New Japan Road Night 5 - 9/9/2020: Junior Tag Final Set; G1 Climax 30 Entrants Revealed: Jay, KENTA, Juice, Cobb, Ospreay Return to Japan, Yujiro, YOSHI-HASHI, Suzuki Back In
The tour continued today, although it seems like the focus of the show was superfluous to why everyone was looking forward to it. That said, you can see it now on NJPWWorld, and the Finals to crown the next IWGP Juniorheayweight Tag Team champions are now set.
- 9/9/2020, Miyagi Sendai Sun Plaza Hall (NJPWWorld)
Satoshi Kojima d. Yota Tsuji (Lariat, 7:34)
Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Toru Yano [CHAOS], SHO [CHAOS] & Gabriel Kidd d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Yuya Uemura (SHO > Uemura, Udehishigi, 14:16)
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi, Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma d. Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] (Ibushi > DOUKI, Kamigoye, 13:33)
Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. EVIL, Dick Togo & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] (Naito > Togo, Destino, 9:50)
62nd IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship Tournament: Taiji Ishimori & Gedo [Bullet Club] d. Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato (Ishimori > Wato, Bone Lock, 14:34)
62nd IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship Tournament: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] d. Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] (Desperado > BUSHI, El Es Claro, 17:15)
With this, Despy/Kanemaru win the group stage phase of this tournament on head-to-head, and advance to the Final on Friday v. Los Dos Peligrosos. I guess NJPW are officially calling it the Bone Lock instead of Yes Lock now. Kawato taking two straight losses in this tournament seems like they are definitely doing a “slow burn” with him on this Master Wato gimmick after all, after having a great showing out at Dominion. SHO & Ishii continue to feud. Final tourney standings:
Despy/Kanemaru - 4pts (2W 0D 1L) Los Dos Peligrosos - 4pts (2W 0D 1L) Ishimori/Gedo - 2pts (1W 0D 2L) Taguchi/Wato - 2pts (1W 0D 2L)
And now, the moment we’ve all been waiting for: the reveal of the participants in this year’s G1 Climax, the 30th such tournament under this name.
The question of how NJPW were going to fill twenty roster spots ended up having a simple answer: they are just bringing in guys early and are seemingly having them self-quarantine for 14 days before the tournament starts. That’d be the easiest explanation, although I would have thought travel restrictions might come into play here. Nevertheless, Jay White, KENTA, Jeff Cobb, and Juice Robinson (who was also out for an injury, which is why he’d not featured on NJPW Strong as yet) are all making their way from the LA Dojo back over to Japan to feature in G1 Climax.
The elephant in the room here is Will Ospreay being back, in these post #SpeakingOut times. For those not in the know, Ospreay featured prominently during that movement, as he and his partner Bea Priestley were involved in blackballing British womens wrestler Pollyanna for the crime of reporting one of Will’s mates as sexually assaulting her. Indeed, during #SpeakingOut, it transpired most of BritWres were either perpetrators, or complicit in, sexual abuse, assault (sexual or otherwise), grooming, abuse of power... the works. It was pretty grim. Probably not coincidentally, Priestley and Jimmy Havoc (someone else who was prominently named) have since lost their jobs with All Elite Wrestling, whilst Marty Scurll has been demoted from his job as Ring of Honor head booker “pending investigation” after it was long rumored but finally revealed, his relationship with a minor.
Therefore, there are quite a number of people who aren’t thrilled to see Ospreay come back to NJPW, myself and my co-host among them. And his proclivity for being a total shithead on Twitter doesn’t help matters. Unfortunately, these sorts of cries tend to fall on deaf ears at NJPW and Bushiroad. If it doesn’t directly affect them, they tend to do nothing about it. Witness the inaction they took regarding the allegations of domestic abuse by Kiyoko Ichiki against Tomoaki Honma, a wrestler the company had fired in the past (pre-Bushiroad). Michael Elgin continued to have a job with NJPW for over a year after allegations he’d covered up a sex assault by a student of his wrestling school had been made, and his duplicity about the matter on Twitter; despite this, NJPW definitely knew about the controversy, and kept him off their USA cards because of it.
(And for the record, once more -- the accuser did settle out of court, withdrew their original accusation, and indeed was named as an abuser/groomer themself. Regardless of all that, Elgin outed himself as a sex creep in numerous other ways, even if this particular case was not one of them. As well as a two-faced shit, to boot.)
Indeed, it seems as if Ospreay cheating on his partner would bring about more action from Bushiroad, as Taichi and TAKA Michinoku would tell you. Although, that seems to have its limits as well, since Tetsuya Naito had been accused of it in the past. Katsuyori Shibata was in the midst of his own cheating scandal when, well, Sakura Genesis 2017 happened and made it all a moot point.
Be all this it may, Ospreay is back in NJPW for G1 Climax, for ill or for good. I daresay we will have more involvement from all 5 men now going forward, as the roster begins to regain its former shape pre-pandemic.
Also back this year in G1 Climax, for the first time since 2015, is Yujiro Takahashi. Let’s face it, he’s been a lower card wrestler pretty much ever since then, if not before, and it was only through his being there when they needed a warm body to feud with Kazuchika Okada on returning to active shows that’s earned him this spot. YOSHI-HASHI and Minoru Suzuki are also back in, for the first time in two years. David Finlay is left out in the cold yet again, whilst Satoshi Kojima will seemingly never get his final G1 run that Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi and Hiroyoshi Tenzan were afforded. IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Jon Moxley, after ripping it up last year, also out of this year’s tournament. And of course, no shock outsiders this year either.
Block lineups:
A Block: Kota Ibushi, Jeff Cobb [FREE], Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], Will Ospreay [CHAOS], Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables], Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Taichi [SZKG], Jay White [Bullet Club], Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]
B Block: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Toru Yano [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables], SANADA [Los Ingobernables], Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG], EVIL [Bullet Club], KENTA [Bullet Club]
As of this writing, the full schedules have not yet been released. We do know that the Block matches will be the only matches on these shows, so we will not have the endless prelude tag matches this year. We will keep you posted on this.
The next show is on Friday, and the full card has not been released yet. However, there will be the junior tag finals, as well as a NEVER Comedy titles match on the show, for your entertainment.
- 9/11/2020, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)
62nd IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship Tournament Final: Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] © v. Kazuchika Okada, Toru Yano & SHO [CHAOS]
More TBA
