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.

Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Iizuka, Kanemaru, & Taka Michinoku) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Tetsuya Naito)

When Naito came out, there was a little boy wearing a LIJ hat. The boy looked terrified. Naito waited right until he hesitantly stuck out his hand for a fist bump, got down to one knee, and fist bumped the kid. It was really cute.

Taichi attacked Naito and stole his hat. Damnit Taichi. Naito didn’t take kindly to that, and invited Taichi to kick him. He laughed when Taichi did, then dropkicked him. Tranquilo. Suzuki-gun regained the advantage with some outright cheating, and have actually out cheated LIJ. You see, LIJ cheats, but it’s almost always in a way that isn’t annoying. Suzuki-gun? They get heat with it.

Iizuka uses his very effective biting offence. Literally. He was biting everyone. SANADA decided to bite him back, and the announcers laughed as he did so. SNADA hit a missile dropkick and tagged EVIL. EVIL then beat on Taichi for a few minutes. EVIL went for Everything is EVIL, but Taichi blocked it. He responded with a sidewalk slam and he tagged in BUSHI.

The action broke down after Taka locked a crossface on BUSHI, but SANADA broke it up. It all resulted in BUSHI hitting the MX on Taka for the pinfall victory.

Result: Los Ingobernables de Japon

Rating: 2.5 stars out of 5

Nice little tag that gave us a small taste of LIJ as they head into the G1. Naito and SANADA are both in the B Block of the G1, so they are going to face off. LIJ posed with all 4 men fist bumping. After the group fist bump, Naito offered one to SANADA, and SANADA refused. Wow, we’re already seeing some interesting stuff heading into the G1. That’s going to be a very good match.

KUSHIDA, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin, Jeff Cobb, & Hiroshi Tanhashi vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Gedo, & Jay White)

I find it very interesting that Okada didn’t come out to his entrance music here. He looked slightly broken by his title loss to Omega. He didn’t even play to the crowd. Is this a humbled Okada?

CHAOS attacked quickly, and Okada renewed his rivalry with Tanahashi. White and Juice were left in the ring while everyone else fought on the outside. Gedo proceeded to beat on Tanahashi for a little bit, but he didn’t stay in there long because there’s no way the smaller man could keep the advantage forever.

Okada tagged in and looked to take out some of his anger on Tanahashi as he drove him into the turnbuckles repeatedly. Ishii was eventually tagged in, and I suddenly want to see Tanahashi and Ishii have a 20 minute plus war. Tanhashi actually staggered Ishii with a headbutt, but ultimately couldn’t stop the Stone Pitbull. Ishii ate a dragon screw, and Tanahashi tagged out to Elgin. Elgin beat on Ishii for a bit, but Okada and White saved him. This didn’t last long, as Elgin threw White into Okada and hit a German suplex on Ishii. Ishii seems to enjoy getting hit hard though, and soon he’s exchanging strikes with Elgin before hitting a German suplex of his own.

Cobb got a chance to show off a little bit here, with throwing Goto around, and even Okada. The crowd reacted really well to it. Cobb went for a deadlift German suplex on Goto, but Goto escaped and drove Cobb down into his knee before tagging out to KUSHIDA. Gedo and KUSHIDA went at it, with Gedo cursing up a storm.

KUSHIDA reversed an attempt at the Gedo Clutch and went for the Hoverboard Lock, but Okada saved him. There was a wild exchanged of high impact moves from everyone as this match broke down. KUSHIDA hit a handspring elbow to Gedo, hit a DDT, and locked in the Hoverboard Lock to cause Gedo to tap out.

Result: KUSHIDA, Tanahashi, Cobb, Robinson, & Tanahashi

Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Jay White killed KUSHIDA with a Blade Runner, Elgin with a suplex, and Tanahashi with a half nelson suplex after the bell. White continued his assault, attacking Juice Robinson. Woah. They are putting him over strong after the end of the match. He said to the camera, “This is my CHAOS.” It sounds like Jay White is claiming leadership of the group over Okada. White continued the beating, knocking Robinson out with a series of elbows.

While wrapped Juice’s hand in a chair, and slammed another chair on it, breaking his hand. This was a big time angle here. White was booed like crazy for this, and he responded by flipping everyone off. White is coming into his own as a character, and I like it.

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.