Jyushin 'Thunder' Liger, Yuji Nagata, MAnabu Nakanishi, & TenCozy vs Togi Makabe, Katsuya Kitamura, Hirai Kawato, Henare, & David Finlay - 5/10

5 Legends vs 4 Young Lions, I know Nakanishi and Tenzan are in one team, but how is this not unbalanced? One thing I will ALWAYS enjoy from NJPW is watching Young Lions fight each other to see who gets to start the match, such a small thing, but adds soo much to the match. This was the usual opener with everyone getting their shit in and ending with Kojima decapitating Kawato for the pin. Always entertaining to watch the Young Lions.



Michael Elgin, Jeff Cobb, & War Machine vs Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens, Hangman Page, & Leo Tonga) - 6.5/10

Story of the match was that everyone in the babyface team was strong enough to take on anyone on the other team, but BC was better using the numbers game could at any point gain control of the match if they all went in there. Finish saw War Machine kill Leo Tonga. Cobb and Page were the mvps of the match.



Bad Luck Fale vs BUSHI - Dud

Talk about size difference, and as you can imagine, that was the theme of the match. BUSHI is small and fast and hard to catch, but once Fale would get his hands on him, it could be deadly. Early on in the match when Fale got his hands on BUSHI, Fale started working on the mask trying to rip it; Fale also started to break his owns pins while BUSHI looked already dead. When Fale was finally gonna kill him for good, BUSHI hit him with the green mist and a low blow, prompting the ref to DQ him. BUSHI hit the MX after the bell had rang. Disappointing match, but I can see this going somewhere if they wanted.



Death Juice vs Best Friends - 7/10

Mostly a back and forward match, but Death Juice was able to cut off Beretta for a while, which was somewhat weird since Juice was the most over babyface there. The match turned into tornado style really quick and I got to see some of the terrible double team moves that Death Juice came up with. After exchanging some double team moves, Chuckie T and Beretta were able to put down Callihan for the win. Good match, but nothing special about it.



CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, & YOSHI-HASHI) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, & KES) - 7.5/10

The crowd popped so hard to see Archer vs Yano, and I have to admit, I was curious to see it too. The story of the match was that KES are big boys, but CHAOS has heart and team work; however, the true underlying story here is the build up of Suzuki vs Goto which I've been calling since Power Struggle.



Suzuki-Gun got heat on YOSHI for a long while, Ishii to the hot tag having a good exchange with Smith, and when Archer came in for the double team, Yano came in to aid Ishii and go two on two vs Killer Elite Squad. Finally Goto and Suzuki got their tags and had a great exchange going back and forward until the rest of Suzuki-Gun came in. When everything seemed lost for Goto, CHAOS came in for the save leaving Goto and Desperado alone in the ring where Goto pinned him after the GTR, but not before locking in a Suzuki style sleeper on him right in front of Suzuki's face. Awesome match.



Post-match - Goto challenged Suzuki. Suzuki, like the mutherfucker he is, came back to the ring to accept. I have no idea what they said, but this was awesome. Goto ended the promo grabbing his hair, I really hope this won't be a hair match.



Kota Ibushi & KUSHIDA vs Cody & Marty Scurll - 7/10

The dream team I never realized I wanted in my life, KUSHIDA and Ibushi should had won the WTL if you ask me. To start the match, Cody tried to get Ibushi to kiss the Ring of Honor by actually kissing Ibushi's hand first, Ibushi responded with some kicks that made Cody reconsider his life decisions. Ibushi and Cody started the match, the let KUSHIDA and Scurll build up their own match, and from there on, Bullet Club cut off KUSHIDA for a while. Ibushi got the hot tag and we got a bit more pairing between the two feuds. After some fighting and close near falls, finish saw Cody and Ibushi fight to the ramp where Cody hit the Cross-Rhodes, meanwhile in the ring, Scurll hit KUSHIDA with white powder and rolled him up. Camera completely missed the spot. Great match, but I really think that KUSHIDA could have safely taken a win here and build him for January 4th. They really made it seemed like Ibushi was destroyed by that spot, but he still wanted to fight.



Bullet Club (Kenny Omega & The Young Bucks) vs Roppongi 3K & Rocky Romero - 7/10

The Elite now have their stupid Elite song as intro to Kenny's, it sounds like shit. This was an interesting match because even with all the comedy action spots that come from a 'day off' Kenny Omega, this match actually escalated the RPG3K vs Bucks feud slightly as this match really made the rivalry feel real.



Match saw BC cut off YOH for a bit before SHO came in and then all the crazyness started. We saw all 6 guys involved, but at the end, it was Bucks and 3K fighting off into the sunset leaving Omega and Romero in the ring. Romero did a good job taking on Omega, he looked competent, but Omega reversed a Slice Bread into the One Winged Angel position and after dropping him, he took the win for the team.



Post-match - The lights go off and we see another video of Jericho on the tron talking shit to Omega, suddenly, when the lights come back on, Jericho is standing in the middle of the ring behind Omega. Jericho jumps Omega, hits the codebreaker, takes him out with the belt busting Omega up. Jericho pretty much makes it clear that he's a heel taking out a ref and a young lion. Omega tries to make a comeback, but Jericho hits another coebreaker. Callis tries to calm Jericho, but Jericho takes him out too before rubbing the title all over Omega's blood. At this point The Bucks return with a bat and Jericho walks out. Awesome angle that cements Omega as a big babyface going against Jericho. Fans clapped the Terminator song as Omega walked to the back. Callis did a stretcher job.



Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) vs CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay) w/ Gedo - 7/10

Match started with Naito trying to get his shtick in and getting his ass kicked instead, but eventually he got rid of Okada enough to do it. Ospreay and Hiromu had a great exchange before Naito aided him to get the upper hand and finally cut him off. They worked on Ospreay until Okada got in and ran wild all over Naito. They had a great match up with mostly Okada on top, but later on got Hiromu and Ospreay inside to do their own thing. Hiromu was about to pin Ospreay when Okada completely from out of nowhere jumped in and broke it. Hiromu would counter an Os Cutter into a german suplex, Naito would jump in also from out of nowhere, hit a Destino, leaving Ospreay as an easy prey for Hiromu to hit another Time Bomb for the win.



Post-match - Naito talked shit to Okada. He said something that prompted the fans to go crazy, Okada had a look of 'fuck you, Naito' and a few words later, Okada had to keep face and ran in to fight Naito, and while it seemed like Naito had his number, at the end, Okada reversed the Destino into Okada's new sleeper submission until Hiromu came for the save. Unfortunately for Hiromu, Okada wasn't done.



Gedo was cosplaying as Hulk Hogan tonight.



World Tag League 2017 Finals

Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) vs Guerrilas of Destiny - 8.5/10

SANADA and EVIL are total babyfaces here, but they still do little things here and there that could pass as heel tactics. In somewhat of a surprising move, EVIL worked as babyface in peril in this match, and for a good amount of time. There was a weird spot during SANADA's hot tag where he had Roa in the Paradise Lock, but Tama Tonga attacked him and tried to lock the lock himself on SANADA, but couldn't figure it out and instead of unlocking Roa, he was looking at him trying to copy the move, eventually SANADA just reversed it and fought them off, it was a funny spot, but not for this match especially at the time it came.



At one point towards the end, there was a ref bump and GoD took advantage hitting both EVIL and SANADA with chairs. They set up a table on the outside, and as they're about to put EVIL through the table, BUSHI came out and hit the mist on Roa. This prompted out BUSHI's rival Bad Luck Fale to come out and pretty much kick all three LIJ member's ass before him and BUSHI run off to the back.



Back in the ring, LIJ was pretty much dead and Roa had cleaned his face, and so GoD came in to finish EVIL for some near falls, but EVIL kept kicking out. GoD was going for a Magic Killer, but EVIL got out of it leaving an opening for SANADA to fly through the sky and take out GoD. Tonga reversed LIJ's version of the Magic Killer into a cutter on EVIL. All the fighting leads into LIJ putting Roa into that table outside, leaving Tonga as an easy pick for EVIL and SANADA to put down. Tonga kicked out of a Magic Killer himself, pissing off EVIL who hits the Darkness Falls to seal the deal. Awesome match.



Post-match - Not much beyond the crowning celebration. EVIL called out K.E.S who came out. LIJ and KES got in each other's faces. KES talked some shit on LIJ and they just stared at each other. KES looked like a million dollars. Vince probably looks at them and wonders why he let them go to begin with. EVERYTHING IS EVIL! EVERYTHING IS SANADA!?



I know SANADA is the Cold Skull, but I wish he would cut more promos.



OVERALL THOUGHTS

Pretty great show top to bottom. We had some great angles building up some of the WK12 matches and a great close to the WTL. At this point I'm not sure what is gonna happen with the NEVER Openweight 6-man titles since LIJ are the champs too and I believe the full card is being announced tomorrow night, so no time to change the titles.