New Japan Pro Wrestling Wrestling Dontaku 2019 Day 2 5/4/2019

New Japan Pro Wrestling Wrestling Dontaku 2019 Day 2 5/4/2019

Yuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji vs Ren Narita and Shota Umino

Uemura slaps Narita's chest hard. Uemura's pretty much going to be a star based on looks, as he's a decent looking dude. Narita and Umino stomp on Uemura. Uemura gets to the ropes to escape a boston crab and Umino dropkicks Uemura's chest hard. Umino and Tsuji have a decent little strike exchange. Tsuji hits a perfectly executed backdrop. Umino missile dropkicks Tsuji for 2 then wins with the fisherman's suplex. Good stuff for the young lions. Narita then stomps on Uemura after.

SHO, YOH and Kota Ibushi vs Tetsuya Naito,  BUSHI and Shingo Takagi

The finish

Staredown to start. They do the usual counter teases of big moves to start. Bushi and Yoh go at it with a nice chest slap exchange. Sho gets cleared out by Shingo. Shingo does a back elbow from the top. Sho and Shingo trade some shots. and Ibushi dives on Shingo and Naito. I'm pretty sure Shingo is heavier than Ibushi, yet Ibushi wrestles with the heavyweights. Go figure. Naito hits a top rope hurracanrana on Ibushi and a flying boot to the face for 2. Naito dumps Ibushi on his head with a Gloria. Naito flips off of a big Ibushi lariat. Sho and yoh double team Naito, but Naito makes them look like fools, then he gets falcon arrow'd for 2. Everyone starts coming into the ring and Naito wins it with a Destino. Throwaway time wasting 6 man for the most part.

Tomohiro Ishii vs EVIL

They shoulderblock challenge and strike exchange to start. Ishii wins it, then Evil wins a shoulderblock challenge. They go outside and Ishii's head dings off the post. Back in and Evil locks up his leg. They trade chops and Evil puts him down. Ishii does chops and forearms in the corner then he hits a big slow superplex on him. Evil suplexes him on his head in the corner, then bridges him over the railing and neckbreaker's him. Ishii homeruns him with a chair while he had a chair around his neck(see gif). Kind of a dangerous spot as it is a good way to lose teeth and doesn't look good. Evil then superplexes him for 2. Evil hits the scorpion deathlock. Evil works over the leg and Ishii dares him to do it more. Evil drops him with a forearm and they do a cool criss-cross lariat. Ishii then puts on the scorpion after having it used on him all tour long. Ishii combos him with forearms then drops Evil when he spins. Ishii hits a sliding lariat for 2. Then hits him with a big german that he doesn't sell. Ishii then goes down after a headbutt and a lariat. Ishii hits another big lariat for 2. Evil no sells a german then barely sells a big lariat. Then they both go down, which was cool. They collide on lariats, Ishii then hits 2 headbutts and a big forearm. Evil hits a half-tiger/half-dragon suplex. Ishii goes for everything is evil but misses, then they trade a forearm for an enzugiri. Ishii hits a brainbuster and wins it. It was a good match and very enjoyable, but I kind of expected more from the leadup matches they had. I don't have a ton of critiques about it aside from some of the no-selling, which didn't affect this that much, I just thought they did have a way to get a classic out of this. I think I would have liked more forearms and more hatred between the two. Still a good match and I didn't want to put it down.

Kazuchika Okada vs SANADA

Sanada has a new haircut and they do a nice IWGP title package. The announcers do a really good job here of hyping this up. They do a cool exchange of holds/counters then do the usual stare down. They don't do much at all early until Sanada works the knee a little for the paradise lock. Sanada just chills while he has him locked up and then dropkicks him to free it. Sanada headlocks him. Sanada misses a standing moonsault big then takes a diving uppercut. They have a not good exchange and Okada DDT's Sanada. Okada sens Sanada over the rail with a yakuza kick. He then dives on him over the railing, into the second row of railings. Sanada does a plancha on him to the outside. We're already 20 minutes in and they've really done nothing. They then pick it up as soon as that 20 minute announcement happens and Okada takes a springboard dropkick. Okada hits the top rope elbow and does the rainmaker pose. They do some nearfalls by exchanging sunset flips. Okada then puts on the cobra clutch, but Sanada blocks almost all of it. They roll through a tombstone and a skull-in, then Sanada puts the skull-in dragon sleeper at 25 mins. Sanada hits a spinning neckbreaker with a bridge on the ropes. Sanada hits a very clean tiger suplex for 2. Sanada goes for the moonsault but Okada moves. Okada goes for the rainmaker and Sanada reverses it and goes up the ropes to go back into the dragon sleeper. He then whips Okada around with it and grounds him. The ref teases stopping it twice. A coolspot, but they shouldn't abuse. Sanada grounds Okada in the dragon sleeper, but then lets go before we see if Okada can keep his arm up. He moonsaults Okada, then gets blocked the second time with knees. They exchange strikes and Okada does a John Woo at 35 minutes in. Sanada does a moonsault into a dragon sleeper, then Okada goes up the ropes and does his own, but quickly tries to do a tombstone. They fight over a waistlock to get a tombstone and do more teases befor Sanada gets a rainmaker for 2. Sanada then runs up the ropes, gets caught in a spinning tombstone, then hit with a raimaker for the Okada win.

It was okay but not great. The first half was meaningless and you could tell they weren't trying to actually win, just waste time. The second half just went on for too long unnecessarily and they kept repeating the dragon sleeper/tombstone sequence. I liked it the first time, but by the 3rd time, it was enough. The match wasn't bad, just long and unnecessary. I guess they are putting Sanada over some with this by showing he can go, but they really buried his dragon sleeper since he had it clean multiple times and it got him nowhere.