Recapped: 01/20/2019
Matches:
Gedo & Taiji Ishimori beat Flyer & Ryusuke Taguchi
(8:32, Ishimori anklelock Flyer, ok)
Ángel de Oro & Titán beat Cuatrero & Templario
(11:02, Angel de Oro campana Cuatrero, good)
Bushi, Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito beat Fujin, Raijin, Toa Henare
(11:22, BUSHI frontrcracker FUJIN, ok)
Forastero, Okumura, Sansón beat Atlantis, Atlantis Jr., Jushin Liger
(10:13, Okumura reverse DDT Atlantis Jr., ok)
Carístico, Cavernario, Namajague beat Audaz, Soberano Jr., Volador Jr. in a relevos increíbles match
(11:11, Carístico Mistica Audaz, good)
Terrible beat Satoshi Kojima
(11:32, Terrible Styles Clash, ok)
Dragón Lee & Místico beat Gran Guerrero & Último Guerrero
(17:56, La Mistica on Gran Guerrero, good)
What happened:
Carístico and Volador had a standoff and a handshake after their match.
Thoughts:
The main event was fun, though it was just kind of missing a little more energy. I thought the NGD match was a little bit better as far as building excitement, but this was still had some great spots. Dragon Lee & Último Guerrero meshed well and it was weird to see them completely disappear for the finish. They played to the crowd a lot early and the crowd loved it, but the match didn’t kind of stayed at the easy crowd-pleasing level for as long as it went, even though it had so much time.
I can’t believe Terrible won. Match was alright, hard-hitting if slow-paced match it figured to be. Terrible probably could’ve sped it up a little more on his part, but that seemed part of a story of him being overconfident leading to a loss. Only he didn’t lose, so Terrible was exactly the right level of confident. This was exactly as good as you’d think a match between Kojima and Terrible in 2019 would be.
The Volador/Caristico trios match was very good for the most part. There was an incredibly weird sequence where Volador & Carístico might have messed up a Destroyer, then did a mask pull, then everyone seemed to panic, and then Carístico got his mask back on and everyone just went back to their match. They should not do whatever that was again. Everything else should be done again. Audaz continues to have a strong tour, stealing the show in the opening seconds with a great sequence with Namajague and getting the highlight comeback headscissors. Soberano did well and Audaz still totally outshined him. Namajague has been a great part of his matches, I’m going to miss him when he’s not back around. Volador & Carístico were fine but the show here was the other four guys.
Atlantis Jr. struggled a little bit early in this match. He got better in the ending run with Okumura, but I think this was his last complete performance of the ones we’ve seen so far. Forastero had a bad moment he covered for well, but he really hasn’t shined here as he in Mexico. I thought they’d finally do the monkey flip spot here to give him something. Guess they’re saving it for tomorrow. This is an easy skip.
The LIJ match seemed fine. I’m over the LIJ matches. Henare going after Naito to the determent of the match was good storytelling. That’s all I got.
The Titan/Angel de Oro match on this show was even a bit better than their match back on Friday. Titan & Angel de Oro are getting to show a lot more in Tokyo, and they got tons of time here to just to run thru everything in fine fashion. Templario’s power spots get over easily with this crowd, to the point the teasing the gutwrench powerbomb (before it got reversed) got over. He and Cuatrero did well as the improvised team for the night. Including Atlantis in this is going to be a challenge tomorrow, but Titan & Angel de Oro might be able to carry it on their own.
Flyer got in a good dive, got hit by a Taguchi dive, then stood in the corner for about five minutes. Flyer did his usual hesitation for a springboard headscissors, which didn’t land too well. He got the big moment against Ishimori in the end and ran thru a kick that looked like he was supposed to sell and didn’t? It was not the greatest Flyer performance once again. I think the other Taguchi matches on this tour have been better.
Caristico put La Mistica whole building? Cool!