NJPW Wrestle Kingdom X

NJPW Wrestlie Kingdom X Royal Rumble - It is what it is

Jushin Thunder Liger, Yoshiako Fujiwara, Cheeseburger, Tiger Mask, Hiro Saito, YOSHI-HASHI, Mascara Dorada, Captain New Japan, Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shiro Koshinaka, King Haku, The Great Kabuki, Kazushi Sakuraba, Jado w/Momoka Ariyasu
Just noted that Juice Robinson is working young boy for this match while Cheeseburger is in there fighting. The Great Kabuki is probably the first time I've seen someone be DQ'd in a battle royal, Jado came out with the most awesome looking frog-girl Momoka Ariyasu, and now I'm in love. Interesting lack on young boys in this match, no Finlay, no White, no Komatsu, no Tanaka, I guess since they all had presence in the Young Lion's show, it was ok to not have them here.

We got a video of caveman Tanahashi and Makabe promoting NJPW merch and a Doraemon movie. I'm not surprised by Tana, but Makabe doing this I would have never seen happening. After this, Doraemon creatures came out and said stuff. If WWE did this, they would get eaten alive, but when NJPW does it, it feels ok, just promotional stuff and it's on the pre-show.

** MAIN SHOW **

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match
reDragon (C) vs Roppongi Vice vs The Young Bucks w/Cody Hall vs Ricochet and Matt Sydal - 7/10

At first I had a lot of trouble getting into the match, the fight inside the ring was a bit off since there were more attacks to the men in the apron than wrestling inside the ring, but as soon as hell broke loose and then got back inside the ring, the match was on and awesome. I loved the use of Cody Hall and while no team really had a real chance to shine, I liked that Ricochet and Sydal got the stuff in. I'm ok with the winners, the hot potato titles move again, I'm not surprised.

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Titles Match
Bullet Club (Tama Tonga, Yujiro Takahashi, and Bad Luck Fale) vs Toru Yano and The Briscoes - 5.5/10

Even before the match starts, I can't see the Briscoes and Yano being champs and even if they were to win, i don't see them running long with them, we'll see if the swerve me. Tama Tonga still has some of the best face paint in wrestling history. Briscoes comes out to different music, it's less chicken farmer, but not a bad song, I was actually looking forward to hear their song in a big arena. Well...I got swerved. Match made me want more Briscoes vs BC, this could have been several points higher if not for Yano. 2016 is the year I hope to rekindle my love for the Briscoes.

During this match, Tatsu said that Yano used to be a great amateur wrestler....I would have never imagined.

ROH World Title Match
Jay Lethal (C) w/Truth Martini vs Michael Elgin - 6.5/10

Same musical comment with Lethal as with The Briscoes, I really wanted to hear their song in a big stage. I kinda felt the match was lacking in something, it didn't feel as big as the previous Lethal title matches. The match itself was really good, but I think both men should be able to do lots more. Didn't like Lethal winning with a book shot, I know NJPW and ROH probably wanted to protect Elgin in Japan, but it was a match were ROH should have pushed for the prestige of their title.

IWGP Jr Heavyweight Title Match
Kenny Omega (C) w/The Young Bucks vs KUSHIDA w/Taguchi - 7.5/10

Taguchi is dressed as Dr. Emmett Brown for KUSHIDA's entrance. Omega did his Terminator song entrance. For the third time, BC attacks the opponents before the ring bell. There was way to much weapon use in this match, but one of them was an awesome trash can spot from Omega. Everything after the weapon's use was awesome, KUSHIDA worked on decimating Omega's arm to build to a Kimura, this forced Omega to do a one-arm powerbomb!! Only fail was that after all the build, KUSHIDA won with a roll up.

IWGP Tag Team Titles Match
Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) w/Amber Gallows (C) w/ vs Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma - 6.5/10

BC are wearing white, and they look cool. This was one of those matches were the losers end up being the ones that worked the match the best, but there was no way you wouldn't give Honma his big moment. Makabe felt lost in the match, he didn't do as much as he should.

At this point of the show I just noticed that Juice Robinson hates his life for having to work as a young boy in the ring.

Tetsuya Naito w/Los Ingobernables de Japon vs Hirooki Goto - 7/10

EVIL and BUSHI attacked Goto before the ringbell, keeping tonight's theme alive. There was a sick chair shot on Goto and he was even put through a table, and now i'm getting annoyed about how much cheating we've seen tonight. Equally as the previous matches, as soon as the cheating stopped and the match started in the ring, everything was awesome, we even saw a Code Red from the top rope. Goto winning makes Los Ingobernables look terrible, and I think the cheating is starting to annoy me enough to be biased on some matches, this match could have been at least an 8 if not for the cheating.

During this match YoshiTatsu was telling a story that Goto and himself used to be students together in the same dojo, and it left me wondering what Tatsu could have been if not for WWE and the injuries.

NEVER Openweight Title Match
Tomohiro Ishii (C) vs Katsuyori Shibata - 7.5/10

I'm scared for this match, Shibata tweeded yesterday that he was ready to lose some years of his life, and I can totally believe that. This is pretty much the same match they had three years ago, the one that people will either rate 9/10 or 1/10. Something that I really got out of this match is that Ishii vs a more submission based Shibata could be awesome. At this point i'm going to pause the show and go to the hospital, i think I have a concussion just for watching this match.

IWGP Intercontinental Title Match
"The King of Strong Style" Shinsuke Nakamura (C) vs "The Phenomenal" A.J. Styles - 9.5/10

It's great to see a dream match that delivers. Nakamura worked AJ's injured back, and AJ mostly kept hitting big time moves and submissions. It took 4 Bom Ba Yees to take out AJ. MOTYC. After the match, Nakamura offered a fist bump to AJ, who took it.

Right before the match started, Striker asked Tatsu why the Styles Clash was a dangerous move. It felt wrong, and the worst thing is that Tatsu had to change his opinion on the match and Striker wouldn't shut up about it.

IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match
Kazuchika Okada (C) w/Gedo vs Hiroshi Tanahashi - 10/10!

Perfect Match, just amazing. I think that for the first time in Tokyo Dome, I heard a bigger pop for Okada than Tanahashi. Tanahashi worked Okada's legs, while Okada worked on Tanahashi's neck/head, both sold it perfectly. This may or may not be the best Tanahashi/Okada match I've seen in their rivalry.

OVERALL THOUGHTS:

Two early match of the year contenders, and show of the year contender. The crazy amount of titles in NJPW made this show pretty much an all title show, but you can still pin point were the prestige matches start, but unlike the usual show were throwaway matches build up to the main event, this show was 'on' from match one. Some of the matches felt like a repeat of what we saw during 2015. I think that for the second year, people will complain about the lack of special entrances. I'm going to re-watch Nakamura/Styles in some days, because it may be the first time I watch a two 10/10 match show.

Commentary wise, i think Striker and Kelly did ok, but a terrible job working with Tatsu. Yoshitatsu should have been there to translate, not for Striker to ask him stuff on whether he would take a win by countout in the main event, Striker made Tatsu look like a dumbass and it exposed how bad his english is. Christopher Daniels, Steve Corino, Stan Hansen, even Nigel would had been better replacements.