NJPW POWER STRUGGLE

Osaka

BULLET CLUB (CLARK CONNORS, DRILLA MOLONEY, GABE KIDD, ROBBIE X & TAIJI ISHIMORI) vs. INTERGALACTIC JET SETTERS (KEVIN KNIGHT & KUSHIDA), THE VELOCITIES (JUDE LONDON & PARIS DE SILVA) & KATSUYA) & KATSUYA MURASHIMA (6:14): This match was awesome. I was not expecting that out of the opener (there was a kick off match but I didn't watch that). There were no tags in this match which made no sense. It was just everybody in the ring doing crazy moves for 6 minutes. Fun, wild stuff. ***

LOS IGNOBERNABLES DE JAPON (BUSHI, HIROMU TAKAHASHI, TETSUYA NAITO & YOTA TSUJI) vs. SKATEBOARD BROS (DRAGON DIA & RYUSUE TAGUCHI), TOMOAKI HONMA & TORU YANO (7:02): Honma and Taguchi are still wrestling? Interesting. Almost like they signed a 20 year contract or something. Naito, who lost the IWGP title in the main event of the last big show, is now relegated to a prelim, multi-man match. This wasn't good. *1/2

HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & REN NARITA) vs. HIROSHI TANAHASHI & OLEG BOLTIN (7:26): Tanahashi is going on a year long retirement tour next year. It starts at the Dome against Evil, hence why this match existed. Tanahashi can barely walk around so it's honestly kind of sad to see him still attempted to wrestle. Hopefully when he beats Evil, HOT will disband. One can hope. This wasn't good. And Boltin still comes out wearing the stupid fur hat. 1/2*

KENNY OMEGA: Shockingly, Omega came out here to say he'll be wrestling one of the younger New Japan guys on January 5th at the AEW/NJPW Dome show, Dynasty. Funny, because he's in AEW and didn't show up there first. I kind of thought he'd never wrestle again because he almost died from diverticulitis and had part of his intestines removed. He did 99% of his speech in Japanese. I guess it makes sense that he knows the language since he lived there for 15 years or something. Still weird seeing him fluently speaking Japanese. It just looks like such a hard language to learn. I wonder who he will face. They kind of set up David Finlay wanting to wrestle him. Could be Shota, Uemura, or Tsuji. I'd like to see Tsuji. That'd be wild.

SHOTA UMINO vs. SANADA (16:41): Shota was cheered in this match, which is strange because he was booed later on when he challenged Zack Sabre, Jr. I guess they like Shota but they don't want him being in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom. This match was boring. I was watching it thinking that, man, this match is way too long...and it was only 16 minutes! Felt like 30. Towards the end it got somewhat decent with some near falls and action. *1/2

UNITED EMPIRE (GREAT-O-KHAN & HENARE) vs. TMDK (MIKEY NICHOLLS & SHANE HASTE (11:11): Great-O-Khan and Henare won the tag team titles here. Match was okay. It was very hard hitting. There were a lot of hard slaps. Nicholls had his forehead busted up from a head butt. Or it might have been Haste. They're so great I can't tell them apart! **

ICHIBAN SWEET BOYS (KOSEI FUJITA & ROBBIE EAGLES) vs. CATCH 22 (FRANCESCO AKIRA & TJP) (15:20): This was the match of the night. The first half was okay but the second half was back-and-forth, wild moves at a frenetic pace. This was the finals of the Jr. tag team tournament. I wonder if TJP is still doing that stupid demon alter-ego gimmick. He was wearing red contact lenses in this match. Is Ichiban Sweet Boys like a gay reference? Sounds like one. Eagles does always wear scarfs. After the match, Kushida and Kevin Knight came out. I think they're the tag champs. Then the War Dogs came out to beat everyone up. So it'll probably be a 4 way at the Dome. ***1/2

DOUKI vs. MASTER WATO (22:07): Douki is actually the Jr. champ. Really? I guess it got boring with Hiromu, Ishimori, and Desperado constantly holding it. It's funny, but when I was a kid we all used the word dookie. That's like a totally lost word these days. The only reason it's probably sort of still remembered is because Green Day's first album was titled that. I wonder where that word even came from. Honestly, these two aren't exactly setting the world on fire in their matches, so this wasn't that great. Douki choked out Wato. Desperado came out to challenge Douki. **

DAVID FINLAY vs. TAICHI (23:22): The first half was kind of okay, but the second half was dramatic as hell. The announcers had a field day shouting after big moves on this show. These two just gel I guess. The big storyline was that Sanada joined the War Dogs group and pulled the ref out of the ring to help Finlay win. Taichi was in Just 5 Guys with Sanada. I'm guessing this company realized that Sanada isn't a big enough star to have his own group so they got rid of it. Match was wildly entertaining in the last five minutes or so. ***

ZACK SABRE, JR. vs. SHINGO TAKAGI (29:28): I think that this probably should have been the Dome main event. Granted, their 1st match in the G1 was better than this. I realize that Zack's gimmick is submissions, but a lot of this match dragged with all of the holds. It just never heated up into anything fantastic. Zack won the G1 and, surprisingly, decided to cash in his IWGP title shot last month where he beat Naito for the title. We all wondered why that happened in October instead of at Wrestle Kingdom. The answer? Shota Umino came out to a chorus of boos to challenge Zack. So the reason Zack didn't wrestle Naito at WK is because they wanted Shota vs. Zack to be the main event of their biggest show in 2025? Wh-wh-what? I guess the boos happened because Shota didn't really earn the shot and doesn't even have a belt or anything. It's basically the company is forcing his push, and the fans don't like that. Or maybe New Japan wants to turn Shota heel, who knows? The big reason is obvious why Shota is getting such a stratospheric match: the company needs new, big stars right now. Okada, Jay White, and Ospreay all left for AEW. Tanahashi is retiring. Naito is halfway to a wheelchair. I think Shota vs. Zack is intriguing. It's something new. I kind of think Shota has to win, though, otherwise what's the point in doing it? Unless they want to do what they did with Shota and Ospreay. Those two had a 40 minute match where Shota put in his all and came up just short. The weird thing is, Ricochet showed up and did a top rope elbow drop onto Zack after this match and challenged him for Dynasty. That show is the day after the Dome. It's almost like Ricochet was saying that Shota aint beating Zack for the title. I'm so happy for Richochet. The WWE didn't do shit with him and now he's going to main event a show at the Tokyo Dome. This show was entertaining but wasn't spectacular or anything. They did do a good job of setting up Wrestle Kingdom and Dynasty, though. **

WWE CROWN JEWEL

 

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

THE BLOODLINE (JACOB FATU, SOLO SIKOA & TAMA TONGA) vs. ROMAN REIGNS & THE USO'S (16:35): With all the money that Saudi Arabia is spending just to get these shows, you'd think they'd eventually ask for a Wrestlemania or Royal Rumble or something. At least when these shows started they were getting out-of-retirement legends like Shawn Michaels, Goldberg, and The Undertaker to make the shows somewhat special. The hottest program these days in the WWE is still the Bloodline saga, so it was kind of surprising that this match went on first and was only 16 minutes long. Roman Reigns actually got pinned. Sami Zayn came out to save the day before contemplating going heel and joining Solo's team. Are they really going back to the will-Sami-Zayn-turn well again? Match was okay. **

BIANCA BeLAIR & JADE CARGILL vs. CHELSEA GREEN & PIPER NIVEN vs. DAMAGE CTRL (IYO SKY & KAIRI SANE) vs. META GIRLS (JAKARA JACKSON & LASH LEGEND) (12:00): Jade is a really tall woman, so of course the WWE now has a team, Meta Girls, featuring women even bigger than Jade, thus negating the whole point of Jade. There were some sloppy moments in this but the crowd got into some of the high flying by Iyo. Bianca and Jade retained the women's tag team titles. I kind of thought Bianca was a big solo star so I'm baffled why they put her in a tag team. **

SETH ROLLINS vs. BRONSON REED (12:20): This was a good match. Seth is the best wrestler in the WWE and Bronson used to be in New Japan so he can wrestle (he beat Okada! Why did he leave?). The match started with them brawling on the entranceway before the bell rang. It was pretty much a non-stop brawl, which made it entertaining. Seth gave Bronson a stomp on the ring stairs at one point. The crowd seemed into it. The whole night I was wondering who the two white guys in their 60's were sitting in the best seats in the front row. Are they, like, oil executives or something? Maybe they work for TKO. That's how great this show was...I was more interested in random people in the crowd. ***

LIV MORGAN vs. NIA JAX (8:15): They used to do champions vs. champions at Survivor Series for a few years. They'd have the RAW champ vs. the Smackdown champ and the RAW tag team champs vs. the Smackdown tag team champs. I guess that's why they did this here. Liv and Nia are both champs but this was for the Crown Jewel championship. The problem with doing that, though, is that who the fuck cares who wins or loses when their titles aren't at stake? Dominick and Raquel Rodriguez interfered to help Liv win. This wasn't good. 1/2*

RANDY ORTON vs. KEVIN OWENS: The crowd popped big for Randy Orton. Maybe because he's been around long enough for people in Saudi Arabia to remember him? This match never officially started because Kevin Owens started beating Orton with a chair. They both started giving their signature moves to the referees and officials that ran out to stop them. Eventually, Owens jumped off a guardrail in the crowd and gave an elbow drop onto Orton on a table. This was entertaining. I'm not sure why they turned Kevin heel, though. I guess...why not? He hasn't been doing much lately. **1/2

LA KNIGHT vs. ANDRADE vs. CARMELO HAYES (9:10): They were all doing moves off the top rope, so that was exciting. And the crowd seemed to be into LA Knight. They're not that into him, though, considering this time last year he main evented Crown Jewel against Roman Reigns. I said back then that he should've won. He didn't...and now he's just a mid-carder. You reap what you sow. **1/2

CODY RHODES vs. GUNTHER (23:00): I thought this match was boring, actually. It wasn't slow but it was basic and never heated up into anything great. These two are both champions and neither belt was on the line so who cares who wins? I think this was Gunther's first time in the main event on a PPV. The whole match I was thinking: I miss fat Walter. *1/2