New year, New Japan.
1. 4 Way Match – KOPW 2021: Toru Yano vs. BUSHI vs. Bad Luck Fale vs. Chase Owens
The comedic stylings of Toru Yano (non-G1 Toru Yano especially) are something that you’re going to just roll with or not (2021 Toru Yano especially). BUSHI was practically gliding all over the place here; otherwise there was a lot of polite clapping for questionably executed comedy. What’s the story with the King of Pro Wrestling? *
2. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [c] vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato
Grandmaster Wato, it’s complicated. I like him and root for him; I would’ve loved to see him win at the Tokyo Dome and complete his strange journey since the return: awkward debut, unlikely mentorship with uhhh NJPW vet Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and no breakout matches (I didn’t see BOSJ blocks!) with enough flashes of brilliance to see a possible rock star in there. Maybe. Maybe?
He and reliable Taguchi challenged Kanemaru & Despy who will baseline have a good tag match, especially the Despy a couple weeks removed from his own breakout match. This wasn’t anyone’s breakout (sorry), but it was a good match with Taguchi and Wato casually going along with that good tag. Few tags, all action. The journey continues. ***1/4
3. NEVER Openweight Title: Shingo Takagi [c] vs. Jeff Cobb
Love a New Japan match where the premise is these guys have way too much testosterone and are going to toss each other around and hit each other real hard. Jeff Cobb was an expected but disappointing choice for the guy in this spot, considering Shingo’s major (some might use the word breakout) 2021 and my indifference to Cobb matches. I want it to click, but it has like twice.
Cobb keeps up and is a specimen, but a little generic – more let’s do the sequence and less let’s just fuck each other up. Shingo did a freaking dive over the top rope though and sold so well the match got good – really good. Without him struggling on every follow-up and throwing his all into every comeback this doesn’t work nearly as well. They turned this into a war that felt like Shingo saw the Ishii G1 match and was like, “aight – Dragon can top it.” ****1/4
4. SANADA vs. EVIL
These former bros had a great match in the 2019 G1, then an average match in the 2020 G1 where EVIL took more cues from KENTA and ELP than the New Japan dojo. Their grudge has grown with time, but while SANADA can go with many wrestling styles the last month of build-up has shown that brawler is definitely not one. New Japan has some element of the unspectacular and weapon-using heel wrestler since the beginning of time, whether Tiger Jeet Singh or nWo Japan or Makai Club or Bullet Club, but in 2021 it all just feels extra lazy and tropey.
The EVIL chair to the neck is a nasty spot, but loses its’ effect when he’s doing it to everybody. Like, I don’t think this was supposed to read as a comedy match! But it did sometimes. I am of the opinion funny can equal money, but when the silly invades the serious it just becomes DUMB.
This is a crappy grudge match mixed with pretty good New Japan midcard match, lots of rough tumbles into the guardrails and a moderately exciting finish. It felt a lot closer to that 2019 G1 match than 2020, but “good match” is really weak considering the position on the card of these two. ***
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Taiji Ishimori [c] vs. Hiromu Takahashi
I loved the match they had over the summer at Jingu Stadium as they cut the bullshit and just went right at it, two daredevils pulling out all the stops before Ishimori caught Hiromu with a surprise win. I kind of loved this too, but there was a little too much bullshit to get that runtime to 25 minutes. They provided a fine mix of championship wrestling and batshit insane spots, and though they didn’t top Jingu the spotlight was bigger and Hiromu continued to prove that he is a main event wrestler. Out of the darkness: multi-colored cat-flavored love. ***1/2
6. IWGP Heavyweight Title & IWGP Intercontinental Title: Kota Ibushi [c] vs. Jay White
Is complaining about matches being too long as hacky as complaining about long movies? No, because there are just 2-3 people at work here – tighten it up.
I seem to be on the lower end of Jay White fandom even if I admire and respect him more than most people on Earth. So a half hour of him working over Ibushi with a few Gedo belly laughs thrown in for comedic effect was always going to be a tough sell. He filled it with FINE wrestling but Wrestle Kingdom and wrestling in general just needs more. For something that eventually went nearly FIFTY minutes, they paced it well enough but it never felt like it went past FINE until the very end. Like Taiji/Hiromu, I think they might’ve had their best possible match already too. Where do you go from there? Ibushi brought the crazy and a few callbacks towards the end were inspired, but it felt like the people were clapping more than connecting. ***1/4
Happy Thoughts: Wrestle Kingdom during COVID was always going to be weird, and this ended up just… fine. Good, even. With the exception of the King of Pro Wrestling stuff, pretty much every match was good. But only a few were, like, exciting and made a mark. This evening had a stronger undercard thanks to Shingo, but Ibushi’s Night 2 just felt kind of redundant. 5/10
