New Japan Pro Wrestling
World Tag League 2019 – Night 4
November 19, 2019
Big Pallete Fukushima
Fukushima, Japan

Watch: NJPW World

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
HIROOKI GOTO & KARL FREDERICKS (4) DEF. SATOSHI KOJIMA & HIROYOSHI TENZAN (4)

In my last review, I said something to the effect of ‘Should Goto’s team really be losing a lot before he most likely faces KENTA at the dome’ Guess who looks pretty silly? Me! This was a pretty good match. Kojima and Tenzan worked hard as always as was the fan favorites with the crowd especially Kojima. I really like the Goto/Fredericks team, adding fun little double team moves to their repertoire. Goto picks up the win with the GTR after a cool looking assisted GTR with Fredericks. ***1/4

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
HIROSHI TANAHASHI & TOA HENARE (4) DEF. YUJI NAGATA & MANABU NAKANISHI (0)

Really struggling with these Nagata/Nakanishi matches. They aren’t to the point of being offensive but they are so slow and so plodding and who can blame them? They’re both over 50! It looks like father time has finally caught up to Yuji Nagata, has looked a step slower for a while now. In another “Who can blame them?” moment Tana looked to be in autopilot until he hit the High Fly Flow for the finish. **

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY (6) DEF. TOGI MAKABE & TOMOAKI HONMA (4)

Boy, the crowd love Honma in this one. Despite his worsening physical shape, his crowd connection is still his best asset. This was a pretty lively and fast-paced match, especially with the constant Finjuice tags. Honma looked the brave wrestler he always has surviving an on slot of double moves and big Jackhammer before making a valiant little comeback before succumbing to the super finisher that is the Stunner into the Pulp Friction to put Finjuice back on their winning ways. This is the best Makabe and Honma have looked so far. Here’s hoping they can keep it up. ***

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
SHINGO TAKAGI & TERRIBLE (2 POINTS) DEF. BAD LUCK FALE & CAHSE OWENS (2 POINTS)

This overachieved essentially on the back of one man – Shingo Takagi. When Chase and Fale were getting the heat on Terrible I thought I went blind for a second but when Shingo tagged in 00000 boy was it fun. He brings more pace, more impact and more intensity when he’s in the ring. Combining all of Shingo’s greatness with a Chase Owens finishing sequence and we actually had ourselves a relatively fun little match. ***1/4

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
TORU YANO & COLT CABANA (6) DEF. TOMOHIRO ISHII & YOSHI-HASHI (6)

In what can only be described as an upset, Colt and Yano knock off the undefeated Ishii/YOSHI-HASHI team in what was there most entertaining match so far. It really helps that this Fukushima crowd is actually pretty hot which helps the Yano schtick out tremendously. Ishii is such a good straight man for Yano and I don’t know if it was intentional but YOSHI-HASHIs screams were pretty funny as well. About the peak of this Yano/Colt pairing I think. ***1/4

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
TAMA TONGA & TANGA LOA (2) DEF. ZACK SABRE JR. & TAICHI (4)

Started with a fun crowd brawl and was into it. Then G.O.D got their heat and beat up Dangerous Tekkerz through the…crowd. Sigh. Was less into that crowd brawling segment. Zack and Taichi made their comebacks was really good and I was back into it! Then of course Bullet Club shenanigans, I know it’s to be expected to this point but do I really have to watch 15 of these? Taichi made one more heroic comeback before being foiled by the dreaded schoolboy. Still decent but could’ve honestly ruled. What better way to break the ZSJ/Taichi MOTN streak than with Bullet Club match. ***

WORLD TAG LEAGUE 2019
EVIL & SANADA (4) DEF. JEFF COBB & MIKEY NICHOLS (4)

For the first five minutes, this was really dull. Just Cobb and Nichols working SANADA over, Cobb wasn’t even doing his cool stuff. Then EVIL got in and turned things around, shows great fire and had some fun interactions with Cobb. EVIL is one of the most underrated wrestlers in the world – guaranteed to have at least good matches and is low key pretty popular. I don’t see him being a major, major star in the company but he’s a great upper mid card gatekeeper for LIJ and for New Japan. There was really good final half of this match with a great closing stretch which included ‘Mad’ Mikey getting a few really good near falls. Probably match of the night for me. ***1/2

FINAL THOUGHTS

This was a pretty easy to watch show, especially for a show that just had matches taped from a house show. Seven matches, five of them being  ***1/4 or above – if you skip the entrances and post matches and just watch those five bell to bell, you get a pretty neat and tidy hour of wrestling.