Too much real life to review the entire Dontaku shows, so let’s jump right into the top matches from both nights.
Kota Ibushi vs. Cody (5/3/2018)
The first match between these two at Wrestling Kingdom is what made me do a complete 180 on Cody. Could not care less about him for all for last year, now I’m fully on board with his character work and classic American heel antics. For this one, both guys had trouble filling up the 23 minutes of action and the match ended up feeling much longer than it actually was. Cody pulling from his entire bag of heel tricks (faking an injury, kissing Kota, doing push-ups in the middle of a beatdown) was fun, but a lot of stuff came off as filler until the crazier spots started rolling in for the second half.
The double foot stomp through the table was absolutely INSANE and the fact that Ibushi had to hit it twice to break the table actually made it better for me. Other stuff felt a little weirder. Old-school heel Cody shouldn’t be having fighting spirit strike-fests with Ibushi. That shit makes no sense. Also, Cody basically just walking himself in position for Ibushi’s big springboard plancha really threw me off. GREAT DIVE THOUGH! A lot of fun moments spread throughout, but everything between them clicked better in that shorter Dome match. ***1/4
Kenny Omega vs. Hangman Page (5/3/2018)
Let’s be real for a minute. I was kind of dreading this one. Hangman Page working a high-end NJPW main event is not my idea of a good time. Well, these guys proved my cynical ass wrong and had a hell of match that absolutely belonged on top of the card. They went the right amount of time (under 20) and managed to make it feel high-stakes and action-packed despite Hangman being a relative nobody in New Japan. I loved bloodied-up Kenny working from under as a super babyface with that nasty gash on top of his head. It made Hangman come off as a big-time threat and Kenny’s top notch babyface emoting kept the crowd engaged all the way through.
Nearly everything was perfectly executed and my god, they pulled some complex stuff: Hangman with the craziest swinging neckbreaker off the top-rope and a wild Orihara Moonsault, Kenny with incredible-timed V-Trigger counters that had the crowd losing their collective shit. The only bummer here was that the most jaw-dropping spot of the match (Kenny countering the Adam’s Apple with a god damn V-Trigger to the face) ended up legit knocking Page the FUCK OUT. I kept having flashbacks of the G1 match with EVIL as Kenny dragged Hangman’s lifeless corpse through his head-drop heavy finish run, making the last few minutes a little uncomfortable.
Still, freak accidents happen and I’m willing to give these two a pass for making such a potentially weird main event work so well. I’m really enjoying Kenny’s current babyface run: less reliance on finisher spamming, more crowd-play and story-telling. ****
Will Ospreay © vs. KUSHIDA – IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title (5/4/2018)
I’ve been hot and cold on Ospreay all year long. I hated the Tokyo Dome 4-way match and the Marty Scurll title defense, but I dug the matches with Hiromu and Okada. Bill can be an incredible performer but he needs the right guy to help guide him along and add some meat to his matches. KUSHIDA is definitely one of those guys and this is easily the best William Ospreay match I’ve ever seen in New Japan.
They built this up as a full-on New Japan junior epic with layered story-telling, limb work, references to their previous matches and all of it just clicked beautifully. The entire match was paced so well, KUSHIDA dismantling Ospreay’s arm and neck early on before gradually moving towards bigger spots. Will’s over-selling still gets on my nerves but the guy really is trying, I’ll give him that. When you go back and watch his early NJPW stuff against Ricochet and compare to his performance here, it truly is night and day.
The execution and bumping on the springboard hurricanrana spot was straight out of the best SUWA/Dragon Kid matches. KUSHIDA’s rolling DDT off the floor to the apron literally made me jump out of my chair. Too many great spots to list, but here’s a one more: KUSHIDA reversing the Oscutter into the Hoverboard lock and then hammering on Ospreay’s bad neck to keep him in position payed off every single subplot from the match in the most satisfying way. Even the late-match fighting spirit strike-fest worked amazingly well, both guys ripping off their bandages and KUSHIDA firing off the most amazing STRAIGHT PUNCH, complete with genius collapse-bump from Will.
I never thought I’d say this about a Will Ospreay match, but this is the kind of match I would show to a non-wrestling fan in hopes of converting him. Futuristic, high-level wrestling with very real drama, selling and story. ****1/2
Kazuchika Okada © vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – IWGP Heavyweight Title (5/4/2018)
I’ve been watching Hiroshi Tanahashi wrestle for a very long time. Back when I was an angsty teenager hunting down VHS tapes, he was the pretty-boy young lion that got stabbed in the back by his girlfriend and teamed with Kenzo Suzuki. As I got older, I saw his U-30 title matches with DARK AGE NJPW SUPERSTARS such as Masayuki Naruse, the G1 Climax underdog performances that turned him into a crowd favorite and the very beginning of his rivalry with Shinsuke Nakamura.
I stopped watching Japanese wrestling regularly around 2007 but kept tracking Tanahashi’s progress through whatever I could find on YouTube or Vimeo. His breakthrough title matches against Nagata and Giant Bernard, Sexy Heel Tana working circles around AJPW veterans in the Champion Carnival, the Tokyo Dome win against Keiji Muto. All the big moments that would lead to the Rockstar Ace Tanahashi era.
All of this to say that this match got me right in the feels. This was the culmination of the Broken Tana saga that’s been building up since last year and the story was told so well that I truly felt like I was watching the end of Tanahashi as a NJPW main event-level performer. There have been better Okada/Tana matches from a pure workrate standpoint, but as far as story-telling goes, this was one of the best. It took a little while to get going, but once Okada splattered Tana with that guardrail-draped DDT, everything fell into place: the aging former hero desperately trying to hold on to his glory days against his greatest rival in his Final Boss form.
Both guys sold this to the audience with Oscar-worthy performances. Tanahashi selling his freaking ass off, looking completely over the hill and being forced to use ALL OF HIS FIGHTING SPIRIT. The crowd wanted him so win SO BAD. Women reduced to tears by his epic struggle while legions of fans waved the IRON WILL towels. All of this while Okada was acting like a complete fucking prick, posing on top of his former rival, grinning at the crowd from ear to ear and treating Tana like a mere young lion with those head-punt kicks. I have to mention the look of PURE BLEACHED EYEBROW EVIL that Okada pulled off after killing Tanahashi with a John Woo dropkick. This man is a true wrestling genius. Tana getting right in Okada’s face as he did the Rainmaker pose was equally epic and had the whole place imploding.
The last 10 minute stretch was some of the most compelling wrestling you’ll see anywhere. Brilliant counters, boatloads of references to their previous matches and finally: Tanahashi making his LAST STAND. This was the moment that absolutely shattered my soul to pieces: the image of a ravaged Tanahashi trying to stop the inevitable Rainmaker by slapping the shit out of the unbeatable champion. The one Rainmaker it took to put down Tana was absolutely heartbreaking and possibly one of the smartest finishes I’ve seen all year. Kazuchika Okada has completely surpassed Hiroshi Tanahashi. ****3/4
If you really want to feel like shit, go watch the post-match backstage segment where Tanahashi breaks down in tears. Just devastating.
Wrestling is real.
