The Wrestling World is on Fire (Part 2)

The last few weeks from New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor Wrestling (ROH) have been straight fire for the world of professional wrestling. The fans have witnessed some of the most exhilarating in-ring performances from both promotions over the past decade, once again letting fans know there are alternatives from World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). Technology provides with those options at your fingertips.

To follow up a historic PPV, NJPW Dominion, (available on NJPW World for $9.94/month), ROH gave us Best in the World (BITW) from Baltimore, Maryland (available on the FITE app) and a week later NJPW gave fans the G1 Special in the historic Cow Palace outside of San Francisco California broadcasted live on AXS TV. Each event featured talent from both promotions, continuing the history of the working relationship between NJPW and ROH.

Each federation featured main events where their respective World Championships were on the line. ROH’s World Champion, Dalton Castle, defended his title versus Bullet Club members “The Villian” Marty Scurll, and “The American Nightmare” Cody at BITW. The G1 Special featured the main event of Bullet Club members of IWGP World Heavyweight Champion “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega defending versus Cody. The common theme here is the Bullet Club. For those that are not in the know, The Bullet Club is the hottest faction in all of the world of professional wrestling. Members of The Club are major players in many different promotions all over the world, even in WWE with WWE World Champion AJ Style, Raw Superstar Finn Balor, and the Goodbrothers of Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson.

The main events are what brings fans into the building, but the undercard is what builds repeat customers, and boy…the undercards blow fans away. Both cards were built to showcase each promotion’s talent in the best light. The opening bouts for each show were multi-man tag team bouts set to one fall. These matches were used a paces setter, a match that is fun and exciting, not too much when it comes to storylines, but a match to get the crowd hyped. This is a throwback to how the old World Championship Wrestling (WCW) would start a PPV with a cruiserweight match that was a high paced, action packed match.

The opening bout for BITW was a contest for the ROH World Six Man Tag Team Championships as the Kingdom (Matt Taven, Vinny Marseglia, and T.K. O’Ryan) defending against Los Ingoblenales de Japon (Evil, Sanda, and Bushi) in a classic matchup pitting NJPW challenging ROH talent. The Kingdom as retains in a very solid match as T.K and Taven hit their finish on Bushi that had the fans in attendance popping from start to finish.

In comparison, the G1 Special opens with another clash as NJPW faction Chaos (Gedo, Yoshi-Hashi, Roppongi 3K and Rocky Romero) battled the Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, and the Tongan Fam of Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga and King Haku) to get the crowd hyped for as this match had great back and forth action with the veteran and father of Loa and Tama, King Haku, picking up the win over Gedo. This was a feel-good moment for older fans that remember how much of a badass Haku was in his prime. They all too-sweet and left the ring; this was not the last we would see of them from the Tongans.

The second bouts of both shows were considered grudge matches as in BITW Bully Ray battled Flip Gordon and in the G1 there was a rematch from Dominion as Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii (Chaos) faced Minuro Suzuki and Zach Sabre, Jr (Suzuki-Gun). Both matches, the stories the wrestlers told were just a pure hatred of each other. Bully Ray was treating Flip Gordon as a disrespectful “young boy” and Flip in return is trying to make a name for himself in the industry as this was your prototypical big man versus small man match. Flip won his match by disqualification but received a post-match beatdown only to be saved by ROH Color Commentator and former ROH wrestler Colt Cabana. Yano picked up a win for his team after a roll-up on Sabre, Jr. now making the series between the teams at 1-1. The booking of Bully Ray versus Flip Gordon will lead to a possible best of three series and possibly come out of retirement match from Cabana. For the tag match, fans will soon be seeing a one-on-one match between Ishii and Suzuki which will be a true “strong-style” match.

As the show progressed, there were many more great matches. ROH had a 10-woman tag team match as Sumie Sakai, Jenny Rose, Mayu Iwatani, and Tenille Dashwood defeated Kelly Klein, Kagetsu, Hana Kimura, and Hazuki in a fun women’s tag match.

Following up that was a “The Collector of Championships” and “The Greatest Man that Ever Live” Austin Aries defeating Kenny King in a classic wrestling match. The interesting story behind Aries is the Impact Wrestling World Champion, the IPW UK World Championship and the DEFY Wrestling Championship and a former and first-ever two-time ROH World Champion. The relationship between King and Aries goes back over a decade and this was considered a battle for respect.

The most underrated performer in all of the world of professional wrestling is the Franchise of ROH, Jay Lethal defeated NJPW star Kushida in a match-of-the-year candidate. The name of the show was named Best in the World, and Jay Lethal is on that list of performers. Lethal is a former ROH Television and World Champion and is the only man to hold both titles concurrently. The story being told is that Lethal has had a stretch of losses and in order for him to earn his way back into the main-event picture, he had to get the wins back versus all the men who have defeated over the past year. Lethal defeating Kushida with the best-named finisher in the business “The Lethal Injection” in another amazing near 5-star quality match with a match that had great ebbs and flows, telling a great story with Lethal climbing the ladder back to championship contention.

Kushida had a match at the G1 Special as well as he teamed with “The Ace” Hiroshi Tanahashi, but were defeated by Bullet Club members Adam “Hangman” Page and “The Villian” Marty Scurll. Not a good week for Kushida as he took two pinfalls in both the NJPW and ROH shows.

Similar to Kushida, “Hagman” Page pulled double duty as he challenged Punishment Martinez just a week earlier in a “Baltimore Streetfight” for the ROH World Television Championship. Martinez retained after a chokeslam through a table in a brutal hardcore match where they used chairs, tables, thumbtacks and other “fun” weapons.

The NJPW Never Openweight Champion Hirooki Goto was challenged by Jeff Cobb in was a legit hoss fight. Goto just earned his championship back from Michael Elgin back in Japan, and Cobb has come on the spot recently. Every Openweight Championship match is a true display of “strong style” the “spirit of the fight” a display of physicality that not many can match. Cobb dominated early, but the resiliency of the champ allowed him to hold on to his championship. There will most definitely be a rematch soon.

The #superkickparty of the IWGP World Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, The Young Bucks (Nick and Matt Jackson), battled for the ROH World Tag Team Championships against the Briscoes (Jay and Mark) and then just one week later defended their IWGP Tag Titles versus the former champs Evil and Sanada of Los Ingobernales de Japon. The Briscoes are exactly what their characters are on television, rough and tough country boys that will punch you in the face. The Young Bucks are arguably the most popular tag team in the world. Evil and Sanada are Japan’s top tag team. There could be a build for a three-way dance as all these teams bring different styles to the table as performers. The Briscoes were true heels as they took a couple cheap shots to retain the ROH Tag Titles at BITW, but So-Cal Uncensored attacked the Briscoes post-match as they look to be the next challengers. The Bucks bodies have taken a beating over the bast couple of months, somehow held on to their IWGP Tag Titles at the G1 Special versus Evil and Sanada hitting all their spots with superkicks and picking up the win with the Meltzer Driver.

Kazuchika Okada’s 720-day reign as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion ended and Dominion and this was the first time in recent history he was not in the main event of an event from NJPW. Okada teamed with fellow Chaos member, the “Arial Assasin” Will Osprey battle rival faction Los Ingobrenales de Japon members Tetsuya Naito and Bushi. Osprey seemed to be holding back as he did not do much of his normal offensive maneuvers. The finish saw Bushi taking the fall from Osprey as both Naito and Okada were protected.

NJPW’s G1 Special had a major scare during the IWGP World Jr. Heavyweight Championship as the Hiromu Takahashi retained versus Dragon Lee. This has been a rivalry that has spanned across four continents. The match was another 5-star quality match as the two used the attributes that brought them to the dance. Dragon Lee, although a Jr. Heavyweight, has incredible strength and put that on display with various suplexes and slams. The was a spot where Lee performed is Dragon Driver, an over-the-head driver/slam, with Takahashi landing directly on his head. Takahashi somehow finished the match and hit his Time Bomb finisher for the victory. It has since been revealed that Takahashi suffered a broken neck and the timetable for his return has not been determined. He would likely have to forfeit his championship and a tournament will be held to crown a new IWGP World Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

Professional wrestling has very few legit heels in the business, but the IWGP United States Champion “Switchblade” Jay White has become one of the best villains in the business. He defended his title versus Juice Robinson. There are many layers to the story as Juice has come up short in every championship opportunity has received. Another plot to this match was that Juice is left handed and his hand was broken and if Juice used his cast as a weapon, he would be disqualified. Both wrestlers came up together as young lions in the NJPW Dojo and now have the opportunity on an international stage to show off who they are and what they can do in that squared circle. This match seemed to throw the rule book out the window as they fought all around the ring, used the ring barriers as weapons. One spot saw White threw Juice into the announce table and knocked over the team of Jim Ross and Josh Barnett. Barnett, a former pro wrestler and MMA fighter in his own right, got up in Jay White’s face and as the heel that he was, ran away from the confrontation. Barnett returned to the commentator booth and called out White as a pansy. The finish of the match saw a few false finishes as White kicked out of Robinson’s finisher, the Pulp Friction, then as White tried to hit his finisher, the Blade Runner, Juice countered into a roll-up for the win and finally winning his first singles championship in his career. The story of Juice Robinson’s journey to a title victory, had the fans explode they felt this win with him. This was brilliant pro wrestling storytelling.

Each show had a main event that delivered. Best in the World had ROH World Champion Dalton Castle retained in a triple threat match against two Bullet Club members in Cody and Marty Scurll. Once again, wrestlers doing double duty working both shows. Dalton Castle is the new flamboyant face of Ring of Honor. His character is unique as he sticks out like a sore thumb when compared to the traditional idea of what a professional wrestler looks like. The wrestling peacock with his “boys” in-ring credentials exceed many of the current stars. Cody and Scurll are who they are, and being Bullet Club, one would deduce that they would work together. Castle was wrestling with a few injuries including a broken hand and cracked vertebrae. Castle retains as Scurll hits Cody with Crossroads and then walks right into the Bangarang from Castle for the pinfall. Peacockmania is running wild!

Cody then flies cross-country then challenge “Mr. 7-Star,” “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega, in his first title defense as IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in the NJPW G1 Special. This match will end the feud between Kenny and Cody as who is the leader of Bullet Club. This match was a physical trainwreck. Kenny nailed Cody with what seemed like an infinite amount of V-Trigger knee strikes. Two amazing high spots saw Cody hit a superplex off an 18-foot ladder and later in the match, Omega sent Cody over the top rope with a powerbomb through a table, which did not break and it seemed Cody might have been knocked out when the back of his head hit the table. Kenny retains as he hits one more V-Trigger followed by his finisher of the One-Winged Angel for the win. The feud is over as both men shook hands and went on their way. Omega addressed the crowd and thanked them for coming and that NJPW and the fans are changing the world.

The show closes with the reappearance of the Tongans celebrating with the The Elite segment of Bullet Club in Kenny Omega and the Young Bucks. They all too-sweet each other for a bit and then…bedlam as the Tongan family completely destroys Omega and the Bucks. They brutalize The Elite and then other members of Bullet Club run down for the saves, the Tongans decimate them as well. From Hangman Page to Marty Scurll, then Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi. The Tongans ripped off their Bullet Club shirts and revealed their new shirts labeled Bullet Club Firing Squad.

The OG BC have been sitting in the cut…waiting for their moment to strike, like a viper. Leaving bodies lying, the newly minted Firing Squad has told the wrestling world that they are no longer taking a back seat to the rest of Bullet Club. Later in the week, a video was posted as Firing Squad has two more members, The Underboss Bad Luck Fale and the third son of King Haku, HIKULEO. Only time will tell where this angle will lead when it comes to professional wrestling’s most popular group.

Again, the working relationship between NJPW and ROH has brought wrestling fans two great shows in consecutive weeks. Fans will also be treated to the four week round robin tournament named the G1 Climax. The winner of this tournament will earn a spot in the main event at the NJPW premier event, WrestleKingdon. ROH will start programing to find their new top contender to Dalton Castle’s ROH World Title, which currently looks to be Jay Lethal. When fans continue to complain about the product that WWE is forcing them, all they have to do is make a little effort and there are plenty of alternatives available. For a fan that has never seen an ROH or NJPW show, these two productions are a great way to start. AXS Tv provides replays of NJPW programing and they NJPW World service is worth tons more than the under $10/month that they ask for. ROH television is available on the FITE app along with their major PPVs. The rise of the independent wrestling world has been lead by NJPW and ROH. These shows continue the hot streak that has wrestling ablaze!