There was buzz in all the corners of my wrestling world about this one. People preemptively calling it the best show of the year, many saying of all time, caught me off guard. Was it going to be really? Wrestle Kingdom was packed, not to mention the other great shows of the year's past.
But Fuck, was I wrong.
This was, as I texted to my brother at 7:30 in the morning, the best wrestling show I've ever seen. Top to bottom the show flowed great, and while not every match was a homerun, they didn't all have to be. Now, I'm going to be reporting every match finish cause that's just how I roll. But if you want to avoid the spoilers, there's a star rating sitting all alone at the end of each match report for a TL:DR recommendation. All the fluff outta the way, let's get started.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships [3nd Defense]
El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-Gun) (c) vs SHO and YOH (CHAOS)
There was no breaks in this match, and it was definitely better the second time watching it. At 92 days, Desperado and Kanemaru are the longest reigning Jr. Tag Champs in the past 2 years. That's crazy but it's also telling to how the Jr. Tag Titles are a proverbial hot potato. I thought that Roppongi 3K had this easily, their potential as individuals is huge but right now they could be very comfortable at the top of the tag team pile. I would have slated Desperado to challenge for the Junior Heavyweight title down the road, and he still might as one half of the tag champs. Whoops, let the ending slip, didn't I? After several attempts to cheat, Kanemaru planted SHO with his bottle of Suntory, before Despy pinned him with some variety of clutch pin. A good opener, but not phenomenal like I know it could be.
***
