IWGP United States Heavyweight Title #1 Contendership Match: Lance Archer vs. Will Ospreay
The result was obvious for this match. Lance Archer is nobody in AEW and is hardly booked by his home promotion but since he is familiar in Japan, he is the chosen representative for this mini tournament to give Kenny Omega (remember him being champion? Me neither) a challenger. Compounding that with Ospreay being 0-1 down to Omega after losing in January to him, it’s quite a boring match from a booking standpoint. Thankfully Archer produced some good wrestling with his great power offence and heavy strikes. The best part about Archer’s performance is that it forces Ospreay to revert back to his underdog persona, somewhat, which is far his best skill set and allows him to keep his excessiveness to a sort of minimum. Ospreay trying to break down the big man was pretty cool to watch. He stiffed him with kicks, to both head and legs, and elbow strikes, eventually winning with a Hidden Blade. I expected a little more of a layered comeback but the match being short and sweet is to the match’s benefit. ***1/2
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito & Titan) vs. Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
Now that there is only one big multi man match, this actually stood out, for once. They have probably done this all over Japan already and they do it once more for the Osaka crowd. I didn’t think this was anything great but it rarely stalled and always mixed things up to keep it exciting. Titan continued his BOSJ form by tapping out Taka Michinoku, which is good by me. ***
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) (c) vs. Catch 22 (Francesco Akira & TJP)
I wasn’t aware that Keving Knight and KUSHIDA were tag champions before I looked at the match card of the show and then I still didn’t believe it. I have never seen Kevin Knight wrestle but he seems like a LA Dojo guy, which is pretty cool for that part of the Dojo. Like other Jr Heavyweight tag team title matches, at least the good ones, this was fast paced with lots of tags and double teaming. Rules? What rules? The match does benefit and lets these guys shine by letting them do spots. There was a cool (or funny, or both) spot where Knight and KUSHIDA were set to do asai moonsaults side by side but KUSHIDA didn’t jump. I chuckled at that. The likely reason is because he was very much going to be off target from the initial positioning, or perhaps he just let Knight take the spotlight in that moment. Knight had some cool moves and seemed good enough. I’m not sure if he’ll be good in a singles match but with a a professional like KUSHIDA next to him, he’ll be just fine. Catch 22 proved to be one of the more consistently good teams in 2023. Just fluid tag work always. TJP’s Otani kicks in the corner looked like garbage but everything else was good. I’m glad they regained the tag belts. More of these matches, yes please. After the match some Lance Archer look-alike comes down to the ring and signals that he’s next in line for a title match and his partner is some dude that was seconding Catch 22. Apparently his name is Dan Moloney. Apparently. Moloney and Clark Connors are now in the Bullet Club, which is interesting. ***1/4
NJPW World Television Title Match: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb
This was a cool outing last time. A 15 minute draw between two contrasting wrestlers and I hoped that this would produce something similar. I like Zack being his extra confident self, not afraid of striking with Cobb, despite the power difference, plus Zack can wrap around Cobb in many unique sorts of ways. Cobb is the strong man, usually the dominant, but he is constantly a step behind because of Zack’s manoeuvring in this match. Although Cobb has his fair share of good offence moments where he launches Zack around like a doll. The match, as a result, felt very competitive and seemed like it could go either way, thus making Zack’s crucifix pin win even better. It was fluidly executed and got a big pop from the hot crowd. ***1/2
IWGP Tag Team Title Three Way Match (vacant): Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan) vs. House Of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)
For what seems like a throw away sort of match, I found this to be rather exciting. Perhaps it was the crowd’s energy that helped it along. Perhaps it was the strong output all three teams put in. HOT isn’t exactly a good wrestling team but they brought a nice shithead energy which contrasted with the uber babyface team, Goto/YOSHI-HASHI and the nonsense bruiser team, O-Khan and Henare. The interference was well utilised to create heat for EVIL and Yujiro and then being used for their eventual downfall. I’m glad Goto and YOSHI-HASHI won the titles again, for similar reasons as Catch 22. Consistent output of quality. And similar to Catch 22, their new opponents are debuting bullet club affiliated members, Alex Coughlin and Gabriel Kidd. I know these two! It looks like the LA Dojo class has finally graduated. If only a little someone had waited like the rest of them. Oh well. ***1/2
G1 Climax Participants
The New Japan core roster is no surprise, even the debuting wrestlers like Ren Narita and Shota Umino, but Eddie Kingston (AEW), Kaito Kiyomiya (NOAH) are cool participants. Now if Eddie Kingston wants to cry and bow like a dork to any Japanese wrestler that touches him, he can kick rocks. Bring madman Kingston and we’ll have a good time.
NEVER Openweight Title Match: David Finlay (c) vs. El Phantasmo
I like neither of these two on any big level. Sometimes they can offer some entertainment value, sometimes I’m actively turned off by their wrestling and sometimes they are there but regardless of what I think, the crowd seemed to really like ELP, which in turn helps Finlay get heat. The match in general felt like a showcase for a ELP future push with him doing all of his big moves and him having the upperhand over Finlay, who despite being positioned as a leader of this New Bullet Club, still feels very midcard in every way. A major flaw of the match is that it felt like it was going nowhere for a while and never seemed to progress. It felt like the ELP shine section, which I mentioned previously, went way too long and when Finlay got any offence, it was solid but lacking substance. Even the finish where Finlay won didn't have any oomph to it. It felt like a whimper of an end to the match. Finlya didn’t look any better than he has done since being leader. Was it a little too much focus on his opponent rather than him? Or is it that he simply lacks IT? It could be both. I’m not sure how this new wave of Bullet Club will play out. It’s a risk given all are low midcarders or graduating young lions. I sort of like the risk taking but I wish Finlay wasn’t at the head of it. **3/4
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Master Wato
Hiromu’s title reign has been full of lacklustre opponents in bland matches that hasn’t suited Hiromu’s strengths and I likely would’ve saw Wato in a similar light but after watching the BOSJs (so like 4 matches), I’ve come around to Wato challenging. Hiromu’s role was a little more interesting than his previous title matches because Wato has been pushed as the future of the division, the future of New Japan and Hiromu basically has to defend against that image, as currently, he is the Junior Division. Wato is dangerous and has a select few moves that make him so. Wato threatened Hiromu every step of the way with his kicks, dives and the aforementioned signature moves but Hiromu was game for it and had his own established moves. What I like about this was that it went back and forth, not exactly being counter heavy but more a battle of parity with both wrestlers having their periods of control in the match. The weight they gave to Wato’s German suplex was good to see. He does have a fabulous German. It’s the same technique that Okada does when he pulls one out, which is rare. Hiromu had a sense of panic when Wato grasped his waist and when he hit it, it felt like a meaningful moment when Hiromu kicked out. Not so much the first time but the second time? Damn! That felt big. Wato has really found his groove in crafting exciting closing stretches as of late, again not so different from Okada, I thought. Hiromu retained with his finisher, which I really don’t like (it’s low impact and feels lacklustre compared to most of his other moves). While Wato loses today, it might be something to keep up with later on. ***1/2
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Title Match: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) & Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. The Blackpool Combat Club (Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley) & Shota Umino
While Ishii and Tanahashi are shells of themselves and Umino is looking to be a lame duck, this is an exciting match due to the addition of Moxley and Claudio, who, if nothing else, offer fresh new possibilities. And I appreciate that they didn’t capitalise on those possibilities by doing the lazy static strike exchange trope. There was some actual meat on the bone to the wrestling with BCC and Uminio triple teaming on Okada to cut him off from his teammates and Ishii was throwing suplexes and meaningful elbow strikes that he actually sold (imagine that!). Claudio seemed really game on working with Tanahashi, who, while being incapable of running the ropes at points, is still a damn good babyface which led to some good sequences without going too crazy. Moxley and Ishii utterly depend on the moment. A bad elbow spot here, terrible selling there (especially Ishii no-selling a cutter to hit a lariat before lying down to “sell”. That stuff SUCKS), but occasionally they have an exciting array of moves between them. Okada and Umino had probably the most dense story of the lot with the whole generational feud that New Japan is pushing. Umino attacked Okada while he’s on the apron early in the match and kept on slapping Okada with no respect, which is fine as Okada shows none back. There was a little something between the two that may not come across fully in a singles match with a singular focus on these two alone. Umino showed a little more charisma than usual in the closing stretch before ultimately falling to a Rainmaker. We will see what the G1 holds in store for these two. As for the match, I thought it was really good and full of quality but wasn’t perfect and never got that great level. But what is cool is Okada vs Danielson happening. The video package was pretty shit but who cares?!!! The crowd was even chanting “YES!” so I think they are into the idea as well. ***3/4
You have all these interesting and new matches, such as Claudio vs Tanahashi and Ishii vs Moxley
IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match: SANADA (c) vs. Yota Tsuji
SANADA’s title reign has had some good houses but it’s still up in the air about his drawing success (“Hiromu drew the Fukuoka crowd” or “Of course the Okada match drew”). And then New Japan stacked the odds by putting him in with the very much unproven Yota Tsuji. And guess what? They draw 7,000. Amazing. It’s not exactly a top tier Osaka-jo Hall house but it’s a big rise above the last show held in the building (which had Okada against White, which has main evented Wrestle Kingdom before, in front of 6k) and is an incredible achievement in Japan where people are still fairly conscious about going to wrestling, or sports, obvious anomalies aside. Now the big push alone could be enough that Tsuji is a guy but to be put into LIJ and accepted is a HUGE rub. Of course, it’s easy to get that and fail miserably though but in terms of just projecting presence and suggesting that you belong there is hard to put across. It was as simple as making yourself look huge in the ring and it’s not necessarily a size thing, which Tsuji has but it is that intangibles that some people, even top stars, don’t always have.
The start of the match had the right start in making Tsuji seem comfortable. Tsuji dictated the pace and was quick to stop SANADA in his tracks with a great looking spear that came out of nowhere! And then to follow up with the no hands moonsault to the floor? Damn. People weren’t sure whether to expect a new Takayama or not but that is one way to say “no, I’m Yota Tsuji”. SANADA did a good job at selling Tsuji as a threat by going to the Skull End almost right away too. Then the match slowed down a bit, with more emphasis on SANADA trying to rally the crowd and Tsuji doing it right back with just a smile, a hair flick and a fist in the air. It was cool seeing two charismatic guys try something different, and, when the pace ramped back up once more, they hit a really good stride with Tsuji pulling off all these new tricks to show off and SANADA having to withhold the storm, hitting well timed counters to pick the inexperienced Tsuji off. Although there was once or twice where Tsuji had SANADA’s number, like his roll through on the DDT SANADA has been using as a finisher lately. That was pretty cool but it was ultimately not enough. SANADA beat Tsuji, while allowing Tsuji to showcase himself as a potential top star in a big and hot crowd. And now SANADA vs LIJ can continue until there is one member left… ***3/4
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