Andrew’s NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam Results & Match Ratings: 9.4.2021

Day One of the NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam double header! Tanahashi defends the US Title against Ibushi! Cobb gets his third singles shot against Okada! Will it be 3 strikes and he’s out?

So I wasn’t going to keep up with the Junior Tag League, because both of New Japan’s tag leagues and divisions basically just fill time. If this was a TV Show, their tag division is the filler arc and doesn’t ever really matter anymore. There’s only ever like 2 or 3 teams that matter, the rest are just to get to the end of an angle or tournament.

Now that brings us to the Wrestle Grand Slam events. SHO and YOH are no longer Roppongi 3k, Cobb gets another shot at Okada and Owens wants a serious match with Yano for the KOPW trophy. Oh yeah, and Tanahashi will make his first defense against Kota Ibushi for the US title.

I’m not sure what to make of this card, New Japan hasn’t really been exciting. So let’s see if this mixes things up and hooks me back in!

Ratings:

• STARDOM Special Match: Queen’s Quest (Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani) vs Lady C & Maika: Kamitani wins via Phoenix Splash @12:02 – *** ½
• LIJ (Hiromu Takahasi & BUSHI) vs Flying Tigers (Tiger Mask IV & Robbie Eagles): Eagles wins via Ron Miller Special @11:40 – *** ¼
• SHO vs YOH: SHO wins via Triangle Arm Choke @24:41 – *** ¾
• NO DQ I Quit KOPW 2021: Toru Yano vs Chase Owens (c): Yano wins @28:03 – ** – TITLE CHANGE!!
• Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb: Jeff Cobb wins via Tour of the Islands @27:41- *** ½
• IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Kota Ibushi: Tanahashi retains via High Fly Flow @17:47 – *** ¾

Results:

STARDOM Special Match: Queen’s Quest (Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani) vs Lady C & Maika

Okay well color me surprised they actually showed this match. The previous Stardom matches are usually dark matches just for the live audience, but it’s nice to see this on stream. Let’s be honest here early, because Momo and Saya have a title match coming up, and Maika has Lady C; it makes a lot of sense for the rag tag duo to lose handily.

Lady C is still in her rookie year, and much like with all Japanese promotions, rookies don’t get many wins most of the time, everything is basically a proving grounds match. Maika’s faction Donna del Mondo are the ones housing the tag champions, so consider this match to try and weaken the challengers while testing the rookie.

Momo and Maika do the heavy lifting early on, working on the mat and transitioning through holds and strikes. Saya and Lady C surprisingly work well together. It’s been a while since I’ve really covered Stardom because of questionable booking and the newer crop being very green, but it seems like Kamitani has actually improved. Hell even her Waterwheel Kick looked good, but Lady C is also 5’10” so I guess that helps.

The fun part here was all the saves, Lady C looked competenet and not outmatched. Hitting Giant Baba style Knee Lifts and Brain Chops, she even hit her Chokeslam, but Momo broke up the pin. She goes for an Avalanche Chokeslam, but Kamitani turns it into a Frankensteiner and rocks Lady C. Momo and Saya hit a Tandem Double Knee Strike from the corner, Saya positions Lady C and wins with the Phoenix Splash!

Even if the outcome was obvious, the women did great work, put in a lot of effort and it was a much more entertaining match than I expected.

LIJ (Hiromu Takahasi & BUSHI) vs Flying Tigers (Tiger Mask IV & Robbie Eagles)

Robbie and Hiromu start things off and the crowd is very appreciative of the counters and dodging, the respectively even motions that both went through. Robbie and Hiromu have a few “buddy” moments in the ring after that, they seem to agree to tag out, but Hiromu’s cheekiness catches the champion. So BUSHI tags in and they bum rush Robbie before he can tag in Tiger Mask.

The LIJ duo doesn’t get a done of damage in before Robbie manages to counter and tag in Tiger Mask. Flying Tigers put the boots to BUSHI and actually look pretty cohesive until the LIJ group take a few short cuts to neutralize Robbie and isolate Tiger Mask.

Hiromu took his chiding shots at Robbie from taking the bandana to using the Ron Miller special on Tiger Mask. Hiromu and BUSHI did their best to keep Robbie the legal man after he was finally tagged in. The finishing thought process was obvious to try and weaken/exhaust the champion. BUSHI tried to wipe out Tiger Mask while Hiromu blindsided Robbie, but it didn’t work very well. Robbie countered Hiromu, shrugged off BUSHI, Tiger recovered and neutralized Hiromu so Robbie hits the Springboard Sniping Dropkick, Turbo Backpack and then Ron Miller Special for the win!

SHO vs YOH

SHO’s new tron gets the story across in the video game style that his music and tron has been. He got GAME OVER after RPG 3K lost, it said Continue or End, and SHO chose End. He also comes out looking like Will Ospreay and EVIL did the fusion dance in Hot Topic with his new outfit.

YOH comes out looking focused and pissed for the first time since returning from his injury and attacks the smirking SHO before the bell. YOH takes it to SHO and it’s not until the action heads out of the ring that SHO finds and opening by throwing a Young Lion into YOH and taking the advantage. He then removes some padding from the turnbuckle and tries to break YOH’s wrist in the corner joints. OKAY, that’s clever, SHO wraps YOH’s arm in the guardrail and kicks at it to the rhythm of the Count Out.

SHO continues to taunt YOH and smack him around, and it takes a while, but YOH seems to be firing back up. YOH hits a gigantic Dropkick to stifle SHO and then we see some aggression out of YOH for the first time since that opening salvo. SHO tries to hang YOH up in the ropes and go back to the outside, but YOH stays on top, hitting a Tope con Hilo then a Falcon Arrow when they head back in for the first cover in the match. It’s not until SHO counters a Frankensteiner attempt into the Power Breaker and he puts some things together.

YOH fights back, we get some stand up exchanges and then the SHO heel stuff comes into full effect. SHO had to shove YOH into the referee twice before the referee knocked out. Then SHO hits a Spear, goes for a chair and tries to end things. YOH fights back, grabs the chair himself, but SHO begs off and YOH shows to be the bigger man. SHO hits a Low Blow, gives him a chair shaped halo and sends a message by choking out YOH and forcing him to pass out.

EVIL, Dick Togo and Yujiro come out and make it official that the change in SHO’s attire wasn’t a fluke. They do however have “House of Torture” shirts, so if they break off of Bullet Club, which would be nice. Bullet Club Japanese section really really blows; but House of Torture…maybe I could buy that.

NO DQ I Quit KOPW 2021: Toru Yano vs Chase Owens (c)

So Yano came out with his old badass GBH gimmick, dyed blonde hair, the parasol and no fun and games, only violence. The early flurry was fun, Yano met Chase in the aisle, they brawled, and Yano was definitely not messing around.

But then this match just wouldn’t end. Long spots with ladders, a “knocked out” spot after Chase drives Yano through the table…this just went waay too long. A little bit of the crafty Yano was still alive and well because he brought a bag of handcuffs, then Chase used them like a moron, because Yano hid the key in his wrist tape.

So Yano uncuffs himself, hoofs Chase in the balls, and then handcuffs Chase. Yano beats on Chase, can’t get him to quit and then Yano finds a pair of scissors. Funny Yano would cut his hair or something, but almost as a Texas Heavyweight reference to Magnum TA & Tully Blanchard, Yano just tries to stab Chase in the face. Chase tries to fight back, but you can tell he’s getting more concerned and just quits out of fear of his eye sight.

Yano gets the trophy back, but we’ll see how long GBH Yano sticks around.

NJPW announces a 3 day Wrestle Kingdom for their 50th anniversary. 1.4 & 1.5 in Tokyo Dome and 1.8 in Yokohama. I don’t feel like that’s gonna be great unless the G1 is amazing.

Kazuchika Okada vs Jeff Cobb

Why does every damn match need to be so long? I know I zoned out of this match at points because it was paint by numbers. Okada has been beating Cobb, so this was Cobb’s chance to finally defeat Okada and probably be the next challenger for the World Title since Okada had a shot recently when Ospreay had to vacate the belt.

If I didn’t see the finish coming a mile away, if the match didn’t drag for 30 minutes and if NJPW gave me a reason to care, this might’ve been a better match. But everyone got their moves in, counters, drop kicks, Tombstones, Gachimuchi Moonsaults…nothing surprising except Cobb managed to stifle Okada on the top rope, hit an Avalanche Tour of the Islands and then the short arm Tour of the Islands to finally beat Okada.

I feel a little bad for Okada and Cobb that I frankly didn’t care about this match, and it never made he pretend to care. They put in hard work, it’s just an over indulgent New Japan main event that lasts 10 minutes too long.

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs Kota Ibushi

The match started off with Ibushi overcome with emotion and Tanahashi proving this is a respectful matchup and there’s no malice. But aside from no malice, there was no clear advantage early on with both being very even and trying to rally the crowd.

As we expected, plenty of Slingblades, Twist and Shouts, Kickboxing Kicks and some great strike exchanges. The most important being when they were trading simultaneous Forearms at one another. There was a nice call back with Shingo on commentary, as Ibushi shared a moment with him very similarly to the G1 Finals when the roles were reversed.

Ibushi hit Kamigoye, but couldn’t cover, so he instead prepped the Bom-a-ye, tried another Kamigoye, but Tanahashi blocked. V Trigger dropped Tana again, but he kept blocking the actual Kamigoye. Ibushi was frustrated, tried to force the Kamigoye, but Tana sprung up and caught him with the Slingblade. Two High Fly Flows later, and Tanahashi actually retained.

Overall Score: 6.75/10

Nothing was inherently awful about this show. Just a lot went on too long, and the current stories really haven’t given me a lot of personal reason to be invested. I will give SHO and YOH credit, where that was probably the best match of the event, but the obvious Bullet Club/Heel tactics toward the end sullied what was actually a nice grudge between former friends.

As I said earlier in the article, I feel bad for Okada and Cobb. You can tell the beats were in the match to make people care, and to tell the story, but the story was cliché and Cobb is about as engaging as milk at a brewery at the moment. Which is still sad, because I know I was hard on Cobb initially because he hasn’t always brought his “A Game”, but his 2021 matches have shown the Monster Matanza ability that we all are very fond of. He’s just not in any captivating angle. So he’s put the ring work together, now he has to bring something to the table story wise or character wise.

Not gonna lie, Tanahashi winning was a little surprising as well, but since Ibushi is on the rebound from mental, physical and emotional exhaustion/illness, I suppose this was the logical step to have Ibushi fall a little short, thus giving him something to strive for in the G1.

So a decent show, just shy of really good because there was really no standout match. Just a lot of good stuff and a few that would’ve been better if they were shorter.