Hangman Page, Yujiro Takahashi &
Marty Scurll vs. Lance Archer, Davey Boy Smith Jr & Minoru Suzuki
vs. Chuckie T, Beretta & Hirooki Goto vs. Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb
& David Finlay vs. Togi Makabe, Ryuske Taguchi & Toru Yano
Miscommunication gets the Bullet Club
team eliminated early after some decent six man action between them
and the team of Nagata, Cobb and Finlay. Ton of fun stuff between
that team and Best Friends and Goto. Great stuff from Nagata. Cobb
avoided attempted double team offense from the Best Friends then hit
a double belly to back suplex on them. Cobb and Goto go after each
other with a lot of big boy offense and Finlay gets a rollup after a
missed Chuckie T moonsault. Unsurprisingly the Suzuki-Gun team makes
short work of the other team although we got some awesome stuff
between Suzuki and Nagata first. Yano and Taguchi do their
shenanigans, but Makabe provides the muscle for the team and keeps
them in the match. The ref is distracted and Yano hits a double low
blow on Killer Elite Squad and Yano gets a rollup for the win. A lot
of fun stuff from all the teams here. One of the benefits to a
gauntlet match like this. A lot of short matches and everything is
the best stuff from the teams.
6/10
Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
This match was fucking awesome. They
started off with a bunch of fast paced sequences dodging each other a
bunch. Then they countered a bunch of stuff. Ospreay got a really
good counter on Ibushi going for the golden triangle moonsault by
getting on the apron and kicking him while upside down. Both guys got
a cool dive in and Ibushi hits one of the best german suplexes I've
ever seen. This match has several call backs to his match with
Nakamura including Ibushi blasting Ospreay with a huge Boma Ye. They
get physical with some hard strike sequences and Ibushi takes the
advantage until Ospreay stops him on the top rope and hits a cheeky
Nando's kick. While Ibushi is upside down in the corner this match
hits its next gear. Ospreay sits down and starts slapping him until
Ibushi fights back then the slaps get stiff then Ospreay just stomps
his face a bunch. Ibushi keeps getting the advantage, but Ospreay
won't stay down for the three count and keeps avoiding the Kamigoya.
Ospreay hits a back fist to the back of a kneeling Ibushi's head then
hits the storm breaker for the three count. This match was so fucking
good and I can't believe it's how they started the show. These guys
do amazing counters throughout, reference a great match from Ibushi's
history, and lay in some super stiff strikes. I loved it.
10/10
Yoshinobu Kanemura & El Desperado
vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
Fine match between these three teams.
Pretty quick one so we get a lot of high speed action from everybody
and a lot of chaos. Roppongi 3K got a lot of the offense in this
match including stopping Kanemura and Desperado from misting both of
them with superkicks, but Shingo is too strong for Sho & Yo and
nails a bunch of Pumping Bombers before hitting his finisher and
getting the three count.
6/10
Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr
Zack Sabre Jr is suffocating in this
match and is right on top of Ishii with submissions the whole time
and comes really close to getting the submission in the first minute
like he said, but Ishii refuses to tap. Sabre goes after the right
arm of Ishii and takes away his offense so Ishii can't get everything
behind his forearms and clotheslines. ZSJ gets his submissions locked
in again, but this time when Ishii escapes he uses headbutts to the
chest to stop ZSJ. Ishii starts hitting some big moves, but Sabre
goes back to the injured arm and eventually gets an abdominal stretch
he turns into a double armlock for the submission. Really fun match
between these two guys and its cool to see Ishii play the overmatched
wrestler when he's that much bigger than his opponent. Plus Sabre's
relentless submission game makes it very believable.
8/10
Guerillas of Destiny vs. EVIL &
Sanada vs. The Young Bucks
Fun three way tag between these teams
with the Guerrilla's teasing fair play at the start of the match.
Back and forth action amongst all the teams throughout this match.
Sanada looks very good in this match and hit some good plancha's on
the Bucks. Fale and Jado come in an get stopped and we move into the
fast paced finishing section of this match with LIJ hitting a magic
killer and then Sanada gets a moonsault for the win. Fast paced and
got some good stuff done in the match and Sanada looked like a star
in it.
7/10
Cody vs. Juice Robinson
Brandi keeps interfering and
distracting the ref early in the match before getting thrown out from
ringside. Cody throws Juice into the guardrail then they trade
finishers a couple of times. They punch each other a bunch before
Juice hits some big left punches then hits two pulp frictions for the
win. The interference didn't really flow or mean anything in the
start of the match and then it just devolved into trading finishers
and didn't have any kind of flow to it.
3/10
KUSHIDA vs. Tajii Ishimori
Our first slower more deliberately
paced match, although these guys definitely moved fast and made a lot
of counters at first. KUSHIDA went right after the arm of Ishimori to
set up the hoverboard lock, but Ishimori had it scouted and countered
with a lot of submission work on his own. Both guys had counters for
each others moves, but Ishimori has more in the tank and finally
manages to his the bloody cross and get the three count. Pretty good
match, but I think I was really wanting more from it as well.
Definitely good, but not the showcase I was hoping for.
7/10
Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White
A really good match between these two.
Okada comes out recharged as the Rainmaker and has some offense early
until Gedo distracts him and Jay White takes advantage and hits a
belly to back suplex over the ropes to the floor then smashes Okada's
back into the guardrail and apron repeatedly before taking it back
into the ring and hitting a beautiful Urinage. Ged tries to interfere
and Okada stops him and throws him to the outside and does the
running crossbody block over the guardrail onto both men. They get
back into the ring and have an amazing exchange of countering each
others trademark moves back and forth. Okada finally hits a rainmaker
then goes for a second one, but White stops it and hits a blade
runner for the three count. Just great wrestling from both of these
guys and it told such a good story and we'll see if Okada falls back
off the rails after losing the match. Was really surprised it was
over after just one blade runner. Made it a really effective finish
to the match.
9/10
Tetsuyo Naito vs. Chris Jericho
The match went longer than it had to,
but it was still good. Naito took advantage early and hit a
piledriver on the ramp and kept control until Jericho got his hands
on a kendo stick and laid into Naito. Jericho took Naito to the
outside and DDT'd him onto a table and put a hole in it. Jericho
controls the match whenever its a brawl and Naito would take the
advantage when it was about athleticism and wrestling. Naito gets his
hands on the kendo stick and uses it like a baseball bat to really
nail Jericho a couple of times. Jericho brings in a bunch of chairs
and goes for a powerbomb onto them, but Naito counters it with a DDT.
Naito his a german suplex onto the chairs and a destino, but Jericho
still kicks out. Jericho hits a mule kick to the dick on Naito then a
codebreaker, but Naito kicks out. Naito charges for another
codebreaker, but Naito lifts him up and drops him head first onto the
exposed turnbuckle then hits a destino for the win. A long match with
some good brawling and stuff, but it definitely went too long and
never really hit the high levels of brutality that Jericho's recent
no dq matches have done and it just felt lacking. It was a good
match, but not great.
7/10
Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
This match was excellent. It told a
great story overall and stuck with it. Omega is the better athlete.
He's younger and in better shape and both of them know it. Omega goes
after Tanahashi early and fast, but Tanahashi has experience and a
fuck ton of fighting spirit and he's not going to stay down. Omega
draws a target on Tanahashi's back and stays there. Tons of forearms
to the lowerback and he when he takes Tanahashi to the outside he
hits a belly to back suplex onto the apron then powerslams him over
the guardrail and onto the announce table. Which he follows up with a
beautiful springboard moonsault over the guardrail. Tanahashi finds
his openings as well which generally involve catching a leg of Omega
and hitting a dragon screw leg whip on him. There's some beautiful
sequences between these two in this match and I like the second time
they end up on the outside instead of fake throwing Omega onto the
table and into the ring Tanahashi fakes throwing him in and puts him
on the table. He climbs to the top and goes for a high fly flow to
the outside that Omega avoids and Tanahashi crashes through the table
to the floor. The battle continues back in the ring going back and
forth, but with Omega having most of the control, but Tanahashi
refusing to stay down. Omega hits a series of good V-Triggers and
goes for the one winged angel only for Tanahashi to counter with a
beautiful reverse 'rana. Omega gets a dragon suplex off the top rope
and goes for the one winged angel again, but Tanahashi counters with
a reverse fame asser sort of move then hits a slingblade and a High
Fly Flow for the win.
This match had that big match feel and
they lived up to it. They did some crazy spots. They did some great
wrestling. There was lots of counters and just great wrestling. Most
of all it told the story well. Omega is a great wrestler and athlete,
but Tanahashi refuses to lose. He's proud of his country and his
style of wrestling and he doesn't like that Omega has bad mouthed
those things so he's not going to lose to him. Tanahashi takes enough
damage to stop anybody else, but he keeps kicking out and fighting
back. An awesome main event to a great show.
10/10
Overall: Watch this show, it's great.
There's only one match that is bad and its at least short so it's got
that going for it. It starts and ends with great matches and has good
stuff throughout it. Compared to a lot of previous Wrestle Kingdoms
this felt pretty quick and easy to watch as well. A very well paced
show that mixes in a lot of different types of matches for you to
watch.
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