New Japan Pro Wrestling Castle Attack Day 2 2/28/2021

New Japan Pro Wrestling Castle Attack Day 2 2/28/2021

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs EVIL, Jay White and Chase Owens with Gedo and Dick Togo

Ishii gets beat up on early. The heels get rammed into each other and double shouldered down. Gedo and Togo 2v1 Ishii on the outside. Three people assist on an abdominal stretch on Ishii. Ishii gets 2v1'd in the ring and the ref doesn't do anything about it, then he comes back and german suplexes Chase.

Yano comes in and removes the turnbuckle pad. Gedo trips Yano. Togo puts the corner pad back on when Evil goes in and takes it off again when Yano goes in. Okada gets in and beats up on Owens. Okada ended up winning with the money clip about 2 minutes later. This was short and still felt too long and was bad with the usual BC shenanigans.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs Will Ospreay and Jeff Cobb

As usual the faces get nailed at the bell and they go outside. Will tries to plancha Kojima but nails Cobb instead. Will get 2v1'd with forearms and Kojima mongolian chops Will since Tenzan can't. Kojima does a slingshot elbow while Tenzan headbutts Will. Will takes some machine gun chops in the corner, Cobb gets involved then he takes some. Cobb also accidentally chops Will during this.

Cobb machine gun chops Kojima in the corner. Then he bridges Kojima on the top rope so Will can double stomp him. Will takes a Koji cutter. Tenzan comes in and cleans house then suplexes Will. Will comes back with a springboard elbow. Cobb gets in and takes a spinning heel kick from Tenzan then a brainbuster from Kojima for 2. Kojima takes a spin cycle backdrop then Cobb and Will mongolian chop Tenzan. Will slaps around Tenzan who comes back with the mongolian chops he isn't allowed to do.

Cobb then takes a 3D and Will gets a side effect from Tenzan. Kojima gets a Cobb superkick then lariats him hard to win in an upset. I called it when it happened that it would just be a matter of time until Tenzan went back to mongolian chops and that is what happened here. This was a fun match minus that with the heels being jerks to the legends then the legends coming back and getting a surprise win.

Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano vs EVIL, Jay White and Chase Owens with Gedo and Dick Togo

IWGP Tag Team Titles - Guerillas of Destiny vs YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto

Goto snapmares Tonga then Yoshi leapfrogs over him into a stomp. Goto then hiptosses Yoshi onto Tonga. They double back club Jado and GoD comes back. GoD hits a double dropkick and Loa powerbombs Yoshi. GoD hits some slingshot swantons on Yoshi. Goto comes in and suplexes Tama onto Loa. Loa and Goto double clothesline each other and both go down.

Yoshi gets in and lariats Tonga and Tonga hits a twisting neckbreaker for 2. Yoshi gets 2v1'd and takes an inverted 3D. GoD then hits guerrilla warfare and a magic killer on Yoshi for 2. GoD goes up on both corners for a flying attack but one misses his splash and Goto throws the other off the top rope. Goto comes in and lariats both opponents in each corner and gives Jado one too. Goto double clotheslines both opponents and spinning heel kicks Tonga in the corner. Yoshi does a neckbreaker on one of GoD onto Goto's knee. Then Goto and Yoshi hit their own version of the magic killer with a lariat on it. Loa germans Yoshi and Yoshi returns one. Tama hits a superman punch and Tama powerslams Goto hard.

Yoshi hits some forearms on Loa and Loa returns with some hard forearms. Yoshi back crackers him. Goto catches Tama on his shoulders and they do a death valley driver/superkick combo on Tama. Jado hits Goto in the back with a cane then Tama hits a jumping cutter to win it.

This wasn't too bad. It went a little long and while there was some interference, it wasn't as bad as other matches this weekend.  Probably the best match on this show which tells you how disappointing this show was.

NEVER Openweight Championship - Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Great-O-Khan

Why are we doing this match again? Khan goes out to stall early and drops Tana head first on the apron. Khan holds up Tana so Yota Tsuji can hit him outside, but Tsuji doesn't. They go back in and Khan hits a nice Karelin's lift. Khan sits on him in the corner like usual. Tana comes back with a flying forearm then flip senton's him off the 2nd rope.

Tana dragon screws him and works the knee a little. Khan tries to drape Tana's throat over the ropes but hurts his knee when he lands. Tana hits another dragon screw when he comes back in and cloverleafs him. Khan hits a gordbuster on Tana then sells the knee after at 10 minutes. Khan puts Tana in the tree of woe then sliding dropkicks him.

Khan hits a reverse slam for 2. Khan and Tana both put each other in iron claw's and Tana knocks him down with a slap. The ref gets pulled into Tana and goes down, then Khan punches Tana straight in the face. Yota Tsuji grabs a chair outside and throws it to Tana. Tana sits in it and when Khan charges at him, he gets a drop toe hold into it. Khan recovers from this super quick and Tana ends up hitting a sling blade. Tana high fly flows a standing Khan but misses the high fly flow on a laying Khan.

Khan comes back with a John Woo then does a fying shoulder for 2. Tana hits a couple of sling blades which Khan doesn't sell to omuch then Khan lariats him. Khan racks Tana over the back and spinning bombs him which was a neat looking move. Khan goes for the eliminator and Tana reverses it into a pin to win.

It was okay when Tana was doing comebacks and this was probably Khan's best showing yet, but it wasn't that good. The bar on this show is so low for quality though that I liked this more than the top two main events. The Khan character is really hampering Khan and he is just not ready for the push he is getting and Tana is wasting what may be some of the last few good years he has with this stuff.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship - El Desperado vs El Phantasmo vs BUSHI

ELP charges in the corner and misses, going out to the floor. Desperado legsweeps Bushi into a back dropkick on ELP. Bushi hits a top rope hurricanrana on Desperado then hits a running bulldog on ELP and dropkicks Desperado on the end of it. Desperado is laying on the top rope then ELP does a weak fall on his back to him from the top.

ELP runs up the buckles and walks the top, dancing like a fool up there, the finally Desperado crotches him. Bushi then springboards off the top rope into a hurricanrana on ELP. Bushi ducks a lariat then tope's Desperado on the outside. ELP then jumps up to the top rope and dives on both. ELP rips Desperado's mask up on the ramp then cradle piledrivers him on the ramp. ELP takes the mask off completely and puts it on, then kicks it. Bushi comes back in and missile dropkicks him then hurricanrana's him from the inside to the outside.

ELP starts choking Bushi with a shirt. Then he puts him in the tree of woe and goofs around before deciding to stand on his crotch. ELP springboard crossbodies Bushi then asai moonsaults him. ELP spinning racks him and then drops him out, then he does a top rope splash on him. Desperado finally comes back into the match and spears ELP, then pounds on him. Desperado lariats ELP over the top thewn does a nice tope con giro on him. Desperado tries to superplex ELP then Bushi sunset bombs him.

ELP hits a Styles Clash on Desperado which Bushi breaks up the pin on. Then he starts doing Kenny Omega stuff before Desperado rolls him up. Desperado hits an Angle slam for 2 at 20 minutes on ELP. ELP comes back and hits a CR2 and Bushi grabs the ref to stop the count. Bushi codebreakers ELP for 2. Bushi comes off the top and runs into a superkick and then ELP takes a big punch from Desperado. Desperado does two sitout spinning pedigrees on ELP and wins it.

This was a long match that was slow despite having three guys who work pretty fast in it. Most of the match had one person hanging out on the outside while the other two wrestle and ELP seemed like he got forever to do his shenanigans. You'd expect these guys to do all kinds of cool flips and stuff but that was hardly the case here.

IWGP Intercontinental Title - Kota Ibushi (c) vs Tetsuya Naito

They do technical wrestling to start. I don't know why since we know darn well they aren't going to follow up on that. Naito flurries on him in the corner and throws the ref down. Naito pops up Ibushi and dropkicks him in the knee. They go outside. Naito stomps on the knee more and Ibushi can't run because that dropkick hurt his knee so much. Naito figure fours him back in the ring.

We get more knee work by Naito then he is dropkicked by Ibushi. Ibushi sliding kicks him then standing moonsaults him. They both get back up and Naito slaps him, knocking him down. Naito puts him in a head and arm lock that Ibushi ropebreaks for. Ibushi catches Naito off the ropes with a german then Naito comes right back with a tornado ddt off the ropes. The two trade forarms on the mat then get up and exchange more.

Naito dropkicked him in the knee then put an unusual hold on his knee. Naito starts nailing him with back elbows in the corner. then Ibushi does a nice sell for a reverse diamond dust. Ibushi escapes a corner move and takes back over. He hits a deadlift german off the 2nd rope while Naito is on the apron. Ibushi then does a running knee to the head and sit out powerbombs him for 2. Naito hits a nasty looking valentia at 24 minutes and Ibushi comes back with a big lariat. Naito then comes back with a destino for 2 but Ibushi is back up in no time with a kamigoye to the back of the head, then hits a 2 normal kamigoye's for the win.

Wasn't a fan of this one at all. The early part of the match was all about knee work that was swiftly forgotten. Then they went into doing dangerous moves which they didn't sell too much. There wasn't any story to this except for Ibushi taking a whooping for half the match and the crowd not being able to cheer also didn't help. 

El Desperado came out after and challenged Ibushi for the anniversary show.

Overall thoughts: Not a good one. The main wasn't too good and neither was the three-way. Tana/Khan had some okay points. I liked the Tenzan tag though and the GoD tag. NJPW has got to get rid of the Bullet Club shenanigans as it is destroying this company.