Home Wrestling NJPW Energy Battle 2023 (November 4) Outcomes & Overview

NJPW Energy Battle 2023 (November 4) Outcomes & Overview

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NJPW Energy Battle 2023 (November 4) Outcomes & Overview

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Watch: NJPW World

Meet Your Reviewer

Go well with Williams: As this web site’s self-imposed WWE Correspondent, I don’t watch or cowl the reveals in Saudi Arabia. Even I’ve my limits. So, with some free time, I figured I’d cowl New Japan’s cease in Osaka for Energy Battle. Comply with me on Twitter/all Twitter variants @SuitWilliams.

New Japan rolled into Edion Enviornment in entrance of 4,046 paying followers, primarily equaling the quantity they did in February for the New Starting present headlined by Kazuchika Okada and Shingo Takagi. This present additionally noticed Walker Stewart make his debut on English commentary as the brand new play-by-play man for New Japan’s English facet. He had accomplished some US reveals, however this was his first shot in Japan as the brand new English voice of New Japan. He’s acquired a correct Syracuse Grad announcer voice, however he was fantastic on this present. I’ll get used to him rapidly.

TALES FROM THE UNDERCARD (NAMES IN BOLD INVOLVED IN THE FALL)

  • Pre-Present Frontier Zone Six Man Tag Crew Match – Oleg Boltin, Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC def. Mochizuki Jr., Robust Machine J & Yoshiki Kato – Taguchi tapped out Mochizuki Jr. with the Ankle Lock.
  • Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb def. Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima – For the uninitiated, the 21-year-old Callum Newman is the brand new United Empire Younger Lion. Cobb pinned Leube with the Tour of the Islands.
  • El Desperado & Grasp Wato def. MUSASHI & YOH, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles, & Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney – This was a twister tag the place all males had been authorized so long as they had been within the ring. As Eagles held Musashi within the Ron Miller Particular, Desperado caught Fujita in a flash pin to steal away with the win.
  • Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Tama Tonga def. BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Titán – Tama pinned BUSHI with the Gun Stun. Afterwards, he confronted off with Shingo, who beat him for the NEVER Openweight Title in Las Vegas.
  • Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji def. SANADA & Yuya Uemura – Tsuji pinned Uemura with the Gene Blaster spear.

David Finlay def. Tanga Loa

I used to be very tempted to observe this match at double pace as I do with the undercard. Tanga Loa, who isn’t precisely prime Keiji Mutoh on the market, in a singles match towards David Finlay who has a behavior of underwhelming in prime spots. Whereas the match was nothing particular, the group was surprisingly into this match within the closing stretch. Finlay scored the win after a shillelagh shot and Into Oblivion. **1/2

Falls Rely Anyplace Match
Jon Moxley def. Nice-O-Khan

When Jon Moxley vs. Nice-O-Khan was introduced for this present, I had no earthly concept what it might appear like. There was a variety of what this match might appear like, and the way nicely it might go. By no means would I’ve thought it might appear like this.

The preliminary “match” led to a double count-out, with the boys brawling round ringside from the leap. Moxley took the mic and demanded the match to restart, this time as a Falls Rely Anyplace match. The request was granted, and these two had a very wild brawl across the constructing. O-Khan used a driving cart to drive Moxley right into a row of chairs. He then rolled Moxley up within the tarp protecting the ground, very similar to my uncle used to do to me with a blanket once I was 5.

This was a match that you’d examine in an outdated PWI journal, with the quilt of a bloody Moxley being dragged round by O-Khan. Moxley’s blood puddled all throughout the Edion Enviornment as they locked on submissions across the flooring. O-Khan was kicked down a set of bleachers earlier than Moxley landed the Loss of life Rider on the ground for the win. It’s doable that the surroundings of New Japan helped right here, as you aren’t used to seeing these huge enviornment brawls in Japan. However this was nonetheless one of the best and most unusual plunder brawl I’ve seen in a very long time. ****1/4

NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Crew Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, & Tomohiro Ishii © def. TMDK (Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste, & Zack Sabre Jr.)

The early a part of the match felt very pedestrian, as I used to be nonetheless coming down from the Mox/O-Khan match. However there was a Sabre/Ishii sequence that kicked this match into gear, with the match rapidly rounding into one other superior match.

There was a sequence close to the top the place Nicholls and Haste took everybody out with the Tankbuster, leaving Sabre alone with Tanahashi. However Tanahashi reversed the Zack Driver into an inside cradle to attain the win and go away Sabre apoplectic within the ring. Sabre confronted off with Tanahashi afterwards, organising a possible TV Title match at Wrestle Kingdom. ****

Talking of Wrestle Kingdom, because the champions had been posing, we acquired a video of Bryan Danielson difficult Okada to a match on the Tokyo Dome. Regardless of beating Okada twice, Danielson wished revenge for the accidents Okada had precipitated him, threatening to interrupt Okada’s arm so he might by no means hit the Rainmaker once more. Perhaps Danielson is a giant fan of the Cash Clip.

Tremendous Junior Tag League 2023 Finals
Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP) def. Home of Torture (SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

When this present began, I had a sinking feeling that the junior tag staff title scene would lead to a basic four-way on the Tokyo Dome. When Desperado and Wato gained the four-way tag earlier, together with the win over the Battle Canines within the Tremendous Junior Tag League, I assumed we had been going to get shenanigans right here that led to a justifiable four-way match at Wrestle Kingdom.

We acquired the everyday Home of Torture shenanigans, however after Callum Newman and Jeff Cobb ran off EVIL and Dick Togo, TJP spat the whiskey in Kanemaru’s eyes earlier than serving to Akira hit the two×2 knees to attain the win and win the 2023 Tremendous Junior Tag League. I’m glad to see it, as Catch 2/2 is one among my favourite groups on the earth proper now. After the match, Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney jumped them and left them mendacity earlier than getting run off by the opposite United Empire members. These two groups had a strong match on the Independence Day robust reveals, and the rematch on the Dome has an opportunity to be simply pretty much as good. ***1/4

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi © def. Taiji Ishimori

This match was technically fantastic, however I’m past the purpose of getting any emotional funding in Bone Soldier Taiji Ishimori. It’s been 5 years of him in the identical spot, doing typically the identical stuff. He’s a great wrestler, however I would like one thing totally different out of him. A brand new look, a brand new unit, one thing to regain my curiosity. Hiromu retained with the Hiromu Roll. He put the belt round his waist for the primary time since he gained the title, having lastly pinned the earlier champion in a title match. ***1/2

After the match, Hiromu made his personal problem for Wrestle Kingdom by calling out El Desperado. Desperado acquired off of the commentary desk and accepted the problem, noting that he wanted to take a while off to get surgical procedure to appropriate his imaginative and prescient however could be again in time for January 4. I wrote about Desperado placing Takahashi within the rear-view mirror after Wrestle Kingdom 16 two years in the past, which clearly didn’t occur. However these two having a stadium match in entrance of an actual crowd will nonetheless be nice.

IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship
Will Ospreay © def. Shota Umino

In February, I lined New Starting in Sapporo for the location. That present noticed Will Ospreay have a 5-star match with Taichi, one which can be on my Match of the Yr listing for 2023. That match was adopted by Shota Umino shitting the mattress in the primary occasion towards Tetsuya Naito. It was a boring, uninspired slog that noticed the Sapporo crowd apathetic to the person who the promotion expects to steer it into the longer term, as highlighted by his standing as one of many Three Reiwa Musketeers.

Umino has grown tremendously prior to now 9 months, not solely as a primary event-level wrestler, however as a person who believes that his identify belongs alongside these of Naito, Okada, and Ospreay. His confidence has grown exponentially, and that confidence shined on this match. When he stood nose-to-broken nostril with Ospreay, strolling by means of elbows to the chest, he felt like he belonged there. He didn’t really feel like a child making an attempt to be a giant deal, he felt like a giant deal. He felt like a person able to take the torch from Ospreay as a substitute of sitting and ready for the torch to be given to him.

Sadly, taking the torch from Ospreay on this evening proved to be too tall of a process for Umino. Ospreay survived Umino’s biggest offensive flurry of his profession, peaking with a top-rope Loss of life Rider. Umino landed one final Loss of life Rider, however in a single fluid movement, Ospreay bounced up and drilled Umino within the face with a Hidden Blade. Umino survived a Leaping Blade, a Loss of life Rider, and a Storm Driver, however a full-force Hidden Blade adopted by a Storm Breaker lastly put Umino down for the rely. Ospreay retains within the match of the evening. ****1/2

After the match, Ospreay confirmed respect to Umino earlier than calling Moxley within the ring. However as these two went head to head, David Finlay cracked them each within the head with the shillelagh. He took the mic and talked about how neither the UK nor the US noticed him as one among them. Gedo then pulled out a Looney Tunes hammer which Finlay used to destroy each belts. Finlay stood tall as Ospreay and Moxley checked out their damaged prizes.

The angle was excellent. Ospreay has spent the 12 months preventing for that title, making it the marquee title in New Japan. Moxley was synonymous with the US Title in his time in New Japan. Shota Umino spoke of how a lot that title meant to him, and the way it was his dream to defend the US Title towards Moxley at Wrestle Kingdom. Three individuals who fought and bled for these titles needed to watch because the petulant baby Finlay destroyed them. There was no downside with the angle.

The issue is the person executing the angle. David Finlay doesn’t match into this equation. He’s nowhere close to the extent of Ospreay or Moxley, particularly trying the best way he did right here. His work has not impressed confidence that he could be the following main foreigner in New Japan both. He nonetheless hasn’t discovered that lacking part that may get him to the following degree and sticking him on this place will solely make that clearer.



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