The New Year in Japan can only mean one thing… New Japan heads to the Tokyo Dome once again for another one of their January 4th spectaculars, for the 19th year in a row. Building on such a legacy is not easy, and this year New Japan brought in wrestlers from promotions across Japan and the world, with representation from NOAH, All Japan, SMASH, TNA, CMLL and ZERO1, along with US legends Terry Funk and Abdullah the Butcher. With the big line up of talent, and a huge five title matches on the ten match card, New Japan succeeded in bringing in a reported 41,500 fans to the show, the biggest attendance since 2006.
In the main happenings from the show, Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi made their successful fourth defence of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Titles against the CMLL team of Ultimo Guerrero and Averno. Also in Tag Team Title action, TNA’s Team 3D lost the IWGP Tag belts to Yujiro and Tetsuya Naito in a triple threat match which also featured the team of Karl Anderson and Giant Bernard. Not surprisingly, neither of Team 3D were in the finish of the match, meaning that once again they haven’t lost in Japan. We shouldn’t complain, at least TNA can’t devalue the belts anymore. The next two matches on the show also featured tag battles, with the outsider team of TAJIRI and Masato Tanaka overcoming Akebono and Yuji Nagata, followed by the legends tag match, named ‘the legend never rots’. Seriously. Anyway, one team featured the 65 year old Terry Funk, 46 year old Masahiro Chono, 58 year old Riki Choshu and 42 year old Manabu Nakanishi, making a combined age of 211, taking on 73 year old Abdullah The Butcher, and his team of Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka and Tomohiro Ishii, whom Abby was at least 30 years older than any of. Terry Funk’s team picked up the win in just nine minutes.
The NOAH vs. NJPW series ended at two matches each way, with Naomichi Marufuji winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title from Tiger Mask after earning the opportunity by winning the 2009 Super J Cup, and becoming the first person to hold Jr. belts in AJPW, NOAH and NJPW. Following that, New Japan ace Hiroshi Tanahashi overcame Go Shiozaki, and Togi Makabe beat Mohammed Yone, before Takashi Sugiura made his successful first defence of the GHC Heavyweight Title against Hirooki Goto, to finish the series at two wins each. I expect more promotional warfare between these two.
In the final match of the night, IWGP Champion Shinsuke Nakamura made his fourth defence of the title against outsider Yoshihiro Takayama in just over fifteen minutes after delivering the Boma Ye to Takayama. In a suprising move, Manabu Nakanishi stepped up at the end of the show to challenge the champion to a match, probably at Sumo Hall some time in February. The event has already gained some critical acclaim, and the quality here is hopefully something the promotion can continue in 2010.
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