My Take: NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome 2017 - Day 2

NJPW Road to Tokyo Dome - Day 2

Tokyo, Japan

Korakuen Hall

On: TV Asahi

Attendance: 1,721

Match #1
Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Normal Match
Shota Umino vs Ren Narita
Winner by submission: Shota Umino (Boston Crab)

My Take: My money is on Shota to win the Young Lion Cup. He is just so very good at his stage.

Match #2

Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Normal Match
Tetsuhiro Yagi vs Tomoyuki Oka
Winner by submission: Tomoyuki Oka (Boston Crab)

My Take: Oka is another good young lion to watch. Good standard young lions match.

Match #3
Kotetsu Yamamoto Memorial 11th Young Lion Cup Match
Normal Match
Hirai Kawato vs Katsuya Kitamura
Winner by pinfall: Katsuya Kitamura (Jackhammer)

My Take: Both of these guys are money. Kawato is the better wrestler but Kitamura has the look and the power. I loved the cradle counter into the Jackhammer finish.

Match #4

Eight-Man Tag Team Match

KUSHIDA, Masked Horse (Ryusuke Taguchi), Jushin "Thunder" Liger & Tiger Mask vs Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

Winners: KUSHIDA, Masked Horse (Ryusuke Taguchi), Jushin "Thunder" Liger & Tiger Mask

My Take: The finish saw...Masked Horse do the Nakamura corner pose before hitting what I thought looked like his Hip Attack for the pinfall. Although I don't normally have the greatest of times with some Suzuki-gun matches, I thought that that this one was alright. I enjoyed the Taguchi comedy and the stuff that Kanemaru and KUSHIDA did.

Match #5

Tag Team Match

CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano) vs Togi Makabe & Henare

Winners: CHAOS

My Take: Really enjoyable match here. The story of it was mostly between Ishii and Henare with Ishii as the no-nonsense, tough as nails veteran against the headstrong Henare (Not a bad nickname!). Henare wanted to show Ishii that he could be just as tough as he was. However, the body wasn't as willing as the mind as every time that Henare would get back up, Ishii would just blast him back down. Ishii eventually hit his Vertical Suplex-looking Brainbuster for the pinfall.

Match #6

Tag Team Match

BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA)

Winners: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Magic Killer on Yujiro)

My Take: EVIL and SANADA pick up some momentum here headed into their IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Match at Wrestle Kingdom.

Match #7

Six-Man Tag Team Match

BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Leo Tonga) vs Kota Ibushi & TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima)

Winners: Kota Ibushi & TenKoji

My Take: There was a Samoan Drop from Tenzan on Tama Tonga that looked pretty rough. It looked like Tama landed rough on his shoulder. I hope he's okay. Ibushi pinned Leo Tonga after the Kamigoye knee strike.

Match #8

Tag Team Match

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka)

Winners by DQ: CHAOS

My Take: Goto/Suzuki is going to be awesome. I can feel it. Another DQ finish against Suzuki-gun here after all of Suzuki-gun jump Goto and YOSHI-HASHI . Probably done as a way to avoid parody booking even though Iizuka and YOSHi-HASHI (even though I can tell they don't exactly intend for him to be a job guy all the time) are viable options to take the pin. By the way, after their match on Day 1 of this tour, Suzuki actually shaved a big chunk of hair from one of the young boy's heads. Rough, rough time. 

IWGP Intercontinental Champion, Hiroshi Tanahashi comes out rocking his best Shirley Temple hairdo (seriously, who's his stylist?) to cut a promo presumably addressing his upcoming match against "Switchblade" Jay White at the Tokyo Dome. White comes out, they brawl, White gets the upper hand and ties Tanahashi's arms up with his legs and drops repeated elbows on Tanahashi's neck. Jay drops him with the Blade Runner to hammer his point home as officials come to check on the unconscious ace.

Match #9

Six-Man Tag Team Match

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & YOH) vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI)

Winners: Los Ingobernables de Japon

My Take: Good main event match here. The fans at Korakuen are firmly behind Naito. After the match, Naito offers Okada and handshake and Okada foolishly goes to accept it when Naito starts kicking and stomping on him and Gedo. Okada counters and tries to go for his new Cobra Clutch submission but Naito is able to drop him with a Destino. Snow then starts falling from the ceiling as Okada is helped to the back. Although I am all for Okada's reign continuing, I wouldn't be surprised if we see a title change at the Tokyo Dome.