#roppongi3k

A group of Extremely Handsome Extremely Shiny Champions looks with a mixture of fascination, curiosity, and pity upon a creature who is, tragically for him, merely Extremely Handsome.

#内藤哲也

#鈴木みのる

#BUSHI

#EVIL

#YOH

#roppongi3k

#完全にNEXT

#LosIngobernablesdeJapón

#鷹木信悟

#後藤洋央紀

#chaos

#njpw

#njcup

#新日本プロレス

#プロレス

#後楽園ホール

Sho: what baby?

Best of the Super Juniors, 20/05/2018

(You can find full sized gifs at @NJPWgifs on twitter or ask me for them.)

Part 2: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Flip Gordon, ACH, Will Ospreay, Yohei Komatsu. ( Part 1 / Part 3 )

Sakura Genesis 2018 Review

Sunday April 1st from the Sumo Hall, Tokyo

Yujiro Takahashi&Chase Owens vs The Young Bucks:[**3/4]

Good opener for the show that warmed up the crowd nicely and played into the actual storyline with the BC Civil war and Matt's back injury, which i can't still understand if he's actually hurt or if he's selling like a boss, because he's been a issue for him since they regained the Jr Tag Team Titles on 4th January. Yujiro and Chase did their best, hit even some cool double team moves but Owens had to quit after being trapped in a sharpshooter from Matt. YB getting the rebound victory and probably getting ready for a rematch with the Golden Lovers

Taichi&Iizuka vs Toru Yano&Tomohiro Ishii:[*1/4]

Well...the match was bad as expected but on the good side it was short. Chaos members got the win as expected even tho i would have given the win to Taichi since he needs some momentum, even tho he looked really good against Naito and Tanahashi. Less Iizuka BS and this match would have been much better.

Never Open Weight Six man tag team Championship: Taguchi Japan vs Bullet Club:[**1/2]

It was a solid match that got much better with the hot tag from Makabe first and then Taguchi, who is a wrestler that i really like for some kind of weird reasons, but the champions regained as they should, thanks to a gun stunn from Tama Tonga, who's very underrated like his brother Tanga Loi.

The 619 from Taguchi was actually cool.

David Finlay, Juice Robinson&Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Jay White, Hiroki Goto&YOSHI-HASHI:[***]

Second six man tag match out of 3 scheduled for the Sakura Genesis and it was way better than the first one. I loved how they keep building the matches between Goto-Robinson and Finlay-White and it was so good that they got Tana picking up the win on HASHI with his high fly flow, after Finlay hit a stunner on White and Juice his Pulp Friction on Goto. While i don't see Finlay winning the title on the 24th, even tho it would make sense since it's in the Kouraken and they faced off most of the times there, i rather see Juice getting the win and the Never Openweight Title from Goto, in which could be a really good match.

Tetsuya Naito&EVIL&SANADA vs Minoru Suzuki&Killer Elite Squad:[***1/4]

So far i believe it's the best match of the night because of how well they booked KES and EVIL&SANADA feud but most importantly of how they are teasing the clash between Naito and Suzuki with Naito avoiding Minoru and the IC getting mad because of it and that played very well into the match since Minoru didn't wait to attack Naito. KES picking up the win after a really solid match also makes sense if they are getting a rematch and personally i hope the match will be better than the one on 4th January. Naito-Suzuki is already a MOTY contender and will easily deliver big time.

IWGP Jr Tag team Championship three way: Hiromu Takahashi&Bushi vs Roppongi 3 vs El Desperado&Kanemaru:[***]

Solid 3 way tag match for the Jr tag team titles and personally i really like Roppongi 3K as team but i felt they did better as trio with Romero last sunday. The match was good, fun and fast pace offense and that near fall after the Ticking Time Bomb from Hiromu was awesome and even more awesome was the super sunset flip powerbomb from bushi into that double german suplex. But at the end of the day, the champs got the win after Kanemaru pulled the ref outside the ring and El Desperado, or Despy as called on commentary by callis and Kelly, hit his Pinche Loco for the win. Personally i hope we get the champs vs the LIDJ team soon so Roppongi 3K could move and go on to face the tongan side of bullet club for the trios title. If not, i'd rather have Bushi&Hiromu vs Sho and Yoh for the Jr tag team titles.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Marty Scurll vs Will ospreay:[*****]

My god what a fucking match. It was crazy good!! They tore the sumo hall down with a stellar match. Scurll went full heel dick mode as he tried everything to break Ospreay's neck, but Will showed off some fighting spirit for the ages and overcame the odds: it had a crazy good storytelling and crazy good tons of spot, like the spanish flea from the outside from ospreay that got him a cut on the head (i really thought he broke his neck), or the first chicken wing counter by Marty. It was stunning and both guys know each other so well that they did even better than their previous encounters and it was really hard to do it because their previous matches have been really impressive. Ospreay finally gets to beat Scrull after almost dying in the ring in so many occasion as since today it's easter (even tho this review might be out on Monday-Tuesday) pulled off litteraly a Jesus and came back from death so many times (the tombostone piledriver on the outside was crazy and the one in the ring was even more nuts). Post match, Ospreay challenged KUSHIDA for the title because he wants to prove again that he didn't beat him by luck (they are 4-1 for the japanese) and i love how they want him to be a REAL fighting champion. This match personally is a MOTY contender and again for me gets at five star rating. This is why i started watching New Japan more frequently now. Kudos to both guys

Cody& Hangman Page vs Golden Lovers:[****]

After a fantastic singles match, we had another very good match that kept building what is at the moment the best storyline in pro wrestling: the bullet club civil war. I loved how Cody tried to do the most damage to Omega heading to their match on Supercard of Honor and i also loved how they had the Bucks come out and have that little argument with Cody, who is clearly one of the best heels in wrestling at the moment. The match was really great because everyone had time to shine and also Page looked again like a star and he is underrtated and i believe he could win a singles title in NJPW (probably the US Title or the never open weight). I can't wait for both Ibushi-Page and Cody-Omega at NOLA even tho at the moment i don't know when i'll be able to watch the show (probably no review because i'll have quite a few stuff to publish)

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr vs Kazuchika Okada:[****3/4]

It's main event in the Sumo Hall and we had another really great main event and another MOTY candidate. It was probably the best match in New Japan from Sabre as he's been super impressive so far in 2018 putting some great performances against anybody: from Naito to Okada today. I loved how in the first minutes of the match okada tried to play on his submission game with Sabre finding always a counter and that was the highlight of the match: Sabre countered anything, he even found a counter for the Rainmaker pose! But at the end of the day, he had to give up after a Rainmaker from Okada, who ties the record of Tana of 11 successful consecutive title defenses..and this thing brings us to the post match that basically had him and Tana and set a new match between them which for Okada could be the record breaking 12 title defense. Now, i see already people moaning about this match, but personally i feel its perfect: if okada has to break the record, he has to do it by defeating the man who set the record. If he's not gonna do it (which i doubt), then it must Tana to defeat him. I'm sure they will deliver big time even tho Tana isn't at 100%. Tana-Okada one more time, one more match, one more title defense to make history.