[2017-06-26-NJPW] YOSHI-HASHI vs Minoru Suzuki

[soup23]

Very good match at points and a good performance by Suzuki but I thought YH failed to match the intensity of Suzuki with his strikes and he totally wipes out on some things such as a baseball slide. This also had A LOT of Suzuki Gun nonsense. This was better than it was in some matches because you had Okada actually being a main played and cheerleader out there which was neat to see but it got pretty old by the end with the constant restarts. Suzuki ends up winning justifiably so. A good Korakuen main event but YH and the optics of the run ins prevent it from being great. ***1/2

[bradhindsight]

Okada as a second here added to the match and certainly upped my interest level, although it felt like they did a lot more restarts than normal with all the interference (which I get and like to a point). It takes DBS Jr. to get the rest of CHAOS to support their guy and then we do the match proper. I couldn't believe how much i liked Suzuki struggling in YOSHI-HASHI's submission, I nearly bought that; he was terrific. YH - similar to their pull-apart to set this up, has no business trading strikes or playing tough guy against Suzuki. At the end of this poor YH looked beat up, busted lip, puffy face and all. A good Korakuen main - built to with the promos during the show and with the sneaky-fun DBS Jr. / Desperado tag against Okada/Gedo from earlier in the show. ***1/2

[bradhindsight]

From Ioan Morris at PTBN

 

 

Yoshi-Hashi’s second was Kazuchika Okada, while Suzuki was joined by the junior contingent of his stable; Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado.

 

After a couple of minutes of hold-trading, Suzuki landed a bunch of open-handed slaps, and despite Yoshi avoiding the rope-hung armbar, Suzuki grabbed a knee bar over the apron and this preceded a beatdown in the crowd while the troops took care of Okada. A brief sojourn in the ring ended when Yoshi-Hashi was once again dragged to floor for more shenanigans, breaking the count at 18. To the crowd’s delight, Yoshi eventually landed a suplex and got rolling with a comeback, with a missile dropkick earning two. The swanton missed the mark, however, allowing Suzuki to hit a Penalty Kick for two, and some stiff knee strikes looked to set up the piledriver only for Yoshi to power out. He then twice looked like getting somewhere, but Suzuki-gun attacked on both occasions and Davey Boy Smith Jr. ran out to take care of Okada. Finally the rest of CHAOS emerged to even the numbers and clear the ring, leaving the two men who were actually in the match to slug it out. Suzuki brushed off strikes and floored his challenger, but Yoshi survived to land a superkick and lungblower, and this time the swanton connected! One, two, no! The crowd was rabid at this point and Yoshi cinched in the Butterfly Lock, dragging Suzuki to middle of the ring three times before the champion somehow reached out a foot to make the ropes. Suzuki desperately blocked Karma then countered a charge with a dropkick to put both men down. A flurry of slaps from Suzuki set up the Sleeper and he transitioned into the Gotch-Style Piledriver for the three-count.

 

Your mileage may vary with the Suzuki-gun involvement, but it certainly worked for the crowd and had them begging for their man to make a comeback. The closing stretch was strong, with both guys able to garner maximum reaction for fairly straightforward work, and thankfully they were left alone to wrestle for long enough that it felt like a true main event. ***1/4

 

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This was a very good, physical match up w/ MiSu killing it. Loved the violence he brought. All the overbooking w/ the Suzuki-gun & CHAOS interferences were done real well, too. ***3/4