NJPW/CMLL Fantastica Mania results: Eight-man tag team action

NJPW and CMLL kicked off their Fantasticamania tour this morning in Osaka with a number of matches, including the debut of Atlantis Jr., son of Atlantis.

Taiji Ishimori, Templarino and Gedo defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask and Audaz

Gedo stalled early. Kinda boring until Audaz was tagged in and did an amazing corkscrew moonsault to the floor, wiping out Templarino. They ended up having some pretty good chemistry together and was a highlight of the match.

Ishimori and Taguchi, who was wearing his pharaoh outfit as he normally does on these tours, went at it. It was pretty okay.Templarino picked up the win over Audaz with a sitout powerbomb. Pretty solid opener.

Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Forastero defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Titan and Flyer

This felt kind of uninteresting until Liger started to make a hot comeback, sending Forastero to the floor. He took out Kanemaru on the outside as Flyer and Kanemaru went at it.

Titan and Forastero had some fun back and forth towards the end. Forastero scissored him and went for the triangle armbar, submitting Flyer. Dull in parts but largely okay.

Okumura and Sanson defeated Atlantis and Atlantis Jr.

This is the debut match of Atlantis Jr., who naturally is the son of Atlantis. He and Sanson worked together early and looked okay, doing some cool spots including a suicide dive to the floor, taking out Sanson.

It was kind of sad seeing Atlantis, as it seems clear his knee is still bothering him, especially when he has to run. Atlantis Jr. wiped out both with a tope con hilo as Atlantis went to the top rope, hitting a crossbody to the floor.

As the match wore on, Atlantis Jr. continued to work the bulk of the match, looking good.

Okumura planted him with a draping cutter off the top rope but Atlantis broke it up. Sanson took Atlantis out of the ring as Atlantis Jr. got a near fall with a roll up. As he was arguing with referee, Okumura grabbed him and hit a spinning DDT for the win.

Okumura and Sanson took the masks of both father and son after the match.

Ultimo Guerrero, Gran Guerrero and Cuartero defeated Mistico, Dragon Lee and Niebla Roja

Everyone paired off against one another with some good back and forth. Gran and Ultimo teamed up to slam Mistico off the top rope. The technicos then teamed up to send all three rudos out of the ring.

Dragon Lee and Mistico teamed up to work on the rudos, doing some great tandem offense to take out the Guerreros. Niebla Roja and Cuatero worked against one another, and both looked good. Roja took out Cuatero with a giant Sasuke special as Lee and Mistico took out the Guerreros with stereo topes.

Roja and Cuartero continued their offense until Cuartero cut off Roja and pinned him with the Cuatero bomb. A pretty good match, with Mistico and Dragon Lee’s offense being the highlights.

Caristico, Namajague and Barbaro Cavernario defeated KUSHIDA, Volador Jr. and Soberano Jr.

Namajague was Desperado’s gimmick during his CMLL excursion years ago.

Volador and Caristico had a hot sprint early. Namajague used his belt as a rope to choke and attack KUSHIDA throughout the match. Soberano came in and did a big moonsault dive to the floor that wiped out both KUSHIDA and Namajague on the outside.

Volador and Caristico were back in the ring and did a few more spots before Volador tapped to la mistica. Short, but good action while it lasted.

Tetsuya Naito, El Terrible, BUSHI and Shingo Takagi defeated Satoshi Kojima, Toa Henare, Raijin and Fujin

Fujin and Raijin, much like Desperado, were SHO and YOH wearing their CMLL masks.

The first few minutes of this was just kind of a match. People would tag in, get worked over for a bit before tagging out. Nothing particularly interesting.

Fujin and Rajin picked things up toward the end by working over BUSHI with some tandem offense. They went for the 3K, but it was broken up by Shingo who attempted to clear house.

Fujin went for a dragon suplex, but BUSHI countered with the BUSHI roll and got the win. Again, the first half of this was really dull but it picked up towards the end.

This was an easy two in a half hours to watch. If you like these shows, it’s worth a look, but there isn’t anything that I would consider must see barring the debut of Atlantis Jr..