Wrestling Hi No Kuni returned to Kumamoto on April 29 2019, headlined by a battle over the IWGP Tag Team Championships between Guerrillas of Destiny and Togi Makabe and Toru Yano, and by a grudge match between Jay White and Hirooki Goto.
Watch the full replay with English commentary here!
In the main event, Hirooki Goto sought to overcome a challenging start to 2019 by taking on Jay White, with a win sure to propel him back to the main event landscape in NJPW. Goto had the Kumamoto crowd firmly in his corner, but White chose to make the warrior wait, bailing to the floor twice in the early going. The Switchblade successfully controlled the pace, drawing Goto out of the ring, and capitalizing in a big way with a backdrop suplex on the floor. The young arrogant phenomenon would treat Goto, in his words, like ‘just a young boy’ as he put Goto into a Boston Crab in ring and continuing to dominate a veteran who had little to no answer.
Goto finally summoned up that answer with a powerful mid kick and impressive backdrop. White though quickly sensed danger when ZGoto looked for an Ushigoroshi at the ten minute mark however, and would find solace in the ropes. Further assistance came from a Gedo trip, distracting Goto enough for White to land an uranage suplex.
White pressed the advantage with the Kiwi Crusher for a two count on Goto, but after a Bladerunner was countered to a Shoten attempt by Goto, the veteran was able to create enough distance to level White with a lariat at the 15 minute mark. Goto and White would trade bombs, with Goto coming out on top of the forearm exchange.
As the match neared the 20 minute mark, Goto and White battled on the turnbuckle with forearm blows before Goto unleashed a sickening headbutt to White and followed with the Goto Revolution off the top rope. Goto was riding high enough that not even Gedo could bring him down; both Gedo and White would be the recipient of an Ushigoroshi, but when Goto sought to finish the match with GTR, White continued to resist. A reverse GTR only drew a two count from the referee.
In the end, Goto and White would each struggle to hit their respective finishing moves. White landed a brutal head and arm suplex on Goto, only to see the fierce warrior fire up. A second suplex however, was followed by a Bladerunner to secure victory.
Post match, White reiterated that Goto was an embarrassment who had let his family down. The Switchblade said that even without the title belt around his waist, it was still the Cut Throat Era, and that he would soon seize the IWGP Heavyweight Championship from either Okada or SANADA soon enough after Dontaku.
The semi main event of the evening was for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. Toru Yano and Togi Makabe took the title belts to the ring for the match, but they weren’t theirs to bring; properly these were the Guerillas of Destiny’s titles. Yano had stolen the gold ahead of he and Makabe’s first tag title match in over a decade.
Both teams were quick to show their respective hands; GoD were eager to assault Yano and Makabe, but in so doing were quickly misdirected by Yano into an eposed turnbuckle. The match quickly went into the crowd, with the Most Violent Players showing their worth as brawlers and standing tall over their black clad opponents. Back in ring however, Loa’s power enabled GoD to take control and isolate Yano.
After a long period on the defence, a desperate hair pull from Yano created the window to tag in Makabe, who lit into both members of GoD. When makabe tagged Yano back in, it was a different man who went on the offense, taking a lot of cues from his days in the Nippon University freestyle team as he controlled Tonga on the mat. The MVPs finally had the upper hand but were quickly stopped by a Jado kendo stick shot on the outside of the ring to Makabe. Makabe resisted both a Loa headbutt off the top and a gorgeous Superfly splash from Tonga.
When Yano broke up a Superbomb attempt by the champions, Loa looked to take Makabe’s chain to deal further damage, prompting a Yano low blow and a chain assisten lariat. The hardcore Makabe had come alive and nearly pinned Tonga with a King Kong Knee, but Loa broke up the pin. Moments later, Tonga rolled up Makabe with a handful of tights, stealing the victory and the physical titles back from the MVPs.
Kumamoto saw the next in a series of Los Ingobernables De Japon versus CHAOS/Hontai ten man tags in the sixth bout of the evening. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, EVIL, SANADA and BUSHI faced SHO, YOH, Kota Ibushi, Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii.
Okada and SANADA started out and after Okada dictated the pace in the openings of their earlier Korakuen tags, hsitory repeated with some interesting submission work. The pace quickened from there, Roppongi 3K entering and attempting to double team SANADA while turning Takagi aside. Action spilled to the floor briefly, and on returning to the ring, LIJ were in control, Naito working hard over YOH.
After a pair of Dragon Screws from YOH to BUSHI and Takagi, the hottest of tags was made to Ibushi, who cleaned house on LIJ before tagging in Ishii to continue his war with EVIL. The two bruisers once again collided at high speed, seemingly evenly matched, but when Okada and SANADA were back in the ring, things seemed more in the Rainmaker’s control. After a stretch of signature offense though, SANADA managed to turn the match this favour, a Skull End followed by a Muto Moonsault attempt, countered and responded to by a John Woo shotgun dropkick from Okada.
Okada would tag in SHO who came impressively close to upsetting the Cold Skull, but as the match broke down SANADA finally got his hooks in on the RPG3K member, who tapped out and gave Los Ingobernables De Japon yet another victory on the Road to Dontaku.
In the fifth match of the night, Chase Owens faced IWGP US Champion Juice Robinson for the third time in under two months. Robinson had retained the US title against Bad Luck Fale back on the 20th at Sengoku Lord, a match Fale had gotten after assaulting Juice on Owens’ behalf. To his credit however, Owens showed up to battle Robinson unaccompanied by Bullet Club teammates.
Further to Owens’ credit was his out wrestling Robinson in the early going, a performance admittedly aided by the occasional hair pull and fish hook of the mouth. In fact, Owens had the lion’s share of the bout, at least until Robinson could land some effective lariats and a gorgeous cross body off the top. Still though, Owens was impressive, with a powerful counter to a Robinson Pulp Friction and a Backslide for a very near pinfall.
Ultimately though, it was a sudden Left Hand of God and Pulp Friction that got the win for Robinson, the powerful finishing moves of the Flamboyant One able to turn the match on a dime.
In another singles match born from Sengoku Lord fallout, Mikey Nicholls faced the Rogue General Bad Luck Fale. Nicholls started strong, clotheslining Fale out of the ring, but going to the floor proved to be a near fatal mistake. Fale dodged a plancha from Nicholls and worked over the Australian’s arm over the ringside guardrails.
The arm work continued in ring. Nicholls tried to push through evident pain and tried to level Fale with lariats. ‘Mad’ Mikey did manage to topple the general, but only on the eighth time of asking. The damage done would lead directly to a huge Tongan Drop, splash and Grenade for the three count and a Fale victory.
In the night’s third match, Taiji Ishimori and Hikuleo teamed up to take on IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Dragon Lee and Will Ospreay. Ishimori’s selection of super heavyweight tag partner seemed designed to impede or even injure his champion opponent Lee, but he and Ospreay worked hard and fast to chop down the big tree, landing a double dropkick before Ospreay hit a gorgeous corkscrew off the back of Lee.
The power of Hikuleo quickly gained control for his team however, as some brutal chops were landed on Ospreay’s chest. Ishimopri looked to captialize with characteristic smoothness, but Ospreay would counter, and Lee would come in, giving a preview of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match on May 3 in Fukuoka. Lee wouldn’t back down to his championship challenger, and wouldn’t back down to Hikuleo either, admirably going chop for chop with the big man.
Power almost prevailed for Hikuleo as he near decapitated Ospreay with a crunching lariat, but a Robinson Special and OsCutter ended the night for the Bullet Club tandem.
Jyushin Thunder Liger and Minoru Suzuki continued their heated feud in the second match of the card as each led a five man team. Suzuki brought with him TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and NEVER Openweight Championship challenger Taichi against Liger, Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi, YOSHI-HASHI and Taichi’s Dontaku opponent Jeff Cobb.
As expected, Suzuki immediately charged at Liger, but the living legend was able to direct Suzuki into ringside the steel guardrail while Tiger Mask proved effective against the Suzuki Gun junior heavyweights. That led Taguchi to send a train of attacks into El Desperado in the corner. When the train was halted with Taguchi left in a vulnerable position in the station, Suzuki Gun took control, with Cobb assaulted by Taichi ringside.
Eventually Liger and Suzuki found themselves face to face in the ring, engaging in some fearsome strikes. It was Cobb in the ring as the match neared a climax though, seemingly doomed as Taichi was set to level the NEVER champion with his own title belt. Taguchi intercepted though, as Liger took Suzuki to the outside and Tiger Mask hit a gorgeous tope suicida to Desperado. That left TAKA open for the Tour of the Islands.
In the opening match, Young Lions Yuuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji teamed up with Toa Henare to take on another senpai/kohai team of Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino and Ren Narita. Uemura and Narita went nose to nose at the start of the match, as issues from live events the week prior spilled into Kumamoto. Uemura was able to slow Narita thanks in part to a hurt, taped shoulder on Narita’s part. Tsuji meanwhile was effectively overpowering Umino until the young hot prospect could create some distance, landing some effective strikes before tagging in Honma.
With the veteran Honma in control, Tsuji was effectively isolated, and was on the receiving end of a Kokeshi from Honma. When Tsuji was finally able to tag in Henare, the young New Zealander was on fire, and lit into Honma, but came at the worse end of a strike exchange that ended with a Rocket Kokeshi from Honma.
Ultimately it was a story of the more eperienced Young Lions having the upper edge on their juniors when it came to team work. Tsuji and Uemura connected nicely with a powerslam from Tsuji into a Boston Crab, but moments later, it was Narita feeding Uemura into a Spinebuster and another Boston by Umino. Uemura resisted, but didn’t resist the Fisherman Suplex applied for the win.
