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Steely superkick puts more metal in BULLET CLUB
‘Toughest superkick in the game’ gives El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori second title reign
As the Road to The New Beginning hit Ota-ku on January 23, it was the IWGP Jr. heavyweight Tag Team Championships on the line in the main event as champions El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru took on challengers El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori.
With Yoshinobu Kanemaru highly suspicious of El Phantasmo’s protestations that his boot was not, in fact, loaded, the Heel Master went for a heel hook early to try and rip the boot off ELP and find out for himself, to no avail. Instead, El Desperado and Taiji Ishimori engaged in a high speed game of cat and mouse, with liberal misdirection and eye pokes from Despe before Ishimori was able to slow his masked foe, jerking his shoulder into the corner and putting the match in BULLET CLUB control.
In an effective combination of graceful movement and disgraceful intent, the challengers flew and flipped as they raked Desperado’s back, and when Despe made space to tag in Kanemaru, ELP showed his considerable prowess to suplex the challenger and keep the match out of Suzuki-Gun hands. A tree of woe was aptly named as Kanemaru found his nether regions trod upon in the corner, and the Heel Master had to dig deep to land an arm drag and dropkick, bringing Desperado in just past the ten minute mark.
The fired up champion went right to work on Ishimori, and sent his opponent into a meddling Phantasmo before locking in Numero Dos. Ishimori was able to counter into the Yes Lock, but Desperado reversed back into the hold before Ishimori’s core strength saw him escape into a roll-up for two before a handspring kick found the mark.
With tags on both sides of the ring, a spectacular satellite DDT from Kanemaru put Phantasmo on the mat, and a follow up Figure Four almost had the secret of ELP’s boot revealed before Ishimori made the save. A spectacular Codebreaker/moonsault combo would almost give the challengers the belts, but when Phantasmo loaded up his boot for a superkick, he found not Kanemaru but referee Red Shoes Unno.
The challengers attempted to capitalize by using the title belts, only to have their plan backfire, but there was no referee to make a clear three count. When a substitute referee was wiped out to boot, there was no control of the final moments of the match, belt shots flying from both teams before Phantasmo scored a low blow and a shot from Kanemaru’s whiskey bottle as Marty Asami gained some form of consciousness.
Phantasmo loaded the superkick boot again, and again it was the referee catching the kick. As Kenta Sato became the third referee of the match to enter the ring, Kanemaru landed a schoolboy and Moonsault for two each, and got even closer with Touch Out. Deep Impact was stopped with a low blow, and Phantasmo landed the loaded superkick to crown new champions.
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