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NJPW WRESTLE KINGDOM 12 in Tokyo Dome Review (Jan 4th 2018)

IWGP Jr. Tag Title Match: Roppongi 3K (c) vs. The Young Bucks ****

NEVER 6 Man Title Gauntlet Match **3/4

Kota Ibushi vs. Cody ****

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Title Match: K.E.S. (c) vs. EVIL & SANADA ***1/2

NEVER Openweight Title Hair vs. Hair Match: Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto ****1/2

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title 4-Way: Marty Scurll (c) vs. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi ****1/2

IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Jay White ***1/2

IWGP U.S. Title Match: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Chris Jericho ****3/4

IWGP Heavyweight Title Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito ****3/4

Photos.

This was a great supershow that, despite its gargantuan runtime, was actually incredibly easy to sit through. I don’t think it was quite as good as the three previous WK’s (specifically the 2015 outing, which I think is one of the greatest cards ever), but it was tremendous stuff nonetheless. One (sort of) negative to the show is that there were some curious winners, but on the whole it didn't matter as the action was so good. I missed around 70% of the pre-show New Japan “Rambo”, but what I did see was suitably horrible. Despite this, it had a super happy ending in that cancer survivor Masahito Kakihara won the thing when he last eliminated Cheeseburger with an STO. He then thanked everyone for donating to the Yoshihiro Takayama foundation, which just made everything seem really feel good. I also had to laugh when Kakihara made his entrance, and the old UWFi theme played, and commentator and UWF legend, Kazuo Yamazaaki teased he was going to enter from the booth.

The main show kicked off with an excellent IWGP Jr Tag Title clash, in which The Young Bucks won the straps for a seventh time. Much like their match last year, this was a great, storyline and psychology driven match from the Jackson’s in which they worked over YOH’s injured back, and in turn RPG 3K worked over Matt’s injured back all match, both of which were sold beautifully, and played into the finish. SHO looked great getting the hot tag and hitting his impressive power spots, including the double German, and I’m sure he’s going to be a big name in the years to come. The finish came at 18:49 after the Bucks hit the Meltzer Driver on YOH, then Nick locked in the Sharpshooter for the submission win. The CHAOS team of Ishii, Yano and Baretta walked out of the Dome as NEVER 6 Man Champions after surviving the gauntlet. This was all-action, but realistically was exactly the same as every other one of these we’ve seen. Sabre Jr, Taichi and Kanemaru eliminated War Machine and Elgin, then the Suzuki-gunners were sent packing by the CHAOS trio seconds thereafter. Taguchi, Makabe and Juice were in next, but Yano rolled up the Funky Weapon to send them home, which left them against defending champions, the BC Polynesian crew of Fale, Tonga and Loa, which ended after Baretta pinned Tama with the Dudebuster at the 17 minute mark. This was all fine.

Kota Ibushi defeated Cody in an excellent match which far exceeded my expectations. This wasn’t quite as good as Cody’s match with Okada in Long Beach, but it was easily in the tope three Cody matches I've ever seen. Ibushi looked incredible here, and Cody more than held his own. The big spot was Cody hitting a hideous looking Cross Rhodes off the apron, which I was certain killed Ibushi as he landed right on top of his head. However, Kota fired back, hitting that devastating Lawn Dart spot which folded Cody up, destroyed him with Kamigoye, then turned back the clocks and won at 15:08 with the Phoenix Splash. The win here potentially sets Ibushi up for the IWGP Heavy Title, but time will tell on that front. EVIL and SANADA won their first Tag Titles over Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr in a very good doubles clash. I can't help but feel that K.E.S. are somewhat under-utilised in NJPW at present, but they looked really good here, dominating the match and destroying the Young Lions at ringside, as if they were channeling Hansen and Brody or something. I hope they get a better run in 2018, and that all these multi-man’s for these titles go away for good. SANADA predictably picked up the win for the LIJ team when he pinned DBS Jr with the Muto Moonsault in 14 minutes.

The NEVER Hair vs. Hair match between Suzuki and Goto was a dramatic, strong style war, which was the best match on the show up to that point. These guys could easily have had this match last year, if it weren't for all the shenanigan filled matches they had, and it was all the better for just being down to them without all the faction nonsense. They smacked the hell out of each other, with Goto getting the worst of it, ending up with a bloodied mouth and swollen face, and at one point Suzuki hit a sickeningly stiff headbutt. This was just great, believable stuff throughout. Suzuki almost won several times with his choke, but Goto would somehow power out with Ushigoroshi’s. Goto went for what I thought was going to be the Shouten, but he dropped Suzuki across his knee in a modified GTR, then hit the regular version at 18:04 to win the belt and keep his hair. In the post match, Suzuki teased reneging on the stipulation, but like the man’s man he is, shaved his own head. Next up was the insane 4 way for the Junior title. This pretty much lived up to expectations, and was an action packed, high flying spectacle. There was almost too much action to call, but it featured so many great spots, including Ospreay hitting a Moonsault off the lighting rig, everyone hitting dives, and a bunch of Sunset Flip Bombs out of the ring. The finish came at 21:18 after Ospreay scored a near fall on Hiromu with an imploding 450, then missed the Oscutter, but was hit with Time Bomb by Takahashi. Scurll broke it up and annihilated Hiromu and KUSHIDA with hard umbrella shots, but was hit with the Oscutter for Ospreay to win his second title. Tanahashi’s I.C. Title defence against Jay White was interesting. I’d say it was Tana’s least appealing Dome match since his IWGP Title match with Suzuki at WK6. I mean, it was a very good contest and despite his physical limitations, Tanahashi put on a great performance, but on the whole it just lacked something. I think the main problem here was that realistically, nobody bought White winning this at all, even with the Tanahashi knee injury. White worked the knee most of the match, then Tana insanely hit the HFF to the floor, hit some Sling Blades, then missed a HFF in the ring and sold the knee. White got a near fall with a Kiwi Crusher. Tana scored a near fall with a Dragon Suplex, before retaining with two more High Fly Flow’s in 19:56. Honestly, I don’t think White was hurt by the loss here. If anything a win may have harmed him more as he hardly put on a performance good enough to justify having the belt. In reality, this match was very good based on the performance of Tanahashi and not because it was a break-out star-making one by White. As it stands, I think the company are big on him, so he’ll be fine and theres no point rushing to put a top belt on him at this point.

Then the Alpha vs. Omega co-main event. This was just a crazy brawl, as it had promised to be. Jericho was clearly having a ball here, heeling it up like nobody’s business, slapping around Red Shoes, his son Umino, and stealing photographers cameras at ringside. It was like he was channelling old boss Genichiro Tenryu, both with the grouchy old dude gimmick and the fact that, at the grand old age of 47, he may have had his best singles match ever. Kenny juiced after being rammed into a chair in the corner (not before he awkwardly dropped his gig for all you eagle eyed viewers), which really gave this the aura of something special, as virtually no mainstream promotion does juice anymore. This was an intense grudge match which was completely different to what we’re used to seeing from both guys really, even though both hit all their signature spots. After Jericho was sent off the second rope through a table outside following a V-Trigger, things really picked up. Jericho rolled through a OWA and locked in the Walls Of Jericho, which teased the stoppage, but Kenny made the ropes. Omega fired back with V-Triggers and the One Winged Angel, but Jericho grabbed the ropes for a tremendous near fall. Kenny countered a top rope Frankensteiner by dropping Y2J face first on the turnbuckles, but Jericho hit the Code Breaker for another great near fall. Jericho draped a chair over Omega, and went for the Lionsault, but Kenny threw the chair at Jericho, then hit the match winning OWA onto the chair to end a fantastic match at 34:36. Negatives out of the way first, this was maybe a little too long, but honestly this was just great pro wrestling and it makes me want to see more of Jericho in New Japan (I suspect a showdown with Naito is on the cards at some point).

Then the main event, which was under quite some pressure in the sense that they had to follow the last match, Okada’s main event from last year’s show (and really, the last three WK shows), and the fact that after a four year struggle, they're finally in the main event spot, so they had a lot to live up to. This was a fitting end to an incredible show, it was probably the match of the night, and they worked this like it was the most important match of their respective careers. Its also worth noting that Okada worked the match in these hideous, bell bottomed pants which he needs to lose ASAP. Both guys seemed to work each others necks, as they dropped one another on their heads repeatedly. Things got very interesting when Naito went up top, but missed his old Stardust Press finish (which reminds me, seeing as he’s no longer the Stardust Genius, shouldn't he really have gotten rid of the old Stardust entrance theme?). This was the turning point of the match really. Okada hit the German and transitioned into the Rainmaker for a believable near fall, then went for a Tombstone, but Naito reversed it into Destino, but was too exhausted to cover. This all built to the crazy finishing sequence that is prerequisite for Okada title defences, filled with counters and reversals, as the packed Tokyo Dome went crazy. Naito finally hit Destino again, but inexplicably elected to go for another instead of the cover. This time, the champion reversed Destino into the jumping, spinning Tombstone, then hit a final, massive Rainmaker, to retain the crown at the the 36:30 mark. Theres been a lot of anger and disappointment to this finish. I must confess that I certainly didn't see the match ending in this result, but I don’t think its necessarily a terrible mistake. I equate it to when Kobashi pinned Jun Akiyama in NOAH’s first Dome show in 2004. People’s arguments then were that Akiyama was the hottest he's ever been, and Kobashi had held the title for well over a year. However, Kobashi’s reign went on for another 8 months and he produced more classic title defences, hitting the most in Japanese history at that point (an unprecedented 13), that ultimately meant more in the long run than Akiyama winning would have. In essence, I feel like this is potentially what New Japan are going for here with Okada. Time will tell of course, but I think its much too soon to be doomsaying just yet.

On the whole, this was a truly exceptional card of action from NJPW, who never really disappoint with these big shows. Personally, I have waned on New Japan since the G1 really. This is for several reasons, most of them personal life related, but in general I feel that G1 27 was potentially the apex of modern wrestling. Shin Nihon have set the bar so high nowadays that its almost impossible to top themselves, and I feel that this is the potential problem here too. Nothing hit those sky high standards set previously (or anywhere close to Dave Meltzer’s fabled 6 star rating), so it was easy to feel disappointed by the show. Realistically, its going to take a lot to top this as card of the year.

NDT

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