NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2013
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NJPW King of Pro Wrestling 2013 (10/14/2013)- Tokyo, Japan
CHAOS (Gedo, Jado, Takashi Iizuka & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, MANABU NAKANISHI, SUPER STRONG MACHINE, & TIGER MASK VI- 4.25/10
The same match we always get, full of heel antics and winding up in a clusterduck, but not particularly good or enjoyable, but a bit better than usual this time. I’m really not sure why they had to kick out of all of Tiger Mask’s stuff, though.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Forever Hooligans(c) vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)- 4.75/10
I assumed that the Hooligans were supposed to be the heels because they jumped TAKA & Taichi from behind, but apparently not because TAKA & Taichi did things like use weapons and wear Koslov’s hat and steal the Hooligans’ spots and using low blows. That was weird, but at least I have a reason to cheer for someone now.
MINORU SUZUKI vs. TORU YANO- DUD!
Apparently this was a No DQ’s match or something because the ref let them use both a steel chair and handcuffs (which were randomly under the ring for some reason). Apparently there are still countouts, though, because Suzuki handcuffed Yano to the barricade to try to get the win that way. Yano apparently had the key, though.
Actually, rather than a No DQ’s match, I think we might have found the most incompetent referee ever, as there were large chunk of time where he was just looking off towards the crowd rather than at the wrestlers in the match, and the wrestlers took advantage of this. Either way, the match was just bad. After the match, Suzuki gets some heat on Yano by kicking him a bit and tossing his young boy around.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN & TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. KILLER ELITE SQUAD (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer)- 4.5/10
Tenzan didn’t look good here. The match itself was okay. After the match, Lance Archer (he’s still Lance Hoyt to me, dammit!) cut a promo saying that he and Davey Boy Smith Jr. are going to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles back.
TOGI MAKABE, TAMAOKI HONMA, & KOTA IBUSHI vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, & Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson)- 6/10
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 4.5/10
WOW! They’re actually selling this time!
Whoops… guess I spoke too soon.
Anyway, this was mostly the same crap as their G1 match, but not quite as overdone and they actually sold a bit this time, which drastically improved the match.
KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. YUGI NAGATA- 7/10
Before the match, Daniel Gracie and Rolles Gracie Jr. made an open challenge to take on any two wrestlers at the January 4th Tokyo Dome show. Then, wouldn’t you know it, these two, both former MMA fighters (though Sakuraba was infinitely more successful) have a very MMA-inspired match. Then they accept the Gracies’ challenge.
MATCH WITH TITLE-RELATED STIPULATIONS: Yujiro Takahashi(NEVER Openwieght Title) vs. Tetsuya Naito(IWGP Heavyweight Title match at Tokyo Dome Show)- 7/10
IWGP INTERNCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Shinsuke Nakamura(c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji- 8/10
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada(c) (w/Gedo) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi- 9.25/10
Tanahashi’s heel turn is fantastic, and the fact that when Okada had gone to attack him while he was down, and Tanahashi just collapsed again, the fans had been chanting for him… but once the heel turn came, and the fans realized exactly what had happened, there was a genuine sense of betrayal from the crowd. When the next spot ended, and Tanahashi had Okada locked in the armbar, and some smark started chanting â€"Tanahashi!†he was quickly drowned out by an arena full of â€"OKADA!†chants.
And then, for some inexplicable reason, they ended the heat. Okada wound up with the advantage and started working over Tanahashi’s neck with submissions… and a good portion of the crowd went right back to chanting for Tanahashi! If they had cut out that sequence of Okada’s offense (the DDTs on the outside, and the submission by Okada) and just continued on to the forearm exchange and then Tanahashi going back to working over Okada’s arm, it would have helped the match a lot.
Another thing that would have helped the match was Tanahashi’s lack off heelish antics. Yes, he was playing the heel role in the match, but he rarely did any sort of heel antics to rile up the crowd, and as a result, people went back to cheering for him. The Okada chants were still there, but the Tanahashi chants were still louder than they were, and these guys really didn’t do much to try to affect that. It made this come off almost like a heel-vs.-heel match instead of a double turn (the spot where they did a tease of Okada winning by count-out to retain the belt when he is supposed to be the babyface didn’t help matters at all).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the match. I loved it. They had some awesome sequences (especially towards the end) and Okada’s selling was nothing short of exemplary, but I definitely wouldn’t give the match the perfect rating others have been giving it.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- We get a big celebration for Okada, complete with confetti, but Prince Devitt and Bad Luck Fale come out to ruin it. Okada and Gedo stare them down, but Karl Anderson attacks them from behind and the Bullet club beat Okada and Gedo down.
Overall, a great show from New Japan! The first half of the card was very weak, but the top of the card more than made up for that.
CHAOS (Gedo, Jado, Takashi Iizuka & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. JUSHIN â€"THUNDER†LIGER, MANABU NAKANISHI, SUPER STRONG MACHINE, & TIGER MASK VI- 4.25/10
The same match we always get, full of heel antics and winding up in a clusterduck, but not particularly good or enjoyable, but a bit better than usual this time. I’m really not sure why they had to kick out of all of Tiger Mask’s stuff, though.
IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Forever Hooligans(c) vs. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi)- 4.75/10
I assumed that the Hooligans were supposed to be the heels because they jumped TAKA & Taichi from behind, but apparently not because TAKA & Taichi did things like use weapons and wear Koslov’s hat and steal the Hooligans’ spots and using low blows. That was weird, but at least I have a reason to cheer for someone now.
MINORU SUZUKI vs. TORU YANO- DUD!
Apparently this was a No DQ’s match or something because the ref let them use both a steel chair and handcuffs (which were randomly under the ring for some reason). Apparently there are still countouts, though, because Suzuki handcuffed Yano to the barricade to try to get the win that way. Yano apparently had the key, though.
Actually, rather than a No DQ’s match, I think we might have found the most incompetent referee ever, as there were large chunk of time where he was just looking off towards the crowd rather than at the wrestlers in the match, and the wrestlers took advantage of this. Either way, the match was just bad. After the match, Suzuki gets some heat on Yano by kicking him a bit and tossing his young boy around.
HIROYOSHI TENZAN & TAKAAKI WATANABE vs. KILLER ELITE SQUAD (Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Lance Archer)- 4.5/10
Tenzan didn’t look good here. The match itself was okay. After the match, Lance Archer (he’s still Lance Hoyt to me, dammit!) cut a promo saying that he and Davey Boy Smith Jr. are going to win the IWGP Tag Team Titles back.
TOGI MAKABE, TAMAOKI HONMA, & KOTA IBUSHI vs. THE BULLET CLUB (Prince Devitt, Bad Luck Fale, & Karl â€"Machine Gun†Anderson)- 6/10
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. KATSUYORI SHIBATA- 4.5/10
WOW! They’re actually selling this time!
Whoops… guess I spoke too soon.
Anyway, this was mostly the same crap as their G1 match, but not quite as overdone and they actually sold a bit this time, which drastically improved the match.
KAZUSHI SAKURABA vs. YUGI NAGATA- 7/10
Before the match, Daniel Gracie and Rolles Gracie Jr. made an open challenge to take on any two wrestlers at the January 4th Tokyo Dome show. Then, wouldn’t you know it, these two, both former MMA fighters (though Sakuraba was infinitely more successful) have a very MMA-inspired match. Then they accept the Gracies’ challenge.
MATCH WITH TITLE-RELATED STIPULATIONS: Yujiro Takahashi(NEVER Openwieght Title) vs. Tetsuya Naito(IWGP Heavyweight Title match at Tokyo Dome Show)- 7/10
IWGP INTERNCONTINENTAL TITLE MATCH: Shinsuke Nakamura(c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji- 8/10
IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Kazuchika Okada(c) (w/Gedo) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi- 9.25/10
Tanahashi’s heel turn is fantastic, and the fact that when Okada had gone to attack him while he was down, and Tanahashi just collapsed again, the fans had been chanting for him… but once the heel turn came, and the fans realized exactly what had happened, there was a genuine sense of betrayal from the crowd. When the next spot ended, and Tanahashi had Okada locked in the armbar, and some smark started chanting â€"Tanahashi!†he was quickly drowned out by an arena full of â€"OKADA!†chants.
And then, for some inexplicable reason, they ended the heat. Okada wound up with the advantage and started working over Tanahashi’s neck with submissions… and a good portion of the crowd went right back to chanting for Tanahashi! If they had cut out that sequence of Okada’s offense (the DDTs on the outside, and the submission by Okada) and just continued on to the forearm exchange and then Tanahashi going back to working over Okada’s arm, it would have helped the match a lot.
Another thing that would have helped the match was Tanahashi’s lack off heelish antics. Yes, he was playing the heel role in the match, but he rarely did any sort of heel antics to rile up the crowd, and as a result, people went back to cheering for him. The Okada chants were still there, but the Tanahashi chants were still louder than they were, and these guys really didn’t do much to try to affect that. It made this come off almost like a heel-vs.-heel match instead of a double turn (the spot where they did a tease of Okada winning by count-out to retain the belt when he is supposed to be the babyface didn’t help matters at all).
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not saying I didn’t enjoy the match. I loved it. They had some awesome sequences (especially towards the end) and Okada’s selling was nothing short of exemplary, but I definitely wouldn’t give the match the perfect rating others have been giving it.
POST-MATCH ANGLE- We get a big celebration for Okada, complete with confetti, but Prince Devitt and Bad Luck Fale come out to ruin it. Okada and Gedo stare them down, but Karl Anderson attacks them from behind and the Bullet club beat Okada and Gedo down.
Overall, a great show from New Japan! The first half of the card was very weak, but the top of the card more than made up for that.