It was pretty odd to watch a New Japan Pro-Wrestling event and not see even a hint of the Bullet Club anywhere during the four and a half hour running time. It’s one thing for a Kenny Omega or Cody to be absent from a show, but to literally not feature any of the 13-man stable, including New Japan mainstays like Bad Luck Fale and the Guerrillas of Destiny was definitely a first for me.

Despite the lack of presence from our favorite [fractured] heel stable, New Japan continued its already exciting 2018 with another solid show, this one emanating from Osaka, Japan. After the event got its perfunctory Katsuya Kitamura jobbing and litany of multi-man tag matches out of the way, it settled into a strong series of singles matches, all pitting members of Chaos against members of Los Ingobernables de Japon. Three championship belts were on the line, along with a couple of personal feuds that had to be settled.

KAZUCHIKA OKADA RETAINS, HITS 600+ DAYS AS CHAMPION

I still stand by my previous statements that 1.) Kazuchika Okada should have dropped the title at Wrestle Kingdom 12 to Tetsuya Naito, 2.) His title reign has gone on so long that he’s starting to run out of credible challengers, and 3.) SANADA was a bit of a stretch for one of those challengers.

I’ll eat some crow right now, especially on that last one. SANADA more than proved that he deserved to be in that main event slot against New Japan’s golden boy. These two had a great match that was coupled with a palpable divide from the crowd. Osaka is known as a very pro-Los Ingobernables de Japon town, and it was evident in this match, where it felt like the fans in attendance were split 50/50 between Okada and SANADA. As SANADA gained the upper hand late in the match and really had an opportunity to show off his in-ring ability, the crowd got behind him. By my count, he evaded at least four Rainmakers, and reversed two into his own moves. The closing sequence was one fluent counter after another from both wrestlers, as has come to be expected in Okada’s title defenses.

We all knew that SANADA wasn’t winning this match, but, at certain points, it felt like he had a legitimate chance. That’s ultimately the best result you can expect from this. Okada continued his historic run as champion, and SANADA increased his stock big time with a single match. As good as Okada is, there have been matches during this most recent title run where his opponent wasn’t elevated simply by a game effort (Bad Luck Fale and EVIL immediately come to mind), but here, SANADA comes away potentially as a new member of New Japan’s main event scene. If nothing else, he and EVIL are still IWGP Heavyweight Tag Champions, and should be booked as being more formidable than ever.

Following the match, Okada declared his intent to compete in the upcoming single-elimination New Japan Cup tournament, but even more interesting was the challenge he put out to IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay. That match appears set for the anniversary show on March 6th, and should be an absolute doozey.

WILL OSPREAY AND HIROMU TAKAHASHI PUT ON A CLASSIC

Speaking of Will Ospreay, what a night he and Hiromu Takahashi had. Even when their title match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship was neither the main or co-main event, it stole the show. This was 20 minutes of straight athleticism, and underappreciated versatility on the part of both wrestlers. Takahashi, in particular, put his well-rounded in-ring work on display here. Yes, he’s a junior heavyweight, and yes he’s capable of high flying, but he’s far from being some mindless acrobatics act like so many close-minded oldschool fans like to label his weight class. He’s got painful-looking strikes in his arsenal, good grappling, powerful throws, and even some submission work that he can throw in there from time to time. Between all of that, his “Ticking Time Bomb” persona, and ridiculous, but charming quirks like the stuffed cat Daryl, Takahashi has quietly been one of New Japan’s best talents.

Ospreay makes up for his lack of a persona with simply insane athleticism. This guy deserves to be a dominant junior heavyweight champion and should be marketed like mad by New Japan, especially as it expands into English-speaking markets. If you want to make professional wrestling mainstream again, and you want to turn new eyes to your product, you need to start advertising highlights of Ospreay. His style may not be for “wrasslin” purists who don’t see the appeal of high flyers, but his grace and agility are the kind of physical talents that make the sport stand out in an era where real, unscripted forms of fighting have found mainstream success.

Together with Takahashi, he pulled off one big spot after another in this match that made my jaw drop. These two executed a couple of moves that, as unbelievable as it sounds even to me, I don’t think I’ve seen in my 23+ years as a fan of pro wrestling. The top rope senton by Takahashi to ringside, the top rope reverse-rana by Ospreay, Takahashi’s reversal of Ospreay’s attempt at a Time Bomb into a front flip piledriver, it was all nuts. How they performed those moves without crippling the other is a testament to their unparalleled precision. The spot where Ospreay had Takahashi in a wheel-barrel hold before executing a sort of German suplex that had Takahashi’s head graze the turnbuckle was a little scary. I’m not sure I ever want to see that again; it’s just too easy for a guy to get hurt on that for a move that doesn’t have a lot of high impact.

Both Ospreay and Takahashi come away looking like studs following this early match of the year contender. Takahashi will surely be back sooner rather than later, while Ospreay has a huge match coming up with Okada.

HIROOKI GOTO CONTINUES A STRONG 2018

Hirooki Goto and EVIL going at it for the NEVER Openweight Championship came immediately after Ospreay’s and Takahashi’s classic, and it absolutely was a comedown in pace and workrate. By comparison to the action that preceded it, this match was slow and plodding, especially in the early goings. It was definitely placed in an inopportune spot on the card. The crowd never seemed to get into it until the last third or so, even during the big moves that were landed.

Goto and EVIL certainly ramped up the action in the latter half of the match, which went past 20 minutes. These two just plain look like a couple of bruisers, and their performances in the final few minutes lived up to those optics. Lots of counters into heavy throws as the match died down, which concluded with Goto getting the 1-2-3 and his first successful defense in this second reign of his as NEVER Openweight Champion.

While Goto is a fine wrestler who brings some credibility to the belt, the NEVER Openweight championship still feels somewhat irrelevant. It’s easily the least prestigious of the five New Japan singles titles. For as many terrible matches that Minoru Suzuki had during his run as the champion in 2017, the belt at least felt like it had a hook back then. All of those Lumberjack, Bullrope, and No DQ bouts gave the NEVER strap a pseudo-hardcore championship vibe. I don’t know if that’s necessarily the answer (common sense states that when hardcore wrestling becomes regular, it loses a lot of impact), but the championship needs some identity added to it.

TETSUYA NAITO GETS BACK ON TRACK

I said it in the last edition of Strong Style For All that Tetsuya Naito vs. Yoshi-Hashi was a catch-22; if Naito wins, it doesn’t enhance him very much because it’s yet another high profile match where Yoshi-Hashi jobs, and if Yoshi-Hashi wins, Naito looks terrible for losing to Yoshi-Hashi. I wasn’t a fan of this feud being booked, but ultimately, New Japan made the right call having Naito go over. You simply can’t have him lose to a mid-card talent like Yoshi-Hashi.

That said, this was far from a rudimentary match. It was built up well, with Naito igniting the heat by calling out Yoshi-Hashi in the press. For about four tag matches straight, that played out across The New Beginning in Sapporo shows and the Road to the New Beginning in Osaka shows, Yoshi-Hashi aggressively went after Naito, while Naito indifferently withstood it all.

With this match taking place in Osaka, where Los Ingobernables de Japon, and especially Naito, are beloved, they smartly had Yoshi-Hashi play up a heelish character by sneak-attacking Naito before the bell. Yoshi-Hashi got a ton of boos for that, which really goes to show just how big Naito is in that city, and has become, despite being a regular heel.

This was a very good match that proved two particular things. The first is that Yoshi-Hashi can hang with the best in the company, and deserves to be booked better, both to make appropriate use of his talents, and to have him be a more credible gatekeeper going forward. He brought his A-Game against the guy who is arguably New Japan’s hottest talent, at the moment. The second thing it proved is just how talented Naito is. He’s in there with a guy who is a mid-carder, at best, and he’s working just about as efficiently as if he’s main eventing for the title. Naito’s persona is so pronounced that he earned the crowd’s complete and utter intrigue from start to finish for a match with scant implications. Were it not for Ospreay/Takahashi’s efforts, this might have ended up being the match of the night, even over Okada/SANADA.

You would have thought that Naito would resume his feud with Chris Jericho, but immediately following this, he was attacked by Suzuki-gun member Taichi. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense considering that Taichi appeared to be poised to feud with Ryusuke Taguchi, but whatever. Hopefully they wrap this up at the anniversary show on March 6th and get Naito and Jericho ready either for Strong Style Evolved, or Sakura Genesis.

OTHER CHAMPIONSHIP MATCHES TAKE SHAPE

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Championship belts weren’t on the line, but Roppongi 3K had a fun little match against Suzuki-gun members El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. The two teams have a bit of a feud going, which emerged during the Road to the New Beginning in Osaka shows at Korakuen Hall. Their rivalry was cemented with Desperado and Kanemaru scoring a huge win in this non-title bout, thanks to the use of a chair and some smart targeting of Sho’s “injured” back. This definitely sets up Desperado and Kanemaru as the next title challengers, which is a nice elevation for them; both have largely just been used in Suzuki-gun multi-man match shenanigans over the last several months, so this at least puts them in the spotlight, if temporarily.

The leader and namesake of their stable, Minoru Suzuki, finally accepted Togi Makabe’s challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, following another tag match where Makabe got his team the win. I have to imagine this goes down at the anniversary show on March 6th, and no way is Suzuki dropping the belt on just his first defense. Could be a good, bruising scrap though. Makabe certainly has that mettle that he could believably go toe-to-toe with Suzuki.

I’m not really sure what they’re trying to do between IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White and David Finlay. They already had a championship match during the Road to the New Beginning to Osaka shows (which was really good, and gave Finlay a much-needed boost of prestige) where White retained, and Finlay continues to be on the losing side of these tag matches. They have a connection as being Young Lions who trained in the New Japan Dojo at the same time, but the writing isn’t really fixating on that, nor are they making this ‘feud’ competitive. It should have just ended with that title match if White was going to continue getting the upper hand.

REY MYSTERIO INCOMING

Sandwiched in between all of the action was a brief vignette featuring the legendary Rey Mysterio, who made a video appearance to let the fans know what was coming to New Japan Pro-Wrestling. He challenged the equally-legendary Junior Heavyweight icon Jushin Thunder Liger to a match at the upcoming event Strong Style Evolved, which will emanate from Long Beach, California on March 23rd. Liger has already accepted the match, and despite the fact these two wrestlers are a combined 96 years of age, any fan should be excited for this encounter.

Their last meeting was 21 years ago at Starrcade 1996 (for WCW), and both guys have proven that they can still go in the ring. Liger still regularly competes for New Japan, and Rey Mysterio has continued wrestling for big-name independent promotions, as well as his recent appearance at the 2018 Royal Rumble. That appearance for WWE was apparently a one-off for Rey, so here’s to hoping that he sticks around in New Japan for a little while. He’ll be a perfect participant for the Best of the Super Juniors tournament this summer–a competition that’s famous for bringing in junior heavyweight talent from outside New Japan, to begin with.

Strong Style Evolved sold out its some 5,500 tickets for the Walter Pyramid in a matter of 20 minutes, and that was before any matches were even announced for the event. When you consider the growing popularity of New Japan, the drama unfolding within Bullet Club, and now renowned talent like Rey Mysterio (and likely Chris Jericho) set to appear on this card, it makes me wish New Japan had targeted a larger arena. I have no doubt they could have filled a 10,000+ seat venue for this. Oh well. I guess there’s 2019 for that.

Match of the Night – Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Spot of the Night – Hiromu Takahashi reverses a Time Bomb into a front flip piledriver

Don Callis Quote of the Night – “What did you call him? A hit machine? Put an ‘S’ in front of that” (referring to Rocky Romero)

Next up – Honor Rising: Japan, Friday, February 23rd

All images provided by NJPW1972.com and the New Japan Pro-Wrestling English Facebook Page

Watch all New Japan shows live or at your convenience by subscribing to the New Japan World streaming service (English options available)

Jeff Pawlak has been a fan of pro wrestling since around the same age that he could talk. He’s an admitted mark for New Japan Pro Wrestling, a proud subscriber to the New Japan World streaming service, and is beyond hyped to see what the rest of 2018 has in store for it. Find him on Twitter @JeffreyPavs for more of his thoughts on New Japan, WWE, and other wrestling promotions.

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