Jump to content
DVDVR Message Board

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 2022: 1/4, 1/5 and 1/8


Archibald

Recommended Posts

I went into this show with the least amount of fanfare since the one w/ TenCozy vs. Mutoh 'n Chono (ugh) ever, I missed the undercard, and it's kinda funny. Other than the excruciating EVIL match, everything I watched was still really good. I hope Despy vs. Hiromu was an intelligent creative choice to save a big match for a louder crowd and not a harbinger of Hiromu's health. Shibata looked good but that match, somehow, was all about Ren. The main was worthy and had me believing in Shingo just a little. And I thought Tekkers vs. CHAOS was well above "solid".

For an event that's going to be remembered as disappointing, it had more great matches than a lot of great cards. It just... failed to live up to the highest standard in pro-wrestling. Gave us two matches with Dick Togo on the outside. Was missing large chunks of the roster. Had a crowd that couldn't cheer. Had Okada pick up that stupid fucking belt he'd been trashing. Gave us whatever the hell Will Ospreay was looking/sounding like. Basically, my sushi bar downgraded me from uni to ikura but I'll still eat ikura. It tastes good.

Edited by John E. Dynamite
  • Like 3
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Ren Narita is a good-looking prospect. I wonder if he can put on weight and be a heavyweight. Because I feel like one thing the pandemic has exposed is the dearth of Japanese heavyweight talent that the Dojo has produced for most of the last decade. Before O-Khan was called up last year, the last heavyweight native Dojo grad to stick was EVIL...who debuted in 2015. I think that has contributed a lot to the feeling of staleness without the imports. (And think how much thinner it would be without Ibushi and Shingo. Yikes.)

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Watching it now while working. I'm up to the Will, Khan, Cobb vs SANADA, Bushi, Naito match. So far I'm pretty underwhelmed. The previous 6-man ending on a DQ because of Tanahashi's ultra shitty looking kendo stick strikes was fucking lame.

Anyway, I'm only on the entrances, but Will's hair fucking sucks. It's the shittiest looking hair and it makes a dumb person look even dumber. The only thing that is remarkable is that him carrying all of the titles looks cool, but it would look far cooler on someone else. SANADA looking like he's channeling Chono certainly is a thing. Hopefully this match is good because so far this show has been pretty meh.

EDIT: A few minutes in and man do I fucking hate Great-O-Khan. Everything about him sucks. His offense looks like shit. All of his screaming is fucking lame. This is like some bullshit Vince would have cooked up after sharing Pat Patterson's coke by the poolside back in 1991. Naito wrestling in a t-shirt at WK is sad as fuck. Cobb is the shit though. Oh. Cool. SANADA is still doing the Paradise Lock. Great. SANADA is like the biggest disappointment. He has nearly everything to be a top guy in NJPW except for some of this stupid shit he does.

Edited by Craig H
  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

It's an underwhelming show, @Craig H especially for a Wrestle Kingdom. Persevere for Katsuyori Shibata's return and Shingo Takagi vs. Kazuchika Okada. Only those felt like a Wrestle Kingdom. If you want to rage, watch Tomohiro Ishii vs. EVIL.

Edited by The Natural
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 minute ago, Craig H said:

What in the fucking fuck? That's it? Those 6 dudes in that match and it's already over? The fuck is that? 

That's a problem with two Wrestle Kingdom shows with meaningless six man matches on the 4th to build for the singles on the 5th. Said this before but you're my favourite cusser on the board.

Edited by The Natural
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah, I know. I shouldn't expect much from the tags considering everyone is saving themselves for night 2. Even still, it's hard to swallow a 6-man with all of those dudes going down like it's a random non-PPV show.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

13 minutes ago, Craig H said:

Yeah, I know. I shouldn't expect much from the tags considering everyone is saving themselves for night 2. Even still, it's hard to swallow a 6-man with all of those dudes going down like it's a random non-PPV show.

I find it hard to swallow while knowing why. Feels like a house show when it's NJPW's biggest show of the year.

Edited by The Natural
Link to comment
Share on other sites

10 minutes ago, The Natural said:

I find it hard to swallow while knowing why. Feels like a house show when it's NJPW's biggest show of the year.

I had to look up the cards for it yesterday. I didn't hear any buzz for this show, which is a first in a few years. Last year's didn't garner much either, but I had a rough idea.

I wonder if the two night format, plus losing a lot of gaijin talent, plus the pandemic maybe makes them need to consider trimming down a bit until things regain steam.

I'll probably watch stuff that seems worth watching over the weekend.

I'm surprised 1/8 is being called a WK show. Card-wise it's NYD. 

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Everyone scared about Ospreay winning, here's something...

 

Okada is working opposite Mutoh on Saturday.  Ospreay isn't booked.  You think they're gonna do a NJPW vs NOAH show and NOT have the belt there?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Spoiler

Despy wants to face El Lindaman from GLEAT. Not sure but Depsy probably killed off Hiromu's  All Star Junior League goal, but goals can be run with other wrestlers and morph into something else way later.

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, John E. Dynamite said:

I went into this show with the least amount of fanfare since the one w/ TenCozy vs. Mutoh 'n Chono (ugh) ever, I missed the undercard, and it's kinda funny. Other than the excruciating EVIL match, everything I watched was still really good. I hope Despy vs. Hiromu was an intelligent creative choice to save a big match for a louder crowd and not a harbinger of Hiromu's health. Shibata looked good but that match, somehow, was all about Ren. The main was worthy and had me believing in Shingo just a little. And I thought Tekkers vs. CHAOS was well above "solid".

For an event that's going to be remembered as disappointing, it had more great matches than a lot of great cards. It just... failed to live up to the highest standard in pro-wrestling. Gave us two matches with Dick Togo on the outside. Was missing large chunks of the roster. Had a crowd that couldn't cheer. Had Okada pick up that stupid fucking belt he'd been trashing. Gave us whatever the hell Will Ospreay was looking/sounding like. Basically, my sushi bar downgraded me from uni to ikura but I'll still eat ikura. It tastes good.

This. Thank you @John E. Dynamite for articulating this so well, could not have said it better myself (and obviously haven't haha). 

The show yesterday was really easy to watch, and didn't drag which was my problem with the old WKs before 14 was. While they were epic in some cases, my god did they feel long. I do think that with the weakened roster that 2 nights is a bit much, but I am fine with the 2 nights of WK in normal circumstances. Its just very unfortunate that, due to the lack of hype and current issues surrounding New Japan that it seems people are not watching or mistaking lack of hype with poor quality. 

An interesting point brought up is the lack of native heavyweights causing a depth issue. They did lose 3 potential heavyweights from the O-Khan/Wato group due to injuries/other issues (Yagi, Kitamura, Kanemitsu. There was also Honjo but I can't remember if he even officially had a debut) but in the next 12-24 months Umino, Tsuji and Uemura will fix this along with LA Dojo guys once they can travel, possibly Narita too but I still think he stay as a junior. 

Everything has peaks and valleys, right now NJPW is in a valley (though I do remember the valleys of the early/mid 2000s and this definitely isn't close to that) but I still think there are positives that in a post-COVID (or living with COVID) world that they can build upon. Maybe they wont get back to that WK 14 peak (I was there and the atmosphere and buzz was fucking incredible) so quickly, but things definitely will get better (or maybe I'm just a blind optimist for something I've been following 20 years). Hopefully this being their 50th anniversary, they can use it as a catalyst to restoring that buzz they had pre-COVID.

Hoping they announce their 2022 schedule tonight, the girlfriend wants to go back to Japan to see her family and we want to try schedule it around Dominion which I am thinking/hoping could be the first major show with their gaijin roster able to take part/cheering allowed/no capacity caps and there is some semblance of normality. Fingers crossed!

  • Like 2
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Just read the results from night 1. The Evil/Ishii match sounds brutal. I think the only time I ever kind of enjoyed EVIL was in tag matches with SANADA. Everything else on the show sounds like it's worth checking out whenever I can find the time.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

35 minutes ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Just read the results from night 1. The Evil/Ishii match sounds brutal. I think the only time I ever kind of enjoyed EVIL was in tag matches with SANADA. Everything else on the show sounds like it's worth checking out whenever I can find the time.

EVIL/Tomohiro Ishii really was brutal. Poor Ishii. Definitely check out Kazuchika Okada vs. Shingo Takagi and the return of Katsuyori Shibata.

I've watched most Wrestle Kingdom events and I'd say Wrestle Kingdom 16, Night 1 was the worst.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The singles portion of night two is going to start soon.

They are going to run the PayPay Dome (formerly the Fukuoka Dome, the Yahoo Dome, the Yahoo Auction Dome) on May 1st. Don't know if that replaces Wrestling Dontaku or not. I'm pretty sure the capacity of the dome is more than two nights at the Kokusai Center though.

 

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

7 minutes ago, lostinube said:

The singles portion of night two is going to start soon.

They are going to run the PayPay Dome (formerly the Fukuoka Dome, the Yahoo Dome, the Yahoo Auction Dome) on May 1st. Don't know if that replaces Wrestling Dontaku or not. I'm pretty sure the capacity of the dome is more than two nights at the Kokusai Center though.

 

Don't give a shit about Great-O-Khan/SANADA unlike Tetsuya Naito/Jeff Cobb, KENTA/Hiroshi Tanahashi and:

Spoiler

Kazuchika Okada/Will Ospreay. Let's go Okada!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...