New Japan World Pro Wrestling on AXS
February 13, 2015

This show is ALL about the Bullet Club.

Your hosts are Mauro Ranallo and former UFC heavyweight champion Josh Barnett.

• Bullet Club (Karl Anderson, El Terrible, Tama Tonga & Bad Luck Fale) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe, Jushin Thunder Liger & Captain New Japan – (NJPW Kizuna Road 7.20.13)
  

This is during a brief period where Liger and Tanahashi were CMLL world tag champs. Tanahashi and Anderson start the match here. Tanahashi gets caught in the Bullet Club corner as Tonga pulls on his hair from the apron. He fires back on Anderson though with a crossbody block out of the corner. JIP ahead to Liger dumping everyone out to deliver baseball slides. Hey, he was in the 1984 New Japan dojo class. Give him a break. However, Bad Luck Fale will not take the dive for him. Instead, Bad Luck dumps Liger out to hold him in place for a baseball slide from Anderson only for Liger to move and Bad Luck get wiped out. Liger then leaps off the apron for a rolling senton on Anderson. Back inside, Liger does his signature bicep pose only to be stopped up top by Terrible and Tonga. JIP again to Captain New Japan being *your* face in peril. Imagine if Flash really let himself go. That’s what Captain New Japan looks like. Basically, he’s the mascot of the company. The Wild Cat Willy as it were. Anyways, the Bullet Club dismantle him for a bit. The SWIVEL GUN STUN (you know it as the TKO) gets two on Captain New Japan. He looks for a comeback, but El Terrible cuts him off. Uranage allows CNJ to grab a HOT TAG TO TANAHASHI! The Bullet Club try to swarm him, but Makabe walks in and makes sure that doesn’t happen with lariats. YES. Liger and Captain New Japan help Makabe clothesline Bad Luck Fale to the floor. El Terrible tries to stop Tanahashi, but the HIGH FLY FLOW is inevitable. Tanahashi picks up the win. (6:27 shown) Just over half the match here, so I’ll give it a rating. Great action with Liger showing the most character out of everyone and making the best of being in a bad situation when the Bullet Club gang up on him. **½

• IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo) vs. Prince Devitt (w/the Bullet Club) – (NJPW Kizuna Road 7.20.13)
  

Devitt looks to hold both the IWGP junior heavyweight title and heavyweight titles here. Ranallo mentions that not even Jushin Liger’s long 1993 reign allowed him to receive an IWGP heavyweight title shot, which speaks volumes about Devitt. He’s wearing his Y2J light-up jacket tonight. Wristlocks and hammerlocks and headlocks to start. All kinds of locks. Both guys miss their finish to make the crowd gasp. As Okada is prone to do, he backs Devitt into the ropes and feigns a slap to the chest so he can back away and do his Rain Maker pose. Bad Luck Fale helps Devitt avoid a basement dropkick by Okada and holds him in place for a double stomp. Around ringside, Devitt sits Okada down for a running hesitation dropkick. I miss me some Chris Sabin. While the ref counts Okada, Devitt pulls the corner padding off to reveal THREE EXPOSED TURNBUCKLES. He whips Okada in hard and applies an abdominal stretch to torque the back. Karl Anderson gives him a little leverage. Okada fights out of a neck twist hold, but Devitt surprises him with the Best Dropkick in the Business and mocks him with the Rain Maker pose. Gedo hops up on the apron to protest, which allows Karl Anderson to pull Okada out and powerbomb him onto the apron! That gets two. Okada reaches the ropes to escape a chinlock and knee in the back. He reverses a whip into the exposed corner and delivers a neckbreaker. DDT and kip-up leads to the basement dropkick for two. Flying Elbow Drop connects, but Devitt knows the Rain Maker is coming and crucifix rolls Okada for two. To the floor we go, Devitt busts out the Tope Con Hilo. Back inside, Devitt delivers the Flying Double Stomp to the head of Okada while he’s doubled-over for 1-2-NO! REVERSE BLOODY SUNDAY gets two as well! He tries another flying double stomp, but Okada rolls out of the way and catches Devitt for the Reverse Neckbreaker. They trade blows ending with Okada placing Devitt on the top turnbuckle to dropkick him down to the floor. While the Bullet Club help up their leader, Okada busts out his own TOPE CON HILO! Back in the ring, Okada nails Heavy Rain for two. He hits the Best Dropkick in the Business and locks in Red Ink, but Devitt makes the ropes. The Tombstone fails and traffic builds up over in the exposed corner where the ref eats the middle buckle. One of the Bullet Club guys tosses Devitt a chair. Okada fights him off, but then Tonga and Anderson attack him in the ring. Okada cleans house on those two. In comes Bad Luck Fale and Gedo to help out. Bad Luck can’t decide which one he wants to drop the GRENADE on, so Okada dropkicks him out when he tries it on Gedo. Devitt counters the Tombstone on Okada and Flying Double Stomps the chair on Okada’s chest. Cover, 1-2-NO! They go back and forth with finisher attempts. Okada eventually just has to dropkick Devitt on the side of the head. Tombstone sets up the RAIN MAKER for the end. (19:14) Pretty odd match because Devitt didn’t really make Okada work his style and he didn’t really seem to want to work heavyweight style either as Okada seemed game to do either one. Easily the weakest title defense we’ve seen from Okada so far on AXS. ***½

Somewhere else, Prince Devitt tells us he will have his revenge at the G-1 Climax against Kazuchika Okada. Devitt would actually go on to win that match with the Bloody Sunday finish.

NEXT WEEK: 2013 G-1 Climax action!