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Showing posts with label Tetsuya Naito. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Tetsuya Naito. Show all posts

New Japan Pro Wrestling: Wrestle Kingdom 14 - Night 1 & 2 (Jan. 4-5, 2020) -- Results & Afterthoughts



Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome was a two-night professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4 and January 5, 2020 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 29th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the 14th promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name; it was also the first time the event was held over two days, instead of taking place solely on January 4.

The main event of night 1 saw Kazuchika Okada defeat Kota Ibushi to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches during night 1, Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, the returning Hiromu Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay to capture the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer in a Texas Deathmatch to regain the IWGP United States Championship and FinJuice (David Finlay and Juice Robinson) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship.

In night 2's main event, Naito defeated Okada in a Double Gold Dash match to become the first ever dual holder of the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental championships. In other notable matches in the undercard of the night 2, Jay White defeated Kota Ibushi, Chris Jericho defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Kenta, Jon Moxley successfully defended the IWGP United States Championship against Juice Robinson, Zack Sabre Jr. retained the British Heavyweight Championship against Sanada and Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) defeated Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori) to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The event also saw the retirement match of Japanese wrestling legend Jushin Thunder Liger.
Just to clarify, I'm not going to comment on EVERY match on this card. Just the ones that really stood out to me since I honestly don't follow New Japan's product as closely as I should. Wrestle Kingdom always marks my annual tradition of renewing my subscription to NJPW World and promising myself that I'm going to give their product a chance to follow in the new year, only to cancel shortly thereafter since I don't have the time to watch their shows live like this. In all honesty, I get see a wealth of spoilers and gifs on my social media timelines by the time I get to my desk and login at work in the mornings when those shows do take place.

(Dark Match) Stardom Special Tag Team Match
Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki defeated Hana Kimura and Giulia (with Jungle Kyona and Konami)

Even though this match wasn't televised on the live feed, it was a rather big deal going into this event. NJPW's parent company, Bushiroad, is investing into Stardom going forward and wants to elevate the company starting with this slot on this year's Wrestle Kingdom card.

There's a rather bit of a pickle on why the match couldn't be broadcast as part of the card, but this article details why New Japan couldn't air the match. I wouldn't mind getting a chance to check it out at some point if someone recorded it or it pops up on Stardom's YouTube channel or something.

Eight-man tag team match
Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, and Alex Coughlin defeated Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma), Yota Tsuji, and Yuya Uemura


Tag team match
Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) defeated Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi



Eight-man tag team match with Norio Honaga was the special guest referee
Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi (with Kuniaki Kobayashi) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask (with El Samurai)

#ThankYouLiger
This is was like a who's who of greatest friends and rivals for Jushin Thunder Liger. I was honestly surprised a lot of these guys were still alive, no less still able to go have a match. Regardless, this wasn't much to write home about, even more disappointing that Liger was pinned here in a lackluster manner. I thought he would at least get one win on his way out but damn.

Eight-man tag team match
Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, and El Desperado) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada, Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) by submission

Just wow.



Eight-man tag team match
Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Yoshi-Hashi) defeated Bullet Club (Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, and Chase Owens) (with Pieter)

I honestly was getting sick of these 6 and 8-Man tag team matches to the point where I was drifting to sleep watching live (despite having a pretty lengthy nap prior) but boy did seeing Pieter's fineness wake me up for sure. There were some pretty good spots in this match, mostly involving the heavy-hitters, Fale and Ishii, to no surprise.



Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) (with Jado)

I live for the Guerillas of Destiny's Wrestle Kingdom ring entrances, but I was ultimately letdown this year. They came out without anything other than their normal ring gear on, doing their best imitation of their "cousins" (the Usos), looking like they just came straight from the nearby club to do this match. At least their entrance music is still as bad ass as I remember. This match wasn't bad at all with a lot of near-falls that had me fooled that GoD were going to retain, but nope, FinJuice won the gold by the time it was all said and done.


Texas Deathmatch for the IWGP United States Championship
No DQ; No pinfall; Victory by 10 count KO or submission
Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer (c) by knockout

I felt like I was having deja vu watching this match. This felt like the same few "deathmatches" that Moxley has had since leaving WWE for AEW and everywhere else. That being said, this wasn't a bad match, just a lot of instances where I felt that I've seen this before but with different dance partners.

Those Japanese tables look like they don't have any give at all. 


Archer got a nasty wound on his arm after going through those unforgiving Japanese wooden tables for the finish that saw Moxley pick up the win via knockout since he was unable to return to the ring before the 20 count.


Singles match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay (c)

Out of everything in Night One, I'm sure everyone's going to be talking about this match as an early Match of the Year candidate. It wasn't perfect though as Ospreay and Takahashi had a few botches that they were quick to disguise/mask and recover from to keep people engaged. There was a sequence towards the end of this match that you have to see to believe that was just pure insanity in terms of athleticism.



It sucks to hear that Ospreay got injured at some point during this match as him and Takahashi (who just came back from a pretty gnarly neck injury) killed it here. Takahashi has to be nuts to take so many neck bumps to say that he literally JUST came back from injury though.


Just go out of your way to check out this match. You won't be disappointed.

Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White (c) (with Gedo)

Here's the thing. I never thought Jay White was the guy, even more so when NJPW shoehorned him into top gaijin spot following Kenny Omega's departure last year. I just don't see what is the fascination with "Discount Seth Rollins" here. White and Gedo did everything they could to heel it up and garner some heat into this match with Naito while playing up to the narrative of his ailing knees, but I just wasn't feeling this match at all. Out of the three main events that closed out Night One, I felt this was easily the weakest of the three, despite the fact the right man went over.



Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Kota Ibushi

Whereas Naito vs. White was the weakest of these three main events that closed out Night One, this was arguably the best match - by a small margin in comparison to Takahashi vs. Ospreay. I found myself caught up into the narrative of this match - much like a LOT of people by the reactions online. I was getting anxious the longer this dragged out that Ibushi kept Okada against the ropes and couldn't put him away. Ultimately, Okada got his second, third, and fourth winds and picked up the win over Ibushi in a convincing manner.

Kota Ibushi just popped up like it was nothing.

They definitely had me fooled this was over there.


But Jesus Christ listen to those strikes.

https://russelldearest.tumblr.com/post/190130516441/was-going-to-gif-it-but-you-have-to-hear-it


As much as I wanted Ibushi to win gold here, I understand why they went with Okada going over. It wouldn't have meant shit if Naito beat Ibushi in Night Two to end his narrative that started when Okada beat him about two years ago, so Okada had to win here to face Naito in Night Two to properly conclude the story that New Japan started. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that we see Ibushi holding gold before the year's out or beating Naito this time around next year. It seems like Ibushi has inner demons to exorcise out of himself before he's properly slotted into that position.



Closing Thoughts on Night One:


Ospreay and Takahashi had the definitive match of the evening up to the point, Okada versus Kota Ibushi started. They went out there and had one hell of a match too. If you don't watch anything else from Night 1 go do yourself a favor and watch both of those matches. Hell, I'll go as far as saying that those matches were better than anything on Night 2 too. Far too many tag team matches in the first half of this for my taste. Like I mentioned earlier, the only thing that woke me up was seeing Pieter's fineness on my NJPW World feed coming out with the rest of the Bullet Club.




Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) defeated The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano) and Ryusuke Taguchi (c), Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Yoshi-Hashi, and Robbie Eagles), Suzuki-gun (Taichi, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) and Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, and Chase Owens)



Tag team match
Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee defeated Jushin Thunder Liger and Naoki Sano (with Yoshiaki Fujiwara)
This was Jushin Thunder Liger's retirement match



If you were watching this live on Sunday morning/Saturday evening over on NJPW World, the app crashed after this match - appropriately so, if you ask me. That was a pretty anti-climatic finale for Liger's retirement. I'm fine with Liger doing the honors on his way out, but two "meh" worthy losses to end his career on wasn't how I saw his career ending, especially from how much marketing went into this grand finale of sorts. By the time you have read this, he would have had his formal retirement ceremony during the New Year's Dash event.


Tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
Roppongi 3K (Yoh and Sho) (with Rocky Romero) defeated Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo) (c)


The highlight of this match for me was these guys pulling out the athletic cups to protect themselves from the Low Blows from the Bullet Club. Someone should've enlightened AJ Styles, Nakamura, and Brock Lesnar about that technical marvel a few years ago.


Singles match for the British Heavyweight Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) defeated Sanada


It goes without saying that I love the technical mastery of ZSJ. That's like my annual treat from these Wrestle Kingdom events for the last few years that I started watching them. I thought Sanada was a solid talent back during his time in Impact/TNA Wrestling and I'm glad to see him in a high profile match on this card. Close but no cigar homie. I love seeing ZSJ tie guys up like a pretzel.


Singles match for the IWGP United States Championship
Jon Moxley (c) defeated Juice Robinson (with David Finlay)


I was in the mindset of a lot of people thinking that Moxley was dropping the title back to Juice Robinson here on Night 2, but boy was I wrong. This wasn't a bad match, but I liked Moxley's match from Night 1 more than this one. That's not a knock on either talent here; it's just that I wasn't feeling this as much as the one on the previous night.

Business definitely picked up with Minoru Suzuki coming out following the win and challenging for the belt next though. I think people have been clamoring for that match since Moxley debuted for New Japan last year.

Sums up everyone's feelings after Suzuki came out there to lay out Mox. 


Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto defeated KENTA (c)

This was a master versus student sort of narrative, since New Japan couldn't get Katsuyori Shibata cleared for a match no matter how badly fans wanted to see him against KENTA, especially after they teased the fuck out of it last year. Way to play with our emotions there, New Japan... Goto versus KENTA wasn't bad for a consolation prize. Can't say I knew what GTR was before this match but now that I've seen Goto pull it off, I think the move was pretty darn awesome.



Singles match
Jay White (with Gedo) defeated Kota Ibushi


This didn't bore me to death like the one with Naito in Night 1 did, but I can't say that I'm any much more of a fan of Jay White or who I jokingly call "Discount Seth Rollins".

Much like Night 1, I'm more intrigued with the Kota Ibushi's "dark side" that White was dead set on unleashing to Ibushi's own detriment in this match. It seems like New Japan is trying to tell the tale as if this is Ibushi's own version of Ryu (from Street Fighter) dealing with his own struggles with the Satsui no Hadou within him. I don't follow New Japan's storylines full-time, but I was under the impression that they have Ibushi on this path where he can't harness this destructive power positively at first, but once he does, that will be the moment where he finally captures the World Championship.


Singles match
Had Tanahashi won, he would've received a match for Jericho's AEW World Championship
Chris Jericho defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission


The tale of the tape going into this match had Jericho egging people on that Tanahashi would get a AEW World title match if he somehow beat Jericho. While that made people doubt that Jericho was going over here, I thought it would have been stupid if AEW allowed their World Champion to go to another promotion and fucking lose on their equivalent of WrestleMania. I enjoyed this for the most part, but the fact that Jericho has let himself go in terms of physique cannot be ignored at this point. He's got flab oozing over his weight belt and his body is showing little to no definition. I thought as a veteran he would going over and beyond to set the example to AEW's younger talent on how to carry himself as the flagbearer of that company but no dice. I've listened to other podcasters point out Jericho's physique and laughed it off since AEW's debut as a joke but it's REALLY noticeable in this match to the point that it's distracting.


Double Gold Dash match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito (IWGP Intercontinental Champion) defeated Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)

As good as this match was, I can't say that this match was as good as Okada vs. Ibushi to close off Night One. I would like to blame that shortcoming on the fact that both men probably were spent after their matches from the night prior from being banged up and having to come out to do this dance again 24 hours later. I thought all of the Destino and Rainmaker reversals were getting redundant at one point as everyone just kept kicking out of each other's finishers to same result over and over and over. I think they could accomplished the same thing in this match given half the run time of this match. In the end, the right man won with Naito going over Okada.

Naito wasn't allowed to enjoy his victory for long as KENTA ran down and attacked him post-match. I understand why NJPW did this, but I can't say that I liked it. They could have allowed Naito to enjoy that win at least for the finale to Night Two and set up the first challenge from Bullet Club's KENTA at New Year's Dash the following night. Instead, they went with the narrative that the Bullet Club wanted to close Wrestle Kingdom by stealing the spotlight away from Naito and his faction coming out of the event strong following Bullet Club's string of loses in both nights. That decision sets up an easy first challenger for both of Naito's newfound wealth of gold and it wouldn't damage KENTA in the long run with a loss there, given the massive amount of heat he has garnered for himself in a such a short time.


Closing Thoughts on Night Two


Like I just mentioned above, I wasn't too crazy about the main event of this event but I was satisfied with the right man coming out on top to conclude Naito's narrative from the last two years. Everything thing else here paled in comparison to high points in Night One, even though I enjoyed a lot of the matches on this card. I just felt that nothing was as strong as those Ibushi/Okada and Ospreay/Takahashi matches that blew me away in Night One. I do want to add that the English commentary team was great for both nights - a small thing that a lot of us take for granted watching most of the other various wrestling alternatives out there. That being said, I can't say that I would like to see them continue doing the two-night format going forward as I honestly don't see what the benefit was here. It seemed like even the Japanese crowds were burnt out by the time the end of Night Two rolled around. It was a nice experiment that ensured that I wouldn't have to pull an all-nighter with work the following day like usual this year, but yeah, I rather them go back to the one night format for 2021.

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Ring of Honor & New Japan Pro Wrestling Present: G1 Supercard (April 6, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts



G1 Supercard was a professional wrestling supershow co-produced by the American Ring of Honor (ROH) and Japanese New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotions. It was the 13th annual Supercard of Honor event and took place on April 6, 2019, at Madison Square Garden in New York City, New York. The event was streamed live on Honor Club, New Japan Pro-Wrestling World, FITE TV, and broadcast live on traditional pay-per-view outlets.

The card featured 12 matches. Both the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and ROH World Championship was defended on the card, as IWGP Champion Jay White defended against New Japan Cup winner Kazuchika Okada, while Survival of the Fittest winner Marty Scurll and Matt Taven wrestled for the ROH World Title against champion Jay Lethal in a ladder match. The event's undercard saw two Winner Take All matches between NJPW and ROH champions, and UK partner promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling (RPW) had its top title - the British Heavyweight Championship - defended as well.



G1 Supercard Preshow (FULL Show)





Kagetsu, Jenny Rose and Hazuki def. Hana Kimura, Stella Grey and Sumie Sakai Six-woman tag team match (Dark Match)

Didn't see this match, but I wouldn't be surprised if it's offered on ROH's YouTube channel for the weekly dosage of Women of Honor action.


Kenny King won by last eliminating Jushin "Thunder" Liger and The Great Muta 30-man Honor Rumble for a future ROH World Championship match

Let's be honest here. This match was mostly a massive waste of time outside of a few noteworthy entries from New Japan. Ring of Honor's entrants in this were laughable at best, namely Rhett Titus with a his HORRIBLE spray tan.

I think I marked out with everyone else with the arrivals of both Jushin "Thunder" Liger and The Great fuckin' Muta in this match towards the end. Muta came out looking like he was the final boss spawned from affair from the creators of Onimusha and Final Fantasy had an offspring. I thought it was pretty damn awesome to see them team up to clear out the opposition until they were the final two. I thought we were going to see something truly special until Kenny King rolled back into the ring and unceremoniously dumped out both Japanese legends to steal the win.

You could see the fans in the front rows flipping him off while the MSG crowd unanamiously booed this finish. This is the only reason why I can see why fans were shitting on ROH after the show was over from this finish. King isn't the guy to be challenging for the top title of the company, especially when you got Muta and Liger in the conversation.


Main Card Match Results:


Jeff Cobb (ROH TV) def. Will Ospreay (NEVER Openweight)
Winner takes all match for both the NEVER Openweight and ROH World Television Championships


I thought this was a nice way to start off the show, much like Ospreay's opener on Wrestle Kingdom earlier this year. The end result here didn't surprise me too much as I like to think that Ospreay is going to be AEW bound since they already announced the signing of his girlfriend, Bea Priestley, not too long ago.




Singles Match
Rush def. Dalton Castle

That was all she wrote for Rush to pick up the win here.
Rush hit Castle with damn dropkick and pinned him shortly thereafter to pick up the win with a squash over Castle. I thought we were in for the long haul after Castle's extravagant entrance tonight. I guess Castle told Velveteen Dream to hold my beer in that regard.

Castle took his frustrations out on The Boys, so I guess this is leading to a heel turn for him? I dunno how I feel about that.


Women of Honor World Championship
Kelly Klein def. Mayu Iwatani (c) 


This match itself wasn't bad at all, but I'm sure what everyone is going to be talking about, or still talking about rather, is the debut of the Beautiful People in Ring of Honor. They joined forces with a now heel Mandy Leon to form the faction simply known as Allure. I can't remember anything of note that Mandy Leon has done in the Women of Honor division since her high profile feuds with Hania the Huntress and her lengthy (yet notable) program with Taeler Hendrix. Seriously, go back and watch some of that stuff. I wasn't too crazy about the matches themselves, but the actual builds to them were pretty damn good, especially the video packages.

The Allure make their ROH debut collectively.

I have to say I was shocked to see Angelina Love and Velvet Sky collectively in ROH, especially after Madison Rayne cited in a few interviews that the reason she left was that ROH shot down her TBP reunion idea.

Last but not least, congratulations to the first ever two-time Ring of Honor Women of Honor Champion, Kelly Klein.


Six-Man New York City Street Fight
Flip Gordon and Lifeblood (Mark Haskins and Juice Robinson) def. Bully Ray, Shane Taylor and Silas Young


I thought Bully Ray did us all a favor taking out MegaRan during his musical performance. I'm sure I wasn't alone in being shocked when Flip Gordon came out to answer the challenge from Bully Ray. I was under the impression that his last knee injury had him sidelined for the remainder of the year. I guess that was a load of bull, huh? No offense to everyone involved, but this match wasn't the best thing to put into an already underwhelming position on this card to begin with. This lackluster street fight stipulation just seemed to hinder it even more, even though everyone involved tried to make the most of it. I felt like this was ultimately a waste of time that could have been spent on other matches on this card.



Apparently, Enzo and Big Cass stormed the ring off-camera following the finish of this match but all of the ROH talent fought them off. Originally, the reports going around live at the time were saying it was a shoot, but since then, the truth came out with it being a complete work, just that the on-air crew didn't support creative team's decision on bringing them in. I can't blame them there as it seems like they just want to garner attention off their notoriety. ROH is known for their superb in-ring product and less about WWE-esque gimmicks. Enzo and Cass have like nothing to offer them otherwise in terms of in-ring ability. Both those guys are as exciting to watch as watching paint dry.


Three-Way Match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Dragon Lee def. Taiji Ishimori (c) and Bandido  


I have seen Ishimori's work in both NJPW and his duration in Impact Wrestling as their X-Division Champion while I have been familiar with Dragon Lee's work for Ring of Honor in the past, competing for the Television Championship while feuding with Marty Scurll and Will Ospreay when they first joined the promotion. This was my first exposure to Bandido tonight and I have to say I was thoroughly impressed with what I have seen from this guy.



In the end, I was happy that Dragon Lee picked up the win because I couldn't help but think back to how he was robbed in that triple threat between Ospreay and Scurll a few years ago.


Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (IWGP) defeated Villain Enterprises (PCO and Brody King) (ROH), Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) and The Briscoe Brothers (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) Winner takes all four-way tag team match for both the IWGP Tag Team and ROH World Tag Team Championships



PCO's Frankenstein entrance was pretty damn cool while the Briscoes walking down to the ring cursing up a storm is all the reason I needed to be reminded why those two aren't in WWE after all these years. Seeing Sanada's evolution from his World Elite days back in TNA to present day is definitely something else as I'm sure Muta is beaming with pride with his growth, even in defeat here. I hate to make fun of the guy, but I swear Brody King looks like a fat cosplay of Aleister Black.


PCO's career-resurgence lately has to be the stuff of legends, but damn that dude takes some crazy bumps.



First that apron dive that looked like he hit the side of one of the Briscoes' faces along with the edge of the ring apron and then that Shield Powerbomb by the Guerillas of Destiny out of the ring. Holy shit that was nuts.

In the end, GoD picked up the win and I have absolutely no problem with that. Those dudes never cease to amaze me with their choice of entrance gear either.



RevPro British Heavyweight Championship Match
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) (with Taka Michinoku) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission



I missed this entire match since I was on the phone with my older brother who was asking me about the Hall of Fame that I wasn't watching and telling me about what happened to Bret Hart.


I finally had a chance to check out this match on New Japan World a few days later. This was exactly what I've come to expect from ZSJ's matches and by the end of it all, that damn guy had Tanahashi tied up into a knot like a fucking pretzel, despite his efforts to turn the tide on this methodical breakdown of the Ace.


IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match
Kota Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito (c)



Much like his performance in the opener of Wrestle Kingdom this year, Ibushi impressed me here too. Fortunately, he didn't have to "die for our sins" to put on a similar performance here. Naito wasn't no slouch either as this was a great affair from bell to bell. The right man won too as Kota Ibushi is the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. New Japan are definitely elevating the prestige of that title at a rapid pace, given all of the marquee talent that have held that belt to this date. I'll be surprised if Ibushi isn't wrestling for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by the time Wrestle Kingdom rolls around next year.


I couldn't believe that Naito took that EXACT same crazy bump Velveteen Dream did the night prior from NXT TakeOver. Sold the shit out of it too.


I absolutely love that Ibushi has been channeling his inner Shinsuke Nakamura lately for his Kamigoye as a homage to the Bomaye.

Three-way Ladder Match for the ROH World Championship
Matt Taven defeated Jay Lethal (c) and Marty Scurll



This wasn't a ladder match on par with the infamous Ladder Wars of old, namely the tag team ones involving the Young Bucks, the Hardyz, the Briscoes, and Bad Influence/So Cal Uncensored or the one between Kevin Steen (now Owens) and El Generico (now Sami Zayn) from years ago, but worth a watch anyway.

All three men gave this performance their all and it was rightfully called the "real" main event by ROH fans on social media. In the end, Jay Lethal took a sickening bump onto the ladder to allow Matt Taven to pick up the win. I have to


IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match
Kazuchika Okada defeated Jay White (c) (with Gedo) 



I love Okada as much as the next guy, but man, I went into dreading this rematch against Jay White. I didn't care for this match-up at Wrestle Kingdom and I didn't care for it here much either. Okada carried the fuck out of White throughout this contest to keep viewers and the live audience engaged with action in and out of the ring from bell to bell. I enjoyed the story they told with neither man being able to hit their respective finishers and once they did it garnered a massive shock and awe from the audience that each man found a way to kick out of their opponent's respective finisher. Finishing sequence saw Okada hit multiple Rainmaker clotheslines and a Tombstone Piledriver to pick up the win and become the NEW IWGP Heavyweight Champion.



Everything is right in the world again. I get that New Japan wants to build up Jay White as the next big thing in terms of gaijin stars in the wake of Kenny Omega and all of the Elite guys jumping over to AEW, but he's definitely not the guy who needs to be feuding with Okada at this level. I think it's time to admit that this experiment was a failure and move on.


Afterthoughts:

The number one thing that I noticed once this event was over were the sheer amount of people shitting all over Ring of Honor over on social media, claiming that ROH didn't carry their weight on this show that New Japan carried on their own. I don't know about all of that. There's a considerable difference in terms of match quality from the ROH guys and the NJPW guys, but I didn't go into this match thinking everything on this card was going to be worthy of being in the Tokyo Dome and instantly be a six star match (per Dave Meltzer). Only match I didn't really care for was the New York Street Fight and that was mainly due to all involved. I just don't like majority of those guys personally and I didn't think they clicked well in that type of match. I don't know what everyone else was watching but people were reacting on social media like this was a massive flop. Get the fuck over yourselves. I'm not too thrilled about Matt Taven besting Jay Lethal for the title and Marty Scurll seems like he's not getting a chance at it anytime soon either, but I didn't think that was means for frowning upon this card. Top to bottom, this was a solid show, even if I wasn't too thrilled with some of the talent involved.

Now I do agree with some of the critics that it's very unlikely that Ring of Honor would be able to do this type of business to sell out the Garden when they aren't riding off WWE's coattails from WrestleMania weekend along with their partnership with New Japan. Otherwise, I seriously doubt they would have brought in this many people to a venue with the talent they currently have on hand. The few that they do have are struggling to keep things going and I fear what Ring of Honor's future is going to look like when All Elite Wrestling starts going on all cylinders, especially with both Impact Wrestling and Major League Wrestling starting to step their game up in terms of signing the few "major" talent left on the table off the free agent market.

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Wrestle Kingdom 13 (Jan. 4, 2019) -- Results & Afterthoughts




Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2019 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 28th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the 13th promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name. The event was streamed live on NJPW World and Fite TV and was aired on tape delay on AXS TV.


The card was comprised of ten matches, including one occurring on the pre-show. In the main event, Kenny Omega defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the G1 Climax 28, Hiroshi Tanahashi. In other prominent matches, Chris Jericho defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Tetsuya Naito, Kushida defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori, Tomohiro Ishii defended Revolution Pro Wrestling's British Heavyweight Championship against Zack Sabre Jr. and Kazuchika Okada faced Jay White.


RESULTS:


NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet: Most Violent Players & Ryusuke Taguchi def. Suzuki-gun, The Elite, Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb & David Finlay & CHAOS


This match was the preshow bout, replacing their mock-gimmick battle royal from previous years. This match wasn't bad, but it was easily forgettable among everything else that went down on this card. I just remember the second The Elite were "shockingly" eliminated, I had a feeling that it wasn't going to be a good night for anyone affiliated with them.




Starting the show off with an appearance with Pieter is always a good thing in my book... 





Will Ospreay def. Kota Ibushi for the NEVER Openweight Championship


This was the official "opener" to the show following their kick-off 6-Man tag team gauntlet that I honestly was barely paying attention to. This right here was the match that I wanted to see above over everything else on this card and the main reason I blew the dust off my New Japan World account to see this live this morning. Boy, did this match deliver and then some. From the mind-blowing sequences of reversals to the hard-hitting strikes and high flying maneuvers, this match set the bar for what was to come for the rest of the night. 

In the end Will Ospreay picked up the win over Kota Ibushi, legitimately knocking him out cold sometime before the finish. Ibushi had to be carried out on a stretcher. I hope he's alright as that was one hell of match. I'd love to see a rematch between these two. 






Rev Pro Wrestling British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. defeats Tomohiro Ishii


I didn't know how much I wanted this match after the bell rung. I'm sure that Triple H is still kicking himself that both Kota Ibushi and Zack Sabre Jr. didn't sign with WWE following their appearances in the Cruiserweight Classic while both of those guys are singing praises that they didn't, especially after seeing what happened to most of that talent they signed for the cruiserweight "revival" on the 205 Live brand. WWE regards most of that talent as the red-headed stepchildren, segregated from the rest of the WWE Universe. Here in NJPW, ZSJ's talents are more appreciated and better utilized. Where Ibushi/Ospreay wowed with the high flying and rapid fire reversals/counters, Ishii and ZSJ wowed with all of these transitions and counters into more and more submissions. I thought ZSJ was going to tear Ishii's arm off at one point. Excellent technical psychology here from start to finish from ZSJ. Then we get that beautiful finish in which where I have no idea how to explain ZSJ was able to contort Ishii's frame like that for the submission victory. If I could nitpick at only ONE thing in that finish is that Red Shoes (the referee) wasn't watching/checking to see if ZSJ's shoulders were on the mat or not. 





IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Three-Way: LIJ (EVIL and Seiya SANADA) defeat Young Bucks and Guerrilas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa)


No offense to this match, but I was half paying attention and went for a bathroom break after the entrances. From what I did take away from it, there were some solid action. At one point, I was convinced that the Bucks were going to go home with the gold, but EVIL and SANADA derailed those plans and walk away as the new tag champions. The best thing out of this match was the finish - the rest of it just seemed like everyone was just going through emotions, getting their own shit in.








IWGP United States Championship: Juice Robinson defeats Cody


While I didn't share the complaints of sheer disgust with this match like I saw a lot of people commenting about on wrestling Twitter this morning, I did think this was one of both Juice Robinson's and Cody's lacklusters performances. I know that both men are capable of much better than what they showcased here.



Cody did the honors on the way out, putting Juice over and dropping the IWGP US title to him as we have no idea on where or not NJPW will be in bed on doing business with AEW when they already have an established relationship with Ring of Honor. 

By this point in the show, it felt like NJPW were really breezing through the undercard when these shows usually feel like they drag on forever in previous years. I guess they felt like they wanted to devote the bulk of the airtime (especially since they were FITE I believe this year) to the main events. 







IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: “The Bone Soldier” Taiji Ishimori def. Yujiro KUSHIDA


I loved that spot in this match, even though I vaguely remember seeing Ishimori do the same thing during one of his X-Division bouts while serving as a part of the Impact Wrestling roster at the time. KUSHIDA has been rumored to be on WWE's radar for quite some time and has been offered a spot on 205 Live/NXT. I shudder at the thought of how they would screw him up on 205 Live. Look at what they did to Akira Tozawa. Ugh. As for Ishimori, I'm glad to see him on the rise here in New Japan. I always thought he was talented, now more people get to see more of that.




Jay White def. Kazuchika Okada


For me personally, Jay White bores the hell out of me. I was more pleased to see Okada back to his "Rainmaker" persona instead of that crap they had him demoralized into after losing the IWGP World Heavyweight title to Kenny Omega where he was holding balloons and wearing pants. Okada's reveal for wearing the trunks again got one of the biggest pops of the night. I understand why Okada (while back to the top of his game so to speak...) put White over here, but I don't have to like it. Don't get me wrong. This match wasn't bad at all either, just not a match-up I would have preferred for Okada this year, especially following up his performance and position on the card last year.

Jay White seems to be "the guy" NJPW insists on pushing with most of their popular gaijin wrestlers in The Elite heading out of the door or ending their current deals with the promotion, so I understand they want to establish him with a marquee win over Okada here. I wouldn't be surprised if he's the NJPW World Heavyweight Champion by this point next year either. 



IWGP Intercontinental Championship No Disqualification: Tetsuya Naito def. Chris Jericho




Unlike most people, I haven't been blown away by these performances from Chris Jericho in NJPW. I respect that this is a career resurgence/reinvention for him of sorts as he takes full advantage of being a free agent without ties to the current WWE roster. He has to work smarter and mask his limitations (i.e. like Triple H, Shawn Michaels, Kane, and The Undertaker...) so almost all of his matches here have been No DQ matches for they can erupt into massive brawls in and out of the ring. This match was no different with Jericho and Naito brawling all over the ringside area.

That spike DDT spot onto the railing had to be the craziest thing in this match period. Bravo to Naito to selling the shit out of that. Ultimately, I found myself much more entertained by this match than I did going into it. From the looks of things from Jericho's tweets and interviews, he's not done with New Japan either, so don't rule out an appearance at that Madison Square Garden show during WrestleMania weekend either. 

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi def. “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega


The second the bell rung and they had the first exchanges into this match, I'm reminded of one thing I can't stand in all of Kenny Omega's matches - his fucking retarded facial expressions. He ranges from taking a shit to imitating the Ultimate Warrior. That being said, I can't knock his talent in the ring. He's transformed himself from being regarded as pretty much a traveling goof to being one of the best wrestlers in the world today. Him and Tanahashi had a hard-hitting affair here with me (and I'm sure many watching live) unsure on who was going to walk away the winner from all of the near-falls and high spots.

The bigger conversation coming out of this match is where is Kenny Omega going to end up once his NJPW contract expires towards the end of the month. It's no secret that the Young Bucks, Hangman Page, Cody Rhodes, and Brandi Rhodes are "all in" on establishing All Elite Wrestling in prominent roles within the new promotion behind the scenes. Then there's rumors floating around about a "fantastic deal" that WWE offered Omega as well. With all of the podcasters and wrestling journalists hounding around and sniffing for clues, I'm sure we're going to hear something straight from the horse's mouth in all due time. 
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