New Japan Pro Wrestling Castle Attack Day 1 2/27/2021

New Japan Pro Wrestling Castle Attack Day 1 2/27/2021

I only skipped the Owens/Yano match.

The United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb and Will Ospreay) vs Hiroshi Tanahshi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima

The faces get jumped at the bell like usual. Will charges at Tana in the corner and takes a huge bump on a back body drop out. He almost cleared the post on it. Tana then did a springboard twisting crossbody on Khan. Kojima hit his machine gun chops on Khan. Kojima went up top and Cobb gorilla pressed him, walked with him a little and then threw him.

Kojima got worked on by the heels for a bit and fired back on Khan with forearms and a cutter. Khan screwed up on the forearms but did a nice bounce for the cutter. Tana came in and hit all the heels with dragon screws. Tana and Khan exchanged forearms then Khan hit a reverse slam.

Tana hit a bad twist and shout on Cobb. Tenzan went to do his mongolian chops but remembered he can't do them anymore and settled for gut kicks instead. The faces threw Cobb into a Tenzan spinning heel kick. Will messed up a springboard but ended up nailing Tenzan hard with a forearm anyway then hit some Kawada kicks and a superkick. Will then did a great flip for a Tenzan samoan drop. Tenzan went to mongolian chop him but kept remembering he couldn't and stopped himself.

Tenzan then got nailed by the heels with a brogue kic kand a superkick. Tana took a big chokeslam from Khan and Kojima ran into a Cobb tour of the islands slam. The heels held up Tenzan for an Os Cutter and Will picked up the win.

I liked this one. There was some sloppiness but the second half was fun.

YOSHI-HOSHI vs Tanga Loa with Jado.

Yoshi goes after the arm early then Loa comes back with a lariat and stomps. Yoshi continues on the arm until Jado trips him outside. Yoshi takes a high backdrop and then gets clobbered with a headbutt. Yoshi blows some kind of running blockbuster attempt. Yoshi tries to forearm battle with Loa but can't go toe to toe with him so Yoshi hits a neckbreaker instead.

They go up top and Yoshi hits a running sunset bomb for 2. Loa hits a bad jumping knee and enzugiri then spinebusters him for 2. Yoshi hits five superkicks which Loa doesn't sell, but he finally sells the sixth one. Yoshi swantons him off the top for 2 then goes back to working the arm. Loa grabs the ref then Jado gets in the ring with a kendo stick and misses. Loa nails him and the ref doesn't see any of it then Yoshi dragon suplexes him.

Yoshi hits him with a meteora then Loa's partner appears at ringside. Loa hits an ugly sitout tombstone and wins it. GoD and Jado then beat down Yoshi after. Goto then comes out and cleans house.

This was not good at all with no-selling, blatant interference and just bad work.

Tama Tonga vs Hirooki Goto

No entrances for this as it starts as both men are out there already. Goto gets thrown into the rails early and Tonga keeps control early. Goto takes a punch and dares him to hit another as he hulks up. Tonga misses a splash in the corner then gets suplexed. Goto hits a nice spining heel kick in the corner. The two fight over a twisting neckbreaker which Tonga finally hits after both reversed it.

Tonga goes for a jumping cutter but gets brushed off then he hits a jumping ddt. Tonga hits hard on a missed top rope frog splash then Goto lariats him in the back of the head. Jado gets up on the apron and distracts the ref, then Loa jumps right in and attacks Goto. He fights them off. Him and Loa have another counter sequence before Goto beats him with a slice lariat.

Without all the interference, it wasn't too bad of a match. They mostly kept the action fast paced and the reversals were kind of nice. As usual, the interference sucked though.

Jay White vs Tomohiro Ishii

Jay stalls early and nails Ishii when he comes in after chasing him. Jay gets the ref's attention then Gedo eye rakes Ishii and throws him into the rails. Jay gets thrown into the rails and plays around outside. He gets back in then they both go outside again. Ishii gets dropped throat first on the rails. Ishii then gets his ribs ran into the rails and the apron.

Jay continues to work the ribs on the inside. Ishii comes back with a powerslam. Ishii gets frustrated and starts banging him in the head then White walks into a suplex. White plants Ishii with a ddt at 10 minutes.

White then hits a death valley driver on him. they trade chops in the corner. Ishii hit some chops and walked into a reverse STO, then was deadlift german suplexed. Then he got half underhook suplexed into the buckles and into the rails. They go back in and Jay hits a twisting brainbuster and a nasty uranage. Jay then hits a kiwi krusher for 2. White goes back to the ribs then Ishii starts to hulk up. Ishii drops him with a nice forearm and when White goes up top, Ishii hits a hard headbut to his chest. Ishii then superplexes him for 2.

Ishii hits a Regal plex and Ishii nails him with a lariat. Jay comes back with a brainbuster and Ishii responds with a german. Ishii then powerbombs him for 2. Gedo openly comes into the ring and Ishii's blocks Jay's lowblow then lariats him. Ishii then does a sliding lariat for a close nearfall. Ishii takes a sleeper suplex thrn a blade runner for the White win.

I wasn't too big of a fan of this. Jay worked the ribs early, forgot about it and controlled the majority of this with Ishii not getting much in at all  I didn't like Gedo getting involved as usual either. This also just went too long.

EVIL with Dick Togo vs Kazuchika Okada

Okada hits a boot to start and Evil goes to waste time outside. Togo pulls at Okada and that gives Evil a chance to attack, but Okada comes back and hits a slingshot flip senton. Okada dropkicks Evil and he rolls outside. Okada then chases Togo and gets caught in the ring by Evil. Okada gets knocked into the rails in front of Abe then Abe and his table fall over.

Evil puts the chair around Okada's neck and swings it off with another chair. Back in the ring and Evil takes control for a bit, the misses a senton and takes a euro uppercut. Okada hit some running back elbows then ddt'd him for 2. Evil sat on top and got dropkicked to the floor. Okada chased Togo up the ramp then ddt'd him and Evil at the same time.

They get back and Evil takes control again before getting a high flapjack at 15 minutes. Okada catches him and hits his neckbreaker over the knee. Okada hits a big missile dropkick off the top rope. The turnbuckle gets pulled off and Okada is clotheslined into it. Evil superplexes him from the top. Evil hits darkness falls for 2 at 20 minutes.

Evil gets thrown into the exposed corner chest first then rakes Okada's eyes to get out of a money clip. Togo chairs Okada then gets in the ring and punches him. Okada comes back though with a dropkick on Evil and puts the money clip on. Okada hits a tombstone then puts it back on. Evil grabs the ref then Okada gets pushed into the ref. The ref goes down then Togo comes in and chokes Okada with something. Okada escapes that and ends up hititng him with a tombstone then Evil hits a low blow. Evil goes for the sharpshooter then Okada low blows him.

Okada hits a spinning tombstone at 25 minutes. Evil gets put in the money clip but makes the ropes. Evil takes a clothesline then hits a half and half release suplex then lariats him for 2. Okada blows some kind of sitting tombstone then rainmaker's him for the win.

This wasn't good at all. There was a ton of shenanigans with Togo that added nothing to the match and the two just weren't that interesting together. There wasn't any story or flow to this except for constant cheating.

Overall thoughts: I'm not a fan at all right now of New Japan. There's just interference, ref bumps and cheap weapons shots in almost every match which isn't helping anyone. People like Tana, Suzuki and Goto are being phased out and their replacements of Evil, Khan and White just aren't up to par. This show sucked and had more shenanigans than WWE has had at times.