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Showing posts with label Zack Sabre Jr. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Zack Sabre Jr. Show all posts

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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WWE Network Exclusive: Cruiserweight Classic Finals Live Special (September 14, 2016) -- Results & Afterthoughts


The Cruiserweight Classic, formerly the Global Cruiserweight Series, was a professional wrestling WWE Network series and tournament produced by WWE with all participants billed at a weight of 205 lbs. or less. Tournament qualifying matches took place in various promotions of the independent circuit, including well known promotions such as Revolution Pro Wrestling, Progress Wrestling, and Evolve. Many cruiserweight wrestlers from around the world were given the chance to qualify for the 32-man tournament, which took place over four dates: June 23, July 13, August 26, and September 14, 2016.
Look, I know I haven't written a lot about the CWC tournament nor live tweeted it much as I honestly refuse to watch it live out of loving to have something to watch at my own leisure when the bulk of the people I know don't watch nor like this style of wrestling - even more so that they are unfamiliar with a great deal of these "high-profile" free agents in this tournament. I've have enjoyed this tournament a LOT. The opening round struggled with the feeling of meaningless exhibitions until they got around to the "serious" bouts in the second round with more drama and intensity, along with a lot of dream match-ups and nail-biters in this tournament.

Gran Metalik def. Zack Sabre Jr.


This was a great fast-paced match to get everyone fired up for the finals of this tournament. Watching this match reminds me of NWA-TNA era X-Division matches and even the old WCW Nitro opening cruiserweight matches that amped up the crowds for the rest of the show with a high-flying, exciting match with tons of crazy spots and pure athleticism. As much as I want to like what I've seen from ZSJ in this tournament, I have to knock this guy for his lack of selling at times in this match. Either he was selling the wrong leg or not selling enough before hopping up for the next big spot. It's not like they were stretched for time here, so he had time to slow it down and maintain the excitement.


TJ Perkins def. Kota Ibushi


I think this was the upset of the evening right here as you could definitely sense a pattern now in terms of guys who weren't willing to sell their souls to the E machine by signing a contract. ZSJ openly said he wasn't signing and Ibushi said the same when he returned back to Japan a few months ago between tapings for this tournament. Besides that, as great as this match was, you had to know that TJP was going over from how much Daniel Bryan and Mauro Ranallo were talking about him being homeless and being an underdog. They were building up for a big win here after all of that. That being said, I wouldn't be surprised to see Kota Ibushi show up in NXT in another year or two. Could anyone confirm if that was his wife/girlfriend on the front row during this match?

DIY (Ciampa and Gargano) def. Cedric Alexander and Noram Dar

I'll never get tired of seeing Gargano's Slingshot Spear spot.

If you were impressed with Ciampa and Gargano's tag team chemistry on NXT then you know what to expect here. Those guys are the unsung heroes of this tournament from their bromance in the last match of the opening round of this tournament that people are still talking about and probably will for a very long time in terms of telling a narrative in a tournament that had little to no storytelling going for it outside of some great matches up to that point.

Cedric Alexander and Dar didn't look like pushovers but I can't help but shake the feeling that the bulk of the NXT roster are looking at these guys coming in and taking spots on both the main roster and live events' cards without having to jump through hoops and hurdles like the rest of the folks down in developmental.

I still feel like it's a sin for Cedric Alexander to make his entrance to the ring without his bad ass ROH theme.


Triple H made his presence known as the beloved step-dad of the IWC as he gave the smarks what they wanted most out of this tournament - the revival of the Cruiserweight Championship. At least that belt looks a THOUSAND times better than the most of the new belts brought into the fold since the start of this new draft...

TJ Perkins def. Gran Metalik to win the CWC and become the first NEW Cruiserweight Champion

TJP and Metalik's styles compliment each other so much. I could watch them wrestle each other forever.

If you were playing a drinking game to how many times Ranallo and Bryan were bringing up TJP being homeless, you would have died of liver poisoning by now. After translating that one post-match victory promo by Metalik, it was like Vince saw that and said fuck that guy in the production truck. All of the hype on this match was on TJP to take it, no matter how well Metalik worked on this show or throughout this tournament as a whole. That being said, BOTH TNA as well as Ring of Honor had their chances to make TJP into a household name. Now it's WWE's chance to make him into a big star. He's already off to a great start and the sky's the limit from here.

First ever Cruiserweight Champion of the "modern" era, TJP. Sink it in, kid. This is your moment.


Spoken like a true champion, TJP. Hearing that interview live that night I couldn't help but applaud TJP after hearing his heart-felt words. Not just one guy deserves props for the success of this tournament on the WWE Network. All 32 guys that participated - whether they signed WWE contracts afterwards or not - deserve all the praise in the world for giving their all to make this event something special, not just for WWE fans but for ALL fans of professional wrestling.

Afterthoughts:

The CWC as a whole was a VERY risky gamble that paid off extremely well for WWE and their Network. It had a bumpy start with the opening round until the drama and storytelling were introduced, thanks to the heart-felt match between Tommaso Ciampa and Johnny Gargano and continued to build throughout the following rounds, thanks to drama, passion, and most importantly - CHARACTER - in the ring expressed by Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, and several other competitors. CWC quickly became my (along with many others) favorite hour of WWE programming for the past few weeks. From start to finish, I enjoyed what was offered here, especially with this finale.

By the way, the WWE Network already fixed that Sasha Banks/Jack Gallagher name tag botch
on the archive footage.
What I didn't like though was how WWE insists on doing this for live events. Why does Bayley and Sasha Banks (or the Four Horsewomen in general ) have to be ringside for particular matches to "validate" the match in question? Let the fans decide on their own that it's going to be special or not. I don't need to see them there to add their stamp of approval. I was fine with Bayley hanging out at SHIMMER tapings during WrestleMania weekend because it's WrestleMania weekend and all of the promotions pretty much "endorse" each other during that time of the year so it's cool to see other wrestlers at events they aren't employed at.

As for the "arrival" of the Cruiserweights on Monday Night RAW on September 19, 2016, I wasn't impressed nor underwhelmed by what WWE did with them there. The crowd wasn't initially too crazy about the four guys (The Brian Kendrick, Cedric Alexander, Rich Swann, and Gran Metalik) they choose to go with here, but warmed up to them by the end of it. I don't have a problem with Kendrick picking up the win but ultimately that makes me care less about TJP's first title defense. Kendrick is a "safe" bet to carry TJP through a WWE-style PPV bout. It's painfully obvious that they aren't going to give Kendrick the belt right off the bat like this, so it's not going to hurt TJP's momentum/street cred coming off as the winner of the CWC and being the first Superstar to hold the new Cruiserweight title. I thought it was in bad taste NOT to introduce the champion of this new division on the go-home edition of RAW before the PPV when TJP is going to defend said title, but whatever. That alone tells me that TJP isn't going to lose the title in his first defense when they didn't even bother to introduce him.

That being said, I'm skeptical that WWE can continue to carry the strong momentum for the cruiserweights that the CWC established as I'm sure there's a lot of people on the main roster and in developmental who are pissed these guys are getting their spots that they've been busting their asses for. At the same time, I can't imagine the cruiserweights upstaging the main eventers and if it does happen you can bet that the cruiserweights will find themselves confined in an even smaller glass ceiling than the cruiserweights in WCW found themselves in roughly twenty years ago. I hope I'm wrong but only time will tell if history proves to repeat itself in WWE.
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