New Japan Pro Wrestling 1/21/2022 New Years Golden Series Day 2

New Japan Pro Wrestling 1/21/2022 New Years Golden Series Day 2

Great-O-Khan vs Ryohei Oiwa

They do some fun amateur wrestling early. Oiwa hiptosses him and then armdrags him. They trade forearms and chest slaps a few minutes later before Khan does a nice hip throw. A little after 5 minutes, Khan slams him down and then does a side choke to win it in an abrupt ending. There really was not much to this one here.

BUSHI vs Yuto Nakashima

They do some mat wrestling to start. Yuto gets a nice slap in then some stomps which sends Bushi out. Yuto gets thrown into the rails outside. They get back in and Bushi double chops him and stands on him in the corner. Bushi single leg crabs him and paintbrush slaps him. Yuto hits some good forearms and knocks him down with it at 5 minutes.

Yuto rips off Bushi's shirt and stomps him for 2. He hits some nice chest slaps then a nice hiptoss. Yuto crabs him but is hit with a bad flapjack soon after. Yuto goes for some roll-ups but is dropkicked and takes a swinging neckbreaker for 2. Bushi then crabs him(and he could barely lift him) and Yuto taps.

Yuto put out another good performance here and has some potential. He's bigger and has some fire to him and this wasn't bad at all for an 8 minute quasi young lions match.

Tiger Mask and Yuji Nagata vs Gedo and Taiji Ishimori

I wasn't really interested in Gedo matches in 2002 and I'm certainly not in 2022. Nagata avoids a double back body drop early and Tiger hits a crossbody on both opponents. The heels then go to stall a little while after.

Isihmori hits a west coast pop on Tiger and Gedo whips Tiger and Nagata with a belt on the outside while the ref is distracted. The heels rake Tiger's back.

Tiger gets out of a 2v1 with dropkicks then tilt-a-whirl dropkicks Ishimori. Nagata tries to kick Ishimori but gets eye raked and Nagata dropkicks both at the same time. Nagata then exploders Ishimori and crossfaced him. The faces double kick Ishimori and Ishimori came back with a handspring into a spin kick. Tiger hit a spin kick on Gedo then tiger drivered him for 2. Tiger got a version of the Nagata lock on and beat Gedo with it about a minute later.

This wasn't good or anything interesting.

Ishimori pulled off Tiger's mask after and wore it out.

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) vs  House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)

Ishii got eye raked and stomped by the heels outside early.  Ishii came back and threw the heels into each other and knocked over Evil good with a shoulder. Ishii was going back into the ring after being on the apron and Evil kicked the rope to crotch him. Ishii was then thrown in the corner with no buckles as usual.

Ishii hit a big backdrop on Yujiro after Yoh hit him. Goto hiptossed Yoshi onto Yujiro then they did the group clubbing spot twice. Yoshi got choked with a towel by EVIL then thrown into the buckle-less corner. Yoshi hot tagged Yoh in and he hit a flying forearm then did a kip up. Yoh cleared off the heels. Yoh hit a big dropkick then ended in a flip then took a spear from Sho after the ref got in his way. Ishii got in and hit a big german on Evil then Sho took a neckbreaker over the knee.

Sho did a nice sell for a big Yoh superkick. Togo choked Goto with nunchuks but Goto fought out and neckbreakered Evil over the knee. The faces hit a knee neckbreaker, 2 superkicks and a sliding D, then did a cut/drop combination to win it.

This was the standard House of Torture match. It's almost the same exact match they were doing last year and it still isn't very interesting. The heels cheat the whole time and the faces other come back for the win or lose via cheating.

Afterwards, the faces beat up on the heels. 

Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Togi Makabe

Naito threw out Okada early and teased a dive but did the tranquillo pose instead. Sanada and Tana did rolling armdrag reversals on each other. Sanada hit a loud dropkick to Makabe's knee.

Okada came in with Naito and got an armdrag and a dropkick to the back. Okada got the money clip on then Naito ran into a big boot from him soon after. Tana came in and got a flying forearm from Naito. Tana hit his spinning neckbreaker on Sanada then the faces all nailed Sanada in the corner.

Naito and Sanada did double baseball slides to Makabe but only got a 2 count. Makabe lariated both Shingo and Naito at the same time then Sanada TKO'd him. Sanada then put the dragon sleeper on Makabe and choked him out for the win.

This really wasn't anything special. They didn't even bother hitting their finishers here.

Overall thoughts: I only missed one match here but it's an NJPW house show and it's skippable. No one goes all out, none of the matches have much meaning and we didn't even get a rainmaker or a destino in the main event.