12/19 NJPW Road to the Tokyo Dome Results

NJPW announced that Yoshi Tatsu will be joining Kevin Kelly & Matt Striker on commentary at Wrestle Kingdom 10. Tatsu will be able to provide translations, which has been missing from English broadcasts so far.

This was the last NJPW show of the year.

KUSHIDA, Jushin Thunder Liger & Jay White defeated David Finlay, Tiger Mask IV & Ryusuke Taguchi

This was a fun opening match with plenty of action throughout. Taguchi was back to his Nakamura inspired mockery, so he learnt nothing from yesterday. Liger was back to his usual look here. Finlay looked excellent here, especially in the last few minutes with KUSHIDA. He put KUSHIDA in a Strecth Muffler and survived a Hoverboard Lock. He got a great near fall off a roll up before KUSHIDA finished him with a moonsault. KUSHIDA gets the win ahead of his IWGP Jr title match with Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom. KUSHIDA has been in the background for the last few shows, which is strange since he has a big title match coming up.

Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Yohei Komatsu defeated Sho Tanaka, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi

This was great. The veteran army beat the hell out of each other. Just like yesterday, they all seemed extremely fired up. Nagata & Kojima had some awesome exchanges when they were in the ring together. At one point Nagata, Nakanishi & Tanaka all had the opposing team in submission holds, with Komatsu tapping to the Nagata Lock, but they weren’t the legal men. It came down to Kojima vs Tanaka. In an amazing sequence, Tanaka hit a deadlift German suplex on Kojima that the crowd went nuts for. Kojima finished off Tanaka with a lariat. After the bell the four veterans got into it. Tenzan & Nakanishi had to be separated.

Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma defeated YOSHI-HASHI & Kazushi Sakuraba

This was a strange mix of names. Sakuraba & Makabe were a lot better together than you’d imagine. Makabe did his usual hot tag routine on him and Sakuraba caught him in a great rolling armbar, which Honma broke up with a Kokeshi. YOSHI put up a fight against Makabe until Makabe & Honma hit a Doomsday Kokeshi and Makabe hit YOSHI with the King Kong Knee Drop to get the pin. It was a decent match.

EVIL & Tetsuya Naito defeated Juice Robinson & Hirooki Goto

This was crazy. Naito took an age to get to the ring and when he did he had a Captain New Japan mask that had Los Ingobernables written over the NJPW logo. Captain was at ringside for the match. Naito wrestled most of the match in a t-shirt and hoody. He and Goto brawled on the floor. EVIL wrapped a chair around the throat of Robinson and drove him into the ringpost. EVIL & Robinson wrestled most of the match and had some great back and forth. Naito took out Goto with a low blow while EVIL finished off Robinson with an STO. After the match Los Ingobernables attacked everyone and unmasked Captain New Japan before they were ran off. I was sure Captain was going to turn and join Los Ingobernables, but maybe that’s what they’re building to at WK. It would certainly make Captain interesting. This was all great. Naito is just incredible at the minute. Everything he does is captivating.

CMLL World Welterweight Championship

BUSHI defeated Mascara Dorada

This was awesome. These two had an incredible match with BUSHI looking great in his first big match back from injury. This was a great Lucha style match with BUSHI being as heelish as he possibly could. He tried to unmask Dorada a few times. He hit a suicide dive that bent Dorada backwards over the guardrail. Dorada was spectacular as usual. He is mesmerising when he walks across the top rope. Naito was causing hassle at ringside until Goto got involved and ran him off. The finish of this was great. EVIL caused a distraction allowing BUSHI to mist Dorada, low blow him and catch him in a bridging backslide. But amazingly Dorada kicked out. BUSHI then hit a diving Codebreaker to get the win and take the CMLL Welterweight Championship. This will play into the CMLL/NJPW Fantasticamania tour in January. This match is worth going out of your way for. Los Ingobernables are being booked so well.

Shinsuke Nakamura & Toru Yano defeated Cody Hall & Yujiro Takahashi

This was fun, with Nakamura again putting in a big effort to make Hall look good. Yano’s ribs were attacked again. Nakamura was really laying the kicks in on Yujiro. Hall was really impressive here again. Nakamura attempted a rolling armbar, but Hall caught him. Hall fell into the ropes, but still managed to hold onto Nakamura and hit a Gutbuster. Yano snuck in with low blows on Hall & Yujiro allowing Nakamura to get the win after a Boma Ye.

After the match Yano revealed that The Briscoes would be his partners at Wrestle Kingdom to take on Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Tama Tonga. It’s going to be great seeing The Briscoes involved with New Japan. They could be a huge part of the tag division.

Katsuyori Shibata & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada

This main event was absolutely spectacular. If this match didn’t get you excited for Wrestle Kingdom nothing will. This was the perfect preview and a great way to close out NJPW for 2015. There was too much action to recap. Ishii and Shibata beat the hell out of each other. Shibata almost made Ishii submit to a triangle choke. Tanahashi caught an Okada dropkick and put him in a Texas Cloverleaf. The last few minutes of this were awesome. Ishii fought off both Tanahashi & Shibata. Okada delivered some incredible dropkicks. The finish of this saw Shibata hit a GTS on Ishii, followed by a High Fly Flow from Tanahashi and a PK from Shibata as Shibata pinned his WK opponent. Go out of your way to see this match. My words don’t do it justice.

Credit: Matthew Macklin and PWInsider