What did you think of the show?
Download our POST Show later today on the Café feed.
- 1
- 2
- 3
- 4
- 5
- 6
- 7
- 8
- 9
- 10
0 voters
Jalen from Pickering,
Those last 3 matches, wow. Juniors just displayed physical creativity to the highest degree, my favourite wrestler had me along for the whole ride, and then the main event made me feel a wide array of emotions.
Brian from New York
My neck hurts after watching that main event. Nonetheless, phenomenal match from Okada and Ibushi. I think we’ll be remembering that finishing sequence for a long time. Should be some real magic tomorrow night.
Ultimately I think this card gets judged on the last 3 matches and they all lived up to the hype in different ways. Takahashi-Ospreay was a high intensity-paced bout that got to stand as the match of the year for about 90 minutes and Naito-White felt like the right change-of-pace interlude between the two other matches with one pure face and one pure heel lighting up the crowd. The heights of the tri-main event will be hard to beat on any card this year.
On the other note, while I’ve felt a little underwhelmed with the Liger retirement weekend booking, they couldn’t have done better with the opening match from the feeling during his entrance to the spots from everyone in the match. The next two nights are going to be emotional seeing the rest of his goodbye.
Now to get some actual sleep in before doing another one of these tomorrow. 9 Glow In The Dark Okadas out of 10.
Josh from Vietnam.
Great work on the POST Wrestling site guys, hope you enjoy the visit to Japan. What an event, and we still have 1 night left! I want to make some notes about the preshow tag matches:
Togi Makabe taking his only bump in the tag match to Karl Fredericks shows how high New Japan is with him, and Toa Henare getting the pinfall and not an established guy like Makabe does seem like a positive for his future in 2020.
The legends tag match is surprisingly quick-paced and Taguchi getting the pinfall seem like the right idea, although I would prefer any other legends take it and not Liger himself. No doubt that is what Liger wanted though. I fully expect Lee and Hiromu to win tomorrow as well.
The two 8-man tag matches are decent, if not unremarkable, although ZSJ nonchalantly keep the submission on BUSHI after the match was funny, and KENTA being an arrogant asshole shows how big WWE dropped the ball with him.
FinJuice winning the tag title hopefully will the fresh air that division needs, and hopefully GoD will stay out of the title picture for a while, and FinJuice got the lengthy title reign that SANADA & EVIL should’ve had.
Moxley and Archer put their body on the line to bring us a great hardcore brawl, and was an example of what Moxley vs Omega should’ve been. Moxley winning the belt back was understandable, although I hope New Japan will keep using Archer as he showed everybody in 2019 how great he is.
Hiromu vs Ospreay was incredible, the match was fast paced and emotional and creative. Big moves after big moves, reversals after reversals, they got the audience reacting to every moments. In the end Hiromu kicked out of the very protected Stormbreaker and pulling out a super finisher is the ending that match deserved.
Tetsuya Naito vs Jay White was great, and though the pace can’t compare to the junior match, the reaction of the fans toward Naito put this above the previous match in my opinion. They told an excellent story inside the body of the match, and the fans just keep gravitating towards Naito with every sells, every expressions that he made. Jay White has improved leaps and bounds since his Wrestle Kingdom match with Tanahashi 2 years ago, and looking to finally be the top gaijin wrestler that New Japan wanted him to be.
Okada vs Ibushi was simply unbelievable, both man gave the fans a main event worthy of Wrestle Kingdom. I was a fan of Ibushi, but another Ibushi vs Naito match was something I simply don’t want to see right now, as I’m sure it will end in at least one man get his neck broken. But it doesn’t stop me from getting hooked into every pinfalls and every kickouts. Okada played the arrogant cocky champion comfortably as he was many many times before, only to meet a demon Ibushi kicking and punching the shit out of him was my favorite part.
Question: who do you thinks will be the winner after tomorrow main event, and will they let Juice win the US title to become a double champ or will New Japan holding off that win to let Naito or Okada becomes the first NJPW double champ?
Matt from Peterborough UK
Gave this show a 9/10. It was amazing seeing this event live, last 3 matches were incredible with great pacing and Archer/Moxley had a really awesome finish! Would be surprised to see Juice leave the dome as a double champion (kind of) as well as Okada or Naito, but would New Japan have a US champion who couldn’t do US shows? Hope you guys enjoyed the show and it was a pleasure meeting you both earlier (Black Schadenfreude T-shirt), Thanks!
Forgot to mention Okada’s gear… man suits shorts and he should just stick to them, looks weird in anything else, fluorescent colour was cool though!
2 Likes
Its a me, Luigi!
Got to watching the show late so who knows where you guys are in your review, but thought this was an excellent show. Had some technical issues though. World kicked me out while I was watching it because the stream ended. Had to wait a bit to watch the last 2 matches. Moxley/Archer was good fun, and that closing Death Rider was absolutely brutal. Hopefully Archer is doing okay after that. Ospreay/Takahashi was very good as well, but I think I’m less high on it than others. Something about it being 100 miles per hour the entire match just doesn’t feel right with me. LOVED Naito/White. Tremendous story told throughout, and very excited for Naito/Okada tomorrow. The main event was an absolute classic. I’m living for strong style Ibushi, and can’t wait to see if he goes further in that direction.
Michael from Newfoundland currently living in Korea.
Thanks to concurrent time zones, I was able to catch this live. I really enjoyed this show although I disagree with the decision to spread the event over two nights. We really don’t need the multi-mans on a Wrestle Kingdom card. The last four matches were nothing but top-notch. Truly fantastic stuff. I was fearful that Ibushi would have won the main event. I don’t think that both Naito and Ibushi would physically survive a Tokyo Dome main event with each other. I guess the real main events are in night two with Liger’s final match, Jericho/Tanahashi, the Mox/Juice rematch, and the winner-takes-all main event.
Enjoy Japan guys! I recommend visiting the Kit-Kat Chocolatory in either Ginza or Shinjuku. I love Japan’s constant experimentation with Kit-kat bars.
Alex from Maple
I liked it overall but it was predictable. You knew FJ, Mox, Naito, Hiromu and Okada were winning.
Would have liked an upset or two as I didn’t really buy into near falls.
Two MOTY types. Naito and White was okay, not outstanding and a bit sloppy at times. Okada matches all seem to follow a similar formula - can almost FF to 30 mins and you know it will still be going and he will have similar comeback spots and moves etc. Great stuff but predictable