NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
Road to POWER STRUGGLE – Blue Justice VII – Yuji Nagata 25th Anniversary
October 21, 2017
Togane Arena – Togane, Chiba, Japan

Watch: NJPW World

Yuji Nagata, along with the mayor of his hometown, Togane, started the show by thanking the crowd for the great turnout. There was also an excellent career retrospective for Nagata-san which played before the matches started.

YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & LEO TONGA DEF. TOMOYUKI OKA & KATSUYA KITAMURA

Oka’s recent LCL injury kept him off the first two shows of the tour, but also earned him a single kneepad. Achievement unlocked. Kitamura started out being worn down by Leo and Yujiro until he eventually made the hot tag to Oka. Yujiro eventually fought back and spiked Oka with his mini-DDT, Pimp Juice at 6:28. This was a simple tag with not much too it. The best thing about it is that Oka looks healthy and ready for the rest of the tour. *3/4

YOSHINOBU KANEMARU, TAICHI & EL DESPERADO DEF. SHOTA UMINO, TETSUHIRO YAGI & REN NARITA

Taichi’s valet, Miho Abe, was dressed as a devil for Halloween. It was funny to see Taichi across the ring from his young doppelgänger, Narita. The young lions attacked before the bell with a triple dropkick.

Suzuki-gun wore down Yagi’s back. Desperado stole a pen from the commentary table and hid it in his shoe; later using it to attack Yagi’s eye. Umino got the tag and showed some great fire. Narita got a couple quick nearfalls before tapping to Numero Dos (a stretch muffler) from (Des)Pe at 7:39. This was really fun while it lasted. **3/4

JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER, TIGER MASK, DRAGON LEE & TITAN DEF. RYUSUKE TAGUCHI, ACH, KUSHIDA & HIRAI KAWATO

This match featured 4 of the teams in the upcoming Super Jr. Tag Tournament. A generous KUSHIDA made a baby cry by with his dogtag necklace. It seems like they are calling ACH & Taguchi’s team Super 69. ACH looked energized and worked really hard in this match. Titan hit a crazy quebrada on KUSHIDA.

Kawato and Dragon Lee flashed some good chemistry before a really scary botch. Thankfully it seems like Kawato is OK, Dragon Lee beat him with his desnucadora at 9:26. **1/4

TORU YANO, HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI DEF. MINORU SUZUKI, TAKASHI IIZUKA & TAKA MICHINOKU

Yano came out with Minoru’s stolen NEVER belt, while Minoru came out with a bull rope. As you would expect, there was a lot of brawling in this one. Admist the brawling, young lion Yagi took a right hook from Minoru like a champ. With Yano and Goto on the losing end of the crowd-brawling, YOSHI-HASHI took a beating from all three Suzuki-gun members. I hope we get Goto and YOSHI-HASHI as a World Tag League team; they have a simple, yet effective dynamic. Minoru went for the Gotch-style piledriver at the ten-minute mark, but was reversed. Out of frustration, he choked Yano with the bull rope and threw referee Marty Asami out of the ring. CHAOS won by DQ at 11:09. **1/2

After intermission they played congratulatory messages for Nagata-san from his generational peer/AJPW boss Jun Akiyama and Wrestle Kingdom Ambassador/SKE48 member Jurina Matsui.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI, HIROYOSHI TENZAN & SATOSHI KOJIMA DEF. KOTA IBUSHI, JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY

Juice and Finlay are another team I’d like to see in the World Tag League.  Clearly beyond their prime, Tanahashi and TenKoji still feel like an important six-man team. Tanahashi and Ibushi started out with some fun exchanges. Juice and Finlay wore down Koji, who eventually hit a Koji-Koji cutter and got the hot tag to Tenzan. The Tanahashi/Ibushi exchanges were really the focus of the match as they prepare for their main event at the tour-ender in Osaka. Finlay may be one of the most underrated wrestlers on the roster. Everything his does is super crisp and he always makes his opponent look good. Koji beat Finlay with a lariat at 10:27. This was good, but didn’t really have the crowd support or depth to reach the next level. **3/4

TETSUYA NAITO, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & HIROMU TAKAHASHI DEF. KAZUCHIKA OKADA, TOMOHIRO ISHII, GEDO, SHO & YOH

CHAOS and LIJ will be the focus of the company through Wrestle Kingdom. This is the second Roppongi 3K match to make tape, so that’s the main intrigue for me. RPG3K face BUSHI & Hiromu in the main event of Monday’s Korakuen (also live on World). RPG3K got a separate entrance with their producer, Rocky Romero. Okada came out through the crowd to try to wake up the fans, but it seemed to have little effect.

After a short exchange between SHO and BUSHI, Ishii was isolated by LIJ. Okada got the hot tag and single-handedly took out all 5 LIJ members before tagging out to YOH. RPG3K hit some cool double teams on Hiromu, but Hiromu fought back and suplexed Komatsu into the turnbuckle pad. Gedo tagged in to take it home, eating an MX from Bushi at 12:00.  ***

We got another video package before the main, highlighting the relationship between Nagata and Nakanishi.

25th ANNIVERSARY MATCH
YUJI NAGATA DEF. MANABU NAKANISHI

SEIZE THE TACTICS! Nagata got the Pirates of the Caribbean intro, but it was cut out of the World broadcast. Shinpei Nogami took over on commentary to call his favorite wrestler’s anniversary match. Nogami mentioned that this was the first career singles match for Nagata in his hometown of Togane. Nagata gained control early, but the tables turned when Nakanishi hit a counter spear on the outside. Nagata fought back and started to focus on Nakanishi’s leg with kicks.

Nakanishi absorbed a bunch of middle kicks before setting up Nagata for a huge superplex. Nagata rolled out of the ring, but Nakanishi came crashing down on him with a plancha! Nagata regained his composure but ate a missile kick as Nakanishi continued to show off his high flying attack. A slap battle floored Nagata and a lariat led to a near fall for Nakanishi. Nakanishi went for the win with his Argentine backbreaker but Nagata fought back and hit an Exploder and Justice knee. Nagata returned the avalanche-style favor with an Exploder from the top that Nakanishi basically no-sold. Nakanishi hit a German and a Hercules cutter.

Cameras flashed as Nagata caught Nakanishi in a reverse armlock (SHIROME, SHIROME…). Nagata hit a vertical-drop brain buster, but only got a 1-count. An Exploder of Justice finally got Nagata the win at 17:47. These guys worked really, really hard and deserved a much better crowd. ***1/2

Nagata and Nakanishi were presented with three sets of photos from highlights of their respective careers. The Hontai roster members came out to congratulate Nagata and Nakanishi. Dragon Lee awkwardly stood between Nagata and Nakanishi until KUSHIDA clued him in. Nagata and Nakanishi thanked the crowd to close the show.

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was a run-of-the-mill house show with a very good main event that deserved a better crowd. If you’re pressed for time, watch the post-intermission matches. If you enjoy the young lions, check out their match against Suzuki-gun.