NJPW, 7/20/13 (WPW/PPV/iPPV)
Akita Municipal Gymnasium
4,075 Fans – Super No Vacancy
0. Manabu Nakanishi, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask & KUSHIDA beat Yujiro Takahashi, YOSHI-HASHI, Jado & Gedo (8:53) when Nakanishi used the Ue kara Don on Jado.
1. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov (c) beat TAKA Michinoku Kaientai Dojo & Taichi (17:27) when Koslov pinned Taichi after the Contract Killer (2nd defense).
2. Special Singles Match: Minoru Suzuki beat Tomohiro Ishii (11:51) with a Gotch-style piledriver.
3. IWGP Tag Team Title: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima (c) beat Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka (10:19) when Tenzan used a moonsault press on Iizuka (2nd defense).
4. NEVER Openweight Title: Masato Tanaka ZERO1 (c) beat Tetsuya Naito (11:50) with the Sliding D (4th defense).
5. IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura beat La Sombra (c) (13:59) with the Boma Ye to become the 6th champion.
6. Special 8 Man Tag Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Jushin Thunder Liger & Captain New Japan beat Karl Anderson, El Terrible, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale (12:07) when Tanahashi used the High Fly Flow on Terrible.
7. Special Singles Match: Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata went to a double KO (14:52).
8. Kazushi Sakuraba Return Match: Kazushi Sakuraba beat Yuji Nagata (10:12) with a cross armbreaker.
9. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada (c) beat Prince Devitt (19:14) with the Rainmaker (3rd defense).
* “Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada stalled the runaway momentum of the Bullet Club on today’s big pre-G1 show in Akita, making a successful V3 defense of his IWGP Heavyweight Title against IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Prince Devitt. As is becoming a standard thing, Okada (with Gedo in his corner) wasn’t really facing only Devitt but the entire Bullet Club who made their presence felt in an exciting match. Okada kicked out of Devitt’s Bloody Sunday finisher and also a double footstomp on to a chair over Okada’s chest. The champion then hit his Rainmaker finisher to make sure his second reign as IWGP Heavyweight Champion is more successful than his first, where he only managed two defenses before dropping the belt back to Tanahashi (he now has three in this reign). With the G1 Climax around the corner, Okada didn’t face any new challenges after the match and whoever wins the tournament will challenge him next – unless Okada repeats last year’s success and wins the G1 again.
* Kazushi Sakuraba returned from a nasty injury against the man he was in the ring with when suffering said injury, Yuji Nagata. These two have long wanted a singles match and it happened today with Nagata ruthlessly targeting the barely healed elbow of Saku. Saku countered an attempt by Nagata to hit his backdrop hold, though, and locked in a cross armbreaker for the submission win in a strong shoot style match.
* Former university classmates Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata continued their series with a third singles match that like the first ended in a stalemate. The two again put on a brutally stiff match with hard kicks and headbutts, until eventually an exchanged of headbutts sent them to the mat and they couldn’t answer the 10 count. They now have two draws and one Shibata victory in their three matches, with a fourth match coming up in the G1 where Goto will finally hope to secure a win.
* Shinsuke Nakamura won back “his” IWGP Intercontinental Title from the man who took it from him at the end of May, CMLL’s La Sombra. Sombra quite surprisingly ended Shinsuke’s first reign which had seen him make eight successful defenses. Sombra snuck in one successful defense at Arena Mexico in June before handing back the title to Nakamura after a Boma Ye on today’s show.
* Tetsuya Naito’s exciting comeback from a long-term injury hit its first hurdle today when he failed to win the NEVER Openweight Title from veteran Masato Tanaka. Naito was the original “poster boy” of the NEVER Openweight Title Tournament before his injury forced him to withdraw and there was a strong feeling he could finally win the belt tonight. But Tanaka is a warrior and after Naito kicked out of one Sliding D, Tanaka simply hit another to cement a successful V4 defense.
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima continued to succeed in a series of tough IWGP Tag Team Title defenses, this time against recently dethroned GHC Tag Team Champions, Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka. The match had barely started before it went to a double countout but President Sugabayashi ordered it to continue, refusing to accept a non-finish in such an important match. After a Kojima lariat, Tenzan dropped a moonsault press on Iizuka and New Japan’s most famous tag team of the modern age continued their renaissance.
* Forever Hooligans opened the main show (after a dark match) with a successful V2 defense of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title against Suzuki-gun’s TAKA Michinoku & Taichi. This was the fourth time TAKA & Taichi have challenged for these belts in the past two years and like the other three it ended in failure as Romero & Koslov hit Taichi with their Contract Killer finisher and Koslov pinned him.
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Originally Posted by thesamuelcooke
