NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome 12/23 Report

The WK8 co-main events clash in a huge tag match.

Prior to every New Japan iPPV, there are a set of "lead-up" events that build the upcoming show in the sort of way that Raw & Smackdown do for the WWE. So naturally, the December 23rd edition of Road To Tokyo Dome (just under two weeks prior to Wrestle Kingdom 8) is pretty much the equivalent of a "go-home" RAW before WrestleMania. The card for this show isn't completely stacked, but we've got ourselves one hell of a main event tag match that should be a terrific final effort at garnering some last minute buys. So without further ado, here is my review of NJPW's Road To Tokyo Dome event live from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan:


Sho Tanaka vs. Yohei Komatsu - Both Tanaka (24) and Komatsu (25) are two of New Japan's fresh & unproven prospects. Both have only a year's worth of experience and are looking to work their way up to a prominent position on the most talented and competitive roster in the wrestling world. It makes for quite the interesting viewing experience to see to two young, hungry guys go at it like this because you know they are direct rivals and if either of them were to lose to someone like Minoru Suzuki, it's no big deal at this stage, but a loss to each other, can be downright infuriating. The undeniable tension between these two made for one hell of a match. And it's a true testament to how great the New Japan farm system is when you see how solid these guys are already. If you want a nice little glimpse into what NJPW's burgeoning future stars look like, then check this one out.[***1/2]

Suzuki-gun (TAKA Michinoku & Taichi) vs. KUSHIDA & BUSHI vs. World Class Tag Team (Jado & Gedo) - BUSHI was dressed as Santa Claus during his entrance. This was a fun little match. Jado hits his usual Flair-esque spots. Gedo is always awesome. BUSHI and KUSHIDA hit the high spots. TAKA and Taichi are New Japan's most entertaining dickhead heels. Not something I'd suggest viewing, but you get your entertainment dollar's worth with this one. [**]

Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask vs. CHAOS (Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka) - Am I the only one who finds Iizuka to be the most intolerable of all the heels in NJPW?

"BLAHH!!! Even I want to choke me! BLAHHH" That was not an exaggeration. He usually does buffoonery like this just for shits and giggles.

I don't want to hate the guy, but his cartoonish persona just irks the hell out of me. Which is kind of the point of a villain I guess. It's just weird laughing with an angry expression on your face, but whatever. As expected, this one was a bit of a throwaway. Nothing spectacular just the usual heel shenanigans capped by Iizuka taking the mask off of Tiger Mask then running away like a coward. Meh. [*1/2]

TenKoji (Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan) & Captain New Japan vs. Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Tomoaki Honma - I currently have Tomoaki Honma nominated as the most underrated performer in the world for 2013 and he again lives up to the title here. He's never marketed as a top talent, but he just quietly steals the show in every match he's involved in. He's the working man's wrestler. A guy that goes in, gets his job done almost better than anyone else and leaves with little or no credit for all of his hard work. And mixing him in with greats like Nagata and Kojima, you knew this was going to be worth a look. A really great match for what little time it was given. [***]

Kota Ibushi & Togi Makabe vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii & Yujiro Takahashi) - I talked about it a bit on twitter, but it still pisses me off that Ishii does not have a match at Wrestle Kingdom after the unbelievable year he's had. It's a damn crime. He's up for argument when on the topic of the best workers of 2013 and to have a guy with that much momentum not even booked on your biggest event of the year....I don't know...it just makes no sense to me. He's deserving of a marquee match, but he's forced to eat shit and like the taste of it instead. And while I do enjoy Bad Luck Fale, a Makabe-Ishii brawl would have been tremendous. Fuck, from what we got in this match, even an Ishii/Ibushi match looks to have "five star" potential given the right build. Those two were on absolute fire whenever they were in the ring together. Really would like 30 minutes of this on PPV soon. Overall an awesome fast-paced matchup. Give this a watch. [***3/4]

Minoru Suzuki vs. YOSHI-HASHI - YOSHI-HASHI looks like an unpopular video game character. Particularly that character in a fighting game that looks really cool, but nobody wants to select him because his moves are basic and ineffective. So obviously, he poses no real match for Minoru Suzuki's T-Hawk level ultra combos. But I take particular joy in watching Suzuki destroy faces and this was a hell of an entertaining exhibition for the Suzuki-gun general before the dome show. The most noteworthy part of this match came after the finale though, when Yano pulled a "Miz" and showed up dressed as the mega-popular Great Muta, fooling the audience into believing the iconic legend had in fact stormed the building. A brilliant lead-in to WK8 here. Start to finish, I loved this.[***]

CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Shinsuke Nakamura) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito - The off-the-charts excitement endlessly reverberated through the walls of Korakuen Hall from the moment all four men were standing across from one another. Just the spectacle of the two Wrestle Kingdom main events colliding in such a way generates intense emotion from the audience and gets you even more hyped up for the big day (if that's even possible at this point). And I don't speak Japanese, but I could almost tell just from the tone & cadence of the commentators, that they were doing a tremendous job at selling the big fight feel.

Naito is starting to feel a bit like New Japan's version of a young John Cena. He's nowhere near Cena's main event aura just yet, but in terms of crowd response, he's eerily similar. In some buildings he's super over, in others, he's booed. But lately he's mostly been garnering mixed reactions. It seems the women & children love him, but there's a portion of the older male demographic (to his credit, it's to a much lesser extent than Cena) that tends to turn on him here and there. Sound familiar? Fans of the "Stardust Genius" can rest easy though, because the crowd absolutely loved Naito here. And the energy that he and Okada drew together was infectious. They had me jumping around in my chair in the final minutes of this one. It was electric. And it's likely going to be an even more amazing atmosphere when Naito goes one-on-one with Okada at the dome because you don't really know what to expect from the outcome.

The action itself was tremendous, with everyone bringing their "A" game. This match works not only to sell both main events, but New Japan Pro Wrestling as a whole. Their masterful combination of puro intensity and WWE style spectacle is in full effect in this match and you can't help but be in awe at the caliber of talent all four of these men possess. It's a testament as to why they are where they are on the card come Jan 4th. Seek this match out as I'd give it the highest level of recommendation. A perfect go-home main event match with a white-hot finish that kept everyone looking strong before the big show. A very late entry for the G9Z Top 25. What a great finale to an all-time year from New Japan. [****1/4]

Courtesy of G9Z Wrestling