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Posting thoughts as I watch this.
What in the fuck has happened to KENTA? Doing the Santino walk to the ring with a goofy haircut. Depressing.
I don't think there's a greater microcosm for Gedo's booking falling off a cliff than Shingo and EVIL, two recent IWGP champions being relegated to the preshow gimmick battle royal. Unfortunate.
Old guys match. Always fun for what it is. I hope I look half as good as Tatsumi Fujinami does when I'm 70. Dude looks like he could work in a coal mine. Tigermask literally dying in the ring. Needs to take diet and workout pointers from Fujinami. Makabe 69's Tigermask for the win. Huh.
Jr Tag Title match is your usual chaotic spotfest. At least fucking try to follow tag rules and have some structure. I'd understand if it was a multi team match but this is just 2 on 2. It's like a stardom trios match ffs. I will say that if Lio Rush didn't have all those attitude problems he'd probably be a really big star. We've seen he can talk and he's one of the few high flyers whose sheer talent and athletic ability make him stand out in an industry full of that style. Too bad.
IWGP Women's match. Looking forward to this one. Both these women deliver in singles matches. Very happy for them that they can perform on a stage of this scale. Ohy man, matrix into roll up by Tam looked so clean. Oh. it's over. Well so much for that. Don't see the fucking point of this title if they're only giving them 10 minutes.
There's Sasha. Can't tell if that move is good or terrible. I'm honestly interested to see what Sasha's work looks like with no restrictions.
Tag title match. Love Goto. Love FTR. Yoshi-Hashi is also in this match. Actually I haven't seen yoshi wrestle in a year or so. I'll give him a chance I guess. If FTR went to NJPW, I would watch it more regularly if they were there. Good match. Hard to get invested since you knew FTR was losing.
Ren Narita vs Zack Sabre Jr. Looking forward to seeing how Narita has progressed. Zack is always good. Solid technical match. Very abrupt ending, but that makes sense given it revolved around submissions. Oh TMDK is a faction now. Neat. Is Suzuki Gun not a thing anymore?
Anderson vs Tama for the never title. Holy shit at the start. Wow, this was better than I was expecting.
Mutoh's last match in NJPW. Be shocked if Sanada doesn't pin Mutoh for the finish. lol at Tanahashi begging Mutoh not to do the moonsault. Man Umino is 100% the next big homegrown star for njpw. You can just see it. Whelp. I'm shocked. Although, using this to help push Umino isn't a terrible idea either.
Looking at Master Wato and his mannerisms I can't help but think of OSW Review watching X-pac and going "waaaaaahhhhhh" I already saw one junior clusterfuck match I don't need to see another. I miss the 90's. Commentators talking about some backstage fight between Naito and Umino the whole time. Even they don't care about this match. Wato's finisher is cool, though.
Time for Omega vs Ospreay. omg at this fucking nerd coming out to one winged angel. Ospreay should come out to the oddly terrifying Dragon Quest battle music. Ospreay's presentation so much better. Aussie open in the suits surrounding him looks sharp. Kenny does look in the best shape he's been since leaving new japan. They must have imported that table from the states. Normal japanese tables are forged in the fires of mordor and require a magically enchanted tank round to break. This is very good. It's every bit the spectacle you would expect from these two, but at the same time, they're telling a story. Great match. Want to say the wrong guy won, but they could have plans for Ospreay to tie the score at an AEW event. Rubber match at Forbidden Door.
Main Event time. God damn, Jay White looking shredded. Jay is so great at being an obnoxious heel. Feel like both these guys need a refresh. All this seems a bit been there, done that. They should do a reversal of how this all started. Gedo turns on Jay to reunite with Okada and bring him into bullet club, and thus kicking Jay out. They won't though. I really do love how well the rainmaker and bladerunner counter into themselves. Those two moves were made for eachother. Great match. This was billed a memorial show for Inoki so kinda figured Okada was winning.
Good show. This is Wrestle Kingdom though. It needs to be better than a good show. The last two matches were the only ones that had that special wrestle kingdom feel. Can't help but feel they've gone harder into the WWE mindset of filling the card with multiman matches to get everyone on the card, thus watering the whole thing down. The IC belt's absence has also left a big hole in the card. That used to have really big match feel at WK. Likewise, the NEVER title used to be the belt for knock down drag out fights, and always had a match to look forward to at WK. They killed the IC belt, and got rid of the brutal fight feel of the NEVER title to elevate it as a replacement but it never came close to recheaching that level of prestige. And thus, two big match belts were killed to make room for more senseless multiman matches.
I'll come back for the big shows like WK and Dominion, but this did not convince me to pick up New Japan regularly again.
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