New Japan Pro Wrestling 'Power Struggle' Results (11/5): Naito Vs. Jay Lethal, Super Junior Final

NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING "POWER STRUGGLE"

Saturday November 5th 2016

Arena Osaka

Attendance- 5,050

Airing On New Japan World

This is New Japan's final major event before The WrestleKingdom 11 show on January 4th at The Tokyo Dome. This event featured 2 major title changes, The Super Junior Tag Final and set the stage for NJPW's biggest annual show.

Here are the results;

* Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Juice Robinson defeated Yuji Nagata, Teruaki Kanemitsu & Manabu Nakanishi in 5:49 When Juice hit his Pulp Friction finish on Kanemitsu

- This was the dark match on the show. Shows you how stacked the card is when two legendary Japanese wrestlers like Tenzan and Nagata aren't even on the main show.

* Ricochet, David Finlay, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask IV defeated Angel De Oro, Titan, Fuego & Ryusuke Taguchi in 5:30 when David Finlay hit The Kamikaze on Fuego

- Exciting and quick opener featuring three CMLL talents. Who will all be a part of NJPW and CMLL's joint "Fantastica Mania" tour in January.

* Yujiro Takahashi, Bone Soldier & Chase Owens defeated Togi Makabe, Yoshi Tatsu & Tomoaki Honma in 7:36 when Takahashi hit The Pimp Juice on Yoshi Tatsu

- The former Captain New Japan now known as 'Bone Soldier" is finally on the winning side of a match as a member of The Bullet Club.

IWGP TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

* Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa defeated Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI in 14:32 when Tonga pinned Hashi following Guerilla Warfare

This was The Guerillas of Destiny's first major title defense after winning The IWGP tag titles at The King of Pro Wrestling show in October.

SUPER JUNIOR TAG TEAM TOURNAMENT FINAL

* Roppongi Vice defeated Super ACH & Taiji Ishimori in 18:49 when Barreta pinned ACH after The Strong Zero finisher

- Excellent match. This result was against the grain. After teasing dissension for quite some time. RPG Vice had a great showing in this tournament and are now positioned to go after The IWGP Junior tag titles held by The Young Bucks at WrestleKingdom. Not to be out done here was ACH and Ishimori. What an exciting pairing these two were. Ishimori represented NOAH very well. I'd say that ACH represented ROH very well and he did, but there is a lot of speculation that he is moving on from Ring of Honor soon. It would be a shame not to see these two team up again.

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

* Kushida defeated Bushi in 15:48 with The Hoverboard Lock to become The new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

- After months of teasing it. With even some speculation early on that "Ryback" would be the big reveal. "Time Bomb" was finally revealed as Kamaitachi. Who has returned to New Japan under his real name of Hiromu Takahashi. He challenged Kushida to a match for his newly won title at WrestleKingdom in The Tokyo Dome. Hard not to think of Chris Jericho's WWF debut in 1999 when seeing this.

* Kenny Omega, Adam Cole & The Young Bucks defeated Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Hirooki Goto & Gedo in 14:01 when Kenny Omega hit The One Winged Angel on Kazuchika Okada and pinned him

- Fun match with a lot of cool spots. Including at one point. A quadruple superkick delivered by The Bullet Club on Gedo. The post match saw a fallen Okada disrespected as Omega and the club posed with him lifeless in the center of the ring.

- Familiar formula usually in the states. Where the Challenger beats a champion in a tag match as buildup for a major main event. New Japan has not exactly kept their two main eventers apart leading into The Tokyo Dome IWGP World Championship main event. As they have been in opposing matches throughout this buildup. It won't certainly take away from what should be an epic match between Okada and Omega on 1/4, but it's a unique approach nonetheless.

NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

* 'King of Darkness' EVIL defeated Katsuyori Shibata in 16:14 with his STO finisher "Evil".

- This is the biggest singles win of the former Takaaki Watanabe's career. His first major title victory. He's only been wrestling for 5 years and 'EVIL' has had quite a transformation since joining up with Naito in Los Ingobernables De Japon. Shibata is an amazing talent and delivered again here on the big stage. Curious to see what direction these two go in, heading into WrestleKingdom. These two could be going at it again potentially. NJPW is not big on stipulation matches but if ever a pairing called for one. This would be it.

* Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated SANADA in 21:33 with The High Fly Flow

- Another excellent Tanahashi match. What else is new. The speculation is that Hiroshi is headed to a singles match with Tetsuya Naito at The Tokyo Dome.

IWGP INTERCONTINENTAL CHAMPIONSHIP MATCH

* Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay Lethal in 24:29 with The Destino to retain The IWGP Intercontinental Champioship

- Jay Lethal was terrific in this match. He was about as good of a replacement as any one could have hoped for. This was originally supposed to be Michael Elgin's return match for The IWGP IC title with Naito, but because of his fractured orbital bone injury at The King of Pro Wrestling show. Elgin was forced to have surgery and pull out of this match. Jay Lethal replacing him and taking on Naito made great sense, coming off of their match at ROH's All Star Extravaganza and their current feud. Both these men are excellent in ring performers. World Class.

-In the post match. Hiroshi Tanahashi arrived on the scene and challenged Tetsuya Naito for The IWGP Intercontinental Title at WrestleKingdom. This was left open ended as Naito didn't openly accept. Even though that's where this is most likely headed.

Source: New Japan Pro Wrestling