New Japan Pro Wrestling
World Tag League 2018 Night 1
November 17, 2018
Chichibunomiya Memorial Gymnasium
Kanagawa, Japan

Watch: NJPW World

Quick non-tournament match thoughts:

The non-tournament matches were short but sweet. Filled with basic tag matches to sell you on teams that don’t have tournament matches until night two. The best of these matches was the LIJ v CHAOS 10 man tag match which, as we’ve come to expect from these two factions was a fun fast paced match. The highlight however was no Lanny Poffo on commentary.

Results:

  • Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin Def. Yuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji
  • Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi Def. Tomoaki Honma & Ren Narita
  • Minoru Suzuki, Takashi Iizuka & El Desperado Def. Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru  
  • Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi Def. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, YOH & SHO

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2018
Juice Robinson & David Finlay (2) Def. Shota Umino & Ayato Yoshida (0)

The first tournament match this year involves two teams that will probably bring one of the more consistent efforts in ring as this tournament drags on. This was a pretty good little match with the story being the actual tag team being a few steps ahead of their young lion counterparts with Shota showing some great fire and nearly causing the upset. Eventually, the Left Hand of God and Stunner put Shota away. ***1/4

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2018
Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi (2) Def. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (0)

This one felt long. I was actually somewhat enjoying this match but it just started to drag. I was thinking to myself if they cut 10 minutes from this match it would’ve been a lot better, but then I saw it went 12 minutes so they should tell you all you need to know about how this match dragged, which is a shame since Nagata and Kojima can still be quite good. **1/2

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2018
Beretta & Chuckie T (2) Def. Hangman Page & Yujiro Takahashi (0)

The Best Friends – like Finjuice are a team that will also give a pretty consistent nightly effort. Hangman is a wrestler on a tag team that will give a pretty consistent nightly effort. Yujiro is a wrestler on a tag team. This was the best tournament match of the night, with all three good wrestlers doing cool things throughout the match; Hangman, in particular, had an awesome sequence when he first got in the ring  ***1/2

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2018
Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa (2) Def. Togi Makabe & Toa Henare (0)

I wasn’t really looking forward to this one at all; in fact I was kinda dreading it, not because I dislike the guys in the match; I actually like them all, but because I knew exactly what this match would be: Long, full of Jado loudly hitting people with a kendo stick when Red Shoes isn’t looking, a slow beat down of the faces, an ok comeback and eventually G.O.D winning. Both teams will have better matches this tournament. **3/4

Final Thoughts:

Night one of NJPW’s World Tag League 2018 was pretty easy to get through with no great matches on what was probably originally planned to be just a house show when the dates were announced. There a few interesting tournament matches on the next show from Korakuen with a particularly tasty looking main event.