NJPW Kizuna Road Night 2: Review, Grades, and Analysis

Night 2 of NJPW Kizuna Road’s televised events featured a huge main event with Hiromu Takahashi taking on El Desperado for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

NJPW is preparing everyone for the the G1 Climax tournament with the Kizuna Road tour. The tour has already seen one title change in Hirooki Goto recovering the NEVER Openweight Championship. Did NJPW provide us with a second title change? Read on to find out.

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Like night one, both young lions got a chance to show their skills here, and they were not able to get the best one on another again. After 10-minutes, both men went to a draw. I find NJPW having these two go to draws very interesting. It makes me wonder if NJPW is planning a blow off match at some point in the future. Maybe on an upcoming NJPW Lion’s Gate show?

Result: Draw

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Ren Narita & Shota Umino vs. Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & Yujiro Takahashi)

This match was designed to showcase the young lions again, as they work against more experienced wrestlers. Takahashi got the win after a few minutes with a DDT.

Result: Bullet Club

Rating: 2 stars out of 5

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Tomoyuki Oka & Hiroshi Tenzan

Nagata and Tenzan opened the match, and I was immediately reminded of why I love Nagata. He wrestles like someone half his age, and is just ageless. Oka got to show some great strength in slamming Nakanishi. He made the hot tag to Tenzan, who hit a series of Mongolian chops and a brainbuster on Nakanishi. Nagata ended up getting the win with a big suplex on Oka.

Result: Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO, & YOH) w/ Rocky Romero vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, David Finlay, Toa Henare, & Togi Makabe

Toru Yano had an uncharacteristic show of courage as he wanted to start the match with Makabe. This did not end well for him, and he tagged in YOH and rolled out. Yano then rolled Rocky Romero into the ring, who was not in the match, but had his team asking him to fight Makabe instead. This was hilarious.

David Finlay eventually tagged in and he wrestled with YOH in the early part of this match. Taguchi was directing his troops soon thereafter to run at YOH in the corner. Taguchi then posed on the middle turnbuckle, telling them to send YOH flying into his rear. YOH reversed and sent David Finlay flying into his coach’s rear. This happened several more times before Taguchi realized what happened. Another hilarious spot. CHAOS beat on Finlay for the next several minutes.

Eventually Taguchi made the save, and they isolated YOSHI-HASHI and did a bit of damage. Henare hit a big diving shoulder block, but only got a two count. YOSHI-HAHSI killed Henare with a Western Lariat and locked in the butterfly lock for the win. This makes sense as YOSHI-HASHI needs some momentum heading into the G1.

Result: CHAOS

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

Lots of great comedy spots in this one. Definitely a fun match, and it provided some nice build to the G1.

Speaking of which, a video aired highlighting the blocks.

Oh my goodness. Ibushi and Omega are in the same block. This is insane. We’re also going to see Okada vs. Tanahashi again. This G1 is going to be incredible. Naito is in the same block as Omega as well.