NJPW World Tag League 2020 Night ThreeNovember 19th, 2020
1) Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima vs. Yuji Nagata & Yota Tsuji
Last night, Gabriel Kidd got his shot teaming with Nagata against the veterans. Tonight, Tsuji gets the honors. Nagata & Honma start off like last night but go into limb work instead of strikes... at first atleast. Things break down and yeah. Tsuji & Kojima in next. This has a similar formula to last night’s opener. They even do the same finish with a Kojima lariat ending things. Was gonna go ** on this, but Tsuji’s selling of the lariat is worth an extra quarter star DEAR LORD. Check gif for reference.
Match rating - **1/4
2) Great O’ Khan & Jeff Cobb (The Empire) (2 pts) vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens (Bullet Club) (0 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match
Well, Owens & Fale do an attack during Khan & Cobb’s entrance which is easily the most exciting thing they’ve done in this tournament so far. Fale starts working over Khan in the ring at this point and I think about how there’s no way BC is winning this. Especially since the new Empire duo is just coming off a loss to Goto & Yoshi which I don’t think anyone expected. Anyway, Cobb gets in and gets things back under control by throwing Chase Owens around like a rag doll. They really just kinda went for it in this match as it’s over just as it starts. Cobb & GOK are MAD after their loss last night and just jobbed out Fale & Chase.
Match rating - **1/4
3) Juice Robinson & David Finlay (2 pts) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare (0 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match
Here we have a battle between some god damn beloved individuals. So much white meat baby face in this ring I can’t even fathom it all. Tana & Henare are still searching for their first victory in the tournament after an embarrassing squash at the hands of Cobb & GOK on opening night and a loss to champions Dangerous Tekkers last night. FinJuice have 1 victory and 1 loss. They work a smart strategy and take some time working on Henare and his arm. Tana is literally leaning over the top turnbuckle for the tag and he finally gets it and clears house. Juice & Tana get into it and Juice ends up with a bloody nose. From this point forward, things are pretty high energy.
Henare gets a hot tag. The crowd really seems to be behind him. We got a lot of awesome double team moves from both teams for some close falls. When all is said and done, a fired up bloody Juice hoists up Henare for the doomsday device and they hit it and get the win. This was a lot of fun!
Match rating - ***
4) EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club) (4 pts) vs. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa (Bullet Club) (2 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match
MORE BULLET CLUB WARFARE. Kinda interested in this, kinda not. Yanno, the usual love/hate relationship with modern BC stuff. I actually feel like this could go either way. They all too sweet to begin, but EVIL & Yujiro take a cheap shot and things get underway. They kept this fairly short which plays in its favor, but it’s still just meh. Lots of interference and stuff. EVIL gets hit with the magic killer and Yujiro gets a flurry comeback started only to get shut down and forced to tap. 2 points for Tama & Tanga.
Match rating - **1/4
5) Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano (CHAOS) (2 pts) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI HASHI (CHAOS) (2 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match
More stable warfare here, but it’s more four of the boys havin a good ol time than a bunch of bastards trying to out cheat each other and it’s a damn hoot. There’s some comedy early on, but it turns serious about half way through and Ishii, Goto and Yoshi start tearing into one another with strikes and throws. Honestly just good shit. I missed a small portion of this, but what I saw ruled. Ishii hits the brain buster on Yoshi for the pin.
Match rating - ***1/2
6) Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi) (Suzukigun) (4 pts) vs. Shingo Takagi & SANADA (2 pts)
Sabre & Taichi charge the LIJ fellas at the bell because that’s what they be doing sometimes. The chemistry here is already off the charts with Sabre & SANADA being so fluent together and Shingo & Taichi both being great with just about anyone. And wow... this was sooooo good. Easily the best match of the WTL side of things so far. It's the first time Shingo & ZSJ are locking up which is a dream match in it's own right. Everything here is just fucking great because of the names invovled and their talent level and all the things I mentioned above. I would LOVE to see a re-match of this later down the line with higher stakes and a little more time. It's chaotic early, but settles in. Taichi & ZSJ isolate SANADA and do so in awesome fashion as always. Things break down for the final 8-9 minutes or so? After a fanatastic back and forth battle, Shingo pins Taichi with Made in Japan. HUGE victory for the LIJ boys as ZSJ & Taichi were on a great run as the champions in this tournament and starting things off with two straight, fairly dominant victories.
Match rating - ****
UPDATED STANDINGS FOLLOWING THIS SHOW:
Shingo Takagi & SANADA - 4 points
Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi) - 4 points
Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano - 4 points
Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tonga Loa) - 4 points
FinJuice (Juice Robinson & David Finlay) - 4 points
Jeff Cobb & Great O' Khan - 4 points
EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi - 4 points
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI HASHI - 2 points
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare - 0 points
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens - 0 points
No comments:
Post a Comment