No. Matches Stipulations
1 David Finlay, Shota Umino and Tomoyuki Oka vs. Hirai Kawato, Katsuya Kitamura and Tetsuhiro Yagi (Six-man tag team match)
2 Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi and Satoshi Kojima vs. Tiger Mask, Tiger Mask W, Togi Makabe and Yuji Nagata (Eight-man tag team match)
3 Los Ingobernables de Japon (Bushi, Evil and Sanada) (c) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Hangman Page and Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano and Yoshi-Hashi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson, Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi) (Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship)
4 Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (Tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship)
5 War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe) (c) vs. Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa) (Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship)
6 Cody vs. Michael Elgin (Singles match)
7 Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. Kushida (Singles match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
8 Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto (Lumberjack deathmatch for the NEVER Openweight Championship)
9 Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship)
10 Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega (Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship)
Predictions + some context for the undercard. All these matches will be fairly short affairs
1. Six-man tag team match
This is the Young Lion showcase, it'll be all very basic stuff as is the Young Lion way, and Finlay being the only non Young Lion will likely get the pin. Most of these Young Lions look promising. I like Hirai Kawato the best so far
2. Eight-man tag team match
And this is the Veteran showcase, everyone here except Ibushi/Tiger Mask W is a 90's/early 00's star. It doesn't really matter who wins, but I think Liger might get the pin as he's going to the G1 LA shows unlike the rest.
3. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet
They did this match at Wrestle Kingdom, basically to get everyone onto the card. Funnily enough, they've had to fly out Adam Page from the US just so the Bullet Club have enough guys for this match. As a result I think that team is the only team that can't win it. Beyond that, there'll be a lot of finishers and pins (duh, it's a Gauntlet match) and Zack Sabre might wear his Corbyn shirt and Taguchi Japan will do fun stuff and Ishii will be a bad ass. It'll be perfectly fine to watch and someone will win but it doesn't really matter.
4. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
The Young Bucks will win this because it's insanely obvious for them to have the belts for the LA shows. It'll be a perfectly decent match and Trent will get beaten up.
5. IWGP Tag Team Championship
This could be pretty good, although I think the quiet period the Guerrillas of Destiny have had since January might hurt a bit. War Machine basically seem to get better and better with every match. I'm not exactly sure what War Machine's upcoming US schedule is, but it could be they retain here and they build for a rematch between these two at the Tokyo Dome.
6. Cody vs. Michael Elgin
Ah **** you Cody. I can't believe Elgin is gonna do a job so you can have a title shot (for either the IC or IWGP belt) in LA.
And all the title matches should be great, although the last two don't have much of a chance of being better than their WK matches, especially considering Tanahashi's biceps
My picks are:
KUSHIDA
Goto
Tanahashi
Omega
BUT
I could see Naito winning and then dropping the belt in LA (although if Naito wins he's supposedly retiring the belt) due to Tanahashi's injury, and I think they might do an Omega/Okada time limit draw at some stage, although it makes sense to do it when Omega is the title holder.