NJPW Kizuna Road 2018 Night 1: Results, Grades, and Analysis

NJPW Dominion is in the books, and now everything is looking forward to the biggest tournament of the summer, the G1 Climax. But first, we have three Kizuna Road shows that will see titles defended, and the return of Tomoaki Honma (on an untelevised show on June 23).

The road to the G1 Climax begins, as NJPW heats up for the biggest tournament of the year.

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

This young lion match was more interesting than I expected it to be. Uemura and Tsuji were both hitting each other very hard, and they went to a 10-minute time limit draw.

Result: Draw

Rating: 2.25 stars out of 5

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Shota Umino & Tomoyuki Oka

This was more of the standard fare as Nakanishi and Nagata made all these young lions look good, with Nagata getting the win over Tomoyuki Oka with a crossface.

Result: Nakanishi & Nagata

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Ren Narita & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori)

Looking at this match, it was quite clear who was going to eat the loss at the start of the match. Narita was given plenty of chances to shine, but getting Ishimori over as a threat is the priority here. Ishimori won with a crossface after a few minutes.

Result: Bullet Club

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Taguchi Japan (Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA, Toa Henare, Jeff Cobb, & Togi Makabe) vs. CHAOS (SHO, YOH, YOSHI-HASHI, Rocky Romero, & Toru Yano)

This match saw some really funny spots happen with Taguchi, as CHAOS forced him to run the ropes until he collapsed in exhaustion. He was also beaten around ringside and tossed into some chairs.

CHAOS got the heat on Henare after this for the next few minutes. Henare tagged out, and eventually Jeff Cobb came in and ran wild. He tossed everyone around before hitting an incredible popup twisting slam on Rocky Romero for the pinfall.

Result: Taguchi Japan

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

Nice little tag match here. NJPW’s 10-man tags are almost always fun, and this was no exception. There wasn’t anything blow away or outstanding, but if you got the time, it’s a very fun and easy watch.