I went straight into the review on night one and didn’t mention that World Tag League has ditched the two group format in favour of every team being chucked into the one. It makes for a rather unwieldy block, and I’m a bit worried New Japan is going to produce another three-way dance in the final. Fingers crossed I’m wrong. Anyway, that’s a while off, so let’s focus on night two and all the fun that entails.
Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr) (1-0) defeated Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki and Takashi Iizuka) (1-0)
Suzuki and Iizuka conducting the customary sneak attack on their Suzuki-gun comrades got a chuckle out of me. At least their bastardry extends to all.
We then got an extended period of Suzuki-gun shit which was made no less tedious by the civil war aspect. Thankfully, that did lead to Suzuki facing off with both of his minions in a surprisingly great sequence. Archer and Smith were fired to take on the boss, which added a bit of spark to proceedings.
Sadly, Iizuka was also in the match, and that means that anything good is then followed by him biting people. There are few things I find less entertaining than Iizuka biting people. God, I’m going to see a lot of it between now and December 9th. Save me.
Verdict: Two And A Quarter Stars
Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi) (1-0) defeated CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) (0-1)
I know Zack couldn’t team with MiSu because someone needs to take the falls, but as he walked down to the ring with Taichi, I couldn’t help wishing the boss had swapped places with the singing ballbag.
Unsurprisingly, this was a match-up of varying quality. I like Yano, but watching him wrestle Taichi holds no interest for me because Taichi doing anything makes me sad. He’s crap, please stop pretending he isn’t.
Thankfully, we also got a bit of Zack Sabre Jr vs Ishii which in comparison to what came before it was orgasmic. Be prepared for those two to steal the show at the Dome as the combination of Ishii’s hard-headedness and Zack’s twisty skills is a constant delight. They even threw in a big-time finish as the ref called for the bell when Ishii refused to tap out to a Zack submission.
Half of this was shit, half of it was good, so let’s go with this one.
Verdict: Two And Three Quarter Stars
Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and Sanada) (1-0) defeated Jeff Cobb and a piece of shit.
Jeff Cobb is going to have to live without me reviewing his matches this tournament as New Japan thought it was a good idea to team him up with a piece of shit who I refuse to acknowledge.
If you want to understand why give this a read.
Verdict: Fuck Michael Elgin
Overall Show
Sum up a show on which you don’t watch the main event is tough, but this was fine. Sabre and Ishii stole the show which might be something New Japan has to get used to. Despite that, those of you in a rush can happily skip it all.
Watch World Tag League: https://njpwworld.com/
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