THE NEW BEGINNING IN SAPPORO - NIGHT 1

January 27, 2018

Tetsuya Naito . . . beats YOSHI-HASHI all over the arena and tries to make everyone forget that he didn’t win the IWGP Title.

Matt Jackson . . . gets so much hang time on the IndyTaker, that his ears probably popped.

Minoru Suzuki . . . redeems himself for the loss of his hair and the NEVER Title by torturing the ace of the company.

MICHAEL ELGIN vs. KATSUYA KITAMURA

If you enjoy watching big guys laying in stiff forearms and lariats, then this is something you’ll enjoy. Kitamura gets in a couple of spots that show that he can outwrestle Elgin, like winning out when they both attempt the vertical suplex, and also the counter of Elgin’s headlock into the backdrop. But, these trial series matches aren’t done so that the Young Lion to win, which he doesn’t, but the idea is that working with more established wrestlers will help him along in his career. So, while it’s not exactly surprising that Elgin wins, it is somewhat impressive to see Kitamura able to get over on him a couple of times before losing.

HIROYOSHI TENZAN/MANABU NAKANISHI/JYUSHIN LYGER/KUSHIDA/TIGER MASK vs. TAKASHI IIZUKA/TAKA MICHINOKU/TAICHI ISHIKARI/YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/EL DESPARADO

I’d normally be disappointed at ten wrestlers getting less than ten minutes, but with mediocre workers like Nakanishi, Tiger Mask, and Kanemaru all having little to no involvement, I’ll take it as a win. The intensity, and the brawls that take place, keep the match feeling exciting. Tenzan makes a decent hot tag for Lyger, he’s as fired up as you’d expect when he returns the favor to Taichi and Iizuka, even though he’s definitely slowed down in recent years. The finish is also fun, with Kanemaru’s cheating backfiring, and allowing KUSHIDA to force TAKA to submit to the Hoverboard lock. This isn’t perfect by any stretch, it could have used four less wrestlers and more time devoted to telling a story other than ‘Suzuki Gun and Sekigun hate each other’ but, it’s a decent excuse to get everyone on the card.

TOMOHIRO ISHII/TORU YANO vs. YUJIRO TAKAHASHI/CHASE OWENS

We’re now three-for-three for undercard matches being inoffensive, but nothing outstanding. It’s fun to watch Yano clown around, and, when he gets in trouble the non-Elite members of Bullet Club get to look good by working him over. But, it’s also clear why they’re not part of The Elite. The match plods along, but, at no point does it ever really seem like anyone is in danger of losing, either when Bullet Club is working over Yano, or after Ishii gets the hot tag. The only exposing moment of the match was Owens getting Ishii up for the package piledriver and then having to put him down, so they could play it off like Ishii blocked the move.

BAD LUCK FALE/TAMA TONGA/TONGA LOA © vs. TOGI MAKABE/RYUSUKE TAGUCHI/TOA HENARE (NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Titles)

Even though it wasn’t particularly deep, I appreciate the fact that this match tried telling a story. The layout isn’t anything groundbreaking. Taguchi has some fun with Tama doing hip attacks, and then the heels work over Toa. It’s almost just like watching the Bullet Club heels working over Yano in the last match. The idea is fine, but there’s just no edge to it, it doesn’t feel like anything they do to Toa is putting them any closer to winning the match. Makabe gets the hot tag and the babyfaces clean house, leading to a tease of Toa getting the big win, except the Young Lion isn’t established enough for that yet, and Tama winds up submitting him to the Dream Catcher. It’s the sort of match that’s been done tons of times before, and has been done much better than this.

CODY RHODES/ADAM PAGE/MARTY SCURLL vs. KOTA IBUSHI/JUICE ROBINSON/DAVID FINLAY

Although the work isn’t vastly different, this is better than the previous trios match by virtue of the fact that they lay the groundwork for a story, and then have it pay off. Cody and Ibushi have had issues since the beginning of the year, and Cody wants nothing to do with getting in the ring with him. He’ll gladly join in when his teammates are working over either of the other two, but he steers clear of Ibushi, and winds up being forced to wrestle him when Juice makes a hot tag to him, and the intensity shown in their exchanges makes it worth the time they spent trying to build it up. But, aside from that, there isn’t much to be found in the way of engrossing work. The heat segment on Juice is fine, but that’s about it. Juice also decides that being in a 3-on1 situation, after his partners get knocked off the apron, is the time to start trying to make a comeback. There’s a few nice exchanges as the match winds down, with both teams having miscues that lead to someone hitting one of his partners, but they don’t take full advantage and use it for a good near fall to create some doubt for the finish. This does its job as far as furthering the Cody/Ibushi feud, and then gets out of the way.

TETSUYA NAITO/HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. YOSHI-HASHI/WILL OSPREAY

Forget Cody/Ibushi or Sekigun/Suzuki Gun, this is how you put over a rivalry and create excitement for upcoming singles matches. Naito/YOSHI-HASHI and Takahashi/Ospreay all act like they want to kill each other. They brawl on the floor, take sickening bumps into the rails, and use weapons if they can get them. Everything else is secondary to trying to hurt each other as much as possible. The only big negative here is Ospreay’s flashy tendencies. His strikes look and sound hard enough to believably hurt Naito and Takahashi, and that’s what sets up the finish: Ospreay wears him down with kicks, and Takahashi has to save Naito from the Ospreay Cutter, and Naito takes the opening to foul Ospreay and steal the win. But, Ospreay still seems to insist on showing off his athleticism and body control, rather than just throwing down like the others. The fact that the Los Ingobernables control segment involved them working over his knee, makes it stick out that much more. The match may be over, but the action doesn’t stop with YOSHI-HASHI and Naito continuing to brawl on the floor and in the aisle way.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA/HIROOKI GOTO/GEDO vs. SANADA/EVIL/BUSHI

This isn’t anywhere near as intense and hateful as the previous match, and, that’s an especially big failing from SANADA and Okada, with them having an IWGP Title match coming up. The best work winds up coming from the supporting cast, with BUSHI and Gedo having some funny exchanges, and EVIL and Goto’s exchanges are noticeably not hard on the eyes. But, aside from some finisher countering, Okada versus SANADA seems rather pedestrian. Okada finds a little bit of fire at the finish, when he traps BUSHI in the Cobra clutch, but it’s too late for it to matter. SANADA may not be that good, but, there’s still no reason for the build to meaningless singles matches between their stablemates to be overshadowing the upcoming title match.

KENNY OMEGA/MATT JACKSON/NICK JACKSON vs. JAY WHITE/SHO/YOH

The Omega/White exchanges, much like Naito/YOSHI-HASHI, are hateful enough to build up anticipation for their match the next day, and it also makes it easy to not notice that the work here isn’t all that special. Aside from the fact that Kenny and Jay want to throttle one another, there isn’t anything to be found as far as themes, story, or anyone standing out. SHO shows off some nice Germans, but, they don’t have near the effect of Kenny’s snap Dragons. The Bucks are their usual flashy selves, and YOH dies at the end, but at least he goes out in style. The match being so short didn’t help matters, but, it’s actually a lot like the previous Bullet Club trios match, it makes its point and then gets out of the way.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI © vs. MINORU SUZUKI (IWGP Intercontinental Title)

All things considered, they probably could have chopped off ten minutes or so of the match and not lost anything. The work for the first twenty or so minutes is fine, but unimportant as a whole. There are cool moments like Tanahashi walking into the hanging armbar, Tanahashi’s Dragon screw sequence that he uses to set up the Cloverleaf, and Suzuki doing a headstand to take the pressure off and crawl to the ropes for the break. But, none of those nice spots means much of anything. The submission finish had zero to do with Tanahashi’s arm, and while the Dragon screw and Cloverleaf are both Tanahashi staples, Suzuki wasn’t affected all that much from it.

The real match begins when Tanahashi does the High Fly Flow and lands directly on his bad leg. Suzuki takes the opening and it’s every bit as great as you’d expect, between Suzuki’s ruthlessness and Tanahashi’s selling. Suzuki escapes the Dragon suplex by kicking Tanahashi in the kneecap, and Tanahashi probably does the best crumple to the mat while trying to run since Kawada. There’s a smart moment when Suzuki strays from the leg work in order to do the Gotch piledriver, and is backfires when Tanahashi counters into another Cloverleaf, although he can’t keep the hold on with his knee is such bad shape. Suzuki gets to make his point a bit later, after a series of strikes (including him laughing when Tanahashi was trying to fight back), when he’s able to hit the move. But, Suzuki is also smart enough to know that his best chance to win is going to be taking advantage of the injury. He goes back to working over the knee, and when Tanahashi refuses to submit, the ref finally calls it off. Suzuki may have suffered by losing to Goto at the Tokyo Dome, but, like all great wrestlers, the loss was a necessity to allow him to move on to bigger and better things. It’s just too bad that they didn’t do more to make the first half of the match factor more into the excellent final stretch. ***½

Conclusion: A solid, but unspectacular undercard and a very good main event. It’s certainly not a bad show, but not up to the standard that NJPW had set over the last year.