NJPW on AXS TV: Episode 9

New Japan Pro-Wrestling on AXS TV

Episode 9, March 13th 2015

There was an interesting story behind this match, Naito didn’t gain a lot of momentum following his G1 victory, Gedo & Jado did quite a number on him with the horrible booking giving him Tanaka and fucking Yujiro as a preparation for the Dome show. That’s just bad, lackluster booking right there. On top of that, the IC title match had Tanahashi and Nakamura. What New Japan did here was that they basically recognized the tone of the situation and let the fans vote between the two matches to close WK8. The fans picked Tanahashi/Nakamura.

One thing is fascinating here, in the interview reflecting on the match/situation, Okada didn’t blame Naito, he blamed himself considering he was the champion, he felt he wasn’t qualified enough as the champion. Very interesting to hear things from his POV.

Wrestle Kingdom 8

(2014/1/4)

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada ©

This was much, much better than remembered. Did Ranallo and Barnett on commentary provide some new sides, angles and soft eyes to the match? Possibly. These two have a captivating chemistry and while they’re never going to touch their Korakuen masterpiece from 2012, they still produce good-to-great matches every time they face off. As good as this one was, I kind of wish they did a G1 style sprint instead of an epic. But still, this was good enough, they kept the crowd engaged and it was easy to catch up with the rhythm set.

***3/4

Backstage, Okada is bragging. Naito is angry but promises to rise again.

Once again we see Okada reflecting on the match, he felt Naito wasn’t as tough as before, he also said he didn’t care nor watched the IC title main event. Dat smirk!