In Tokyo, Japan on April 6, 2014 Kazuchika Okada was standing face to face with Bullet Club member Bad Luck Fale, when to the shock of everyone in the crowd AJ Styles made his NJPW debut by attacking the IWGP champion Okada. Styles ended up hitting Okada with the Styles Clash and aligning himself with the Bullet Club in the process.
Fast forward to May 3rd, 2014, the main event of Wrestling Dontaku was upon us. The challenger AJ Styles and the champion Kazuchika Okada are in the ring ready to do battle for the IWGP Heavyweight title. The beginning of the match is marred by continuous outside interference from Bullet Club. Eventually “Red Shoes Ref” Hirouki Unno had enough and he ejected Bullet Club from ringside. Afterwards Okada and AJ had a very competitive and good match. Okada looked to be on his way to another successful title defense only to have Bullet Club come back down to ringside to distract Unno while Yujirio Takahashi a stable mate of Okada in Chaos, turns on the Rainmaker and hits him with the Tokyo Pimps. AJ picks up the scraps by hitting Okada with the Bloody Sunday followed by the Styles Clash, that leads to AJ getting the pin and becoming the 60th IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Thus ending Okada’s 391 day reign as champion
Which brings us to the Back to Yokohama Arena card, where once again an IWGP Heavyweight title match between AJ Styles (champion) and Kazuchika Okada (challenger) will headline us. This match has all the makings of a classic, even better than their first go around. Questions exist for this main event:
Can Okada withstand the almost guaranteed interference from Bullet Club?
Can the appointed referee keep order if Bullet Club is at ringside?
Where are Okada’s stable mates in Chaos to help fend Bullet Club off?
Can AJ honestly beat Okada straight up?
Can Okada beat AJ straight up?
PREDICTION: Kazuchika Okada recaptures the IWGP Heavyweight Title
Last week Shinsuke “Swagsuke” Nakamura had one of the best matches all year with Ring of Honors Kevin Steen, at War of the Worlds. Nakamura will be right back in the ring on Sunday when he will be defending his IWGP Intercontinental championship against Daniel Gracie. The Intercontinental Championship match will be fought under MMA rules, a rematch from Gracie and Nakamura’s 2002 MMA fight that saw Gracie getting the better of Nakamura by way of 1st round Arm Lock. Daniel and fellow Gracie member Rolles Gracie Jr. picked up a tag team win over Nakamura and his partner, MMA legend Kazushi Sakuraba at Wrestling Dontaku. All the momentum is on Daniel’s side.
PREDICTION: Shinsuke Nakamura retains
In a Champion vs. Champion match Tomohiro Ishii will be defending his NEVER Open Weight Title against current IWGP Junior Heavyweight champion Kota Ibushi. In my opinion, this is the pre favorite for the match of the night, Kota’s high flying offense vs. Ishii’s high impact physical attack. Kota is definitely jumping up in weight for this one. Lets see if the Golden Star Kid can walk out a double champion. I for one cannot wait for this one!
PREDICTION: Tomohiro Ishii retains
Since January 4th at Wrestle Kingdom 8, Satoshi Kojima has been a thorn in Bruce Thorpe’s side, when Kojima won the NWA World title off of Rob Conway. That thorn was pushed in deeper when Kojima and his tag team partner Hiroyoshi Tenzan won the NWA World Tag Team Titles at Invasion Attack. On Sunday, TenKoji will defend those tag titles in a triple threat match against the Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith JR.) and Rob Conway & Wes Brisco. Bruce has to really like his chances of getting those tag belts off of TenKoji.
PREDICTION: Killer Elite Squad wins their first NWA Tag Titles
An 8-man tag match between Bullet Club and team NJPW headlines the rest of Sunday’s card
PREDICTION: Bullet Club
The #1 contenders for the IWGP Tag Team titles will be decided when the 2 teams who called out the current champs (Doc and Karl Anderson) do battle. Hiroshi Tanahashi /Togi Makabe vs. Hirooki Goto/Katsuyori Shibata.
Prediction: Tanahashi/Makabe
In a rivalry that has been going on for years, Chaos (Takahashi Lizuka/Toru Yano) will face Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki/Shelton Benjamin) in a tag team match.
PREDICTION: Suzuki-gun
Bad Luck Fale will look to once again upset Tetsuya Naito in a rematch from their New Japan Cup quarterfinal match.
PREDICTION: Tetsuya Naito
In another MMA rules match, Rolles Gracie will take on Kazushi Sakuraba.
PREDICTION: Rolles Gracie
The opener to the whole card will most likely be an 8-man tag match with El Desperado/Jushin Thunder Liger/ Mascara Dorado/Tiger Mask against Bushi/Ryusuke Taguchi/Time Splitters. This match may also be the pre-show match.
PREDICTION: Bushi/Taguchi/Time Splitters
Look out for my review following the event and follow @BeyondThe3Count on twitter during the event for live tweets throughout
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