What's up everyone? I'm continuing to cover the New Japan Kizuna Road shows from Monday and Tuesday. Separately, I'll be posting my commentary on the G1 Climax 28 announcements later today. So, check that out. If you want Night 1, go back to the ROH/NJPW combined review I did on Sunday.
Kizuna Road Night 2- 6/18/18
- The Kizuna Road shows have felt like glorified house shows with Young Lions taking up a lot of time. So, do not expect a lengthy review from me for either of these two shows.
- This show has been completely skip-able up to the LIJ vs. Suzuki-Gun match. As always, Naito is can't miss and weirdly charismatic with his shenanigans. Even in throwaway tag matches, Naito shines.
- I don't care how many men are in these matches with them. I'll always pay attention when Okada and Tanahashi are on opposite sides. Okada is perhaps the greatest world champion in New Japan history and Tanahashi is still, in his 40s, the ACE of NJPW. So glad they're facing off again in the G1 (see G1 Post for more details). As far as the match goes, I thought it was a really good tag match with some solid wrestling once Elgin and Ishii started trading stiff shots at each other. It's probably the first match I'd recommend you go out of your way to watch from this show. Jay White repeated his attack on Juice Robinson AGAIN at this show with another hard-hitting after-the-match brawl with White pulling a Pillman on Juice's left hand. I'm liking the build to the U.S. Championship match at San Francisco. This is something that will make the show feel that much more important.
- Main Event Time as El Desperado of Suzuki-Gun challenges LIJ's Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Great start to the match with Takahashi and Desperado working in the ring, around ringside, and even in the stands with a freaking guitar case! Then, they come back to ringside and destroy the seats at ringside with Desperado targeting Takahashi with the metal chairs from one end of ringside to another! The end was another great sequence and storytelling with Hiromu refusing to cheat while Desperado was doing every underhanded thing he could think of including low blows and chair shots (even after losing his mask at one point). Hiromu uses his Triangle Choke maneuver (The D, I believe it's called) to try to beat Desperado and eventually (and accidentally) propels Desperado into a set of exposed turnbuckles, hits The Time Bomb finisher, and retains his championship. Absolutely great main event match which is worth going out of your way to see. Hiromu has had a great month between the Best of the Super Juniors, Dominion, and this. He's made a case to be on anyone's Top 10 of 2018.
Kizuna Road Night 3- 6/19/18
- Nothing much to report about the undercard except that Liger wrestled in a tag team match. And that, like I wrote about Tanahashi and Okada, will always get my attention.
- If you want a culture clash, watch Sunday's Money in the Bank and compare that to any of the NJPW shows. Japan wrestling crowds are much more respectful with intermittent bursts of cheering. American wrestling crowds are much more vocal (and profane) with intermittent bursts of silence. But to Long Beach's credit, they were much more like the Japan crowd when NJPW came in for the Strong Style Evolved show in March.
- There was another Taguchi Japan vs. CHAOS tag team match on this show. They continue to tell a great story between Jay White and Juice Robinson with Jay White continuing to punish/attack Juice. To me, it's been one of the biggest stories coming out of this whole tour and has been really well done. Jay White's whole association with CHAOS is interesting as he is a major heel surrounded by a bunch of crowd favorites in Japan. And in my personal opinion, this week has been the best work I've seen Jay White do that didn't include upsetting Kenny Omega earlier this year.
- The main event featured a retirement match/ceremony for The Super Strong Machine. Honestly, I don't remember anything about The Super Strong Machine. I remember The Machines from the late 1980s which was Andre, Ax, and Blackjack Mulligan under masks (joined with "Hulk Machine," BROTHER). But this guy apparently inspired that whole gimmick. All I knew was Tanahashi, Nagata, Taguchi, and Los Ingobernables de Japon were going to be involved in this 10 man tag. So, I decided to give this a watch.
There was a funny moment in the intros where Hiromu made Naito fist-bump the Super Juniors trophy, almost in a way to apologize for damaging it the other night. The Machines were all out in the masks in tribute to Super Strong Machine who showed up in a suit and tie. Nice way to dress for your retirement ceremony. The match itself was just ok, but then again, I realize I'm not the intended audience for this match. This was to give a retiring wrestler one last moment in the spotlight, and it delivered that when Super Strong Machine delivered a clothesline to Naito on the outside of the ring.
Overall, of these two shows, the only things worth watching from my perspective were the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship match, the tag team match with Okada and White's team against Tanahashi and Robinson's team, and LIJ vs. Suzuki-Gun, all of which was from Night 2.
Thank you for reading as always. I am going to post another Kizuna Road post Friday Night for nights 4-5 and again Sunday Night for the end of the tour. For G1 Climax news and thoughts, check out the next blog I'll be posting tonight. And while you are at it, check out the other blogs from earlier this week. Until next time, take care of yourselves and spread some awesomeness.
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