try and put the ref off, they'll chant back the next number. The above 'one fall' thing is part of this gimmick too. We're the crowd, we're as important. No. That's what wrestlers have told you to GET MONEY OFF YOU FUCKING MARK </honky tonk man voice>.

- Swearing a lot. Again, there are kids in. Come on guys (it's nearly always guys). Watching dads strongly considering the exits as their son hears JIMMY, JIMMY, JIMMY FUCKING HAVOC for the umpteenth time.

- Generally just lacking patience or having any real feel for psychology. Seen a few live matches eschew sensible build and run directly to the sprint as the smarmy chants started up when a limb was being worked. This has led to the rise of Will Ospreay. More later.

- Just generally, in their conduct as a crowd and online, giving rise to the horrendous caricature of the entitled spoiled bastard. Meet them alone and they're usually fine. Together or behind a keyboard, some of the worst humans going.

So, Fujiwara Armbar, when are you going to finish with these offensive, myopic, and high-functioning generalisations and get onto the review of the advertised event? Well, reader, after this segue. We're in Osaka, where I'm sure that wanky smark fucks exist but thankfully they are mostly erased in the heartfelt and passionate eruption of actual love and hate of this particular crowd. It feels real and it is incredible and if ITV pick up World of Sport (they will not) then they should actively engender this kind of earnest kneejerking even if it is sparse at first because when it coalesces into actual responses (which I have seen at a UK wrestling show as an adult precisely twice) then it is beyond compare. Wrestling's flirtation with the postmodern was unsuccessful. We do not need fans-as-metacommentators. Ban all current fans from going again.

Anyway. Greetings wrestlepals! And by 'wrestlepals' I mean the select few of you in the wrestling fan universe whose opinions I can still stand to read in and amongst the opened sluice gate of torrential shit that is social media where no matter how much I apply the @T20000000 method of powermuting they come back strong and harder day in and day out. Never mind this show - that is a real power struggle!

There is detail and intrigue up and down the card though that will be detailed within each match.

HIROYOSHI TENZAN, SATOSHI KOJIMA and JUICE ROBINSON vs. YUJI NAGATA, MANABU NAKANISHI and TERUAKI KANEMITSU

In addition to the growing antipathy towards my fellow wrestling-enjoying human (I will get off this horse soon) I have been shvitzing my balls off in a work-dojo of my own creation for the last year or so. My enjoyment of New Japan has been reduced to the second half of major PPVs (though I squeezed in all the tournament matches in the G1 Climax, which was super) and as such absolutely nothing profound can be ventured by way of opinion of the direction of the company or the new guys or the developments of anyone positioned beneath upper midcard.

Thankfully this match has a very familiar feel as excellent kickmaster Yuji Nagata and giant-but-creaking shootgrappler Manabu Nakanishi square off against the boxy lariat king Satoshi Kojima (who I feel can still 'go' a bit and is slightly insulted by constantly being ranked with the granddads) and the rasping bull Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Making up the numbers are the former NXT peacenik turned light party guy Juice Robinson and the slightly dorky Young Lion Teruaki Kanemitsu. This latter description is not a diss: it is incumbent upon the rookies of New Japan to convey an essential awkwardness that they overcome in the full flourishing of time.

The best bits involve Nagata and Kojima though Nakanishi does a hilarious crossbody from the top (he really is very stiff and immobile). Robinson gets the win over Kanemitsu with a move not terribly dissimilar to Christian's Impaler. It's not a great move imo and Robinson's version is worse. Robinson looks a great deal more acclimatised than the last time I actively sought him out, whilst Kanemitsu is fiery but a little overmatched. Who would fail to be in this well-decorated company? A short match so only **.

ANGEL DE ORO, TITAN, FUEGO and RYUSUKE TAGUCHI vs. DAVID FINLAY, RICOCHET, JUSHIN 'THUNDER' LIGER' and TIGER MASK

Though Jay White has moved overseas on excursion, his dojo buddy David Finlay appears to have secreted himself into the fabric of the company and become reasonably well-positioned in the aftermath of Matt Sydal becoming detained at Japanese customs with some prime bud (seriously, is he in jail right now?). The plucky German-Irishman has acquired sexy flip star Ricochet as a tag partner and is one-third of the current NEVER Six Man tag champions (alongside Satoshi Kojima). Not only that, he gets the win here! One to watch or simply a placeholder?

This is a fun five minutes. Of the three CMLL guys with Taguchi, I think I like Angel de Oro the most. Titan is the most animated and Fuego the funniest, but de Oro displays a craftsman's charm as both uke and tori. Taguchi smothers people with his butt, Liger hits some hard strikes, Ricochet does his stuff that looks like something from a Shaolin stage show, and Tiger Mask hangs onto the easiest payday in wrestling. **1/4

YUJIRO TAKAHASHI, CHASE OWENS and BONE SOLDIER (Bullet Club) vs. TOGI MAKABE, TOMOAKI HONMA and YOSHITATSU

Have you ever played the early version of Total Extreme Wrestling that may have had a different name and tried to turn a lower card guy that no one cares about to the opposite orientation in the heel/face binary, only for the crowd to be even less bothered about that person than before? That has happened in New Japan. Bone Soldier, for those of you who do not know, is the former Captain New Japan, gone bad during a risible beef with Yoshitatsu and joined the formerly-villainous-now-somewhat sad Bullet Club faction.  I am unsure what I feel about the name Bone Soldier. It is either plain bad or it is an excellent comment on weaponised bodies in contemporary culture. Given how much time its owner has to consider the lights I would not put the latter option past him.

Aside from the deliberately and comically awful 3 Man Band stable in latter day WWE who to be fair were all completely okay wrestlers but stuck up Slack Alley in south Jerksville, I cannot think of a bigger triumvirate of jabronies put out by a reasonably large promotion than the dregs of Bullet Club in 2016. Chase Owens of NWA hoots it up and at least looks lively, but maybe that is in comparison to his torporific buddy Yujiro who is quite possibly the most difficult wrestler to enjoy on any level of this decade if not longer.

In the opposite corner the brutish Makabe and the recently winning Honma remain good value. There is this strange online current around Makabe that goes something like this: he's shit and boring / yes but he is really popular irl in Japan / yes but he's boring / yes but he's a draw. As a tiebreaker I point out that he's actually pretty decent in the ring and if he was such a major draw then why has he not headlined shit in years? But then ultimately I lose because I have fallen into the complex shoot-work of the online dorkwad community.

Brief WWE sojourner-turned-broken-neck-man Yoshitatsu has thus far seemed kinda like someone who has been given a soft company job because they do a really good turn at the annual interpromotional softball match. I can empathise as a fellow injured man and similarly do a good turn at the annual inter-work quiz.

The match itself is surprisingly fine. Chase Owens does the leg work for Bullet Club and exhibits some nice HBK-esque desperation superkicks whilst the most improved award goes to Yoshitatsu with his stern kicks and nice little knee lift thing. Yujiro gets the pin on Yoshitatsu after one of his three or four interchangeable but essentially solid finishers.  This technically counts as a win for Bone Soldier which is pretty much a bad sign for all concerned. **1/2

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
GUERILLAS OF DESTINY (c) (TANGA LOA and TAMA TONGA) (Bullet Club) vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII and YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS)

The last time I saw Guerillas of Destiny I scrambled out of the room as quickly as I could. Since arriving in New Japan (something which I hoped would happen, to be fair to my idiotic wishes) Tanga Loa has been a disappointment commensurate with his push. Charitable as one might be, and New Japan is not an easy place to just walk in the door of if not versed in the house style and just go, but at times I have wondered if Loa has ever really worked a proper match with bumps and movement and some degree of improvisation before. His brother Tama Tonga is much improved over the course of the last 18 months. As is CHAOS bottom rung-dweller YOSHI-HASHI and people in Osaka are really going wild for this guy who has the fundaments of being a megadoofus but is also a slick little operator between the ropes. Factor in Ishii, who is an incredible source of joy and potential, then the expectations of this match commence at middling.

Anticipations are outstripped. This is Roa's best outing across all of the promotions he has worked in. He moves well and seems to exhibit a more natural flow around the ring, inhabiting his role as the enforcer of the team with good physical charisma. The champions don't quite have that super championship aura, yet. They seem like a team who have lucked into something. Good matches like this will enhance their longevity as a unit and their prospects of getting decent heat down the line.

YOSHI-HASHI appears to also be super over here and the crowd are very hopeful for his first title win. It seems strange that the crowd are so hot for him because he has a good partner and his underdoggery seems less realistic to me against a team that until now have been coldly received. Nonetheless! There is the sensation of coming unglued when he wallops his Left-Arm Lariat with that signature form (really high arm raise follow through, looks like Mighty Mouse taking off). The CHAOS guys can't quite do it though. YOSHI-HASHI gets Tonga up for Karma and is expertly and breathtakingly reversed out of and into the Gun Stun. Roa gets in for the double team finish and YOSHI eats the pin to give GoD their first decent defence. ***3/4

SUPER JUNIOR TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT 2016 FINAL
ROPPONGI VICE (ROCKY ROMERO and BARETTA) (CHAOS) vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI (NOAH) and ACH (ROH)

Throughout the last few weeks Roppongi Vice have teased a split. They've argued their way into the finals and in the opening minutes they set at each other over who should tag in. That gives ACH and Ishimori, on loan from NOAH, early leverage. Problem is it sort of goes nowhere and as such I think the first few minutes of this match aren't very good – just a collection of bits, some done at walking pace, with no real venom or fluidity.

This is something of a shame as I've seen ACH in person and was very taken whilst Ishimori was always one of the highlights of the era of NOAH I followed closely (who can follow them closely now? Speak up!). Once this arbitrary few scenes inside and outside of the ring passes the match settles into a solid if unspectacular junior heavyweight tag team match. There's some cool stuff as you'd expect and even demand down the home straight but only as perfunctory as a nice establishing shot in a Hollywood film or general tightness from a rock band inasmuch as they are not remarkable alone.

Roppongi Vice win with Strong Zero to win the tournament and in the post-match challenge junior tag champs The Young Bucks to a 2-vs-2 match at Wrestle Kingdom 11, marking a break from the signature opening 4 team match for the first time in recent memory. The dipshit champs emerge, one of whom has a really sweet jacket on, and accept. Romero gets some cheap pops by renaming the team Doutonbori Vice (an area in Osaka) for the evening and we're all happy. I think. ***

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
BUSHI (c) (Los Ingobernables du Japon) vs. KUSHIDA

One of the stranger sex symbols in the wrestling fandom, BUSHI has developed a small cult of fans who just go to see him and leave when he is done. I don't entirely get it but the wilful obscurantist in me does approve of him and his nascent sex cult.

Having wrested the title a month and half ago at Destruction in an underwhelming match full of interference, BUSHI comes correct and alone and without mist for his first defence against the man he deposed. It appears to be an error. KUSHIDA tires of BUSHI's stalling only slightly slower than I did, attacking him from the bell.

In the centre of this match there's a good and intelligent mat-based match that for whatever reason, certainly not lack of effort, never really rises up above the sum of its parts. I like both guys and they've had great matches before and will continue to do so and they've definitely got stuff they can deploy that raises them above the bog standard. KUSHIDA's roll through to juji-gatame from the top turnbuckle is a perennial favourite.

Mentally I have declared a war on moves that would clearly hurt the giver as much and to this end BUSHI's MX is stupid, having to take a second turnbuckle back bump in commission of a knee-to-face. The finish to the match is much better with KUSHIDA locking in a kimura and BUSHI frantically trying to escape only for KUSHIDA to roll through and secure the hold centre-ring. BUSHI threatens to escape again but KUSHIDA simply rolls through a second time, secures the lock and, under a mess of KUSHIDA's butt and his own arms, the champion taps. ***1/4

In the post-match the TIME BOMB graphic comes on the screen and counts down its final few seconds to reveal….

...HIROMU TAKAHASHI!

Takahashi, wearing an incredible jacket listing the best bands of Rate Your Music Punk and a really sinister grin, saunters to the ring to the delight of the crowd who, aside from one match, haven't seen him in the company since Best of the Super Juniors 2013. Since then his reputation has skyrocketed after working outstanding matches in CMLL and it's genuinely exciting to have him back. He challenges KUSHIDA for the title and licks the belt creepily. This whole section is excellent. KUSHIDA accepts for Wrestle Kingdom 11. Good! Break!

THE INTERVAL ON FUJIWARA ARMBAR IS BROUGHT TO YOU BY TK SCISSORS. TK SCISSORS IS A NEW AND EXCITING PROJECT BY THE MASTERMIND OF THE EXCELLENT WRESTLEBLOG RUMBLEMETRICS WHICH INSPIRED THIS VERY BLOG TO START WRITING DISCURSIVELY ABOUT I'll stop writing in caps now it inspired me to write discursively and expansively about the wrestling arts. TK Scissors exclusively covers Akira Maeda's RINGS promotion of the 1990s and early 00s, which he considers to be the utmost in the achievements of wrestling (which if we think, are considerable). I'm not sure I 100% agree (UWF NEWBORN WILL NEVER DIE) but bloody hell there is some great stuff already. Here is a sample:

Wilhelm unleashes a mighty roar as he raises his arms high in this match-of-the-year candidate; he has largely forsaken technique and chooses instead to bulkishly maul. Smit, crushed beneath his girth, rope escapes again, then comes out firing with slaps to the face that hold this actual jötunn at bay for a moment, but only a moment, as Smit is tossed down and juji-gatame'd seemingly to completion ah but no! Smit has rolled-in hard and escaped! Clinched yet again, Wilhelm harai-goshi hip sweeps Smit severely and proceeds, perhaps surprisingly, to engage in a leg-lock duel (nobody gets anything). My goodness these throws, though. A big underhook harai/osoto leads to a juji-gatame and then of all things a kata-ha-jime which you don't see a lot of without a judogi but which certainly exists as for example it does here, and while people largely associate that hold in the context of professional wrestling with "Taz" they should replace all such associations at once with WILLY WILHELM your winner in 6:37 and our champion.

Now that that has whet your appetite you should definitely add that blog to your RSS feed or whatever. Meanwhile we are still at interval so I will briefly say that I caught WWE Raw today and by god this show at this point in 2016, on the eve of the US presidential election, really sucks. Is there anything in wrestling than lower than a SHOOT corporate entity making disparate workers club together for their 'brand' under duress of a firing that we know will not come? Who is impressed by this shit? Not to mention that whilst amusing to a certain extent I am not getting 'impressive champion' or 'moneymaking' vibes from this Kevin Owens / Chris Jericho bromance storyline but rather it seems like everything else on the show completely cartoonish and midcardy and skippable. Oh but they are making a star heel out of Braun Strowman who makes Bad Luck Fale look like Jumbo Tsuruta. I am clutching pearls, I have the vapours.

But really I am fine everything is fine because there is the bell and we're back in Osaka!

ADAM COLE, KENNY OMEGA, MATT JACKSON and NICK JACKSON (Bullet Club) vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA, WILL OSPREAY, GEDO and HIROOKI GOTO (CHAOS)

CHAOS used to be my favourite stable of all time and their run from 2012-2015, up to Shinsuke Nakamura leaving the company, is a high watermark in the mostly-not-that-great-actually art of wrestling companies sticking a bunch of guys together to appear as brothers-in-arms. Under the official leadership of Kazuchika Okada things have gone off-message, not least because he invited Hirooki Goto to join. Goto is a fantastic wrestler. But the strong appeal of CHAOS was the presence of inscrutable, fun, and slightly legit guys (and SAKU who is very legit) all clubbing together in the same inarticulable way that real friends do - whereas this move seemed more calculated in order to get Goto over. And also, and utmost, and alas: Goto is a doofus.

Not as much of a doofus as fellow CHAOSite Will Ospreay though. The winner of the Best of the Super Juniors 2016 has had rave reviews since appearing in a New Japan ring and is one of the key figures behind US wrestling people sitting up and taking notice of the 'European scene' (if the same 200 people turning up at different shows is a scene). It turns out that I have seen Ospreay five times in the flesh and each time I must admit that I was simultaneously impressed and yet left feeling distinctly empty.

1. First time as part of a tag team with Jake McCluskey against an Irish brother tag team called 2 Unlimited. I have never seen so many flips in a match up to this point in my life, nor have I seen so many kickouts of ultra-versions of devastating major moves in a single match. Earlier in the show Bad Luck Fale defeated the 350lb Dave Mastiff with a hard strike. The acrobatics were incredible. The match was not.

2. Second time against Matt Sydal in a flip-off that did have some nice strikes and reversals but also many rubbish strikes and overly-constructed reversals in addition to the constant dizzying flipping. This came straight after a similar kick-out-of-every-move match and as such the effect was lost and made bland.

3. Another match against Sydal that was 2-out-of-3 falls that was much better actually but also there were a LOT of flips and barely any selling. I mean, I can appreciate an aesthetic of excess, I like Ken Russell and Bosch and Hard To Be A God and John Dos Passos' USA trilogy but this also seems at times not-commensurate with the general thing that is happening (fake fighting).

4. A triple threat with AJ Styles and Marty Scurll that was alright but I like AJ and Scurll a lot. I may have left part-way through because I knew the score and had seen Kyle O'Reilly and KUSHIDA lock horns in a mat classic that could not be topped.

5. Finally against the legally-unable-to-work-in-the-USA Speedball Mike Bailey in a match that was just ridiculous and that I mostly hated and that the UK smark crowd thought was the bee's knees.

This said Ospreay's performance in the Best of the Super Junior final with KUSHIDA was a rare and real treasure because Mr. Ospreay did his flipz judicious, utilised excellent strikes, and employed consistent selling. The match with Ricochet in the Block stage of that tournament, the one that drew Vader's ire (and led to a fairly hilarious situation where Vader came out of retirement and refused to job to Ospreay, leading the young flyer to take to a shoot vid to bemoan being outsmarted by a canny if utterly immobile veteran), was hokey and felt extremely silly in parts and would go as far to say was a firm wad of spit right in the eyes of artiste-craftsmen like Ted DiBiase, Volk Han, and Mabel.

As you can see this match was entirely a maguffin for me to launch into a tirade against one of their own workers and to Mr. Gedo I write a note of thanks.

This match really exists, of course, to commence the build to the tremendously daring Okada-Omega Tokyo Dome main event. The opening minutes are worked exhibition style, with some bawdy comedy and knowingly performative work that leads to no great bumps or risks. Ospreay and a Buck go at it, and then Okada tags in to square off with Omega, who tags in Cole. Cole sidesteps Okada around in a circle and Omega jumps Okada from behind. Cole knocks the rest of CHAOS off the apron and yells ADAM COLE BAYBAY! Kenny grabs his stablemate and yells STOP IT ADAM WE GOT WORK TO DO! LOL this is reasonably fun I suppose.

There's lots of fun and very crisp stuff that would go down gangbusters on a house show but I am not exactly craving it. Down the stretch it becomes important to put Omega over as a viable contender and major star. After a cool section where all the Bullet Club superkick Okada and then Gedo, the rings clears and the two future headliners do a brief version of the reversals dance that we will surely see in full this January. Omega hits a reverse Frankensteiner and a brutal knee to the head and hoists Okada up in the electric chair position and hits the One-Winged Angel for the three count! Omega beats the champ ahead of the Tokyo Dome! Wow. ***1/4 

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
KATSUYORI SHIBATA (c) vs. EVIL (Los Ingobernables du Japon)

I am quite into EVIL (wrestler. If you meant evil (abstract concept) please click EVIL (disambiguation)) who is a kind of half-hoss half-sulky kohl-eyed teenager and I am also rather taken with the handsome perma-crock UWF throwback Katsuyori Shibata with his most murdersome kicks and hilarious self-seriousness. 

This is a short write-up for a really fun little match. EVIL is still getting into the swing of working a long feature match and as a heel he is almost spiritually obliged to do some cheating things with chairs and guardrails and I guess once in a while that is okay. It is also probably legit strategy against man who refers to himself as The Wrestler and wants to work man-for-man in the middle of the ring in a vaguely shooty way.

EVIL is not yet a full hoss and indeed exhibits quite a way with actual wrestling moves as a way of quenching the fire of his strike happy foe. The best bits are all the strike exchanges and the stuff that is nearer the wheelhouse of Shibata, for he is pure of technique and single of mind.

Shibata's 2016 has been a bit like his G1s of late: full of sweet matches but plenty of baffling losses. Shibata lost to EVIL in the G1 of 2016, so an easy defence ahead of a well-placed Wrestle Kingdom singles match felt like a lock. Funnily enough this match continues the trend of Shibata's annus mediocris, with EVIL thrashing the champion with a chair and winning with an STO. If this represents a push for EVIL then I am guardedly okay with this. But I suspect it is not. ***3/4

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. SANADA (Los Ingobernables du Japon)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, a dream of humanity as imagined by a guitar in cyberspace, is the most incredible wrestler of my recent lifetime and it is hard to articulate really why that is against what I have established as things I like (inscrutable, stiff, technical, strikers). But sometimes somebody comes along and nails an aesthetic so hard, even in a way that you may have dismissed as passe, that you have to just pull down your sunglasses to the end of your nose with the tip of your index finger and say WOW. His style is neither shoot nor strong nor overly acrobatic or grappling: it is pro-wrestling. As such he lacks the individual components of a killer, which makes the man piece together every big match intricately, laced with psychology and subtle moments between the grand babyface big star gestures. 

Tanahashi's 2016 has been pitched as one of quiet retreat into the night, the Ace of the Century slipping trying to make up the ground opened up by Okada and a man rejecting the title of New Tananhashi - Tetsuya Naito. But this is all grist to the Tanahashi tale and his opponent is perfect to uphold this pattern. SANADA is a fellow Great Muta trainee and he has the face, the bod, and the timing that Tanahashi has refined into wrestling art. Unfortunately for Tanahashi, SANADA is much younger too and his bump card is not quite so vigorously marked.

Undoubtedly the two work the most elegant and 'best' match of the evening, but it is also the one that we sense we will see more of in the years as Tanahashi takes fewer risks and SANADA makes New Japan his home. There is a counter to Tanahashi's biggest weapon - the Dragon Screw - that sends a ripple of 'hwaaaa' through the Osaka night. There are lovely pro-wrestling textbook submissions from each and the match is worked at really nice pace: it is not the intense bursting of the NEVER style contest, nor is it flips and counters galore - it is just a clear lick above steady but also fulsome and understandable to the less-keen of eye.

Gaining revenge for defeat in the G1, Tanahashi wins with High Fly Flow. God loves us all, but not as much as Tanahashi does. ****1/4

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP
TETSUYA NAITO (c) (Los Ingobernables du Japon) vs. JAY LETHAL (ROH)

I am sort of speeding through this last match as it wasn't too great. Naito has become absolutely super as one of the top four guys in the company and his win here, revenge for a loss to Jay Lethal in Ring of Honor, cements his hold of the title until the Tokyo Dome where he appears to be on collision course with Tanahashi.

Lethal has routinely been thrown into big matches in NJPW without much build and has suffered every time despite being a very good wrestler and one of only a few reasons I can think of to bother watching Ring of Honor for. He can chat, wrestle, hold your attention, mimic, work heel or face, and he's got a strange charisma that I wish I could see on a bigger stage promoted properly.

This match never gets going really. The workers try hard but the crowd were not that into it aside from Naito's assholery. They were clearly sad that bearded Canadian hossman Michael Elgin was not available instead. And if you'd said that two years ago when Elgin was being all Baseball Mike I'd have laughed. But I was also sad too. ***

After the match - TANAHASHI EMERGES!

He challenges Naito for the IC title at the Dome which should be pretty swish!