NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
NJPW & CMLL FANTASTICA MANIA 2020 – NIGHT 6
JANUARY 17, 2020
KORAKUEN HALL
TOKYO, JAPAN

Watch: NJPW World

The third night of taped action in the Fantastica Mania 2020 tour features a singles match between Titán and Forastero as well as the final of the Family Tag Team Tournament. You can read our review of Night 1 here and Night 5 here.

FUEGO & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI DEF. DOUKI & LUCIFERNO

An okay opener that improved on last night’s boring match. There’s not much to say. Fuego danced, Taguchi did some comedy and DOUKI got angry. Basic stuff. At the end, Fuego submitted DOUKI for the win. **½

NAMAJAGUE, YOSHINOBU KANEMARU & OKUMURA DEF. GUERRERO MAYA JR., FLYER & STUKA JR.

A simple yet fun match where the técnicos had a good showing. Stuka Jr. and Guerrero Maya Jr, kicked things off with some nice moves to control the action, but not long after, Flyer got overwhelmed by the rudos tactics. Okumura and Namajague were trying to unmask everyone and their tactic paid off right at the very end: just when Flyer and Guerrero had taken out the opposition with dives and it looked like Stuka was about to get the win for the técnicos, the referee got distracted and Okumura quickly unmasked Stuka and pinned him with a small package. I liked Stuka’s performance but it’s nothing worth going out of your way to see. ***

EVIL, BUSHI & SHINGO TAKAGI DEF. HIROSHI TANAHASHI, AUDAZ & DULCE GARDENIA

Another match centered around Dulce Gardenia, who keeps being the highlight of these shows. Gardenia is full of confidence, gives his matches a fun dynamic and Korakuen loves the exótico gimmick. In this bout, we got Dulce trying to kiss all Ingobernable members and let me tell you something, if he manages to finally kiss Shingo on one of the next couple of shows, the crowd is going to go nuts. 

Unlike yesterday, Shingo wasn’t very active in this match and it was EVIL the one in charge of getting the win for his team: he fooled Dulce Gardenia into accidentally kissing Audaz, leaving him defenseless for the Darkness Scorpion hold. The fact that young, talented Audaz did absolutely nothing here while Dulce got all the spotlight tells you all there is to know about who CMLL is looking to push. ***¼

TITÁN DEF. FORASTERO

Match got off to a fast start with Titán controlling the action through speed. After getting overwhelmed in the first minutes, Forastero got himself together and managed to stop Titán with power, eventually grounding him and working on his leg. This smart tactic paid off later, when Titán was unable to use high flying maneuvers to get back into the match. The pace wasn’t great, but Forastero did a good enough job of frustrating the audience and Titán’s selling was on point. Forastero couldn’t finish the job though, and Titán was able to overcome the pain to hit a flurry of moves and a double foot stomp for the win. A good match that highlighted Forastero’s growth and reminded us that Titán is one of CMLL’s best stars. ***½

CARÍSTICO & SATOSHI KOJIMA DEF. ÚLTIMO GUERRERO & BÁRBARO CAVERNARIO

A repeat of last night’s match but this one focused a little more on building the Kojima/Último singles match and that resulted in a better match. The two wrestling legends had some excellent exchanges that fired up the crowd and made me salivate for Sunday’s show. Besides that, Carístico and Bárbaro had a good showing but offered nothing new. The finishing stretch was hot and ended with Kojima putting Úitimo away with the Lariat. Fun stuff. ***½

SOBERANO JR. & EUFORIA DEF. NEGRO CASAS & TIGER

The joy in Negro’s face while coming out to the match gave me the biggest smile. This man is a legend and we should enjoy him every time he steps in the ring. 

Soberano had another strong performance and keeps making a case for getting a spot in Best of the Super Juniors. He’s been feuding with Negro in CMLL and it showed in this match: they had a brief, but very cool sequence that fired up the crowd. Soberano also closed the match strong by using his espectacular tornillo move on Tiger and pinning after a Canadian destroyer. Great energy and intensity in this one. ***½

FINAL OF THE CMLL FAMILY TAG TOURNAMENT 2020
CUATRERO & SANSÓN DEF. ÁNGEL DE ORO & NIEBLA ROJA

The Nueva Generación Dinamita brothers were crowned winners of the 2020 Family Tournament in what was the best match of the Fantastica Mania tour so far. The action was fast from the very start as both teams exchanged dives to get the crowd immediately invested in the action. 

There wasn’t a single tag here: it was just a tornado style, fun match from the get-go. Dinamitas dominated a couple of minutes, but then the Chávez brothers would use lighting-quick dives to balance things out. The excitement of the crowd and the Japanese announce team made me like this match even more: Milano losing his mind and shouting moves in Spanish will always be beautiful. After a bunch on nearfalls and cool sequences, we got an exciting exchange of tag team submission moves that included a double inverted bearhug from Dinamitas and a double mecedora from the Chávez clan. Then, Niebla Roja took out Cuatrero with an Asai Moonsault and left us with a very good finishing stretch between Sansón and Ángel; the latter kicked out of a Sansón Special and tried a top rope move but Sansón countered with an Avalanche Sansón Special for the win. There was some sloppy work involved but that came from the nature of the chaotic match these guys were working, which ended up being the right decision: this was super entertaining and a breeze to watch. ****

FINAL THOUGHTS

A great main event topped another consistent night of fun lucha action. The Titán/Forastero singles match was a welcome change of pace, Dulce Gardenia’s performance was once again entertaining and if you just want to see grizzled vets exchanging strikes, I would recommend checking out the Carístico/Kojima vs. Bárbaro/Último bout. 

If you want to find deep booking and top-notch storytelling, you won’t find that in Fantastica Mania, I think that has become clear in the last couple of years. I would love these shows to be more relevant in the great scheme of things but at least, we get some inspired performances from CMLL stars that rarely get the chance to shine in their home promotion.