NJPW New Year Dash Results (1/5): Post WrestleKingdom 11 Show, Suzuki-Gun Returns, Title Change

NJPW NEW YEAR DASH @ Korakuen Hall In Tokyo
Attendance- 1,738
Airing On NJPW World

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New Japan's New Year Dash show is comparable to The WWE's Raw after WrestleMania. NJPW is coming off of their biggest annual show in WrestleKingdom 11 at The Tokyo Dome. This event sets the stage for the upcoming year. The argument can be made that New Japan has never been stronger worldwide than it is today. The company has expanded it's global reach and has more fans in America, than it has ever had. As a result of their working agreement with Ring of Honor, CMLL in Mexico and the continued success of New Japan World and social media.

This year's post WrestleKingdom show produced some returns and changes, and here are the results of last night's show.

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Ricochet, Kyle O'Reilly & David Finlay defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Henare in 6:16 when Finlay pinned Henare.

- Good opener that showcases three of the best young talents on the planet in Ricochet, O'Reilly and Finlay. Finlay actually went into the crowd and hugged his mom after the match.

Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page defeated Billy Gunn & Yoshi-Tatsu in 6:39 when Hangman hit the Rite of Passage on Tatsu.

- Not much to this match. The Bullet Club Hunters in Gunn and Tatsu get beat here. Gunn looks pretty good for a 53 year old.

Yoshi-Hashi & Roppongi Vice defeated Adam Cole & The Young Bucks in 9:59 when Hashi pinned Cole with a small package.

- Big story here is the now 3 time ROH world champ being pinned by Hashi. The Bucks and Cole attacked Yoshi-Hashi after the match and laid him out. Which should set up a Cole-Hashi match for The ROH Championship down the line.

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'Team 2000' (Scott Norton, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Hiro Saito & Cheeseburger) defeated The Bullet Club (Kenny Omega, Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & BONE SOLDIER) in 9:57 when Kojima pinned Soldier after a lariat

- Unique positioning of Kenny Omega after the WrestleKingdom show. There were a lot of comedy spots in this match. Most of them involving Cheeseburger and Norton. One fun spot saw Norton fling Cheeseburger onto The Club on the outside, only to be caught and thrown back into Norton's arms. Steve Corino was once again terrific on commentary during this match. The WWE will be missing the boat if they don't put him on commentary.

Michael Elgin & Kushida defeated Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi in 13:45 following The Burning Hammer by Elgin on Naito

- This match was used to build towards two title programs. The first obviously being Elgin's win over current IC champ Naito. This was all set up by CMLL's Dragon Lee. He came down to ringside and attacked Naito and Takahashi, which led to the finish. Dragon Lee posed with Takahashi's IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship draped over his shoulder. He also had a brief staredown with Kushida. His way of putting the junior heavyweight division on notice.

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Katsuyori Shibata, Juice Robinson, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe & Yuji Nagata defeated Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii & Will Ospreay in 14:54 when Juice hit The Pulp Friction and pinned Goto

- Exciting 10 man tag that had a wild finish, and an even wilder post match. The former CJ Parker of NXT, Juice Robinson is starting to take the next step in his career. He pinned Goto and posed with The Never Openweight title after the match. Just then all hell breaks loose as "Suzuki Gun" consisting of Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Takashi Iizuka & Taka Michinoku all came into the ring and laid everyone out. They took down the entire Chaos faction led by Okada. Kazuchika Okada attempted to make the save but Minoru Suzuki laid him out with a Gotch piledriver. He then took the mic as Suzuki-Gun stood tall. Suzuki announced that he has returned to take over, reclaim his spot on top and that his army will take all of New Japan's titles. He announced this and then stood on the neck of IWGP World Champion Okada.

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Manabu Nakanishi, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated EVIL, SANADA & BUSHI for the NEVER Six-Man tag titles in 13:24 when Nakanishi pinned Bushi after The Hercules Cutter

- This match closed the show. More hot potato action for these titles. Nakanishi cut a promo in victory to close the show. It was a wild one for sure and set the stage for NJPW's next big programs. New Japan will now begin their tour in mid January with CMLL during "Fantastica Mania". The next big NJPW show is 'New Beginning" in Sapporo on February 5th.

Here is the post show report from Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino.

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