NJPW New Year Dash 2020: Results, Highlights, and Grades

Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) vs. Los Ingorbernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo)

ELP and Ishimori started by attacking everyone and sending them all to the floor. RPG3K responded by hitting a dropkick on both and sending the to the floor. RPG3K went for a dive, but Suzuki-gun pulled them out of the ring. YOH ended up in the ring with Hiromu and BUSHI, and they hit a few double team moves.

Hiromu didn’t stay in charge long though, as RPG3k hit a few moves, but Ishimori tagged himself in and attacked Hiromu. ELP then teased doing the Romero special, which the crowd booed, because it was Liger’s move. He put Hiromu in the tree of woe and both him and Ishimori stood on Hiromu’s crotch. Kanemaru tagged himself in and shoved Suzuki-gun off the top rope.

Kanemaru pulled Hiromu to the floor and sent him into the guardrail. Desperado and Kanemaru beat on Hiromu for a bit, but Bullet Club came in and shoved them away and started stomping on Hiromu. Then they started shoving each other because they all wanted a turn to beat on Hiromu. They paused and then all four started stomping on Hiromu.

YOH stopped them, but they threw him out, paused, looked at each other again, and then resumed stomping on Hiromu. That was quite funny. After a series of blind tags, BUSHI was left in the ring with Ishimori, and he hit a dive to the floor. Desperado kicked the middle rope, hitting BUSHI in the crotch, and then tagged himself in but ate a handspring kick from Ishimori.

SHO pulled ELP from the apron and tagged himself in, but Kanemaru and Desperado briefly were able to double team him. SHO and YOH used their advanced tag team wrestling to get back on track and hit a flying double knee on Desperado. They were setting up for the 3K, but BUSHI and Kanemaru broke it up.

After this, there was a sequence of quick moves from everyone that I simply lost track of. SHO and Desperado were left in the ring, exchanging hard strikes. SHO smashed Desperado with a lariat and went for a powerbomb but fell back into a backbreaker on Desperado.

SHO looked for the Shock Arrow, but Desperado flipped out of it. He ducked as BUSHI tried to use the poison mist on him, and it hit SHO! Desperado cradled SHO and got the pinfall!

Result: Suzuki-gun

Rating: ***1/4 (3.25 stars)

Desperado and Kanemaru got a huge win over RPG3k, making them the clear #1 contenders to the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. We have our first feud setup going into the new year, and I am sure Suzuki-gun and RPG3k will have an excellent feud.