STRONG STYLE 45^TH ANNIVERSARY

March 6, 2017

Yoshinobu Kanemaru . . . shows that he’s still mediocre, no matter what promotion he’s working for.

Zack Sabre, Jr. . . . adds the Rev Pro British Title to his growing collection.

Tiger Mask W . . . proves that he’s a lot more than just an Anime gimmick with the fight he gives to the IWGP Champion.

MINORU SUZUKI/DAVEY BOY SMITH, Jr./TAKA MICHINOKU/EL DESPERADO vs. HIROOKI GOTO/YOSHI-HASHI/GEDO/JADO

This is fun, but nobody here was involved enough to make it much more than that. Suzuki Gun works over Gedo for a bit, but, despite the Ricky and Robert namedrop from Kevin Kelly, it’s not even in the same universe. The Goto/Suzuki exchanges were OK, aside from Goto’s mediocre suplex, and only YOSHI-HASHI seems to be fired up and all, which makes sense with him getting the submission over TAKA. The intensity between the teams is nice, and hints at bigger things happening between them, but, hopefully it’s in more of a focused setting.

KENNY OMEGA/BAD LUCK FALE/YUJIRO TAKAHASHI/TAMA TONGA/TONGA LOA vs. YUJI NAGATA/TOGI MAKABE/JYUSHIN LYGER/TIGER MASK/DAVID FINLAY

Like the previous match, the work here is fine, but nothing special. Everyone gets a chance to show off their stuff, and the control segment on TM is better than the one on Gedo. But, aside from the finishing stretch, with the babyfaces trying to wear down Fale so that Finlay can get a big win, only for Fale to withstand everything and beat Finlay with his Grenade finisher, there’s very little as far as any real story or theme goes. The match mostly seems to be an excuse for the Bullet Club, specifically Omega, to goof around and play to the fans, who are more than happy for him to do so.

ROCKY ROMERO/TRENT BARRETA © vs. YOSHINOBU KANEMARU/TAICHI ISHIKARI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles)

This is the first match that truly attempts to tell a story, but, it still falls woefully short of expectations. The champions get jumped in the aisle way, and Rocky has to fight from underneath to tag in Trent, but, the heel control segment is little more than prop shots and interference. Rocky seemed to hurt his shoulder in the pre match attack, but it winds up being left alone, even though Taichi sneaking in the bell hammer would have been the perfect way to keep it going. As a result of the lackluster heat segment, the hot tag to Trent is anything but.

This isn’t completely devoid of good work, but, there’s not nearly enough to salvage the match as a whole. The best moment is probably the initial attempt at the Strong Zero, with Kanemaru being too fresh, and Trent needing to muscle him up into another double team, before they could try it again, only for El Desperado to interfere. It’s also nice that the belt shot wasn’t the finish, with Kanemaru and Taichi still needing to finish off Rocky themselves, and actually somewhat look like they earned the titles. But, a nearly fifteen-minute title change should have a hell of a lot more engrossing work, than what was shown here.

KATSUYORI SHIBATA © vs. ZACK SABRE, Jr. (British Heavyweight Title)

After four matches, we finally get some actual wrestling on this wrestling show! The matwork is as smooth and seemingly effortless as one would expect from two wrestlers who are more than adept at that style. Their exchanges don’t have much meaning behind them, other than showing how skilled they both are, but it’s still a welcome sight. Shibata’s wrapped up shoulder is the perfect target for Sabre and his various armbars, which lead to some nice teases. The Suzuki interference puts a damper on things, but it doesn’t come close to ruining anything. The run-in itself sets up the upcoming Suzuki/Shibata showdown during the New Japan Cup tournament, and Sabre had already shown that he was more than capable of controlling Shibata, both on the mat at with strikes, so, it’s not a case of Sabre winning the title despite looking worthless. ***1/4

TORU YANO/TOMOHIRO ISHII © vs. HIROYOSHI TENZAN/SATOSHI KOJIMA (IWGP Tag Team Titles)

This is good, thanks to Tenzan and Ishii showing some aggression, and making the attempt at putting on a show for the fans. The heat segment on Kojima is OK, but, his selling isn’t exactly inspired, and Yano is too busy clowning around to really add anything to the mix, other than the double team near falls toward the end. Again, it’s mostly the Tenzan and Ishii show, with Ishii trying to brutalize Kojima with his absurdly stiff strikes, and Tenzan returning the favor when Kojima finally makes the tag.

They have some fun moments, and cute spots, like the champions aping the Midnight Express with their own version of the double goozle, and Tenzan using a jumping headbutt to counter Ishii’s lariat. But, this never really gets out of first gear, with the only real story being the control segment to Kojima, which was wrapped up far too early in the match. Yano eating the pin, confirms his stance as the weak link, and it’s a nice touch to see that Tenzan needs to prevent Ishii from breaking it up, since they were the two heavy hitters. Considering that their generation seems to have been passed over as far as spotlight goes, it’s nice to see Tenzan and Kojima get a moment in the sun, even if the circumstances for it were less than ideal.

TETSUYA NAITO/SANADA/EVIL/BUSHI vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI/MICHAEL ELGIN/JUICE ROBINSON/KUSHIDA

Like the finish to the Shibata/Sabre title change, this seems to primarily exist only to heat up Tanahashi versus EVIL in the NJ Cup. The match itself is OK to watch, they all basically just show up and do their stuff, and it turns out fine. Tanahashi is pretty much left out of things due to the four-on-one assault from Los Ingobernables, only showing up shortly before the finish, and then getting beaten up and stretched out by EVIL afterwards. But, the other seven are more than able to pick up the slack, with everyone having something to do, and nobody doing anything bad or stupid. I’d have liked to see more of a story being told, or more interaction between Tanahashi and EVIL, but, this does its job at building up their match and then gets out of the way.

HIROMU TAKAHASHI © vs. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title)

There are some nice moments here, but, their overall inconsistency keeps this from coming together as well as Takahashi’s title win over KUSHIDA. One thing that they establish very early is the apparent danger of Taguchi’s ankle lock, especially with the urgency shown by Takahashi when he tries to avoid it. But, when Taguchi finally gets the hold, Takahashi hops to his feet, and they transition into an attempt at the Dodon, that gets countered. The second time around, he also gets to his feet quickly, and Taguchi switches gears with a juji-gatame, which he segues right back to the ankle lock, and they finally get it right on the third go-around. They treat Takahashi’s Time Bomb finisher the same way: the first time gives Takahashi a near fall, and, Takahashi picks up Taguchi for a running DVD into the corner before he tries the second, only for Taguchi to counter that into their second ankle lock sequence. So, not only did the Time Bomb have little effect, but so did the running DVD. But, the finish makes up for that, with Takahashi going back to the running DVD before the third Time Bomb finally puts Taguchi away.

As frustrating as it is to see them devaluing finishers, there are some nice moments to be found as well. Takahashi’s shotgun dropkick off the apron is probably the best spot of the whole match, and, after Taguchi establishes his fondness for the hip attack, Takahashi starts targeting his tailbone and lower back, including what I can only describe as a Texas Cloverleaf slingshot, and it pays off when Taguchi hits a surprise springboard hip attack, and they both take good bumps and sell appropriately. If they were smarter about protecting their bigger moves, and had shown the same intensity that Takahashi and KUSHIDA did, especially with how the announcers tried to build up their rivalry, then this might have surpassed Takahashi/KUSHIDA, but, they didn’t and it doesn’t.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. TIGER MASK W

Twenty years ago, NJPW could have clipped this down to the last eight minutes, put it on their TV show, and everyone would be calling it the match of the year. The first twenty minutes aren’t bad at all, they have some nice spots, like Okada’s dive over the guardrail, and Okada does his usual ‘work the neck’ spots to set up the Rainmaker, but, it’s the last third of the match that makes this seem so special. The first twenty minutes seem like this is little more than an exhibition, but, then TM nee Ibushi starts throwing some wicked strikes at Okada, and Okada starts firing back, and what seemed like a nice little match turns into a heated fight! Ibushi introduces Okada to his own version of the Rainmaker, which is a lot more dangerous looking than the real thing. Okada also takes some big bumps, including the Last Ride powerbomb and a Tiger driver off the top, and Okada shows that he can dish it just as good as he can take it, which leads to some great near falls, and with this being a non-title match, it was more than believable that Ibushi could pull the win out. The finish leaves something of a bad taste, with Okada not even trying for pins after two consecutive Rainmakers, and doing so after he’d already shown that he was trying to wear down Ibushi’s neck. The German suplex into the Rainmaker is a great finish, but, it’d have come off better if Okada had given Ibushi the rub of kicking out, and showing that he needed to do something drastic to finally keep Ibushi down. ***1/4

Conclusion: As a whole it falls short of 1/4, but it’s still good with the only big negative being the junior tag titles match.