DHRainmaker reviews NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13

[DHRainmaker]

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 1/4/19:
Pre-Show
6 Man Never Openweight Titles #1 Contender's Gauntlet match: Bullet Club (Yujiro Takahashi, Marty Scurll and Hangman Page) vs Jeff Cobb, David Finlay and Yuji Nagata. David Finlay, Yuji Nagata and Jeff Cobb vs Hirooki Goto and Best Friends (Chuckie T and Baretta). Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb and David Finlay vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki and Killer Elite Squad). Minoru Suzuki and Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr) vs Togi Makabe, Toru Yano and Ryusuke Taguchi. **3/4 Typical 6 Man Gauntlet. Nothing wrong with it but nothing to go crazy about. Although I will say congrats to Jeff Cobb and Chuckie T on making there Tokyo Dome debuts and I really wanna see a Davey Boy Smith Jr vs Jeff Cobb match sometime soon

Apparently New Japan's idea to kick off the G1 Climax in the US from a few years ago will finally happen with the first night of G1 taking place in the American Airlines Arena in Dallas Texas this summer. Awesome!!

Main Show:
Never Openweight Championship Kota Ibushi (c) vs Will Ospreay: ****1/2 This was awesome. I had high expectations going into this match and it exceeded them. It will be interesting to see if the next few matches can follow this

IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles: El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru(C) vs Shingo and Bushi vs Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh): *** This was all action and quite enjoyable but it felt like it was nothing more than a comedown from the previous match which is too bad because these guys are all good to great

RPW British Heavyweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii(c) vs Zack Sabre Jr: **** This was a great match. Zack did some new stuff I hadn't seen him do previously while still wrestling his usual style of match and Ishii was his usual self. For me that's a recipe for success

IWGP Tag Team Titles Guerrillas Of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tonga Loa) (c) vs Evil and Sanada vs The Young Bucks (Matt and Nick Jackson): **** This was a great match. It started out as nothing special but by the end was a great match so far this has been a show I'd highly recommend and we still have the biggest matches of the show to go

IWGP United States Title Cody (c) vs Juice Robinson:*** A little bit too much shenanigans early and going a little overboard on the finishers but a decent yet nothing special match nonetheless and Juice finally beat Cody to become the first 2 time US Champion

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title Kushida (C) vs Taiji Ishimori: ***3/4 Great match but it felt underwhelming for who was involved if I'm being honest.

Jay White vs Kazuchika Okada:**** I was honestly shocked Jay White won but in a good way I really enjoy him and think he'll be a megastar and obviously New Japan does too or else he wouldn't have beaten Okada clean at the Tokyo Dome. Outside of the result this was a great match that flew in no time at all

No Disqualification Match for the IWGP Intercontinental Title Chris Jericho (c) vs Tetsuya Naito: ****3/4 I loved this match. It was just a hard hitting brawl between two guys who hate each other and that's what it should've been. I didn't even mind the abundance of finisher kickouts because they worked and put both guys over as tough badasses in this match instead of doing it just to do it

IWGP Heavyweight Title Kenny Omega (C) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi: ***** THIS. WAS. AMAZING!!!!! An early candidate for match of the year I cannot recommend this match enough

Overall review: 9.5/10 This show was amazing and I'd even go so far as to say it's an early candidate for 2019's show of the year this show was awesome