NJPW Power Struggle live results 2015: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Karl Anderson for IC title

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Power Struggle from November 7 in Osaka:

JUSHIN LIGER & TIGER MASK & RYUSUKE TAGUCHI & MASCARA DORADA VS. YOHEI KOMATSU & SHO TANAKA & JAY WHITE & DAVID FINLAY

The match was pretty much what you’d expect it to be  Great timing.  Everyone looked good.  Too short.  Nobody had time to stand out or show their best.  Finlay got to do the most among the Young Lions since he was losing.  Several dives and Tiger pinned Finlay after a double arm suplex off the top rope.

Liger challenged Tiger Mask for the NWA jr. title after.  He agreed to it.  First of what are likely to be several square-offs and challenges tonight

TOGI MAKABE & CAPTAIN NEW JAPAN & JUICE ROBINSON VS. DOC GALLOWS & TAMA TONGA & CODY HALL

Crowd was into this one more than you’d think.  Robinson hurt his right knee doing a dive.  He was hurting pretty bad when he went to the back.  Tonga pinned Captain after a Superman punch and a double arm DDT.   Glad to see Tonga get a win.

HIROOKI GOTO VS. EVIL TAKAAKI WATANABE

Match wasn’t much but the post-match angle got over really good.  Goto had him in a shoudlerlock when Tetsuya Naito walked slowly to the ring.  The crowd picked up big for him.  He kicked Goto low right in front of the ref for the DQ and was beating on him and beat down Jay White, Yohei Komatsu and Sho Tanaka until Katsuyori Shibata made the save.  The crowd popped big for Shibata’s save.  Shibata sat in the ring and dared Watanabe & Naito to come in.  As Naito was leaving, he knoked down the camera man shooting him visually it was like he was about to attack you through the computer screen.

KENNY OMEGA & CHASE OWENS & YOUNG BUCKS VS. ALEX SHELLEY & KUSHIDA & BOBBY FISH & KYLE O’REILLY

Real good. Lots of cool moves, fast paced and well timed.  Kushida got the submission on Owens with the hoverboard lock while O’Reilly had Omega in an armbar over the ropes.  Kushida should have beaten Omega since Kushida squared off with Omega after with the belt there.  Felt too short as it was just getting going when they went to the finish.

RICOCHET & MATT SYDAL VS. ROCKY ROMERO & BARETTA FOR THE SUPER JUNIOR TOURNAMENT CHAMPIONSHIP

Super match.  Romero is one of the most unheralded guys in the business.  Ricochet & Sydal were great here.  The finsh was a double shooting star press, Sydal pinning Baretta while Ricochet hit a benadrylller and a shooting star press at the same time to Romero.  Ricochet did a springboard shooting star press to the floor on Baretta as a highlight but the match was filled with highlight moves.  Crowd was really into it, particularly down the stretch.

Ricochet & Sydal challenged Fish & O’Reilly for the titles.  Romero grabbed the mic.  Romero said they just beat the champions at Korakuen Hall so deserve the shot.  The Bucks came out and Nick said they were the former champions they wanted a rematch.  Fish showed the belt and said we’ve beaten all of you except New Kids on the Block.  Fish said we can do it tonight  Nick Jackson started quoting Billy Gunn if you’re not down with that.  They are setting up a four-way at the Tokyo Dome. 

A.J. STYLES & BAD LUCK FALE VS. TORU YANO & YOSHI-HASHI

Predictable finish with Styles pinning Yoshi-Hashi with the Styles clash after a Pele kick and bloody sunday DDT.  Good match.  Styles looked great but was holding his back when it was over.  But he was flying all over the place.  Yano did his usual undoing the turnbuckle stuff and kept his program with Fale going.  Good match.

TOMOHIRO ISHII VS. TOMOAKI HONMA FOR NEVER OPEN WEIGHT TITLE

A match of the year candidate.  These two just killed it, almost as good as their Feburary match.  Honma was just incredible with all these spear head-butts and even doing a diving head-butt off the top rope to the floor which is really the worst idea for a guy his age to be doing.  Ishii was at his best here.  Crowd heat was super.  They so badly wanted Honma to take the title.  I wish he had but they obviously have long-term plans.  The finish saw  Honma go for a spear head-butt but Ishii elbowed him in the face as he was coming in, then lariated him and Honma took a spin bump, before hitting the brainbuster for the pin.  Some of the match was sick, like the ram head-butts.

HIROSHI TANAHASHI & KATSUYORI SHIBATA VS. KAZUSHI SAKURABA & KAZUCHIKA OKADA

Super match.  Tanahashi and Okada worked it to get you to want to see the Tokyo Dome match.  Shibata’s selling was out of this world and he worked great with Sakruaba, although it was mostly Okada in for his team.   The finish saw Shibata & Tanahashi hit a double dropkick on Okada, Shibata did a low dropkick to Sakuraba, Tanahashi hit Sakruaba with the high fly flow, Tanahashi used a plancha on Okada and Shibata hit the GTS on Sakuraba for the pin.

Big angle after the match

Tanahashi did a promo after the match on Okada.  Okada was leaving but came back.  They went face-to-face.  Okada taunted him and Tanahashi went nuts and had to be held back.  He broke free  and they had a pull-apart brawl.  Juice Robinson was out so his knee wasn’t that bad.  The brawled outside the ring.  Okada got the briefcase and hit Tanahashi in the head and shoulder.  Now Okada is all over him.  Tanahashi broke free and went after Okada.  Tanahashi ran after him and dropkicked him on the floor.  Tanahashi broke free again.  Okada tried to tombstone him on the floor but everyone broke hat up  About a minute after it was over, Tanahashi suddenly broke free and ran to the back after Okada.

SHINSUKE NAKAMURA VS. KARL ANDERSON FOR THE IC TITLE

Good luck to these two trying to follow the past two matches.

Long well worked match.  Nakamura’s selling was tremendous and Anderson domianted hitting everything under the sun including a gunstun off the middle rope and a Bernard driver.  The finish saw them exchange moves until Nakamura nailed a high kick for the pin.  Great counters in the last few minutes.  

The surprise guy is A.J. Styles.  So that’s the Tokyo Dome No. 2 match.  They went head to head.  Styles grabbed the belt and handed it to him.  Styles told him he was taking the belt from him.   The announcers were screaming about the Tokyo Dome.  It’ll be a great match but it’s time for some outsiders to be fitted in.  Nakamura then talked about facing Styles at the Tokyo Dome.