WWE RAW 8/22/11

WWE RAW rolls into Edmonton, Alberta, Canada (hey wasn't some wrestler guy once billed from here?) tonight a little bit more than a week removed from Summerslam. We still have tons of questions surrounding the controversial finish to the John Cena/CM Punk match at Summerslam as well as the usual questions about where the company is headed creatively heading into the fall quarter, so kick back, watch the show (or don't, I won't tell you how to live your life!) and keep refreshing the page for all the latest updates and analysis from yours truly after each commercial break. Let's get RAW, as they say in the school of bad puns that aren't funny.

WWE RAW 8/22/11
August 22nd, 2011
Rexall Place, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
Attendance: Unknown at this time

Your hosts are Jim Ross, Jerry Lawler, and Michael Cole


We open the show with the WWE champion Alberto Del Rio making his way out to the ring as Michael Cole makes the announcement that Rey Mysterio is out of action indefinitely due to injuries (kayfabe) sustained during his match with Del Rio last week. Before Del Rio can get into his usual destiny shtick though, John Cena's music hits and the former champ makes his way down to the ring quickly for a nice pop. He grabs a mic and tries to reintroduce himself to Del Rio as "the guy who's going to take that WWE championship off your waist". Yes, I'm sure that's just what everyone has been waiting patiently for John, to see you dispatch of generic heel number 9005. Cena says there's only one man in the company that can go toe to toe with him, and that's CM Punk. He says when he faces Del Rio for the WWE title he's going to whip his ass when the opening chords of Living Colour's "Cult of Personality" ring out and our straight edge savior, CM Punk comes out to a nice pop of his own. He makes his way down to the ring and has a mic of his own.


Punk says he feels like he's stepped into a re-run of RAW tonight, seeing John Cena ask for yet another title shot. Punk says if anyone's getting a title shot, it's going to be him. He says he has a problem with Del Rio, Triple H, Kevin Nash, and maybe even former "WWF President" Jack Tunney getting involved in his business and conspiring to take the title from him. Punk points out that Nash probably would have beaten down Cena had he won the title match on Sunday instead of Punk, simply because a certain someone wants Del Rio to be champion. Punk says that he's officially going to cash in his rematch clause for the WWE title, but then Cena steps in and claims that he's going to get his rematch tonight, but Punk tells him he doesn't have a rematch clause. Del Rio takes a shot at the Canadian fans but before he can finish his diatribe, Corporate Triple H's music hits and our noble Chief Operating Officer makes his way down to the ring to take charge of the situation.Triple H has a microphone and says that Del Rio will be wrestling next, but it won't be against Punk or Cena. He says Del Rio will defend the WWE title in four weeks at the Night of Champions PPV against whoever wins tonight's main event, which will pit CM Punk against John Cena in a number one contender's match! Punk/Cena III on RAW? I'm never one to complain about quality matches being given away on free TV, but it seems odd that they would give away a match that brought them so much attention on their last two PPVs for free on RAW.


Alberto Del Rio vs. John Morrison

When we return from commercial break, John Morrison is announced as Del Rio's opponent. Ross puts over the importance of Cena/Punk III, reminding us yet again what a competent play-by-play man sounds like. Del Rio targets Morrison's throat in the early going with a chop and a quick kick before starting to go to work on Morrison's arm, already setting up for his finisher perhaps. JoMo gets a near fall off a dropkick and then grinds Del Rio against the mat with a side headlock. JoMo sends Del Rio out to the floor and then tries for a picture perfect Asai moonsault, but Del Rio moves and JoMo lands on his feet like a cat before being shoved into the guard barrier as we take a commercial break. When we return Del Rio is working over JoMo back in the ring and delivers a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker for a quick two count. Del Rio shoots into the corner but Morrison backdrops him over the top to the outside floor. Back in the ring Morrison meets him with a flurry of forearms and a Russian leg-sweep for a near fall of his own. Beautiful bridging German suplex from Del Rio, but JoMo kicks out again. JoMo blocks the armbar attempt with a cradle for a near fall and then delivers a sloppy tornado DDT for another one. Morrison snaps off a 'rana for another hot near fall and the pace seems to have picked up a bit. JoMo nails a springboard kick and sets up for Starship Pain, but lands on his feet safely, seeing that Del Rio has moved. Del Rio launches him into the ring post however and then applies the flying armbar for the submission victory at 8:54 (shown). They seemed to not quite be on the same page as the match began, but they got over the opening butterflies pretty quickly and this turned into a damn fine little TV match before it ended. These are just the kind of upper-midcard clean wins that Del Rio needs, so no complaints here even if they probably could have put together something better with a little bit more time. **1/2


Eve vs. Nikki Bella

We get a video package before the match from Natalya and Beth Phoenix talking about how they don't want to be like Kelly and Eve, but they aren't going to tell us what they do want. Typical women as King puts it. Nikki lays in a few weak forearms into Eve but it's not long before she's out on the floor getting beaten up by Brie behind the ref's back. Back in the ring Eve delivers a decent side suplex and for a moment I stare in awe at the TV screen with my ears perked up as I hear the first "We want puppies!" chant from a WWE crowd that I can remember in years. Eve does some of that "booty-poppin" as the kids call it and then delivers a sloppy reverse STO. Nikki trips her up when she tries for the moonsault for a near fall. Eve finishes her off with a strange neckbreaker at 2:34. I'll give credit to Eve, she appears to be actively trying to mix new moves into her repertoire. The only problem is she's delivering them rather sloppily, and someone might get hurt that way. Not much of a match obviously. Kelly drops a leg on one of the Bellas after the match as Natalya and Beth Phoenix look on from the stage. 3/4*


We see a shot of Kevin Nash walking backstage as we cut to commercial.


Jack Swagger vs. Alex Riley

Vickie Guerrero makes her way out and introduces Swagger as her newest client. Riley gets the jobber non-entrance strangely enough. They lock up and Swagger quickly takes Riley down with a waistlock. Riley responds with a big spinebuster when suddenly Dolph Ziggler makes his way down to ringside to argue with Vickie. Swagger tries for the gut-wrench powerbomb on Riley but settles for a lariat instead. Ziggler accidentally elbows Vickie down and Swagger comes out to check on her. He shoves Ziggler and goes back into the ring, where he's promptly rolled up by Riley and pinned clean at 2:03. Well if it isn't Scott Keith's favorite-ist finish in the whole wide world. Again, not much of a match here, just an angle. 1/4*


Backstage we see Triple H talking quietly on a cell phone as we go to commercial break. Must be the mistress. When we return from break Triple H has made his way out to the ring with a mic. He talks about the controversy over the WWE title match at Summerslam and then calls Kevin Nash out in order to be completely transparent to the WWE universe. Nash makes his way out to the ring sans cheesy Diesel music and shakes Hunter's hand as he gets into the ring. Triple H again denies ever sending a text message to Nash to jump Punk. Nash says that he respects Hunter's word but he doesn't respect Punk. Triple H says that Nash doesn't work here, so he can't have him out here challenging Punk. Nash says the security last week wasn't for his safety, but rather for Punk's safety. Triple H says Nash can fight him at the local Tim Horton's, but he can't fight him in the WWE and then asks Nash to please leave. CM Punk's music hits right here of course though, and our straight edge savior makes his way out to play a game of detective. He ponders whether it was Nash, Hunter, or Steph who sent the text. Punk claims to be an habitual line-crosser and that Nash should know a thing or two about that (subtle TNA reference perhaps?). Punk says he's done talking and that he's going to kick Nash's ass, but Triple H plays the role of buffer. Punk says that Hunter has always had a problem with him holding the WWE title and wants to know who's really pulling the strings here. Hunter says that if Punk crosses the line with him, he'll attack him. He talks about Hunter keeping his balls in Steph's purse and Nash jumps Punk from behind with a forearm. Nash and Hunter angrily storm off as the crowd loudly chants for Punk.


When we return from commercial we see Triple H backstage telling Nash that he can't put his hands on a WWE employee like he just did with Punk. Nash says that Hunter has changed since donning the suit and takes off.


WWE Tag Team Title Match
David Otunga/Michael McGillicutty © vs. Kofi Kingston/Evan Bourne

With Beer Money recently dropping the TNA tag titles, that makes Otunga and McGillicutty our current longest-reigning champions in the WWE or TNA. That's a frightening thought. McGillicutty seems to be wearing doo rags now in an attempt to look tough. It's not working. Kofi and McGillicutty start us off with some basic feeling out stuff before Kofi hits a huge cross-body and sets up for the Boom Drop. McGillicutty bails and Kofi stupidly gives chase, getting jumped from behind in the process. Back in the ring Otunga body-slams Kofi for a two count. This crowd could not care less about Otunga and McGillicutty's bland heel shtick here and it's kind of sad to watch. Not even their love for Kofi can drag much of any heat out of them. Kofi snaps off a headscissors and tags out to Bourne and finally the crowd shows some life as Bourne hits a flurry of spinkicks and knee-strikes. Kofi nails Otunga with a kick on the side of the apron and Bourne hits the Air Bourne on Otunga to win the tag straps at 5:05. King tries to claim the fans are giving them a standing ovation, but they seem slightly bemused at best. The action here was solid enough but totally heatless. Atleast the tag straps are off of the heat vacuum that is Otunga and McGillicutty though. *1/2


After a quick commercial break we cut to backstage where Kofi Kingston and Evan Bourne are celebrating with Zack Ryder and a bottle of champagne over their tag title win. Elsewhere we see Johnny Ace running up to Triple H to inform him that Kevin Nash has apparently been in a car accident and has been taken to a local hospital. Hunter takes off to make sure his friend is okay while Laurinaitis stands around like a goof. That man is no Funkhouser when it comes to the acting department, I'll tell you what.


Santino Marella's music hits and he begins walking down to the ring when suddenly The Miz and R-Truth jump him from behind and put the beat down on him inside the ring to a chorus of boos. Truth grabs a mic and starts ranting about Little Jimmy again before getting into a "WHAT!"-off with the fans. Truth goes all Alex Jones on us, talking about the big conspiracy to keep he and Miz down again. This crowd is giving off great heat to Truth, regardless of the absurdity of his new found "gimmick". The Miz agrees with Truth and then flips out on the crowd for shouting "What" again. Can you imagine if Austin walked into the building right now? The what's would be deafening. Miz and Truth are playing this crowd perfectly and this has actually been one of the better non-CM Punk promo segments I've seen on RAW in quite some time, as this crowd is giving both men nuclear heat. Miz and Truth say that they're no longer waiting for an opportunity; they're just going to take it. Good segment.


WWE Title #1 Contender's Match
John Cena vs. CM Punk

Alberto Del Rio and Johnny Ace both are at ringside for this match, so I expect we'll get some sort of shenanigans. Cena does his usual pre-match attempt to throw his t-shirt into the crowd, but tonight the crowd decides to throw it back at him like they were the Hammerstein Ballroom. They go right into trading headlocks and legscissors in the early going and while obviously not as electric as Chicago last month, the crowd tonight is still extremely hot. They do a nice leapfrog/shoulder-block trading sequence and Cena looks for the Five Knuckle Shuffle, but Punk rolls him for a two count. Punk knees him in the corner and follows with the running bulldog, but gets knocked off the ring apron after being briefly distracted by Del Rio and we take a quick commercial break. When we return Punk is fighting out of a side headlock. Cena tries for the Attitude Adjustment out of the corner, but Punk blocks it and nails a springboard forearm for a two count. Punk tries for the GTS and Cena counters into the STF, but Punk wriggles out of it only to miss a spinkick and get taken down in a nasty crossface by Cena. Say, didn't some guy from Edmonton used to use that move? Punk nails Cena with the GTS, but Cena kicks out at two! Kind of early for kicking out of finishers guys, isn't it? Punk misses a top rope elbow drop, so Cena goes to the top and hits his top rope legdrop for another near fall. Punk blocks another AA attempt with brutal elbow strikes to Cena's face before blasting him with a stiff knee to the face, but again Cena kicks out. These guys know each other quite well by now, and you can tell how comfrotable they've become together. Cena hits the Attitude Adjustment, but now it's Punk's turn to play the finisher kick out game. Punk hits a cross-body off the top rope, but Cena rolls right through and lifts Punk up, only to be cradled himself for another near fall before Punk wipes him out with a stiff boot to the face. Punk calls for the GTS when suddenly Kevin Nash comes out to the stage with a mic and calls out Punk's name. He makes his way down to the ring and that distracts Punk long enough to turn around and walk right into the Attitude Adjustment from Cena, giving John the win at 10:56 (shown)! Obviously this wasn't on par with their last two PPV matches, but they managed to fit a lot of really good stuff into the short time they did have and as a result the brisk pace made for another excellent encounter between these two. The finish hurts it slightly since it was rather predictable, but otherwise this was another damn fine match from these two men. ***1/4


After the match Del Rio hits the ring and jumps Cena for a bit until Johnny Ace comes into the ring to pull him off. We go off the air with a deranged Del Rio grinning like a madman as Cena lays in the ring injured.

Bottom Line: Well, it certainly wasn't a bad show tonight, I'll give them that. The main event was another great match in a series of them between Cena and Punk and the opening match was another solid win for Del Rio, but everything in between didn't exactly thrill me. The Punk/Kliq angle seems to be starting to forge a pathway for the next PPV, but in the mean time we saw Cena win yet another title shot. I'm not a detractor of Cena's, in fact I'd consider myself a fan of the man's, but to say his babyface shtick has grown stale at this point in time would be a gross understatement. I'm not sure if I agree with where they're heading booking-wise here, but that's really all up to your personal preference here. As a show though, this certainly wasn't bad and the main event was good enough to push this into "good" territory in my book and is enough for me to go ahead and give tonight's show the Thumbs Up.


Score: 7.0/10

NJPW New Japan Brave 2011 4/19/11

NJPW New Japan Brave 2011
April 19th, 2011
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 1,800

Hot off the heels of a great event in the "New Dimension" show a few weeks prior to this, New Japan comes back to Korakuen for a three hour Battle Station special. No titles on the line tonight, but there is a match to determine the next contenders for Bad Intention's IWGP Tag Team titles and there's a stacked super junior six man tag match on here, so let's jump right into it.


TAKA Michinoku/Taichi vs. Kyosuke Mikami/Hiromu Takahashi

I feel like I've just seen this match recently. Taichi, how I long for thy badass cape. This is just a gimme match for TAKA and Taichi here against two of the young recent students of the New Japan dojo, so they don't take their opponents very seriously. It's just a delight to watch TAKA and Taichi disrespect the young kids and take them to school while they do their best to try and mount some offense of their own, they have their roles as slimy heels down pat. Takahashi sends the heels to the floor momentarily and tries for a pescado but botches it horribly and winds up tumbling to the floor as the crowd quietly dies. Ouch. The heels continue to work over Takahashi in their corner, trading tags. Takahashi tags out to Mikami eventually and he suplexes Taka for a two count before tagging Takahashi back in. TAKA pokes him in the eye and tags out to Taichi, who then applies a deep Boston crab to Hiromu. Takahashi gets the rope break but winds up falling right back into the Boston crab again. Taichi transitions it into an old school Jericho-like Liontamer and Takahashi has no choice but to tap out at 9:26. Decent squash-ish match for Taichi and TAKA, but the botch hurt it obviously. Taichi looked great again though. *3/4


Jado/Gedo vs. Tiger Mask IV/King Fale

Though this looks like a decent match-up on paper, it winds up being one of those matches where you can just tell everyone is kind of half-assing it just to hurry up and get it over with. Hey, if you're not going to put much effort into the match guys, I won't put much effort into reviewing it. Lots of headlocks and not much fire from anyone really. Tiger does a half-assed dive towards the end and Jado locks in the crossface onto Fale, forcing him to tap out at 7:44. Poor effort all around honestly, the less said about this match the better. 1/2*


Manabu Nakanishi/Jushin Liger vs. Mascara Dorada/Tama Tonga

Hm, another random pairing but an intriguing one. This winds up being more fun then you'd expect with Dorada zipping all over the place and Tonga hooting and hollering like a coked up James Brown (in other words his normal behavior). Liger, god bless him, still has a way with his feet. Nakanishi has fun ripping into Tonga for a bit and then tags Liger back in to stretch the kid out with a surfboard. Do not upset Grandpa Liger! Dorada hops in and he and Liger do some fun lucha stuff with Dorada taking him out with a nice tope. Liger responds with a big cross body off the top to the floor. It's miraculous Liger can still bump like that after all these years of working so hard. Tonga hits a corkscrew moonsault for a near fall, but Nakanishi gives him a towering German suplex right on his neck. Dorada takes out Liger on the floor with a moonsault while Nakanishi finishes Tonga off with the Argentine backbreaker (torture rack) at 9:43. Fun little match here, they kept it light and fast-paced and that was the right choice. Dorada and Liger worked well together, Tonga did his usual fun antics, and this was just an entertaining if forgettable little tag match. **1/2


Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson/Tomoaki Honma vs. Takashi Iizuka/Toru Yano/Tomohiro Ishii

Interesting match-up of a trio from the CHAOS stable taking on the tag champs and hanger-on Honma. This one is wild from the start with everyone brawling around ringside and into the crowd, choking each other with anything they can get their hands on. Honma is great at crowd-brawling thanks to his many years in Big Japan in this same building among others, but CHAOS ain't half bad either. Eventually they make their way back to the ring where Honma takes it to Ishii with great crowd support. They go off into a big strike exchange and then trade nasty headbutts like butting rams. Honma gets taken out of the ring again and has a chair smashed over his back by the heels. They do the same thing to Bernard while tossing Honma into the rails. Back in the ring they keep the focus on Honma, Iizuka choking him out with his wrist-tape behind the ref's back. Bernard hops in and gives Iizuka a taste of his own medicine by choking him with his own wrist-tape in a cool moment. Honma fires off a brainbuster with the last of his energy and gets the hot tag to Anderson, who's fresh as a daisy and hasn't been in the entire match. He and Yano trade uppercuts and Anderson gets a two count off of a leg lariat. Bad Intentions teams up on Ishii now, double-teaming him behind his partner's back and they wind up finishing Ishii off with the Magic Killer to win at 9:49. Pretty fun little brawl and the finish was good as well, so this wound up being better than expected. ***


After the match Iizuka drags an announcer out from backstage to beat on to vent his frustrations. Dude, get a stress ball or something!


Bad Intentions cut a promo back stage promising that 2011 is their year, and that they don't care what team steps up to face them at Fukuoka for the titles shot, they don't give a shit. Great promo.


Super Jr. Special Six Man Tag Match
Kota Ibushi/Kenny Omega/Daisuke Sasaki vs. Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi/KUSHIDA

Interesting to see Devitt team up with KUSHIDA after defending the title against him last month, but what's even more interesting is the inclusion of young Daisuke Sasaki, one of the best young juniors on the indies on loan from the DDT promotion. Gotta love New Japan recognizing these indy talents and bringing them up, it's how they discovered guys like Ibushi and Omega here ironically enough. Omega and Devitt start us off with some swank basic hold exchanges before Taguchi and Ibushi hop in to do their own acrobatic rendition of the same exchange, with the added bonus of dueling missing dropkicks. Sasaki and KUSHIDA tag in and we've got ourselves a fresh little match up of hot young talents here. KUSHIDA gets sent to the floor with a hurricanrana but the Golden Lovers and Apollo 55 tag teams both hop in to do some trademark counter spots. Omega, Ibushi, and Sasaki do a slightly over-choreographed triple dive spot on their opponents that makes for a great visual. The "other" faces start working over KUSHIDA in their corner, with Sasaki in particular taking it to him with a pesky sleeper. KUSHIDA blocks a rana attempt and doesn't quite hit a sloppy superkick before both men tag out and let the Golden Lovers and Apollo 55 teams do their thing again. No complaints here, these two teams know each other well and always put on excellent work, and KUSHIDA and Sasaki bring a fun added element to the mix. Apollo 55 and KUSHIDA get their chance to hit their own triple dive spot on their opponents outside before this thing breaks down into utter madness in the ring with guys trading huge strikes back and forth and then getting out of the way so the next two guys can work a great spot. Taguchi and Omega have a badass segment, trading suplex attempts before Omega snaps off a rana and tags out to Sasaki. Sasaki dropkicks Taguchi while he's hanging on the top rope for a near fall so Taguchi responds with a big release German suplex before they both tag out to Ibushi and KUSHIDA. Ibushi catches KUSHIDA in mid-air in the middle of a back handspring attempt and German suplexes him for another close near fall. Ibushi has quasi-Nagata like look on his face now of anger, and he delivers a crazy roll-through bridging German suplex for another near fall. He hits a phoenix splash and that's enough to pin KUSHIDA at 14:55. Give this another ten minutes and it could have been a classic, but instead they just worked a really fun quick little 15 minute sprint that had several fun triple and double exchanges thrown in with the usual great juniors spots from these six talents. Very fun stuff. ***1/2


IWGP Tag Team Title #1 Contenders Match
Tetsuya Niato/Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Wataru Inoue

The winner gets a shot at Bad Intentions titles at the Dontaku PPV in May. Speaking of Bad Intentions, they're watching in the front row. Tenzan probably shouldn't be competing for the tag titles at this stage, but I suppose there are worse candidates. Takahashi continues to develop as a nasty CHAOS heel underling, but he spends most of the match bumping for Tenzan. After a bit of this Inoue tags in and the pace thankfully picks up a bit as he and Takahashi do some nice spots. Of course Tenzan just tags right back in though and we're back to our snail's pace. Naito and Inoue hop back in and things pick up again for the finishing stretch as Naito rips off his shirt to show he means business and then delivers the Stardust Press to put Inoue away at 14:53. Pretty dull match here, there wasn't much structure or flow to the thing and Tenzan seemed even slower than usual. Doesn't exactly get me all excited to see them wrestle Bad Intentions for the title. **


Special Tag Match
Shinsuke Nakamura/Masato Tanaka vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi/Yuji Nagata

Now this looks like a fun match-up on paper. Longtime rivals Tanahashi and Nakamura are set to square off for Tanahashi's IWGP Heavyweight title roughly two or three weeks after this show here on the big Dontaku PPV in May, so this is obviously a teaser for that, and a very good one at that. Throw in longtime rivals Tanaka and Nagata and you've got yourself a main-event level tag team match here. Nakamura and Tanahashi of course steal the show during their segments like they always do. Nakamura seems nonplussed about the whole thing until Tanahashi slaps him in the face and he awakens with a fiery flurry of sickening kicks and knee strikes. Tanaka and Nagata hop in and immediately start shooting for submissions on one another, with Nagata focusing on Tanaka's leg and then tagging out to Tanahashi again. They both get sent to the floor moments later and sent into the rails while Tanaka chokes Nagata with a kendo stick. Where does he get that damned thing every time? Someone needs to stop bringing all of these canes to these shows! Nagata and Tanaka do some rock-solid matwork back inside before Nakamura and Tanaka start trading quick tags and working Nagata over in their corner. Tanahashi says fuck that though and jumps in to brawl with Nakamura, hitting a nice somersault senton off the top for a two count. They go into a stiff slap and kick exchange before Tana hits the sling blade for another near fall while Nagata and Tanaka brawl to the floor. Tana gets caught up on the top rope and Nakamura gives him the old Boma Ye knee in the chest before putting him into a deep flying armbar. Tana manages to fight both him and Tanaka off though and tag out to old man Nagata, who by now has got his wind back and is pissed. Yakuza kick/exploder suplex combo from Nagata, but Tanaka kicks out. They trade brainbusters before Nagata locks Tanaka into the crossface. Nakamura breaks it up with a Boma Ye knee though. Nagata hits a sick step up enziguri followed by a towering Saito suplex, but Nakamura again breaks it up and then cold-clocks him with a knee to the jaw. He does the same thing to Tana on the ground while Tanaka hits Nagata with the Sliding D for a two count. He hits another one to Nagata's back and then another one to his front and pins him at 16:42. One hell of a tag team match here as well as this was almost like two singles matches at the same time, pairing Nakamura/Tanahashi and Nagata/Tanaka, two pairings that have wrestled each other a hundred times and know each other so well at this point that the only thing they're capable of doing is producing a hard-hitting, fast paced effort every time out. This was no exception to that rule. ***1/2


Special Singles Match
Togi Makabe vs. Satoshi Kojima

This is being labelled almost like a grudge match, and these two do have bad blood as of the last few shows. Crowd doesn't seem as hot as they usually would for a match like this, but that doesn't stop these guys from putting on a good show. Kojima dominates early with several suplexes and a DDT on the ring apron before choking Makabe against the second rope for a bit, grinding him down with a sleeper as well. The beatdown continues outside the ring where he just blasts Makabe with a steel chair that falls to pieces from the contact. Korakuen doesn't seem quite as alive and heated as usual tonight unfortunately, but they still give Makabe some support during the segment and they get louder once Makabe starts making his comeback, lariating Kojima out of his boots. He doesn't get much offense in before Kojima cuts him off with an ace crusher though. He delivers another ace crusher to him, this time off of the top rope and follows it with a suplex, but Makabe kicks out at two and starts his real comeback with a crazy German suplex off the top rope. He tries for the King Kong kneedrop but Kojima moves out of the way. They trade a waistlock and Kojima nails him with a lariat as the ref accidentally gets bumped as well. So of course out of the crowd with a steel chair comes the dastardly Taichi. Makabe blocks his chair shot but winds up getting a lariat to the back of the head from Kojima anyways. He responds with a judo chop and then waffles Kojima with the chair in a sort of reprisal for the chairshot Kojima gave him earlier in the match before hitting the King Kong knee-drop off the top rope to pick up the win at 17:17. This one could have used a bit more heat from the unusually quiet Korakuen crowd, but otherwise this was a fine main event and a fun match between the two rivals here with some karmic payback thrown in for good measure. It's impossible not to root for Makabe when he's getting beaten down by someone as conniving as Kojima, it's like watching your favorite childhood teddy bear get beat up or something. Anyways, a very good main event that could have been great with a bit more planning and heat. ***1/4


We close out the show with several different music video packages for some of the major main event wrestlers in the company, including Togi Makabe, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shinsuke Nakamura, and the NO LIMIT faction.

Bottom Line: This was actually a pretty enjoyable show that snuck up on me. I wasn't expecting much, but we got several really fun tag matches sprinkled through out the card along with a fun main event, and it sets things up a bit more for the Dontaku PPV in a few weeks, so if you've got the time to kill it's probably worth checking out before jumping into the PPV. We'll go with a mild recommendation and a Thumbs Up.


Score: 7.0/10

NJPW New Dimension 2011 (4/3/11)

NJPW New Dimension 2011
April 3rd, 2011
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Attendance: 2,025 (Sold Out)

Onward we go in our guide to New Japan in 2011, arriving now at the biggest event of April for the company, the New Dimension WPW show. We've got a huge main event tonight with the winner of the 2011 New Japan Cup tournament Yuji Nagata taking on the champ Hiroshi Tanahashi for the world title, as well as Ryusuke Taguchi defending the CMLL Welterweight title against young Madoka, one of the best students from the Kaientai Dojo. Most of New Japan's big players are all booked tonight, so it should be a solid show, let's get to it.


Killer Rabbits vs. Kyosuke Mikami/Hiromu Takahashi

My god, there are two killer rabbits now? Insert requisite joke about rabbits mating and reproducing constantly here. Still not sure who's under the masks. Mikami appears to have improved since I last saw him and Takahashi has been making strides himself lately, so this actually winds up being a pretty decent opener. The Rabbits both look surprisingly good tonight too and work well as a team, trading quick tags and using double team maneuvers. Takahashi takes a beatdown for a few minutes before snapping off a hurricanrana on one of the rabbits and getting the hot tag to Mikami, who cleans house for a bit before getting beaten down himself and having to tag out again. Takahashi nearly pins one of the rabbits with a fisherman's suplex, but it's broken up and Takahashi eats a superkick while one of the other Rabbits takes out Mikami on the floor with a tope. The other Rabbit spikes Takahashi right on his head with a nasty piledriver to pick up the win at 8:00. This was way better then I was expecting it to be as the Rabbits actually looked really good as a team, especially toward the finishing stretch. Mikami and Takahashi continue to improve, and overall this was a nice way to kick off the show with some of the youngsters. **1/2


Takashi Iizuka/Toru Yano/Tomohiro Ishii vs. Jushin Liger/Tiger Mask IV/Tomoaki Honma

Iizuka of course continues the best gimmick in the world today, which is his rule of starting off every match by attacking one of the commentators at ringside and ripping his clothes off. Liger hits an early frog splash on Iizuka for a near fall before things break down and never really recover. Lots of brawling in this one all around the ring and into the crowd. CHAOS spend most of the match ganging up on Liger, trying to rip his mask off. Liger tags out to TMIV and he delivers a Tiger Driver to longtime rival Ishii followed by a diving headbutt for a two count. Honma and Yano hop in next and Honma takes it to him with a bulldog before missing a missile dropkick. The rest of the guys start brawling out of the ring while Honma hits his own diving headbutt for another hot nearfall. Ishii distracts the ref while Iizuka pulls out his signature metal glove and blasts Honma with it behind the ref's back, allowing Yano to pin him with the Oni Koroshi powerbomb at 7:51. Pretty fun little chaotic brawl while it lasted, I just love the three-man pairing of Iizuka, Yano, and Ishii together. **


Masato Tanaka/Tetsuya Naito/Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Wataru Inoue/King Fale

Tanaka has been a favorite of mine going all the way back to his ECW days though, so this should be interesting, especially teaming with Naito. Right about here is where I notice a small portion of the fans in attendance are wearing medical surgical masks over their mouths and noses, perhaps due to the earthquake that rocked Japan about a month before this show. Tenzan and Tanaka start the match by trading stiff strikes with one another before they bail and let Naito and Fale lock up. Crowd is surprisingly into Fale here and they love when he rips Naito's carefully tucked-in t-shirt off. Inoue tags in next but doesn't get very far before the heels are teaming up on him in their corner and Tanaka is choking him at ringside with a kendo stick. Inoue is able to tag out to Tenzan thanks to some heel miscommunication and he lays headbutts into Naito's chest. Naito responds with a pretty missile dropkick and then tags out to Tanaka as Tenzan tags out to Fale. They triple team Tanaka for a bit but then Fale becomes the victim of a double team move and eats not one but two Sliding D's from Tanaka for the win at 11:35. Started kind of shaky but it got pretty good towards the end and the finish was hot. Fale seems to be getting more over with the fans as of late. **1/4


CMLL World Welterweight Title Match
Ryusuke Taguchi © vs. Madoka

Taguchi won this belt from Mascara Dorada a few months back on one of the joint NJPW/CMLL Fantasticamania shows in January (both of which I reviewed if you're curious) and I think this is his first title defense in Japan since winning it. Madoka is one of the better young guys out of the Kaeintai Dojo whose been getting more and more bookings on bigger shows it seems. Taguchi is so over I fully expect he's at the very top of the "To be Pushed" list in the company and wouldn't be surprised if he won the IWGP Jr. title by next year. Excellent opening sequence of moves from both guys before Madoka hits a beautiful moonsault off the second turnbuckle onto Taguchi on the outside floor. Back in the ring they each target one another's legs for some limbwork and Madoka and Taguchi both seem to be favoring the injuries already. Madoka works over Taguchi's arm as well, all the while selling his own leg wonderfully. Taguchi delivers a trio of rolling vertical suplexes but it only gets a two count. Madoka gets nailed with a sickening enziguri and then eats a gourdbuster, but still he kicks out at two. Madoka fires off an impressive top rope super-frankensteiner, but Taguchi still manages to fight out of it. Taguchi responds with a Tiger Suplex followed by the Dodon and that's enough to give him the pin to retain his title at 12:17. Aw man, this one cut off right when it was starting to get really good. Madoka looked great again here and Taguchi continues to impress. Not on par with the usual Devitt title defenses or anything, but fine work by both men. ***1/4


Shinsuke Nakamura/Jado/Gedo vs. Manabu Nakanishi/Kota Ibushi/Kenny Omega

Oh hell yes, it's about time Kenny Omega was brought back by New Japan. This guy can and has had great matches with everyone, including an inflatable doll (Google: Yoshihiko if you're curious). Omega and Jado start us off with some great leapfrog and hold exchanges before Nakanishi quickly tags in and starts dishing out downright nasty knife edge chops to Jado, who quickly tags out to Gedo. Gedo tries to out-chop Nakanishi, and take one wild guess how well that works out for him. Hint: not well. Ibushi hops in the ring and gets down on one knee and points to Nakamura as if he were challenging him to some sort of mythic triathlon of the gods. Nakamura obliges, and shit gets real. Nakamura's feeling funky and he dances a bit while laying in knees to Ibushi before they both square off and just start laying huge kicks and strikes into each other like this was a K-1 fight. Ibushi's speed is remarkable, but Nakamura is able to outsmart him and tag out to Jado. Gedo and Jedo trade quick tags and start working over Ibushi's leg. They work him over a bit until Nakamura hops back in to lay in vicious knees to the gut, which seems to piss off Omega. Jado locks on a deep figure four on Ibushi for a bit, but he gets the rope break. Ibushi tries fighting back but eats a second-rope assisted DDT from Gedo. By god, could Randy Orton be a Gedo fan? Ibushi hits a sweet pele kick and then exits the ring so Omega can wipe out the Jado and Gedo with a body-press. He gives them a double bulldog for a two count. Omega tries for a dragon suplex, but Gedo counters into the crossface submission! Ibushi breaks it up and we've got ourselves a mini battle of the tag teams here as Ibushi and Omega hit their trademark Finlay-roll/standing shooting star press combo on both Jado and Gedo for another near fall. They step it up a notch though and take out both Jado and Gedo with a beautiful pair of stereo moonsaults onto the floor! Nakamura breaks up Omega's ocean cyclone suplex attempt and the crowd rallies up and just explodes when Omega crawls to get the hot tag to Nakanishi. He catches Nakamura in mid-air and tosses him to the floor with a slam, and then follows him out with a pescado! Air Nakanishi! He hits a fucking missile dropkick on Nakamura even, but Nakamura has the balls to kick out. By god just put the juniors title on Nakanishi right now man. Nakamura nails him with a spin kick and a lung-blower and sets up for the Boma Ye, but Nakanishi counters into a torture rack and tosses him aside. He turns Nakamura inside out with a sleeper suplex in a pretty dangerous spot (his hands were too high on Nakamura's chest), but Nakamura gets that jolt of adrenaline and nails him in the back of the head with the Boma Ye knee. He delivers a second Boma Ye and that's enough to put Nakanishi away at 16:31. This was just an outstanding six man tag match here with all sorts of good stuff going on. Nakamura and Ibushi's mini kickboxing battle was great, Jado & Gedo worked over Ibushi perfectly as the heels and the heat for Nakanishi's tag at the end was huge. Throw in a few crazy high spots and this was just a flat out fun affair. ***1/2


Satoshi Kojima/TAKA Michinoku vs. Togi Makabe/KUSHIDA

When the hell did KUSHIDA start coming out to a cheesy J-pop rendition of "The Touch"? Awesome. This is an interesting tag team match-up and the crowd gives Kojima a ton of heat coming in. Makabe and Kojima start us off with the usual battle of the shoulder-blocks before trading big open palm chops, a battle which Makabe appears to win before Kojima rakes his eyes, lariats him, and then taunts the crowd to some massive heat. God damn I love Korakuen Hall, unlike other venues in Japan these people actually care and are loud and vocal. Taichi is with Kojima and TAKA at ringside I should mention as well. Back in the ring KUSHIDA works some fun stuff in with TAKA. I'd love to see these two face off in a singles match, I'm sure it's happened before (educate me if so Ryan Byers!). Makabe does a good job of playing the frustrated big brother in the corner while little bro KUSHIDA gets his ass handed to him by the two crafty old veteran heels. Kojima really lays in the chops on KUSHIDA and the crowd is just going wild, it's crazy the nuclear heat that Kojima is getting here tonight. KUSHIDA fights him off with a stiff enziguri and finally gets the hot tag to Makabe, but the crowd doesn't seem as in to him as they were KUSHIDA. Makabe hits a northern lights suplex for a near fall on Kojima. Kojima responds with a DDT but winds up eating a sick lariat anyways. Kojima fires off some elbows and an ace crusher on the big man and then tags out to TAKA. Makabe promptly makes TAKA his bitch with a suplex and then tags out to KUSHIDA, who's got his second wind going and hits a nice moonsault for a two count. Makabe and KUSHIDA gang up on TAKA for a bit but Kojima manages to break it up. KUSHIDA hits a Muta-esque moonsault, but as the ref goes to count for three Taichi pulls him out of the ring! Taichi hops into the ring, superkicks KUSHIDA, and then tosses the ref back into the ring as TAKA delivers the Michinoku Driver II to put KUSHIDA away at 16:31! This one started off a little slow but picked up real quick and the heat for the match was off the charts from bell to bell. KUSHIDA did great as the babyface in peril, the heels used dastardly and devious tricks to defeat their opponents, and this wound up being a hell of an entertaining little match. ***


After the match all four men continue brawling until they have to be separated by some of the students and the other wrestlers from the back. They talk for a bit, presumably setting up more battles between these factions in the future.


IWGP Heavyweight Title Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi © vs. Yuji Nagata

Big time title match here between two guys who have had some absolutely killer matches together in the past. Both men lock up and Nagata lays a few stiff kicks into Tanahashi's leg as Hiroshi seems very cautious to start with the veteran. Nagata slaps him in the face and locks a deep guillotine choke hold in, but Tanahashi slips out and applies a grapevined ankle lock briefly. Nagata baits his younger opponent in with the promise of another Greco-Roman hold and than just shoves him down like a rookie. Both men trade forearms in the corner and Tanahashi makes the mistake of celebrating after a basic body slam and pays for it. Tanahashi tries to duck a kick from Nagata but again the veteran outsmarts him by feinting a kick and then laying a real, much stiffer one into his chest to send Tanahashi out to the floor for a time-out. When he returns to the ring Nagata lays in a devastating series of knees. He misses a big boot though and Tanahashi gives him a dragon-screw legwhip over the top rope and to the floor before following him out with a big tope con hilo off the apron! We get a simply killer camera shot here of Shinsuke Nakamura (Tanahashi's longtime main rival for those unaware) sitting in the front row watching the match with this look on his face of utter apathy and boredom as if these two were putting him to sleep. Back inside Tanahashi locks on a figure four in the middle of the ring but eventually Nagata is able to break the hold, but not before the damage has been done to his leg. Tanahashi follows up with a flurry of kicks to the same leg and Nagata counters with a huge running knee to Tanahashi's gut, but it's the same leg that Tanahashi's been working on so he collapses as well from the blow. Nagata goes back to working his kicks and then decides to start working on the arm, applying a Fujiwara armbar. Tanahashi fights back with his other forearm and then targets Nagata's leg again. Nagata counters with a huge release Dragon suplex that nearly kills Hiroshi and then gives him an exploder for a two count. Back on their feet both men resort to a straight up slap-boxing match, and things are starting to get stiff here as Nagata just destroys Tanahashi with slaps as the crowd chants his name. Nagata tries for a body slam but his leg gives out under him so Tanahashi goes right back to work on it with a pair of Dragon-screw legwhips. He locks on a deep Texas clover-leaf, cranking away on Nagata's neck in a fashion similar to Chris Jericho's original Lion Tamer. Nagata uses ever last bit of strength left in him to get the rope break and struggles back to his feet only to meet the Sling Blade from Tanahashi. Cross-legged Michinoku Driver from Tanahashi gets a close two count. He comes off the top rope but Nagata nails him again in the gut with a huge knee. He hits another running knee in the corner and then tries for a top rope exploder, headbutting his opponent nearly unconscious before giving him an overhead belly-to-belly suplex off the top rope, but Tanahashi somehow kicks out! Nagata tries a brainbuster, but still he can't get a 3 count. Tanahashi counters a Saito suplex attempt for a near fall of his own and then yet again targets Nagata's leg with a dropkick. Nagata counters into a nasty armbreaker though (making one of his trademark "constipated fury" faces in the process) and Tanahashi barely makes it to the ropes. Nagata tries a pair of Saito suplexes, but that won't do the trick either so he tries for one off the top rope, but Tanahashi counters into a bridging Aztec German suplex and again Nagata kicks out. Finally Tanahashi delivers the High Fly Flow frog splash and is able to put Nagata away to retain at 35:30. Just an outstanding match. They did an excellent job of establishing Nagata in the early going as the veteran with all of the answers and counters to Tanahashi's tricks, and Tanahashi played the brash young gun who had underestimated his opponent to perfection. Add in the ongoing psychology of the continued limb-work and selling throughout the match and a red-hot crowd and you've got an early Match of the Year candidate for NJPW. ****¼


After the match Masato Tanaka shows up and gets on the mic to presumably set up a rematch between him and Nagata down the line. Tanahashi calls Shinsuke Nakamura out of the audience and he hits the ring to say a few words to him as the logical next title defense for Tanahashi would be Nakamura as well. Nagata puts over Tanahashi and they shake hands in a sign of mutual respect as we close out the show.

Bottom Line: This was one heck of a show really, New Japan seems to always deliver when it comes time for the sporadic PPVs, and this was no exception. You've got an easy contender for New Japan match of the year in the main event, and an undercard full of several matches ranging from good to damned good. A minimum of filler, this was just a lean, mean, strong style machine of a show and an easy Thumbs Up from me.


Score: 8.5/10

WWE Friday Night Smackdown 8/19/11

Howdy ladies and gentlemen and welcome to my first night on the job as the official Smackdown recapper. You may know me from the video reviews section or my work recapping the TNA PPVs as well as WWE RAW in the last few weeks, but I'll be taking over the Smackdown duties here from the wonderful Nick Bazar from now and into the foreseeable future. Because of all the feedback in the comments of last week's report, I've decided to keep up with Bazar's system of keeping track of everyone's Wins/Losses on Smackdown, so that will stay, but everything else will be in my usual reviewing format. Anyways, we're less than a week removed from Summerslam where Randy Orton defeated Christian to win back the World Heavyweight title, so tonight we can expect to see all of the fallout from that show and hopefully a hint of where the brand is headed going into the fall.

WWE Friday Night Smackdown 8/19/11
August 19th, 2011
Rabobank Arena, Bakersfield, California
Attendance: Unknown at this time

Your hosts are Michael Cole, Booker T, and Josh Matthews


We open the show with Randy Orton making his way out to the ring to a nice pop with his newly won World Heavyweight title. Teddy Long is in the ring. He talks about how Christian normally starts off the show whining, but tonight he gets to start off the show because he's the new champ. He claims that Christian isn't here tonight to face him or ask for another match because the feud is all over and Orton won. I'm glad that great feud is finally coming to an end, but you didn't actually need to come out and just basically say that Orton man. Long announces a 20 man over-the-top battle royal tonight to determine a new number one contender to Orton's title, but before he can finish his thought Cody Rhodes and Ted DiBiase come out and hit the ring.


Cody has a mic of his own and facetiously declares this a Legacy reunion in the ring. Cody sounds downright Shakespearean in his promo work these days, and that's a massive compliment. He goes over the history of Legacy and how things have changed since then. Big "You suck!" chant at Cody (and not a piped-in one either). Cody says he's going to win the battle royal tonight so he can take the title from Orton. Even DiBiase gets some good (real) heat when he takes the mic from Cody. Before he can say anything though, Orton RKOs him out of nowhere! I'm not exactly a huge Randy Orton fan, but that was awesome and reminded me of when Austin used to just show up in random matches at a few different points when he was really pissed off and just give random people a stunner and then casually leave like it was normal business. Same kind of vibe here. Orton exits and Cody demands that Teddy do something about what just happened, so Teddy says he'll have Orton sit in the corner and write 100 times "I will not RKO Ted DiBiase" on a piece of paper as punishment and then tells Cody that he's going to have to defend his IC title against Ezekiel Jackson...next.


WWE Intercontinental Title Match
Cody Rhodes © (12-10) vs. Ezekiel Jackson (12-9)

Jackson earns the honor of first sadly piped-in fake pop of the night. Good thing they moved the belt to Cody last week, because despite Jackson's impressive size it doesn't seem like the fans are ever going to care about him enough to be a successful IC champion. They lock up and Zeke overpowers Rhodes early, obviously. He hits a spinning sidewalk slam but Cody kicks out at one. Cody tries to work over Zeke's arm but it doesn't get him very far. Rhodes escapes a torture rack attempt and then nails Zeke in the face with a stiff knee. He delivers the Cross Rhodes to Zeke and pins him clean at 3:34. Not much of a match obviously, but that was exactly what needed to happen here with Cody dispatching of Big Zeke with relative ease to establish that Rhodes is above Zeke's level right now, as he should be. *


Backstage Zack Ryder informs Teddy Long that the WWE champion Alberto Del Rio is on his way to Smackdown tonight just like he asked for. Long was hoping it would've been Punk or Cena though. Ryder claims he's going to win the battle royal later tonight as well before Aksana, still with the black hair comes in to interrupt and sexually harass Teddy Long and make really bad puns for a bit. Aksana's easy on the eyes and all, but where exactly could this angle with the GM be going?


We get the same video package of Justin Gabriel returning home to South Africa during a recent tour, playing up the whole hometown kid makes good deal going on here. Nice package and I'm glad the WWE has decided to apparently give Gabriel a serious singles push as a face now, the guy's extraordinarily talented and could be a potential young future star for the company.


Justin Gabriel (7-12) vs. Tyson Kidd (0-4)

Oh my goodness yes. These two fought on NXT a week ago and it was easily the best match in NXT history, and I love that the WWE sees that and decides to book these guys against each-other once again. They do a nice shoulder-block/leapfrog sequence running the ropes to start before Gabriel grabs an armbar. Kidd hurricanranas Gabriel into the second turnbuckle and then dropkicks him for only a one count. Gabriel fights out of a headlock and misses a few spin kick attempts before nailing Kidd in the mouth with one. He lays in a flurry of more kicks to the chest and then takes him out with a high spin kick and a roaring elbow for two. Gabriel springboards onto Kidd and rolls through a submission attempt to deliver an STO takedown instead. Gabriel blocks a superplex and then hits Kidd with the 450 splash to pick up the win at 4:20. I so badly wish they could have given these guys another five minutes, but the idea they wanted to put across again here is that Gabriel is above Kidd's level, and again that's probably as it should be right now. Fun while it lasted though. **1/2


Backstage Matt Striker is with Jinder Mahal and The Great Khali to ask them about the big battle royal tonight. Mahal interrupts Khali and says that they both agree that Mahal will win tonight.


Alberto Del Rio's music hits and he makes his way out to the ring with the WWE title around his waist and a microphone in his hand. He introduces himself as the new WWE champion and reminds everyone that he had talked about this destiny for months and how it all came true for him. He mentions how he debuted a year ago on Smackdown by defeating Rey Mysterio and how things have changed since then, yet he's still beating Mysterio these days too. Minor 619 chant as we see highlights of his title defense against Rey from RAW this week. He lays out an open challenge asking who is brave enough to face him, and his challenge is promptly answered by the other Money in the Bank Winner, Daniel Bryan to a decent pop.


Bryan, with briefcase in hand, asks if Del Rio is so special than why did he cash in his Money in the Bank briefcase in the same manner that everyone else did. He calls Del Rio's actions pathetic and then makes his way down to the ring as we cut to commercial. When we return, we have a (non-title) match on our hands.


Daniel Bryan (8-6-1) vs. Alberto Del Rio (7-7)

Del Rio defeated Bryan on Smackdown last week, but that was before Alberto won the title. Big "Let's go Bryan!" chant as they lock-up to start. Bryan takes it to Del Rio in the corner so Alberto bails and lures Bryan back into the ring to pounce him from behind. Del Rio works an armbar as Cole whines about Bryan's ego and the fans continue to loudly chant for Bryan (real heat too as we get several close-up shots of members in the audience participating in the chant). Del Rio switches to a side headlock and Bryan escapes and knees him in the gut. He lays in Kawada-esque kicks to Del Rio and then elbows Alberto. Del Rio grabs Bryan on the top rope and hits a falling armbreaker on him for a near fall before again going back to the armbar. Del Rio seems to be improving in the ring. Cole compares Bryan's YouTube wrestling education series to watching paint dry. You wouldn't want to hear what we think of your work then bud. Bryan takes the Bret Hart bump into the corner turnbuckle and it's back to the armwork again, but god bless this crowd they're still hot for it all, rallying behind Bryan as Del Rio chips away on the arm. Bryan fights him off though and blasts away at Del Rio in the corner with a huge flurry of high kicks. Bryan does the back-flip spot and then takes Del Rio out with a flying forearm. He sends Del Rio out to the floor and then nails him with a running knee strike off of the apron! Back in the ring Del Rio evades a top rope move from Bryan and then promptly German suplexes him right on his neck with a bridge for a near fall. Great sequence there. Del Rio delivers a top rope back-drop suplex to Bryan, but it appears that Del Rio gets the worst of it as we cut to commercial. When we return both men are trading blows until Bryan nails a dropkick. Bryan hits a beautiful missile dropkick off the top (while still selling the armwork from Del Rio earlier in the match) and hooks the leg, but Del Rio still kicks out! They do some nice counter wrestling and Bryan locks Del Rio into the guillotine choke, but Alberto rams him into the corner turnbuckle and delivers a snap suplex before transitioning right into the flying armbar submission and Bryan has no choice but to tap out at 11:53 (shown)! Wow, that was one hell of a match and a big step up from their already solid match last week. Both guys looked great in the match, Del Rio's psychology was perfect, Bryan's selling was perfect, and they threw in a few creative spots of their own. One of the better Smackdown matches I've seen in months. ***1/2


After the match Del Rio won't quit on the armbar, so Sin Cara (played this evening by the talented Hunico and not Mistico) comes out and makes the save. He checks up on Daniel Bryan as Del Rio and Ricardo take off.


Backstage Mark Henry promises to win the battle royal tonight. Well his argument is certainly more convincing than Zack Ryder or Jinder Mahal's was.


Kelly Kelly (5-4)/AJ Lee (2-6) vs. Natalya (2-3)/Alicia Fox (4-1)

Anytime we get to see AJ Lee, it's a fine occasion. She's cute in that Ellen Page sort of way. Natalya tosses her around like a ragdoll to start though, talking trash while she does it. Natalya catches AJ off the top rope and gives her an elbow before AJ snaps off a sloppy headscissors takedown on her. AJ gets caught in the corner and has her head smashed against the mat while Alicia Fox tags in and slaps on a tight chinlock. They isolate AJ for a bit in their corner, trading quick tags and working her over, which works well because she's do darned cute you actually do want to see her get out of this okay. She fights back with a few forearms and then gets the hot tag to Kelly Kelly, who hits a sort of Lou Thesz press on Fox and then delivers a nice flying headscissors followed by a bulldog. Kelly gives her the (dreaded?) stinkface and rolls up Alicia, but Natalya breaks it up. Fox misses a scissors kick and Kelly gives her the old Rocker Dropper to pick up the win at 4:32. This was actually pretty good, AJ's heat segment was done well and the heels worked well together. Kelly looked great again too. Shockingly watchable. **1/4

After the match Natalaya and Fox argue, so Nattie jumps her and beats her down before taking off with a crazed look on her face. Imagine that look in bed. I can't tell if I'm scared or aroused.

We get the same Summerslam Fan Axxess video package we've seen all week. Afterwards the World champ Randy Orton makes his way out to ringside to watch the big battle royal about to take place.


World Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Battle Royal Match
(Featuring Sin Cara, Mark Henry, Sheamus, Wade Barrett, WILLIAM F'N REGAL, The Great Khali, Jinder Mahal, Heath Slater, Yoshi Tatsu, Trent Barreta, Jimmy Uso, Jey Uso, Cody Rhodes, Ted DiBiase, Tyson Kidd, Zack Ryder, Justin Gabriel, Ezekiel Jackson, and Johnny Curtis)

Everybody jumps Mark Henry to start but he fights them all off quickly and Trent Barreta winds up being the first guy tossed. I really hope one of these days Barreta gets a push of his own instead of just being enhancement talent. Tatsu gets tossed next and Curtis is out right after him. By GOD is that William Regal in there? I had no idea he had returned to in-ring action, right on. Typical battle royal match here with everyone brawling in little groups in the corners while people get tossed. Ryder is tossed next by the way. Rhodes skins the cat but Big Zeke eliminates him anyways with a clothesline to try and get some of his heat back after losing to Rhodes so quickly earlier tonight. Jackson takes it to Khali and Mahal in the corner, but Khali hits him with the judo chop of doom and then tosses Zeke out of the ring. Khali and Henry face off in the middle of the ring and Henry lifts Khali over the top rope and eliminates him next, much to Jinder Mahal's chagrin. Slater eats a sick Brogue Kick from Sheamus on the apron to be eliminated, and Henry tosses him onto the stairs afterwards to add insult to injury as we cut to commercial break. When we return we see Sheamus struggling to stay in the ring. Kids have been chanting Sin Cara sporadically throughout the match it seems, not sure if it's piped in or not. Gabriel is the next out and Henry continues to beat up everyone who gets eliminated outside of the ring, but because he went out under the bottom rope he hasn't been eliminated yet. Both of the Usos get tossed next and Henry throws them around too. This is kind of fun watching Henry just toss these kids all over the place like a mad man. Finally he returns to the ring and tosses Jinder Mahal out with ease, followed by Ted DiBiase. Cara eliminates Kidd and we're down to the final four of Henry, Sheamus, Barrett, and Sin Cara. They all try teaming up on Henry and Sheamus stomps a mudhole in him in the corner before Barrett gives him a lariat. Both guys fight to the apron and Sheamus eliminates Barrett with another brogue kick. Cara goes to dropkick Sheamus through the ropes but he moves and Cara's goes through the middle rope, so he's still in it. Sheamus hangs him up on the top rope but he still won't go out. Henry grabs Sheamus from behind and tosses him out before turning around to eat a big cross-body from Sin Cara. Cara tries laying in some kicks but Henry catches him off a springboard into the World's Strongest Slam. He tosses Cara out to win the battle royal and become the new number one contender at 12:46 (shown). I'm the kind of guy who can enjoy a well-worked and thought-out battle royal, but this wasn't anything special here. Just your typical battle royal stuff, but Sheamus and Sin Cara both had great showings before Henry won. **


After the match Mark Henry celebrates his victory and we go off the air as he gets into Orton's face at ringside.

Bottom Line: Pretty damn good show tonight. I don't mind Christian's absence since he just lost the big blow-off match in the Orton feud, and everyone picked up the slack this week anyways. Daniel Bryan and Alberto Del Rio had one hell of a TV match here with some rock-solid psychology and selling, that's well worth going out of your way to see and everything else seemed to move along nicely enough leading up to Henry winning the battle royal. I'm indifferent really to Mark at this stage in his career, but he does seem a bit more motivated with his umpteenth monster heel push this year and if he does truly plan to retire next year as he's hinted at, I don't mind seeing him work a program with Orton, so long as they keep it short. Overall just a solid show and one of the better Smackdowns in recent memory, so it's an easy Thumbs Up.


Score: 8.0/10

NJPW Exciting Battle in Okinawa 3/25/11

NJPW Exciting Battle in Okinawa 2011
March 25th, 2011
Okinawa Prefectural Budokan, Okinawa, Japan
Attendance: 2,650

Ever vigilant in my battle against the mounting stack of puro shows sitting here waiting to be reviewed, we come across this B-show in Okinawa roughly five days after the finals of the 2011 New Japan Cup tournament. This is a total B-show in that no titles are on the line, none of these matches have any real importance, and this show didn't even pop up onto my radar until long after the fact. They claim a little over 2600 in attendance but it looks more like half of that, hard to tell with the lighting. Not really a notable show, but still, I'm one of those OCD completist types so I'm reviewing it anyways. Let's see if we can't find some good stuff hidden away.


Jado/Gedo vs. Tiger Mask IV/Hiromu Takahashi

From the start this show is already giving me the vibe of an old Big Japan show from the 90s or something with the lighting and atmosphere. As you might've expected, not much in the way of background for this match. Young Takahashi appears to have improved since I last saw him. TMIV seems on tonight, while Jado and Gedo do their usual entertaining heel shtick. Takahashi does a decent job as the babyface in peril, but there's not much of any heat for anything they do. TMIV takes out Gedo with a nice tope and Takahashi tries to take Jado out on his own, but he walks right into the crossface submission and taps almost immediately at 10:15. One big yawn would be a nice way to describe that match. Takahashi ls improving, but still not terribly interesting. I never thought I'd say this, but Jado and Gedo could probably be put to better use than this. *1/4


Tomohiro Ishii vs. King Fale

Now this looks like a fun clash of styles on paper. Ishii seems a lot more interesting since losing his hair to TMIV. Lots of manly forearm exchanges in the early going as they play a game of "who will flinch first". Neither man apparently, but Ishii does get knocked to the floor briefly. He wraps Fale's leg around the ring post a few times and then rams a chair into his mid-section. Some nice selling of the leg from Fale in this one, which becomes Ishii's main focus in the latter part of the match. Fale tries to mount a comeback but it doesn't gim him anywhere and he falls to a weak lariat at 9:24. Pretty much just a squash for Ishii, and not a particularly exciting one either. Fale's selling was nice though. *


Ryusuke Taguchi/Shisaou/Kaijin Habu Otoko/Kijmuna vs. Jushin Liger/Menso-re Oyaji/Mil Mongoose/Gurukun Diver

So this is one hell of a strange match. Mose of these guys are comedy wrestlers from the local indy Okinawa Pro I do believe and I can't say I'm very familiar with any of their work, so forgive me if I misspelled any of their names or anything. This is basically just Liger and crazy comedy wrestlers versus Taguchi and his own crazy comedy wrestlers. God bless Liger, still coming out to these B-shows and working with these indy kids, he's a man of the people he is. To even attempt to do a play-by-play here would pretty much be pointless, so I won't even try. Just know that they work a very light-hearted comedy match with some acrobatic moves and this winds up being way more entertaining than I was expecting it to. The Okinawa guys do some really fun lucha-resu inspired stuff and then Liger hops in to kick ass. All the Okinawa kids get some licks in and do some fun spots and I'm just now noticing that they even have a masked Okinawa ref in there for the counting. Finally Otoko winds up pinning Mongoose with the Moudoku Habu Kuubaku (which is just a frog splash off the top) at 13:58. This was a refreshing change of pace from the previous matches and it's always nice to see the local indie guys given a chance to show off when the big guys come into town, but it was really just an average exhibition.The Okinawa guys hits a lot of fancy moves though and their over-the-top costumes made this pleasant to watch. **1/4


Tetsuya Naito/Yujiro Takahashi vs. Manabu Nakanishi/Tomoaki Honma

Here we go, this should pick things up hopefully. Naito and Honma do a mini-pose off for the crowd but Naito ends that quickly by jumping him from behind. Naito escapes the ring for a breather and tries to convince a couple of children at ringside to hop into the ring and take his place for him. No dice. Takahashi tries to out-power Nakanishi, but that's silly of course and Nakanishi out-powers him with ease. They brawl into the crowd for a few minutes before returning to the ring, where Naito and Takahashi work over Honma in their corner. They continue to isolate Honma until he uses brute strength to suplex Naito from the mat and tag out to Nakanishi, who comes in firing off machine-gun chops into Naito's chest. The heels try double-teaming Nakanishi but he suplexes both of them at the same time and lets Honma pick them apart with a missile dropkick. Takahashi manages to fight off Honma's lariats long enough for Naito to hop back in and help out again. A fisherman's buster suplex gets two for Takahashi, so he delivers the Tokyo Pimps powerbomb to finish Honma off at 15:44. We're starting to get there, but this still felt like a longer match that had it's last third cut off unexpectedly out of nowhere. Pretty average. **1/4


Yuji Nagata/Wataru Inoue vs. Satoshi Kojima/Taichi

Save us boys, because this show has been dismal thus far. This is a nice step up in talent though so this should be decent. Nice mix and match teams of a veteran and younger babyface against a veteran and younger heel. Nagata is over like rover everywhere he goes, Okinawa included. Nagata is in full on "take no shit" mode tonight and he's handing out forearms and kicks to the chest like they were joints at a Phish concert. One for you! And you! And you! Taichi does the "tie my opponent up in the ring apron and then dropkick him" spot he's become ever so fond of as of late. Taichi tries to get cute and lay in some Nagata-like kicks of his own, but Nagata quickly shoots him down and tags in Inoue to get his spots in for a bit before tagging out again. Nagata tosses Kojima like a ragdoll with an exploder but Kojima responds right back with a nice DDT. Nagata fights off a lariat attempt from Kojima but eats an ace crusher. Nagata locks Taichi into a crossface but Kojima breaks it up and he and Inoue brawl around ringside while Taichi superkicks Nagata for a near fall. Nagata has had enough though and a few insulting slaps awaken the beast again, and Taichi gets pinned with a back-drop suplex just as he disrobes at 14:50. I expect more out of these four, but compared to everything else tonight, this was probably match of the night thus far. Still nothing particularly special though. **1/2


Hiroshi Tanahashi/Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Togi Makabe vs. Shinsuke Nakamura/Takashi Iizuka/Toru Yano

You can see several empty rows as the guys make their way to the ring here, so again it seems like this show must have suffered pretty badly attendance-wise from the recent earthquake right around this time. The fans nearly claw Tanahashi to pieces on his way to the ring, and it's funny how much he reminds me of Jericho sometimes with that same kind of rock-star charisma and following he's got going. Nakamura and Tanahashi start us off, finally giving these fans their money's worth tonight. They do some nice hold-wrestling and grappling before tagging out and letting Makabe and Yano hop in to lock up and do some manly brawling. Tenzan gets impatient though and wants a piece of Iizuka and the two old foes brawl out at ringside. Iizuka has the nerve to even blast a few bouquets of flowers over Tenzan's back! Aaah! Not on my frickin' azalea bushes Fryman! Iizuka has the good sense to follow it with a chair shot and thankfully Tenzan sells it as being just a wee bit more painful than the bouquet. Tenzan plays Mr. Babyface for a bit back in the ring as Iizuka chokes him with his wrist-tape behind the ref's back and becomes annoyed when the ref won't count his pin attempt (he's not the legal man). Tenzan finally tags out to Makabe, who powerslams Yano out of his boots. Nakamura and Tanahashi hop back in and finally this thing picks up into a higher gear as they start pulling out some of their signature stuff (Sling Blade for Tanahashi, the Boma Ye knee and an inside-out suplex from Nakamura). Iizuka gives Tanahashi a freakin' pedigree out of nowhere and everyone else brawls out of the ring as they set up for the finish. Tanahashi blocks the sleeper but gets low blowed. Iizuka pulls out his trademark metal glove, but Tanahashi blocks it with a Sling Blade and Tenzan hits Iizuka with a diving headbutt, setting him up for Tanahashi to finish him off with the High Fly Flow frog-splash at 17:41. This one took it's sweet time to get going, but once it did the last five minutes or so was really fun, well-worked stuff. Nakamura and Tanahashi saved this one from being another forgettable affair thankfully. ***

Bottom Line: I was hoping this show might wind up being a pleasantly surprising B-show, but instead it wound up being the normal kind of B-show---forgettable, full of filler, and really just not worth your time. There's really no point to checking this one out unless you're terribly bored or feel like watching a mildly fun six-man main event. Otherwise, feel free to skip this one altogether. Thumbs Down.


Score: 4.0/10

NJPW New Japan Cup 2011 Finals PPV 3/20/11

NJPW New Japan Cup 2011 Finals PPV
March 20th, 2011
Amagasaki Memorial Park Gymnasium, Amagasaki, Hyogo, Japan
Attendance: 5,500

New Japan wraps up their annual springtime New Japan Cup tournament tonight in Hyogo, in a show broadcast on PPV that also includes an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight tag team title match as well as a bunch of other good stuff to round out the final round of the tournament We're down to the final four of Yuji Nagata, Toru Yano, Shinsuke Nakamura, and Togi Makabe. Who will take home the prestigious trophy? Well you'd better read on to find out, shouldn't you?


Jushin Liger/Tiger Mask IV/KUSHIDA vs. Jado/Gedo/Killer Rabbit

For those unaware, Killer Rabbit is in fact a guy with a rabbit mask of sorts. He's a popular character from some social networking video game or something along those lines in Japan, so NJPW brass thought it wise to create a character out of him. Not sure who's under the mask. Pretty much your standard six man opening fare with a few of the old guard and a chance for the crowd to pop for Liger, who god bless his soul still pulls out the planchas. Crowd loves the babyface trio here. Not bad actually for the opener, everyone showed a bit of fire and KUSHIDA continues to impress. Tiger Mask hits a gigantic splash on Gedo followed by a Tiger Driver for a near fall. He misses a diving headbutt and everyone starts brawling in and out of the ring for the finish, which sees TMIV roll Gedo up with a crucifix pin for the win at 8:38. Energetic and fast-paced while it lasted, but instantly forgettable stuff. **1/4


Koji Kanemoto/Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoaki Honma/Tama Tonga

Not a bad pairing of talents here, I suppose this is good enough use for some of the guys already eliminated in the earlier rounds of the NJ Cup. Honma and Nakanishi do some nice strike exchanges to start us off with chops and forearms. Kanemoto tags in to a nice little pop and goes to work on the always fun Tonga. He gets in the facewash spot of course. This is mostly just the vets beating down on Tonga while Honma does his best to fire off some offense. I'd love to see Honma get used in a bigger role in the future, but his days in the limelight have come and gone I suppose. For awhile there he was one of the best in Japan with his crazy hybrid of deathmatch and strong style that he worked in Big Japan for years. He made deathmatch wrestling seem almost like an artform, but I digress. Tonga manages to impress the crowd a bit with one of his crazy corkscrew moonsaults, but Nakanishi winds up making him submit in a torture rack for the win at 8:22. The cranky old vets looked good kickin' ass, but this was just par for the course really and another one of your average forgettable undercard affairs. **


Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard/Karl Anderson) vs. Iron Hades (Takashi Iizuka/Tomohiro Ishii)

Pretty fun face/heel dynamic here as you don't normally get to see Bad Intentions playing the faces. Iizuka and Ishii look a bit like the most heinous of villains you could find in a Tokyo alleyway, the kind of hard boiled Yakuza even Sgt. Kabukiman could not crack. Iizuka does great playing the chickenshit heel early, refusing to get in the ring with Bernard and letting Ishii distract him so he can finally jump him from behind and start the match. Crowd loves Bad Intentions and they show it every time they get their hands on Iizuka and Ishii. They manage to team up on Anderson using chairs from ringside while Bernard stews in the corner like an angry rhino. The heels use some wrist tape to try and choke their opponents but that doesn't work, so they try for a double suplex, only Bernard hops in and we've got ourselves a big old ridiculous quadruple-plex! Bernard tags in and cleans house on the heels with big splashes. We get a ref bump and Iizuka tries to use his signature metal glove, but Bad Intentions deliver the Magic Killer to Ishii anyways and pick up the win at 12:28. Very fun tag match here, anyone who harps on about how there are no faces and heels in puroresu needs to watch this match and then kindly shut their trapholes. This was like four angry drunken sumos slamdancing, if that makes sense. I mean that in the best way of course. ***


New Japan Cup 2011 Semi-Finals Match
Yuji Nagata vs. Toru Yano

We've got our first of two semi-finals here and Yano apparently doesn't want to wait for any kind of introductions as he just spits his water into Nagata's face like he was doing a bad Triple H impression and we're off. Something tells me you will regret that Yano. They brawl into the crowd quickly and Toru tosses a chair onto him before removing the padding from one of the ring posts. Nagata comes back in and Yano clearly isn't taking Nagata seriously, body-slamming him with a smirk on his face and then applying a half Boston crab. Yano tosses him into the exposed turnbuckle and things look dark for our middle-aged hero. He outsmarts Yano in an exchange with an enziguri and then hits a pair of Yakuza kicks and an exploder suplex for a near fall. Nagata goes for a brainbuster/crossface combination but Yano winds up biting his hand! Nagata promptly bitch-slaps him for such savagery and they trade pinning cradle attempts. Very nice swinging reverse STO slam from Yano gets him a near fall of his own. Nagata goes for the crossface again before transitioning right into the Nagata Lock III in a pinning cradle to pick up the win and advance to the finals at 7:27. Pretty neat stuff for such short time allotted, Nagata played his role perfectly and Yano brought some nice arrogance to his actions. A bit quick for my tastes, but a fine little match. **3/4


New Japan Cup 2011 Semi-Finals Match
Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Togi Makabe

Nakamura is still handing out fistbumps, while Makabe is over like rover with the big PPV crowd as usual. Great heat for this match from the first lock-up. Nakamura seems a bit offput by how fiery Makabe is, like he wasn't prepared for this. No worry, he lays in the huge kicks and knees anyways, but Makabe is crazy so he just laughs like a madman while Nakamura knees his chest into hamburger meat and then begs him for more. Makabe gets in the crowd-pleasing ten shots in the corner and a Northern Lights suplex, but Nakamura kicks out. Makabe gives him the double bird so Nakamura dropkicks him in the face. Repeated knee strikes in the corner from Nakamura, but he misses the big running knee and eats a nasty German suplex on his head for a close two count. They trade lariats and Nakamura just boots Makabe in the face before delivering a crazy half-sleeper overhead suplex to him that wows the crowd. Makabe blocks the Boma Ye and hits a powerbomb for a hot nearfall, then delivers a big Death Valley Driver, planting Nakamura on the mat. Makabe misses a knee splash off the top and Nakamura climbs to the top and hits the nastiest Boma Ye knee of all time to the back of Makabe's head, and then gives him another one to the face to finish him off and advance to the finals at 9:55. This was just awesome stuff, both guys brought the fire tonight and Nakamura looked like a machine, meticulously firing off his signature strikes around the wild Makabe before nearly murdering the poor guy with a huge Boma Ye knee to the back of the skull. Super hot crowd, great action, another awesome little succinct sub-ten minute match in a tournament full of them. ***1/4


Hiroyoshi Tenzan/Wataru Inoue/King Fale vs. Masato Tanaka/Tetsuya Naito/Yujiro Takahashi

Because goodness knows we need another random six man tag match, right? But in this case, we actually do! One of the better six-mans in awhile and this works pretty well for it's spot on the card before the big main events. Naito and Tenzan lock-up to the fan's delight and Naito nails a nice swinging neckbreaker before tagging out so Fale and Takahashi can go at it next. Fale reminds me a bit of a Samoan MVP. They trade big suplexes and then Fale gets sent to the rails outside the ring and Tanaka sneaks in a shot with a kendo stick on him before tossing Fale back inside for a snap suplex from Takahashi. Tanaka tags in and goes to a stalemate with Fale, so Tenzan comes in and teaches young Takahashi a lesson with crazy chops of both the Mongolian and regular variety. He even snaps off a spinning heel kick for a near fall before Tanaka hops in and cleans house and all semblance of order goes out the window along with the tag rules. Inoue finally comes in to do battle with Naito and tries for a Tiger Driver, but Takahashi breaks it up and tosses him with an overhead belly-to-belly suplex. A triple-team neckbreaker won't put Inoue away, so Fale and Tenzan hop in and start handing out ass-beatings to finish business here. Naito takes his shirt off (he means business!) but winds up taking the old Flair bump off the top instead of the splash he wanted. Naito flips out of a German suplex attempt but winds up eating the SPEAR OF JUSTICE! from Inoue to give them the win at 12:23. Like I said, one of the better thrown together six-mans in awhile. Lots of fun tandem moves and exchanges, and the faces came off looking golden. Tanaka seemed like an afterthought though. ***


IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt/Ryusuke Taguchi) © vs. TAKA Michinoku/Taichi

Grab your popcorn now, because this is going to be one hell of a show. The team of TAKA and Taichi might just be the greatest pairing of over-the-top heels I've ever seen, and I absolutely love it. I so want to steal Taichi's cape. Not that I'd wear it, but it's simply badass. Taguchi and Taichi start us off but it's not long before TAKA and Devitt hop in and the place kick-starts into high gear for Devitt. Great leapfrog and dropkick exchange sequence between the two and then Apollo start trading ironically quick tags to work over TAKA's shoulder (how often does irony come into play in one's in-ring arsenal? It should more often!) The heels get sent to the floor and Apollo do some sexy strutting before TAKA jumps them from behind. The heels go to work on Devitt's bandaged shoulder next, grinding it down against the mat and working various armbar submissions in their corner while trading tags. TAKA works the Fujiwara armbar and twists and turns Devitt's fingers in his palm while he's doing it. Taguchi gets the hot tag finally and he takes out both heels with a reverse DDT combo. Rolling vertical suplexes are broken up by Taichi, who Taguchi wipes out with a top rope plancha on the floor moments later. The faces try a doomsday device dive spot but it backfires on them and Taguchi winds up eating the steel guard-rail again in the electric chair position. Devitt takes out the heels with a big somersault plancha and the chants start up for him again. As Hank Hill used to say, Devitt is "playin' through the pain" now and his selling is spot-on as Taichi still tries wrenching away on his shoulder with another Fujiwara armbar. Taichi superkicks Devitt's teeth down his throat and he and TAKA deliver a double-team variation on the Schwein, but Taguchi breaks the pin up with a big German suplex on Taichi. All four men are spent on the mat but you can see the fire in Devitt's eyes! Taichi misses some of his nifty footwork but Devitt nails him with his spinning enziguri, only to walk right into a boot and that damned Fujiwara armbar again. Devitt looks like he's about to die or tap, but he manages the rope break again. Taguchi plants Taichi with a facebuster and Devitt nearly double-stomps through Taichi's chest off the top, but again the pin is broken up. A double team lung-blower won't do it, but finally Apollo 55 are able to defeat Taichi with a brainbuster to retain at 16:27! Excellent junior tag action just as you'd expect from this crew, but with the added bonus of everyone's incredible charisma makes this go from "really good" to darn right "great". ***3/4


Satoshi Kojima/MVP vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi/Hirooki Goto

This is a nice place-holder match featuring more of the guys that were eliminated in the earlier rounds of the New Japan Cup tournament up against the champ and one of the young guns in Goto. MVP and Tanahashi start us off with some nice wristlock exchanges and it really is just a pleasure to watch MVP in Japan these days as you can just tell he's having a ball and his strong style fits right in. Kojima and Goto tag in and trade stiff forearms and shoulder-blocks. Tanahashi tags (or rather, slaps) back into the match and subtle dissension can be felt among the babyface crew. MVP and Tanahashi trade European uppercuts and then do a neat spot where Tanahashi skins the cat and then gets booted right back out by MVP, who takes him out again moments later with a plancha. Tanahashi starts taking a bad beat-down from the heels here, and Kojima sells it perfectly with his facial expressions. Goto is starting to get fed up of Tanahashi trying to fight both men by himself and the results aren't in Tanahashi's favor as the heels continue to work him over. Kojima tears into Tanahashi in both corners and rams his elbow into his sternum off the top rope for a two count. Tanahashi tries to fight back with a dragonscrew legwhip and he finally gets the tag to Goto! Goto hits an elbow of his own on Kojima and then delivers a towering back-drop suplex for a near fall. Ace crusher from Kojima and both men trade discus lariats in another cool spot. Tanahashi blind-tags Goto while he's running the ropes and hops in and Goto's temper is clearly rising. Sling blade won't put MVP away so Tana tries for a German and Goto hops in and winds up inadvertently clotheslining Tanahashi. Tana wants to have words with Goto, so Goto gives him a nasty head-butt and then just takes off, leaving Tanahashi all alone in the ring. Goto would be heading to Mexico shortly after this, but Tanahashi is still all alone in the ring so it's easy pickings from here. MVP hits the Playmaker, but Tanahashi kicks out. Kojima lariats his head off and MVP locks in the TTB submission, and Tanahashi has no choice but to tap out clean to MVP at 14:44. This was an excellent match that bridged the gap between strong style, and your traditional North American "story-telling" tag team formula. Goto's turn here was unexpected but it made sense in the context of the match, and the action through-out was hot and heavy. MVP and Kojima come out of this looking like world beaters, and the strut MVP does back to the locker room after the match would make Vince McMahon jealous. Very good stuff. ***1/4


New Japan Cup 2011 Finals Match
Yuji Nagata vs. Shinsuke Nakamura

Big time match feel here as this is a culmination of a lot of things here. This is Nakamura's chance to make a splash while Nagata is hell bent on proving his worth in the company during a time when their focusing on a youth movement. Classic archetypical heel and face dynamic here with Nagata playing the wise old middle-aged hand whose hell bent on continuing his dominance while Nakamura is the arrogant young star, ready to grab the reigns from Nagata and never let go until he reaches the top of the company. Lots of heat for this one. They do some nice matwork to start the match off, trading various holds both on the mat and on their feet, feeling each other out a bit like any good fighter would. Nakamura slaps Nagata in the face and just laughs about it, rolling his eyes like Nagata were a hangnail or some other minor nuisance and not the tough legendary veteran he really is. Well Nagata brings him right back to reality with brutal knee strikes as only he can deliver. Nakamura nails a knee strike into Nagata's sternum and then tosses him to the floor. He sets Nagata up on the apron and nails him in the back of the head with a Boma Ye knee. Nakamura misses a flashy spin kick and then just gets violently dropped on the back of his head with a towering German suplex. Nagata is pissed now and firing off kicks and boots in the corner along with a brainbuster/crossface combo that Nakamura breaks up quickly. Nakamura locks a sleeper onto Nagata and if you've never seen Nakamura's facial expressions in a match, you're in for a treat here. He fires off more kicks to no avail, as Nagata's drive won't be derailed. An exploder suplex off the top only nets Nagata a two count. They trade armbars before Nagata turns him over and wrenches away on his patented armbar, flashing the evil crazy eyes like he's trying to pull a demon out of Nakamura's arm socket or something. Nakamura gets the rope break though and manages to fire off one more Boma Ye knee to the back of Nagata's head as both men crumple to the mat, spent. Nakamura hits a sickening pair of Awful Waffle-type back suplexes and then just goes back to kneeing the everloving bejesus out of Nagata's face. This only awakens the beast in Nagata though, and he shoots to his feet with fire in his eyes and adrenaline in his heart. He blasts Nakamura with a kick to the head and then delivers a pair of towering back-drop suplexes to pick up his second New Japan Cup trophy, and his first since 2007 at 14:44. This was just an incredible match with that always elusive epic feeling that provided the perfect backdrop for the great story these two men told in the ring with the focus on submissions and matwork, but always keeping a frenzied pace. The only complaint I have is that it was a bit short, but that's not much of a complaint is it? Nagata and Nakamura deliver an outstanding match here that's well worth going out of your way to check out. ****


We finish out the show with Nagata receiving the New Japan Cup trophy to a standing ovation. Ever the man of the people, Nagata takes the time to high five and talk to almost every single fan in the front row as we go off the air.

Bottom Line: This was an excellent show and as usual New Japan stepped up to the plate when it came time for a PPV. Even the usual forgettable undercard matches were interesting, the midcard was rock solid, and the finals of the tournament were excellent. The Goto heel turn was executed perfectly, and everything just seemed to come together here to deliver one hell of a cohesive and engaging show. An easy Thumbs Up obviously.


Score: 9.0/10