5 Ups & 2 Downs From NJPW New Year Dash 2019
Ups...
5. Roppongi 3K & Rocky Romero Vs. Davey Boy Smith, Vance Archer & Takashi Iizuka
Kevin Kelly kicked off the broadcast noting that the announcers were "flying blind" for this year's Korakuen Hall card, with nothing announced for the broadcast other than the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Titles set up the previous evening.
The unpredictability was further summarised in an anecdote Kelly told about Rocky Romero's own pre-show confusion for the night ahead. The Kelly/Romero/Chris Charlton trio was one of the best commentary combos of 2018, and fortunately formed part of New Year Dash's audio arrangement two matches after the Suzuki-gun group smashed the sh*t out of the CHAOS members in the opener.
The opening clash was only as good as it needed to be, but the crowd were ready with the pops for Iizuka's head-munching and Killer Elite Squad's kick-punching. On the babyface side, Sho and Yo were dynamic as usual in the closing stretch too - NJPW owes it to the duo to make good on their consistency in 2019, particularly with The Young Bucks likely to depart.