Cubed Circle Newsletter
This week’s newsletter is a tad bit shorter than usual, but
don’t fret, next week we have a huge issue for you, more about that at the end
of the issue. As always you’re feedback is welcomed either via email, the
comments or the many social network options available.
New Japan Pro
Wrestling New Beginning 2012
Overall Show Thoughts
Overall this was another well paced New Japan show, with a
lot of good wrestling and progression. However, I did feel that there were too
many title changes on one show, you could make the case for the
Intercontinental title and maybe even the IWGP Heavyweight title if that’s were
they had to go, but the Jr. Tag Titles really didn’t need to change hands and
they could have done the Intercontinental title change on another show. But, if
you are looking for a fun show with some good wrestling and a great main event
then this is a show for you.
1. YOSHI-HASHI & Yujiro Takahashi vs. King Fale &
Tomoaki Honma
This match was an opener, yes, that’s what it was. The match
felt a bit clunky with Fale and HASHI in there, although there were some good
spots in the match, they didn’t fit together very well. After getting some
cheap shots in Takahashi pinned Fale in 7:51 with a wonky looking jackknife
cradle.
** ½
2. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tama Tonga & Captain New Japan
vs. Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano
In an awesome heel move, Iizuka ripped off the announcers
shirt and poured water on him, in complete bully fashion. Captain New Japan delayed
and showboated on the ramp while his partners were attacked from behind and
double teamed. This was mostly a comedy match, with Captain New Japan getting
all of his wacky spots in. The crowd was super behind Tonga, which made the
fact that Tonga was pinned by Yano with a powerbomb in 8:35 stupid, since you
had a guy that could have clearly done the job in Captain New Japan.
** ¼
3. IWGP Junior
Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi) (c) vs. No
Remorse Corps (Davey Richards & Rocky Romero)
I enjoyed this match more than the Dome match, it felt more
important than the Dome match, although the wrestling itself wasn’t necessarily
better. The title change didn’t really make much sense, given the amount of
title changes on the show and the fact that the titles were just changed.
Richards pinned Taguchi in 15:10 with a powerbomb.
*** ½
4. Ten Man Tag Team Elimination Match
Blue Justice Army (Wataru Inoue & Yuji Nagata), KUSHIDA,
Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs. Suzuki Army (Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki,
Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yoshihiro Takayama)
Just seeing Takayama enter the ring, let alone wrestle made
me sad, although he functioned better in this match than his last few.
Participants in the match could either be eliminated by pinfall, submission or
being tossed over the top rope. Archer eliminated KUSHIDA with a modified
crucifix bomb, he then eliminated Tiger Mask soon after with an F5. The crowd
were really into the over the top gimmick and were into all the teases. Inoue
was thrown over the top rope to the outside by Archer, this made Archer look
really strong. Makabe eliminated Taichi and Michinoku in quick succession,
after being worked on and double teamed by the heel team. Makabe and Suzuki
proceeded to trade strikes, but Suzuki was able to get the upper hand as Makabe
was worked on by the heel team. Makabe continued to absorb punishment, until he
finally got the big tag to Nagata. Suzuki and Nagata traded strikes, until
Nagata was eliminated over the top rope by Suzuki, leaving Makabe as the last
remaining member of the face team. Makabe took a double chokeslam and a shining
wizard, but he was still able to kick out. Makabe began to clean house, taking
on three guys at once, but Suzuki was able to lock in the sleeper, he got
Makabe up and hit the piledriver for the win in 19:43. There was a bit of post
match brawling with Nagata and a few members of the heel team, but not much.
The match did a great job of making Makabe look great, as well as Archer who came
off like a monster. Even though the match felt a bit sloppy at points, it still
told a good fun story and it served it’s purpose well.
*** ¼
5. IWGP Tag Team Title Match
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (c) vs. Bad Intentions
(Giant Bernard & Karl Anderson)
Even though a few months have past since the Tokyo Sports
Awards, Bad Intentions is still doing the anti-Tokyo Sports gimmick. This match
much like the IWGP Jr. Tag Title match felt more intense and far more
emotionally fueled that their Dome match. Kojima pinned Giant Bernard in 17:47
with a lariat. They shook hands after the match and Tenzan cut a promo in
broken English, saying that Bad Intentions were super.
*** ¼
6. IWGP Intercontinental Title Match
Masato Tanaka (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
Yujiro Takahashi interfered at the start of the match,
attacking Goto on the ramp. Goto hit an absolutely brutal Fireman’s carry
neckbreaker from the top rope, where his knee was driven right into the neck of
Tanaka. Goto pinned Tanaka in 13:26 with the Shoten Kai winning the
Intercontinental Championship. Having a war like this, along with a big name
like Goto holding the Intercontinental Championship, gives it more meaning than
it had in the past, even if the championships are just going to be merged at
some point. Yujiro challenged Goto to a match after Goto won the championship.
*** ½
7. Tetsuya Niato vs. Shinsuke Nakumura
They brawled a lot on the outside and on the ramp, Nakumura
worked on Niato, until Niato hit a big powerbomb which seemed to hurt the mouth
of Nakumura. Niato pinned Nakumura with the star dust press in 17:38 in a hard
fought match. Niato is presumably going to challenge Okada at the next big
show.
*** ½
8. IWGP Heavyweight Title Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada
The match felt like a big deal, even though Okada doesn’t
necessarily have a superstar aura yet. Tanahashi lost a tooth early on and the
camera crew did a good job on focusing on it. Tanahashi hit the high fly flow
to the outside, Okada hit the tombstone piledriver, but was unable to make the
cover. Okada then hit a big tombstone piledriver to the outside, which
Tanahashi sold well. Tanahashi hit a high fly flow to the back of Okada and
went up for a second to the stomach, but Okada got the knees up. We had an
assortment of nearfalls up until Okada hit the rainmaker (short clothesline)
for the win in 23:22. The crowd was absolutely stunned and rightfully so, sure
Tanahashi and Okada had a good match, but putting the championship on him is a
ridiculous and short sited move. Tanahashi is really over and he has proven
that he is a big draw for the company, he has held the championship for a long
time, but there have been no signs that he is beginning to loose his drawing
power. Who knows maybe Okada’s reign can work and maybe he can draw, maybe New
Japan’s houses will continue to grow, I don’t know. But, if something like the
Tanahashi title reign works, why change it?
****
Credit to the
Wrestling Observer Newsletter at F4Wonline.com/Wrestlingobserver.com for the
match times.
Bits & Pieces
Vince Russo Gone!
Some may say that he was an influential part of the
business, (not really) others may say that he had his place at a certain time,
while others may say that Russo was the reason for the death of WCW and every
negative aspect of modern day wrestling. Regardless of what you think, Vince
Russo has left his position at TNA a few weeks ago, but it was only revealed to
the public as well as most of the talent this week.
Russo was replaced last year by Bruce Prichard as head of
TNA creative, which means that in all likely hood this won’t make a major
difference to what we see on TV. What could make a difference though is the
involvement of David Lagana, although Bruce Prichard, Hogan and Bischoff are
obviously still the ones in charge.
Hopefully this leads to a positive change for TNA, if the
product doesn’t improve then we can be sure that it is the Hogan, Bischoff and
whoever else is there combo and that will obviously be a very hard problem to
fix. Hopefully we see a change like we did at the start of the Storm Roode
angle, because that will obviously be the best thing for TNA and the best thing
for the business as a whole.
Terrible Elimination
Chamber Go-Home Show
To put it in gentle terms, this was the end of the good
string of Raws over the past few weeks this week’s Raw was bad. Excluding a
great Triple H Michaels segment this show had no redeeming qualities, unless of
course train wrecks are your thing.
Well at least they built up the chamber well right? Wrong.
Nothing on this edition of Raw made me want to by the show, in fact it did just
the opposite. Instead of captivating the viewer to buy the show with good
matches and good promos, we had a very boring match between CM Punk and The Miz
and a verbal debate of all things! The verbal debate featured all six men in
the Raw chamber and honestly it had no substance, but after all how could six
men in a verbal debate get me to by a pay-per view. The Miz was ribbed, as his
time expired and he continued to recite his lines, but other than that nothing
was very note worthy from the debate.
The Kane/Ryder/Cena/ Eve angle got far worse this week, with
botched camera angles and terrible writing. Ryder looks terrible and has
basically lost all of his steam, I can’t help thinking that this is just
another rendition of the ECW situation. Maybe Vince just wants to get rid of
those pesky Ryder chants and boy did he succeed. If the site of Ryder almost
completely braced up isn’t enough to bring you to tears, just because of the
pure stupidity of it all, the Cena and Eve portion surely will.
Eve and Cena now seem to be locked into a romantic
relationship, after all top baby faces are always single and the former US
champion is just a wimp anyway right? The show ended with a terrible segment
between Cena, Kane and Ryder, where Ryder was completely emasculated by Cena.
Kane said that Cena had embraced the hate, but that’s splendid, you see Kane
feeds off of hate, so I guess like Popeye and his spinach, Kane will just eat
the hate oozing from the pours of Cena and win the match. Kane pushed Ryder off
the stage, Mick Foley said on twitter that it was a bad bump, but the stage
really didn’t look that high, there were mats and Ryder was padded up.
Do you want to buy the Elimination Chamber now?
Next Week’s Issue
We have a big issue coming up next week, including the WWE
Elimination Chamber in depth, Raw, All Together 2 and so much more. For more on
next week’s issue head over to cubedcirclewrestling.blogspot.com.
Contact
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Twitter: @RyanClingman
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