NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 18

Tokyo

THE RUMBLE (THE GREAT O'KHAN, TAIJI ISHIMORI, TORU YANO & YOH) (32:40): This show was good and most of the matches were entertaining. It definitely paled in comparison to the Wrestle Kingdom's of the glory years 5-10 years ago, though. The big name stars unfortunately left off the main card and stuck in the Rumble were Ishii, Jeff Cobb, Taichi, and Ishimori. The crowd popped big when Takashi Iizuka entered the Rumble. I have no idea who that is, but he apparently used to wrestle in New Japan. Iizuka also went after one of the announcers after he was eliminated and ripped the announcer's shirt off. That was hilarious. I had no idea what that was all about, but after looking it up, apparently he used to always beat up and torment that announcer over the years. The funniest part was when Iizuka came out the camera cut to the announcer and he had a look of fear on his face. Remember Evil used to always knock the one announcer out of his desk? Why does New Japan think that's so funny? Beating up on announcers? Anyway, this was a typical Rumble match. The last four are fighting tomorrow on New Year's Dash for the coveted KOPW title. I actually missed this, but a few weeks ago they had a whiskey bottle on a pole ladder match at Korakuen Hall for the KOPW title. I really should watch that. Could it be as stupid as it sounds? Is Vince Russo now scripting NJPW matches? *1/2

CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) vs. WAR DOGS (CLARK CONNORS & DRILLA MALONEY) (9:38): TJP came out dressed up like a Mortal Kombat character. He had a straw hat, a demon mask, and a demon glove with long fingers. The funniest part was that the match started and he kept the demon mask on. What? He wrestled the whole match with a demon mask on. Maybe he should change his name now. Is this permanent? He also blew mist a few times. I really couldn't concentrate on this match with a demon running around. That's something TNA would do, right? The one odd thing about this show was that the whole undercard was filled with very short matches. The show was 5 hours long so it didn't exactly make the show shorter. Were there more matches than usual? Probably. While these shorter matches were good in the sense that nobody really cared about them and we all just wanted to cut to the big matches anyway, they all might've been better with more time allotted. Catch 22 won the Jr. tag titles. Match was average. **

HIROSHI TANAHASHI vs. ZACK SABRE, JR. (8:53): The ending was kind of a shocker as they were both doing back and forth rollups with the ref counted 1 or 2 back and forth really fast and then Tanahashi won with a 3 count just like that. Good match, albeit there wasn't much to it. One of the big stories these last few weeks was that Tanahashi was named the NJPW president. I wonder if it was his decision to win the title here. If I was the new president I'd be like, 'I'm in the main event now and I'm winning the title.' Tanahashi won the TV title here. I didn't even know that was a title. **1/2

YUYA UEMURA vs. YOTA TSUJI (10:57): Tsuji is by far the most entertaining of the Young Lions being pushed these days...so of course he lost here. Hmmm. Match was okay. Uemura is pretty forgettable. **

HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & REN NARITA) vs. KAITO KIYOMIYA & SHOTA UMINO (7:06): I was wondering if Kaito Kiyomiya is in New Japan now because he was in the G1 and the recent tag team tournament and now on this show. When Evil and his boys came out, though, they held up a NOAH t-shirt and then cut it up with scissors. So I guess Kiyomiya is still with NOAH. This was the worst match on the show. There was a bunch of interference. HOT cheated to win. Yawn. 1/2*

TAMA TONGA vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (13:46): Shockingly, this was the best match on the show. The reason? They went super fast from the get-go. Plus, Shingo is the 2nd best wrestler in New Japan, soon to be the best when Ospreay leaves at the end of January (he's going to AEW). This was just all action and big moves from bell to bell. Tama Tonga won the NEVER title. ***1/2

GUERILLAS OF DESTINY (EL PHANTASMO & HIKULEO) vs. BISHAMON (HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI) (9:47): Bishamon beat Guerillas of Destiny last month in a 40 minute match to win the tag team tournament. Since Guerillas of Destiny lost, why are they getting a title shot? Eh. Maybe that 40 minute match was better, because this wasn't very good. It was average, basic stuff. *1/2

EL DESPERADO vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI (14:21): Desperado won the Jr. title here. I feel like these two have wrestled each other every month for years. Right? This wasn't particular one of their better matches, either. Before the match even started, Desperado jumped over the top rope onto Hiromu who was just walking out. It was entertaining, though it never really turned into anything spectacular. **1/2

DAVID FINLAY vs. JON MOXLEY vs. WILL OSPREAY (22:17): This was a good match. Even Moxley and Ospreay knew that nobody wanted Finlay in this match, so they started out beating him up and leaving him out of the ring so they could wrestle each other. Ospreay was on fire in this match, doing everything at lightning speed and looking as flawless as ever. Moxley of course was bleeding even though the spot where he was supposed to hit the ring post and get busted up didn't work (he missed the post and just fell off the ring). Finlay's goons came out and Ospreay eventually did a dive off the top rope onto them and two tables (one cracked, the other didn't break). This was very exciting even though Finlay winning the Global title was obvious (Moxley isn't even in New Japan and Ospreay is leaving). After the match, Finlay brawled with Dolph Ziggler, who was sitting at ringside. Ryan Nemeth was also sitting at ringside next to Dolph. Nemeth was in AEW, though he never wrestled on TV for whatever reason. He's probably most famous for doing those stupid 'Hollywood Hunk' BTE videos on Youtube. I guess they're both in NJPW now. ***

KAZUCHIKA OKADA vs. BRYAN DANIELSON (23:24): This was definitely a better match than their one last year at Forbidden Door. Considering Danielson broke his arm in that match, that isn't too surprising. The one problem was that this match was super slow. Danielson also turned into Zack Sabre, Jr. in this match by putting Okada's arm in multiple stress position submission holds (trying to break his arm to get revenge for breaking his own). Good match, but, alas, not the epic, classic, masterpiece we all wanted. ***

TETSUYA NAITO vs. SANADA (25:42): All the U.S. fans seemed to think this was the worst main event on paper in WK history. The crowd at the Dome didn't agree. The crowd loved Naito and they were hotter for this match than anything else on the show. The match was a total bore for the first ten to fifteen minutes, though. Eventually it turned into a good match once they stopped moving as slow as slugs. Naito did botch one Destino, but other than that the final ten minutes or so were dramatic and exciting with both men using the other's finisher and doing a bunch of reversals and big moves. It turned out pretty good which is kind of a surprise. After Naito won the title, Evil came out to beat him up. Sanada then beat up Evil and Togo which the crowd loved. All in all the main event turned out to be a lot better than I figured it'd be. The crowd being so hot for it certainly helped. ***