NIGHT 1
NAOKI SANO, SHINJIRO OTANI, TATSHITO TAKAIWA & RYSUKE TAGUCHI vs. JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER, TATSUMI FUJINAMI, THE GREAT SASUKE & TIGER MASK (8:52): This was the first time that Wrestle Kingdom has been stretched over two nights. Nobody really ever asked for it, but money talks I suppose. What everyone wants is for WrestleMania to stretch out over two nights. Hell, they could stretch that eight hour show over ten nights probably. The good thing about a 2 night event is that we got two really good, 30 minute plus Okada main event matches. The bad is that we got a ton of filler like this, the two pre-show matches that I didn't even watch (the pre-show Stardom match never even aired), and the next two matches. This wasn't exactly a filler match. It was part of Jushin Thunder Liger's retirement. There were bunch of old, retired wrestlers in this match that used to feud with him back in the early 90's. This might have been exciting if I watched New Japan back in the early 90's. I didn't...but to be fair, few did. The only way to see it was to get VHS tapes months later from somewhere. So I had no idea who any of these guys were. If it was up to me I would have had Liger had one final match be a single match against a great foe like Ospreay or Hiromu or someone. But no, he had to lose twice in lame tag matches. Eh. 1/2*
ZACK SABRE, JR., MINORU SUZUKI, TAICHI & EL DESPERADO vs. SANADA, EVIL, SHINGO TAKAGI & BUSHI (8:39): This was short, forgettable. This show, minus the pre-show, was four and a half hours long. Lose these bad matches and the show would have been a three hour, instant classic. *1/2
HIROOKI GOTO, TOMOHIRO ISHII, TORU YANO & YOSHI-HASHI vs. KENTA, BAD LUCK FALE, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & CHASE OWENS (8:17): Because this was New Japan's biggest show of the year, Yoshi-Hashi came out with an even larger staff. What an idiot. Chase Owens is fat. And Ishii is an old man now, why are they wasting his last few good years putting him in bad multi-man tag matches. He'll never get the title and that will always be New Japan's black eye forever. **
JUICE ROBINSON & DAVID FINLAY vs. GUERRILLAS OF DESTINY (13:25): Juice and Finlay won the tag titles here in a bad match. Has the tag division ever been any good in New Japan? 1/2*
JON MOXLEY vs. LANCE ARCHER "TEXAS DEATHMATCH" (14:26): This was entertaining but just okay. Lance Archer was stupendous in the G1 but he was a little sloppy here, slipping off the ropes when he tried to walk them like The Undertaker. Moxley slammed him through two tables at ringside to win and Archer's arm was cut up from it and bleeding. They used chairs and a Singapore cane. The Texas Deathmatch stip just meant a Last Man Standing ten count stip. Moxley oozes charisma, though, so it's always fun to see him but there wasn't much to this. The worst moment came when Archer pulled a plastic shopping bag out of his pocket and then suffocated Moxley with it. My God did that look like something you'd see in a teenage backyard wrestling match on youtube. **
HIROMU TAKAHASHI vs. WILL OSPREAY (25:33): Good match, probably the best of the night. If I watched this match without knowing that Hiromu broke his neck in 2018 and this was his first singles match since then...I probably wouldn't believe you or think he wrestled safer or different. But since I do know, I thought he looked less crazy and suicidal than usual, which was kind of what made him exciting to begin with. Lose that and he's still great but doesn't have that edge that made him awesome. So this was a really good match just not as great as these two had a few year's ago. Hiromu won the title. There were a few times when the look on his face was kind of like, 'What am I doing here? Why did I come back for this?' When before the look on his face was like a deranged serial killer amped up on adrenaline at all times. I guess I can't complain that much, because a less insane Hiromu is still better than most wrestlers on the planet. ***
TETSUYA NAITO vs. JAY WHITE (33:54): Ah...Jay White. Is it bedtime? God, his matches are boring. He's only ever in one good match a year. His match against Juice in 2018 and his match at last year's Dome against Okada were both spectacular. This was more of the same Jay, though, unfortunately. Slow. Methodical. The last five minutes were great and dramatic, however, which helped. Naito won the IC title and will go on to night 2's main event. **1/2
KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. KOTA IBUSHI (39:16): This was really good, although it wasn't at the Omega/Okada level, which, granted, is kind of an unreachable high bar. Like most Dome main events, the last ten minutes or so featured the greatest wrestling you'll ever see. High drama, kick outs, crowd in a frenzy. Awesome stuff. I actually might have liked this better if Ibushi won, since he's never been champ and obviously deserves it. Ibushi did every high spot in the book and looked as incredible as always. Considering the winner here had to go onto night 2 to face Naito, it made this match a little less special since it wasn't truly the final Dome main event. But Okada still was in a 40 minute match knowing he'd have to do it again the next day...which is insane. ***
NIGHT 2
EVIL, SHINGO TAKAGI & BUSHI vs. TOGI MAKABE, TORU YANO & RYSUKE TAGUCHI vs. TOMOHIRO ISHII, YOSHI-HASHI & ROBBIE EAGLES vs. TAICHI, EL DESPERADO & YOSHINOBU KANEMARU vs. BAD LUCK FALE, YUJIRO TAKAHASHI & CHASE OWENS (23:23): I thought that night 1 was better than night 2. I guess I can't complain because New Japan just put on two of the best shows of the year and more of their biggest show is always good...but watching two four and a half hour shows (plus the pre-show) on two consecutive days is tough, especially if you were ultra-masochistic and also watched the three and a half hour New Year's Dash show (which I didn't...I skimmed it for the storyline angles). I'm curious if they're going to do this again next year, as this year's two night gimmick was to combine the IC and IGWP titles. They probably will do it again, as money talks and they got 40,000 for each show. This opener pre-show match was for the NEVER 6-man title...which I swear they never defend or showcase. But with so many guys in and out it was at least entertaining. I'm a little sad that with 13 hours and 3 shows they never squeezed in a singles match with Shingo or Ishii. 'Tis a shame. **1/2
HIROMU TAKAHASHI & RYU LEE vs. JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER & NAOKI SANO (12:16):
So this is the last match of the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger. I actually did see him wrestle live once at the ECW Arena at a ROH show (but, seriously, who hasn't seen Liger wrestle live? Guy's been wrestling for thirty years). It was a 4-way with Shinsuke Nakamura, Liger, Mark Briscoe, and Jay Lethal. He did wrestle in WCW for awhile, so for all I know I saw him back then, too, maybe. But he's a legend and it's kind of a shame his last match was this; a forgettable tag team match. Sure, Hiromu and Dragon Lee (who's using Ryu Lee now because maybe CMLL owns his old name) are great, but they couldn't really do much against these old timers. I do think it was time for him to retire, as he's an old man and I hate seeing old, shells of their former selves still wrestling. This was just kind of sad in so many ways. *1/2
RAPPONGI 3K vs. EL PHANTASMO & TAIJI ISHIMORI (14:08): Good, fast paced, fun match. El Phantasmo is definitely the best rookie, future star to come out of 2019. The Jr.'s tag division has kind of fallen apart since The Young Bucks and Ricochet left but at least it's still light years better than the regular tag division which has unfortunately been ruled by the Tongans for awhile. **1/2
ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SANADA (12:32): Zack retained the RevPro title here. This was just okay, although if you love Sabre matches than you'll probably love this as it was more of the same. **
JON MOXLEY vs. JUICE ROBINSON (12:48): Disappointing, although not terrible, just fairly pedestrian. Juice is one of those guys, like Jay White, who has charisma and is a good character but is rarely in great matches. There wasn't much violence here, just some antics with steel chairs. The post match was great, though, as Minoru Suzuki came out for no reason and gave Moxley a piledriver. The crowd went nuts for that. **
HIROOKI GOTO vs. KENTA (16:12): This was definitely the most hard hitting match of the weekend. There was a sequence where they both just slapped each other in the face really hard for a few minutes. Kenta is either angry at never being anything in WWE or maybe he thinks wrestling is real...but his matches are just hard kicks, hard strikes, hard slaps, and nothing much else. His matches are also too slow and not very exciting, which is bad. He lost the NEVER title here...but is still facing Naito for the title in February at the next big show. I'm not sure why he lost here then. **1/2
JAY WHITE vs. KOTA IBUSHI (24:58): It was probably a mistake to have a losers match on this show. I think the reasoning was that the winner here would get the next shot at the title...but Kenta ended up getting it so this match was even more pointless. They did a bunch of stuff WWE usually does. The ref got knocked out. Gedo interfered. Ibushi lost thanks to all of that. I suppose the match would have been a bore if all of that didn't happen, so I can't complain. **
CHRIS JERICHO vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI (22:24): Good match, and maybe Jericho's best in his current New Japan run. It's not a surprise, as Tanahashi usually always delivers in big matches at the Dome (or anywhere really). But Jericho's also been wrestling a lot in AEW lately and it showed. They did the usual stuff out in the crowd. Jericho did a DDT on Tanahashi on the announcer's table which looked gruesome. The one thing that helped this match is that crowd was fucking boisterous for this. They love and cheer for Tanahashi like he's Hulk Hogan, so that helped. Jericho won so Tanahashi won't be getting an AEW title shot. ***
TETSUYA NAITO vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA (35:37): This was the best match of the weekend. It probably wasn't much better than Okada/Ibushi from Night 1...but this was the final match for both titles and Naito finally beat Okada and won the title at the Dome which he's been trying to do forever. Yes, Naito beat Okada for the title a few years ago...but that was at some lame Spring show and he just lost it right back to Okada at Dominion. And this was the best match in years that Naito has been in. Everyone says he's broken and is hurt and is diminishing...but he wrestled incredible in this, even pulling out the Starshine Press, which is basically a 450 type twist from the top rope, which used to be his finisher back when he was the rookie/face/future star of the company. That role went to Okada instead of Naito...so the story here was that finally, after ten years, Naito won the big one, the main event on the biggest show and dethroned the company's ace to do it and was the first IC and IWGP champ at the same time. Good story, great match. Okada slammed Naito knees first onto the announce table at ringside which looked and sounded brutal. Then there were multiple Destino's and Rainmaker's. Naito even kicked out of a Rainmaker. The end of this was just dramatic and exciting as anything you'll ever see. No, it wasn't as great as Okada/Omega. And no, I didn't think it was as good as Tanahashi/Omega last year. But this was a great match and a great end to the two night show. After the match, New Japan pissed off the world by having Kenta come out and beat up Naito. I didn't mind it but I do think they could have just done that at New Year's Dash (which they did again anyway). But Kenta vs. Naito should be great. And Naito is supposed to be a heel so having a happy, crowd cheering moment is kind of counter to that. Although Kenta is also a heel. But this crowd didn't care that Naito is a heel. They wanted him to win. They popped, they cheered, they basked in his victory. It was definitely a Dome highlight. ***1/2
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