WK9

Wrestle Kingdom 9

(2015/1/4)

0.      15-MAN NEW JAPAN RUMBLE: Tiger Mask vs. Yuji Nagata vs. TAKA Michinoku vs. Taichi vs. Desperado vs. Jushin Liger vs. Sho Tanaka vs. Hiro Saito vs. Yohei Komatsu vs. Cpt. New Japan vs. Tama Tonga vs. YOSHI-HASHI vs. Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yoshiaki Fujiwara vs. Great Kabuki

Uh, not good. Not that I expected anything good from this, though, battle royals are among my least favorite things in pro-graps. However, it was cool to see some oldtimers again, so there you go. Still bad match, though.

bad

1.      4-WAY for IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero & Alex Koslov) vs. Time Splitters (KUSHIDA & Alex Shelley) vs. reDRagon (Kyle O’Reilly & Bobby Fish) ©

Plenty of problems here: Kyle and Bobby are the champions, too much cartoon and far-fetched sequences for my liking, severe lack of good old cruiserweight excitement, etc. Simply put, this was a dull, bad 4-way match.

bad

2.      Bullet Club (Jeff Jarrett, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma

Not gonna lie, it was cool to see Double J again. Oh look, there’s Karen too, she’s fat now. I’d still bang her holes, though, no question about it. I liked this match, it was kept short and sweet, they skipped feeling out process and jumped right onto smacking, it was fast paced and catchy. Dat Honma! All those pre-during-post-G1 losses paid off here, such a feelgood moment.

**3/4

3.      Suzuki-gun (Takashi Iizuka, Shelton Benjamin, Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr.) vs. Toru Yano, Naomichi Marufuji, Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste

Short and not bad, but ultimately – pointless, I don’t really know what was the point of this.

**

4.      FULL CONCLUSION RULES: Minoru Suzuki vs. Kazushi Sakuraba

First things first, MiSu looked like a complete badass here with his new bleached hair and white gear, he rocked. I’m not going to lie, I kind of expected a better match here, or maybe a different match at least. They worked way more a “pro” style than expected, but it was still quite good, MiSu’s selling of the arm was fantastic and honestly it made the match, Sakuraba looked strong in the loss and MiSu scored a big victory over the big rival. Maybe I’m not being fair, but I feel like they could’ve reached the four star territory if they chose to work the rigid UWFi style, but I guess it’d look out of place in this modern New Japan, so no biggie there, just a minor personal gripe, but I cannot complain too much since the match was good, simple and focused.

***1/2

5.      NEVER Openweight Championship: Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii ©

I hate the result, I really do, but this was a good match with plenty of bomb throwing and sluggish manliness. Such a sweet gorilla vs. pitbull fight for sure, but then again Makabe simply could not match Ishii’s incredible intensity and heat. Which is strange because many guys did it recently (which made for some stellar moments and matches), such as Goto, Yujiro, Honma, Naito, etc., but Makabe seemed unfit to the task, there were moments where he wasn’t able to match Ishii’s pacing. But in the end, this was still a very good match that could’ve been great with a more suitable opponent for the champion. I so don’t care for Makabe as the champion. Ishii is such a fucking MAN.

***1/2

6.      IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega vs. Ryusuke Taguchi ©

This was not good. Omega is one helluva wrestler but he was trying way too hard here, the facial selling was awful, the blame is mostly on him I say. The pacing was very off here too, and if not for Taguchi’s swag and some nice sequences, the match would’ve sucked.

**1/2

7.      IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Hirooki Goto & Katsuyori Shibata (WTLw) vs. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows ©

First things first, the new gear of Karl and Doc fucking ROCKS! The red looks awesome on them. Anyway, this was a great tag match, stiff, fast paced and tight, plus the ending was such a warm, feelgood moment, seeing Goto and Shibata finally getting that gold, seeing them happy, that was fabulous. These two duos had a better and more epic match at World Tag League, but there was no need for that here, instead they got a nine minute window and they fucking made the best out of it. Great match.

****

8.      AJ Styles vs. Tetsuya Naito

Great match, smart stuff all around, the beginning was rapid fire and intense, AJ went for the Styles Clash right off the bat but Naito proved to be faster, so AJ decided to cut him off by attacking the leg, which worked for awhile before Naito escaping AJ’s superior mat game, however the damage was done and Naito got slowed down, he sold the leg well enough. The rest of the match was smart, I loved it, the counters were totally fine, the pacing was sluggish and it looked like both guys were going through some kind of punishing hell. Naito eventually managed to fight through the leg pain and get AJ’s number before AJ catching him off guard with that glorious Super Styles Clash, holy shit that was awesome. Too bad this great match, just like the previous one, will forever remain underappreciated due to sheer brilliancy of the next two masterpieces. The best thing is, Styles and Naito have so much more in their reservoirs, there’s a legit five star potential in their chemistry.

****

9.      IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Kota Ibushi vs. Shinsuke Nakamura ©

Holy fuck, this is even better on a second viewing, these two stiffed each other very hard, all  in the name of good old beating. How stupid is Ibushi for trying to taunt Shinsuke by stealing his poses and mannerisms? It just fueled the King of Swag Style, you could feel an extra behind every move he busted out, he played dirty, he used deadly punches, he struggled like almost never before, there was no way he’d go down for a DDT pretty boy. Like I said, stupid mental tactics from Ibushi, but that’s the point, it made for such an amazing wrestling. This masterpiece had a fantastic sense of building and boiling, the escalation was simply superb, the one-count and fighting spirit moments were well placed and done, TLDR this was an incredible slugfest. Five stars all the way, I can’t even…

*****

10.  IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (G1w) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ©

Okay, so technically this match had its minor flaws and gripes, but wrestling is more than rigid technicalities. If you’re into that, then you’re watching the wrong form of entertainment, gymnastics and ice skating might be more suited for you. This was all about storytelling, these two wrestled each other seven times in the past and there’s no surprises left, other than you have to be meaner than ever before. Everyone and their mothers thought Okada winning here was a lock if there ever was one. I mean, he already lost to Tana in the Dome once, right? I mean, just look at the G1 and aftermath, everything led to the victory here, right? Wrong, Tana proved to be the Ace once again, for the fifth time in a row he got to close WK victoriously. After all, Okada is only 27, a WK main event win is literally the only big thing missing from his already rich resume, they’re taking the good old All Japan route with him, now he’s got to start from scratch again. Seeing Okada broken down in tears after the match was epic, it told the entire story. Tana is still the man, he’s just too damn good. It’s only fitting he was the first man who really kicked out of the Rainmaker, and then he did every counter move possible to avoid the second Rainmaker, it was incredible, every time you think “this is it”, Tanahashi comes up with something else, those are some supreme surviving skills, reminded me of Misawa so much. Strong, smart booking right there, nice job, G&J.

The match felt like a grand Hitchcock movie, with all the twists and suspense, it felt quite cinematic and sluggish. Not to mention the inevitable callback spots and sequences to the previous matches, these two guys are something else, to be able to make something special after THAT IC title match, it’s remarkable. Not as glorious as Kota/Shinsuke, but still an absolutely brilliant match on its own. Okada/Tanahashi is already one of the greatest rivalries in pro-wrestling history.

****3/4

What can I say, this is right up there with WK7, an amazing show that is going to be hard to top. However, this being New Japan, I have no doubts in my mind they’ll produce at least 2-3 shows just as good or even better. The 4-way opener was bad, the two multi-man tags were harmless, although short, the real show started with Saku/MiSu, everything except the mediocre Junior title match was awesome. Only New Japan can produce two back-to-back matches this good.