NJPW Kizuna Road Night 2: Review, Grades, and Analysis
Hiromu Takahashi (Los Ingobernables de Japon) (c) vs. El Desperado (Suzuki-gun) – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu brought out a guitar case and took flowers out of it. He gave the flowers to Despy. Despy proceeded to wack Hiomu with it. The guitar case figured into the match with Desperado using it several times to beat on Hiromu throughout the crowd. Desperado hit Hiromu with a chair a few times before bringing back to the ring and continuing the beating.
Desperado locked in a Boston crab, but Hiromu made it to the ropes. Hiromu made a comeback and hit a shotgun dropkick that sent Despy to the outside. Takahashi hit another one sending Despy into the guardrail. Desperado untied the turnbuckle, but didn’t do it as well as Toru Yano. Hiromu hit the exposed buckle, but Despy’s advantage didn’t last long. Hiromu followed up with a Sunset Flip Bomb, and a crazy senton to the floor on Desperado.
A chair was eventually introduced, and Kanemaru distracted the referee. Hiromu got hit a few times but he ultimately hit the Dynamite Plunger on a chair. BUSHI came out and misted Kanemaru and took him away. Despy grabbed the ref and knocked him down, and hit a low blow on Hiromu. Hiromu pulled Desperado’s mask off, but he had face paint on that disguised his face. Hiromu locked on a triangle choke after Despy put his mask back on, but he escaped. Despy countered another triangle with a powerbomb into the exposed buckle! Hiromu hit a belly-to-belly into the exposed buckle! Hiromu hit a Death Valley Driver into the other corner, then hit a Time Bomb for the win. What a match!
Result: Hiromu Takahashi
Rating: 4.75 stars out of 5
This was an incredible, must see match. Takahashi and Desperado clearly have a ton of chemistry, and I expect we’ll see more out of these two. Dragon Lee looks to be next for Hiromu at the G1 Special in San Francisco. After that, I expect Ishimori.
Hiromu, after the show, got the press to interview Mr. Belt and Mr. Trophy, as their words are just as important as his.
Final Thoughts
Show Rating: 3.75 stars out of 5
The stories that NJPW are continuing to develop here are quite interesting heading into the NJPW G1 Climax. If it’s one thing NJPW is good at doing is telling long term stories that we might not understand payoff for until later. Hiromu Takahashi is emerging as one of the best wrestlers in the world, and I expect to se a lot of great title defenses here out of him.
Next: Opinion: Braun Strowman Must Defeat Brock Lesnar
It’s quite interesting that Ospreay and Okada lost their titles at the same time, leaving CHAOS in chaos (pardon the pun). The idea of Jay White trying to take over CHAOS was furthered here in his post match beat down of Juice. Juice wasn’t able to avoid the chair this time, and I expect he’ll be selling that hand injury heading into the G1. NJPW is also making the loss of Okada to Omega mean a lot by having Okada sell it in every match he’s been in. It’s making me wonder what Okada we will see in the NJPW G1 Climax.