NJPW World Tag League results: big six-man tag with Michael Elgin, Tanahashi, Nakamura, more

Here are night two results of the World Tag League, held Saturday in Toyohashi:

Mascara Dorada, Yohei Komatsu and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Sho Tanaka, Kushida and Tiger Mask. Kushida and Mascara Dorada had some good back and forth. In the entire year Dorada has been here I’m stunned they never had a singles match outside of the Best of the Super Juniors, which felt way too short. Seemed like such a natural program. As for the match, it was the usual solid bout you’d see in any house show prelim match. Dorada pinned Tanaka with the Dorada Screwdriver.

The Addiction defeated Jay White and Katsuyori Shibata. This was a strange pairing. Of course, Shibata was here for the hot tag once the heels were finished taking out White. White did the corner dropkick and Shibata tried for the penalty kick but was taken out to the apron. White was laid out with a high flow, then Kazarian pinned him after they hit Rehab.

The Kingdom and Gedo defeated Cody Hall, Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. They’re still doing the gimmick where Anderson is infatuated with Maria. That was fun when they feuded months ago, but now it just feels stale and redundant, especially when you remember they did the blow off where Anderson laid out Maria anyway. So this was just a match until they built up to a spot  Basically just a back and forth match. They built up a spot where Anderson chased Maria into the ring while Hall had Bennett in the Razor’s Edge but Taven came back and made the save for her. With him out of the way, Bennett then pinned Hall after a spike piledriver.

Evil and Tetsuya Naito defeated Captain New Japan and Hirooki Goto. Not that interesting. Hirooki Goto worked a lot of the match, then tagged in CNJ who did his usual shtick. Bushi grabbed him by the leg as he hit the ropes. Naito gave him an enzuigiri then Evil pinned him with an STO.

A Block: Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi vs. Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe

This was actually very good in places, especially whenever Honma and Nagata were in the ring. They have terrific chemistry and the crowd ate up their back and forth. Nakanishi was his usual immobile self and at one point even tripped getting into the ring. People laughed at him and it was kinda sad. Honma at one point kicked out of a head chop off the top rope/kick to the back of the head by Nagata in a cool spot. Nagata eventually pinned Honma after a backdrop hold.

B Block: AJ Styles and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan

A good match. Not a lot to it, just some back and forth. AJ worked hard whenever he was in the ring with either member of Tencozy. At one point he was going for the Styles Clash on Tenzan but countered with the 3D. They eventually score the win, pinning Yujiro after a lariat by Kojima.

A Block: Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi Hashi vs. Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga

Another solid match, but not a ton to it either. Okada worked a lot of the match against both Fale and Tonga. They were going for a double move when Yoshi Hashi made a comeback, and together they took out Fale and Tonga. With Fale distracted on the outside, Okada pins Tonga after a rainmaker.

Michael Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Juice Robinson vs. Shinsuke Nakamura, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano

Decent house show main event, nothing more or less. It was basically a match where everyone got their spots in, looked good, and left the crowd happy. Elgin and Ishii worked a lot of the watch together, which the crowd was super into. Robinson and Nakamura worked against one another two; went pretty well with Robinson holding his own. Nakamura got the win for his team, winning after a big splash by Ishii followed the boma ye on Robinson.