WhiteTail Wrestling

The final New Japan show for 2022 and the last match for Suzuki-gun takes place at Korakuen Hall on the 23rd December 2022.

The opener sees the House of Torture (SHO & Yujiro Takahashi( defeat Jado & Yuto Nakashima. This was a solid undercard opener with none of the nonsense we normally get from HOT which is a good thing. **1/2

Two Young Lions Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita took on the team from Chaos (Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii) in a match that was better than expected. A spirited start from the Young Lions and an excellent finish where they were given far more that expected gaining some good near falls and almost upsetting their far more experienced opponents but in the end Ishii gets the submission win with a Boston crab. ***1/4

An enjoyable fast paced match as the United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare & Akira Francesco) defeated Ren Narita & Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe. Fast paced action from the bell with everyone in the match getting involved. Francesco gets the win against Tiger Mask. **3/4

LIJ (Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi) defeated HoT (EVIL & Dick Togo). This ended up real good there was the nonsense and interference from HoT but it wasn’t that bad and some of it was entertaining. Good finish to the match with Takagi overcoming both Togo and EVIL before finishing off Togo firstly with the pumping bomber and then the sliding lariat. ***

The World Tag League winners Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) took on the Dad’s army tag team of TenCozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima). A good match with plenty of physical action with the highlight for me being a battle between Kojima who is still very capable even at this stage of his career against Goto. The match fell apart a little with Tenzan really struggling and he found it hard to stay vertical for the finish crumbling to the mat before he was put out of his misery. ***

LIJ (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA & BUSHI) took on the team Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino & Ryusuke Taguchi. A really fun match they did a good job continuing to build a potential Umino vs Naito with Naito having a lot more to do in this match than many other undercard matches. Naito even was in there for the end with the destino on Taguchi. ***1/4

Kazuchika Okada & Master Wato & YOH defeated the Bullet Club (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori & Gedo). Another fun house show match with everyone getting the chance to get in the ring and entertain in a fast paced match. YOH pins Gedo after the direct drive but after the match Francesco Akira attacks YOH in the build up to their Jr Tag Title match at Wrestle Kingdom. ***

The final match of the night was also the final match of Suzuki-gun as TAKA Michinoku & El Desperado & Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki took on DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi & Zach Sabre Jr. Great start as Taichi and Suzuki had a long battle beating the crap out of each other. The match continued with the same momentum as everyone went all out to have the greatest possible match to end Suzuki-gun. Great battle between ZSJ and Suzuki who had a physical confrontation with some great striking but also some brilliant technical wrestling and submission attempts. After this the match broke down with everyone in the ring battling each other until everyone was down except Suzuki. Suzuki began to strike everyone regardless of whether they were on his team have a final showdown with everyone in his faction. Suzuki is reluctant to strike at Suzuki again but he is encouraged and he uses the iron glove to strike Suzuki ZSJ then hits the Zach Driver yelling out thank you Suzuki as he landed the final blow. This match was just perfect not in terms of in ring but as a story which dragged you in fully and raised emotions to the absolute maximum. After the match the entire Suzuki-gun got together in the ring with Suzuki first addressing the crowd and then one by one the rest of Suzuki-gun. After this amazing emotional moment we got more as snow began to fall from the roof Suzuki-gun came together for the final time with Takashi Iizuka the retired member coming down to the ring for the final goodbye. One of the best moments I have ever seen in wrestling not an all time match by any means but an all time moment. *****

Show Thoughts

Most of this was a standard NJPW house show with good solid matches but nothing spectacular. However the main event to me will go down as one of the most memorable emotional matches that I have ever seen with the perfect ending for Suzuki-gun. There have been matches during 2022 but there have been few better experiences in watching wrestling than what it was to watch this match as well as the post match. I would recommend finding time to watch this match you could skip the rest of the show and not miss anything particularly memorable but the main event is a 100% a must watch match.