Leave your thoughts on New Japan’s biggest show of the year and Karen and I will read it on our review later today.
Andrew from Cape Breton
I haven’t watched much New Japan, but was interested in the 2 night set of shows so I purchased New Japan World. I do like how I can skip through some of the entrances, though I did see a pic of Hiromu’s entrance and had to see that one all the way through. I was excited for the Rambo and hoping it would be more interesting with the new stipulation, but it wasn’t. Same old Rambo. The big highlights for me were Shota Umino having a great Tokyo Dome main event and a sleeper match of the night with AZM and Mayu Iwatani. I really enjoyed the fast pace of that match. A bit of a lowlight was Hiromu not getting the win. Maybe it’s because I only listen to New Japan shows in podcast form and through online discourse, but it feels New Japan fans would forego a young, fit, handsome man like Shota as World Champion for the guy with the weird frog thing on his head in Hiromu. Great show overall
The women’s title match was one of the best on the show. I’ve not seen much joshi wrestling but this was a great advert for it. Now I want to see more.
ELP winning the TV title was a feel good moment, it was great to see him back and healthy.
My favourite match was Takeshita vs Shingo. Fantastic, as you would expect - I hope Takeshita can stick around and do more in NJPW - they need him.
Tsuji and Finlay was another really strong match and Tsuji needs this title to help build him up.
Zack did his best to carry that main event. Shota worked hard but he is not ready for that spot yet. It’s not his fault that he was booked in that position. It was a good match but the bar for a WK main event is very high. I like the idea of Shota going full heel and riding in on that motorbike though, needs some heelish sunglasses to go with it.
Good show overall. I hope Douki is alright, that looked like a rough landing.
1 Like
I used to be a big NJPW fan, but I’ve watched less over the past five years. With Wrestle Dynasty coming up, I decided to check out this year’s Wrestle Kingdom without any expectations and I’m glad I did. The matches had a rhythm closer to Western wrestling, which I really enjoyed.
The women’s match stood out as a highlight, and even though I’m not an EVIL fan, the overbooking in his match made it surprisingly fun. David Finlay, who I’ve never been sold on, looked great here. By the end of the night, I couldn’t remember the last time I’d seen a pay-per-view this good. Takeshita vs. Shingo stole the show for me as well.
The one letdown was the main event. While I’ve always liked Zack Sabre Jr., I still struggle to see him as a main-eventer. Shota Umino’s weak performance didn’t help either, but it did make me appreciate ZSJ more. Overall, a strong Wrestle Kingdom that exceeded my expectations.
Great show! Top to bottom great matches, only exception to me was Naito/Hiromu, especially with the finish. But as someone that has been watching long enough that I r pretty much seen every match Shota Umino ever had I was GRIPPED by that main event and although I knew him winning was unlikely, I bought in over and over, and I adored that main event!