NJPW "Invasion Attack 2016" (10th April, 2016)

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

NJPW "Invasion Attack 2016"
10th April 2016
Tokyo, Ryogoku Kokugikan

 

Tag Team Match:
Ryusuke Taguchi & Juice Robinson vs Bullet Club ("Underboss" Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi)

6 Man Tag Team Match:
Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Jushin "Thunder" Liger vs CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Kazushi Sakuraba)

Tag Team Match:
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon ("King of Darkness" EVIL & BUSHI)

IWGP Jr.  Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match:
Matt Sydal & Ricochet © vs Roppongi Vice (Trent Berreta & Rocky Romero)

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match:
KUSHIDA © vs Will Ospreay

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title Match:
The ELITE ("The Cleaner" Kenny Omega & Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)) © vs "Ace" Hiroshi Tanahashi, "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin & "Bullet Club Hunter" Yoshitatsu

NEVER Openweight Title Match:
"The Wrestler" Katsuyori Shibata © vs Hiroyoshi Tenzan

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match:
Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) © vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Roa Tonga)

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match:
"Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada © vs Tetsuya Naito (New Japan Cup Winner)

[steve]

If Shibata wrestles his usual match, Tenzan might die.

[Spritenaut 32]

If Shibata wrestles his usual match, Tenzan might die.

 

I'm amazed Tenzan has managed to hold himself together this long.  I thought injuries would push him into retirement (or, at least, out of New Japan) years ago.

 

But, yeah, Shibata may finally finish him off.

[Curt McGirt]

"The Wrestler"? What, is Shibata gonna come out in Sasuke's Randy the Ram pants?

[J.H.]

"The Wrestler"? What, is Shibata gonna come out in Sasuke's Randy the Ram pants?

We can only hope!

I'd rather he borrow Sasuke's Batman get-up and try and save Ultraman Robin!

 

James

[jstout]

I thought every NJPW card was required by law to have Captain New Japan on it.

[Ryan]

He's probably in a dark match or something. Or serving riceballs at the concession stand.

[Curt McGirt]

To steal from DEAN, he's probably working his side job running a forklift. I dunno if even a solid midcard position on the card in New Japan can pay for a Tokyo apartment, much less the lowest.

[lostinube]

Results:

Tag Team Match:
Bullet Club ("Underboss" Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) d. Ryusuke Taguchi & Juice Robinson vs

6 Man Tag Team Match:
Satoshi Kojima, Yuji Nagata & Jushin "Thunder" Liger d. CHAOS (Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Kazushi Sakuraba)

Tag Team Match:
CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto) d. Los Ingobernables de Japon ("King of Darkness" EVIL & BUSHI)

IWGP Jr.  Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match:
Roppongi Vice (Trent Berreta & Rocky Romero) d. Matt Sydal & Ricochet

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Match:
KUSHIDA d. Will Ospreay

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title Match:
"Ace" Hiroshi Tanahashi, "Unbreakable" Michael Elgin & "Bullet Club Hunter" Yoshitatsu d. The ELITE ("The Cleaner" Kenny Omega & Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson))

NEVER Openweight Title Match:
"The Wrestler" Katsuyori Shibata d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match:
Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Roa Tonga) d. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma)

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match:
Tetsuya Naito (New Japan Cup Winner) d. "Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada

Didn't think they'd pull the trigger on Naito but there ya go. And now we know where Seiya Sanada is going to be for a bit.

Only saw the last three matches. Nagata will be the next challenger to Shibata (shades of Shingo Takagi beating the different Dragon Gate generations there). Might be Ishii taking on Naito first. Crowd was behind Naito for the most part. Also, people on twitter will never tire of pointing out the fact that female fans are very loud when no one else is cheering/making noise.

 

[Liam]

How was Ospreay vs Kushida?

[lostinube]

I had to go back and watch the match. It was good. The focus was on Ospreay's arm to set up for the Hover Board Lock and while it wasn't perfect (Kushida doesn't have a lot of offense that focuses specifically on the arm) Osprea's offense is such that he doesn't really need the arm to fly around. Jushin Liger came out to challenge Kushida at the end of the match.

[steve]

Oddly pumped for Naito. Good for him.

[Curt McGirt]

Liger vs. Kushida sounds like fun; a Liger match will motivate Kushida for sure. Did Tenzan's neck crumble into dust? Also, Shibata vs. Nagata with Yuji bringing the grumpy will be awesome. 

...and sure enough, they already fought back in '03

 

[Charlie M.]

Ospreay/KUSHIDA was a pretty great introduction for Ospreay. Thought he showed some personality, connected with the crowd, sold his arm pretty well and still managed to get a lot of his shit in. My main critique of him is that he plays to the crowd too much, almost begging for a reaction instead of trusting that it will come (which it would have). That's just inexperience.

Shibata/Tenzan was damn good. They kept it short and Tenzan basically gave it everything he had. Shibata kicking Nagata in the face may be my favorite moment of 2016 so far.

Naito/Okada was solid. It was funny that they build up this big reveal and the crowd is totally silent. Finish was definitive enough despite all the interference.

[lostinube]

To be fair, it is a pretty different look for him. He was sporting the full hair and shiny pants as recently as the week before this show.

[MoeCristyV.1.6]

And EVIL got the same reaction. And when Naito said all LOS INGOBERNABLES members names, the pop for SANADA was there.

[peterien]

Thought Naito/Okada was a fun match. I kind of only watch the big matches so for me it was different than the matches Okada/Tana/Naka/AJ put on but i really liked it. 

Naito is a great heel too. 

[Chaos]

I've watched Naito/Okada and Ospreay/KUSHIDA. Naito/Okada was a solid wrestling match mixed into a weird amount of overbooking, which I hope is not a consistent route for where New Japan is going, but Gedo has shown with the Bullet Club stuff that he wants to lean on that a bit too heavily. I love heel Naito, and watching G1 last year really helped to set the stage for the evolution of that character.

Ospreay/KUSHIDA was a match I enjoyed more than I thought I would. KUSHIDA matches run very hot and cold with me, but this one thankfully didn't involve KUSHIDA having to sell any leg offense. I realized watching this that this was the first time I had seen an Ospreay match. He's good, but I'm by and large not a fan of the show off "look at me, I can do this because it looks cool" stuff.

[Curt McGirt]

Shibata/Tenzan was so good (of course) that I had to watch it twice. Maybe not as crazy as the Ishii matches but you worry for Tenzan's neck. Especially for some of what Shibata does to it...

[Charlie M.]

5 hours ago, Chaos said:

I've watched Naito/Okada and Ospreay/KUSHIDA. Naito/Okada was a solid wrestling match mixed into a weird amount of overbooking, which I hope is not a consistent route for where New Japan is going, but Gedo has shown with the Bullet Club stuff that he wants to lean on that a bit too heavily. I love heel Naito, and watching G1 last year really helped to set the stage for the evolution of that character.

Ospreay/KUSHIDA was a match I enjoyed more than I thought I would. KUSHIDA matches run very hot and cold with me, but this one thankfully didn't involve KUSHIDA having to sell any leg offense. I realized watching this that this was the first time I had seen an Ospreay match. He's good, but I'm by and large not a fan of the show off "look at me, I can do this because it looks cool" stuff.

I see what you're saying but he's very young and trying to get noticed so it's the smart thing to do, IMO. He can always tone it down a few notches and figure out which of his stuff he can do without.

[Superkicks All Day Long]

5 hours ago, Curt McGirt said:

Shibata/Tenzan was so good (of course) that I had to watch it twice. Maybe not as crazy as the Ishii matches but you worry for Tenzan's neck. Especially for some of what Shibata does to it...

Yeah, this was probably my favorite match of an otherwise underwhelming show. Shibata didn't hold back on Tenzan and while Tenzan's offense is nowhere near as cringeworthy, Shibata still sold it like it was. I thought KUSHIDA's performance was strong. He looked like a million bucks as champ. Ospreay is just a fill-in-the-blank opponent but he sold the armwork well enough. I'm just bored of that style. Nahito/Okada was okay. You're basically just watching to see Nahito win the title. The crowd was hot but nobody cared about Sanada. I don't blame them. Should've pulled the trigger on the Goto betrayal.  

[Curt McGirt]

Quote

while Tenzan's offense is nowhere near as cringeworthy, Shibata still sold it like it was. 

Tenzan did bust out some nasty shoot headbutts. The big one that the announcers marked out over wasn't the only one. Not all of them landed as nasty, but I don't think Tenzan needs to be wrestling like Hashi (who incidentally retired due to neck injury, heh). 

[Spritenaut 32]

I dug the Tenzan match.  Though I felt like maybe I was watching a G-1 match from 2003.

I do dig Tenzan's loyalty to the mullet.  Seriously, his hairstyle has aged worse than the rest of him.  And the rest of him isn't aging all that well either.

 

[Curt McGirt]

That thing isn't JUST a mullet. It's a work of art. And seriously, what do you think about the looks and questions he gets walking around with that on his head for literal years? Dedication isn't the word. 

[Chaos]

I finally caught Tenzan/Shibata. I almost felt bad for Tenzan at his age having to just take the stiffness of Shibata's offense, and Shibata did a good enough job of playing the unrelenting dick heel throughout the whole ordeal.