By Chris Vetter, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@chrisvetter73)
New Japan Pro Wrestling “World Tag League 2023”
November 25, 2023 in Kanagawa, Japan at Fujisawa City Akibadai Cultural Gymnasium
Streamed live on New Japan World
New Japan Pro Wrestling continued World Tag League on Saturday, Nov. 25, 2023. World Tag League is a 16-show tournament spread over just 21 days, featuring 16 tag teams. They are split into two blocks of eight teams. It is a round-robin tournament, so each team will have seven matches. The top TWO teams from each Block will make the playoffs, as the Block A winner will face the Block B runner-up, while the Block B winner will face the Block A runner-up. The finals will be Dec. 10. This is night 5 with the A Block back in action.
This is a giant field house with some seating in risers. Chris Charlton provided English commentary; he said Alex Zayne will join him later in the show.
1. Yuto Nakashima defeated Katsuya Murashima at 5:27. Fans are still filing in as these two traded standing switches. Nakashima is really short and thin; Yuto has several inches and pounds on him. Yuto stomped on Katsuya and was in complete control, applying a half-crab at 3:30, but Katsuya reached the ropes. Yuto hit a backbody drop and he applied a full Boston Crab, sat down for pressure, and Katsuya tapped out.
2. Atlantis Jr., Soberano Jr., and Boltin Oleg defeated Lance Archer, Alex Zayne, and Oskar Leube at 6:34. Atlantis Jr. and Zayne opened as Charlton pointed out that these two teams are both 2-0 and will face each other on Sunday. Archer bodyslammed teammate Zayne onto Oleg at 2:00. Archer’s team took turns working over Oleg. Soberano Jr. made the hot tag at 4:00 and hit a twisting kneestrike on Zayne. Soberano Jr. hit his step-up axe kick to the back of Zayne’s neck. Archer tried to chokeslam Atlantis, but Atlantis broke free and hit a dropkick on Archer. Archer hit a standing powerbomb. Leube hit a bodyslam on Oleg at 6:00. Soberano Jr. hit a top-rope legdrop across the back of Leube’s neck for the pin.
3. Yoh and Ryusuke Taguchi and “Bishamon” Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi defeated “Bullet Club” Jack Bonza, Bad Luck Fale, Taiji Ishimori, and Gedo at 8:49. Taguchi agreed to start, turned around and saw it was against Fale. His terrified face is pretty funny, and I’m not a Taguchi fan. He hit a series of punches to the gut that had no effect. He finally hit some dropkicks to the knees to knock Fale down. The BC began working over Taguchi. Yosh-Hashi made the hot tag at 5:30 and he dropped Bonza with a shoulder tackle. Bishamon hit a shoulder tackle to drop Fale. Ishimori and Gedo hit stereo kicks to Yoh’s head for a nearfall. Taguchi hit a buttbump and a plancha on Ishimori at 8:30. Gedo and Yoh were suddenly alone in the ring. Yoh nailed a superkick for the pin.
4. “Just 5 Guys” Sanada, Taichi, Douki, and Yuya Uemura defeated Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata, Master Wato, and Tomoaki Honma at 11:03. Uemura and Nagata opened. Wato entered and hit a bulldog on Yuya at 2:30. Douki entered and tied up Wato’s left arm. Charlton talked about how Wato isn’t currently in line for a title match at Wrestle Kingdom, which is unusual for the defending BoSJ winner. Sanada entered for teh first time at 4:30 and tied Wato in the Paradise Lock. Minoru entered to a big pop and traded forearm strikes with Sanada. Sanada hit a dropkick at 7:30 and he tagged in Taichi.
Suzuki hit forearms; Taichi hit spin kicks to the thighs as they shouted at each other. Nagata hit an Exploder Suplex on Taichi, and Honma hit a Kokeshi falling headbutt on Taichi at 9:30. J5G took turns beating up Honma, then the fights all spilled to the floor, leaving just Taichi and Honma in the ring. Taichi hit an andiguri. Douki hit a dive to the floor on Wato. Taichi applied a Stretch Plum submission hold on Honma, who tapped out.
5. “Los Ingobernobles de Japon” Bushi, Yota Tsuji, and Zandokan Jr. defeated “Guerillas of Destiny” El Phantasmo, Hikuleo, and Jado at 10:44. Hikuleo and Yota opened, with Yota giving Hikuleo his creepy smile. Yota couldn’t knock Hikuleo down with shoulder tackle attempts. Hikuleo hit a double shoulder tackle at 2:30. GoD worked over Bushi in their corner. Hikuleo hit a delayed vertical suplex on Bushi for a nearfall at 4:30. Bushi hit a huracanrana on Phantasmo. Zandokan tagged in at 6:30 and battled ELP, hitting a backbreaker over his knee, then a gutbuster over his knee for a nearfall. Tsuji tagged back in and he hit a backbreaker on Phantsmo. ELP fired back with a superkick and they were both down at 8:30. GoD hit stereo kicks on Gedo for a nearfall at 10:00. Bushi dove through the ropes onto Hikuleo. Yota climbed onto Zandokan’s shoulders and hit a frogsplash to pin Jado. Solid stuff.
* Alex Zayne joined commentary here.
6. Ren Narita and Shota Umino (4) defeated “Gates of Agony” Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun (0) in a Block A tournament match at 10:33. All four brawled at the bell. Kaun hit a plancha to the floor on Ren, and he repeatedly whipped him into the guardrail. In the ring, Liona hit a splash across Shota’s back for a nearfall at 2:30. Kaun hit a back suplex for a nearfall, then a Lungblower. Shota couldn’t bodyslam Liona; seconds later he hit a bodyslam at 5:00. Ren entered and he applied a rear-naked choke on Liona, but he couldn’t get the Cobra Twist on the big man. Liona hit a Samoan Drop for a nearfall at 7:00.
Shota tagged back in and hit a tornado DDT on Liona, but he missed a Hidden Blade on Kaun. Kaun hit a Lungblower on Shota for a nearfall. GoA hit a team slam on Shota for a nearfall at 9:30. Ren hit a German Suplex on Liona! Shota hit an andiguri on Kaun, then the Death Rider double-arm DDT to pin Kaun. Good match. At 0-3, Gates of Agony are all but eliminated.
7. “Bullet Club War Dogs” Alex Coughlin and Gabe Kidd (4) defeated “Chaos” Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii (2) in an A Block tournament match at 12:07. The BCWD came out first, but Yano and Ishii attacked from behind in the entrance way; the bell rang. (NJPW is VERY inconsistent here; some times the bell doesn’t ring until one person from each team is in the ring.) They kept brawling in the crowd and beating each other with guardrails. The ref was counting as the four men reached ringside; all four dove into the ring at 2:30 at the 19-count but they all continued hitting each other with forearm strikes. Ishii and Kidd brawled back to the floor; again this is a huge fieldhouse so there is plenty of room for them to brawl between the seating area and the wall.
In the ring, Coughlin chopped Yano in the corner at 5:00. Ishii tagged in and battled both BCWD, hitting a Saito Suplex on Kidd, then some chops on Coughlin. Alex hit a Black Hole Slam at 6:30. Coughlin hit a German Suplex; Ishii popped up and hit a German Suplex. They traded headbutts, then clotheslines, both staggered ad fell at 8:00. Yano entered and got a schoolboy rollup on Kidd for a nearfall. Kidd hit a rebound lariat. Coughlin hit a fallaway slam on Ishii. The BCWD hit a team chokeslam move on Yano for a believable nearfall. Yano hit a belly-to-belly suplex on Kidd for a nearfall at 9:30.
Yano got another school boy rollup for a nearfall on Kidd. Kidd hit another rebound lariat for a nearfall on Yano; I thought that was it. BCWD hit a team suplex on Ishii. Yano hit a low blow and got a rollup for a nearfall. Kidd hit a piledriver to pin Yano. A really fun match and Yano’s shenanigans worked here for me as I really thought there were a couple times he was pulling off the upset. Yano also avoided a lot of his silly stuff with the corner pads. They continued to brawl after the bell.
8. Kaito Kiyomiya and Ryohei Oiwa (4) defeated “House of Torture” EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi (w/Dick Togo) (2) in an A Block tournament match at 16:18. The HoT attacked at the bell, and they all brawled to the floor. In the ring, EVIL worked over Kaito’s left arm. EVIL choked Kaito with a T-shirt, and the HoT worked Kaito over. Oiwa tagged in at 7:00 and hit a double dropkick. EVIL tossed Oiwa to the floor, where Togo beat Ryohei up. In the ring, Oiwa hit a gutwrench suplex on Yujiro and made the hot tag to Kaito at 10:30. Kaito hit a dropkick on Yujiro. Yujiro hit a fisherman’s brainbuster on Kaito.
Togo hit the knife-edge chop to the groin on an upside-down Kaito, and Yujiro made a cover for a nearfall at 13:00. “It looks like less than a good time,” Zayne said. Oiwa hit a back suplex. Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru ran to ringside, and Kanemaru sprayed fluid into Kaito’s eyes. We had a low blow with the ref distracted. Kaito got an O’Connor Roll for a visual pin on Yujiro but the ref was distracted. Yujiro hit the Pimp Juice leaping DDT on Kaito for a believable nearfall at 16:00; Charlton believed that was it. Kaito hit a huracanrana to pin Yujiro. The rest of the House of Torture ran into the ring and beat up Kaito and Oiwa.
9. “The Mighty Don’t Kneel” Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls (6) defeated “United Empire” Henare and Great-O-Khan (2) in a Block A tournament match at 15:15. Haste and O-Khan opened with some quick mat reversals. Nicholls and Henare entered and Charlton explained how these two had a HEATED match in the G1 Climax a few months ago. (Henare landed awkwardly on his head at the end of that match.) These two traded stiff blows, and Henare hit stiff kicks to the spine at 2:30. They all brawled to the floor, with Haste whipped over the guardrail and crashing onto Alex Zayne on commentary! “Am I allowed to hit back?” Zayne asked Charlton.
Back in the ring, the UE worked over Haste. O-Khan hit some Mongolian Chops at 5:30. Henare hit some Yes Kicks to Haste’s chest. Nicholls got back in and hit a DDT on Henare at 8:30, then a Death Valley Driver for a nearfall. Henare fired back with a spin kick to the jaw and they were both down. Nicholls hit a spinebuster on Great-O-Khan. Haste tagged back in at 10:30 and hit a dropkick on O-Khan, then a rolling cannonball in the corner for a nearfall. TMDK hit a team suplex move out of the corner on O-Khan. Henare hit a Berzerker Bomb, and suddenly all four were down at 12:30. O-Khan and Haste got up and traded chops. UE hit front-and-back clohteslines on Haste at 14:30 but Nicholls made the save. TMDK hit the Tankbuster team DDT out of nowhere to pin Great-O-Khan. Wow, I didn’t see that coming.
* Haste got on the mic and said they lost to United Empire last year in the tournament, but they won this time. He vowed that they would win World Tag League this year.
Final Thoughts: Night 3 (the last time A Block was in action) was a bit of a dud. This was just a much better night of action, top to bottom. A really good main event, and TMDK is alone at 3-0 (six points) in the A Block. Considering Oiwa is still a recent graduate, he’s holding his own in this tournament, as his team with Kaito moved to 2-1. Coughlin/Kidd vs. Ishii/Yano topped all expectations; Ishii was stiff as always but Yano gave us some good nearfalls. The B Block is back in action on Sunday.
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