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

[Pete]

6 hours ago, lostinube said:

Oh yeah, before the single matches began all of the NOAH guys came out en masse. Kenoh cut a promo but the best part was Mutoh whipping out his phone as Kenoh and Kaito did a dramatic "We're all in this together" handshake so that he could do this:

 

 

[Eivion]

3 hours ago, RRR said:

So give Will a pass because you love his wrestling but not Marty? Got it. 

One dates underage girls while the other is moron and dick. Not quite the same. 

[username]

I tuned in to catch the Shibata catch wrestling match and having it immediately switched to regular rules... that was probably the skeeviest I felt watching a wrestling match in ages and I'm now completely done with this Shibata comeback and just hoping he gets through it unscathed.

 

Really with so many wrestlers over the past few years going "you know what, I've decided my career ending injury actually isn't that big of a deal" it feels like the odds of a real legitimate tragedy happening are so very high now (to be blunt I'd be more shocked if nothing goes wrong now) and no one cares as long as they get some cool matches out of it. 

[The Natural]

Spoiler

 

 

[Archibald]

Random thoughts:

Yoh/Sho was disappointing. Going in it looked like it was supposed to be a feud ender, but it was just a match. Weaker than their first and definitely weaker than their BotSJ match. And next day Sho did beat Yoh in tag match. Baffling decisions.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with Tananashi tag team match ending with a DQ. It is a preview match for another day so it should build towards it and a lead up to NO DQ match ending in a DQ to me makes perfect sense.

Ishii/Evil was so bad it was funny. But then I stopped laughing and wanted to cry.

Yoshi/Goto vs Taichi/ZSJ was great and I'm very happy that Yoshi got this. He was the heart behind their great trios title run and worked his ass off in WTL. Nice to see that hard work pays off.

Shibata/Narita, Desperado/Hiromu, Cobb/Naito, both Okada main events were great.

Tanahashi/KENTA was absurd. If nobody is injured then images of Tanahashi jumping from the ladder and bloody table will likely become iconic images going forward. I usually don't like bullshit matches, but that ending was so insane that it is likely my MOTY at the moment.

Edited January 6, 2022 by Archibald

[Doragon]

The match order of night 3 has been decided.

https://www.njpw1972.com/112038

[Guest Jimbo_Tsuruta]

Hopefully Kenta is alright. 

The last shit match I actively sought out was Sharmell v Jenna Morasca, how long is Ishii v EVIL? 

[Craig H]

Not that long and it's not even that shitty. It just had a shitton of interference with it taking 4 guys to beat Ishii and the usual completely inept reffing in NJPW.

[Doragon]

Kenta out with multiple injuries, he will be replaced with a mystery man.

Edited January 7, 2022 by D.Z

[matt925]

9 minutes ago, D.Z said:

Kenta out with multiple injuries, he will be replaced with a mystery man.

Terrible man. I don’t think we’ll be seeing a 12ft ladder in new japan again. 

[The Natural]

27 minutes ago, matt925 said:

Terrible man. I don’t think we’ll be seeing a 12ft ladder in new japan again. 

Jesus. Yeah, there's no way that ladder makes a comeback. Wouldn't be surprised if No DQ matches which don't happen often are shelved as well. Hip pain really hurts and to dislocate one, damn.

Edited January 7, 2022 by The Natural

[Ramo2653]

Damn Kenta! It looked bad but boy oh boy is that bad.

I'm pretty much in agreement with the consensus in what matches are bad and what were good. The Shibata thing was kinda cool from my end, I assumed he would come back to full time eventually, I doubt he was working towards only doing no strikes matches.

I don't like that the announcers shit over the House of Torture stuff, like have some outrage and plead for the faces to figure out how to stop it, but shitting on it doesn't help anyone. With that said, it's fucking awful and I'd like to see someone get a real measure of revenge.

Part of me wanted Shingo to win on both nights but I figured it wasn't going to happen. Excited for the 1/8 show though, I haven't seen much of the Noah guys.

[The Natural]

Spoiler

 

 

[matwarz]

My first thought was immediately that terrific first defence he had against Naito at korakuen. What a great match that was.

[The Natural]

38 minutes ago, matwarz said:

My first thought was immediately that terrific first defence he had against Naito at korakuen. What a great match that was.

At the 40th Anniversary Show, March 2012. Still their best match. Gave it the full ***** and in my top ten of twenty Best NJPW Matches, 2012-2021.

[The Natural]

NJPW's had it real bad with injuries from last year with Kazuchika Okada, Hiromu Takahashi, Will Ospreay, Tetsuya Naito, Kota Ibushi and now in 2022 with KENTA and also Jeff Cobb's knee injury.

[SturmCRF]

On 1/5/2022 at 5:18 PM, RRR said:

So give Will a pass because you love his wrestling but not Marty? Got it. 

No, clearly not. I will give Will a pass, while feeling a bit uneasy about it, because the thing he was accused of, while bad, was significantly less bad than what Marty was accused of, and was at least partially debunked, as far as whether he actually caused Polyanna to be blackballed. It sounds like he's an idiot who acted shittily to misguidedly defend a close friend, which is less definitively unforgivable than being a sexual predator using wrestling to prey on young women.

Separately from that, I enjoy Ospreay's wrestling a lot, he does graceful flippy stuff and he hits people hard. I think Scurrl was a good wrestler who polluted his matches with shitty finger spots and pandering to fans far too much to be an effective heel.

[LoneWolf&Subs]

I can give Will a pass as long as he gets back on track, and stays there. The problem with Ospreay is that he isn’t that potential “top guy” anymore. A mix of the controversy in the UK which isn’t his alone(and the fact that it crippled the UK wrestling fanbase as a whole), and his push being in the middle of a pandemic period basically made whatever rise he had moot. I mean the whole point of his push was to bring in not only interest from US fans, but also create more interest from the UK, and potentially run a bigger building over there. That ain’t happening anymore. So what he needs to do is reinvent himself yet again. Look to Pillman, or Naito, or someone else. Like he’s kinda doing the crazy person thing, but it’s the Conor McGreggor “Crazy Person on Top” thing, and clearly Will has never truly been on top. He needs to fall again, before he can rise.
 

Honestly going to the WWE would probably do him good. I can imagine them just completely turning him into a loser, and then letting him go pretty fast. That would completely burn his ego a bit, and maybe send him a message. Which makes me feel bad to say because he’s basically killed himself the past five years going a 100mph thinking he’d set himself for life, and it’s done the opposite. Still anything that could kill his ego before he does worse, isn’t necessarily a bad thing.

Edited January 7, 2022 by LoneWolf&Subs

[The Natural]

 

Edited January 7, 2022 by The Natural

[LoneWolf&Subs]

That ten man tag could be a sleeper MOTY. Shame the crowd will be silent once again for this. This should be the turnaround match, but it’ll be stifled because of the circumstances surrounding the pandemic.

[The Natural]

Dave Meltzer Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Night One) ratings:

• SHO vs YOH: 3.
• Shibata vs. Narita: 3.5.
• EVIL vs. Ishii: 1.
• Dangerous Tekkers vs. Goto/YOSHI-HASHI: 4.25.
• El Desperado vs. Takahashi: 4.25.
• Okada vs. Takagi: 4.75.

Dave Meltzer Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Night Two) ratings:

• ELP/Ishimori vs. Flying Tiger vs. Mega Coaches: 4.
• Iwatani/Starlight Kid vs Kamitani/Nakano: 4.
• CIMA vs. Owens vs Suzuki. vs Yano: 3.
• Great-O-Khan vs. SANADA: 3.25.
• Naito vs. Cobb: 3.75.
• KENTA vs. Tanahashi: 4.
• Okada vs. Ospreay: 5.75.

I'd go between ****3/4-***** for Okada vs. Takagi and Okada vs. Ospreay. I went ****1/2 for KENTA vs. Tanahashi and ****1/4 for Naito vs. Cobb.

[TheVileOne]

To think Shibata returned to the ring after having his brain removed from his skull and put back.

[Raziel]

And then shot himself in to a work with no reprucissions!

 

 

[sabremike]

15 hours ago, The Natural said:

Jesus. Yeah, there's no way that ladder makes a comeback. Wouldn't be surprised if No DQ matches which don't happen often are shelved as well. Hip pain really hurts and to dislocate one, damn.

What if the DDT Ladder comes out of retirement and demands a grudge match?

[Doragon]

Looking forward to NJPW vs NOAH, Strong Style vs NOAH-ism. 

Hopefully Muto betrays Kaito and moonsaults him for good measure. Anyway both promotions should book Kaito pinning Tana in a huge uspet and build a program with those two.