New Japan Pro Wrestling
Invasion Attack 2015
April 5, 2015
Sumo Hall | Tokyo, Japan
Watch: NJPWWorld.com
Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Sho Tanaka & Tiger Mask vs. Time Splitters (Alex Shelley & KUSHIDA), Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata
Rich Kraetsch (@richkraetsch): This bad boy is the definition of “Get everyone on the show” and who am I to complain? I get Tanaka, Shelly, KUSHIDA, my boy the ‘Cap, Komatsu and white contact lens posterboy Yuji Nagata. Tanaka takes the fall here.
Prediction: Time Splitters, Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata
Joe Lanza (@JoeMLanza): Ten babyfaces with nothing to do. Should be a lot of fun, and if Joe Lanza was booking this thing either Tanaka or Komatsu would score a surprise win over one of the low level veterans (read: Captain New Japan) because why not? That isn’t going to happen, as either Tanaka or Komatsu is taking another L.
Prediction: Time Splitters, Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata
Fujiwara Armbar (@FujiwaraArmbar): As long as we get plenty of Komatsu and Tanaka just having a great old time in there then I am delighted for everyone else to do as they please. Very much a house show opener though.
Prediction: Time Splitters, Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata
Andrew Rich (@AndrewTRich): A collection of random lower- to mid-card guys with nothing else to do, along with perennial young boys Komatsu and Tanaka. It’s a shame that Time-Splitters are here because I’m a big fan of them, but considering that there aren’t any other solid juniors teams for them to feud with (Young Bucks and RPG Vice are feuding, reDRagon are in the States, and the Suzukigun juniors are in NOAH), I can see why they’re here. Odds are either Tanaka or Komatsu will be the one taking the pin, although don’t count out Captain New Japan; that man really likes to lose. I’m deciding the winner of this one at random because it doesn’t really matter.
Prediction: Time Splitters, Captain New Japan, Yohei Komatsu & Yuji Nagata
BULLET CLUB (Tama Tonga & Yujiro Takahashi) & Cody Hall vs. TenKoji (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima) & Tomoaki Honma
Rich Kraetsch: A match I probably like more on paper than in actuality. Honma will be a lot of fun here and even has the potential to pick up the victory. I’ll be watching to see if Tenzan and Kojima continue their tension or if they are just two dudes who get mad at one another every so often, shove each other than hug it out a few hours later. I’m cool with either honestly.
Prediction: TenKoji & Honma
Joe Lanza: Cody looked the best he ever has in New Japan on the 3/29 house show, but for the most part he still looks very green and very out of place on this roster. It doesn’t help that the other young lion from his class, Jay White, is looking like the front runner for Rookie of the Year. Hall’s presence also means that Tama Tonga will be staring at the lights a lot less this year, since Hall is the new low man of the Bullet Club.
Prediction: TenKoji & Honma
Fujiwara Armbar: Maybe this is where TenKoji finally go kablooey in the face of their recent spat over the NWA Heavyweight singles title. I’d like to think they’ll resist the temptation and down the triumvirate of Bullet Club clods and lay the groundwork for a big Kokeshi finish.
Prediction: TenKoji and Honma
Andrew Rich: Let’s weigh the scales here. You’ve got three of the lowest guys on the Bullet Club totem pole taking on the current NWA World Heavyweight Champion, a former IWGP Champion/G1 Climax winner, and my favorite New Japan wrestler not named Shinsuke Nakamura. It’s a lock that Ten-Koji and Honma are scoring the victory here. Kokeshis for everyone!
Prediction: Ten-Koji and Tomoaki Honma
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title – The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Beretta & Rocky Romero)
Rich Kraetsch: Having seeing Roppongi Vice in action a few weeks back I’m super excited to see them work on the big stage. It’s not exactly a hot take but Beretta is a massive upgrade over Alex Koslov and should take Rocky Romero and the entire Junior Tag division’s game up a notch. This match is really hard to call because it can go either way without much ramifications. It makes more sense for Roppongi Vice to win the titles here but you never know.
Prediction: Roppongi Vice
Joe Lanza: Tough match to call, because it’s hard to see the Bucks losing the titles this fast, but it’s also hard to envision Roppongi Vice losing their first New Japan match. If there is one title in New Japan that can be hot potatoed with nobody being upset about it, it’s this one. New champs.
Prediction: Roppongi Vice
Fujiwara Armbar: I admire New Japan’s bravery in just shoving people who turned up thirty seconds ago into a title match, but also does speak volumes about depth when RPG Vice can have a title shot and Kenny Omega can begin to carry an entire singles division. No problem, as this should be a fine match. The last time I personally saw Beretta was as part of his ill-fated but otherwise fine tag team with Caylen Croft on a Smackdown house show. Young Bucks are too hot right now though.
Prediction: The Young Bucks
Andrew Rich: Will Trent Barreta ever get a permanent name? He’s Trent? in PWG, Beretta in New Japan, and Trent Barreta in FIP. We need some consistency, please! I digress. We’ve seen pretty recently that New Japan is comfortable having guys win titles immediately. Both Styles and Omega won the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Titles in their first main roster New Japan matches respectively. So RPG Vice winning wouldn’t be that much of a shock. Still, The Young Bucks are on fire right now and I don’t think the damage would be too bad if RPG Vice lose their first shot. Considering the amount of serious Junior teams, chances are they will be getting another title opportunity in the not-so distant future.
Prediction: The Young Bucks
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title – Kenny Omega (c) vs. Mascara Dorada
Rich Kraetsch: I want to say I’m excited here, I really do but Kenny Omega just hasn’t done it for me in this most recent New Japan run. If he can finally just wrestle like we know he can, then I’ll change my tune. So long as we have Bullet Club run-ins, sodimy with a pole and other shenanigans throughout his matches, I’m good. Dorada is a great talent and would be wasted in meaningless comedy/uber-heel matches. Have these two dudes wrestle for 10-15 minutes and reap the benefits, NJPW. Don’t overcomplicate it!
Prediction: Kenny Omega
Joe Lanza: In a world where A.J./Ibushi doesn’t exist, this would have had a real chance to steal the show, provided Omega continues to eliminate the cheesier aspects of The Cleaner act. We’ve been waiting for New Japan to do something, anything, with Dorada, who had he not been pushed strong in CMLL the last few years would have been a sure fire Most Underrated (Underpushed) contender in the yearly Observer Awards. This isn’t the time for Dorada to win, but this is the time for Dorada to have his break out NJPW performance. I’m beyond hyped for this.
Prediction: Kenny Omega
Fujiwara Armbar: Aside from contributing to the Best of Super Junior tournament in June and probably a random Jr. Tag title shot with a randomly-accrued friend, this is why Mascara Dorada is here for the year: to put over Kenny Omega. Dorada is much less of a dolt than Omega’s recent ragdoll, Ryusuke Taguchi, and as such this match should be rivalling the main event if both guys manage to find their big game. My confident prediction: they will.
Prediction: Kenny Omega
Andrew Rich: This is Mascara Dorada’s first big match as a permanent roster member, since he’s been in New Japan intermittently for the past few years for Best of the Super Juniors, Fantasticamania, and whatnot. The things that he is able to do in the ring are absolutely incredible and he’s a great shot in the arm for the Juniors Division, which has been soaking in Taguchi soup for the past year. (Taguchi soup isn’t necessarily bad, mind you. It just has no flavor left after you’ve been eating it for so long.) That said, the Kenny Omega train has no brakes. I expect Omega to retain the title, but I also expect Dorada (and the match in general) to potentially steal the show. This one’s gonna be fun.
Prediction: Kenny Omega
IWGP Tag Team Title – BULLET CLUB (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) (c) vs. Matt Taven & Michael Bennett
Rich Kraetsch: When The Kingdom (Taven & Bennett) were announced for the World Tag League, I groaned. I wasn’t a fan of either guy and I hated the team. To their credit, they won me over. Maria Kanellis is unbelievable in her role as slimy heel manager and both Taven & Bennett seemed motivated to work their asses off. Still, I can’t be too excited here. I’m so unbelievably over Gallows & Anderson as tag champs that I can’t even generate strong feelings about a title defense. I don’t see them losing here but I wouldn’t be surprised to see The Kingdom win the straps sometime soon.
Prediction: Bullet Club
Joe Lanza: I’m not much of a fan of The Kingdom, but they did perform very well on the World Tag League tour, and they’ve earned their return trip to Japan. I’m also not going to complain about a fresh matchup, which this card is full of. A Kingdom win wouldn’t completely shock me.
Prediction: Bullet Club
Fujiwara Armbar: Do you like Maria Kanellis’ bottom? You don’t need to answer out loud or make a decision now. But discovering the answer to this question will weigh heavily in how much you like this particular match. TV Asahi’s cameramen are particularly fond of the rear of Michael Bennett’s wife and you will be seeing a lot of it during this match. I myself am indifferent to it. It is merely an arse. Expect some shenanigans and some highly-’merican asshole clowning before Taven eats a Gun Stun.
Prediction: Bullet Club
Andrew Rich: I have nothing against The Kingdom, they just aren’t my favorite team in the world. And I enjoy Anderson and Gallows, but their shtick can get tiring as well. So this match isn’t one that I’m dying to see, but it is, as Joe pointed out, a fresh matchup. I expect nothing less than a gratuitous amount of face paint, a bevy of too sweets, and a cavalcade of camera shots centered directly on Maria Kanellis’s ass. Oh, and Bullet Club for the win too, I suppose.
Prediction: Bullet Club
CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe
Rich Kraetsch: One of my biggest gripes about Invasion Attack lies in this match. No, it’s not an individual but rather the plethora of talent smashed together to make this worthless tag match. Look, I understand we aren’t going to get mega cards every time out but you probably should find something better for Ishii, Nakamura, Goto, Naito and Makabe to do. Whether that’s individual singles matches, taking two of these guys out to make a title match, Ishii/Makabe NEVER Title, a random Nakamura/Naito match just for shits and giggles. I don’t know, I’m sure this will be fun but it seems like a gigantic waste. Take a wild guess who’s getting pinned here.
Prediction: Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe
Joe Lanza: Shinsuke Nakamura has nothing going on right now and is buried deep on this show, fourth from the top. I thought this company was in desperate need of depth? What a laughable talking point that proved to be.
Prediction: Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe
Fujiwara Armbar: Sigh. This is a bit of a waste, isn’t it? So much talent (and YOSHI-HASHI) and we’re sort of padding about in multi-man tags. No doubt that it will be very keenly contested and enjoyable, but there’s less at stake. It is possible that there’s an angle a-brewing and one of Nakamura or Ishii about to eat a fall or a dagger-eyed stare post-match to indicate a title match down the line. Let’s go with Makabe over Ishii for the sake of continuity.
Prediction: Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe
Andrew Rich: The Intercontinental and NEVER champions are getting the night off from defending their titles to be in what should be an enjoyable multi-man match. Ishii and Makabe are pitted against each other because of their feud over the NEVER title (a title that Ishii won only because Makabe had to vacate it due to illness). From what I’ve read from the Road to Invasion Attack recaps, I sense something brewing between Nakamura and Goto, but nothing has been set in stone. Perhaps a post-match angle will make things much clearer.
Prediction: Hirooki Goto, Tetsuya Naito & Togi Makabe
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Toru Yano
Rich Kraetsch: This is a match I probably shouldn’t like but will end up loving. The combinations seem weird on their face but end up being really intriguing once it finally clicks. Tanahashi vs. Yano is a fun little feud for Tanahashi that keeps him out of the mA.J.or title picture but still allows him to be a featured act. I don’t like Yano as an in-ring worker but boy is he a lot of fun, especially when he’s tugging at Tanahashi. Shibata and Sakuraba will kick the shit out of each other and if we see more of a Sak we saw during the Suzuki feud and less of the Sak anytime before that, they should have some fun interactions.
Prediction: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata
Joe Lanza: Some people have complained that Tanahashi & Nakamura aren’t involved in top of the card programs right now, but I wonder how many of those people are the same folks who spend a ton of time complaining about how stale the top of the card is. The NJC upset was fun, and Yano is a cute little diversion for Tanahashi while some of the other top stars and titles are occupied.
Prediction: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata
Fujiwara Armbar: I’m sensing from the wrestling cosmos that there’s not a great deal of good will toward this match but I will go to fight for this one and get injured on the hill if not quite actually dying for it. Tanahashi has been absolutely brilliant as a foil for Yano, his pride visibly seeping out of his shoes every time Yano’s shit-eating grin hoves into view. Their choice of partners couldn’t be better. Shibata (self-serious, stoic, unsmiling) and Sakuraba (clownish, unpretentious, authentic) could be compulsive prime-time explosive person-on-person battering given the chance. Expect fun rather than five stars.
Prediction: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata
Andrew Rich: While this match won’t be a wrestling classic, if you examine it closely, there are some pretty interesting layers to it. On the surface, we have the Tanahashi-Yano feud, which gave us my current favorite GIF: Yano pointing and laughing at a stern (but obviously fuming) Tanahashi. Tanahashi wants to get his win back and Yano wants to humiliate him further, no doubt. The next layer is the relationship between Tanahashi and Shibata. They’ve been on friendly terms since their couple of stellar singles matches last year and have even teamed up recently for tag matches. Still, that was with Goto as a middleman. The last time Tanahashi and Shibata teamed up as a duo was in 2000 (!), so this will be a test to see if their friendly relationship will actually last. Finally, there is the fact that Shibata and Sakuraba used to team together as Laughter7. I see Tanahashi and Shibata getting the win, only for Yano to escape or pull some more shenanigans on Tanahashi post-match, which will lead to one final singles match where Tanahashi regains his singles win and his dignity.
Prediction: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata
Bad Luck Fale vs. Kazuchika Okada
Rich Kraetsch: Okada can’t lose again, can he? I’d bet no but I still have a minor amount of doubt left in my brain. I wrote a few months ago my worry of Okada and Fale feuding until Invasion Attack. I didn’t want Okada to go down the same path Nakamura did last year. Not that Nakamura didn’t end up having a spectacular year (he won the Observer’s Wrestler of the Year for god’s sake) but it was such a dry, boring first quarter of the year for Shinsuke. Welp, here we are. God willing, Okada wins this match, wins it definitively and sees Fale in his rearview.
Prediction: Kazuchika Okada
Joe Lanza: I’m far more interested in where Okada goes from here, after finally delivering a definitive Rainmaker on Fale and putting him firmly in the rear view. Maybe Okada wins here, and does the post match challenge after the main event?
Prediction: Kazuchika Okada
Fujiwara Armbar: How far does someone need to fall for a successful redemption angle? Does a loss to a giant whilst suffering from the previous night at the biggest show of your life count as any real distance fallen? It is hard to know. Undoubtedly this match will be a test of skill for Okada, who still has his critics in spite of the freakish athleticism, the great matches, the developing charisma, etc. He is, alas, unproven as a dance leader. Fale needs guiding through the big occasions and has put on fine matches with ring veterans such as Nakamura and Honma. Optimistic hat on says that Okada, the eventual winner, will join them in a good to very good match.
Prediction: Kazuchika Okada
Andrew Rich: Okada for the win and the next train out of Fale City. No offense to Fale, he seems like a lovely guy, but the Rainmaker needs to beat the Bullet Club giant definitively and get as far away from him as he can. This should be the true start to Okada’s comeback and, thanks in large part to his immense wrestling ability, a fairly good match.
Prediction: Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Heavyweight Title – A.J. Styles (c) vs. Kota Ibushi
Rich Kraetsch: Let’s forget about business, drawing, sell-outs and all that other jazz for a minute. Instead, let’s focus on how good of a match this can be. Styles has been nothing short of spectacular over the last year as he’s really found his own in New Japan and Ibushi? What needs to be said? The guy is improving everytime he steps in the ring and he’s arguably had the best in-ring of anyone in the world thus far. Between his show stealer at Wrestle Kingdom 8 all the way to his spectacular matches in his home DDT promotion, Ibushi has been on fire. Better yet: these guys have NEVER fought one another — we’re in for a real treat, people. I don’t care if you have to set your alarm at 5am or never go to bed Saturday night, you need to see this main event live.
Prediction: A.J. Styles
Joe Lanza: With the big three strongly deemphasized (clearly by design in order to test this main event), massive amounts of credit need to be given to both of these men for not only drawing a sellout, but doing so far in advance. Ibushi is now very clearly in the mix with the big three in terms of being a top star in the promotion, and Styles is at worst a strong complementary piece that can be counted on to hold up his end of a strong drawing show when paired with one of the other four. You could even argue that the New Japan Big Three is now a Big Five, considering the last two Sumo shows were sellouts, and Styles was in the main event on both shows. Ibushi will lose, and there will be plenty of short sighted whining about the result (much like his loss to Nakamura on 1/4, which was absolutely the correct call) but this is not the right time for his title win. The bigger story here isn’t the result anyway. The bigger story here is that NJPW sold out Sumo, and did it without the Big Three on top.
Prediction: A.J. Styles
Fujiwara Armbar: Sold out in advance. None of the big three in the main event and Sumo Hall is sold out. That’s a really great mandate for New Japan to push the hell out of Kota Ibushi and boy does he deserve it. Eventually. Tonight, however, is about A.J. Styles. It will be one year since he vaulted the fence to stake his claim and now holds the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the second time. However, both reigns have been hampered by some slightly screwy booking and as such A.J. isn’t the shiniest champ you’ll ever seen. When he gets the chance to wrestle – really wrestle, no interference, just two guys going for it – he absolutely smashes it out of the stadium. Here, against one of his compadres in the top 0.1%, he will remind you all who he is.
Prediction: A.J. Styles
Andrew Rich: A.J. Styles vs. Kota Ibushi. A.J. Styles vs. Kota Ibushi. A.J. STYLES VS. KOTA FREAKING IBUSHI!!! This is a dream match that has floated around my brain for years, back when A.J. was still in TNA and Kota was merely a flying ball of energy that captivated my imagination when I first saw him in a Four-Way match against El Generico, Jigsaw, and Nick Jackson at Chikara’s King of Trios 2009. And now it’s finally happening. Two of the best wrestlers in the world, going at it one-on-one for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. If the wrestling gods are happy and we get zero Bullet Club interference, then we’ll have a bonafide match-of-the-year contender on our hands. I guarantee it. I think Styles is going to win, but Ibushi’s stock is only going to keep rising and rising until he finally wins the big one someday.
Prediction: A.J. Styles
