New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/11/2022 - New Years Golden Series Day 9

New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/11/2022 - New Years Golden Series Day 9

They are at a really nice venue, but they don't have much of a crowd. There's 9 matches here and I will skip a few of them.

Tomoaki Honma vs. Ryohei Oiwa

Oiwa shoulders him down early. They trade chops and Oiwa goes down. Honma hits more chops and Oiwa hits a nice dropkick. Oiwa then crabbed him but Honma got to the ropes.

Honma falling headbutts him and Oiwa comes back with slaps and a dropkick. Honma gets him good with a lariat then wins with a boston crab. This was the usual young lions match but Oiwa looked good with some fire and he hit his moves well.

Suzuki-gun (DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi)

Hiromu headscissors Douki early and runs into a knee when running the ropes. Hiromu lifts Douki for a headscissors on Kanemaru then Hiromu dropkicks Douki. Hiromu goes over the top then Douki pulls the rope down then Hiromu gets ddt'd on the floor by Kanemaru.

Hiromu gets stomped by his opponents. Douki and YK then double dropkick Hiromu. Hiromu hits a nice falcon arrow on Douki then Douki missile dropkicks YK off the top. Bushi was put in the figure four then Douki springboard doublestomped him while he was in it.

Douki gets double hiptossed forward then hiptossed backwards onto his gut. Kanemaru then takes a powerbomb/suplex combo for 2. A little later, Bushi goes for a codebreaker but YK stops it and picks up the win.

This was a fast paced match. Not a lot of great storytelling or anything here but it was fine for what it was.

Satoshi Kojima vs Great-O-Khan

Khan jumps Kojima early and chops him. Kojima clotheslines him over the top then plancha's him. Kojima then throws Khan into the rails. Kojima stomps on him then takes a forearm and is down for a long time. Kojima gets irish whipped then falls forward. Khan hits a great Karelin's lift and lifts up Kojima on a pin to punish him more. Kojima mounts a comeback and hits machine gun chops.

They fight on the apron and Koji ddt's him on it. Koji hits his top rope elbow for 2. Khan puts Kojima in an octopus then claws him as well. Koji comes back with a Koji cutter. Khan got an elbow slice in and Koji comes back with a brainbuster. They lariated each other at the same time amd Koji won the battlew then Khan hit a claw slam and won it.

This was going well then they ran the match too long and brought it down. I thought the apron move should have been the finish or lead to the finish and I thought Kojima oversold the forearm shot.

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)

Tana and Sanada roll on the mat to start. Nagata flips out of a Shingo wristlock and kicks him from the mat. Nagata and Shingo trade forearms and Shingo shoulders him down after a kick. Nagata overhead belly to belly's him for 2. He and Shingo trade forearms. Nagata enzugiri's him then takes a sliding lariat.

Okada gets in and nails Naito on the apron, then is suplexed by Shingo. Naito gets in then hiptosses him and dropkicks him. Naito then twisting neckbreakers him. Naito puts Okada in a version of the figure four and Okada rope breaks. Okada hits a big boot and Naito flip sells it. Okada then hits his over the back neckbreaker on Naito and tags out. Tana gets in and flip senton's Naito for 2 off the 2nd rope.

Sanada atomic drops Tana when he gets in and puts Tana in the paradise lock. Sanada then dropkicks him in the butt to break it. Nagata hit a butterfly suplex on Sanada then they 3v1'd him. Nagata then hit a twister brainbuster for 2. Tana's team hit triple submissions on their foes. LIJ came back though and Nagata got a Shingo lariat then a backdrop from Sanada for 2.

Everyone got a move in and the sequence ended with a Nagata exploder on Shingo. Sanada flipped out of a german then hit a TKO. Sanada hit a grounded dragon sleeper on Nagata and won it.

This was about the usual trios match we see from these guys nightly. It wasn't bad but as usual, the odd man out (Nagata in this case) spends the majority of the time in the ring. Nothing wrong with it, and it was a little better than the usual offerings but nowhere near anyone's best.

After the match, Naito leglocked Okada on the floor.

Gedo vs. Tiger Mask

Gedo stalled early and started running after taking leg kicks. TM hit a nice crossbody and Gedo called for a tim-eout and walked to the back. TM followed and threw him back in the ring, then Gedo stalled more. Gedo stole the hammer for the ring bell and hit him with it. The ref saw it and did nothing about it.

Gedo started whipping Tiger with a belt. Tiger was thrown into an exposed turnbuckle. Gedo continued with the beat down and cheap heel moves. Tiger hit a crossbody off the 2nd rope and put Gedo into the exposed buckle. Tiger then tope'd Gedo.

Tiger got the belt and was going to hit Gedo with it. Gedo appealed to the ref and he pretended he had something in his eye, which is bogus. Tiger hit some kicks then Gedo super kicks him for a close 2. Gedo goes for brass knucks but the ref stops it. TM kicks Gedo and gets a tiger driver for 2. Gedo low blows him for 2. Tiger then wins it with a Fujiwara armbar.

This went way too long and they had the exact match you would expect with Gedo cheating and Tiger trying to work around it. I didn't like the ref ignoring the rules multiple times here since it just throws all logic out of the window.

SHO vs YOH

Yoh jumps Sho during his entrance and Sho hits him with a wrench he had in his gear. Yoh then sends him into the rail. Sho throws a young lion at Yoh then rams him into the rails. Sho chokes yoh with a turnbuckle connector pad then chairs Yoh's back. Sho and Yoh trade forearms.

A little later Yoh nice dropkick and hits a tope con hilo. Yoh backflips out of a lariat. Sho puts the ref in Yoh's way then spears him. Sho sits on Yoh and hammerlocks him. Sho ties up Yoh in the ropes and forearm combos him. He then ligerbombs him with his knees up. They trade jumping knees and Sho germans him. Yoh doesn't sell it and gets lariated. Yoh then lariats him and Sho does a big sell for it.

Yoh gets rammed into the ref. Sho gets a wrench but Yoh superkicks him. Sho then low blows Yoh. The House of Torture then comes in and stomps Yoh. Ishii and Goto make the save. Sho hits Yoh with a wrench then the ref sees the wrench on the count. He questions Sho about this then Evil gets in the ring with the title and nails Yoh with it. Sho hits the shock arrow package piledriver and wins it.

This went too long at 22:26. The shenanigans with the ref bumps, interference and weapons totally brought down whatever good it had going for it. And since the crowd couldn't cheer, the match suffered more.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title - El Desperado (c) vs Master Wato

Slow start to this and with the crowd not alowed to cheer, you could honestly forget this is even on. Wato does a nice spin kick. Wato hits a headscissors and punch flurries him in the gut. Despy yanks him to the outside then is thrown into the post. Wato then gets thrown into the rails and suplexed on the floor.

Depy stomps on the leg and then works it some. Wato hits some kicks and springboard uppercuts him for 2. Wato then tornillo's him after escaping a tiger driver. Wato hits a missile dropkick for 2 from the top. Despy went back to work on the leg. Wato came back and put him in the moss covered 3 handed family gradunza. Wato went up top and was thrown off it then got alley-ooped into the buckle.

They traded shots and Wato hit him with a TTD for 2. Wato missed a spiral tap then got speared. Despy hit Guitarra de Angel and Wato had a surprise roll-up attempt soon after. Despy then won with a numero dos.

This went 28 minutes. It had somewhat of a story with Despy working Wato's knee but this just didn't interest me at all. 

Overall thoughts: A 3 hour show in front of a crowd that can't make noise. I didn't really care for the top three matches and truly I really only liked the 6-man with Tana and Okada.