Welcome, cats and kittens to yet another installment of the only reviews that have no interest in a hoverboard because wheels work just fine, Cewsh Reviews! We have a special treat for you tonight as we are finally able to get our hands on the show that we have been building to for lo these many months. I’ve talked about it on the Cewshcast, I’ve written about it all over social media and on all kinds of different sites, and our previews leading up to the show were juuuuuuust shy of being insufferably overbearing. All of that hype, anticipation and excitement has led up to one of the most important wrestling shows of the century, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom IX! Tonight we will see the culmination on an incredible feud, a compilation of talent unmatched in any promotion since the dawn of time, and also Jeff Jarrett! You’ll see death defying dives, intense slugfests, and i’m going to use the phrase “dropping bombs on each other” so often that i’m going to go on watchlists all over the world. But most importantly, we’re going to take a walk through Wrestle Kingdom together, as American audiences and Japanese ones join as one for the first time to ask together just what kind of adamantium skeleton does Tomohiro Ishii have anyway?
So without any further ado, let’s do a motherfucking review!
Cewsh: Normally this is where I explain the feuds and backstories involved in this show, but somehow, I kind of feel like maybe that is ground that we have already covered. So instead, let’s take a moment to look at the other thing that makes this show really special, and that’s the involvement of Global Force Wrestling.
When GFW first formed months and months ago, it prompted a lot of uncertainty as to what it was and what it would be. When the Jeff Jarrett formed company began flying around the world forming working agreements with at least one promotion in every significant part of the wrestling world, the confusion and excitement only heightened. But it wasn’t until they announced that they would be partnering with New Japan to put on an English speaking version of the show on US PPV that we got to see the real potential that this kind of global partnership could give us. Not only would American fans who were turned off for years by the impenetrability of watching a show in another language get to see the biggest puro show of the year in English, but it would commentated on by none other than Matt Striker and Jim Ross, making his grand return from retirement. To say this was a big deal is a total understatement. There were as many people sending us messages about how excited they were to see JR as they were to see Okada or Nakamura. And with American PPV on the table, there was finally a convenient way for those people to watch. It was a massive cout for everyone involved.
Of course, Jim Ross hadn’t called a Japanese wrestling show since 1991’s Rumble in the Rising Sun and was openly soliciting advice and information from people on Twitter so that he’d be prepared enough to cover the show. As such, a major part of this show is the quality of the commentary, and how it compares to the more passionate and familiar NJPW announcers, and thus we will be comparing the two throughout the show to determine which commentary team is the better one to listen to for each match. Because we’re thorough as fuck, and we want to make sure you have a good time.
Alright, alright. That’s enough with the damn introduction already. All the waiting, all the wishing and all the wondering have led up to this. Will this show leave the hopes of New Japan’s American expansion in the dust, or will a stirring success send them into the stratosphere? Only one way to find out…
Cewsh: This technically isn’t the first match of the show, as there was a dark match Royal Rumble held beforehand for laughs. But unless you’re familiar with Japanese legends from 30 years ago or dojo students who haven’t formally debuted yet, it’s really not something you have to see. So let’s get on to the real opener.
This is a flippy match with flippy people in it. The defending champions, (who are ROH wrestlers Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly,) managed to make it to this match despite ROH doing all they could to fuck it up for everyone, and lucky we are that they did because this is exactly the kind of opener that a show like this needs. It’s fast spaced, it doesn’t skimp on spectacle but it doesn’t go so far that it’s hard to follow. These four teams that are so, so, so familiar with each other after seemingly dozens of matches by this point, just go out and energize the crowd, before ending things off with reDragon’s Chasing The Dragon finisher, which the crowd clearly appreciated.
On a lesser show, this might be a standout match. On this one it’s just a footnote. But it was damn fun all the same.
They got more time than I expected. Given the 4 hour window and the general lack of time this title gets at the Dome seeing them get nearly 14 minutes was a happy surprise. This match is what you’d think it’d be. Well except that reDragon inexplicably seems to disappear for most of it. The actually portion of the match where they bother to tag each other lasts longer than you’d think. Well at least longer than I thought mostly since I thought there’d be nary a tag in this one. I got the feeling that first time viewers coming in on the GFW broadcast were expecting too much from this one. It felt like they were expecting a 20 minute ROH or PWG style tag team main event. Instead they got a wild high spot driven sprint. There is some awesome stuff here. The Young Bucks landing on their feet after the Doomsday Device was great. Alex Shelley being the one to get the Superkick Party started. The MELTZER DRIVER ~FIVE STARS!~ Especially on rewatch this was a fun opener. Crowd wasn’t loud, but the Tokyo Dome is where Jr Heavyweight matches go to die. Happy reDragon retained and happy they’ll be on the next NJPW tour.
Artie: If you’re new to New Japan or even Japanese wrestling in general, you may be confused as to why there are 4 tag teams in the Jr heavyweight class and why they’re getting so much time on a PPV. Breaking away from the traditional idea of Jr Heavyweight wrestling and the stigma against tag team wrestling in North America, New Japan has 2 thriving tag team divisions and the predominant one is the Jr heavyweight division.
In this match, you have 4 of the best tag teams on the planet, all of whom have held these prestigious IWGP Jr heavyweight tag team titles – 3 of them in just the last year. Comparing the 4 different styles of this match, you’ve got:
Young Bucks: Eccentric and cocky. Lots of high flying, flippy, tandem moves. Love to throw superkicks
Time Splitters: Lots of tandem moves, very fast-paced and hard-hitting.
Forever Hooligans: Very hard-hitting mix of Hispanic and Russian styles. Both men bring a unique non-American flavor of gaijin to this division, and both are veterans of the Jr Heavyweight scene in New Japan.
reDRagon – Dual ROH & IWGP Jr tag champs. MMA-influenced style with lots of kicks, stiff shots, and chops. These guys like to hit hard, fast, and dirty.
Throwing these four teams in the ring to open the show was a smart move for New Japan. It introduces fans to the non-traditionally North American stylings of New Japan by giving the fans a taste of Jr Heavyweight style and the importance of tag team wrestling in Japan. All four teams looked great and got to show off what makes them stand out amongst their peers.
Defrost: Once Yoshitatsu broke his neck there was not much point to this match. Jeff Jarrett was feuding with him. He was calling himself the Bullet Club Hunter. So now this is a political favor/get guys on the card type of match.
Well they manage to take the lemons and make lemonade. Tomoaki Honma get the pinfall victory here despite all prognostications. Honma is the best underdog in wrestling. He is a former death match guy who went to AJPW and then found himself in NJPW playing the role of Togi Makabe’s little buddy. He was fired after a tell all book about Yakuza ties in pro wrestling came out. When the heat died down he was brought back. However, he always loses. He has had great matches with Masato Tanaka and Tomohiro Ishii, always in losing efforts. This was taken up a notch in the G1 Climax tournament where he went 0-10. His matches were so great and the fans were begging for him to win, but he never did. So when he goes up for the Kokeshi headbutt and gets the victory here it is a big deal to the fans in attendance.
Even if it was a 5 minute nothing match the story of Honma still made it feel like a thing. Amazing how knowing your fans can help you salvage a bad situation.
Cewsh: The funny thing about this is that, while rightfully the memorable part here is Honma finally getting his win, what surrounded it wasn’t bad at all. In fact, I really enjoyed seeing all of these disparate elements mixing it up together, and I was surprised at how well Jeff Jarrett fit into the entire New Japan formula, when the man is as far removed from having a puro style as it is possible to be. The teased guitar shot was super over, (for maybe the first time in Jarrett’s entire career,) Honma and Kojima especially got time to shine in front of grateful fans, and one of the matches we worried most about on this show comes and goes without anything to complain about.
Artie: Nice little cool-down from the excitement of the opening tag match. Real meshing of styles here with the Bullet Club being a mish-mash of very different performers and team New Japan comprising of two hard-hitters in TenCozy and the lovable Honma (who has been on a losing streak for the last year). Nothing too spectacular ring-wise, but it allows people to get a taste of the major heel faction, the Bullet Club, while showing off some of New Japan’s most beloved roster members.
Plus, who didn’t love the exclamation point of Honma being the one to get the pin? What a great moment for him and for New Japan fans.
Cewsh: Naomichi Marufuji is a force of nature. While many of the new fans that New Japan brought in with this show aren’t likely to remember him, Marufuji has been a understated huge name in wrestling for over a decade now. As the partner/nemesis of KENTA, Marufuji rose to prominance in the mid 00s as one of the premier Jr. Heavyweight wrestlers in the world, becoming the first man to win the Jr. Heavyweight title in all 3 of the major Japanese companies, (AJPW, NOAH and NJPW,) and during a run of quality that was almost peerless, he almost singlehandedly put over the new wave of the Jr. division and made it a thing, by making a star out of Prince Devitt and bringing prestige to a division that had been slowly dying under the shitty match having boots of Tiger Mask.
Now, Marufuji is the Vice President, champion and top star of Pro Wrestling NOAH, and on his occasional visits to New Japan, he never disappoints.
Not that he’s given a ton to do here. This is really less a match than it is an excuse to shine the limelight on some NOAH guys, and the end to this was never even remotely in doubt. Though, the way that he ended it, with a new move called the Tiger King which is a charging bicycle knee uppercut, is about as stupidly awesome as moves get.
So yeah, this wasn’t great, or bad, but kind of hags out in between with the limited time and motivation they got. But as long as I got to see Marufuji do his thing on the big stage it’s all good with me.
Oh, and an honorable mention goes out to Lance Archer who is guilty of attempted murder via chokeslam.
Defrost: The run of “get them in and quick there’s only 4 hours” continues here. Basically just a showcase of the NOAH guys. NJPW and NOAH have some sort of financial arrangement and will have a much closer working relationship. So making their guys look good and strong was the goal here and the mission was accomplished. Really all you can say about a match where the number of guys in it outnumber the minutes it went.
Artie: Another showing of the Japanese love for tag match, this one is kind of an odd story to tell. The big deal here is TMDK and Naomichi Marufuji being there. It’s great to see the NOAH guys on New Japan PPV and the crowd reaction for them was excellent. I especially popped for Marufuji whose entrance gear looked STRIKINGLY SIMILAR to Kamen Rider Baron.
Much like the six-man tag that preceded it, this was less of a wrestling showcase and more of a fan treat. Still, a good little showing for the NOAH guys and I gotta say, Marufuji especially is looking great these days. One thing to note: On the English commentary, JR doesn’t really understand that Japanese promotions don’t really do “rivalries” like America promotions do. The idea of the NOAH guys being there was harmless and they were not at all to be presented as outsiders. The fans welcome them with open arms and everyone is just excited to see these guys. JR just simply doesn’t understand the cultural difference.
Defrost: And now business starts to pick up.
If you know anything about MMA you know Kazushi Sakuraba. If not, Kazushi Sakuraba is one of the greatest professional athletes in Japan’s history. He beat Royce and Renzo Gracie. He beat Vitor Belfort. He beat Ken Shamrock. He beat Masakatsu Funaki and fought Kiyoshi Timura. He fought everybody from the pioneer days of MMA onward. Except one man. Pancrase was the first Japanese MMA promotion. If was founded by Masakatsu Funaki and Minoru Suzuki. Ken and Frank Shamrock fought there. Bas Rutten fought there. And this event is the first time they find themselves in the ring against one another one on one.
Minoru Suzuki is amazing in this match. From the start instead of his customary black trunks and wrestling shoes he comes out in all white. Significant because this was his look in his wrestling days. Even down to the bleach blond hair. Suzuki’s selling is what creates the drama. Sakuraba puts Suzuki in the kimura out on the ramp. The kimura is the hold Sakuraba used to beat Renzo Gracie among others. Suzuki spends the rest of the match selling the arm, and when Suzuki wants to sell something he is the best in the world at it. The rest of the match is Sakuraba laying in stiff shots to the arm while Suzuki sells and makes comebacks. This one went the perfect amount of time. Probably not as much grappling as you might suspect. Most of that was in the earliest part of the match. It was mostly hard striking. I’d say this is easily Sakuraba’s second best match since coming into NJPW only behind his match with Shinsuke Nakamura at Wrestle Kingdom 7.
Cewsh: When it comes to MMA, I have always made it clear that I am not the guy to go to. I don’t enjoy it, I don’t follow it, and i’m largely ignorant to the history of the sport as a whole. This isn’t to say that I don’t see why people like it, or that I haven’t enjoyed it now and again when MMA and wrestling have crossed paths, but in general I feel the need to preface my reviews of MMA fueled matches such as this one with a disclaimer so that the usual low score will make sense.
Of course, then this match had to go and fuck that all up.
This match is fucking great. The atmosphere in the arena makes it clear that this is a big time fight, no matter where it happens to be on the card, and Suzuki. Holy shit guys, this is the match Suzuki was born to wrestle. Against a man that he has always wanted to prove himself against, in a match that straddles both MMA and professional wrestling, (an art that he was perfecting when Brock Lesnar was just a high school kid with a bad haircut,) Suzuki comes alive in this match. His selling is on point, his control of the match and the crowd are incredible, and he pulls a match out of Sakuraba that I frankly did not believe that he had in him.
Suzuki has always been a special talent when he could be bothered to care about what he was doing. In all the years he has wrestled for New Japan I have never seen him put in this much of an effort, and I have never seen him look better. Could the man actually have another gear left to go to at the ripe old age of 46? Well hell, would you doubt him?
When you take two veterans like this and tell them to fight each other and just beat each other like they would in the shoot-style days, the result is amazing. This match is a brutal combination of punches, kicks, submissions, slaps, and reversals. This match is what MMA would be like if the combatants weren’t allowed to pussyfoot around and avoid each other for minutes at a time. Sakuraba spends a good portion of the match making MinoSu his bitch and making it look like he’s going to actually break his arm. Suzuki comes back into the match with an array of slaps so hard that you could taste them through the screen. In the end, Suzuki wins this absolutely brutal fight.
I loved this match so much. For a match that went less than 10 minutes, these guys told a full story, gave us action, sold like death, and made you care about 2 old guys fighting a style that was cool 20 years ago.
Artie: Coming off of a hard-hitting shoot-style match, you’d expect a little cool down and maybe a slowly-paced boring match, right? WRONG. We immediately jump into a match for the NEVER championship (New Japan’s third-tier title. Sort of like the WWE’s European title crossed with the hardcore title) and it’s being contested by two of the hardest-hitting, brutal, nastiest motherfuckers in the company. These two get in the ring and literally do nothing, but smash the fuck out of each other with clubbing blows, right hands, hard heads, and power moves. If you thought you could get bored of watching to fat(ish) guys beat the fuck out of each other for 12 minutes because it’s done so poorly on this side of the world, then you’re wrong. At no point in this did my attention ever change from “Holy shit, this is gonna hurt. Awsome” to anything else. Ishii sold the damaged shoulder like an absolute champ, even dishing out some killer offense while trying to defend his title against the even crazier and brutal Makabe.
The ending really surprised me, as I thought New Japan were gonna run with Ishii for a while, but I guess his injuries are legit and the dude probably needs some time off soon. Still, though, picking Makabe to carry the torch of the NEVER title is brilliant and with this match as his christening as NEVER Champion, I can only imagine what his reign will bring.
I couldn’t have wanted anything more. If you’re watching this on English commentary, you’ll note that this is when JR starts to really mark for what’s happening and get into the action and story of what’s going on. It’s kind of great experiencing JR’s New Japan journey live.
Defrost: Makabe gets chopped right in the throat. Even has hard as they go at each other at the beginning of the match that chop is really the sign of what kind of match you’re going to get. They beat the hell out of each other. Ishii has been so awesome for so long and this was really his first big match at the Tokyo Dome. You had to know he’d go all out. And Makabe is really good on the big shows. He takes it easy on the smaller ones, but for the Dome you know he’s there to do some work. They smash each other. There is a lariat near the end that sounds like a bomb went off.
This is great and simple. Two men enter. They smash into each other like rams. Whoever stops getting up loses. Nothing choreographed. Nothing fancy. Just smash and smash and smash some more.
Cewsh: Here let me try to do play by play of this one for you:
SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH
Deep breath.
SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH SMASH
This may be the stiffest match that I have ever witnessed. Even calling it a match does it a disservice in some way because these men to not fuck around with any kind of namby, pamby feeling out period, or slow build, or even really the basic structure of a recognizable wrestling match. What they do instead is line up across from one another, and for 15 minutes they just take each other’s best shots again and again and again.
It takes a special kind of human being to step up and readily encourage another person to do their worst to harm you. It takes a whole other level of human being to do that to a gigantic man who wears a huge chain as a necklace, or to a tiny man who is so clearly made out of iron that they might as well just make him into a wrecking ball so he can better serve the community. And while i’m sure this match won’t be for everyone, and that you could easily pick holes in it when comparing it to other matches I really feel like that would be missing the point. This isn’t like other matches. This is an exhibition of two men with balls the size of armadillos attempting to blast one another off of the face of the planet one chop at a time. It’s a spectacle, an event, and it must be seen to be believed.
Defrost: In the fall of 2014 it was announced that Kenny Omega was leaving DDT and joining New Japan Pro Wrestling. In November he was revealed as the newest member of the Bullet Club and challenged Taguchi to this title match.
So going into this no one was really sure what to expect. The Cleaner Kenny Omega is a new thing. This was his first match since signing with New Japan and debuting in the Bullet Club. His character is based on 1980s action movies. Omega has expressly mentioned that Sylvester Stallone classic Cobra. On line the reaction has been mixed. Some people really liked Omega and this match and some people think it was a clown show. As someone who has seen Omega in PWG this really isn’t that far off that. He carries himself with the same goofy vibe as the Stone Cold ACH vs Rock Omega stuff from the last BOLA. He busted out the chainsaw for instance. The Young Bucks were causing all kinds of havoc on the outside and Omega used cold spray as a weapon. Match was fine. Omega went over and became champ as he should have. This was a very different match from the previous two. That is really the story of this show. Superb pacing, match placement, and variety. The show built perfectly toward a crescendo and boy as we all saw it was an amazing crescendo.
Cewsh: This is the worst match on this show by a lot. You’ll probably hear from a lot of people who like the match more than I do, as it’s a perfectly competent match between a guy, (Omega,) who is trying to work out a new character and isn’t quite there yet, and a guy, (Taguchi,) who seems content to ride out the rest of his career with no character whatsoever. Omega, at least, has an interesting style in the ring, and does bring some noteworthy moments to the match, but in the end nothing here really spoke to me. This felt like filler, and if we can consider it that way, it’s some of the highest class filler you’re ever likely to see.
Artie: While New Japan’s Jr Heavyweight tag team division is a bustling scene full of vibrant, young, energetic talent who are constantly stealing the show, the Jr Heavyweight singles division is a bit in shambles. Earlier this year, star of the division, Prince Devitt, left the company to join the WWE. In the post-Devitt era we’ve had several talented wrestlers are Jr Heavyweight champion, but there’s a lifelessness in the division with no real challengers or even a strong desire to hold the title…people sort of just win it. Enter Kenny Omega. The long-time performer of DDT, fluent-in-japanese-looks-like-brian-pillman-Canadian superstar Kenny Omega, finally made the jump to NJPW and has been the first TRUE challenger for the Jr title in quite a long time.
While Ryusuke Taguchi’s reign has been less than impressive, Taguchi really does have a lot of what makes a babyface great: good selling, comebacks, connection with the audience, and a real fire behind what he does in the ring. In this match, Omega works like an absolutely nasty heel: taunting Taguchi, picking on him, spraying his eyes with muscle spray, and rubbing his forearm stubble into the champion’s blinded eyes. The majority of this match relies heavily on character work and story-telling from both men, but the final 90 seconds of action are truly spectacular and bring everything together for this match.
I have very high hopes for the Jr Heavyweight division in 2015.
Defrost: At Wrestle Kingdom 8 Hirooki Goto defeated his high school friend Katsuyori Shibata in a hell of a match. From there on they began to team together. However, the story of these two was that they always failed in the clutch. Goto lost to Okada when challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Together they lost a #1 contenders match to Tanahashi and Makabe. Then when they did get a tag title shot they lost that. Shibata lost matches in back to back months to Tanahashi and Nakamura. Finally came the World Tag League. They got off to an awful start. Half way through the tournament they hadn’t won a match. Then they made an epic comeback to make the finals where they met the IWGP Tag Team Champs Gallows and Anderson, and beat them. Thus they get another shot to win a big one.
Short and sweet and by far the best match either team has been in since they formed. I did not like the 20 minute match they had in the final of the World Tag League. This was 8 minutes long and perfect. Easily the best Gallows has looked in New Japan. He was really good here. There was no filler here like the World Tag League final. There was nothing in the way of outside Bullet Club interference. All of that was left in the Omega match. The match quickly breaks down into a Tornado style match and they just go at it. A sprint is the perfect match for these guys. Plus you get a happy ending. Very good stuff here.
Artie: Boy, if there was one match that I was not looking forward to, it was this. Now, I love me some Shibata and Goto has been impressing the hell outta me this year, but my god are the Bullet Club members of Anderson and Gallows just god-awful boring.
Surprisingly enough, this was a fun, stiff match. Gallows actually looked really good in throwing his weight around at Shibata and Goto, while those two looked great in dominating the big men with their strikes. I was thoroughly surprised with “Machine Gun” Karl Anderson who put on a spectacular performance here and actually stunned me with this sequence of moves here:
In this end, Shibata and Goto look like monsters in victory here, unseating the year-long gaijin champions from Bullet Club. I am so happy for these two and just look at how happy they are to be champions:
Cewsh: This was a strong tag match, that saw two teams that aren’t really great teams bring out the best in each other, and which used all four men in the best way they probably can be used in this scenario. I’ve made it clear what I think about Bullet Club as a tag team, (that they suck, mainly,) but Karl Anderson especially really goes out of his way to bring his A game on the big stage here. As for Luke Gallows…welll….this was the best match of Luke Gallows’ career. Take that for what you will.
Defrost: If you are reading this then you know the controversy going on with the Styles Clash. When AJ first returned to the indie scene he dropped Roderick Strong on his head. He broke the neck of some guy named Lion Heart. Not Chris Jericho. Or King Richard. Then he broke the neck of former WWE Superstar Yoshitatsu. That is what caused all sorts of people to come out calling for the move to be banned. It also got the move over as death.
AJ quickly goes for the Styles Clash and the crowd gasps. That is really the story of the match. AJ goes for the Clash and Naito fights for his life. AJ dominated this match. Which given the booking going forward, AJ Styles became #1 contender for the IWGP Title the next night, this makes perfect sense. As does the finish. Naito goes for the top rope Frankensteiner, but gets caught. He fights and fights, but AJ hooks him and nails the Styles Clash off the second rope to which the crowd flips out like they just saw a man die.
Honestly a Styles Clash off the top rope is probably safer than a normal one. Just a simple story revolving around something believable. No terrible actresses pretending to be Baby Mamas. No trying to ape Ric Flair. Just a simple match built around a simple idea leading to something beyond. Or in other words Pro Wrestling.
Artie: While there wasn’t a whole heck of a lot of backstory going into this, it has an odd amount of potential based solely on both men’s desire to get to the mountain top. A year ago, Naito was the number one contender to the IWGP Championship and a man poised for main event success. One year ago, AJ Styles was the hottest free agent in wrestling, who debuted in New Japan shortly after WK8 and won the IWGP Championship in his very first outing. Now, one year later, both of these men stand poised and ready to work past the Okadas, Tanahashis, and Nakamuras of the company, show their stuff, and re-enter the top of the roster.
This match brought a lot of AJ Styles in 2015, taking him back to his youth and a Jr Heavyweight-paced wrestling style. AJ teased the Styles clash right off the bat, but Naito is just so quirky and fluid in his style that he out-maneuvered master wrestler AJ Style for most of the match. The finish came when AJ delivered a murderous Styles Clash off the second rope, playing into the current fear and hype around the move, making it an all the more devastating finish. Absolutely surprising match from both men, with both looking tremendous and lie serious contenders for that coveted number 4 spot atop the highest ranks of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
AJ looked incredibly dangerous and Naito looked like a machine for taking AJ Styles to the limits that he did and drawing AJ to the point of desperation in busting out that super styles clash.
Cewsh: There are two major points of interest here. The first is the fact that we now live in a reality where the Styles Clash, one of the weakest looking moves in wrestling history, is now a kill move so feared and decried, that it earned a BAH GAWD from JR. The second is that Tetsuya Naito continues to grow into a more complete performer as time goes on, and has gone from being a lesser version of Tanahashi to being something all his own.
It isn’t a surprise that this is one of the most overlooked matches on the show. After all, this is basically the gatekeeper between the fun undercard and the unimaginable treasures that lie ahead. Add to that the fact that AJ Styles is the guy most people will be focusing on, and you have an easy formula for the work of Naito to be overlooked altogether. But when I watched this match, I couldn’t take my eyes off of Naito for one simple reason: he learned how to sell.
For YEARS now, one of the biggest knocks on the man, (aside that he is injury prone was pushed down our throats, wears goofy outfits and treats facial expressions like he’s being charged by the smile,) is that he is ridiculously bad at selling limb work. In match after match, his opponent would start working over a body part, only for Naito to start leaping about like a salmon the second that the poor guy’s back was turned. But this match sees Naito wrestle as if he’s trying to erase all of those no selling blunders in one match, as he sells his hurt leg as if AJ has actually removed it from his body, and the match works so much better as a result.
Both of these men have better matches in them, but this was no disappointment. Whether people remember it or not, I will dammit. I will.
Cewsh Note: It is at this point that I feel that I should mention that this is essentially two shows. Everything up to now has been very good and entertaining and absolutely nobody is talking about any of it a few days later. That’s show one. The two matches that are about to follow are the kind of thing that people will judge you for not having seen in the future and will be talked about for years upon years. Adjust your expectations accordingly.
Cewsh: Size matters.
Ever since the early 50s when the American influence on Japan first brought wrestling to the country, and it’s first great star was born in the legendary Rikidozan, size has been king in Japanese wrestling. That this is true in most regions of the wrestling world is undoubted, but in Japan it was so pronounced due to the influence of Rikidozan, and the cultural familiarity with sumo wrestling, that it was built into the very fabric of puroresu itself. There are heavyweights and jr. heavyweights, and heavyweights are the money makers. If a jr. heavyweight wanted to become a big star, he would go away on his sojourn around the world, and come back 40 pounds heavier and a whole lot more stoic. That was simply the only way for smaller guys to get ahead. Get bigger or get out. And for 40 years that remained true until a man named Jushin Liger came along.
With his superhero gimmick and unmatched skill and innovation, Liger began to change things by getting so over that promoters had to recognize him, even giving him the occasional title match. But even with his incredible skill and drawing power, there was a very definite glass ceiling that he could not break. As the years moved on into the 00s, and more and more lucha libre influence crept into Japanese wrestling, you started to see even heavyweights incorporating it into their style. So it was only natural that in the next generation of young stars there would be some that didn’t want to become heavyweights. That wanted to make it to the top as they were. This struggle defined the decade as men like KENTA, Naomichi Marufuji, Prince Devitt, and even the big, but not THAT big, Hiroshi Tanahashi gave their all to change the way that fans looked at Jr. Heavyweight wrestling. It took a long, long time, and a huge number of heroic and face melting performances before fans started to budge on the idea that small guys could credibly beat big ones. The stigma isn’t gone, and it likely never will be. But it’s flexible now, and that makes it a whole new world.
Into this new world walked Kota Ibushi, a great looking, hard working, humble guy with high flying skills like we’ve never seen before. He did his time in the Jr. Heavyweight division, which isn’t up to the standard it once was, and then he turned his attention to the real prizes. In him, New Japan have a young man held back by nothing but societal limitations and a glass ceiling that has more cracks in it every day. But if Ibushi wants to break through and truly become the first Jr. main eventer in New Japan’s history, he’s going to have to turn in a gutsy performance for the ages here. Ultimately, this match is not about whether Ibushi wins. Winning proves nothing. In order to realize his dream, Ibushi is going to have to prove than he can take everything Nakamura can dish out and give it right back. He’s going to have to soar.
Defrost: Yoshihiko was on the broadcast of the January 4th Tokyo Dome show. This is the new highlight of my wrestling fandom.
The long awaited rematch of the 2013 Tokyo Sports match of the year. After defeated Katsuyori Shibata at Power Struggle Nakamura said he had played all the aces up his sleeve. He needed a joker to emerge. And wouldn’t you know just as he says this Kota Ibushi comes running out and German Suplexed Nakamura and challenged him to this match. One YeaOh! later and here we are.
This match plays off a real basic principle of Japanese wrestling (and culture as a whole): Young Boy/Kohai vs Sempai. While Ibushi is a five-year veteran of the ring, has won every title in DDT, 2 titles in New Japan, and wrestled a 30-minute epic with a blow-up doll, he’s only recently “graduated” up to the Heavyweight division must now stare down the man who has run the yard for the past 10 years.
King of Strong Style is not just a nickname, it’s not just a gimmick, it’s a living-breathing man known as Shinsuke Nakamura. Here at Cewshcast, we ranked this man the number one professional wrestler in the world for 2014 and the primary reason for that resides around his waist. Don’t get it twisted, folks: the IWGP Intercontinental championship is not like some other “secondary” titles out there, heck, it’s not even really a secondary title. At last year’s show, the Intercontinental title match WAS the main event and the man who held it going into that main event was none other than the master of the Boma Ya, the King of Strong Style, the number one professional wrestler in the world: SHINSUKE FUCKING NAKAMURA.
Now, imagine being Kota Ibushi and having recently come up to the heavyweight division, you want to prove yourself. A few months back, Shinsuke laid out an open challenge for anyone on the roster to step up and challenge him for the Intercontinental title and with a German suplex from behind, Kota Ibushi answered his call. On the American commentary side of things, Ibushi has been suffering from concussions throughout the year, something that has prevented him from rising to the next level. I wil note, this is not true and is solely a working of story for broadcast.
HOLY SHIT. I can’t tell you the last time I heard JR genuinely surprised and dumfounded by a wrestling move until I saw that. I have no clue what you it. But GOD DAMN is Kota Ibushi stealing my heart here (and yours too, hopefully!)
Unfortunately for Ibushi-san, all of this madness is not enough to put down the King of Strong Style, because, you see, strong style is not just about throwing stiff punches and kicks, it’s about being able to take anything and everything thrown at you and fire right back up. And so he does. With two big Boma Ye’s from the champ, Kota Ibushi is stopped dead in his tracks on his quest for the IWGP Intercontinental championship.
Never mind the loss, what’s more important here is that Ibushi proved himself as a man. He earned the respect of every person in that crowd, everyone on commentary, everyone in the back, and most importantly: he earned the respect of the King himself, Shinsuke Nakamura.
Defrost: How to describe this match? It is as hard as it is to describe Shinsuke Nakamura. That’s probably where the word swag came from. Whenever anyone asks about him just say swag. New viewers would be stunned to learn that not that long ago this man was one of the most boring, personality deprived wrestlers in the world. What he is now and what he was even in this same slot at Wrestle Kingdom 3 is just stunning. The story being told is that when the match starts Nakamura does not take Ibushi seriously. By the end he certainly does. In between things get heated. Punches, which are exceedingly rare in Japan, are thrown. Ibushi mocks Nakamura using all of his moves. Nakamura has Ibushi’s boot print on his face when this is over. I mean this is as good a match as you will ever see. If watching this doesn’t hook you on New Japan nothing ever will. The match is just amazing. If you haven’t seen it do yourself a favor and go out of your way to do so. If you have seen it watch it again. I’ve watched it 5 times in 3 days.
Cewsh: This match was incredible. These guys pretty much said it all, but just let me reiterate what a mind blowing match this was. This is about the time in the show where Twitter started getting flooded with wrestlers themselves giving huge praise to this show, and this match in particular. One of those comments in particular stuck with me.
That isn’t the comment of someone who is enjoying a match. That’s the comment of someone who has just witnessed the entire game change in front of them and knows how hard it will be to keep up.
You know who it sucks to be right now? Tanahashi and Okada. Because there’s no way in hell that this match is followable.
Cewsh: This is the story of the greatest feud of our generation.
Once upon a time, there was a warrior and a rogue. The warrior was beloved throughout the land, and held endless awards and accolades to his credit, while the rogue languished as a project that everyone had given up on before he ever got started. That was the order of things for a long while, until the rogue decided to challenge the unbeatable warrior for his crown, and stunningly won, changing the balance of power forever. It was unthinkable that this kid out of nowhere could defeat the man synonymous with the heavyweight championship, and so easily at that. But what people didn’t understand then was that Okada had the potential to be the biggest star in the entire industry. On that night in 2012, he arrived. Ever since that moment all of New Japan has been consumed by the struggle between these two. They split the first four matches between them 2-2, (which you can read more about here.), and planned to settle things at the Sumo Hall show in October of 2013.
When we talk about Hiroshi Tanahashi, it’s difficult to separate the man from the symbol. He is the walking, talking representation of the turnaround of New Japan, and this new generation of wild unchecked success and growth. He is the reason why New Japan is where it is, and seeing him now is like seeing Hulk Hogan and Steve Austin walking around. Their stature as these forces of nature who captured the imagination of the public makes them not even feel real. So when Okada came to potential take over as the new top guy as New Japan, the expectation was that Tanahashi would move to the side and just sort of fade away into the history books. The problem with that is that when Tanahashi recaptured the IWGP Championship, he discovered that we wasn’t quite ready to ride off into the sunset. While Okada’s focus lies squarely on proving that he’s better than Tanahashi, and recapturing the title, Tanahashi’s focus is on being the best that there has ever been, and he has made it clear that he does not think that Okada is capable of carrying the company because he only cares about himself. So one more time, the living legend of New Japan will lace up his boots to go against a man who is younger, stronger, taller, faster, and perhaps even more popular than him. We’ve seen all that he can give, and to win this match, he’s going to need more. Much, much more.
Cewsh: This is the 6th, (significant,) meeting between these two guys, and each one has been incredibly high profile. As such, they very frequently wrestle them as if you have watched the previous ones, (which you should have.) Nearly everything they do in some way references something from a past match, whether it be Tanahashi viciously attacking Okada’s leg here because attacking his arm didn’t work last time, or Okada having Tanahashi so perfectly scouted on his attempt at a Sling Blade on the ramp. There’s a fabulous continuity built in here that carries through each match, as they each figure out what works against the other. Past matches have often revolved around one of them finding one tool to use against the other that they aren’t ready for, and carefully putting together a strategy for using it over 30 minutes.
That isn’t what happens here.
Tanahashi knows that Okada will beat him if they have another match like their past ones. Okada has figured out the formula for beating Tanahashi, and frankly, Tanahashi’s game has more weaknesses than the 6’4 Greek God of a man he’s facing. So instead, Tanahashi tried something else. Chaos. Right from the start, Tanahashi and Okada go after each other aggressively, completely skipping the feeling out period that had been a tradition between them. Big moves fly early and often as Okada gives Tanahashi a gigantic Heavy Rain, (death valley driver,) on the ramp, and Tanahashi answers back a few minutes later with a High Fly Flow into the seats that made my jaw drop onto the floor.
Tanahashi has always been a high flyer, but not a risk taker. He flies in a calculated way, always designed to get the most damage with the least risk. But here, the old man throws himself all over the place, trying to throw Okada off his game, to change the style of the match enough to give himself the upper hand again. It’s a fantastic strategy and it alllllllllmost works.
Unfortunately for the champion, his challenger is just too fucking good for words. All it takes is one slip up from Tanahashi, and Okada is there, hitting him with move after move after move. So overwhelmed did Tanahashi seem at one point that I actually thought that he was legitimately injured from the bump he took on the ramp and that they were going to have to wrap this up unsatisfactorily like Undertaker/Lesnar. But Tanahashi fought back, and fought back, and fought back some more, trying his best to withstand the onslaught as Okada ran through his entire moveset like a sadistic child playing a video game. Okada was in control, and seemed thoroughly comfortable with the finish line in sight. But Okada couldn’t put him away. No matter what he did, it wasn’t enough. As they descended into a frantic flurry of counters, reversals and near falls, Okada was thrown off balance, and both men just started dropping bombs on one another, until finally, blessedly, Okada wrapped Tanahashi up and leveled him with a Rainmaker Lariat. The most established kill move in all of Japan. The move that Tanahashi feared so much that he designed a style based solely around countering it. It was over. He was finished. The end had come.
Tanahashi kicked out of the Rainmaker, causing the entire arena to lose its collective mind. Okada could only look on in shock as the man he was certain he was better than, the specter from his past he thought he had banished, rose up again and went completely insane. Tanahashi found an extra gear in that moment, and went wild on Okada, going back to his weakened leg again and again and hitting him with High Fly Flow after High Fly Flow, to the legs…
Cewsh: You know how I said there was no way that anything could follow that last match? WRONG. WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG WRONG. Not only did this match follow that one, there is an argument to be made that it surpassed it. Certainly the emotion behind this match was stronger, but i’m not here to split hairs. This match was such an incredible reversal of the narrative that we all expected to see that it blew me away at the time, and is still blowing me away days later. They knew that we would think this was Okada’s torch ceremony. They knew that we would never expect Tanahashi to have another gear to get even better than he already was. They took those expectations and used them to destroy us, while giving us something even better than what we thought we wanted. A year from now, when Okada meets Tanahashi again, and the fans are more behind him than ever because of how sympathetic the end of this match made him, it really will be time for Okada to be that guy. But not today. Oh no, not today.
I’ve seen it said that the story of the this feud is that Okada finally made it to the mountaintop, only to find out that Tanahashi has built the mountain even higher above him. That sounds about right. And suddenly a feud which we thought was dead and buried has more momentum than ever. This match was amazing, and was some of the best storytelling you will ever seen in a ring.
The pre match video package really makes this look like Tanahashi’s swan song.
The last two matches on this show are the best two back to back matches I have ever seen. And it lays waste to the idea that you need a buffer in between anything no matter how great it is. If there is something your act can’t follow that means your shit ain’t over.
I was a little worried about this one going in because their match at the Dome 2 years ago is one of their weaker matches. Would still rank amongst the best matches of the year in any other promotion, but the bar is sorta high in NJPW and especially between these two. I was a fool for being worried. This is an epic match. And the way it builds is amazing. Okada dominates the first third of the match. Making it look like his coronation. Then Tanahashi comes back with an insane High Fly Flow to the outside over the guardrail. However, Tanahashi’s best shot doesn’t keep Okada down. The Rainmaker out of nowhere doesn’t keep Tanahashi down either. Which is interesting.
Then the best part of the whole thing is how Okada sells this. He is devastated. He starts sobbing on the way to the back and just crumbles to the ground as the fans chant his name.
Artie: Wow, after the match that preceded this, you’d think nothing that these 2 men could do would be particularly impressive. Except, for the fact, that ya know, you’d be wrong. In the ring stand the two most dangerously charismatic and important men in all of professional wrestling. Forget John Cena. Forget Daniel Bryan. Forget CM Punk. This right here isn’t just sports entertainment and in the world of professional wrestling, these two men are about to battle for the most powerful and important piece of hardware in the business: the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
While Okada is a two-time IWGP Champion, having beaten Tanahashi for the title both times, Okada has yet to prove himself as the true successor to Tanahashi’s throne. Much like how I mentioned earlier that Nakamura is the King of Strong Style and pretty much the standard-bearer for the company, Tanahashi is the one man who stands above even Nakamura.
Record-setting seven time IWGP World Heavyweight champion and the man who brought the title out for the depths of nothingness and rose it prominence, while single-handedly changing how wrestling was done in Japan. In short: Tanahashi is sort of a big deal.
The story in this match is much like the story in the last match of Kohei vs Sempai, except that Okada is already an established star in the eyes of the fans, the company, and his peers. Too bad for him, Tanahashi just keeps raising the bar and won’t quite accept Okada as his equal, something that does not sit well with the Rainmaker. As the match progresses, we see Okada rely heavily on the idea that Tanahashi is older than he is and has both a bad back and neck, thus Okada focuses his attack there. Tanahashi works his butt off to sell from underneath as a true babyface, until he turns the tide a bit and starts playing a little nasty.
Once Tanahashi speeds the match up to his preferred pace, he starts using Okada’s own moves against him, including the tombstone, his signature pose, and even attempts the Rainmaker finisher itself. Tanahashi even starts to youngboy school Okada with some nasty slaps. Too bad the Rainmaker comes back with what Jim Ross, 40 year veteran ring announcer, calls the best looking dropkick he’s ever seen:
With the pace changing to Okada’s favor and all momentum shifting towards the Rainmaker, this is all, but certain a lock for the young prince to finally overthrow the great and mighty Tanahashi.
Except he doesn’t.
Cewsh: This is the best show that we have ever reviewed. I could dance around that fact, or try to put another show ahead of it so it doesn’t look like i’m ranking it that way just because of my well known love for Japanese wrestling, but I simply can’t. This show doesn’t even have the decency to make it a close race. The entire show up until the final two matches was fun, fast paced and satisfying, and then they had to go and set the world on fire with a double main event that will be very hard to match in terms of dual quality. This is every bit the show I crossed my fingers and wished for when I was dragging potential fans into buying it by any means necessary. This was an industry altering, mind blowing, once in a lifetime experience. If you haven’t seen it yet, prepare to expect funny looks from people, because this has now entered the smark consciousness. Something about the wrestling world changed on this night. I eagerly look forward to seeing where it takes us.
Artie: What can I say? It’s January 4 and we’ve already seen the best professional wrestling show of the year. I’ve handed out more A’s and A+’s (and even an A++) than I think I’ll ever do again. This show sums up exactly what professional wrestling is: a living story made of sport, crossed with drama. What was just good on this show was only brought up by how great the great was. This show delivered on all ten matches and created something truly special in almost half of them.
Defrost: Amazing show. Like I said the last two matches are the best back to back matches I have ever seen. Suzuki vs Sakuraba and Makabe vs Ishii are must see matches. Styles vs Naito and both Jr Heavyweight title matches are real good. The tag title match sprint is super fun. Obviously go out of your way to see it. If there is a better show anywhere in the world or better matches than the last two then as wrestling fans we are all in for a hell of a treat.
Well that’ll do it for us this time, boys and girls. We hope you enjoyed the pomp and circumstance of this once in a lifetime show, (I promise we’ll shut up about New Japan for a little while,) because now it’s time to jump back into the world of WWE, where even their “Once in a Lifetime” stuff happens twice. Yes, we’ll be bringing you a belated review of WWE TLC 2014 just before the Royal Rumble, so everyone is all caught up before everything changes like mad with the new year. So until then, remember, as always, to keep reading and be good to one another.