KENTA is Back!

Hideo Itami has requested his release from WWE and been given it. It makes sense as he hasn't done anything of note in WWE. Partially because of injuries and partially because he never got good at English promos which will always hold somebody back in WWE. Plus his style doesn't really fit with WWE at all. Which, as his twitter name change tells us, means that KENTA is back. When I first found out about indie wrestling and specifically RoH I didn't know much about Japanese wrestling except that it existed. As RoH grew they started to with Pro Wrestling NOAH and had wrestlers interact with some of the bigger names and KENTA was one of those wrestlers and he made a big impact on me. He's the wrestler that got me into Japanese wrestling and led to me being such a fan of NJPW, even though he never worked there.

His tag team with Naomichi Marafuji was the touchstone I used to find matches on youtube. I'd find good matches with them and then search their opponents and keep spreading my knowledge of Japanese wrestlers. The Junior Heavyweight style and their matches got me to buy my first NOAH VHS as well. KENTA & Marafuji vs. Ricky Marvin & Juventud Guerrera was the reason I chose that show and it was worth the whole cost. It took me a little longer to get into the heavyweight style in Japan and appreciate the other matches. The fact that I only had a VHS player when I was home from college during the Summers stopped me from ordering too many VHS and the Japanese shows didn't really come out on DVD.

The matches between Marafuji and KENTA cemented my fandom. The two men work perfectly against each other and know exactly what the other is going to do when. They both excelled at the Junior Heavyweight level, but when Kobashi and Misawa were nearing the end of their careers those two were the big stars of the promotion and they had to move up in weight class. Marafuji more successfully put on the weight, but KENTA always had a style that fit in with the heavyweights better with his stiff kicks.

Once he left for WWE his time in NXT was marred by injuries that kept him sidelined before he moved up to 205 Live. I have missed most of this part of his career as I don't watch WWE stuff much. I reupped my subscription so my friend could use it for Royal Rumble on his birthday so I watched his match against Cedrick Alexander which was really good. I've heard his feud with Mustafa Ali has some really good matches that I want to check out as well.

More than anybody else who has left WWE I'm looking forward to what the future holds for KENTA. A return to NOAH seems really likely. The company sustained him early in his career, and Naomichi Marafuji is still there. However there are other options. If he wants to return to Japan I'm sure NJPW is willing to give him a good deal. He has tweeted about how he loves Ring of Honor as well and they have a working deal with NJPW that would allow him to work with both companies. If he just wants to work in the US there is always All Elite Wrestling. I'm sure they would push him, but he already took a chance on a new company once in his career, who knows if he's willing to do it again. The only thing I'm sure of is that wherever KENTA ends up I'll be ready to watch the next stage of his career and wait for him to be back at the top of the card where he belongs.

My favorite match of his will probably always be his match against Roderick Strong in RoH because I got to see it live. I never thought I'd have the chance to see him in person so it made the four hour trip to Detroit a no-brainer. It was a really good show and was a ton of fun. It wasn't the best match on the show, but it was what got me to make the trip and will always have a special place for me. So if you've only seen him in WWE and want some suggestions on matches to watch just ask me on twitter I'll be more than happy to give you some ideas.

Exploring NJPWworld: The Steiner Brothers

Watching an old Steiner Brothers match, specifically the one against Road Warrior Hawk and Kensuke Sasuke (https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00114_1_8) which is a really good match even though I didn't review it, which inspired me to really go through the back catalog of matches that NJPW has instead of just watching the recent stuff. I avoided any of the singles matches and just stuck to their early tag team work in NJPW, especially as a counter to what I remember of them from WCW during the attitude era.

Steiner Brothers vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Kensuke Sasuke

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_archive_31_01_03

Pretty standard tag match from two good teams here. It's fun to see Nakanishi back in his prime instead of the slow moving guy he is now when he shows up in NJPW. Scott and Nakanishi start the match with some grappling in real amateur wrestling style. Eventually Nakanishi gets an advantage then hoists Scott up for a big powerslam. Scott rolls out of the ring to recover then comes back in and hits a big exploder suplex. The match goes back and forth with a mixture of powerful strikes and big suplexes from each team before Scott lifts Nakanishi up on his shoulders and Rick hits the bulldog off it. A really good standard tag match from the two teams. Not a crazy main event type match, but just good wrestling.

6/10

Steiner Brothers & Keiji Mutoh vs. The Outsiders & Masahiro Chono

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00262_1_1

A fun six man tag match between the two teams. Back and forth early with everybody paired off to fight in turn. Eventually Scott plays the face in peril for the good guys and Rick gets a hot tag where he t-bone suplexes everybody. The heels start to just come in whenever and use the numbers advantage as Scott is still down and out from the beatdown to get the advantage. The Steiners manage to hit an electric chair bulldog on Hall, but his teammates come in and save him and four of the men brawl to the outside. Rick gets the advantage in the ring and climbs to the top for a bulldog on Hall, but Nash climbs onto the apron and punches him a couple of times to stop him. Hall grabs him off the top and hits an outsider's edge. Mutoh breaks up the pinfall then Chono throws him onto the ramp and they brawl out there. Nash rolls into the ring and hits a jackknife powerbomb and Hall covers Rick for the three count. At one point Rick came off the top for a crossbody block and Scott Hall caught him and hit a fall away slam. Scott Hall is really strong is what I'm trying to get at.

6/10

Steiner Brothers vs. Vader & Bam Bam Bigelow

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00107_1_1

A good tag match between these two teams and three out of the four guys really get to highlight what makes them great. Scott does too, but he's a little sloppy in this match and doesn't look that great, although he does a good job of playing the face in peril in this one. He did that in the previous match I talked about, but in that one Chono was the big hero, in this one we get to see Rick get a hot tag and he's impressive. Because of what Scott looked like in his biggest run we always think of him as the strong one, but Rick looks really impressive in this one. He hits a really good backbody drop on Bam Bam at one point. Bam Bam and Scott start the match off with a lockup that ends with a beautiful enziguri from Bam Bam. He spends a lot of this match proving he's agile for his size which is fun to watch. Vader looks good in the match as well and hits a brutal powerbomb on each of the Steiners that just barely falls to get a three count. Bam Bam hits a big rolling senton on Rick and would get the pinfall, but he had knocked the ref over on the powerslam preceding it and when he helps the ref up Rick grabs him with a belly to belly suplex and gets the three count.

This match would have been a bit better if Scott had been on his game, but he slipped coming off the top once, his frankensteiner was sloppy, and he just looked a little off. Thankfully his job was to get beat up most of the match so it worked out pretty well. And as I said earlier its cool to see Rick get the showcase in a match from these guys. Vader and Bam Bam were both killing it for their part as well. Just good stuff from those three guys.

7/10

Steiner Brothers vs. Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Mutoh 1994

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00121_1_7

This match is great. Back and forth mat wrestling to start between Hase and Scott. They eventually move to stand up and Scott grabs a single leg, but instead of a takedown just suplexes Hase over his head. Rick and Mutoh tag in and Rick just acts like a dog for a bit and pretends to pee on Mutoh then grabs a single leg and bites Mutoh who complains to the ref. Lots of back and forth wrestling between the teams here. Eventually Mutoh and Scott are the legal men and Mutoh throws Scott out of the ring onto the ramp and takes him down with a suplex then runs about twenty yards up the ramp then comes down with a clothesline on Scott. Rick comes over and Mutoh suplexes him and Hase runs up the ramp then comes back with a clothesline. Back in the ring Mutoh gets armbreaker on Rick who rolls him over onto his back then slowly lifts him up and hits a belly to back suplex, some guys can just lift a big guy up in that short armbar position quickly, but damn it looks impressive when Rick slowly hoists him up and over. Rick gets a tag and Scott comes in hot. Hase gets tagged in and we start to build to the finish. Scott starts hitting big moves and that culminates in him hitting a Steiner driver and getting so excited about it he starts taunting the crowd. I don't blame him it was perfectly hit. Scott lifts Hase up and starts slapping him and hitting steiner-lines, but Hase refuses to go down for a couple of them. Rick grabs Mutoh off the apron and brawls with him ringside. Scott picks Hase up on his shoulders and Rick comes off the top with a bulldog. Scott makes the cover and gets the three count just before Mutoh comes off the top rope to break it up.

Great back and forth action and lots of great work from all four men in this match. Which isn't really surprising considering who they are. I kind of forgot how good Rick Steiner was as a wrestler, because he didn't do much in WCW. I kind of undersold the offense that Mutoh and Hase got in, because I'm too focused on the Steiners, plus they hit a lot of suplexes and I love a good suplex. This is the kind of tag action that I love to see and definitely a match to check out.

10/10

Steiner Brothers vs. Hiroshi Hase & Keiji Mutoh 1995

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_series_00132_1_13

This match is the follow up to the previous one at the next years Tokyo Dome show. This match builds up more slowly and has some nice callbacks to the match that occurred the year prior, but never builds up to the high points of the previous match. I like when Mutoh takes Rick outside for the ramp run clothesline that Rick ducks it and Scott nails Mutoh with a clothesline, and Mutoh runs almost the entire ramp this time. He is tired by the time he gets clotheslined. Early in the match we get the Steiners hitting a stereo gorilla press slams and Mutoh and Hase rolls to the outside and Hase gets a kiss from a fan who I'm assuming is his wife. Rick goes outside and gives a fan a kiss on the cheek that she is not into. Scott plays the face in peril for a large part of the match with Hase and Mutoh working on his legs. Rick gets a hot tag and cleans house for a bit. Scott gets back in and goes for a steiner driver, but Mutoh counters by landing behind him and lifting him up for a tombstone. It breaks down into chaos for the end of the match and we get Scott going up for the DDT off the shoulders of Rick, but Hase counters with a victory roll for two then Mutoh climbs up and hits a hurrincanranna to take Scott off the top rope. Hase hits a northern lights suplex and gets the three count just before the kick out.

A good match, but not as fun as their first encounter. Everybody's got some good stuff and it builds up to the climax so for a certain kind of fan this match might be more entertaining than their first encounter. Its still a really good match though, just not the great match that the first one was.

8/10

Everything I watched of the Steiner Brothers on NJPWworld was worth watching. It went from well done basic matches to top notch main event caliber tag matches against some of the best talent from Japan. Their style blends amateur wrestling with the pro style very well and the explosiveness of their suplexes is great. Their tag team maneuvers are really good and are what really elevated them above most of their opponents, who don't really have anything special going on with their team work beyond just being good wrestlers. Definitely a good dive into the back catalog and hopefully some of the other ones I do will be as much fun.

Wrestle Kingdom 13 Review

If I was a more professional type of reviewer I'd probably rewatch these matches and grade them, but I also like just going with my gut instinct on how I feel about matches. I've definitely seen very different opinions on some of the matches than mine, but I think that's a good thing, especially since different people look for different things from their wrestling anyway. So without further ado enjoy my review.

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.