NJPW World Tag League 2015: Finals

December 9th from Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai

This year’s tournament saw Honma & Makabe and Evil & Naito win their respective blocks and today’s Finals sees those teams compete to determine the winner of the 2015 World Tag League. Elsewhere, by the time the show is over we’ll have a much clearer picture of the Wrestle Kingdom card.

The tournament hasn’t been of any great quality, but given its proximity to Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th and the fact that many of these events are no more than house shows this is understandable. Nevertheless, I always find tag wrestling an easy watch and there’s always the intrigue of how random tag partners will work (Michael Elgin & Hiroshi Tanahashi) and how new faces (Christopher Daniels & Kazarian) will mesh with the rest of the roster.

Of course, the biggest news for most was that A.J. Styles suffered a flare up of his lower back issues and didn’t compete beyond Day 5. With the huge Wrestle Kingdom match against Nakamura now in jeopardy, not to mention his Ring of Honor title match on December 18th, one has to wonder why he was booked for this tour at all.

A Block saw both Elgin & Tanahashi and Honma & Makabe earn eight points overall, but as the latter held a victory over the former they came out on top. B Block was determined on the last show before the Finals, when Evil & Naito used nefarious means to beat Goto & Shibata.

Before we get to the show, here’s a list of the tournament’s better matches:

• Day 1: Goto & Shibata vs. Ishii & Nakamura ****
• Day 1: Elgin & Tanahashi vs. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi ***3/4
• Day 5: Honma & Makabe vs. Elgin & Tanahashi ***1/2
• Day 5: Styles & Takahashi vs. Ishii & Nakamura ***1/2
• Day 8: Tenzan & Kojima vs. Goto & Shibata ***1/2
• Day 8: Ishii & Nakamura vs. Evil & Naito ***3/4
• Day 13: Honma & Makabe vs. Okada & Yoshi-Hashi ***1/2
• Day 13: Evil & Naito vs. Goto & Shibata ***3/4

The Show

First up, the native young lions beat the gaijin young lions. Somehow, Juice Robinson has been able to keep his terrible NXT gear, whilst the rest are in all-black. Komatsu and Tanaka will surely be off on their excursions in the new year. Mascara Dorada, who is nearing the end of his New Japan tenure, defeated Jay White in the next match. Post-match, Los Ingobernables’ newest recruit BUSHI attacked and unmasked the Mexican before stealing his CMLL Welterweight belt! Will the title be on the line at Wrestle Kingdom or one of the Fantastica Mania shows soon after?

Tiger Mask & Taguchi defeated Liger & KUSHIDA when Tiger pinned Liger with a crucifix (this would be the set up to their NWA Jr. Heavyweight title match on January 4th), then most of Bullet Club were victorious over Tencozyplus Nagata & Nakanishi. A video was then shown of Jay Lethal stating his intention to defend his Ring of Honor title at Wrestle Kingdom, which (a) suggests he won’t be losing to Styles, assuming that match happens, and (b) likely means Big Mike Elgin is the opponent.

The two all-American teams Daniels & Kazarian and The Kingdom had an exhibition match, won by the latter thanks to a Hail Mary assisted piledriver. Yano & Nakamura then teamed to defeat Bad Luck Fale & Cody Hall, but poor Yano was beaten senseless by the Bullet Club post-match. Expect a big multi-man tag match at WK10 to settle the score.

The penultimate bout was an eight-man tag that saw Tanahashi, Goto, Shibata & Elgin beat Okada, Ishii, Sakuraba & Yoshi-Hashi when Shibata hooked the Sleeper on Ishii and followed up with a Penalty Kick for the win. Shibata then laid the NEVER title on the fallen Ishii and I think we can all see where that’s going. Oh hell yeah!

World Tag League 2015 Finals

Honma & Makabe (Great Bash Heel) vs. Evil & Naito (Los Ingobernables)

Los Ingobernables took it to the outside early on, with Makabe getting a chair to the throat (almost Pillman-style) and Honma taking a neckbreaker from the apron through a table on the floor. Honma was then worked over, in the main, by Evil. The joke shop Grim Reaper gimmick is fun and all, but quite how it meshes with Naito and Bushi’s suits and masks, I’m not sure. Honma got a deadlift suplex and Makabe ran wild for a couple of minutes before Evil dumped him right on his head with a nasty-looking german suplex. Honma hit a Kokeshi at the first attempt but messed up a Blockbuster on Naito, who then went on a run himself. Bushi misted Makabe, then Naito frankensteinered Honma from the top for a near fall. He locked in Pluma Blanca, but Honma just about made the bottom rope. Evil levelled Honma with a lariat and fisherman buster for a pair of nearfalls, before Makabe broke up a double team move then nailed his opponents with a double lariat. All four men were down at this point. Honma hit Evil with a rocket Kokeshi to a huge pop, followed by a Fire Thunder Driver, but Naito kicked the ref just as he was about to count three. Naito received the Doomsday Kokeshi for his troubles and the King Kong Knee Drop followed by a top rope Kokeshi rid the world of Evil at 22 minutes! Crazy pop from the crowd for that. Great fun. ****

Promos and a trophy ceremony followed. Honma was crying his heart out, bless him. They go on to face Anderson & Gallows for the tag titles on January 4th.

Final thoughts: This was all about building towards the biggest show in New Japan’s calendar and in that respect it was effective. Watch the main event and feel free to skip the rest.

I’ll be back on January 4th for Wrestle Kingdom 10! See you then.