New Japan "Wrestle Kingdom V"

Jushin Liger/Hector Garza vs Mascara Dorada/La Sombra, NJPW 1/4

Dorada blew a spot early in, but otherwise this was a fine exhibition spotfest and nothing more.

Yuji Nagata vs Minoru Suzuki, NJPW 1/4

This was actually the most heated match on the show. Both guys made it clear they didn’t take kindly to each other and laid it in with slaps and kicks. It dragged in parts, but I liked the struggle over the sleeper spot, and both mens’ selling (Nagata of Suzuki’s submissions and Suzuki of an injured arm) was quality. This was a good match, though it would have benefitted from going shorter.

Prince Devitt vs Kota Ibushi, NJPW 1/4

Vanilla dime-a-dosen juniors wrestling. Nothing that made me want to lose the will to live but I can't say I enjoyed any aspect of this. Ibushi has been running through the same spots for about four years now.

Hirooki Goto/Kazuchika Okada vs Takashi Sugiura/Yoshihiro Takayama, NJPW 1/4

I liked Okada not backing down against the NOAH guys and getting double-teamed by them, but it should have been so better and the rest of this was pretty plain Jane. For an interpromotional match this was massively lacking, and the Sugiura/Goto section was particularly mediocre.

Jeff Hardy vs Tetsuya Naito, NJPW 1/4

Why was Naito wearing a t-shirt wrestling a title match? This was not good.

Shinsuke Nakamura vs Go Shiozaki, NJPW 1/4

This was surprisingly smartly worked from Go’s end. Most of the match is built around Go targeting Nakamura’s leg and Go did well. He had some creative ways of attacking the leg like chopping at it, ramming Nak leg-first into the ring-post, etc. and he would go back to leg when trying to cut off Nakamura’s comebacks. Nakamura didn’t really sell it outside the finish though, and the crowd never bought into Shiozaki winning, leaving this as nothing more than solid.

Masato Tanaka vs Togi Makabe, NJPW 1/4

I was actually surprised at how much I enjoyed this, best match of the show to me. I was expecting a mediocre attempt at a slugfest, and there was some solid slugging, but this was actually more story-focused and felt like a more traditional US feud pay-off. Makabe comes into the match with his neck bandaged from where Tanaka legit injured him with a table spot, and it becomes the target of Tanaka’s offence. Tanaka was good here, coming off like a dickhead heel and going after the neck injury. He did one lame no-sell spot but it lead to a Sliding D to the neck so I’m not complaining. This also felt like an ECW-ish match thanks to the weapons used, and Tanaka got CREAMED with a chairshot, and Tanaka putting Makabe through a table in similar fashion o he way that injured him was a great peice of continuity. The finish with Makabe powerbombing Tanaka through a table off the apon then hitting his finisher felt like as good of a pay-off as they could have done.

Satoshi Kojima vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, NJPW 1/4

This was terribly bland and dull. There was some dueling limbwork, so it wasn’t *totally* directionless, but none of it was interesting nor sold in a dramatic way. Tanahashi’s execution and mannerisms are also more than questionable. A crappy main event to finish a mostly mediocre show.