Minutes to Bell Time

Hiroki Goto and Toa Henare vs. Evil and Shingo Takagi

NJPW Road to New Beginning: Tokyo

Goto and Takagi start the match and exchange shoulder tackles and forearms to begin the match. Takagi grabbed a snap mare, Goto blocked a kick and knocked Takagi down with a shoulder tackle. Henare tagged into he match eager to face off with Takagi, so naturally Takagi tagged Evil into the match.

When Henare went for a swing at Takagi, Evil cinched in a side headlock and then knocked him down with a shoulder tackle. Henare did squeeze a shot in on Takagi and then knocked down Evil twice. When Takagi hit the ropes, Takagi took a cheap shot and Evil sent him to the floor. On the outside, Takagi sent him into the barrier twice before bringing through the crowd and to the backstage area. When Shingo finished slamming Henare into the wall, he brought him back to the ring and Evil tagged Takagi into the ring.

Shingo hit a knee drop and tagged Evil back into the ring. Evil allowed Henare to strike twice before knocking him to the mat. Henare finally got the tag to Goto after a flying shoulder tackle. Goto would lay in several kicks to Evil. Goto hit a snap suplex onto Takagi and then hit a spinning heel kick to Evil in the corner before using a side suplex on Evil. With both men running the ropes, Evil got a clothesline and tagged in Takagi. After both men hit clotheslines on each other, it took a strong one from Goto to send Takagi to the ground.

With Henare back in the ring, Toa hit a samoan drop on Takagi, but Shingo evaded the Toa Bottom. Henare did pull off a vertical suplex, but then got caught with an LIJ double team. Goto came back into the ring and gave Evil the Ushigoroshi to even things back up.

Henare absorbed several forearms before hitting a back elbow and a headbutt for a near fall. Takagi nailed Toa with a pumping bomber clothesline for the pinfall victory.

Good match here. Kevin Kelly mentioned at the end that a part of him was cheering for Toa Henare, and that makes a lot of sense. Henare may have a breakout year.

Match Ratings

Six dimensions combine to make up the overall rating. Matches score ratings of 1-10 only if the match lasts for a minimum of 5 minutes.

  1. Match Quality– Was the match well wrestled or sloppy?
  2. Audience Engagement– Did the live audience care about the match?
  3. Competitiveness– Was the match competitive or one-sided?
  4. Stakes – Did the match matter?
  5. Finish– Did the match end in a satisfying manner?
  6. Performance: (1) Poor (2) Below Average (3) Average (4) Above Average (5) Excellent
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