In a match that wasn’t even scheduled ahead of time, Tomohiro Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma for the vacant Never Open weight title in what is almost certain to be a strong match of the year candidate to highlight New Japan’s New Beginning in Sendai on 2/14.
Ishii was scheduled to get a return title match with Togi Makabe, who beat him for the title at the 1/4 show at the Tokyo Dome. But Makabe was suffering from what was reported as a serious flu. It had to be really serious because the mentality of the Japanese wrestlers about missing dates is strong, let alone missing a title defense on a big show. Makabe had missed the Osaka PPV three days earlier and from that show, it appeared they were going to put Ishii vs. Satoshi Kojima in if a replacement was needed. Kojima was put in Makabe’s spot on that show and paired off with Ishii in a six-man tag.
However, when the broadcast opened, they announced Makabe was ill and would be vacating the title due to missing a title defense. The general rule in Japan dating back 50 years is that if a champion misses an announced title defense, the title is vacated, although I’m sure there are instances that hasn’t happened as well. When they announced Honma as Ishii’s opponent, the crowd popped, because that came out of nowhere.
Based on what I’ve seen so far, Ishii vs. Honma is right in the same category as Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada from the Tokyo Dome. I might go with Nakamura vs. Ibushi as the best of the three, but you could argue any of them, but I would say Honma’s individual performance in this match was the best all-around performance by a wrestler I’ve seen this year.
Perhaps the biggest revelation of the Sendai show is that, in hindsight, it tells you just how good Tanahashi vs. Okada was. Directly following a ***** match is very difficult. That’s why WWE, when it expects to have a killer match, follows with a buffer match. On this show, Nakamura vs. Yuji Nagata followed in the main event for the IC title. While they had a technically excellent match, they were unable to get the crowd anywhere near the level of the preceding match. In watching, I was both impressed with how well worked the main event was as far as execution and crispness, but in other ways also hit by what was missing.
Nakamura retained the title in a match built up with a video package of Nagata at home, with his wife (who looks a great deal like former 80s women’s wrestling star Yumi Ogura) and young son. The son, who looked to be about eight or so, was shown following in the family footsteps in doing amateur wrestling (Nagata was a national champion and Olympic hopeful in the early 90s before going pro, and his brother, Katsuhiko Nagata, won a silver medal in the 2000 Olympics). Late in the match, they showed his son, sitting at ringside, watching the match intently. The flaw in the match is that the crowd never reached a point where they really bought Nagata winning, and the finish, after one bom a ye, came out of nowhere and was somewhat flat.
Nagata after talked about the match revitalizing him. As noted last week, he had considered retirement, feeling they just weren’t doing anything with him. Now he said that his career goal is to win the IWGP heavyweight title at the age of 50, which he turns in 2018.
A second title change took place earlier in the show as Hiroyoshi Tenzan won the NWA heavyweight title from Rob Conway. The direction they seem to be teasing is a Tenzan vs. Kojima program for the title, which also may wind up at Invasion Attack. This would be almost the 10th anniversary of the legendary February 20, 2005, match at Sumo Hall where Kojima was Triple Crown champion and Tenzan was IWGP champion and they had the first-ever double title match which worked an entire match around the idea it was going the full 60 minutes, until Kojima won via knockout with 11 seconds left. Kojima become the only person in wrestling history to have held both titles at the same time. This was back when the Triple Crown title was still very important.
Given that direction, they may have decided this wasn’t the time to beat Kojima (although Kojima is likely to lose in the New Japan Cup), and thus that may be why they went with Honma instead of him for the Ishii match. The Honma match would have been better, but judging from Kojima vs. Ishii, they would have had a great match because when counted on for a big singles match, Kojima still always rises to the occasion.
The show, which drew a sellout of 2,900 fans at Sun Plaza Hall (sold out more than a week in advance) was mostly good. It was still not at the level of most of the company’s big shows in 2013 and 2014. It still shows where they are at when they are running major shows in arenas that size.
The company’s next tour, which starts with the 43rd anniversary show on 3/5 at the Ota Ward Gym in Tokyo, is the New Japan Cup tournament. It’s a 16-man single elimination tournament. The three champions, IWGP champion A.J. Styles, IC champion Nakamura, and Ishii, are not in the tournament. The winner will get to choose which title he’s going after on the 4/5 Invasion Attack show at Sumo Hall.
While not announced at press time, one would expect that all the tournament shows will air on New Japan World.
The 3/5 show has first round matches with Yoshi-Hashi vs. Yujiro Takahashi, Makabe vs. Honma, Kojima vs. Katsuyori Shibata, Nagata vs. Hirooki Goto, Kota Ibushi vs. Doc Gallows, Tetsuya Naito vs. Karl Anderson, Tanahashi vs. Toru Yano and Kazuchika Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale. Two other matches on the show are Jushin Liger & Kushida & Yohei Komatsu & Jay White vs. Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi & Mascara Dorada & Sho Tanaka, and Tenzan & Manabu Nakanishi & Captain New Japan vs. Nakamura & Ishii & Kazushi Sakuraba.
The second round will be 3/8 at Korakuen Hall. The Tanahashi vs. Yano winner faces the Ibushi vs. Gallows winner. The Naito vs. Anderson winner faces the Okada vs. Fale winner. The Makabe vs. Honma winner faces the Yoshi-Hashi vs. Takahashi winner. And the Nagata vs. Goto winner faces the Kojima vs. Shibata winner.
The semifinals and finals will be on 3/15 at the Sun Plaza Hall in Hiroshima. Most likely the winner is challenging Styles, which, given it’s Sumo Hall, would mean Okada and Tanahashi would be favored. I suppose Shibata or Ibushi are longshots. Just looking at this, Tanahashi over Yano is close to a given, but I don’t see them doing Tanahashi vs. Ibushi just yet, so Gallows may win that one. Okada beating Fale makes sense given Okada lost to Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome and fell to Fale in a tag match. Either Naito or Anderson winning would be on that side, but whoever does, I’d expect Okada to beat them as well. Makabe is probably beating Honma and Takahashi over Yoshi-Hashi, although the crowd will be rooting for upsets in both of those. Can see Nagata and Shibata. If Okada is going over, I could see Gallows beating Tanahashi, if only because I can’t see a Tanahashi vs. Okada match as an early show match in Hiroshima. If Okada goes over, they could put Ibushi over Gallows and then have Ibushi be the guy to knock off Tanahashi and then lose to Okada. That booking sounds best on paper and it is more beneficial in the long run for Ibushi to get the big win over Tanahashi and set him up for either Nakamura or Ishii’s belt. But Ibushi looked more like he was headed for a singles match with Sakuraba on this show.
If Tanahashi is going over, then I could see Naito upsetting Okada and a Tanahashi vs. Naito final four match. But I sense Tanahashi or Okada going over on their side, and could see Nagata, Shibata or even Makabe on the other side. But it looks to be that Tanahashi or Okada should win.
Invasion Attack, which is the biggest show since the Dome, looks to have a lot of possibilities. Styles vs. Okada or Tanahashi is the likely main event, and to me, Okada is the one that makes the most sense, and then going back to Tanahashi vs. Nakamura for the IC title because that double headliner should sell out. Ishii vs. Makabe makes sense given that Makabe never lost the title in the ring. We’ve had teases of Goto & Shibata vs. Anderson & Gallows, Tenzan vs. Kojima, Ibushi vs. Sakuraba, Omega vs. Mascara Dorada for the IWGP jr. title, and there’s always a jr. tag title match. That’s almost too loaded a show so some of this may end up on a different card.
The next New Japan World event is a basic show with no foreign talent on 2/27 from Okinawa at 4:30 a.m. Eastern and 1:30 a.m. Pacific with Tanaka vs. Komatsu, Nakanishi & Kushida vs. Gedo & Jado, Liger & Tenzan vs. Kojima & Tiger Mask, Goto & Shibata vs. Nagata & Captain New Japan, Naito & Taguchi vs. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi and Tanahashi & Makabe & Honma vs. Nakamura & Ishii & Yano.
All the times I've wondered what Lucha/Puro commentary was like I never once thought they could suck for some reason.
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