New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/13/2022 - New Years Golden Series Day 10

New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/13/2022 - New Years Golden Series Day 10

I skipped a few matches here.

Kosei Fujita, Tomoaki Honma and Yuji Nagata vs Ryohei Oiwa, Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Koji shoulders down Yuji then Yuji comes back with kicks. Oiwa and Fujita trade forearms then Oiwa shoulders him down and takes shots at his teammates on the apron. Yuji hits some forearms on Oiwa then face kicks his partners.

Oiwa and Honma trade and Oiwa hits a nice dropkick on Yuji. Koji hits machine gun chops on Yuji then takes an exploder. Honma misses a headbutt on Koji then DDT's him.

Fujita gets some forearms on Tenzan and shoulders him over. Fujita hits a big slam on Tenzan then crabs him while Yuji has Oiwa in the crossface. Fujita hits a dropkick on Tenzan and gets lariated. Tenzan hits an extended leg version of the boston crab and wins it.

This was a long one for an opener at 11 minutes.

Togi Makabe vs Great-O-Khan

They shoulder battle early and Makabe knocks him over. They go outside and Togi gets thrown into the rails. khan suplexes him for 2. Togi blocks a boot and lariats him. Togi lariats him again for 2 then Khan does a stiff shoulder throw.

Togi lariats him and throws him off the top rope. Togi gets right back up though and lariats him a little later. Khan puts him in a claw sleeper. Khan then hits a claw slam and wins it.

This was really slow from the start even though it was only going to be 7 minutes long. It should have been more explosive. It ended up being an okay heavyweight match, but it could have been done better.

El Phantasmo vs Tiger Mask

Tiger does a nice shoulder throw early. ELP fakes an eye injury then pulls Tiger into the buckles. ELP hits a nice dropkick for 2. ELP goes outside and Tiger tries to dive him but gets enzugiri'd on his way out, then ELP rakes his back.

ELP sings Tiger's theme song then goofs around while walking the ropes and gets crotched. Tiger armdrags him off the top. ELP crossbodies him off the 2nd rope then Tiger moves on his asai moonbsault. ELP then topes him.

ELP does a nice senton atomic then asai moonsaults him. Tiger comes back with a tiger driver for 2. Tiger tombstones him then misses a diving headbutt. ELP then hits a top rope frogsplash for 2. Tiger gets a crucifix then really cranks back on his arm. Taiji Ishimori then just comes in and nails him for the DQ. Taiji unmasks Tiger then Robbie Eagles comes to his defense.

The match wasn't that bad but the ending was just dumb and made it a total waste of time.

NEVER Openweight Title Lumberjack Match - EVIL (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii

Evil stalls outside early then takes some chops. The buckle gets undone and Ishii charges into it. Ishii gets thrown outside and is beaten up on then the lumberjacks all brawl. Evil chairs Ishii on the outside.

Ishii comes back with chops then gets pulled outside by the lumberjacks and beat up on. Ishii fights off House of Torture outside. Yujiro gets in the ring and Ishii fights him off and backdrops Evil. Evil then has to fight off the lumberjacks outside.

Ishii hit his chop and forearm combo in the corner. Ishii and Evil fight up top, then Yujio pulls down Ishii with a powerbomb. Togo gets in the ring and Yujiro tries then Ishii takes a magic killer. Evil superplexes him. Evil grabs the ref to stop a german then gets german'd anyway.

Ishii then hits a top rope brainbuster for 2. Sho spears Ishii and the ref goes flying out, then he gets beat on. The lumberjacks all fight in the ring. Everyone got out and Ishii lariated then dragon suplexed Evil. He then hit a sliding lariat for 2. Ishii then took some half and half suplexes. Evil hits a headbutt and a lariat, then another big lariat for 2.

Ishii hits a big lariat for another close 2. Evil hit a surprise STO and won it.

If they had just stuck with the lariats and suplexes, this would have been fine. But the double interference, the weapons and the ref bumps added nothing here and had multiple logic loopholes.

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & Tetsuya Naito)

Tana and Sanada go to the mat early. Sanada headstands out of a headscissors and they face off. Okada and Naito get off to a slow section and they attack each other's knees.

Okada gets his knee worked over more. Sanda tries to paradise lock on, but Okada gets out and flapjacks him and tags to Tana. Tana hits a slingblade on Sanada then dragon screws him. Tana somersault sentons him for 2. Sanada hits a nice flash hurricanrana on Tana and tags Naito.

Okada gets in and Naito dropkicks his knee. Naito throws the ref and Okada puts him up top for his dropkick. Okada ddt's him on the floor then ddt's him in the ring. Naito makes a comeback with a neckbreaker. Okada and Naito trade forearms and Naito tornado ddt's him off the ropes.

Naito top rope hurricanrana's Okada then hits a flying forearm. Okada blocks his destino and dropkicks him. Tana and Sanada got in and Sanada paradise locked him then dropkicked him out. Tana dragon screwed him and Naito and both went out. Tana then crossbodied both off the top to the floor.

Tana put Sanada in the texas cloverleaf then Okada puts Naito in the money clip. Sanada and Tana traded dragon sleepers then Sanada sunk his in. Okada broke it up. Sanada then bridged Tana on the top rope and twisting neckbreakered him. Naito sat Tana on the middle rope and backbreakered him. Okada hit a dropkick on Naito then took a TKO from Sanada. Tana hit a sling blade on both opponents the missed a high fly flow.

Tana neckbreakered Sanada then took a messy move from Naito. Naito then destino'd Okada and brainbustered Tana. Naito then hit a destino on Tana to win it.

This was a long match at 33 minutes. The first 5-10 minutes were just a time sink. I liked when they started working Okada's knee, but it played no part in the rest of the match and was meaningless. The match would have been a lot better with the crowd being able to cheer and I really think they should have cut 5-8 minutes off of this and it would have been better.

Overall thoughts: The main wasn't awful, just not great. Evil/Ishii had the usual House of Torture shenanigans and the ELP/Tiger Mask match had a bad finish. The opener and Khan/Makabe were okay, but I wouldn't recommend this one.