BRM Reviews NJPW Wrestle Kingdom XVII in Tokyo Dome

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Big Red Machine
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BRM Reviews NJPW Wrestle Kingdom XVII in Tokyo Dome

Post by Big Red Machine » Jan 8th, '23, 14:12

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom XVII in Tokyo Dome (1/4/2023)- Tokyo, Japan



IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM TITLE MATCH: Catch22 (Francesco Akira & TJP)(c) vs. CHAOS (Lio Rush & YOH)- 7/10
It took about a minute for them to go to the outside and stay there, and only start getting counted out after they had finished the big spot they wanted to do. A nice reminder of one of the reasons I stopped watching New Japan.
Said spot was Rush eating an Alley-Oop on the ramp, which took him out for a while (and busted him open) and thus left YOH alone to get double-teamed. Rush eventually made it back and they did lots of cool, athletic stuff. Catch22 retained with a roll-up.

IWGP WOMEN’S TITLE MATCH: Kairi(c) vs. Tam Nakano (w/Cosmic Angels)- 6.75/10
If the forearm exchanges in New Japan were like the ones in this match, they wouldn’t irritate me for feeling so formulaic or feeling so much like two people doing a spot rather than having an actual fight.
This was one of the best matches under six minutes that you’ll ever see, but I have to ask why this was only given six minutes. The immediate comparison my brain drew was to the two ROH World Title matches at Wrestle Kingdom in 2016 and 2017, which were also not given anywhere near enough time to feel important (and this match got a lot less time than either of those two did… and still managed to be better than both). Doing this sort of thing does not make STARDOM look important.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- didn’t like it
Mercedes Moné came out. She had the flag of Japan all over her gear. Kairi held the title up between them. She offered Mercedes a handshake, which Mercedes turned into some kind of wacky Gory Bomb variant that looked absolutely awful (though it’s possible that this was more Kairi’s fault for the way she took the move rather than Mercedes executing the move wrong).
Mercedes then grabbed a mic and cut a passable but mostly uninteresting heel promo. She says that she will take the title at Battle in the Valley 2023 on February 18th in San Jose. This was all passable (albeit predictable) stuff (other than the botched move, of course), but I just don’t see anyone in the US booing Mercedes Moné. Trying to make her a heel in the US (and, really anywhere maybe outside of Japan) isn’t just swimming upstream; it’s swimming against a riptide.

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TITLE MATCH: FTR(c) vs. Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto)- 6.75/10
The story here was Bishamon trying to hit their finisher but FTR always thwarting it, and Bishamon finally managed to pull it off, it got them the win. FTR’s underwhelming title reign ends in an appropriately underwhelming match.

NJPW WORLD TV TITLE TOURNAMENT FINALS: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ren Narita- 6.75/10
Lots of good mat wrestling, although if I never see the “take turns sitting down and letting the other guy kick you” spot again, it will be too soon. Zack won a very ugly belt.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- fine
TMDK came out and offered Zack a place in their stable. Zack accepted.

NEVER OPENWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Karl Anderson(c) vs. Tama Tonga (w/Jado)- 6.5/10
Anderson snatched the belt away from the referee and hit Tama Tonga in the head with it before the bell. The referee rang the bell, then Anderson booted Tama Tonga off the apron and gave him a neckbreaker onto the barricade. He got back into the ring… and the referee took forever to start counting Tama Tonga out. Anderson got bored of waiting for a count-out, so went to the outside, grabbed Tama Tonga again, brought him to the ramp, and hit him with a Bernard Driver. The referee ordered him to come back to the ring, but with there being no consequences, Anderson just ignored him and set up for a Gun-Stun. Chris Charleton wanted me to believe that a Gun-Stun- a mere cutter- on the ramp would end Tama Tonga’s career… and he said this while watching Tama Tonga get up from taking a Piledriver on the ramp about twenty seconds before. Tama Tonga countered the Gun-Stun, and both guys stumbled their way back to the ring. Both had been on the outside for about a minute and a half at this point, and the referee had not even begun to count.
After that, the match got good, with both guys continuing to work the head and trying to hit the Gun-Stun. Tonga eventually hit it for the pin, although unfortunately the Gun Stun was botched. It’s good that they were able to get the belt off of Anderson, but I wouldn’t have shed any tears if they just got rid of the thing. They already have too many belts.

KEIJI MUTOH, HIROSHI TANAHASHI, & SHOTA UMINO vs. LOS INGOBERNABLES DE JAPON (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, & Sanada)- 5.5/10
This was fine for what it was, but feels like a huge waste of Tanahashi and Naito on a show this big. The announcers pushed a backstage confrontation between Naito and Kenoh, so that builds to something on 1/21 show.

IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Taiji Ishimori(c) vs. El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Master Wato- 8.25/10
They did lots of stuff. For reasons I cannot explain, I started hoping for Master Wato to pull off the upset, so I went nuts for that false finish on the German Suplex right before the finish.

IWGP US TITLE MATCH: Will Ospreay(c) (w/United Empire) vs. Kenny Omega- 9.75/10
Don Callis joined the commentary team for this match.
Yeah, this is one of those matches that would have been an easy 10/10 without the refereeing issues. My standards are what they are.
Kenny used a table right in front of the referee and wasn’t DQed. Red Shoes also let them fight on the outside forever without counting them out. It must be nice to be lauded by the internet and opinion shapers despite being completely f*cking incompetent.
The series of weapon spots concluded with Ospreay suplexing Kenny onto a table on the floor with the underside up, so Kenny’s back appeared to land right on the rails. OUCH. Then Ospreay did a Sky-Twister Press, and while taking his bump, Kenny bumped the back of his head into the rails (this time seemingly unplanned).
Omega worked over Ospreay’s head and neck, continuing the story from Ospreay’s match against Naito. Ospreay, for his part, worked over Omega’s head. They did all of the big crazy stuff you’d expect, but what really stood out to me was the little stuff, like Ospreay grabbing Omega’s leg to prevent him from taking off for a V-Trigger and Omega having to beat Ospreay down before he could run and hit the V-Trigger, or Omega getting his hands up when Ospreay had him trapped in the turnbuckle, and Ospreay having to kick through Kenny’s hands the first two or three times before he got enough impact to the head to make Kenny woozy enough to not be able to lift his hands up to block the usual kick to the head in that situation.
The other big complement I can give this match is that even though I knew intellectually that it wasn’t going to end without either a Stormbreaker or a One-Winged Angel, I still bought most of the false finishes from their other big moves. That Avalanche Kroyt’s Wrath in particular had me certain it was over.
I like Omega winning here and taking the title back to the US, where it will presumably be defended on Strong. This title makes a lot more sense in the US than it does in Japan. Omega getting the win also give Ospreay a new quest in needing to prove himself by beating Omega (I went back and checked, and in addition to now being 0-2 in singles matches, Ospreay has never even been on the winning team in anything smaller than a six-man tag, and even then Omega’s team has still won the vast majority of their matches), and it keeps the story going of Ospreay often failing on the biggest of stages (Tokyo Domes, G1 Finals, you can even throw the MSG show in there if you want).

IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT TITLE MATCH: Jay White(c) (w/Gedo) vs. Kazuchika Okada- 8/10
Rocky Romero joined the commentary team for this match. Kevin Kelly says that “the mental game for Okada has always been pristine,” so I guess he forgot about that big storyline where Okada was supposedly in a funk and was carry balloons around to keep himself happy after losing the title to Kenny Omega.
Red Shoes let them fight on the outside forever without counting them out, and watched Gedo put his hands on Okada but did not punish him or even eject him from ringside. The match was mostly these two just trading their big moves for a long time and kicking out of things. Okada’s got the belt back now. Good for him.

POST-MATCH SEGMENT- bad
Shingo Takagi came out and said that he hasn’t forgotten that he lost the title to Okada at last year’s Tokyo Dome show, so now he wants a title shot. What were you doing for the past year that you didn’t ask for one at any point between now and then? Anyway, he f*cked up the date and asked for a title shot on a date where there isn’t a show. Oops. Doing this challenge here made this feel like any random monthly show and not the big deal it's supposed to be. Save this sort of thing the for next night at New Year Dash 2023.

I’m not going to say that this wasn’t a great show from New Japan, but I will say that it was disappointing for the biggest show of the year (and certainly would have been a major disappointment if Ospreay vs. Omega hadn’t been as good as it was), and that it was a fine reminder of why I have limited my watching of this promotion over the past few years. It just feels stale, and especially at the top of the card. Without some major movements of character and/or style, I think I’ve seen enough of Okada, Jay White, Tanahashi, Shingo, and Naito facing each other, and I’ve even seen far too much of them with many of the guys the next level down as well (EVIL, Sanada, Suzuki, KENTA). Zack and Ospreay are the only guys who really appeal to me at the moment who are full-time with the company, and there really isn’t anyone in the pipeline, either. At this point, I figure I know what I’m getting from New Japan, so it will take a card that looks really interesting to get me to tune in.
Hold #712: ARM BAR!

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