The IWGP Heavyweight title changed hands!
The IWGP Junior Heavyweight title changed hands!
The IWGP Intercontinental title changed hands!
I’ll save myself some time: all the titles changed hands.
I’m Oli Davis, press the thumbs up, give us a subscribe and vote in the poll above
my head to give your thoughts on the show, where you can choose from: Best of Both Worlds,
Great Per View, Thumbs in the Middle, Meh Per View and Worst of Both Worlds… feels
kind of wrong doing those WWE ratings for New Japan.
While I review WrestleKingdom 13!
Will Ospreay beat Kota Ibushi - 4.75* Starting your wrestling show with Will Ospreay
vs Kota Ibushi is like Freddie Mercury telling Queen, ‘nah, ditch the opening piano bit,
let’s open Bohemian Rhapsody with ‘ICH VIL LICHE NO, WE WILL NOT LET YOU GO!’”
You sort of begin at 11.
Even Kota Ibushi’s entrance was a highspot by jumping up out of the stage.
And he kept on flipping when in the ring, and throughout the match, the only thing stopping
Ibushi’s insane athleticism was Ospreay effectively killing him with an elbow.
Fun fact: Concussions don’t exist in Japan, apparently.
One way to make wrestling look super realistic, you see, is to actually just hit each other
really, really hard.
One particular Kinshasa tribute from Ibushi to Shinsuke Nakamura was so hard, Nakamura
might be charged with conspiracy to murder.
But the real genius of this match wasn’t the slapping sounds or highspots, it was the
story.
These two used their video game-like athleticism to tell a narrative, that Ospreay had idolised
Ibushi since he was 15 - so last month, am I right?
(I feel so old) - and now he has a chance to beat his hero at New Japan’s biggest
annual show.
The two best storytelling moments for me were them both getting in a slap exchange with
Kota in a Tree of Woe - like a really violent version of the Spider-Man kiss - and Ospreay
flipping out of Ibushi’s deadlift German suplex while Kota had no idea, which is a
brilliant example of dramatic irony - the tension created when the audience know something
one of the characters doesn’t.
This was a sublime match as expected.
Two of the best wrestlers in the world having the perfect blend of style and substance,
with the very optimistic result of Ospreay going over strong, winning the NEVER Openweight
Championship, potentially foreshadowing his transition from the Junior Heavyweight division
to the Heavyweights.
Good luck following that in the next eight matches everyone.
Los Ingobernables de Japon beat Suzuki-gun & Roppongi 3K
I’ve got to be honest, I was in an Ospreay vs Ibushi state of shock for the first two
thirds of the following three way for the Junior Heavyweight Tag titles, so I can’t
give it a fair rating - but that’s not to say this wasn’t also a very good match.
Sho and Yoh are effortlessly cool, and Shingo Takagi is a brilliant addition to Los Ignorab-Los
Ignor-...LIJ, dishing out some cringely stiff clotheslines.
LIJ ended up pinning Suzuki-Gun to become the new Junior tag team champions - setting
up a very good night for the faction.
Zack Sabre Jr beat Tomohiro Ishii - 4.5* The next match was a complete change of pace,
not just in style, but in promotion, with Tomohiro Ishii defending his British Heavyweight
title for the UK’s Revolution Pro promotion.
As Zack’s badly translated entrance video promised: ‘He is Submission Master’.
And submissions we got, with a perfect blend of Sabre grinding down Ishii in a number of
different stretches, and Tomohiro having his trademark Stone Pitbull no-sell comebacks.
Because the problem with Zack’s submission strategy is that Ishii has no joints to manipulate,
because he’s just one slab of human granite.
Look at him, he hasn’t got a neck.
But it wasn’t enough in the end of a fantastic match, when Sabre locked in his new submission
finisher and Ishii - the man who’s character is based on no-sell spots - did the ultimate
sell: he verbally submitted, putting Sabre over strong, continuing Zack’s momentum
into 2019.
Los Ingobernables de Japon beat Guerrillas of Destiny & The Young Bucks - 4*
All the Heavyweight Tag Title build might have been around the Bullet Club claiming
they’re good guys now, and the Young Bucks possibly wrestling their last match in New
Japan, but I couldn’t take my eyes off Sanada’s hair, who’s gone full Amish with his beard,
somehow on both his chin and head.
Changing the type of match yet again, The Guerrillas of Destiny almost wrestled a comedy
narrative here, doing their best to be babyfaces and stopping each other from cheating.
I enjoyed it, it made me laugh, but Tama Tonga is such a genuinely intimidating psychopath
character, I don’t think it’s the best use of him.
The Bucks, as always, were utterly captivating to watch - but this time it was bitter sweet.
They feel like such a big part of the New Japan tag division, and even though I’m
very excited for AEW, it’ll be a deep loss if they leave completely.
Continuing the title change theme, it was LIJ who got the win, meaning another set of
tag belts for the faction.
The Bucks took the pin, maybe doing the honours on their way out.
Juice Robinson beat Cody Rhodes - 3.75* In the first few minutes of the US title match,
Cody had managed to miss an illegal championship belt shot, feigned a knee injury, and got
his wife Brandi to protect him from Juice Robinson.
I think Cody’s in heel mode here.
The villainous tactics continued when Brandi hit a bionic shoulder spear on Juice behind
the referee’s back.
Tiger Hitori ejected her from ringside, but it didn’t stop him from looking pretty useless,
especially when Cody started whipping Juice with his weight belt in clear sight to no
penalty.
After seven minutes of heel shenanigans, Juice hit two Pulp Frictions for the win - potentially
another All Elite Wrestling talent taking the fall on their way out of New Japan.
And if that wasn’t enough of a hint, Cody was wearing the colours of the Jacksonville
Jaguars, the team belonging to AEW’s Khan Family funders.
Taiji Ishimori beat KUSHIDA 4.25 OH MY GOD, WHAT IS THAT THING?!
KILL IT!
Thankfully, a man dressed as Back to the Future’s Doc Brown did, disintegrating the nightmare
child into smoke, allowing Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA to make his entrance - and
lose his title to Taiji Ishimori in a very solid match; a potential sign that KUSHIDA
could be on his way to WWE.
While both are extraordinary wrestlers, with KUSHIDA being one of the slickest in the world,
this didn’t live up to the Junior Heavyweight division’s recent standards, set by the
likes of KUSHIDA, Will Ospreay and Hiromu Takahashi.
Jay White beat Kazuchika Okada - 4.25* Jay White vs Kazuchika Okada was the only
match on the entire card without a championship at stake.
Which is both a testament to the blood feud between the two… and that New Japan might
have too many titles.
Weirdly, Okada revealing he was wearing trunks instead of his usual tights beneath his robe
got one of the loudest babyface pops of the night - those legs just go on for days.
White and Gedo’s heel act is still a work in progress, though.
Many aren’t sold on Switchblade being the leader of the Bullet Club and getting a second
consecutive high-profile WrestleKingdom match just a year into his debut, but there were
the exact same criticisms when Kenny Omega was made the Bullet Club leader in January
2016.
With some of New Japan’s top wrestlers potentially leaving for AEW or WWE, they need to make
new stars.
And while I still think White has a way to go, I also very much trust in New Japan’s
head booker Gedo.
Even though he’s such a dastardly heel these days!
Gedo’s attempted interference backfired twice, so White’s eventual win was relatively
clean, another sign New Japan see a lot of potential in him.
But as good the match was, this wasn’t up to Okada’s usual ridiculously high WrestleKingdom
standard.
Tetsuya Naito beat Chris Jericho - 4.75* There was no such problem with Tetsuya Naito
vs Chris Jericho in a No DQ match for the Intercontinental Championship, as they combined
to put on the exact kind of excellent wild brawl you would hope for, with spots including
Naito spitting in Jericho’s face, a piledriver on the entrance ramp and Jericho brutally
spike DDT’ing Naito on the commentary table, which because it’s a Japanese commentary
table, no sold it completely and didn’t break.
And the drama levelled up significantly at the end, with a series of incredibly believable
near falls, kicking out of Destinos and Codebreakers, but it was Naito using the exposed turnbuckle
set up right at the start of the match that was the difference maker.
A superb bout, and one that sets up an intriguing story going forward - with all five members
of LIJ now holding New Japan gold.
Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Kenny Omega - 5* But as great as Jericho vs Naito and Ibushi
vs Ospreay were, the main event of Hiroshi Tanahashi beating Kenny Omega for the IWGP
Heavyweight Championship was something else.
The 2018 comeback story of Tanahashi, the Omega narrative being based around two men’s
conflicting philosophies on wrestling, and the added blood feud of them just hating each
other - this match felt so much bigger than the title they were fighting over.
And all of that was perfectly communicated through their physical action, disrespectfully
slapping each other instead of punching, Omega dismissively kicking Tanahashi on the floor,
and the wonderful set piece of Hiroshi trying to beat Kenny at his own hardcore game, but
crashing and burning through a table outside from a missed High Fly Flow.
They added another wrinkle to the drama, too, with Omega tweaking his right knee early on,
which Tanahashi targeted throughout the match.
40 minutes of intense action and storytelling later, it was Hiroshi’s philosophy that
won out, completing his comeback story by reversing the One Winged Angel and hitting
the High Fly Flow.
An epic, brilliant match, and with Omega losing, a possible clue that AEW might have their
next signee.
This was an excellent wrestling pay-per-view which flew by - thanks to a shorter than usual
duration and the varied style of the matches.
And there were at least four incredible standouts, with Ospreay vs Ibushi, Sabre Jr vs Ishii,
Jericho vs Naito and Tanahashi vs Omega.
The other five bouts never really got a chance to shine, though, making the entire show’s
match quality not as deep as the last several years.
Still, though - WrestleKingdom 13 is the Best of Both Worlds.
And Omega and Jericho aren’t the only wrestlers possibly off to AEW, as a massive ex-WWE Universal
Champion has also been linked to the new promotion!
Find out who by clicking the video onscreen now.
I’ve been Oli Davis, and that was wrestling.