Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano main event the latest round of World Tag League as they take on the Guerrillas of Destiny.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Quick Results<\/strong> We\u2019re coming from the Aimesse Yamanashi for this one…<\/p>\n Ryohei Oiwa vs. Shingo Takagi<\/strong> Oiwa tries to ground Shingo with headscissors early on, but they\u2019re escaped and countered with a side headlock before Shingo took them to the ropes. Oiwa cheapshots on the break, then hit a shoulder tackle before Shingo deadweighted him on a hiptoss, throwing the Young Lion down instead ahead of a Sharpshooter. Shingo shifts between submissions – including a STF and an armbar – forcing Oiwa into the ropes, before Shingo pushed on with elbow drops for a two-count. A two-handed chop sinks Oiwa next, as did a lariat, before a back body drop effortlessly sent Oiwa into the air.<\/p>\n A second one awaits Oiwa, but a third was too indulgent as a knee and a dropkick took the champion down. Slams get Oiwa a near-fall, but his Boston crab is easily pushed out of as elbows drop Oiwa once more, leading to Shingo going up top for a back elbow drop before a brainbuster drew a two-count\u2026 which led to a Boston crab as Shingo ends up winning with a half crab. A decent extended squash, with Oiwa getting scant offence in – as you\u2019d expect for a match between the world\u2019s champion and someone who\u2019s yet to get their first win. A shame this had a longer time limit – it could have been a hell of a shock for Oiwa to get the draw here! ***<\/p>\n Shingo\u2019s off to get showered and return to do Japanese commentary, rather than make the short drive home…<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens) vs. Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask<\/strong> Tiger Mask\u2019s in there with Fale, forcing the veteran to stick and move as he rolled outside\u2026 and opted not to check on Nagata. So Owens rolls Tiger Mask back in, then attacked him from behind before a chinlock kept Tiger Mask down. Fale and Owens stand on Tiger Mask\u2019s back as Nagata\u2019s still down on the floor, while a backbreaker earned Owens a two-count. Nagata\u2019s just about getting back to his feet as Tiger Mask was cornered by Fale, who swung at him with punches, only to miss a splash in the corner.<\/p>\n Chase takes Tiger back to the corner as a splash and an elbow drop gets Fale a two-count, before Nagata got booted off the apron again\u2026 Tiger Mask kicks away a Grenade Launcher, then drop toe hold\u2019d Fale onto Chase Owens as Nagata gets the tag ingoing to work on the big man with kicks and a stuttering dropkick for good measure. A shoulder tackle from Fale has Nagata back down, as did an Owens clothesline, before Nagata and Tiger Mask began to isolate Chase for a change. Nagata\u2019s Exploder leads to an enziguiri sandwich, then a Tiger Driver\u2026 except they forgot Nagata was legal, as that hesitation led to a delayed two-count. The Nagata Lock II crossface is next, which Fale breaks up, only to get thrown outside by Tiger Mask\u2026<\/p>\n Nagata stays down again, so Tiger Mask went up top\u2026 and has to fend off Fale again, only to get posted. Owens is back, but gets back body dropped by Nagata, then kicked, before a package piledriver got the win. This wasn\u2019t good folks – from awkward hesitations to Nagata looking banged up, this felt like a late-stage tournament match that did nobody any favours. **<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku) vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI<\/strong> They try to get the jump on YOSHI-HASHI and Goto, taking things outside as Suzuki ate the guard rails chest-first. We settle down in the ring with YOSHI-HASHI and TAKA, but Suzuki decides to help out with a hanging armbar in the ropes on YOSHI-HASHI\u2026 opting to pull him outside for another taste of the guard rails. Returning to the ring, Suzuki ties up YOSHI-HASHI\u2019s arm, while TAKA joined in on the fun of trying to re-separate YOSHI-HASHI\u2019s permanently taped-up shoulder. Finally, YOSHI-HASHI returns with a low dropkick to Suzuki, which bought him enough time to tag out to Goto\u2026 TAKA runs in without a tag, but gets charged down as Goto went after Suzuki with a spinning heel kick and a bulldog for a two-count.<\/p>\n Elbows wear down Suzuki, who fought back with his CLONKing elbow, before a rear naked choke caught Goto out. The Gotch piledriver\u2019s thrown aside though, as Goto came back with a clothesline, before YOSHI-HASHI tagged back in to blitz through Suzuki with a chop. A neckbreaker\u2019s next for a two-count, right as my feed dropped out\u2026<\/p>\n It resumes with TAKA grabbing a Bulldog choke on YOSHI-HASHI, then a Magistral cradle for a near-fall, with a short PK also getting a similar result\u2026 Suzuki\u2019s back to help, but Goto intervenes with an ushigoroshi, before a superkick-assisted ushigoroshi to TAKA turned into Shoto, with Goto leaping over the referee to knock Suzuki off the apron to ensure the pin counted. A decent enough tag to keep things interesting at the top. ***<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare) vs. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma<\/strong> We open with Henare and Makabe tying up into the ropes for a break, before Henare\u2019s cheapshot was shrugged off, with Honma tagging in to help charge him down. O-Khan comes in to give Honma a taste of that medicine, landing a knee drop as Henare picked up a two-count from it. O-Khan\u2019s in to sit on Honma in the corner, before a face claw got blocked\u2026 Honma makes the tag out to Makabe, who cleared house to take O-Khan into the corner for mounted punches, before O-Khan stomped his way out of a German suplex attempt. A Judo-ish thrown has Makabe down, as Henare came in to give Makabe some mounted punches\u2026 and that laugh.<\/p>\n Makabe\u2019s rocked with an elbow, but manages to hit a swivelling lariat before tagging Honma in to hit a bulldog on Henare. Of course the Kokeshi misses, as O-Khan came in with a Sheep Killer backbreaker\u2026 Makabe stops an Imperial Drop to Honma, then landed a double clothesline as Henare\u2019s pinged about, leading to a Kokeshi. A leaping Kokeshi followed as Henare\u2019s thrown in, but O-Khan breaks up the pin and gets thrown outside as Honma set up for a swandive Kokeshi\u2026 only for Henare to roll away as Honma gets sandwiched with kicks. Makabe tries to help out, but gets stretched with a Sheep Killer Slam, before Honma blocked another Imperial Drop\u2026<\/p>\n A short, diving Kokeshi cracks into Henare for a near-fall, as the pair then trade shots to the dome, with a Henare headbutt almost putting Honma away. From there, Henare hauls up Honma for the Imperial Drop, and that\u2019s enough to keep the Empire duo in the chase for the top two spots. ***<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA) vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan<\/strong> Tenzan\u2019s pissed before the bell because Naito tried to Matador the Bull\u2026 and we get going with SANADA and Kojima swapping headlocks, before a hiptoss and a shoulder tackle had SANADA down. Naito tags in and does his Matador thing again, then slid out of the ring as Tenzan tagged in. Eventually Naito baited in Tenzan, before he took a headbutt and some Mongolian chops as Kojima came back to help out. A slam sets up Naito for the falling headbutt\/slingshot elbow, but neither connect as SANADA pulled Kojima down, while Naito pulled on Tenzan\u2019s glorious mullet. Combinacion Cabron followed from Naito, before Tenzan came back with headbutts\u2026 a sleeperhold from SANADA restrains him, as Naito then mocked Tenzan with Mongolian chops.<\/p>\n Tenzan gets free and tags in Kojima to push on, taking Naito to the corner for some Machine Gun chops\u2026 SANADA gets some too, but stops Kojima from even heading up top for the elbow drop, only for Kojima to stack up Naito with a nasty DDT. A Koji Cutter\u2019s blocked, but SANADA eventually takes it as Tenzan gets the tag in, charging through everyone ahead of headbutts and Mongolian chops to SANADA. SANADA takes the brainbuster next for a two-count, before he and Tenzan traded elbows back and forth. Kojima took care of Naito\u2019s attempt to intervene as an Anaconda Vise has SANADA struggling for the ropes, as all four men ended up in the ring ahead of a TenKoji Cutter to Naito as another suplex attempt from Tenzan ended with SANADA slipping out for an O\u2019Connor roll to get the win. ****\u00bc<\/p>\n Post-match, Naito tried to bait Tenzan in with Shingo Takagi\u2019s towel. Ole!<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: House of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi)<\/strong> Yujiro and Sabre start us off, with Zack tripping Yujiro early as he tied him up with a Deathlock. EVIL wanders in to try and break it up, but he\u2019s held in a hammerlock as Taichi threw in Dick Togo, who nearly had his wrist snapped off by Sabre in the process of a handshake. We resume with Yujiro getting isolated, but my feed drops and returned with Sabre and Taichi getting thrown into a suddenly-exposed corner. Taichi\u2019s used to wipe out the time keeper, who I swear hit the guard rails with the back of his head on the way down, before EVIL went to choke Taichi with the live mic.<\/p>\n Dick Togo gets involved after Taichi was thrown his way\u2026 while EVIL took advantage with some stomps to the knees. Yujiro\u2019s in, but eats a gamengiri into the corner, before tagged in and snapped down Yujiro with an arm whip. A cross armbreaker ends in the ropes, before Yujiro bit his way out of a guillotine\u2026 so Sabre hits an overhead kick to the arm instead. An Incolle slam flung Sabre skywards, as EVIL tagged in to capitalise\u2026 only to get caught in an ankle lock that EVIL broke with an eye rake. A leg sweep drops EVIL again, as Taichi comes in to throttle EVIL\u2026 then Yujiro\u2026 and finally, choke Dick. Yujiro threatens with the Pimp Cane, but EVIL still takes an enziguiri, before Taichi\u2019s double-teamed in the corner with boots and clotheslines.<\/p>\n An EVIL Fisherman suplex lands for a two-count, before a switcheroo leads to Sabre coming in to Dragon screw off EVIL\u2019s legs. Sabre\u2019s PK and a Taichi buzzsaw kick lands for a near-fall, before Yujiro\u2019s dispatched of with an Axe Bomber, before a nodo otoshi chokeslam\/back suplex combo nearly put EVIL away. Cue shenanigans, except Sabre blocks a low blow from EVIL, then from Yujiro, turning the ball shots into arm twists, before a Cobra twist and Holy Emperor Cross Mausoleum combo had the House of Torture lads in trouble. EVIL throws down the ref as Dick Togo comes in with the garotte wire, and I can see those star ratings floating away.<\/p>\n Taichi manages to shrug it all off and elbow away Yujiro, before a sumo-style charge was stopped as EVIL LAUNCHED the ref at Taichi. It\u2019s sidestepped, as a Dangerous backdrop driver lands for a near-fall, before Dick\u2019s back with his wire to choke out Taichi. And of course, this being New Japan, the obvious DQs from before are ignored as Taichi can\u2019t power out of the wire, before he\u2019s thrown into Everything is EVIL for the win. Until we were served heaping ladles of the House of Torture bullshit, this was a decent little match, but we\u2019re going to do this all over again aren\u2019t we\u2026 **\u00bc<\/p>\n Post-match, Sabre\u2019s laid out with a belt shot as the House of Torture lads celebrate with the NEVER and IWGP tag team titles. My blood just ran cold, as I\u2019m sure was the intention…<\/p>\n World Tag League 2021: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)<\/strong> We\u2019ve a jump start as the Guerrillas attack the posing Yano and Tanahashi, who respond by bopping them in the head before chucking Tama Tonga to the outside. Tama gets his revenge quickly as he chucks Yano into the rails, while Tanahashi met a similar fate. When things calmed down, Tanahashi\u2019s snapmared for a senton atomico, before a Tanga Loa headbutt led to an avoided powerslam as a low dropkick leaves both men laying. A failed attempt from Yano to use the corner pads as a weapon leaves him on the defensive, with Tama Tonga choking him from above.<\/p>\n A Stinger splash from Tama nearly puts away Yano, before some back and forth hair pulling eventually gave Yano an opening. Tanahashi tags in, but Tanga Loa stops a flip senton out of the corner before Dragon screws left the Guerrillas laying. Tama\u2019s rolled into a Cloverleaf after that, but it\u2019s right by the ropes as Tama\u2019s able to force the break. Tama\u2019s dropkick offered some response as Tanga Loa tagged in and threw Tanahashi into the exposed corner. An Exploder throws Tanahashi across the ring for a two-count, before a Twist and Shout countered a suplex, with Tanahashi then making the tag out to Yano\u2026 who had to block a throw into the exposed corner.<\/p>\n Yano recovers with a rebound belly-to-belly, then a Manhattan drop before he slingshotted Tanga Loa to knock Tama off the apron. Tanahashi returned as Tanga Loa\u2019s bounced into the corner for back elbows before a blocked Slingblade and an enziguiri had the Ace down. Tama Tonga\u2019s back in to hit a leaping neckbreaker to turn things around, before a Magic Killer\u2019s stopped by Tanahashi. A Guerrilla Warfare (the double-team Tongan Twist) gets rid of Tanahashi, as Yano was left to fend for himself\u2026 and nearly snatched the win with a cradle, before he pushed the ref into Tanga Loa. A low blow and roll-up gets a near-fall, while a Gun Stun from Tama caught out a distracted-by-arguing Yano, allowing the Guerrillas to get the win with a Magic Killer. A decent enough tag match to main event, as Yano and Tanahashi\u2019s World Tag League chances hang by a thread. ***\u00bd<\/p>\n We\u2019ve only got three matches left in the World Tag League and we\u2019re getting to some very far-fetched possibilities for some teams to stay alive. I\u2019m only marking eliminations once they\u2019re mathematically impossible – even if you need some wacky situations…<\/p>\n Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI, Tetsuya Naito & SANADA, Great-O-Khan & Aaron Henare, Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (6-2 \/ 12pts) Sunday\u2019s early start is in the Best of the Super Junior tournament, so World Tag League returns Tuesday in the ZIP Arena in Okayama, featuring the Guerrillas of Destiny vs. Naito & SANADA in the main event.<\/p>\n While it makes sense to mash up the Best of the Super Junior and World Tag League tours into a monster tour like New Japan have been, the problem remains that the tag team division arguably has historically not been treated kindly in the past – so when all of a sudden you\u2019re given a load of tag teams that are either thrown together or rarely presented as a threat, it\u2019s hard not to look beyond that lack of depth. So what you get here – much like the rest of WTL – are some okay tag matches that ultimately will count for nought in the scheme of things, and some stuff that\u2019s probably not palatable too. Shame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano main event the latest round of World Tag League as they take on the Guerrillas of Destiny.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":25192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"NJPW World Tag League 2021 x Best of the Super Junior 28 - Night Sixteen (December 04, 2021) review - #njwtl - Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toru Yano main event the latest round of World Tag League as they take on the Guerrillas of Destiny.","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[688,6],"tags":[5683,44,75,1440,6086,139,5480,1825,178,179,1325,6041,250,990,292,5949,1239,556,3672,991,1309,397,1236,1237,400,1313,1444,1802,416,5570,6084,6085,1240,1235,1238,521],"class_list":["post-25322","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-japan","category-reviews","tag-aaron-henare","tag-bad-luck-fale","tag-bullet-club","tag-chase-owens","tag-dangerous-tekkers","tag-evil","tag-great-o-khan","tag-guerrillas-of-destiny","tag-hirooki-goto","tag-hiroshi-tanahashi","tag-hiroyoshi-tenzan","tag-house-of-torture","tag-los-ingobernables-de-japon","tag-minoru-suzuki","tag-new-japan","tag-ryohei-oiwa","tag-sanada","tag-satoshi-kojima","tag-shingo-takagi","tag-suzuki-gun","tag-taichi","tag-taka-michinoku","tag-tama-tonga","tag-tanga-loa","tag-tetsuya-naito","tag-tiger-mask","tag-togi-makabe","tag-tomoaki-honma","tag-toru-yano","tag-united-empire","tag-world-tag-league-2021","tag-wtl2021","tag-yoshi-hashi","tag-yuji-nagata","tag-yujiro-takahashi","tag-zack-sabre-jr"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p73vbt-6Aq","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/11\/njpw-wtl2021-logo.jpg?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25322","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25322"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25322\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25326,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25322\/revisions\/25326"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25192"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25322"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25322"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backbodydrop.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25322"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nShingo Takagi submitted Ryohei Oiwa in 10:19 (***)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale pinned Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask in 9:52 (**)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto pinned TAKA Michinoku & Minoru Suzuki in 10:09 (***)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan pinned Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe in 12:27 (***)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – SANADA & Tetsuya Naito pinned Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima in 11:32 (***\u00bc)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi pinned Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. in 17:09 (**\u00bc)
\nWorld Tag League 2021 – Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga pinned Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi in 14:46 (***\u00bd)<\/p>\n
\nSomething tells me this one ain\u2019t ending in a draw! Oiwa nearly fell flat on his face running to the ring – since the black mats in the aisle weren\u2019t meant for running on\u2026<\/p>\n
\nWith Nagata and Tiger Mask out, they\u2019re playing for pride\u2026 yet Chase Owens starts things by cheapshotting Nagata off the apron before he ran him into the rails.<\/p>\n
\nSuzuki-gun are also out of the running, and could derail the CHAOS lads if they manage to get their first win here.<\/p>\n
\nAnother clash between the eliminated and an upper-mid table side, as Henare\u2019s keeping his moustache after Mo-vember\u2019s finished.<\/p>\n
\nKojima and Tenzan are all-but-out of the running, but a loss here would seal it\u2026<\/p>\n
\nThe House of Torture lads are creeping towards the bubble here\u2026<\/p>\n
\nThe Guerrillas have done their hair up, like Yano and Tanahashi. Sadly, Jado couldn\u2019t join in the fun, nor find a comedy mohawk\u2026<\/p>\n
\nEVIL & Yujiro Takahashi, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa (5-3 \/ 10pts)
\nHiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano (4-4 \/ 8pts)
\nSatoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan (2-6 \/ 4pts) – Eliminated
\nTogi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Yuji Nagata & Tiger Mask (1-7 \/ 2pts) – Eliminated
\nMinoru Suzuki & TAKA Michinoku (0-8 \/ 0pts) – Eliminated<\/p>\n