NJPW - Power Struggle 2012

All nine matches for this month’s big “POWER STRUGGLE” event, which is live on iPPV for the entire world, have been announced. Both IWGP Jr. title matches are being defended, meaning that like last month’s memorable “KING OF PRO-WRESTLING” event, all five IWGP belts are up for grabs. Low Ki makes his V1 defense of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title against arch-rival Prince Devitt as their storied rivalry continues. And in a direct rematch from last month, Super Jr. Tag Tournament winners “Time Splitters” KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley again try to pry the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Title from the hands of “Forever Hooligans” Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov. A couple other undercard matches have been added, nothing too noteworthy with the pick of them being Nagata & Taguchi vs. Suzuki & Taichi.


NJPW “POWER STRUGGLE”, 11/11/12 (WPW/iPPV)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov (c) vs. KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley
2. Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Captain New Japan & Negro Casas vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado
3. Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi
4. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Low Ki (c) vs. Prince Devitt
6. Special Tag Match: Togi Makabe & Wataru Inoue vs. Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata
7. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Kazuchika Okada vs. Hirooki Goto
8. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Karl Anderson
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Yujiro Takahashi

NJPW “POWER STRUGGLE”, 11/11/12 (WPW/iPPV)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium
6,600 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House

1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley beat Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov (c) (6:20) when KUSHIDA pinned Romero after the I-94 to become the 34th champions.
2. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado beat Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask, Captain New Japan & Negro Casas (7:20) when Yano used the Akakiri on Nakanishi.
3. Minoru Suzuki & Taichi beat Yuji Nagata & Ryusuke Taguchi (9:53) when Taichi used the Low Fly Flow on Taguchi.
4. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (13:12) when Archer used the Killer bomb on Tenzan (1st defense).
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Prince Devitt beat Low Ki (c) (13:45) with a small package hold to become the 66th champion.
6. Special Tag Match: Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata beat Togi Makabe & Wataru Inoue (5:26) by referee stop (Shibata beat Inoue).
7. Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Kazuchika Okada beat Hirooki Goto (15:43) with the Rainmaker.
8. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) beat Karl Anderson (17:32) with the Boma Ye (3rd defense).
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) beat Yujiro Takahashi (25:06) with the High Fly Flow (5th defense).

* A very successful year of major shows in New Japan continued with a packed house at Osaka turning out to witness what was described as another high quality show. I wasn’t able to watch the live iPPV due to some real world commitments so no personal review this time, but I’ve been told by several that it was another stellar show with the main event especially impressing in what may have been Yujiro’s break-out match.

* Yujiro made his first ever challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Title against ace Tanahashi and put up a grand fight lasting 25 minutes. But Tanahashi’s experience and skill was too much for the CHAOS upstart and a High Fly Flow put Yujiro’s spirited challenge to rest in what looks to have been the final IWGP Heavyweight Title match of 2012. Tanahashi’s V6 defense will almost certainly take place on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome.

* Not one to be outdone by his great rival, Nakamura was involved in an exciting match too as he made a successful V3 defense of his IWGP Intercontinental Title against a man he’s had a series of super-high quality matches with this year, Karl Anderson. Shinsuke put the Machine Gun away with his Boma Ye to continue an impressive title reign.

* Kazuchika Okada retained his 1/4 title shot for the second time after beating Hirooki Goto and avenging his loss to Goto in the G1 at the same time. Okada has risked his title shot on back to back major shows in what could have been considered a stupid move but in the end it has just shown everyone how cocky, cool, and damn good the Rainmaker is. He sunk Goto with his Rainmaker finisher, ensuring the Tokyo Dome will be headlined by the big third clash between Tanahashi and Okada.

* Kazushi Sakuraba & Katsuyori Shibata’s third assault on New Japan ended in the same way as the other two, with a complete and dominant victory. They again faced the defending force of Makabe & Inoue and again make short work of them in a hot match as Shibata nearly snapped the arm of former young lion friend Wataru with a chickenwing armlock, forcing referee Marty Asami to call for the bell. There were more chaotic scenes after the macth and New Japan may have to start wheeling out some all-star teams to handle Laughter7.

* New Japan junior ace Prince Devitt began his third reign as IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion by defeating short-lived champion Low Ki in what was Ki’s first defense. As always these two put on an exciting show for the fans but there was to be no high impact finish as Devitt had to use a small package hold to regain a belt he has dominated since 2010. This could well lead to another round of Devitt vs. Ibushi, Ibushi having beaten Devitt in two successive title matches last year.

* TenKoji were unsuccessful in their effort to regain the IWGP Tag Team Title as the big foreign tandem of Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. successfully defended the belts for the first time against the team they took the title off last month. Archer & Smith Jr. have made a really impressive start to life as a tag team and two wins in a row over the famous TenKoji team have quickly established them as major players.

* KUSHIDA’s wait for IWGP gold is finally over as he and Alex Shelley, known as the “Time Splitters”, did what TenKoji failed to do and won their rematch a month later, beating “Forever Hooligans” Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov to become the 34th champions when KUSHIDA pinned Rocky.