By Chris Vetter, ProWrestling.net Contributor (@chrisvetter73)
New Japan Pro Wrestling “World Tag League 2023”
November 29, 2023 in Shizuoka, Japan at Twin Messe Shizuoka North Hall
Streamed live on New Japan World
New Japan Pro Wrestling continued World Tag League on Wednesday, Nov. 29, 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 8 with the B Block back in action, as we have reached the mid-point of the tournament.
This is a large room with all seating on the floor and attendance is maybe 800.
1. “House of Torture” EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi, and Sho (w/Dick Togo) defeated Yuko Nakashima and “Gates of Agony” Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun at 6:21. They started brawling on the floor and the bell rang to start. (Again, NJPW is SO inconsistent on this rule. Sometimes, the bell doesn’t sound until one member from each team is in the ring.) Sho worked over Kaun’s left arm, and I see that Kaun’s arm is taped. Loa made the hot tag at 3:30 and hit some Stinger Splashes and a double shoulder tackle. Yuto entered and hit some roundhouse kicks to Sho’s chest. Dick Togo threw a chair into the ring to distract Yuto; the Gates of Agony chased Togo and ignored what was happening in the ring. Sho applied a Triangle Choke on Yuto for the clean win.
* After the bell, the House of Torture shook hands with the Gates of Agony and handed them HoT T-shirts! The GoA put them on! So… are they joining the House of Torture? My gut says no by the end of their tournament match in two days.
2. Kaito Kiyomiya, Ryohei Oiwa, and Boltin Oleg defeated “The Mighty Don’t Kneel” Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls, and Kosei Fujita at 10:02. Oleg and Fujita opened. Nicholls tagged in at 1:30 and locked up with the massive Oleg. (Again, I compare Oleg’s body to Lars Sullivan; he’s just massive.) Oleg hit a double shoulder tackle. TMDK began working Boltin over in their corner. Oiwa entered at 4:00 and hit a dropkick on Haste. Haste hit a rolling cannonball on Oiwa in the corner, then a running knee to the head for a nearfall at 6:00. Haste hit a Falcon Arrow on Kaito. Fujita got back in and traded forearm strikes with Kaito. Fujita hit a springboard dropkick. Oiwa and Kaito hit stereo dropkicks. Oleg clotheslined Haste and Nicholls over the top rope to the floor. Meanwhile, Kaito hit a top-rope Doomsday crossbody block on Kosei, then a Shining Wizard on Fujita for the pin. Good action.
3. “Bullet Club War Dogs” Taiji Ishimori, Gabe Kidd, and Alex Coughlin defeated “United Empire” Great-O-Khan, Henare, and Callum Newman at 7:39. Newman hit his running Mafia Kick on Ishimori seconds into the match that Taiji sold like he’d been run over by a truck. The BC worked over Henare in their corner. O-Khan made the hot tag at 4:00 and hit a belly-to-belly suplex on Kidd for a nearfall. Kidd hit a clothesline and they were both down. Newman entered and hit some Yes Kicks on Coughlin at 6:30, then an enzuigiri. He charged at Alex, but Coughlin hit a Black Hole Slam, then a Jackhammer for the pin out of nowhere. They kept beating up Newman after the bell, with Kidd hitting a jumping piledriver.
4. “Chaos” Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, Yoh, and Master Wato defeated Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, and Shota Umino at 7:04. Yoh and Taguchi opened, and Taguchi got crotched on the top rope for some juvenile humor. Everyone started brawling on the floor. Ishii entered at 2:30 and battled Taguchi. Shota tagged in and hit a flying forearm on Ishii, then a Northern Lights Suplex for a nearfall. Ishii dropped Shota with a stiff forearm, then he hit a back suplex for a nearfall. Ren hit a German Suplex and suddenly four guys were down in the ring at 5:30. Tiger Mask and Wato tagged in for the first time with TM hitting a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker over his knee. TM hit a Tiger Driver on Wato for a nearfall. Taguchi accidentally hit Tiger Mask with a flying buttbump. Wato got the Vendeval submission hold around Tiger Mask’s head and shoulders for the win.
5. “Bullet Club Rogue Army” Bad Luck Fale and Jack Bonza (2) defeated “Los Ingobernobles de Japon” Zandokan Jr. and Yota Tsuji (4) in a B Block tournament match at 8:41. All four brawled at the bell. LIJ hit stereo dives to the floor on the BCRA. In the ring, Bonza choked Yota with a shirt. Fale hit a bodyslam at 3:30, and he stood on Yota’s back. Bonza tied up Yota’s legs in a modified Texas Cloverleaf, but Yota reached the ropes at 5:00. Tsuji hit a suplex and they were both down. Zandokan got in and he dropped Fale onto Bonza. Zandokan hit a second-rope moonsault for a nearfall at 7:30. LIJ hit a team suplex on Bonza. Fale hit his Grenade (pop-up punch to the heart) on Yota, then a Stinger Splash on Zandokan! Bonza made the cover to pin Zandokan. It was just a matter of time before the BCRA got a victory.
6. “Guerrillas of Destiny” El Phantasmo and Hikuleo (w/Jado) (4) defeated Yuji Nagata and Minoru Suzuki (0) in a B Block tournament match at 11:34. Phantasmo and Suzuki opened, with Minoru twisting the left arm. He applied a cross-armbreaker in the ropes at 2:30; they rolled to the floor, where Minoru whipped ELP into a guardrail, and they brawled at ringside. In the ring, Nagata hit some body blows on Phantasmo. ELP hit an enzuigiri at 6:30 and made the hot tag to Hikuleo. Hikuleo hit a snake-eyes, dropping Yuji face-first on the top turnbuckle, then a Mafia Kick. Suzuki tagged in and hit some forearms on Hikuleo. Hikuleo hit a sideslam.
ELP tagged back in and traded forearm strikes with Suzuki; Minoru dropped him after a stiff blow. Yuji and Suzuki hit front-and-back kicks on ELP, but they argued and shoved each other! Hikuleo hit a Stinger Splash onto both in a corner. ELP hit a Lionsault on Suzuki for a nearfall at 10:00. Suzuki applied a sleeper on ELP while Nagata applied an STF on Hikuleo. Suzuki let go of the hold and got a believable nearfall! ELP avoided a Gotch-style piledriver, hit a superkick to Suzuk’s jaw, and he hit his CR2/modified Styles Clash for the pin.
7. “Monster Sauce” Lance Archer and Alex Coughlin (8) defeated “Just 5 Guys” Taichi and Yuya Uemura (6) in a B Block tournament match at 11:50. Based on the fact both teams are undefeated, this should be the main event. Taichi and former Suzuki-Gun teammate argued and they opened against each other; Taichi hit some chops that Archer no-sold, and Lance hit a forearm that sent Taichi flying to the ropes. Uemura entered and hit dropkicks on both opponents. He backed Zayne into the corner and hit some chops at 2:00. Archer got back in and dropped Yuya with a forearm, then a short-arm clothesline for a nearfall at 4:00. Archer and Taichi argued some more. Yuya hit a back suplex on Zayne. Taichi made the hot tag and hit some Kawada Kicks and a Helluva Kick on Zayne.
Zayne hit a summersault axe kick to the back of Taichi’s head at 6:30. Zayne nailed a Falcon Arrow for a nearfall. Archer entered and hit a snap suplex on Taichi and a running back elbow in the corner. Taichi fired back with an enzuigiri. Yuya entered and hit a deep armdrag on Archer at 8:30 but only got a one-count. Archer set up for Blackout but Yuya escaped, and Yuya hit a bulldog for a nearfall, then an enzuigiri. He couldn’t suplex Lance. Lance hit a sideslam for a nearfall at 10:30. Zayne slammed Taichi face-first. Archer slammed teammate Zayne onto Taichi. Archer nailed a chokeslam for a believable nearfall on Uemura. Archer gave teammate Zayne a Blackout, slamming Alex onto Uemura! Lance immediately covered Uemura for the pin. Monster Sauce moves to 4-0 and in pole position for a playoff spot!
8. “Bishamon” Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi (3) vs. Soberano Jr. and Atlantis Jr. (5) ended in a time-limit draw in a B Block tournament match at 30:00. Yeah, that last match should have been the main event. As I noted when Bishamon started 0-2, I wouldn’t be surprised if they win five straight to reach the playoffs. Soberano Jr. and Yoshi-Hashi opened with some slow mat reversals. Atlantis (taped shoulder) and Goto (taped neck) entered at 3:30 with more standing reversals. These four have opened at a pace saying they are going 30 minutes. Bishamon hit a team shoulder tackle on Atlantis Jr. at 6:00. Atlantis Jr. hit some deep armdrags and a dropkick.
Soberano hit a top-rope crossbody block on Goto for a nearfall at 8:30. He hit a standing moonsault for a nearfall, then a Hogan leg drop across the throat. The luchadors began working over Goto on the floor, and they kept him in their corner in the ring, as this was an extended beatdown. They are going long for the sake of going long. Goto finally hit a short-arm clothesline and he made the hot tag at 15:00 to Yoshi-Hashi. Y-H hit his Headhunter flipping neckbreaker on Soberano Jr., then a delayed vertical suplex for a nearfall. Soberano got up and hit some overhand chops on Yoshi-Hashi, and they traded chops at 18:30. Soberano Jr. hit a huracanrana, then a powerslam, and they were both down.
Goto and Atlantis got back in and traded forearm strikes, and Goto hit a back suplex for a nearfall at 21:00. Atlantis Jr. hit a powerslam and he applied a Crossface on the mat on Goto. Soberano Jr. hit a Fosbury Flop to the floor on Yoshi-Hashi. Meanwhile, Atantis Jr. still had the Crossface locked in place, but Goto got a foot on the ropes at 24:30. Yoshi-Hashi hit a clothesline. Goto hit a neckbreaker over his knee on Atlantis at 26:30 and Hirooki fired up. Yoshi-Hashi entered and hit a buzzsaw kick to Atlantis Jr’s head, and he applied a modified Stretch Plum. Goto hit another neckbreaker over his knee on Atlantis at 29:00; the commentators got excited as we entered the final minute. Bishamon set up for Shoto, but Soberano Jr. made the save, and suddenly everyone was down. The bell went off (I had 30:03 but I’m not going to quibble) and we had our first time-limit draw of the tournament, so each team gets just one point.
Final Thoughts: A day ago, Kaito Kiyomiya/Ryohei Oiwa vs. Narita/Umino was a barnburner main event that just kept building and building. It’s a match I would gladly watch a second time. That is night and day difference from this sluggish main event. They set a slow pace in the first five minutes that immediately had me thinking they were going to a draw. The luchadors beat down Goto in their corner for a full 6+ minutes and it just took forever to get going. The bigger surprise is that at 1-2-1 (3 points), tag champions Bishamon are in 6th place in an 8-team Block.
Monster Sauce vs. Just 5 Guys easily earns best match on this night. I’m admittedly a huge fan of both Zayne and Archer and I’m thrilled to see them at 4-0. I didn’t have them as a playoff team in my preview, but it’s hard to imagine them missing the playoffs at this point. I’m not surprised GoD won, because a loss would have essentially eliminated the NJ Strong tag champs. But I am surprised that Suzuki and Nagata are still searching for their first victory.
There are only five off-days in this 16-show tournament, and one of those is coming up on Wednesday, so the tournament will resume Thursday with the B Block back in action.
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