NJPW New Year Dash Results
January 5, 2019
Tokyo, Japan
We’re set for the annual day-after-Wrestle Kingdom event at Korakuen Hall, which will be the last of its kind as next year they’re doing two nights at the Tokyo Dome, back-to-back. As per usual the entire card is a complete mystery ahead of time.
Suzuki-Gun (Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Takashi Iizuka) vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO, YOH & Rocky Romero)
Suzuki-Gun attacked before the bell and a brawl broke out into the ringside area. Rocky spent most of the early match getting worked over by Archer, who has to be about three times his size. He tried to do his never-ending lariats but Archer just stood there, hits bouncing off him like a brick wall. After a very long while YOH got the hot tag and the boys cleared the ring, briefly, but struggled to get much going against the heavyweights. It took all three to take down Davey with stereo knee strikes, and he still managed to suplex both of them. Iizuka tagged in and was almost immediately rolled up in a small package.
Winners: Roppongi 3K
Roppongi bailed from the ring as soon as the bell rang and sprinted as fast as they possibly could to the back. Romero got chased around the arena by Archer, who got led on a wild goose chase. Davey took out all the Young Lions at ringside and smashed one of them with a huge slam into the floor.
Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens vs. Tomoaki Honma & Toa Henare
Owens was asked if he regretted what happened between them and Hangman Page last night at WK13 and their attitude was basically “screw Hangman and Marty Scurll”. Basic match with Honma getting worked over for most of it as he missed the Kokeshi multiple times. Nothing out of the ordinary. They really pushed Honma wanting a singles match with Henare, and Henare being upset that he was kept off the Tokyo Dome. That said… Owens pinned Henare with the package piledriver.
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Winners: Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
After the match Chase was asked for an update and simply said, “new year, new Chase”. It’s interesting that they’re still wearing their Bullet Club cuts when they were exiled from the faction, and The Elite has totally given up that branding.
Juice Robinson & David Finlay vs. Best Friends (Chuck Taylor & Trent Barretta)
Trent’s mom was out in the crowd and he gave her a hug mid-match. Chuck was still sort of a psycho here. There was a great exchange between Juice and Trent who worked a lot of the match together, as they teased a potential IWGP U.S. title match between the two. David Finlay tagged in for another good back-and-forth with Trent, but before they could really get things going Chuck blasted Finlay with a steel chair to get them disqualified.
Winners: Juice Robinson & David Finlay
Nobody was happy after the match. Juice went after Chuck but took a steel chair to the face for his trouble. Trent did his best to calm his partner down as the crowd booed, but Chuck instead ran back into the ring and dropped Finlay with a piledriver on top of the chair.
Kushida, Jeff Cobb & Yuji Nagata vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii)
There is a RIDICULOUS amount of talent in this match, and as expepcted, it was a terrific one. Kushida and Ospreay started against one another in an intriguing match-up, as one may be looking at a heavyweight run, and the other may be on his way out. Cobb and Nagata have so much in common and work great together. After a great match for all six guys it came back down to Kushida dropping Ospreay on his head with a sick DDT. Ishii broke it up with a lariat, Cobb took out the big man, and things broke down into a brawl. Ospreay hit Stormbreaker on Kushida, thought about hitting him with that new elbow strike to the back of the head, but just scored the pin instead.
Winners: CHAOS
After the match Nagata took some pot shots at Ishii and Goto tried to get in between them. Tensions continued and the two brutes really started going at it, swinging with wild lefts and rights until all the Young Lions and their teammates had to separate them. SIGN ME UP!
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Match
Bullet Club (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Taiji Ishimori) (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Togi Makabe
I did not catch the bulk of this match as I was getting the news board updated this morning. Jado got involved several times and tried to use a kendo stick but got murddered by Makabe for his trouble. The champs ended up retaining when Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens ran out and attacked the challengers while the referee was down, dropping Taguchi with a package piledriver.
Winners and Still Champions: Bullet Club
After the match Bullet Club got together and beat the hell out of the challengers. Owens threw up the Too Sweet and there was a tense moment, but they all hugged it out in the middle of the ring. Bullet Club is whole again! Chase got on the mic and said he made a business decision to come home to his “family”. Tama Tonga kept swearing up and down that he’s a “good guy” — we’ll see how long that lasts.
Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Evil, Sanada & Bushi)
It was a great sight seeing all five members of LIJ enter one at a time, each with their brand new gold, with Naito coming out last dragging the IWGP Intercontinental title on the ground behind him. Taichi blasted him in the face with a steel chair before the match officially began, leading to a massive, wild brawl all around the arena. This went on forever with bodies put through tables, chairs used, and at one point I believe some of them were even fighting backstage and in the arena lobby. Naito got put through a table and absolutely mauled. For some reason the match actually continued…
Bushi was left alone in the ring against all of Suzuki-Gun and they damn near murdered him. Eventually Sanada crawled his way back to the ring and got the hot tag, fairing well for awhile, but the numbres game led to the same result. Evil was next, followed by Shingo who really cleaned house. Naito was barely able to walk but made it back to the ring and LIJ got some momentum going, but Taichi continued to brutally attack him. Suzuki-Gun cleared the ring and finished off Naito to end a wild brawl.
Winners: Suzuki-Gun
After the match every member of LIJ took a finisher from their corresponding Suzuki-Gun rival, and they were all left laying motionless with their titles draped over their bodies. Taichi cut a promo saying he easily assaulted Naito and did a better job than Chris Jericho, trashing LIJ and laying claim to the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Bullet Club (Jay White, Bad Luck Fale & Gedo) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yoshi-Hashi
Yoshi-Hashi is back! This was a fun main event, with Bullet Club picking the bones of their babyface opponents, especially Tanahashi, after injuries sustained at WK13. There was no “feel good moment” for the returning YH though, and no retribution for Okada after his somewhat shocking loss. Jay White continued his reign of terror, pinning YH with the Blade Runner after doing serious damage to Okada throughout the match.
Winners: Bullet Club
White got on the mic and called out Tanahashi, saying he wants the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. He’s proven he’s better than Okada, and Tanahashi knows that’s the truth. He said it’s not the era of the Ace, it’s the era of the Switchblade, and he is the uncrowned champion. “What are you going to do old man, you can barely f****ng walk!”
Of course this ended with Gedo attacking Tanahashi from behind and Bullet Club laying out Tanahashi. Okada came back to make the save but he ate a Grenade and a half from Bad Luck Fale. White dropped the champion with the Blade Runner and posed with the title over him.