3, Koraku 1-chrome, Bunkyo, Tokyo JapanThe Home of the Japanese Baseball Hall of Fame, and the Yomiuri Giants
42,000 seats
The Big Egg
The Motherfucking Dome.
It's the most wonderful time of the year. It's New Year's show time, and the biggest show of them all is New Japan's Wrestle Kingdom. Since I've started watching New Japan, it seems like they've successfully upped the ante and delivered each January 4th. The card this year looks to deliver the same high caliber insanity as years past, people are already calling this 2019's show of the year. Will it be? My bets are always on Dominion personally, but I don't know if they can make a card that can top this. We'll save that discussion for July. Ten matches, eight titles,five potential show stealers. I'm joined for the first time on my blog by Justin of Enuffa.com to break down these matches best as we can. Let's cut the filler and get right to it.
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship #1 Contender's Match
Landon: We've got one clusterfuck of a bumblefuck replacing another this year, with the gauntlet taking place of the much loved (by me at least) New Japan Rumble. The winners get a title match the next night, so it'll either be the first team out or the last team out for the match. My money's on the piecemeal team of Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb, and David Finlay to take it here. Yes, really, that's a team.
Justin: First off, goddammit this show's gonna be insane. As of this moment WrestleKingdom 9 is my favorite PPV of all time, and this could very easily eclipse that one. There is so much variety, so much talent, and so many potential show stealers I'm not even sure which match I'm most excited about.
Ok, on to the gauntlet match. I'm actually glad this is replacing the Rumble this year, as I was never much into the NJ Rumbles. I'm also glad this match is on the pre-show, as it's been a bit of a throwaway in past years. But it should be entertaining nonetheless. Gotta go with Suzuki and KES to take it down. They're overqualified for this match and this division, but this'll be their consolation prize for not being on the main card.
Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Will Ospreay (Chaos)
Landon: This match is the Opener. Hashimoto help us all. The past six months has been chaotic for the NEVER Openweight Championship, with a total of five title changes since Dominion. I'm legitimately afraid someone might die in this match, more so than the wild brawl I assume Jericho and Naito is going to turn into. I think Ibushi retains, where he goes from here I don't know. But we need a solid NEVER Champion to be able to hold onto the title for a long time.
Justin: They're nuts for putting this match first, as it's gonna be a really tough act to follow. I just hope they don't get shortchanged on time. Give Ibushi and Ospreay 20 minutes and this could be the Match of the Year. At the very least it's gonna be in the running for greatest PPV opener of all time. Ibushi just won the title so it should stay on him for a long while. However, Ospreay will build his reputation as a new heavyweight with his performance here.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship [5th Defense]
El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-Gun) (c) vs. SHO and YOH (Chaos) vs. Bushi and Shingo Takagi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
Landon: Suzuki-Gun will have held the titles for a total of 304 days by the time the bell rings on this match, the healthiest reign a Junior tag team has had since I started watching four years ago. But I'm sure they're going to finally lose their stranglehold on the belts here tonight. I think Bushi and Shingo take the belts here, Shingo is destined for great things in New Japan and this would be the first stop in a great 2019. Sorry 3K, you deserve better, but the momentum falls in the corner of LIJ.
Justin: For some reason they made both tag title matches into 3-ways but I'm okay with it in both cases; the third team being added should undoubtedly improve each match. SZGN obviously has to drop the belts here, but to whom? Sho and Yoh are overdue for another run, but Bushi and Shingo are the hot Jr. team. I'd say LIJ should get the belts here and RPG3K should chase them for a few months.
RevPro British Undisputed Heavyweight Championship (3rd Defense)
Tomohiro Ishii (Chaos) (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Suzuki-Gun)
Landon: This is preemptively my pick for favorite match on this show. Zack is great at his craft, Ishii is great at being Ishii, and they've had 4 matches to build up strategy for each other. It's 3-1 to Ishii in singles matches over the past two years, but I think Zack wins here on the big show. Poor Ishii can't get a singles win at Wrestle Kingdom. I wish i had more to say, but I have no words besides the general grunts of excitement.
Justin:Another show stealing candidate pits the bruiser against the mechanic. This match will be simultaneously brutal and balletic. Striking vs. finesse. I'll go with ZSJ to regain the strap.
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship [1st Defense]
Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa (Bullet Club Firing Squad) (c) vs. EVIL and SANADA (Los Ingobernables de Japon) vs. Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson (Bullet Club Elite)
Landon: My appetite for this match is really spoiled after I learned it was going to be a three way like the Jr. match. I really don't see a reason, other than having twin Magic killers to each Jackson, who will roll out of the ring for 15 minutes. Young Bucks, go home. Firing Squad wins. Maybe it'll be a good tag match.
Justin: The Bucks will compete in the Dome for the Heavyweight Tag Titles for the first time. That there is pretty cool. This match should be a wild one, full of nonstop action. Normally I'd say Matt & Nick would be a lock to regain the belts, but with this AEW business I'm not sure where things stand. I assume AEW will essentially replace ROH as the de facto North American arm of New Japan, and the Elite guys will continue to be a major presence on both continents. If that's the case, the Bucks would still be a safe bet to win. But with everything still being up in the air one of the other two teams will probably win this. Given all the other likely title changes I'll go with GOD to retain.
IWGP U.S. Heavyweight Championship [1st Defense]
Cody (Bullet Club Elite) (c) vs. Juice Robinson
Landon: I dunno. Was this supposed to be Beretta? Or was that ROH? Wait, that was a number one contenders...but then Cody...I need to pay more attention in 2019. Juice regains the title, and a lot of good that it did for anyone involved.
Justin: It's a rematch from two years ago. Man, how far as Juice progressed since then? Cody too, for that matter. This match will be overshadowed on such a stacked card, but it's still gonna be a fine contest. Juice should definitely get the win here.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship [1st Defence]
KUSHIDA (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori (Bullet Club Firing Squad)
Landon:This one will be interesting. Ishimori's never held the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title before, really his only claim of accolade in the division this year was leading his block in the Super Juniors, and there wasn't really much of a setup to this match besides "I want that". Which if the match is as good as I think it will be then that part doesn't matter. Ishimori takes it here from KUSHIDA in strong fasion, with no one else to challenge him in the near future unfortunately.
Justin: Looks like Ishimori will be taking Hiromu's spot in this division (I'm still upset about Hiromu). This match will be excellent, and yet another potential show stopper. Kushida winning the belt last fall in Hiromu's absence served as a bit of a division reset, and this match should mark the elevation of a new top Jr.. Hence Ishimori wins.
Jay White (Bullet Club Firing Squad) vs Kauchika Okada (Chaos)
Landon: Well, Jay's come a lot farther than I thought he would a year ago. In a way, being in a "Special Singles Match" at Wrestle Kingdom is something of a notable accomplishment; it means you did something to or with someone so big and impactful in the company that a title doesn't have to be on the line for the match to have meaning. I think I'm going to enjoy this match more than Jay's match with Tanahashi, but much like that match he's going to choke on what he bit off for himself. Rainmakers Everywhere.
Justin:Yet another hugely improved star, Jay White has had a rocket strapped to his back over the last year despite some initial reservations. His WK12 match with Tanahashi was underwhelming, but White dug in and found a fantastically hateable villain persona, and it's worked wonderfully for him. White is knocking at the door of the company's Big Four spots and will someday occupy one of them. On this card this match seems like one of the lesser entries, but it could surprise everyone. Jay White needs this win.
IWGP Intercontinental Heavyweight Championship [2nd Defense]
Chris Jericho (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables de Japon)
Landon: What a wild turn of events this year has given us. Wouldn't have guessed that Chris Jericho would have been the first man to hold both New Japan's and WWE's intercontinental Championships, but 2018 had enough insanity to go around. It'd be interesting to see who they put up against Jericho if he retained the title here, but in my heart I think Naito takes it. Not that he wants the damned thing, but he'll have it whether he wants it or not. Would Jericho stay if he wasn't champion? Probably not, but it was a fun ride while it lasted.
Justin:The rematch from Dominion, this will serve as a great change of pace from the rest of the show. Jericho's new Terry Funk style of brawling is perfect for this stage of his career, and as a way to change up whatever card he's on. The Dominion match was rather slow-paced but felt like a real fight, and this being the probably blowoff, I think we'll see both guys swinging for the fences and cutting a faster pace. Naito obviously regains the I-C Title here.
Kenny Omega (Bullet Club Elite) (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
Landon: I never really had a feeling on Chris Charlton, besides that his book on New Japan was really, really good. Neither did I really have strong feelings about this match. I knew that Tanahashi and Omega would have to meet again eventually after their match in 2016, I wasn't interested in seeing it here for some reason. but then, on the last show of New Japan's 2018, Charlton got me hyped with one simple comparison. "Hiroshi Tanahashi considers Professional wrestling a Theocracy[...]Kenny Omega sees it as a Meritocracy". That fucking hit me right in the soul. It made me step back and ask myself how I saw wrestling. Was it a business or a church? Certainly, we need men and women in wrestling who see it both ways, and 2018 has been a year fueled by both. For every Elite running All In and AEW, we need Okadas, Miyaharas and Kiyomiyas who are here for their companies because they love them. So which do I solidly stand with? I can't believe I'm saying this, but I'm backing Tanahashi in this fight. Omega's pursuit and win of the IWGP Heavyweight title will still be one of the greatest journeys of my fandom, but his reign ends on January 4th
Justin: It's the clash of styles. The time-tested Japanese gladiator vs. the iconoclastic gaijin. I'd forgotten that we've only seen this match once before, nearly three years ago. Omega has come so far since then, Tanahashi has defied his age so many times since then, and they're on the biggest possible stage when their company is on the cusp of attaining a global footprint. Omega and Tanahashi will not allow themselves or each other to have anything less than a ***** match. This main event will be on par with Tana-Okada, thus creating a brand new all-time great rivalry. I think Tanahashi wins the belt one last time, setting up a rematch at MSG.
Thanks for reading! I'm glad that I can turn my passion for wrestling into something that so many people enjoy. If you want to get regular updates on when I release more reviews, you can follow me at Twitter at @LSWayne21. And if you're still looking for your fix on wrestling, check out Enuffa.com, where I got my start in reviewing and still contribute from time to time.
All of the New Japan I watch can be found on New Japan World. See you on the other side of New Years.
