Just saw [this](https://new.reddit.com/r/njpw/comments/1caclpf/rocky_romero_appreciation_post/) post on the sub and while I don’t disagree with the sentiment and the points made by the OP as well as others in the comments, there are things that I want to add.
First of all, Unlike Road To shows from other venues that exclusively feature multi-man tags, Road To shows from Korakuen are usually top ended by “special attraction” matches like a title match for one of the mid card belts (like NEVER 6 man tag/Jr HW Tag/TV title and sometimes even Jr HW title) or “special singles matches”. If you go back to any “Road To” tours and compare the cards for the Korakuen shows with the non-Korakuen shows you can see this pattern pretty much every single time.
Now coming to the bad number for the 4/22 show there’s a couple of things:
It seems that NJPW are trying to turn this “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” match that debuted on the 2/5 Korakuen show into a new “special attraction” that will presumably be reserved for Korakuen shows. But even though the 2/5 card with the debuting “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” match drew a good number (1,015) it could be argued that it was more down to the popularity of the wrestlers involved rather than the match concept. So even though in NJPW’s mind they are expecting fans to treat “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” as a “special attraction” match by a) booking it sparsely and b) only doing so at Korakuen, I don’t think that the fans see “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” match as a draw in and of itself in the way that a Western fan would see a Hell in a Cell match for example. This means that their interest in the match depends on the participants involved. And with 4/22’s match involving a faction whose main storyline is that they have no Heavyweight credible enough to become the new leader, they couldn’t draw a good number based on sheer starpower alone in the same way that the 2/5 card did. The reason why I’m highlighting this comparison is that that the [4/22 Korakuen card](https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/168929?showResult=1) is identical in structure to the [2/5 Korakuen card](https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/162913?showResult=1) (as in both are 5 match cards with 4 multi man tags and one “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” match).
Now coming on to the [4/23 Korakuen card](https://www.njpw1972.com/tornament/168931?showCards=1), it has 6 “special attraction” matches in the form of a best of 5 LIJ vs BC War Dogs series of “special singles matches” as well as a NEVER 6 man tag title defense. In comparison the 4/22 show had the “Faction Warfare Gauntlet” match as the sole “special attraction” match. Imo these two cards are too imbalanced and the NEVER 6 man tag title defense being booked on the 4/22 show instead of the 4/23 show would have made a lot more sense.
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Tl;dr: Card for the 4/22 show was too weak. NEVER 6 man tag title defense should have been booked on the 4/22 show instead of the 4/23 one.
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by Randomdude04080918
