I’ve lived in a few different, distinct time zones in the United States during my lifetime. That means I’m used to seeing pay-per-views start anywhere from the early afternoon to prime time at night.
With all of these shows in WWE and AEW taking place outside of North America recently, I’ve seen a bunch of shows take place at “weird” times. Here I am, at 12:06am on a Thursday, preparing for New Japan’s Wrestle Kingdom 18.
For those unaware, this is New Japan’s biggest show of the year. Their version of WrestleMania, if you will. The legendary Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan should be ready to rock and roll. There are a whopping seven title matches on the card, but one of the matches that isn’t for a title is getting a lot of worldwide attention, and that’s the rematch between Bryan Danielson and Kazuchika Okada. They put on a helluva show at AEW’s Forbidden Door, and Danielson wrestled a majority of that match with a broken arm. Their rematch marks the first Danielson match under the proper NJPW umbrella in over 19 years.
Since my daughter was born in 2018, I haven’t had the free time to watch as much of the New Japan product as I did in previous years. I always make sure to check out the company’s biggest events, and I certainly keep up with what’s going on. With my wife and daughter having a sleepover at my mother-in-law’s house, I figured this would be a good time to actually tune in and spend my early morning hours watching even more wrestling! Huzzah!
As a warning for those of you who are used to reading my show reviews, I will be talking about the results. It has become very difficult to discuss the matches without talking about who wins, so I’m just going to talk about the results and see how that works.
Bullet Club War Dogs (Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors) vs Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira) – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
TJP, after being placed in a coffin a couple weeks ago, has finally emerged for the match with a cool looking monster mask that is undoubtedly going to be compared to Bray Wyatt’s Fiend mask. The mythical Aswang monster from Filipino folklore has arrived in New Japan. It’s sad that TJP had to miss Christmas the New Year festivities, but it’s nice of him to rejoin us for this show.
Almost immediately after the start of the match, Moloney appears to have a broken nose, and has blood gushing down his face. It’s gonna be one of those nights, is it?
That match was not very long whatsoever. I forgot to check the time when the match started, but it didn’t seem like it went any longer than ten minutes. (Writer’s Note: Looking back, the official time was listed as 9:38.) It featured the type of fast-paced action you would expect from a Junior Heavyweight match in New Japan, but it seemed like more of a vehicle for the “new” TJP to be unleashed on the world. 2.75 Stars
With their victory, TJP and Akira are now three-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. They’re the eighth team in the 25+ year history of the titles to win them three or more times.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs Hiroshi Tanahashi – NJPW Television Title Match
Tanahashi is one of the most legendary wrestlers in NJPW history, and is the new President of the company, being named to the gig right before Christmas.
NJPW Television Title matches come with 15-minute time limits, and I really appreciate the types of stories that are told during the matches. Challengers know that they have less time than usual to win a match, so they’re forced to wrestle a much faster pace in an attempt to become the new champion.
From the opening bell, Tanahashi looked like he didn’t want the match to even come close to the time limit. The 47-year-old wrestled a frantic pace. It was fun.
After a crazy back-and-forth pin attempts, Tanahashi was able to pull out the victory. Surprise, surprise… he gets a position of power and then immediately wins a title. I’m kidding, of course. As I said, that was fun for what it was. Nothing that is going to be Match Of The Year material, but a fun sprint, like these matches should be. Tanahashi becomes the second-ever NJPW Television Champion, ending the reign of ZSJ that began at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom event. We’re two-for-two when it comes to title changes so far tonight. We’ll see how far that continues. 3.5 Stars
Yota Tsuji vs Yuya Uemura
Lots of luxurious hair involved in this match.
Even after the decades of Puroresu I’ve watched, it’s still jarring to hear the quiet crowds. I just finished watching this week’s episode of Dynamite, and as usual, it featured the spirited AEW fans. This week’s Raw and NXT crowds were also a lot of fun. These Japanese crowds are a different breed. They respect the sport, and they watch intently, but they don’t feel the need to chant and cheer for every little thing going on. I dig it.
This was a battle between two men that many feel are “next” when it comes to becoming big stars for New Japan. Tsuji just celebrated his 30th birthday, and Uemura just turned 29, but they’re both on a good, upward trajectory. They both wrestled this match like they wanted to prove that they are, in fact, ready to reach the next level. Uemura pulled out the victory, and you could even call it a bit of an upset. 3.5 Stars
Shota Umino & Kaito Kiyomiya vs House Of Torture (Evil & Ren Narita)
If my recent 30 Under 30 column included names from outside of WWE, NXT, and AEW, I would’ve hard a hard time keeping Umino and Kiyomiya off the list. Umino may very well be the future of New Japan, and Kiyomiya is already one of the most decorated names in recent Pro Wrestling NOAH history, winning their GHC Heavyweight Title twice. Hell, you could make an argument that Narita could belong on that list, as well. Evil, on the other hand… is Evil, so there’s that.
Of all the matches that have taken place in Wrestle Kingdom history, this was one of them. In a match where Umino and Kiyomiya should’ve won, they did not. The match wasn’t all that long (Writer’s Note: Officially lasted 7:06), and most of what we did see was interference from the other members of House Of Torture. HOT is an act that nobody really seems to care about, and yet, here we are. Seems like a waste of Umino and Kiyomiya on your biggest show of the year, if we’re being honest. 1.25 Stars
Shingo Takagi vs Tama Tonga – NEVER Openweight Title Match
Shingo is one of my all-time favorite Japanese wrestlers, going back to his days with Dragon Gate in the late-2000’s, and his time traveling to America to work with Ring Of Honor. Just thought I would share that.
This match helped to wake the crowd back up after the House Of Torture nonsense. Takagi is so good, and is one of New Japan’s workhorses. Any match that he is involved in, especially of the singles variety, feels bigger because he is there. Tama Tonga, to his credit, understood the importance here, and he stepped his game up. This was one of the better matches from him that I’ve seen in a while.
These two have been battling over the NEVER Openweight Title for a few months, going back to October, when Shingo defeated Tama to win the belt. Tama winning it back here gives him four reigns as the NEVER Openweight Champion, breaking a tie and putting him in third-pace for the most reigns in the title’s 13-year history. Honestly, Shingo has proven that he deserves another shot at the top title, so him dropping this one could be a good thing for him.
This was good fun, with two hard hitters doing just that, going for the knockout blow time and time again. 3.5 Stars
Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi) vs Guerrillas Of Destiny (Hikuleo & El Phantasmo) – Winners Take All Match for the IWGP Tag Team Titles and the Strong Openweight Tag Team Titles
Before the match, the Nemeth brothers, Nic and Ryan, were shown walking up to ringside for a front row seat. Nic Nemeth, for those unaware, is the former Dolph Ziggler. If he’s going to be wrestling in New Japan, even for a brief period of time, that has the potential to be a shit ton of fun. I’m all for it.
I liked this for what it was. Hikuleo and Phantasmo are one of those “big man and little man” tag teams that really complement each other in the ring. Nothing against Goto and Yoshi-Hashi, but if we might be getting the Nemeths involved in the Tag Team Title scene, I would rather it be against Hikuleo and Phantasmo. That could actually be a fun match. 2.5 Stars
We’ve had four title matches on the card so far, and we’ve had titles change hands in all of them. Perhaps more importantly, though, every wrestler that had white as the main color for their ring gear has lost tonight.
Hiromu Takahashi vs El Desperado – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title Match
Our fifth title match of the night, so… congratulations on your title win, El Desperado?
Sure enough… congratulations on your title win, El Desperado! That was a lot of fun. It was a nice blend of the heavyweight and junior heavyweight styles, with both men going equal parts fast paced high flying and dropping bombs on each other. I like the change up every now and then. 4 Stars
Even in the loss, I have to give Takahashi his flowers. In the 38 year history of the title, only three men (Jushin “Thunder” Liger, Tiger Mask, Kushida) have had more reigns as champion than him, and only four men (Liger, Prince Devitt, Minoru Tanaka, Koji Kanemoto) have had the title for as many combined days. He is one of the greatest junior heavyweights in company history.
Jon Moxley vs David Finlay vs Will Ospreay – Three Way Match for the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Title
Another title match, and technically, we’re guaranteed a new champion, so the streak will continue!
I love that the match started with Mox and Ospreay coming together to fight Finlay. This match would’ve been much better off as a singles bout between Mox and Ospreay, anyway. Both men put Finlay through a table at ringside, then got in the ring to immediately make the match better.
BREAKING NEWS!!! Jon Moxley is bleeding. I repeat… Jon Moxley is bleeding.
So much fun here, and easily the best match of the night to this point. Moxley wants to beat people up. Ospreay wants to prove that he is the best wrestler alive today. Finlay is in Bullet Club.
In all seriousness, Finlay was great in his role that the pesky heel that nobody wanted to see in the match, because… well… nobody wanted to see him in the match. He did his job well, though, and he was rewarded with the win. It won’t be the popular decision, but with Moxley in AEW and Ospreay leaving for AEW soon, it makes a ton of sense to give Finlay the title win. 4.25 Stars
After the match, Finlay goes to talk trash to Nic Nemeth, who responds by talking trash in return. It leads to a bit of a brawl between both men, and it looks like Nemeth is going to be Finlay’s first challenger.
Kazuchika Okada vs Bryan Danielson
You’ve gotta give it to Danielson. All along, he said his goal was to break Okada’s arm, getting revenge after having his own arm broken. From the opening bell, he was all over Okada’s arm like flies on shit. Not only is he applying some incredibly painful looking arm submissions, but he’s doing so while telling everyone at ringside that he’s going to break Okada’s arm. Fight for your dreams, and your dreams will fight for you.
It’s only right then that Okada decides to target Danielson’s injured eye, even going so far as to remove Danielson’s eye patch. Dastardly work.
What a match. An absolute masterclass in telling a story, with both men trying to outdo each other when it comes to the targeting of a particular body part. Beautiful work from both men. Two of the all-time best in-ring workers that wrestling has ever seen. 5 Stars
Danielson won at Forbidden Door. Okada won here tonight. It’s time to do the right thing like Spike Lee, and book the “rubber match” between these two. AEW’s All In(nit) seems like a good place for it, but that’s also over seven months away. To be fair, we waited over six months between the first and second match, so it’s not unheard of. Either way, I just need it to happen.
Sanada vs Tetsuya Naito – IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Our seventh, and final, title match of the night. We’ve seen six new champions crowned. Can Naito make it a clean sweep?
Back-to-back incredible matches to close out the show. This was so much fun. It is worth mentioning that the crowd was SUPER behind everything Naito did. You could feel the desperation from both men here. Sanada was desperate to prove that he was deserving of being the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, as he continued to have his doubters during his entire reign. Naito, on the other hand, was desperate to regain his spot atop the New Japan mountain. In the end, Naito’s desperation was too much for Sanada to overcome, and Naito is THE man in New Japan for the first time in three years. 4.5 Stars
After the match, Naito is attacked by Evil and Gedo, and approximately zero people across the globe declare their desire to see Evil get another chance at the top. Sanada makes the save to a big-time pop. Naito gets on the mic and immediately gives praise to Sanada, and the crowd applauds the former champion, who is openly weeping as he walks back up the ramp. After Naito’s promo is over, he has tears welling up in his eyes, too.
The show was a true “tale of two halves,” with the last four matches being great, while the first six matches being a mixed bag ranging from “bad” to “pretty decent.” Not an overall Wrestle Kingdom that will go down in history as one of the greatest in company history, but again, those last four matches were so, so good. The last two, in particular, are going to be talked about all year long. It’s a real “new era” in New Japan, with seven new champions crowned in one night. That should make for an interesting 2024 for them.