NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING
ROAD TO WRESTLING DONTAKU 2023
APRIL 27, 2023
HIROSHIMA SUN PLAZA
HIROSHIMA, JAPAN

Watch: NJPW WORLD

It was Super Junior Thursday, as both Junior Titles are on the line, and the field for the 30th annual Best of the Super Juniors gets announced on the Road to Wrestling Dontaku!

TALES FROM THE UNDERCARD (NAMES IN BOLD INVOLVED IN THE FALL)

  • United Empire (Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan) def. Oleg Boltin & Oskar Leube
  • CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Yoh & YOSHI-HASHI) House of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
  • Bullet Club (David Finlay, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori) (W/Gedo) def. Hikuleo, Tama Tonga & Master Wato – A preview tag for the NEVER Title match between Finlay and Tonga and the STRONG Openweight Title match between Hikuleo & KENTA, both matches taking place at Dontaku on May 3rd.
  • TMDK (Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr.) def. United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) – Haste pinned Fletcher after he and Nicholls hit the Tank Buster.
  • Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita) & Shota Umino CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) & Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) – Umino pinned Honma with the Death Rider. Umino and Narita had some cross words after Umino blind tagged in, so that may be something to keep an eye on. Okada and Ishii still need a third man to challenge for the NEVER Six-Man Titles at Dontaku.
  • Just 5 Guys (SANADA & Taichi) (w/TAKA Michinoku) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Shingo Takagi)

BEST OF THE SUPER JUNIOR 30 FIELD ANNOUNCEMENT!

A Block

  • 4-time winner Hiromu Takahashi
  • 2-time winner KUSHIDA
  • Former winner Ryusuke Taguchi
  • DOUKI
  • Titan
  • TJP
  • Taiji Ishimori
  • SHO
  • Lio Rush
  • “Speedball” Mike Bailey

B Block:

  • Former finalist El Desperado
  • Former finalist YOH
  • Francesco Akira
  • BUSHI
  • Yoshinobu Kanemaru
  • Robbie Eagles
  • Master Wato
  • Clark Connors
  • Kevin Knight
  • Dan Moloney

IN: KUSHIDA, Lio Rush, Mike Bailey, Kevin Knight, Dan Moloney

OUT: Wheeler Yuta, Ace Austin, Alex Zayne, El Lindaman, and El Phantasmo

I think the new additions are an upgrade from last year. Phantasmo’s on his way to being a heavyweight star, and while I like all the guys from last year, the only one I’ll really miss is Lindaman. KUSHIDA, Rush and Bailey are all sure-fire great match machines, and Knight and Moloney are going to be fired up to show out in their first singles tour. I’ve had May 13th circled on my calendar since the tour was announced, and I’m fired up for this jam-packed Super Juniors tournament.

TETSUYA NAITO DEF. DOUKI

From coming in as an injury replacement for the 2019 Super Juniors, Douki has earned his keep after toiling away as a pin-eater for Suzuki-gun through the pandemic. It was a vote of confidence for Douki to even get a singles match against a top name in the promotion, and his performance here was good enough to warrant more in the future.

Douki started this match hot, jumping Naito while he still had his suit on and locking on the Douki Chokey Italian Stretch. What followed was a good little showcase for Douki. He got the crowd to bite on a few nearfalls, including a Daybreak and a Seatbelt flash pin. But the result was never in doubt, as Naito put him away with a Destino. ***1/2

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH
INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KEVIN KNIGHT & KUSHIDA) DEF. CATCH 2/2 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) (C)

Catch 2/2 fail in their 5th defense of the titles. The Intergalactic Jet Setters ended the second longest IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title reign in history to become the 71st IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions.

Akira, TJP, & KUSHIDA were so good in this match that it actually made Kevin Knight look a little bad by comparison. I’m not down on Knight at all, as his potential is obvious to anyone with a hint of scouting ability. But there were points in this match where his lack of polish was evident. They were little spots you probably wouldn’t pick on if he were in there with other guys at his experience level. But it’s like noticing a smudge on the door of a glass house. When everything else is so crisp and pristine, you notice the small things. That crispness will come with time and reps, something Knight will have plenty of wrestling for New Japan.

This match was great, which when Catch 2/2 is involved, is like saying the sky is blue. Akira and TJP are such a gem of a team that it’s stunning that they’re debatably the second-best team in their own unit. KUSHIDA and TJP had a grappling exchange at the start of this match that made me double-check to make sure they were both in the same Super Juniors block. Akira and TJP picked on Knight, but they could never put him away with their double teams. Somewhere in this, TJP’s face randomly started bleeding. They went for the Leaning Tower, but KUSHIDA did a handspring to cut it off. That led to the finish, where Knight rana’d Akira off the top rope before the Jet Setters hit a rolling DDT to score the win. ****

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH
HIROMU TAKAHASHI (C) DEF. YOSHINOBU KANEMARU

Takahashi successfully completed his 4th defense of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title.

Kanemaru’s plan in this match was simple: target Hiromu’s knee. It worked at the Best of the Super Juniors last year when Kanemaru tapped Hiromu out to a Figure Four. It worked at Capital Collision just two weeks ago where Kanemaru pinned Hiromu in a tag match. And after a gnarly knee crusher off the apron to the floor, it looked like it would work for Kanemaru again. Hiromu’s offense would be affected, as Hiromu’s knee buckled on a Sunset Bomb attempt leading to a Deep Impact on the floor. Kanemaru never relented on the knee, locking on the Figure Four at the 20-minute mark.

When Hiromu got to the ropes, Kanemaru ran through all of his big offense. The big moonsault, the Deep Impact, a brainbuster. None of it could keep Hiromu down, so Kanemaru went right back to the knee with another Figure Four. Twenty-five minutes in, a second Figure Four seemed like the death knell for Hiromu’s title reign. But Hiromu got the rope break again. Kanemaru tried the flash pin that got the win at Capital Collision, but Hiromu got out of it again and hit his big lariat. Hiromu quickly followed it with the Time Bomb 1.5 and the Time Bomb 2 to retain.

When I reviewed his title defense at Sakura Genesis, I said that it didn’t feel like Hiromu overcame the knee work that Robbie Eagles did. It just felt like it was time for Hiromu to win, so he did. This match fixed that problem and reached the level that Eagles/Hiromu felt like it could have. This felt like Hiromu overcoming the pain and the constant knee work to get his big shots off and survive. The 46-year-old Kanemaru putting in a shift like this in a 32-minute main event is commendable, and a sign of the depth of this junior division. Go out of your way to watch this one. ****1/2

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