New Japan Pro Wrestling 11/11/2012 Power Struggle iPPV Review

New Japan Pro Wrestling 11/11/2012 Power Struggle iPPV Review

Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Liger, Negro Casas, Tiger Mask and Captain New Japan vs YOSHI-HASHI, Takayuki Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Jado

Toru Yano pinned Manabu Nakanishi with a low blow and a roll-up. This is your typical "Let's get everyone on the card so they can be as lazy as possible" opening match. This wasn't very good, it wasn't going to be very good and it was a waste of time.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship - Forever Hooligans - Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov vs Time Splitters - Alex Shelley and KUSHIDA

"Come over here. You tell all these people to stand up because I'm gonna sing the Russian anthem." - Alex Koslov

This being Japan, the people actually stood up.

The crowd actually clapped after this. I'm not joking. I prefered Nikolai Volkoff's version.

"Who's the f***in man?" - Alex Koslov

The finish

Alex Shelly pinned Rocky Romero after a double team Shiranui. Pretty good match here but not their best. They had more fun with this and they had less time. There was alot of quality here but nothing like they would normall give you with enough time. Rating:**1/2

Minoru Suzuki and Taichi vs Yuji Nagata and Ryusuke Taguchi

"Shake hando desu yo." - Announcer
"Shake hands" - Translation

Taichi pinned Yuji Nagata after a Gotch-Style Piledriver and a low-fly flow(assisted crossbody). This was more stuffing instead of potatoes. Little wrestling here with everyone mostly screwing around. No real story or anything besides the heels being goofs.

IWGP Tag Team Championship - Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr. vs Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

The finish

Lance Archer pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan after a double team powerbomb. Strong match here. The crowd was into this and I'm really getting into Smith and Archer. TenKoji work great against big foreign teams and they did here today. I seriously would say that this is the second best match on the show. Rating:***

Togi Makabe and Wataru Inoue vs Kazushi Sakuraba and Katsuyori Shibata

 Kazushi Sakuraba beat Wataru Inoue with a kimura. This one wasn't that great. Sakuraba was really akward doing wrestling and this match was so short that it couldn't amount to much. Shibata and Togi fought outside for alot of this so they totally weren't even in it. I'm just not into this feud but since Shibata and Makabe went at it again after, I don't think this is the end of it.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight title - Low-Ki vs Prince Devitt

Prince Devitt beat Low-Ki with a cradle out of a Ki-Krusher. Great match with a very random finish. Both guys did alot of cool moves and they went pretty much all out for this and I liked it. I can't figure this out, but it may have been better than the Ki/Ibushi matches even though I like Ibushi alot more. Good junior wrestling here with a nice flow. This is worth a look. Rating:***


Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight title #1 Contender - Kazuchika Okada vs Hirooki Goto
オカダ・カズチカ vs 後藤 洋央紀

Kazuchika Okada beat Hirooki Goto with a lariat. This was not that good. Everything except the last 4 minutes was pretty much garbage. Both guys looked like they were running on empty and they took so many breaks for air without anything significant inbetween. They went towards their finishes at the end and it heated up there but I don't know if I can really buy Goto just losing by a lariat. Rating:**

IWGP Intercontinental Title - Shinsuke Nakamura vs Karl Anderson
IWGPインターコンチネンタル選手権試合 - 中邑 真輔 vs ザ・マシンガン”カール・アンダーソン

Shinsuke Nakamura beat Karl Anderson with a running Boma-Ye. This was similar to the previous match and they didn't pick it up until the end. Even with that though, this was the lesser bout. It just didn't click that well and the crowd could have cared less. It felt almost like a house show match. Very disappointing match. Rating:*3/4

IWGP Heavyweight Title - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Yujiro Takahashi
IWGPヘビー級選手権試合- 棚橋 弘至 vs 高橋 裕二郎

Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yujiro Takahashi with the High Fly Flow. Yujiro put in a good performance but he's not at this level yet. I do like his new character but this isn't WWE and character is only going to get you in the midcard at NJPW, unless you are like 6'7. He put forth effort but it went too long and no one believed he had any chance whatsoever. I think everyone knew the money match is Tanahshi vs Okada and that won't be until 1/4/2013. They tried but this is a Korakuen Hall main event, not a PPV main event.

Overall thoughts: This wasn't a PPV, it was a house show. Most of the matches didn't get enough time and the work was noticeably down from the first PPV. I got the feeling that the workers stepped it up for the first PPV because it was special but once they heard the numbers, they figured there was no reason to go all out here. Nothing was bad but nothing was what it should have been. Some of it was due to the match-ups and some of it was due to time and alot of it was due to little heat from the crowd. Everyone underachieved here and the most interesting people on the show (Forever Hooliganz) may not even be around due to other bookings. I don't recommend this one and it was not even as close to as good as the first one.