They say a picture is worth a thousand words and the above picture sums up the Back to The Yokohama Arena card perfectly. Bullet Club ran rough shot over the NJPW roster and took over the show. From AJ Styles retaining in a good main event to Bullet Club winning their 8 men tag, it was all Bullet Club, all night. As expected, we where kicked off with the 8 man tag match which served a small preview of the Best of The Super Juniors tournament coming up in the coming weeks. The match between Time Splitters/Bushi/Ryusuke Taguchi and Jushin “Thunder” Liger/ El Desperado / Tiger Mask / Mascara Dorado. This match was your typical JRHW opener, fast paced, high flying offense from all involved. The finish to the match saw Bushi getting the pin after hitting Desperado with the MX. All 8 participants shake hands afterwards.
3.5/5
Bullet Clubs takeover of the show started in the second match of the night with the 8 man between Bullet Club and Team NJPW. Tama Tonga, DOC, Karl Anderson and newest member Yujiro Takahashi represented Bullet Club while Captain New Japan, Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma, and Manabu Nakanishi represented Team NJPW. Match starts in typical Bullet Club fashion with them jumping Team NJPW from the start. Once settled in the muscle of the 2 groups kick it off, Nakanishi and DOC. After a lot of 2 to 1, 3 to 1, Takahashi was able to isolate Captain New Japan and hit him with the Miami Shine to get the win for Bullet Club. Afterwards Bullet Club harasses Gedo and Jado who were ringside doing commentary. 3/5 The NWA Tag Title triple threat was up next, and Bruce Tharpe introduced us to Team NWA (Conway and Briscoe), while rocking a purple jacket you would have to see to believe. Match starts with both heel factions attacking the champs TenCozy, then KES attacks Team NWA and took early control of the match. All 3 teams have a similar very physical offense, that lead to a very physical and high impact back and forth match. We eventually see Tenzan apply the Anaconda Vise on Wes Briscoe, but Tharpe jumps on the apron to distract the ref before Briscoe can tap, the match moves on with TenCozy being able to isolate Briscoe in the ring. Kojima hits Brisco with the Cozy Lariat, which was then followed up with the Moon Sault (this was botched a little) from Tenzan, TenCozy gets the pin and the win. Afterwards TenCozy and KES have a minor stare down while Bruce Tharpe and team NWA walk off with Tharpe rather upset. Conway and Tharpe must wait another day to get their titles back. 3.5/5 the botched moonsault lowered the score for me In what was the shortest match of the night and an alliance turn, Suzuki-gun faced Chaos (Yano/Lizuka). Lizuka attacked Yano before the bell and hit him with a chair. Then Suzuki-gun held Yano up for Lizuka who hit Yano with the Iron Finger From Hell. The bell rings and Suzuki pile drives Yano and gets the pin in a squash. Afterwards Suzuki-gun attacks Yano, Gedo and Jado. Minoru Suzuki presents Lizuka with Suzuki-gun shirt and Lizuka switches his allegiance. This is the second Chaos member switching his allegiance in a month. Are we seeing the end of Chaos? 2/5 Bullet Club’s night continued with Bad Luck Fale taking on Tetsuya Naito, a rematch from their New Japan Cup quarterfinal match. Naito tried his best to get a good match out of Fale but these two just don’t match up well. Naito worked hard in this, but it just didn’t deliver. The finish saw Fale landing the Grenade but Naito kicked out, then Fale hit the Bad Luck Fall and Naito was unable to kick out of that. Fale got the win 3/5 After the Fale/Naito match, we get an intermission, where Yuji Nagata joins the broadcast table. On the other end of Intermission the Rolles Gracie and Kazushi Sakuraba MMA rules match was up. This was just basically a rolling around on the ground submission grappling contest. The Gracie’s are great for MMA, but not so much Pro Wrestling. Sakuraba manages to catch Rolles in a Kimura Lock and get the submission. The match was short and to the point. 2.75/5 The Match that had anybody who saw it, saying MOTY was next. Tomohiro Ishii defended the NEVER Open Weight title against The IWGP Junior Heavy Weight Champion, Kota Ibushi. This match delivered in all aspects. Ishii may be the most underrated Professional Wrestler in Japan, if not the world, and you can see why rumors abound that the WWE wants Kota Ibushi. Ibushi used his speed to get a lot of offense in, while Ishii used his size and power to do the same. Ishii ended up getting a pretty bad cut on above the eye when the 2 butted heads. Ishii attempted to Power Bomb Ibushi off the top rope, but the men landed awkwardly. Other than that hiccup. A lot of pundits are calling this a Match of The Year candidate. The finish saw Ishii hitting the Brainbuster on Ibushi to retain the title. Afterwards, Yujiro Takahashi comes back out and attacks Ishii from behind, hitting him with the title belt. Takahashi then Too Sweets the NEVER Open Weight title. 4.8/5 Tanahashi/Makabe vs. Shibata/Goto to decide the #1 contenders for the IWGP Tag Titles was up next. Was a very entertaining tag match. The crowd was very into the altercations between Tanahashi and Shibata. This is a match down the road that IWGP should book. A program with Tanahashi can really help Shibata be pushed into the main event picture and the title picture. Not to mention the match, those two will put on has a potential match of the night written all over it. The finish to this saw Tanahashi and Makabe isolating Goto when Shibata accidentally kicks his partner Goto which allowed Tanahashi to hit the High Fly Flow followed by the King Kong Knee Drop from Makabe. Makabe got the pin making his team the #1 contenders for the IWGP Tag Titles. Makabe was mouth was busted open earlier in the match from a kick to the face by Goto. 4/5 The Co-Main Event was the IWGP Intercontinental Title match between champion Shinsuke Nakamura and challenger Daniel Gracie. The match was contested in MMA rules. The match was pretty mediocre, no where near the classic that Nakamura had with Kevin Steen a week earlier. This is due to the Gracie’s being very limited in a wrestling ring. Shinsuke Nakamura eventually lands the Boma Ye on Gracie to get the win. The win from Nakamura avenges an MMA lost to Daniel Gracie way back in 2002. Once the match was over both wrestlers shake hands and hug. Bad Luck Fale comes down to ringside and challenges Nakamura to a match for the Intercontinental Championship. So if we are counting, on top of having both tag championships and the IWGP Heavyweight championship, Bullet Club has now challenged for the NEVER Open Weight and Intercontinental Championships. Look for those matches to be signed in the coming weeks. The will be an Intercontinental Title match will be a rematch of the New Japan Cup final that saw Nakamura winning. 3.5/5 Now we finally get to the Main Event, The Rematch we’ve all been waiting for. AJ Styles vs. Kazuchika Okada. The match starts with AJ and Bullet Club promising Unno there will be no outside interference from them. Unno doesn’t seem to believe them, but lets them stay. Bullet Club will be on a short leash this time around. Okada and AJ counter each others finishers early in the match. Like everyone watching on Ustream and in the Yokohama Arena knew was going to happen, Bullet Club does interfere with Machine Gun Anderson grabbing Okadas leg when Okada goes near the ropes. That was all Unno needed and he ejected Bullet Club from ringside. We now have the 1 on 1 match everyone wanted. Okada and AJ deliver like everyone knew they would, the match was better than their first go around, both getting a lot of offense in. Okada applies the Red Ink on AJ, and right when AJ was going to tap, Bullet Club runs down to ringside to make the save. Takahashi attacks Okada, Takahashi goes to land another Tokyo Pimps, but Tomohiro Ishii stops Takahashi and fights him all the way to the back. Unno eventually manages to get Bullet Club to go to the back. AJ pushes Unno into Okada to distract Okada long enough to hit the Pele and the Bloody Sunday but Okada kicks out. Styles hit’s the Styles Clash and retains the title. Bullet Club comes back down to celebrate with AJ. 4.5/5 I give the show a 3.5 out of 5. NJPW didn’t put on a bad show here, but they’ve put on better. Match of the Night goes to Ishii and Ibushi. The big winners though, where Bullet Club, going undefeated and throwing their names into the hat for two more titles. Stay tuned to see if anybody can stop the reign of terror Bullet Club is on. My guess is Bullet Club hasn’t even gotten started.
