Kojima and Saito amazingly just teamed up again with a Team 2000 reunion on the New Year’s Dash show. Koshinaka and Kojima feel cut from the same cloth to me at this point as I don’t exactly hate them but some people think they are really great and I have never gotten that sense. Koshinaka hasn’t won me over in the 80’s and 90’s stuff so we will see with Kojima here. That being said, this was a really good contest. Kojima is flying around more than I am used to and has a 1990 Misawa quality to him in the mix of high flying offense to strikes and bombs. Tenryu was grumpy and that results in him taking any stiff shot he can. Saito gets worked over for the bulk of the match and he is the weak link overall but Kosh and Tenryu did enough to keep things interesting. Saito getting the hot tag on a low blow was sort of annoying. Kojima is really strong once he gets the tag running through everyone. Saito comes in again and match drops in heat and intensity. Kosh gives him the butt butt and powerbomb to put him away. Would have liked to have seen Tenzan in there. ***1/4

Shiro Koshinaka is the real Terry Taylor of Japan. He's in some good matches, but there's such a difference when he's in the ring from when Tenryu is in the ring in the heat and violence level. I like how Kojima gets the fans to react to his hot tag because in Japan, that usually doesn't happen. I loved Tenryu cutting off his comeback, only for it to be short-lived because Koshinaka insisted on using his ass. Tenryu with a grouchier partner would have resulted in a better match, but this was still decent. I am going to complain about Koshinaka hitting people with his butt every time he has a match unless he suddenly stops.

Really fun heavyweight sprint. Each team is out there throwing bombs and keeping it moving. The Koshinaka/Tenryu team has been awesome in the two matches so far.

 

Outside of the Dome tag this is my favorite Japanese tag match so far. NJPW is producing some very good heavyweight wrestling.

I'm not loving this Tenryu/Koshinaka team. Tenryu is just so much better than Koshinaka that the team feels totally unbalanced. Koshinaka gives the match a comedy feel even when the match is supposed to be serious. The match was solid, but it just didn't seem to build enough.

Kojima turning Koshinaka's ass based offense into a german suplex was nice. I guess I liked the Tenyru/Koshinaka team more than most. Tenyru was just brutal with his chops including the one to Saito's armpit. Koshinaka's offense can be judgy I guess but I enjoy it.

Anytime Tenryu and Kojima were in his it was good and great when they were in together but Saito and Koshinaka failed to really bring anything all that positive to the table. Ass based offence would be the worst thing ever in wrestling if it didn't always get somewhat over for whatever reason. Actually I'm catching up on some New Japan this year and Taguchi has made me lowkey enjoy his ass based shtick, especially the spot where he goes for the jumping ass attack off the ropes and SANADA does the old Samoa Joe nonchalantly stroll out of the way spot. Kojima catching Koshinaka into a suplex was really cool too. Ok I've talked myself into being an ass attack fan now. Kojima's hot tag is great. Spot where Kojima wacks Tenryu on the apron and makes the mistake of running back towards Tenryu so he just kicks him in the back of the head as he's running the ropes is great. Really everything Tenryu did was awesome in little subtle ways. If him and Kojima had better partners this might have been great but instead it's just good with great but also bad parts depenidng on who is in the ring.