Despite being a wrestling fan for well over 30 years, I’ve never really taken the time to get into or understand Japanese wrestling. Fundamentally, it’s pro wrestling, but the culture, characters, and style are so unique to that region. In the 90s, the Apter mags and dirt sheets fawned over the competitors and the seemingly endless parade of highly ranked and regarded matches, many of which attained the rare elusive 5 star rating. As a lifelong WWF loyalist, I was more annoyed than interested in Japanese wrestling, feeling the Apter mags had a bias towards leagues like All Japan and New Japan. I didn’t give a crap about workrate or superhuman endurance. I liked the product that the WWF was putting on my TV every week. As a kid, I was also bored by WCW’s involvement with New Japan and would tune out when they imported Japanese stars for special PPV matches and crossover TV matches.
Years later, in the early 2010s, I started making my way through all the supercards of the NWA and WCW. For the first time, I truly came to appreciate an alternative product, really loving the sports oriented grit and intensity of the NWA. I loved the adult-oriented storylines, blood and guts wrestling of the NWA, and enjoyed the more clean, scientific style presented by WCW in the early 90s. In these cards, I started to see more and more Japanese stars and matches. By the early 90s, WCW had a deal with New Japan and would run yearly Tokyo Dome supershows, which were the predecessors to Wrestle Kingdom.
I enjoyed these events and started to enjoy the Japanese stars. I was inspired to finally give New Japan and 90s Japanese wrestling a chance, but still, despite this new appreciation for the NWA style, I could not fully get into Japanese wrestling.
Culturally it’s so different. It’s presented as a legit sport, and the fans play along and buy into this concept. The matches are structured around maximum impact, with punishing blows and super moves galore. Matches are given far more time and are often long, gruelling, brutal battles that go on and on. On the other end of the spectrum, there’s a lot of really bad matches, like really bad, and that seems to be part of the culture of the show. It was just never something that could hold my attention and make me want to see more.
Fast forward a few years later. Over the last year, I’ve been reading more and more about New Japan and the fantastic sounding Wrestle Kingdom events. Because of their increased popularity in the US, New Japan added English commentary a few years ago for their major shows , which “purists” may not care for, but casual fans definitely enjoy. Instead of importing tanks and brutes like Stan Hansen and Vader, NJPW has been bringing in top indie stars and well renowned grapplers from the American, UK, and Australian indie scene, changing their brand to a far more athletic type of wrestling. Modern wrestling fans, specifically the IWC, seem to have a hive mind on what wrestling should be nowadays, and there’s no denying the fact that NXT, WWE, ROH, and New Japan have far more in common now than at any other point in time. I’ve been following these developments and for the first time ever, really been paying attention to Japanese wrestling over the last year.
Also helping matters is the star performances of Winnipeg’s Kenny Omega. I remember seeing him at a few of the indie shows in the early 00s we went to, and was surprised to see what a big international name he became. I was even more surprised to see that he was competing in some of the highest ranked matches in wrestling history, given that he’s still seen around Winnipeg all the time and has had matches against blow up dolls and little girls before. Omega’s rise really piqued my curiosity.
So with all that being said, when my brother-in-law texted me at the beginning of January and offered me access to his New Japan web account, I jumped at the chance to finally watch a current Japanese event and see if I could get into it.
The Tokyo Dome looked awesome for this event. Very cool setup in a massive stadium. The basics of the setup were still very similar to the old 90s cards, as ringside fans aren’t actually close to the ring, but are farther back to make room for all the photographers, media, commentators, and young boys at ringside. Other anomalies include doctors checking on wrestlers after the matches and giving them ice packs.
The English commentators for the event were Kevin Kelly and Don ‘Cyrus’ Callis, and they made for a fantastic commentary team, mixing in lots of information about the wrestlers, explanations of the characters, calling all the moves, and even working in little shoot comments, which I found hilarious. For me, great commentary makes even an average event all that much better. It compliments the storytelling in the ring and keeps you interested all the way through. Cyrus was great, making funny personal references to things like picking up women in Rippongi. Great work.
I don’t really remember a lot of the older Japanese stars having much in the way of gimmicks, but all the new era workers have heavily gimmicked and detailed characters. Lots of flamboyant hair and costumes and imagery, some really outlandish and zany. A lot of it is so oddly cultural. Like I didn’t even get what they were going for, but I’m sure the IWC could educate me on the nuances of these guys.
Pre Show) New Japan Rumble: Masahito Kakihara defeated Bushi, Chase Owens, Cheeseburger, David Finlay, Delirious, El Desperado, Gino Gambino, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Katsuya Kitamura, Leo Tonga, Manabu Nakanishi, Satoshi Kojima, Taka Michinoku, Tiger Mask, Toa Henare, Yoshi-Hashi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yuji Nagata and Yujiro Takahashi 31:06
The Pre-show featured a Royal Rumble style match, the New Japan Rumble, which featured wrestlers coming down every minute. You could get eliminated by being thrown over the top or by pinfall and submission, which really gave this a lot of unique excitement. The Rumble was a mix of lower card guys, group members, old legends, a couple rookies, and a few surprises. It was cool seeing old WCW memories like Tenzan and Nagata, who were truly huge stars in Japan. The old guys are there to primarily put over the young talent it seems. Also in there was a heel Taka Michinoku, who has really filled out since his WWE days. He’s part of a stable called Suzuki-gun and they were trying to rip the mask off of Jushin Liger and disrespect him. One of the most over guys in the match was a surprise character – Cheeseburger. He’s a super skinny kid from ROH that just gets pummelled, but the Japanese fans love him for some unexplained reason. Cheeseburger wears this costume decorated with burger toppings. I dunno, maybe he’s an IWC favorite? A couple Bullet Club B-team members in this match. Cool to see all these new and different characters. The winner, Kakihara, is more of a feel good story, as this was his first match back after battling cancer. Can’t say I’ve ever seen that before! He gets the feel-good victory and will donate his winner’s money to another wrestler battling cancer. This was a real fun way to start the show.
1) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) defeated Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) (with Rocky Romero) by submission 18:49
I’ve heard nothing but praise and love for the cocky Young Bucks on the internet for years. Such ROH, PWG and indie favorites. I’ve seen clips of their matches and I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge fan. To me, they embody the new video game style – endless high flying and super moves with no real rhyme or reason. I’m sure I’m in the minority thinking that, as I know my brother-in-law loves them and buys all their merch and DVDs, which are hot sellers on the net. This operated like a regular tag match to start, then seemingly broke down into a tornado style match for a long portion, then back to a regular tag match. What the fuck is the point of even having tag rules or a referee? Their opponents were Roppongi 3K. Roppongi is the foreigner/party district of Tokyo and is all about flashiness and excitement. The two wrestlers on this team were very skinny and effeminate, but were pretty good wrestlers. Parts of this match were really good, and we actually got some selling from Matt Jackson, leading to a thrilling finish.
2) Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: Chaos (Beretta, Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) defeated Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Michael Elgin and War Machine (Hanson and Raymond Rowe), Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Takashi Iizuka and Zack Sabre Jr.) and Taguchi Japan (Juice Robinson, Ryusuke Taguchi and Togi Makabe) 17:03
This was some kind of crazy four way match for the six man tag team titles. Why is it called a NEVER Openweight? Why is NEVER capitalized? All these bizarre things that I’ll have to look up. These three teams are all groups or subgroups, which was a little confusing. I liked the heel Suzuki-gun group, as they had a mob mentality, but the Tongan members of the Bullet Club were my favorites. It was elimination style, and the group of Chaos emerged victorious, despite taking a crazy amount of punishment. Fun match!
3) Kota Ibushi defeated Cody (with Brandi Rhodes) 15:08
After leaving the WWE, Cody (no longer Rhodes?) has made a big name for himself on the independent scene, wrestling in top matches and becoming one of the key members of the Bullet Club. He’s even dyed his hair blonde to look more like his old man. Cody was an awesome heel on this show, accompanied by Brandi. They cut a great promo and promised the destruction of Ibushi. Ibushi was big time over as a face. One thing I loved about the commentary is that they explained why guys like Ibushi were so over and pointed out his recent accomplishments at other events like the G1 Climax Tournament. It added so much more to these matches. This was a really good back and forth battle, with really nasty heel stuff from Cody, including a sick looking Crossroads off the apron to the floor that looked like it could have broken Ibushi’s neck. Ibushi picked up the big win, which seemed like a surprise. Great match.
4) IWGP Tag Team Championship: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Sanada) defeated Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) 14:14
This was awesome. The team of Evil and Sanada had cool costumes and a cool dark gimmick. So many great gimmicks on this card actually. Their opponents were the Killer Elite Squad, made up of two huge foreigners – Davey Boy Jr. and Lance Archer, both of whom were former Smackdown midcarders who went to New Japan and reinvigorated their careers. One thing I noticed, there’s a lot of ‘killing’ themed gimmicks in Japan – Killer Elite Squad, Bullet Club, Switchblade Jay White, etc. No way that these kinds of violent gimmicks would ever be allowed in the WWE in today’s fucked up society. Killer Elite Squad acted liked monster heels of old in Japan, like when guys like Mike Awesome and Vader used to terrorize the company. They absolutely DESTROYED Evil and Sanada right from the opening bell, beating the ever loving shit out of them. They beat them up inside and outside of the ring, and even beat the shit out of the young boys at ringside for good measure. The story of the match though, was that Evil and Sanada kept finding some way to kick out or avoid being pinned. Slowly they began to mount a comeback and in a shocking surprise, actually beat the Killer Elite Squad for the titles in a fluke finish. The Japanese fans loved it. Such an old fashioned storyline of a Japanese team overcoming two foreign monsters. Great stuff.
5) NEVER Openweight Championship,Hair vs. hair: Hirooki Goto defeated Minoru Suzuki 18:04
Holy shit, this was like the Japanese matches of old. Two fireplugs beating the shit out of each other. They absolutely pummeled one another with insanely stiff shots, sickening slaps to the face and chest, and punishing suplexes. Goto had welts on his face from the beating. This was a total old school New Japan style match. Suzuki is almost 50 years old and a former MMA fighter, so that makes sense. Weirdly, it was a hair vs hair match, which is one of the ultimate forms of public shame in Japan. I thought for sure Goto would lose since he had a full fluffy mullet, but somehow he beat Suzuki. Despite initially refusing, Suzuki came back into the ring, sat down in a chair and shaved his own hair, which is how public humiliation is actually done in Japan. Considering he didn’t have much hair to begin with, it didn’t seem like that big of deal, but apparently it was.
6) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay defeated Marty Scurll, Hiromu Takahashi and Kushida 21:18
This is one of the matches that had the internet blowing up. Four of the most amazing cruiserweights in the world pulling out all the stops. To me, it was like watching a video game, which in this case wasn’t a bad thing. Insane daredevil highflying and extremely innovate moves. Osperay is from the UK and is super over. Marty Scurll is also from the UK and is a member of the Bullet Club. He carries an umbrella to the ring that looks like a gun, which he aims at his opponents. Takahashi has some kind of flamboyant John Morrison gimmick happening, and Kushida has a Back to the Future gimmick, which was pretty damn cool. This match really delivered and blows away anything resembling a WWE cruiserweight match. In one insane moment, while they were brawling on the floor, Ospreay scaled a lighting tower and moonsaulted onto the other three. Just nuts. The finish went back and forth and back and forth. So many times it looked like it would be over, with Ospreay eventually winning the title. Cool stuff.
7) IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Jay White 19:56
Not a bad match, but nothing spectacular. Good idea to place it after the cruiserweights and before the two main event matches. Good, solid back and forth wrestling over the IC title lol. Tanahashi won which made the fans happy. The internet fans didn’t seem to care for it, but I thought it was a well-wrestled match.
8) IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, No Disqualification: Kenny Omega defeated Chris Jericho 34:36
Wowwwwww – SUPER MATCH!! This was so damn good, worthy of all the hype and build up. Jericho’s first non WWE match since 1999 and it was a classic. One of his best of all time. Obviously, being a part time guy approaching 50, Jericho can’t go like he once did, but damn does he ever deliver. And what can be said of Kenny Omega? He is truly one of the best in the world right now. I was so damn impressed watching him and Jericho pull out all the stops and they put on a true classic. This reminded me of a ruthless aggression era brawl. The brawling and weapons all served a purpose and helped build the match to an epic finish of moves inside the ring. Jericho was an epic heel showman, taunting the crowd, giving them the finger and being an all around asshole. He even grabbed a camera from a ringside photographer and took a picture of himself!! LOL! He kept mocking the crowd and mimicking their screams for “KENNNNNEEEEEEEEE”. He even pushed down the well respected ref and grabbed the ref’s son, who was a young boy at ringside, and smacked him around and put him into the walls of Jericho. Fucking tremendous heel work! Jericho was the aggressor for much of the match, and really laid an intense beating on Omega. Kenny had some great comebacks and was really taking it to Jericho at times, but Y2J had firm control through much of it. Omega pulled off the huge win at the end by planting Jericho with his finisher, the One Winged Angel, on top of a chair to win this epic battle. Damn this was so good. The best match I’ve seen in years, easily one of my favorites of the modern era.
9) IWGP Heavyweight Championship Kazuchika Okada (with Gedo) defeated Tetsuya Naito 34:26
I thought nothing could compare to the previous match, but damn this was great, definitely on par with Omega-Jericho. It was an intense battle from start to finish that built and built and built Okada is considered one of the true best in the world and he really delivered. Naito was super over and the fans were clamoring for him to win the title. Despite giving it his absolute all, Okada managed to best him and trump him with his Rainmaker finisher. So many cool moves and insane reversals. The pace never let up and this was a seesaw, action packed battle from beginning to end. Damn what a great match to end a great card.
My opinion of this show is really high. I loved watching Wrestle Kingdom 12 and I’m really curious to download more New Japan stuff. Admittedly, I liked the American style Jericho-Omega match best, but really enjoyed all the other matches and characters. It was pretty hard to take everything seriously and there was some seriously goofy stuff, but all in all it was a damn great night of wrestling. I still don’t know if I can fully get into New Japan, but I might just make more of an effort going forward.
the RepoDan Wrestling Institution 