SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)...
NJPW ROYAL QUEST IV REPORT
OCTOBER 20, 2024
CRYSTAL PALACE NATIONAL SPORTS CENTER
LONDON, ENGLAND
AIRED LIVE ON NJPW WORLD AND REVPRO ON DEMAND
It’s an eclectic card with a lot of guest appearances and only a couple of consequential matches, so today’s recap will not be a move-by-move written commentary. The English commentary was only available on RevPro, so I was flying blind on a lot of the local talent.
(A) YUTO NAKASHIMA & OSKAR LEUBE vs. DANNY JONES & BRENDAN WHITE
Nakashima and Leube are currently on excursion, having been sent there about a year ago. They have formed the team Youngblood, and are champs in PWH in the Netherlands as well as Germany’s wXw. When they left for their excursion they said they wanted to stay together, and it seems they have done just that. White and Jones wrestle as Greedy Souls.
Youngblood picked up the win (12:00) with an awkward-looking tandem move. Leube picked up White in a fireman’s carry, Nakashima came off the top with a leaping knee strike, knocking White into an F5-style drop. It was clumsy in execution, though. This was very long for a preshow match, and not very good. Leube has a LONG way to go before he is ready to be on a main roster, as his offense seems to consist solely of scoop slams. Nakashima looked a bit better but still didn’t really show the level of skill needed to be back in NJPW proper. Jones and White didn’t show me anything really.
(1) DANNY BLACK & JOE LANDO vs. TAIJI ISHIMORI & X
Black and Lando make up Close Personal Friends, which is a great name for a tag team. Ishimori came out alone to a great reception. He took the mic and introduced his mystery partner, Robbie X. Robbie came out in a Bullet Club shirt. He’s been RevPro champion and competed on Royal Quest II in the past.
The influence of Will Ospreay on young British wrestlers was evident in this one, with Lando and Black clearly taking inspiration from him. Robbie X did not look impressive physically, but at one point he tagged it and casually hit a front flip kick to the man on the apron, bounced off the rope having done so, and landed on his feet. Good grief. Ishimori gave the young Brits a lot, and they capitalised. Danny Black in particular looked to have a lot of moves in his repertoire, including a tope to the floor into a cutter. Robbie X pinned Lando (8:00) with a Skytwister press.
This was much more like what I was hoping to see on the card, a showcase for the British talent. CPF impressed me here, working well as a team and showing some individual skill. They might be worth a look in a Junior Tag League in the near future. Robbie X is very good, and at only 29 he still has plenty of time to get himself signed to a major promotion.
(2) DANI LUNA & AZM vs. MINA SHIRAKAWA & KANJI
Dani Luna is currently signed to TNA, making for an interesting combination in the ring. Luna from TNA (and potentially appearing on NXT), AZM from Stardom, Mina Shirakawa who is often on AEW, and Kanji from RevPro.
The difference in pace and crispness between the talent in this match and the typical North American women’s match was like night and day. Even when the two Brits were in the ring, the action was of a higher caliber. Dani Luna in particular looked very good, and pinned Mina Shirakawa (9:00) after a sitout Fireman’s Bomb. I had heard a lot about her coming into this match so it was good to see her live up to the hype. It looked like Kanji may have hurt her ankle in the finishing sequence, hopefully nothing serious. Somewhat surprising to have Shirakawa take the fall here, but she is the RevPro champion and it was likely done to set Luna up for a shot at that title. A fun match.
- A pretaped promo from the Grizzled Young Veterans challenged the winners of the NJPW Strong tag championship match later tonight. I never noticed how much James Drake looks like Stevie Richards.
(3) MICHAEL OKU vs KOSEI FUJITA
Michael Oku has had some critically-acclaimed matches, especially with Will Ospreay (which is not hard) and MJF (which is also not hard). Fujita came out with heavy strapping on his left shoulder, which was concerning with Junior Tag League on the horizon.
This was the match I was most excited to see on the whole card, and I was not disappointed. Oku manages to pull off acrobatic moves with almost nonchalant ease, but more to the point he has an undeniable magnetism that makes you want to watch everything he does. In a second-straight shock. Fujita rolled up Oku (10:00) for the win. I fully expected this to be the token win for the home team, especially since Oku has had some high-profile matches and wins. It was a good match regardless, but all it did was make me want to see what Oku could do with someone like Jay White, Naito, or Sanada.
(4) DRILLA MOLONEY vs. YOTA TSUJI
A mismatch on paper, with Moloney still technically a junior heavyweight despite being built like a brick house. That said, with Moloney and Connors having recently lost their titles and Jake Lee being on the shelf it’s possible Moloney will move up to heavyweight soon.
As it turned out, this was the match that the crowd selected for their “make it about us” match. In part that was due to the fairly mediocre nature of the match, but British crowds do love their chants and they were in full voice for this match. As expected Tsuji emerged victorious following a Gene Blaster (14:00), but it took much too long for no real reason. It wasn’t that the match was bad, it just didn’t do anything for either man. Tsuji got the expected win but in double the time it arguably should have taken. Moloney on the other hand was not particularly impressive and never seemed to have Tsuji in danger. In a word, this felt like filler.
(5) SHOTA UMINO vs. CALLUM NEWMAN
I suppose if they tried, they could make it a little more obvious that the theme of the night was Japan vs the UK. At least for this match there is some history, with Newman picking up a massive win in the G1 over Umino. Newman got a great reaction as you might expect, but Umino seemed to be more popular than his most recent appearance in Japan would suggest.
This was what I wanted from the previous two matches. Newman has been a heavyweight for a while but he’s still levels below Umino. Nonetheless he had a lot of offence here and looked amazing doing it. I would go so far as to say it was his best match yet. As the match went deeper, the crowd turned on Umino more and more, and by the 15-minute mark he was getting roundly booed. His pinfall win after a Death Rider (17:00) was greeted with a mixture of applause and boos, but no real celebration.
New Japan has a Shota Umino problem. They seem to be taking the John Cena/Roman Reigns approach and forcing him on the audience as a mega-face, and even the Japanese crowds are tiring of it. This was an excellent match, but the reactions are what will stick out.
(6) TAKA MICHINOKU vs DAVID FINLAY
Most of the matches on the card were trivial to predict, but this was the easiest by far. Taka got a massive reaction from the crowd, no doubt helped by the use of his old Kaientai theme. Finlay cut a history promo before the match, and said Taka had to go through Gedo before he could have a match with Finlay. Naturally Taka agreed, and he tapped out Gedo in two minutes with Just Facelock.
Finlay jumped Taka immediately, but after a few quick near falls from Taka he got dropped with Overkill to give Finlay the expected win (2:00). Nothing much to this except some more build for Taichi’s title shot, which was exacerbated when Finlay clocked Taka after the match with the title belt.
(7) LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPÓN (Testsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi & Titan) vs. RYOHEI OIWA & ROBBIE EAGLES & MASCARA DORADA
My main question for this match was how much Naito would do, given the state he appeared to be in physically over the last few months. Of the six men in the match, he was the most over (as usual), but Hiromu was not far behind. Before the match began we got chants for t-shirt Naito and t-shirt Robbie, which might have been the best chants so far.
After nine and a half minutes of pre-match shenanigans, we settled into a pretty standard NJPW six-man. Seeing Hiromu and Eagles reprise their singles feud was a nice reminder of how good those two can be together. Mascara Dorada and Titan put on a clinic with each other, Titan picking up the win with a top rope double stomp (12:00). Naito did very little and looked slow in doing most of it, though he managed to pull off most of his greatest hits. He looked like a man who needed surgery, if I’m honest. Nothing much of note here, just good action in a match that meant little more than getting Naito on the card safely.
(8) TMDK (C) vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & TOMOHIRO ISHII – NJPW Strong Tag Team Championship match
Coming in, I did not expect the titles to be in any sort of jeopardy. TMDK had not held them long, and their opponents were not exactly a regular team. The match unfolded pretty much exactly as you would expect it to, with Ishii handling most of the work for his team. Tanahashi looked more spritely than he had in a long time, but he was notably late in breaking up a pinfall just before the 15-minute mark.
After two Tankbusters and a Super Tankbuster on Ishii’s concrete noggin (16:00), TMDK retained. Again, the match was here to get a legend on the card (Tanahashi in this case) and it served its purpose on that front. Tag teams are a little thin on the ground in New Japan right now, so there wasn’t exactly a glut of options. Nicholls was limping around after the match, which did not look like a sell job. Hopefully he just tweaked an ankle.
(9) ZACK SABRE JR (C) vs. SANADA – IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match
It should not come as a surprise to hear that Sanada was booed and ZSJ got the loudest cheers of the night. He also got streamers. The crowd was into this match the whole way, despite going through an entire songbook of chants. For me though, it was a bit slow to get going. It picked up after about 18 minutes, and it stayed up until the end.
The outcome was never really in doubt. It would take an extremely mean-spirited booker to have ZSJ finally break through only to lose in his first defense in front of his home crowd (though the isle of Sheppey is about 50 miles from Crystal Palace). ZSJ retained with a combination Clarky Cat/Stretch Muffler (25:00), thus answering the only real question of HOW he would win.
It’s a shame to say, but Sanada was the perfect choice for a first defense. Former champion, still somewhat over, capable of holding his own with Zack, but unlikely to be hurt by the loss. The pair shook hands after the match, leaving ZSJ to celebrate with his compatriots. Next up for the champ will be Shingo Takagi and then probably Shota Umino at the Tokyo Dome.
ZSJ took to the mic and thanked the UK fans for their support. He invited TMDK to the ring and introduced them to the live crowd, and that was our show.
Final thoughts: The card did not look particularly important on paper, and that did play out. Not to say there was nothing good on the show, because there was, Umino-Newman was the standout by some margin, but ZSJ-Sanada is also worth a watch. Oku and Fujita could have done with five more minutes for me, and the women’s tag was far better than I expected (which was already a high bar). In terms of developing feuds, establishing plans, or even really changing anything in the landscape…the show was a non-entity on those fronts. That so many of the matches were utterly predictable is a further strike against it as a whole. Seek out the good bits for sure, but unless you are a completist you can safely read this report and feel like you know what you need to know.
You can contact me at lansdellicious@gmail.com or on Twitter @lansdellicious. Keep your eyes and ears open for the 7-Star Podcast and Radican Worldwide on PWTorch VIP to hear more of my thoughts on the show. Thanks for joining us!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.