Andrew’s NJPW Power Struggle Results & Match Ratings: 11.7.2020

Power Struggle has quite a bit on the line this year! Yano puts his KOPW Trophy on the line against Zack Sabre Jr! Shingo Takagi and Minoru Suzuki have their NEVER Openweight rubber match, someone might die!

We have two briefcase matches as well. KENTA defends the US Briefcase against Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi defends the G1 Briefcase against Jay White! We can’t overlook the Okada match since this is one of the first building blocks for Will Ospreay and Great O’Khan’s new faction.

Lastly we have the double title match, which even Naito hates. So I’ll just say hopefully Naito can put EVIL behind him and focus on more interesting opponents.

Let’s find out what changes hands!

Ratings:

• KOPW 2020 No Corner Pad Match: Zack Sabre Jr vs Toru Yano (c): Yano retains via Count Out @12:11 – ***
• NEVER Openweight Championship: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs Shingo Takagi: Takagi wins via Last of the Dragon @18:56 – **** ¼ – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Great O’Khan w/Will Ospreay vs Kazuchika Okada: Okada wins via Money Clip @12:58 – *** ¼
• IWGP US Briefcase Contract Holder: KENTA (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: KENTA retains via Game Over @19:57 – *** ½
• IWGP G1 Briefcase Contract Holder: Kota Ibushi (c) vs Jay White: White wins via Back Slide w/Feet on Ropes @18:47 – *** ¾ – Briefcase Change!!!
• IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs EVIL: Naito retains via Destino @33:08 – **

Results:

KOPW 2020 No Corner Pad Match: Zack Sabre Jr vs Toru Yano (c)

Yano starts off by trying to complain about the stipulation he called for, and then tries to make a Gentleman’s Agreement about not throwing one another into the corners. Zack and Yano start with actual mat wrestling before Yano is the first to break the Geneva Convention or whatever, by flinging Zack into the corner. ZSJ blocks and then Yano tries to apologize, but we know where this is going.

Yano gets pinballed between all of the exposed corners and ZSJ dominates most of this match. Yano tries to get the corner pads and put them back up, but it never works out right for him. At one point he tapes the pad back, and dodges ZSJ’s Hip Attack, but ZSJ bounces back and stares at Yano and Yano realizes he just protected ZSJ by adding the pad, so Zack goes back on the attack.

They tease how Yano lost in the G1 when Zack applies the Knee Bar, but Yano actually fights out of it. Once they go to the outside, Zack gets cheeky and tries to wrench on the knee through the barricade with what looks like a Knee Bar or clunky Figure Four, but this is the rub. Yano ties Zack’s shoe laces together while in the move, so when the referee gets to about 12 in the count, Zack breaks the hold, but can’t get out of the barricade since his shoes are tied. Yano slides in and ZSJ is having a tantrum while being tied up in the barricade. Yano retains his trophy through the power of second grade bull crap!

This was fun and entertaining if you like Yano matches. If you don’t like Yano’s style, then skip this.

NEVER Openweight Championship: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs Shingo Takagi

Rocky Romero calls this the BMF title (we all know what the stands for), and straight from jump street this was just fun to watch. Suzuki started off a bit stronger since Shingo came in with his back taped and Suzuki had a plan. Focusing the back with strikes, chairshots and Boston Crab variations to send a message were aplenty.

Shingo also shows a lot of his talent as a wrestler in this match, selling the back injury between his posture while selling and how he crumbled during spots he usually pulls off with ease. Made in Japan, Shingo crumbled, even a simple backdrop, Shingo’s back gave out. He fired through with adrenaline, but was logical in when the adrenaline wore of, or when things were just too much. Suzuki was of course insane in his ability to absorb punishment, egg on more and dish out a ton of his own.

Fantastic strikes, fantastic resolve from both and the ending flurry showed Suzuki getting rocked but trying to reestablish his base. Every strike send Suzuki reeling forward or backwards, sometimes the selling looked a little silly, but it got across the concept of being “knocked silly”. Shingo double clutched on the Last of the Dragon, again selling the back, but he managed to pull it off and regain the NEVER title!

Highlights from “POWER STRUGGLE” (Nov 7th)
Watch full matches on https://t.co/CcdQ1XrpWA

.@suzuki_D_minoru and @Takagi__Shingo collide with the NEVER Openweight Championship at stake!

Will the war come to an end in this match?

✅ #njpst #njpwworld pic.twitter.com/EpEo24Edgb

— njpwworld (@njpwworld) November 7, 2020

Great O’Khan w/Will Ospreay vs Kazuchika Okada

O’Khan was allowed to show off a good portion of his moveset in this match. We see the Mongolian strike variations, the screaming wild man aspect that seems to be more of the call back to Killer Khan and just generally impressive power wrestling. Okada never really had control of this match; most of his moves were counters that got quickly stifled by O’Khan’s claw hold.

Okada countered the claw hold slam (which is apparently called the Eliminator) with the Money Clip a few times and O’Khan returned the favor at least once. Sadly, this match ended on the referee calling for the stop with that crappy Money Clip, but it was all to set up Ospreay and Okada’s promo after the match.

Ospreay tapped into his Ric Flair talking about prices of his suits and watches and promptly throwing them around claiming he won’t need to spend money on things once he ends Okada’s career and is crowned the best. So it looks like we’ll be getting Ospreay vs Okada at Wrestle Kingdom. Personally, I think that’s too fast, but I guess we’ll see where it all goes.

BOSJ 27 and Super J Cup announcements made during the intermission break.

IWGP US Briefcase Contract Holder: KENTA (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi

The early goings here is actually pretty amusing along with back and forth. Strike exchanges turn into Tanahashi doing some Air Guitar, followed by a kick from KENTA and then some Air Bass from KENTA, Tanahashi smacks KENTA around a little for a little more Air Guitar, then KENTA uses his briefcase and a little more striking before breaking out some Air Keyboard.

Air Piano!! @KENTAG2S is a man of many talents!https://t.co/YCKTFJJeYE#njpw #njpst pic.twitter.com/YhfnGuCsqy

— Ciaràn (@CiaranRH) November 7, 2020

KENTA pulls out his signature moves, and we get a pretty hard fought match all things considered. Tanahashi kicks out of an early pinfall attempt where KENTA oversells the kick out to fall into the referee to knock him out of the ring. KENTA goes for the briefcase again, but Marty Asami is back in the ring, a small tug of war which results in KENTA getting hit by the briefcase and Tanahashi accuses Asami of it being his fault, so there’s no disqualification.

A few Go 2 Sleep attempts were countered by Tanahashi, and instead of trying to win with the normal High Fly Flow, Tanahashi looks for the Texas Cloverleaf submission. KENTA counters it once into Game Over, then Tanahashi manages to counter Game Over into another Cloverleaf attempt, but we see a more well positioned Game Over counter and Tanahashi verbally says “Give Up”.

Given the fact that Suzuki just a few years ago had Tananhashi tied in knots and he wouldn’t submit, this is huge. This adds to the narrative of Tanahashi not being what he once was. It’s not so much an angle of the former Ace of NOAH submits the former Ace of NJPW; its more Tananashi doesn’t have it anymore.

IWGP G1 Briefcase Contract Holder: Kota Ibushi (c) vs Jay White

Jay starts this match off much like he starts every match, mind games. An immediate powder, into rolling in for a second and then powdering back out; so it takes a minute or so to get started. We get a lot of great wrestling during this match, but I’ve finally grown tired of one spot. Ibushi has a tendency to clip people during the Middle Rope Moonsault he does, so he’s got to learn to put an extra beat into it or stop doing it if he’s going to miss it. He botched it a few times during the G1, once tonight and we all remember the Golden Lovers match where it was a mess, so he needs to figure out something with that move.

Brilliantly wrestled was this match, all things considered. Jay worked over the ribs to try and kill Ibushi’s gas tank, Knee Lifts, Suplexes and early guardrail shots right to the lungs didn’t help either. Ibushi had a few of his “second health bar” moments, but Jay did a great job countering and finding opening. Never allowing the Kamigoye to land, but Ibushi also managed to find ways around Blade Runner.

Towards the end of the match, Gedo did cause just enough of a distraction to allow Jay to get a high Jacknife cover, and then the feet climbed up to the top rope and…WAIT THAT’S 3! History is made! Jay White is the first man to take the G1 Briefcase away from the winner! My playlist worked out!

IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito (c) vs EVIL

EVIL and Naito better not sniff a match against each other again until G1 next year. Holy hell these have been painful the last two matches. This match added absolutely nothing to the story and just replayed old threads and was only interesting when other people got involved.

Yujiro shows up to attack Naito, but SANADA comes out in a nice all white outfit to make the save looking like a boss. Then Jay White comes out to tease a turn on EVIL, but it turns out being Ibushi ‘s pissed off beeline to take Jay White’s head off.

The actual match, I mean, who cares right? Heel crap, low blows, pulling the referee, literally everything we’ve already seen this match was about as interesting as reading a Raisin Bran box. At least the right person won, but hell I want nothing to do with this pairing again unless EVIL wants to actually put in effort.

Post-match, Jay comes back out and let’s Naito know that he’ll be challenging on January 5^th and they continue that sitcom buddy film chemistry they had last year. Ibushi slowly walks out like Jason from Friday the 13^th and Jay starts bailing. Screaming at him that he lost, and back on his heels as he tries to tell Naito he’s coming for him while running in fear of Enrage Ibushi.

Overall Score: 7.5/10

Even though the main event match itself was terrible, some of the threads they threw into it made things entertaining. Jay White making history by taking the briefcase (though through cheating means) adds to that story, SANADA making the save is interesting since he beat Naito during G1 so he does have a claim to the belts if Naito stays champion. So 2021 could be an interesting year for SANADA and LIJ in general.

As for the rest of the card, Takagi/Suzuki was the banger we all expected, Okada/Ospreay is a building story…I just don’t like having them face each other so quickly after creating a new group. KENTA keeping the US briefcase sets up for a marquee match if Moxley is able to defend by Wrestle Kingdom. Yano keeping the trophy is perfect for 2020 and Tanahashi may have a big transition year coming up.

I could definitely see Ibushi tap into the darkside and have a match with Tanahashi for Wrestle Kingdom, Ibushi was also making a few comments about SANADA recently, so Ibushi/SANADA is a team I could get behind. All in all, we ended with a bad match, but almost like NJPW knew, they threw in enough distractions and fun stuff to keep people sports entertained.

Not the best show, but definitely solid enough to check out…except for the main event.