NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14

[Kairi HoHo]

You know when I found out the Schedule for NFL Playoffs I knew I was in trouble with Wrestle Kingdom going for two days. Titans/Pats, Texans/Bills took a backseat Saturday and I spent Saturday as I type this Sunday morning downloading Day One of WK, a bunch of Dr.Who Episodes, and a TJPW Show. I'm wrecked right now and should be getting rest for Eagles/Seahawks, but fuck it let me talk about a fucking great Day One for Wrestle Kingdom.

Liger's Eight Man Tag Team Match I thought came off really strong for this WK. I was amazed to see legends who've faced Liger over the Years out there for Liger paying their respects in their own way. Fujinami jacked as fuck out here dropping fools, Great Sasuke crazy as ever in his old age, Taguchi out there the youngest in the Match, and Otani still working the crowd like a boss. I really wanted the Match to go longer, but they got all good stuff in for everyone and it came off like you wanted it to look like. I'm not gonna lie though and say I would of saved Suzuki vs Liger for WK because that should of been his last Match if I had my way booking wise.

Suzuki-Gun vs LIJ. Typical 8 Man Tag Between the two groups to where they hate it each other with a passion, but the main focus here was SABRE JR and Sanada heading into this morning's Match and I thought what you needed intensity wise was done well. Chaos vs Bullet club was another Match like the previous one revolving around Goto and KENTA. Goto was super juiced in this Match, and the past Year has really electrified him again after training with Shibata and getting into even better shape. I would say though outside of Goto this Match was kinda forgettable during times during the Match.

GOD vs FinnJuice. A great story involving this Tag Title win for FInnJuice especially for Finlay who is coming off an injury. Now previously I've been a fan of Finlay at all and I know it's due to the injury so I'm willing to give him a full shot now in liking him. Juice is still the driving force of the team and the guy just has it you know it when you see him in the Ring. Good decision to take the Tag Titles off of GOD, but I wonder how long do FinnJuice hold those Titles? I mean Juice is a Singles Star, when the G1 comes around again that is the time were he puts his most efforts. Don't be surprise if it's a short reign for these guys. I thought the Match to just put a Bow on this Match was good and had some solid moments, but the ending felt flat with me. You would of thought it would of been stronger, but this team is new and I don't know how invested people are in FinnJuice.

Texas Death Match with Archer and Moxley. I can say this, up to this point during the Show this was my favorite Match for sure. I think after what we saw with Omega/Moxley people were expecting something on those levels. Nope. Both guys used the Texas Death Match very well and they got to hurt each other like only they can. The Death Rider through the Table was sick as fuck and it cut open Archer who had me doing really well in this Match and during 2019. I don't mind the Title change here, and with this brutal Match Moxley now has to deal with Juice is not gonna be in bad in shape vs him today.

Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi. I might be pulling my hair out for the next couple of days between which Match from Night 1 was my favorite this Match or Ibushi/Okada. I think I have them on the same level in terms of classics for different reasons. Boy this Match was truly testing my Blood Pressure throughout did anyone else feel that way. Every moment matter in this Match and as the Match went on I was getting even more nervous for Hiromu. Ospreay was a Surgeon in there going after the Head/Neck area of the challenger and I was fuck me how much pain can he take before this guy passes out from the pain. The Man kept getting up and kickout to everything the Champion gave to him. I thought for sure he was finished after that Hidden Blade and nope the guy kept rolling. Beautiful magic in there between the two and the hype was met for me in this one. Hiromu down in the Ring holding on the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title make me think when Shawn Michaels won the WWE Championship for the first time. The win meant that much to him.

Naito/White. With what was on the Line, with the IWGP IC Title and the spot in the Main Event for Night 2 to become Double Champion I thought this Match was just meh. Now don't get me wrong it had a few good moments, but I compare to their clash in The B-Block Finals and I felt that Match was stronger between the two. White is a Heel you want to knock silly, and Naito seemed to wanna to put on a performance of a lifetime to show is worthy of being World Champion again, but nothing clicked with me during this Match. It got to the point where I was like alright do the interfering bullshit and go home..LET'S GO!

Main Event with Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi. God this Match was amazing to watch, even though I wasn't happy with the result it was great to watch both guys leave it out all on the Table. A friend of mines on another Forum named TCON who recently passed away once said "Always the Bridesmaid, never the Bride. That is how I feel about Ibushi and NJPW. Oh they'll put him in the big Matches no doubt in my mind, but they don't consider him truly a World Champion. How many times do you need to be knocked down before it's hard to believe a great chaser like Ibushi can ever win the big one? Like I get it, Okada making it on is smart business wise, but why not take the risk and see how people like Ibushi vs Naito? I thought that Match could of been 40 mins of a Car Crash vs you know what you get in Okada/Naito. Now I can be honest in saying Okada in his pace is damn near perfect, he knows when you build up the Match and the perfect time too just as the fans need it. That is why he is a multiple times IWGP Champion, but hey I just wanted to see how Ibushi vs Naito rather than Okada/Naito that is just me. I loved the moment where Ibushi went into I feel NO PAIN mode on Okada, imagine if he would of done that a whole Match rather in the middle or towards the end? Do it to Jay White..let that anger out.

Perfect way to end Day 1 with 3 MOTY Nominees. I can't wait to see what happens in Day 2 between Liger's Last Match which might wreck me to death from tears, Sanada vs SABRE, Goto vs KENTA, the Junior Tag Titles Match, White vs Ibushi, and the the Main Event that is going to say who's the Man in NJPW in 2020 yeah should be one hell of a Night two.

 

[Mox Girl]

That was my first WK and I greatly enjoyed it. Mox had two awesome matches, an intriguing future match was set up for him and the main event of both nights was great.

 

[Deezy]

Jay white fucking sucks.

 

[Messiah]

Amazing show, main reason i tuned in was for Liger's final matches and his retirement ceremony at New Years Dash was very well done.

Very happy Naito won the IWGP Heavyweight Title.

I hope Minoru Suzuki destroys Moxley when they wrestle.

Jericho and Tanahashi delivered as expected, very surprised Tanahashi tapped out.

Best match was Ospreay/Takahashi

Okada and Kota Ibushi put on a great main-event the first night

A little disappointed they didn't air the Stardom match

8.5/10 is my rating.

 

[Mox Girl]

I was genuinely surprised to see Mox at New Year's Dash, I was under the impression he'd already headed back to the USA haha. It was awesome to see him again though, loved the brawl between him and Suzuki on both nights. That's gonna be a crazy ass match when it happens. I'll probably be the only person on Team Mox for that too lol.

I didn't know much about Liger as a wrestler but the retirement ceremony made me cry - what set me off was seeing his wife and son, and then seeing Tana crying

KENTA is such an asshole lmao, he's now become more hated in NJPW than Jay White, which is saying something.

I love the idea of Ibushi and Tana as a tag team.

 

[Jimmy King]

Ibushi and Jay White was my match of the night on night 2, and I’m not even a Jay White fan either.

I liked the Liger tag match and the main event as well.

 

[Kairi HoHo]

So this me after finishing up Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom. I'm not gonna do a mega post on every Match, just the important ones and it starts with Naito becoming Double Champion. Two Years in the making for him and he came through finally. It wasn't easy of course, Okada was nasty as ever in the Match going after the bad Wheel of Naito and it was good to see that side of him, because he saw Naito continuing to fight and give him resistance, so as a Champion you have to do something to stop your challenger especially if they had a lingering injury from the night before. Naito held on to weather the Storm and is finally on top of the Mountain congrats to him. Now you would imagine a guy wanting to be number 1 for two Years would get his moment to celebrate right, welp no here comes KENTA. I get why they did it to get him heat, but wrong moment I felt. Why couldn't he have attacked Naito in the back during his Interview with the Media? KENTA had just lost his Never Openweight Title to Goto earlier in the night was was solid in it's own right, but he doesn't scream to me right now as a person deserving a mega Title shot like this. One of the best moments in this is Okada putting his Fist up in respect for Okada, that is a Champion and mad me so happy to see that.

Ibushi to me is my MVP when it comes to both Shows as a whole because he put on a great performance once again vs Jay White I feel. I hated the end result and it leaves me scratching my head further on what is the plan for him going forward. I've never seen him so down. Still during the Match I love this No Pain Mode from him it needs to continue and not go by the wayside. I love how White was terrified as if the Boogeyman was under his Bed and surprised him. With alot of Gedo bs White got the win and I don't see him getting any World Title shots anytime soon, but the bigger question is: How long will Ibushi keep being put down like this, til he either leaves and takes his talents elsewhere? I'm asking that because a Title of any kind that isn't the World Title at this point is meaningless for him I feel. What is he going to win the G1 Climax again highly doubt that, so I wonder how much does NJPW love Ibushi.

Tana/Jericho, Mox/Juice, SANADA/Sabre JR, RP3K/Phantasmo/Ishimori all high caliber Match that were fun watches, and Liger's last Match put it over the top for me during Night 2. New Years Dash here I come time to cry for Liger's Ceremony!