NJPW: World Tag League 2020 Night Two Review - November 16th, 2020

NJPW World Tag League Night Two

November 16th, 2020 

1) Gabriel Kidd vs. Yota Tsuji - Young Lions Match 

These were part of the young lions class that opened up every G1 show so they’ve met A LOT. This isn’t much different than their other meetings, but also is pretty meaningless albeit harmless. Idk. Stuff happens and Kidd dominates most of it. Tsuji fights from under then catches Kidd in the crab for the submission victory. Excited for Honma & Kojima to get involved and mix it up with them on Wednesday. 

Match rating - *3/4

2) Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) (Bullet Club) (0 pts) vs. Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens (Bullet Club) (0 pts) World Tag League Tournament Match 

Uh oh it’s BC vs. BC. Both these teams lost last night so what a time for stable warfare. This was basically GoD abusing Chase and taunting him while doing so and just treating him lightly in general. Fale gets the “hot” tag and it kinda sucked but was good in theory. Tama taps Chase out with a sharpshooter for the win. 2 points for GoD. 

Match rating - ** 

3) Great O Khan & Jeff Cobb (The EMPIRE) (2 pts) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI HASHI (CHAOS) (0 pts)  - World Tag League Tournament Match 

Cobb & Khan were fun as a team squashing Tana & Henare last night. Here, they take YOSHI and isolate him and work him over for a while. Goto gets the hot tag and cleans house. It breaks down a little and we end up seeing Goto get a shocking ass pinning combo victory over GOK. WOW. Did not see that coming especially not this early in the tourney. 2 pts for Goto & YOSHI! Match was pretty rudimentary. 

Match rating - **1/4 

4) EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi (w/ Dick Togo) (Bullet Club) (2 points) vs. Juice Robinson & David Finlay (2 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match 

This is the first match that actually went beyond a super basic formula. They got some extra time to work and throw in some needed drama & action. FinJuice is such a good team and I’m upset I didn’t bother to check out any of their prior work. EVIL is also so much more bearable in these tags. Or maybe I’m just riding off the high of the enjoyable overbooked title match at Power Struggle. Either way, he & Takahashi win here and secure 2 more points. Fun contest. 

Match rating - **3/4 

5) Shingo Takagi & SANADA (LIJ) (0 pts) vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano (CHAOS) (2 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match 

This was the best match of the night so far. Shingo teases Ishii with the NEVER built in the open which obviously led to some expected awesome exchanges between them down the stretch. Yano started things with SANADA and pulled his usual and pulled the corner pads off. All this also played back into the finish and honestly all I could think of during their exchanges was the fact that Yano upset SANADA and got a huge win over him in the G1 so you know this was a chance for sweet revenge by him. Shingo looked great here as always and he & Ishii were in for the bulk of things, but the finish is all SANADA & Yano as SANADA gets that sweet revenge by trapping Yano in a bridging pinning predicament for the three count. 

Match rating - ***1/4 

6) Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi) (Suzukigun) (2 pts) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toa Henare (0 pts) - World Tag League Tournament Match

One night after being squashed and taken advantage of by O’Khan & Jeff Cobb, Tanahashi & Henare are in the main event against the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Champs and an obvious favorite to win this tournament, Sabre & Taichi. Tana’s leg got a number done on it last night so it’s a big target for Sabre & Taichi and they do a great job isolating him and working on it. The lesser experience Henare gets a hot tag, but can’t hold it down on his own despite a valiant effort. Tana comes in and hits twist and shout as well as a sling blade. Things break down around here and we get a double submission spot from Sabre & Taichi. The aces escape and Henare gets an awesome exchange with Taichi where he powers up fighting spirit style. Sabre & Taichi get back on the attack SUPERKICK INTO MICHINOKU DRIVER COMBOOOO. These final few minutes were fucking great and Henare looked amazing in his role. Unfortunately he eats the pin after some blazing offense from the champions. 

Match rating - ***1/2

ZSJ & Taichi talk backstage after their victory and say this tournament is too easy and they will go 9-0! CLEAN SHEET says ZSJ.

Be sure to follow @thepwtruth on Twitter and like our page on Facebook to keep up with further World Tag League and Best of Super Juniors 2020 results, reviews, & coverage!!