NJPW Royal Quest II, London, England
Apparently my not being wild about Aussie Open as they’ve expanded their horizons into the United States of America has created something of a stir in some circles. The terrific Joe Hulbert made note of this, and has requested kindly that I watch this match. Now I will say a few things straight off:
- I love FTR. I don’t care who knows it even in these trying times where people are afraid to say such a thing anymore. I think they are genuinely, quite possibly the best tag team of all time. I have seen all the other choices, I am not 20 and I have not only watched wrestling for eight years or whatever. I’ve seen them. I love them. FTR hold their own, at least, with anyone.
- I remember Dax on Twitter after this match putting over how good Aussie Open were and how great the match they’d just had with them was.
- Meltzer gave it a fiver and it has a 9.31 on Cagematch. These first three things are to say, “This is the best chance I have of getting into Aussie Open.”
- Listen man I’m as generally confused by me not going gaga for the acclaimed Aussie Open as anyone else is, believe me.
- I will, heroically, do Full Detailed Effort because this is important! It isn’t, but I mean, we’re here with a purpose, so let’s get deep.
So here we go!
(Ko-fi)
FTR are defending the IWGP tag team championship. Kevbo Kelly and Chris Charlton are on the call here, Kevver works really hard to tell me about “Fletcher maturing physically” and their “NJPW Strong” tag belts. Great-O-Khan is in their corner. Charlton lays out a nice bit of thinkin’, noting that FTR are “no doubt” top guys, but do they have the focus on this and these belts that Aussie Open do? They are also ROH champs. They are also in AEW, sometimes, mostly.
Lots of Soaking in the Atmosphere. Both teams have their chanting fans. Fletcher and Dax will start. Kevin relates a story of being impressed by Fletcher’s growing body every time he sees him. Kelly also notes that these teams are both at career peaks, they are both on fire in 2022, and it is time to see who’s the best between them right now. FTR have said Aussie Open will be that team later, just not now. Aussie Open believe it’s now.
Harwood and Fletcher do basically nothing before Wheeler tags in. Not a criticism. They locked it up a bit, they showed some body language, Dax was the one who tagged out. Fletcher and Wheeler get more into it, Wheeler able to mostly control that exchange. Davis tags in, Harwood tags in, slowing it in again.
Davis just lighting Harwood up with chops, busting his chest open, and Harwood fires back, but Davis overpowers him. Fletcher tags in, and he eats some chops from Dax, snap suplex, quick legdrop gets two.
The camerawork is, uh, so-so. The overall production is pretty bad for a major company, to be honest, but hey, they are away from home and all that. You would just think they’d have more pride than that.
Wheeler hurling himself into Davis on an avalanche in the corner. FTR get smashed together like beer cans outside the ring. Back in with Wheeler and Fletcher, and Cash hits a nice back suplex. Davis tags in and hits these big, heavy back sentons, three of them just meant to crush Wheeler, keeping him cut off from the other half of the ring, and then grabbing an aggressive chinlock.
10 minutes in, Fletcher manages to tag in and cut Wheeler off, then goes over and takes shots at Dax to make even more of an issue. They trade shots and Davis runs over to get at Dax, taking him from the apron. Expert tactics from Aussie Open.
Harwood still missing from the apron when Wheeler hits another back suplex, and Cash is too tired to go over anyway. Davis tags in, but he misses two of those back sentons. Harwood still missing, Fletcher tags just as Harwood is back, and he makes his priority running over to take Dax right back off the apron with a kick.
So it’s Cash in there fighting to survive, nobody to tag even if he gets a moment to get over there, which he does when he crotches Fletcher over in the corner. Instead, Wheeler goes up for a big back superplex, and both are down. And to his detriment, Wheeler winds up further from his corner than he started. Fletcher is in between, but Fletcher needs the tag, so he goes over for Davis. Davis sees Harwood back on the apron, and his move is to go take Dax right back down.
Fletcher hits a brainbuster on Wheeler for two. Davis tags and just hammers on Cash with chops. Harwood just barely getting back up as Cash hits a big ass uppercut to drop Davis. Tag to Fletcher, he grabs the foot of Wheeler, they’re teasing the tag hard, and Cash leaps over on a last gasp for the hot tag to Dax.
Harwood in with a flurry, but he sees a chance and grabs a quick inside cradle on Fletcher for two, then an O’Connor roll for two. The main target is winning. He saw a chance for a surprise pin (two, actually) and took a shot at it.
Aussie Open get the 2-on-1 again, Cash is dunzo for the moment. Davis just eating short-arm lariats from Harwood, then ducks one and throws some kicks, but Dax winds a lariat up and puts him down. Fletcher back on the attack, but Harwood gets him with rolling Germans. Davis is able to help block the third, but then Wheeler is back in to assist his partner, and the trio hits in the end.
And then Wheeler is laid out with a Davis clothesline. Harwood takes a shot to the knee. Assisted double team cutter on Harwood gets two. Wheeler winds up saving Dax’s bacon again, both Aussies wind up on the floor, and Cash has a chance, so he takes them out with a tope suicida!
Everything breaks down outside with all four guys. Davis gets his head cracked on the post. But Dax is slingshotted into a lighting truss and he’s busted open. Inside it’s Dax and Davis, and Harwood tries to fight him off, but the blood loss is coming and Davis just destroys him with a forearm. Up into the torture rack for the airplane spin, then just dropped for a two count.
Everyone pretty spent at this point, been a hard fight both ways. Aussie Open get big offense cut off. Wheeler gets a pin on Davis, Harwood hits a slingshot power bomb, both pins get a two count. I mean only one pin can be legal but this is that “modern wrestling,” I guess.
FTR set for the Power & Glory, but Aussies cut that off. Aussies try it themselves; Davis hits the superplex, but Dax gets knees up on the Fletcher splash, Wheeler flies off for a splash on Fletcher, but he gets his knees up.
A Harwood backslide on Davis gets two. Again, thank you, Ric Flair vs Kerry Von Erich, for making the backslide a believable world title match finish for all these years. FTR hit a spike piledriver on Davis, that gets two, but would have ended it without Fletcher diving in at the last moment.
The crowd get on their feet. And rightly so.
The legal men are Wheeler and Davis, and Fletcher grabs one of FTR’s belts, parades it around and bringing it into the ring. Harwood prevents that, but Wheeler gets sent into the belt almost by accident from everyone. Davis tries to pin him all the same; again, it’s about winning ahead of everything.
Fletcher moonsaults onto Harwood on the floor, which in theory takes Dax out of the equation. Aussie Open finally hit that Davis butterfly lift into big slam from Fletcher, that probably has a name but I don’t know move names anymore unless someone on commentary says it. And it may not have a name because Kelly and Charlton didn’t say one.
Wheeler hits a Gory Bomb on Fletcher, kicks Davis away, and gets two on Fletcher. Dax struggles his way to the apron for the 19th time. He gets the tag, but they miss that Davis also got a tag on the other side. Davis busted open good but he’s outside and has to crawl back in. A lot of talking between various parties here.
Now it’s time to just throw what’s left. Dax with a big forearm shot. Big chop back from Davis. Davis just calling Dax on, both on their knees, bloodied, nothing much left in the tank, but throwing, and throwing hard. Back to their feet, Davis shouting with every shot he throws. Dax takes him down, sharpshooter, Fletcher tries to save, gets cut off, both Aussies in sharpshooters. Fletcher holds Davis’ hand to keep him from tapping and smacks his partner in the face to fire him up, and they crawl to the ropes, both of them.
A “this is wrestling” chant. You gotta forgive the UK fans, they’ve been badly deprived since NXT UK started and took all their shit.
Big Rig from Aussie Open gets two! There’s “fight forever,” which I think also rang out a bit earlier. Again, it’s not their fault. They’re stuck in mid-2018.
Everyone slowly up to their feet to stand it off again. Two forearms vs two forearms. Back-and-forth. Aussies win that, go for Coriolis, but Cash stops that. Fletcher out of the ring, FTR get Davis with the Big Rig! Three count and FTR retain the IWGP belts!
OK, you might have skipped a lot of that scanning for thoughts, and I get it, so they’re under this line
I’ve said a couple or three times recently that sometimes “getting” a wrestler or a tag team or whatever can boil down mainly to seeing them against someone you’re familiar with instead of people you’re less familiar with, but also I saw Aussie Open and the Bucks and wasn’t that crazy for it, and I do think the Bucks are a great team.
But yeah, I get it with Aussie Open now, because I have seen great FTR matches with a lot of teams. With the Briscoes, American Alpha, Gargano & Ciampa, the Bucks, O’Reilly & Fish, the Acclaimed, Punk & Moxley, Swerve & Lee, Ortiz & Santana, and so on and so forth. I know what a great FTR match looks like, whatever tweaks and differences between them based on the opposition or the place or the time. And this was a great FTR match, with all the earnestly melodramatic spice and throwback ideals you expect, and also — and this is what truly makes them one of the best teams ever — the ability to do what they do and what their opponents do.
And Davis and Fletcher are more than up for that. They are maybe not quite FTR’s equal, or maybe they are, but they’re right there, just as FTR are, doing what they and what FTR do, everyone gelling both physically and in personality, a meeting of a team that have truly established themselves as great, and a team that want to be at that level right now, not in a few years, and think they’re ready. And they were. They lost, but they were, because they pushed FTR to their limits, and you get the feeling the next time they meet, the outcome could be different.
Tape Machines Are Rolling 