New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/19/2022- New Years Golden Series Day 14

New Japan Pro Wrestling 2/19/2022- New Years Golden Series Day 14

I covered the big four matches here:

Kazuchika Okada, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)

Okada and Naito got in and did nothing before tagging out. Nagata and Shingo traded shots and shoulders and Shingo slammed him. Okada came in and tied up Hiromu's arms for a stretch as he stared down Naito. Kojima hit his machine gun chops on Hiromu then took a shotgun dropkick from Hiromu.

Naito did his corner leg sweep/slingshot dropkick on Kojima. Koji comes back with a planting DDT. Okada and Naito traded forearms and Naito hit a back elbow. Okada hit a heavy rain F-U style move. Naito neckbreakered Okada on his knee then neckbreakered him again. Naito then hit a flying forearm on him. After the match, Naito threw Okada into the rails and posed over him.

Shingo and Nagata traded forearms and Nagata explodered Shingo. Nagata hit a brainbuster and took a backdrop from Shingo. Naito hit a destino on Okada out of nowhere. Nagata and Shingo traded strikes and Shingo hit a sliding lariat. Shingo then hit a big lariat for 2. Shingo then won it with a last of the dragon on Nagata for the win.

Not a bad 6-man. Shingo and Nagata's sections are always fun and they kept the action fast paced here.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Four Way Match - Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask (c) vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori vs. Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Everyone goes at it to start. Tiger gets held up for a side slam and YK dropkicks him. Tiger then gets put in tree of wore and ELP and Ishimori stand on his crotch in the corner. ELP misses a plancha to the floor and lands on the floor. Eagles hits a standing shiranui on Wato. Ishimori drops Eagles' throat on the rail outside.

TM tope's Taguchi outside. Ishimori is thrown into the ropes then comes off the 2nd rope and moonsaults Despy outside. Wato then does a tope con hilo to YK. ELP goes up top and Eagles jumps up there to hurricanrana him onto people outside. Tiger top rope butterfly suplexes Taguchi then Eagles 450's Taguchi.

Ishimori does a handspring flip kick on Eagles then ELP asai moonsaults Eagles. Eagles is put on ELP's shoulders, Ishimori knee drops Eagles then ELP release UFO's him. Ishimori goes on ELP's shoulders and code breakers Tiger, then ELP ends up moonsaulting Ishimori. YK moonsaults Eagles for 2.

Wato and Eagles do spin kicks on each other and Taguchi butt bumps Tiger. Taguchi then hits a double butt bump and counters ELP's springboard move with a butt bump. Taguchi holds up Tiger then Wato does a jumping flatliner for the win.

This was a total spotfest as it really only could be with such little time and so many people involved.

IWGP Tag Team Title Match - Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (c) vs. House Of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)

The faces get jumped during their entrance here from behind. The faces hit a double shoulder then Yoshi is hiptossed onto Yujiro. They then beat down Evil's back. Yoshi was tripped near the ropes and then rammed into the rails and dropped onto the apron. Togo and Sho then choked Yoshi with chairs.

Yujiro did a sliding dropkick on Yoshi for 2. Evil put Yoshi in an abdominal stretch and his partners helped him pull for more leverage. Evil went for a kick and Yoshi threw his leg into the ref, then kicked him, which is something that Evil did to people a lot.

Goto gets the hot tag in and clears off the heels. He hits a great spinning heel kick on Evil for 2. Goto went into the exposed buckle then Yoshi did as well. Evil choked Goto with a shirt and Yujiro hit a big lariat on Yujiro. Goto went into the exposed buckle but then lariated Evil.

Togo gets on the apron to distract the ref and Yujiro low blows Yoshi. Yoshi is then thrown into the ref. Yujio takes a 4v1 then Goto comes in with a stick and his buddies help him clear them off. Yoh flip dives onto 2 HoT members. The faces do a double team where Yujiro is held up then has his face dropped on Goto's knee. Goto and Yoshi then do a russian leg sweep + neckbreaker combo.

Evil goes into the exposed buckle then Goto hits a ushigoroshi. Yujiro then is held up with his back facing the mat and Goto elbow slices him for the win.

This went a little longer than they needed to and we've been seeing variations of this match every show for the last 2 years. Still, I did like this. The faces dealt with the usual HoT heel tactics BS and made some nice comebacks to win it. This would be a great end to the HoT gimmick, but we all know we will be putting up with it for a long time.

IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Sanada

Slow start here and Tana punches Sanada in the gut in the corner. Tana then twisting crossbodies him off the 2nd rope. Tana armlocks Sanada outside and pulls Sanada around the post. Sanada pulls Tana into the post and Tana barely makes the count.

They trade forearms for euro uppercuts. Tana gets put in the paradise lock. Tana then reverses Sanada's sunset flip and puts him in the paradise lock. Sanada goes outside then Tana crossbodies him from the top to the floor. Sanada tries to beat the count to come in and gets dragon screwed on the ropes. Tana then puts him in a texas cloverleaf.

Sanada goes for a hurricanrana but is caught with another texas cloverleaf. Tana hits a slingblade and then tries a high fly flow but Sanada blocks it...with his worked on knee. Tana missed a corner charge and Sanada did a moonsault into a dragon sleeper and didn't sell the knee.

Sanada went up for a moonsault then Tana got his knees up. Tana hit some twists and shouts. Tana then hit a sling blade for 2. Tana hit a standing high fly flow on Sanada but Sanada rolled through and TKO'd him. Sanada hit a moonsault then missed the 2nd.

They traded forearms and Sanada hit a spinning forearm. Sanada then took a straightjacket german for 2. Tana missed a high fly flow and Sanada rolled him up for the surprise win!

They ignored some of the knee work they were doing early on, but they did a bunch of unique counters and surprises to make up for some of it. They really did put out a good effort here and did some different stuff than usual and it made for a fun match. 

Overall thoughts: I liked what I saw. They put some good efforts in here and the pace was a lot quicker than last week's bigger shows. The main was very good.