NJPW “J Sports Crown Openweight Six Man Tag Tournament” Night 1 6/28/10

The announcers hype up the show, then we get an opening video.  The ring announcer reads tonight’s card.

Kyosuke Mikami vs. Taichi.  Taichi recently lost his hair in Mexico, so he’s wearing a mask and a blond wig.  Young lion Mikami goes on the attack immediately until Taichi hits him with a big boot and a basement dropkick.  They trade chops.  Taichi lands a spin kick to the gut, then drops Mikami with another kick for 2.  Taichi kicks the crap out of Mikami some more.  Taichi applies a rear chin lock, then releases it and just beats up Mikami some more.  Taichi hits a back body drop and a body slam for 2.  Mikami fires back with chops.  Taichi kicks his leg out from under him.  Taichi goes to work on the leg and applies a half crab.  Mikami gets a rope break.  Mikami throws some forearms and scores a knockdown with a shoulder block.  Mikami hits a sit-out Alabama Slam for 2.  Taichi hits a tilt-a-whirl backbreaker and a big boot for 2.  Taichi gets Mikami in a wacky cross legged Tombstone submission hold, then hits another backbreaker.  Taichi lands another kick for 2.  Taichi hits a sliding kick for the pin in 7:14.  Good little opener.

Shinsuke Nakamura, Masato Tanaka, & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Riki Choshu, King Fale, & Tama Tonga.  Tanaka and Fale lock up and trade arm locks.  Tanaka takes the big rookie down for some sweet mat wrestling.  Tanaka wrings Fale’s arm and tags in Nakamura, who promptly knees Fale in the face.  Nakamura continues working the arm.  Fale tags in Choshu, who does more sweet wrestling with Nakamura.  Ishii tags in and hits Choshu with some heavy chops.  Choshu takes him down and tags in Tonga.  Choshu and Tonga split the wishbone on Ishii.  Ishii and Tonga trade chops.  Ishii rakes Tonga’s face.  Choshu tags in and clamps on a rear chin lock.  Tanaka tags in and chops Choshu, but he too is immediately taken down.  Fale tags in and hammers Tanaka, then locks in a sleeper.  Tonga tags in and whips Tanaka into his own corner, where he tags Ishii.  Ishii clamps on a side headlock.  Tonga hits a hip toss, an arm drag, and a dropkick, then a corner splash and a monkey flip.  Tonga hits the Perfect neck snap for 2.  Ishii tires of that shit and runs wild briefly, then sends Tonga to the floor.  Tanaka whips Tonga into the crowd and hits him with a chair.  Back inside, Ishii blasts Tonga with chops and tags in Nakamura, who kicks the shit out of Tonga for a bit.  Tanaka tags in the continue the beating and hits a running elbow smash to the corner for 2.  Tanaka hammers Tonga with more elbows.  Tonga catches him with a spinning sidewalk slam.  Choshu tags in and hits Tanaka with a world famous Riki lariat.  Choshu and Fale double team Tanaka.  Choshu locks in the Scorpion Death Lock.  Nakamura saves.  Fale tags in and downs Tanaka with a big boot.  Ishii comes in and eats a big boot and a shoulder block.  Fale and Tanaka counter each other.  Nakamura comes in and beats up Fale.  Fale drops Nakamura with a big shoulder block and hits a Samoan drop for 2.  Nakamura locks in a sleeper, then turns it into a sweet reverse powerslam.  Choshu and Tonga save.  Tanaka and Ishii take them outside.  Nakamura hits Fale with the Boma Ye for the pin in 12:03.  Really fun match.

J Sports Crown Openweight Six Man Tag Tournament – Round 1: Hirooki Goto & Apollo 55 (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Prince Devitt & Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Manabu Nakanishi, Koji Kanemoto, & El Samurai.  Goto and Nakanishi lock up.  Nakanishi pushes Goto to the ropes and gives a clean break.  Repeat in reverse, but Goto kicks Nakanishi in the gut and clamps on a side headlock.  Nakanishi drops Goto with a shoulder block.  Goto lands some forearms.  Nakanishi drops him with a lariat.  Kanemoto tags in and trades shots with Goto.  Goto turns Kanemoto completely over with a German suplex and tags in Devitt.  Apollo 55 double team Kanemoto.  Devitt covers for 2.  Apollo 55 make quick tags and work Kanemoto’s arm.  Taguchi covers for 2.  Kanemoto and Taguchi trade kicks.  Taguchi realizes he’s not winning that battle and attacks the arm again.  Kanemoto avoids a missile dropkick and kicks Taguchi in the head.  Kanemoto does the face wash in the corner.  Taguchi drops him with an enzuigiri and tries to German suplex him out of the ring.  That fails, but Taguchi lands a dropkick.  Taguchi goes for a dive to the outside, but Kanemoto avoids it and whips him into and over the barricade.  Nakanishi tags in and hammers Taguchi with a big chop, then holds him for Kanemoto to land a chop and a middle kick.  Nakanishi hits a choke bomb and tags in Samurai.  Samurai works over Taguchi.  Kanemoto tags in and hits a backdrop suplex for 2 as Nakanishi knocks Devitt and Goto off of the apron.  Kanemoto drops Taguchi with a flurry of knees and kicks.  Nakanishi tags in and puts the boots to him.  Taguchi drops some irrelevant forearms to Nakanishi.  Nakanishi throws one and drops Taguchi.  Taguchi staggers Nakanishi with a dropkick and tags in Goto.  Goto drops Nakanishi with a lariat.  Kanemoto goes after Goto, but gets suplexed for his trouble.  Goto hits a corner lariat and a diving elbow drop for 2.  Nakanishi and Goto trade forearms.  Nakanishi slaps Goto.  Goto hits a lariat.  Apollo 55 knock Kanemoto and Samurai off the apron.  Apollo 55 do a sweet spot where Devitt springboards over Goto to hit Nakanishi in the corner, but Taguchi springboards over both of them!  Nakanishi manages to drop Goto with a throw.  Samurai and Devitt tag in.  Samurai runs wild.  Kanemoto hits the face wash.  Nakanishi and Kanemoto take out Taguchi and Goto.  Samurai hits Devitt with the reverse DDT and the diving headbutt for 2.  Samurai locks in the chickenwing armlock.  Taguchi saves.  Samurai goes for a Frankensteiner off the top rope, but Devitt holds on to the ropes to save himself.  Devitt hits the Ghetto Stomp, but Kanemoto and Nakanishi saves.  Clusterfuck ensues.  Taguchi hits the Dodon on Kanemoto.  Devitt hits Samurai with an enzuigiri and the Bloody Sunday for the pin in 12:18.  Another really fun match.  Devitt is the best around!  Nothing’s gonna ever keep him down!

J Sports Crown Openweight Six Man Tag Tournament – Round 1: NO LIMIT & Dick Togo vs. Yuji Nagata, Wataru Inoue, & Mitsuhide Hirasawa of Aogi-gun.  The heels jump Nagata to start.  Togo completely whiffs a dropkick.  Nagata hits him with a shoulder block, then beats him up and throws him to his corner.  Nagata beats on Yujiro.  Hirasawa tags in and stomps on Yujiro.  Nagata stomps him harder, as if to say “This is how it’s done!”  Hirasawa learns from this and stomps him harder.  Hirasawa and Yujiro go back and forth.  Inoue and Naito tag in and lock up.  Naito locks Inoue in a rear chin lock.  They trade chops.  The heel team triple team Inoue for a bit, then keep the heat on him.  Yujiro and Togo distract the referee as Naito chokes Inoue with his towel.  Inoue continues to play face in peril.  Nagata tires of Yujiro’s shit and brings in a chair.  This distracts the referee so the heels can triple team Inoue some more.  Inoue manages to hit a drop move on Togo.  NO LIMIT knock his partners.  Yujiro accidentally spears Naito.  Nagata gets the hot tag and kicks the shit out of Togo.  Nagata hits an Exploder for 2.  Togo hits a rana and tags in Yujiro.  Nagata and Yujiro trade shots.  They seem to hate each other especially.  Yujiro lands a HARD slap and a lariat.  Nagata springs up and boots him in the face.  Nagata hits a belly to belly overhead throw.  Yujiro hits a powerslam.  Naito and Hirasawa tag in and slug it out.  Naito lands an elbow smash.  Togo knocks Nagata and Inoue off the apron.  Inoue and Togo do a cool double team sequence for 2.  Hirasawa spears Naito, then slams Togo.  Nagata boots Yujiro off the apron.  Nagata & co. triple team Naito.  Togo comes back in to save.  He throws out Inoue, then gets thrown out by Hirasawa.  Hirasawa hits a German suplex on Naito, but Yujiro saves.  Nagata takes him out.  Naito kicks Hirasawa in the balls.  Yujiro lariats Hirasawa, then Naito gets him with a jackknife hold for the pin in 12:14.  Another fun match!  And I’m not angry or depressed at the state of wrestling!  This beats the shit out watching WWE or TNA.

The announcers talk.  Must be intermission.  Yep.  They show highlights from earlier matches.

J Sports Crown Openweight Six Man Tag Tournament – Round 1: Tamon Honda, Makoto Hashi, & Kentaro Shiga vs. IWGP Heavyweight Champion Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, & Austin Creed.  The ex-NOAH guys jump GBH and Creed.  Shiga works over Makabe with some kind of object.  Hashi and Creed tag in and trade arm locks.  Creed drops Hashi with a dropkick, then hits a sliding clothesline and an elbow drop for 1.  Honma tags in and cranks on Hashi’s arm.  Hashi rakes Honma’s eyes.  Honda tags in and gets beaten up by Honma.  Honda clamps on a front face lock.  Shiga and Hashi knock Honma’s teammates off of the apron, then they hold him up to help the front chancery… or something.  Hashi hits Honma with a diving headbutt from the apron to the floor that the camera didn’t focus on.  He does it again with the camera on him this time.  It was cool both times.  Hashi throws Honma back on.  Honda covers for 1.  Shiga tags in and hits a knee drop on Honma for 2.  Honma hits a suplex and reaches for a tag, but Honda cuts him off.  Honma gets headbutted a bunch.  Hashi ties Honma to the tree of woe and hits another headbutt.  That man loves him some headbutts.  Cover gets 2.  Honma continues to play face in peril.  Honda locks Honma one of his Olympic Hell holds, but Creed saves.  The ex-NOAH team’s MO is to knock Makabe and Creed off the apron, then triple team.  Makabe finally gets the hot tag and runs wild on Shiga.  Makabe hits a Northern Lights suplex hold for 2.  He flips off Shiga, then gets booted in the face, then drops him.  Hashi tags in and throws lariats at Makabe.  He’s not going to win th at game.  Shiga kicks Makabe from the apron allowing Hashi to finally drop him with a lariat.  Team ex-NOAH triple team Makabe.  Hashi hits a diving headbutt, but Creed saves.  Creed and Honma get thrown out again.  Hashi hits his Michinoku Driver II (he has a different name that I can’t recall) for 2.  Homma comes back in and hits a missile dropkick on Hashi.  Creed hits Hashi with an enzuigiri.  Makabe hits a lariat and covers, but Honda and Shiga save.  Creed and Honma take them out.  Makabe hits Hashi with a lariat and the diving King Kong knee drop for the pin in 13:51.  It was okay.  The worst match on the show so far, and still better than 90% of the WWE and TNA TV I watched this week.

J Sports Crown Openweight Six Man Tag Tournament – Round 1: Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, & Gedo of CHAOS vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, TAJIRI, & KUSHIDA.  KUSHIDA and Gedo go at it, because they hate the shit out of each other.  TAJIRI and Yano tag in.  TAJIRI offers a handshake.  Yano slaps his hand, then jumps him.  They go at it.  TAJIRI slaps Yano hard in the head a few times.  I love TAJIRI.  TAJIRI hits a sweet arm drag and a spin kick, then tags in Tanahashi.  TAJIRI hits Yano with a cross body and Tanahashi follows with a senton splash.  Iizuka jumps Tanahashi and beats him down in the CHAOS corner.  Iizuka chokes Tanahashi.  Tanahashi comes back and shines with a cross body lock and some sweet arm drags.  KUSHIDA tags in and beats up Iizuka.  Iizuka throws him out of the ring where Gedo wails on him with a Singapore cane.  Back inside, Gedo works over his hated rival.  KUSHIDA fights back.  Iizuka pulls his hair from the apron, then comes in and stomps on KUSHIDA.  The CHAOS team beat the crap out of all of their opponents.  KUSHIDA gets sent outside again.  Iizuka throws himk into the barricade and hits him with a chair.  KUSHIDA continues to play face in peril.  Yano hits him with a brainbuster, but Tanahashi saves.  Gedo tags in and hits a neckbreaker, but TAJIRI saves.  Iizuka chokes KUSHIDA with a chain.  KUSHIDA fights back against Iizuka.  KUSHIDA comes off the top rope, but Iizuka catches him with a punch to the middle.  KUSHIDA lands a dropkick and makes the hot tag to Tanahashi.  Tanahashi runs wild and hits the diving senton on Iizuka for 2.  Yano kicks Tanahashi from the apron.  Iizuka accidentally clocks Yano.  Tanahashi hits the Sling Blade and goes up top, but Gedo grabs his leg.  Iizuka throws him off Flair style.  Yano tags in.  Tanahashi lands an enzuigiri and tags in TAJIRI.  TAJIRI kicks the crap out of Yano.  Gedo tags in and gets the same treatment.  Iizuka jumps TAJIRI.  CHAOS triple teams TAJIRI.  TAJIRI rallies.  Clusterfuck ensues.  Tanahashi and KUSHIDA hit dives on Iizuka and Yano.  TAJIRI hits Gedo with the Buzzsaw kick for the pin in 12:39.  Another really fun match.  Everybody keeps brawling.  Iizuka hits TAJIRI with the metal hand gimmick, then locks Tanahashi in the sleeper hold.  Iizuka and Gedo are my 2 favorite heels in the business right now.

The announcers talk again.  They show highlights of the last 2 matches.

Really fun show.  It’s just the pick me up I needed after suffering through a horrible week of WWE and TNA garbage.