NJPW Road to Wrestling Dontaku Night 9: Review, Grades, and Analysis

Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

This match starts off fast and furious, with the crowd super into Hiromu. It was very clear the most over guy in the match was Hiromu, as he exchanged chops with Desperado. The action spilled to the outside, and Despey beat up Hiromu with chairs. Taichi got involved while he was on commentary and I yelled, “TAICHI! DAMNIT” as he hit Hiromu with a chair.

Hiromu eventually ran wild and took everyone out with his apron dropick a massive senton to the outside of the ring. Hiromu and BUSHI went for a Doomsday MX, but it was stopped. Kanemaru managed to do spit his whisky into BUSHI, and BUSHI followed up later with his poison mist into Kanemaru’s face. Once that happened, it seemed like it was possible that the title was going to change and they had the crowd from that point forward. BUSHI Hit a suicide dive on Kanemaru to drive him into the guardrail, while Hiromu hit the Time Bomb, but he couldn’t get the pinfall.

Hiromu went for a second Dynamite Plunger, but Desperado grabbed the referee who ended up taking a bump. While the referee was down, El Desperado grabbed a title belt and whacked Hiromu with it, driving him back down into the mat. Desperado placed the belt on the mat and picked up Hiromu. El Desperado then hit a Pinche Loco (Angel’s Wings, or a Sitout Double Underhook Facebuster) on the belt for the pinfall victory.

Result: Suzuki-gun

Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Final Thoughts

Show Rating: 3 stars out of 5

Solid showing from NJPW here, as Suzuki-gun dominated the evening leading into Wrestling Dontaku. Nothing was absolutely must see, but the show was an easy watch. Minoru Suzuki is clearly trying to kill Naito, and their match coming up in a few days is going to be excellent. Archer and Smith are gunning for the tag titles, and Despy and Kanemaru look to continue to dominate the Jr. Tag scene. This was not a good night for Los Ingobernables de Japon, sadly.

Next: How Andrade Cien Almas Will Impact the Main Roster

One question coming out of this though, is how often can Hiromu Takahashi lose and maintain his popularity? The question is the same for Naito. Hiromu failed to win another title here, and it seems that NJPW has a lot of faith in his ability to stay over. However, there has to be a point where Hiromu starts winning titles again. Maybe he’ll finally be the one to dethrone Will Ospreay, but for now we must wait for the Best of the Super Juniors. He’s my pick to win it, but we shall see how NJPW moves forward with him. Hopefully it involves some big title wins soon.