Recapped: 01/24/2016
What happened: In his return to NJPW, Kamaitachi defeated Dragon Lee for the CMLL Super Lightweight Championship. There was no indication of what would be next for the belt or Kamaitachi.
Volador Jr. retained his NWA Welterweight Championship against Mephisto, in a match finishing seconds before the TV Asahi broadcast ended. Mistico beat Ultimo Guerrero via La Mistica and Lyger defeated Virus via campana in the other two singles matches.
Tanaka & Komatsu said farewell to the NJPW crowd following their loss in the opener; they’re announced to start in Mexico next Sunday. Komatsu had one last involvement on the show: after a subtle teasing the last few months, Naito gave Komatsu an Ingobernable hat as if he was a number. Naturally, Naitro immediately turned on him and the Ingobernables laid him out (following winning their own match via foul.)
Mascara Dorada said a brief farwell to NJPW, as he returns to CMLL following this match. He said he’d still like to get a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight championship.
Hirooki Goto attacked Okada after the fifth match. The crowd booed turned on Goto’s for his actions.
The NJPWWorld stream was buffering annoyingly during the show for North American viewers. The show had a special Spanish language feed with CMLL’s Miguel Reducino calling the action.
What was good: Kamaitachi/Dragon Lee was outstanding. There was other good stuff – I liked the Nakamura/Caveranrio/Okada vs Robinson/Titan/Tanahshi tag match the best – but that title match was a cut above.
Where can I watch it: It’s up on NJPW World for subscribers.
Warning: There’s about 40 GIF in the recap.
Match 1: Guerrero Maya Jr. & The Panther vs Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Maya & Panther (The Panther fujiwara Tanaka)
Match Time: 5:10
Review: [ok] the Young Lions send off was just a match, with them getting in nothing particularly special or even looking really close to winning. Maya looked awesome. Panther did not. This match is surely happening for the tag titles again in about nine months, because that’s how CMLL does it, so we’ll get to see how they get better. There’s obviously places they’ll have to improve for lucha libre.
Match 2: Fuego, Kushida, Stuka Jr., Tiger Mask IV vs Boby Zavala, Hechicero, Okumura, Yoshihashi
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: tecnicos (Stuka torpedo splash Okumura)
Match Time: 8:09
Notes: Mima Shimoda got involved, and was splashed at the end with Stuka.)
Review: [good] fun match, worked more like a lucha match than most of those on this tour – the beatdown segment by the rudos was good, and the tecnicos making their comeback (with Kushida doing the same sort of blind dive as Stuka) was entertaing. Fuego is the most over guy here and fits in better in japan than he does in Mexico, but everyone did well. Liked Hechicero’s segment with Kushida to start, thought Zavala & Okumura were better than they’ve been the rest of the tour, and Yoshihashi didn’t get in the way.
Match 3: Jyushin Thunder Liger vs Virus
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Lyger (via campana)
Match Time: 7:56
Notes: This was a maestros match, and neither man struck each other during the match (though they came clow.)
Review: [good] Not the epic match it could’ve been, but a really good technical battle. It’s what I was hoping the match would be – not just the holds, but battling their way thru them – just in a much shorter than time they would’ve gotten in Mexico. They got in and out of the holds quickly just to get thru as much as they could in the time they had, which reduced the effect a little bit, but they both creatively applied them. Virus got close to a victory and got to look impressive before getting to that part. It was nice getting this match even if I was left wanting a little more.
Match 4: Atlantis, Máscara Dorada, Ryusuke Taguchi vs Bushi, EVIL, Tetsuya Naito
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Los Ingobernables (Naito foul Dorada)
Match Time: 7:23
Notes: Naito attacked Komatsu after the match, playing off the tease of Komatsu joining Los Ingobernables the last few months.
Review: [ok] a really long beat down segment on Taguchi and the Mexicans got to be inf or a couple minutes in at the end to get in a few spots and get pinned. It was what what it was. Dorada looked sharp. Atlantis and Naito had one backbreaker go very wrong, but everything else was fine. Dorada getting pinned is not fun, but he’s out of here so it’s the thing to do.
Match 5: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Titán vs Bárbaro Cavernario, Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: rudos (Okada Rainmaker Robinson)
Match Time: 13:06
Notes: Goto attacked Okada and Gedo, building up their title match
Review: [great] another entertaining tag match with the Nakamura/Cavernario team, and the other four guys. The rudo comedy spot was hilarious and Titan and Cavernario’s looked great, as they have on this whole tour. Credit to Nakamura for trying to take Titanics, though he his headscissors taking practice could use some work. Tanahashi did more than I thought, and Cavernario’s splash to the floor was definitely more than the camera people thought he was going to do.
Match 6: Dragón Lee vs Kamaitachi for the CMLL World Super Lightweight Championship
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Kamaitachi (Canadian Destroyer)
Match Time: 18:33
Notes: Okumura and Stuka are the seconds. Kamaitachi is the 13th Champion. Dragon Lee falls on his sixth defense.
Review: [excellent] They did it again. This was A People Jumping Up And Down At The Result match. It really shouldn’t be a surprise at this point, because they always find a way to top themselves, but I really thought the December match was as far as they could go. Here, in a new environment (but fans who seemed both aware of what they had done prior and still impressed by them doing it live) they find away to mix in a few new spots and push their limits along. This was an intense insane match which felt like it could end at any moment; I was thinking they might get double counted out after the Kamaitachi senton to the floor, and I wouldn’t have had a problem with that finish. They went five minutes more, kicking out of a lot more convincing finishes after that.
Kamaitachi clearly wanted to make a big impression in his first match back, and both guys stepped up. It was a lot of stuff form previous matches, but they just kept on going. The double stomp to the floor was crazy, but they would end up doing a bunch more crazy spots. The finish looked prefect, but so did so much before it – the back suplex near fall, Kamaitahci’s german supelx, Dragon Lee’s tope con giro to the floor. These two made names for themselves based off one night.
Match 7: Mistico vs Último Guerrero
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Mistico (La Mistica)
Match Time: 17:23
Notes: No seconds for this match.
Review: [good] A lot of call and response and playing to the crowd to start, which kind of had to be done to follow that. They had a lot of time to work with, more than I would’ve guesses, so they still had plenty of room to take it back up and get in all the usual big spots (and one or two ones you wouldn’t expect.) This was a standard match between them, but we don’t see them together that much of late and they mixed up on the finish. Guerrero Special is super protected, so that kickout meant something, and Mistico needing three tries on La Mistica was a nice twist.
Match 8: Volador Jr. © vs Mephisto for the NWA World Welterweight Championship
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan, 01/24/2016
Winner: Volador Jr. (Spanish Fly)
Match Time: 21:06
Notes: Seconds were Fuego and Virus.
Review: [good] That might have tripped them up, since it seemed like they were building to the top rope Devil’s Wings being countered into something (Mephisto had beat Volador with it yesterday, Mephisto had done the normal and second rope versions, they always do that top rope near fall in these matches.) The Spanish Fly at the end had an awkward landing, maybe because they were rushing to get it in, but there were quite a few moves that seemed a little off. Mephisto was not moving well, even before his moonsault had a bad landing. This is a move exhibition match and it hurts when they’re hurting too much to do the moves well. It also hurts that they were trying following Dragon Lee/Kamaitachi. This was a good Volador spot exhibition, but it didn’t feel close to the big Volador matches from previous shows and not a lot different than the Gran Guerrero one from last year. The formula needs to be mixed up a bit.
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