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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome 1/4/19


Raziel

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1 minute ago, The Natural said:

Need to watch all three again. I think the following might be unpopular, I had the G1 Climax match as my favourite of the three.

They were all great. But Dontaku was just, for me, something special even in a year full of great matches in New Japan.

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I'm not sure if it was my favourite match of theirs last year, but I really, really loved the ending where Tanahashi managed to get himself out of wrist control segment with slaps, but got caught with Rainmaker anyway. To me it was perfect "so close, yet so far" moment.

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the WK13 DAVEs are in

rates the Gauntlet as 4 separate matches:
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Bullet Club *3/4
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Best Friends/Goto ***
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Suzuki-gun *1/2
- Suzuki-gun v Yano/Taguchi/Makabe ***

Ospreay v Ibushi ****3/4
LIJ v R3K v Suzuki-gun ***1/4
Ishii v ZSJr ****1/4
BOCOGz v Yung Bux v LIJ ****
Cody v Juice ***
KUSHIDA v Ishmori ***1/2
White v Short Shorts ****1/2
Naito v Y2DAD ****3/4
Ace of Life v Ken *****1/2 ("Hopefully I can run this down next week. Live I went *****½, and most of the feedback was in that range (mostly *****1/4 to ******) but I need to be able to watch it without interruption to give a fair rating. In the building this was maybe the best live match I ever saw.")

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1 hour ago, sevendaughters said:

the WK13 DAVEs are in

rates the Gauntlet as 4 separate matches:
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Bullet Club *3/4
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Best Friends/Goto ***
- Nagata/Cobb/Finlay v Suzuki-gun *1/2
- Suzuki-gun v Yano/Taguchi/Makabe ***

Ospreay v Ibushi ****3/4
LIJ v R3K v Suzuki-gun ***1/4
Ishii v ZSJr ****1/4
BOCOGz v Yung Bux v LIJ ****
Cody v Juice ***
KUSHIDA v Ishmori ***1/2
White v Short Shorts ****1/2
Naito v Y2DAD ****3/4
Ace of Life v Ken *****1/2 ("Hopefully I can run this down next week. Live I went *****½, and most of the feedback was in that range (mostly *****1/4 to ******) but I need to be able to watch it without interruption to give a fair rating. In the building this was maybe the best live match I ever saw.")

Thanks for these. I'll have a bash. Chuckled at Short Shorts and Y2DAD BTW.

Ospreay vs. Ibushi ****1/2
LIJ vs. R3K vs. Suzuki-gun ***1/2
Ishii vs. Sabre Jr. ****1/4
BOCOGz vs. Young Bucks vs. LIJ ****
Cody vs. Juice ***
KUSHIDA vs. Ishmori ***1/2
White vs. Okada ****3/4
Naito vs. Jericho ****3/4
Omega vs. Tanahashi ****3/4 or *****. I don't go above five.

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19 hours ago, The Natural said:

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Minoru Suzuki at King of Pro-Wrestling 2012

such a brilliant match isn't it? full of tiny details and little brilliances. the little fist bump to TAKA telling him to go away, I got this one. the stuff with the taping. THAT dragon screw. Suzuki's amazing armbar transition. a great heel performance begetting a great babyface performance. great finish too. might watch this again later.

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*** for Cody vs Juice? What the hell? I may need to go back and watch this again because it felt like it was over and done with incredibly fast with not a lot happening in it. On first watch, it really felt like a short Raw match.

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2 minutes ago, Craig H said:

*** for Cody vs Juice? What the hell?

That's pretty damn generous, when Juice can't get a decent match out of you, you pretty much suck. Has anyone else in wrestling history had the background, the training, and the opportunity and still sucked as bad as Cody Rhodes? He's passed John Laurinitas on this scale and that takes some doing.

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11 minutes ago, OSJ said:

That's pretty damn generous, when Juice can't get a decent match out of you, you pretty much suck. Has anyone else in wrestling history had the background, the training, and the opportunity and still sucked as bad as Cody Rhodes? He's passed John Laurinitas on this scale and that takes some doing.

I don't think he sucks but maybe Cody is just not meant for New Japan.  It made sense to bring him in for the Bullet Club stuff but I found he's had better matches outside of NJ.

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Just now, NikoBaltimore said:

I don't think he sucks but maybe Cody is just not meant for New Japan.  It made sense to bring him in for the Bullet Club stuff but I found he's had better matches outside of NJ.

You are a kind and forgiving soul. 

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4 minutes ago, OSJ said:

You are a kind and forgiving soul. 

I try my best, sir.  But I thought he fared quite nicely in ROH with some singles matches he had.  I also find him rather enjoyable in a lot of multi-man matches that he was in especially when he was a heel.

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1 hour ago, sevendaughters said:

such a brilliant match isn't it? full of tiny details and little brilliances. the little fist bump to TAKA telling him to go away, I got this one. the stuff with the taping. THAT dragon screw. Suzuki's amazing armbar transition. a great heel performance begetting a great babyface performance. great finish too. might watch this again later.

It really is for those reasons. There's Tanahashi doing his air guitar taunt while Suzuki's in an abdominal stretch which Suzuki doesn't take kindly to, Suzuki's leg collapsing getting Irish whipped from the rope and there's only one pin attempt. I really rated the match at the time giving it the full five but it's one I've come to appreciate more.

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37 minutes ago, Craig H said:

*** for Cody vs Juice? What the hell? I may need to go back and watch this again because it felt like it was over and done with incredibly fast with not a lot happening in it. On first watch, it really felt like a short Raw match.

I was too generous as well.

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I said it before and I'll say it again. Cody matches are a chore to watch. He seems to have a good mind for the business of wrestling but the in-ring art form just isn't his thing and really, it never has been.

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Cody was born to be a mid-card, secondary title holder. He can generate the right heat and hold up his end of matches but he can't really bring those skills to a main event level and Juice isn't the guy to help that. My worst nightmare is 8-time AEW World Champ Cody feuding with Zolph Diggler.

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1 minute ago, Godfrey said:

Cody was born to be a mid-card, secondary title holder. He can generate the right heat and hold up his end of matches but he can't really bring those skills to a main event level and Juice isn't the guy to help that. My worst nightmare is 8-time AEW World Champ Cody feuding with Zolph Diggler.

Ah....a Jarrett-esque nightmare....

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Handsome Battle is a legitimately great match, and although Ibushi's Ibushi, Cody isn't just along for the ride. Generally, he worked well during and sold the hell out of the whole Golden Lovers reunion angle. The crazed face he makes after Ibushi runs him off is perfect hammy villaining.

But yeah, he doesn't put it together as much as you'd expect, considering... everything, really. He's a good looking guy, in great shape, with a legitimately impressive athletic (~shooter~) background, fun (over)acting, and a really creative mind for the business. Someone with all that should be among the best in the world, and yet he peaks at pretty good--and too often he doesn't even reach that.

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Cody vs. Juice was like  two stars max IMHO. 

Also, Cody vs. Juice are capable of a much better match. They had a very good match that went about twice as long at Fighting Spirit Unleashed. Cody was working with a knee injury and clearly not 100 percent. He came in, did the clean job to Juice and made Juice look good and let him get the belt back and gave him a nice win at the Tokyo Dome. That was pretty much the point of the match. Cody was not in shape enough to have a clinic or mat classic.

Let's be honest. Meltzer is clearly biased when it comes to Bucks, Omega, and NJPW and he tends to boost those star ratings up a bit.

Thought Omega/Tanahashi was a great match. Not big on star ratings, but I would put it more around 4 1/2 stars. I don't like going over five either. 

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1 hour ago, Godfrey said:

Cody was born to be a mid-card, secondary title holder. He can generate the right heat and hold up his end of matches but he can't really bring those skills to a main event level and Juice isn't the guy to help that. My worst nightmare is 8-time AEW World Champ Cody feuding with Zolph Diggler.

Whole Cody situation to me is funny. In my opinion his entire post-WWE run has shown that WWE didn't really "waste" him. But being out of WWE allowed him to fully use his "business mind" and present himself as main event star even if he really isn't. And well it worked, he got over and now is likely going to be main eventer in big new company. Question is, how long will it last.

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As Vile mentioned, Cody has been working for a couple months on a knee with multiple meniscus tears. ***definitely seems high, but he had two very good matches with Ibushi, two very good if somewhat overcooked matches with Omega, a really fun old-school match with Nick Aldis, and a good match with Robinson in 2018. He's capable of solid stuff when he's healthy. Plus, I mean, dude got over in a HUGE way as both a heel and a face when he needed to.

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