Souled Out '99

Legacy Review

Souled Out '99

January 17, 1999 from the Charleston Civic Center in Charleston, WV

 

Commentary: Tony Schiavone, Bobby Heenan and Mike Tenay

 

As the calendar transitioned from '98 to '99 WCW underwent some major changes. First, at Starrcade Goldberg's undefeated streak came to an end. The giant, unexpected wave that helped keep WCW afloat the past year was no more. Then, on the first Nitro of '99, the Fingerpoke of Doom happened. Hollywood Hogan once again took the World title, the two NWO factions reunited to end their civil war that had also driven much of what happened in '98, and fans were generally furious at the World title being treated like a joke. The juxtaposition of the Fingerpoke of Doom against Mick Foley winning the WWF Championship for the first time on Raw the same night, a hugely popular win, could not be more stark.

 

About the only positive to speak of coming into the new year was the return of Ric Flair at Starrcade. He and Eric Bischoff had managed to smooth things over to the point they could at least work together again. In fact, thanks to Flair's victory over Bischoff in their rematch from Starrcade on the same Nitro as the Fingerpoke of Doom, Flair was now the on-screen President of WCW. As part of that, the co-branding of PPVs as "WCW/NWO presents" from the past year was now being phased out. The logos for this show had NWO crossed out in red paint, and starting next month at Superbrawl PPVs would be only under the WCW banner again.

 

The show opens with a "WCW Special Report" presenting a Flair presidential press conference. The main gist is WCW is once again a united front against the NWO. The stage design continues to trend more and more toward what WWF was doing, metal scaffolding structures and giant tron. During the (as usual for WCW overlong) balyhoo intro Tony gets interrupted by something happening in the back. We cut to "Star dressing room C" and see Goldberg on the floor holding his leg. He shouts "Get outta here!" and tosses a chair before we can learn anything else. My bet is on he headbutted his locker so hard it hurt his leg.

 

Chris Benoit def Mike Enos in 10:34- With Flair in charge the Four Horseman have officially reformed with Benoit once again part of the group. Enos was the longtime tag partner of Wayne Bloom (The Wrecking Crew in AWA and the Beverly Brothers in WWF), but after spending years as a jobber was getting a renewed mini-push teaming up with Bobby Duncam Jr as part of the lengthy ongoing tournament to determine new tag team champs. I'm not getting into that mess until I have to. The crowd is NUTS for Benoit. Lots of stalling at the start before a rough, roll around the ropes lockup. Benoit ducks a corner break cheap shot attempt and hits a chop. Enos turns him around and does a corner beatdown. Commentary is already completely checked out, talking about things coming later in the show rather than calling the match. Reset and Benoit gives Enos the vintage snot blow. Enos does an eye rake and hits a shoulderblock. He lets Benoit recover and plays to the crowd. Benoit slips out of a slam and hits another chop, followed by a clothesline. Corner chops and stomps. He catches an Enos kick and gives him a dragon screw. Another huge chop. Benoit ducks an Enos clothesline and goes for the crossface, but Enos blocks it and powers Benoit up into a gutwrench suplex. Powerslam for 2. Enos hooks on a bear hug for a bit, then drops Benoit in the corner. Benoit tries to kick back but Enos hits a clothesline and inverted atomic drop. Benoit manages to get a roll over sunset flip for 2. Enos grounds Benoit with a neck crank. Benoit dodges a legdrop. Enos hooks on the bear hug again. Benoit fights out but runs into a knee. Enos suplex for 2. Open hand slap exchange that wakes Benoit up. Benoit counters a back suplex into a cover for 2. ROOOOOLING GERMANS! Benoit only hits two. It's a B PPV. The headbutt off the top hits but both guys are down. Enos gets a back elbow and a clothesline. He hooks up for another suplex. Benoit counters into the crossface! Enos taps! That was a nicely intense, old school style match with a good story of Benoit slowly overcoming Enos' clear power advantage. Another good carry job by Benoit. ***1/4

 

Norman Smiley def Chavo Guerrero Jr in 15:44- Smiley carries an urn with him on his entrance. Commentary, via producers, says the remains of Chavo's stick horse Pepe are in there. This is the period where Chavo was a few beans short of a full burrito and they were basically trying to get him to do the same unhinged prop silliness that Al Snow was doing so well in WWF. Naturally it didn't work out quite as well for Chavo. Smiley taunts Chavo with some wood shavings out of the urn. More mocking and stalling before Chavo is finally close enough to hit some shots. After some back and forth Chavo 360 clotheslines Smiley to the floor. Plancha! Springboard bulldog back in. Smiley begs off and tights pulls Chavo into the corner. Chavo gets a springboard crossbody and hits a drop toe hold that I think was supposed to send Smiley into the bottom turnbuckle, but they were feet short so he faceplants the mat instead. Smiley hot shots Chavo in the corner and hits a corner clothesline. Classic Smiley windup slam and he teases doing the world famous wiggle. Chavo gets a flash cradle for 2. He blocks a Smiley roll up attempt and tries a splash but Smiley gets his knees up. Smiley suplex drops Chavo on the top rope. Gut stomp and he uses his legs to wrap Chavo up on the mat. One thing you can say in Smiley's favor, he was ZSJ like creative in his submission work. He just didn't know how to make it interesting or entertaining like ZSJ. As they grapple on the mat a decent portion of the crowd chants for Smiley. Chavo hits a clothesline. Smiley gets a running swinging neckbreaker for 2 before going back to the mat. Chavo tries to fight Smiley on his turf but Smiley quickly counters back on him. Both guys turn on the counter jets, ending with a Smiley back elbow. Stomps and an elbow drop from Smiley for 2. After a fight in the corner Smiley hits a superplex. Both guys are down. Smiley dances back up. He faceplant backdrops Chavo and hits a back elbow for 2. Sleeper from Smiley. Chavo tries to counter but takes a back suplex. After a Smiley corner beatdown Chavo dodges a charge in the corner. Backdrop for 2. Smiley hooks on a Gory Special. He blocks Chavo's counter cradle attempt, lifts him up into a wheelbarrow position, then spanks him! Chavo gets a counter roll up for 2. Victory roll from Chavo for 2. Chavo hits a running forearm in the corner. Smiley goes for his current top submission hold, a chicken wing, but Chavo fights it off. Chavo goes for his tornado DDT finisher but Smiley counters that. Smiley gets the urn out of his corner. He opens it up and tosses sawdust in Chavo's face! The chicken wing is on and Chavo taps out. For a Smiley match that wasn't too shabby, though it didn't sustain its length as well as it could have. **3/4

 

Fit Finlay def Van Hammer in 7:54- With the Flock done Hammer is now in his hippie phase. He's supposedly a face but he gets nothing from the crowd. Another slow start. Finlay cranks a headlock. Hammer hits a clothesline. Finlay works Hammer down to a knee and hits an elbow to the nose. European uppercuts. Short clothesline. Jawbreaker. He gives Hammer a couple of shots on the apron. Hammer slugs back and hits a backdrop. Finlay hooks on a nerve pinch and hits another nose elbow. Hammer supposedly hits a gut headbutt, Finlay sells it WAY more than it hit, and works on Finlay's knee a bit. After a long mat fight Hammer hits a jawbreaker. He baseball slides Finlay out to the floor. Finlay basement dropkicks Hammer off the apron. Hammer flips out of a Finlay sleeper and hits a corner clothesline. Big boot. Powerslam for 2. Rolling fireman's carry slam from Finlay. He hits a tombstone! That gets the pin. Finlay brought the usual intensity and carried Hammer as best he could. *1/4

 

Bam Bam Bigelow def Wrath in 9:23- Bigelow returned to WCW months ago as an occasional foil to Goldberg, but is only now getting his first PPV match back. Off the initial lockup Wrath shoves in the corner. Next lockup, Bigelow punches in the corner. Bigelow was slightly more effective. Wrath slugs back. He hits a bicycle kick and Bigelow rolls out. Back in Bigelow hits a shoulderblock but misses a diving headbutt. Wrath misses an elbow drop. Corner avalanche from Bigelow. Wrath hits a clothesline off the second rope for 2. Hot shot from Bigelow. After some more uninspired back and forth slugging Bigelow hits a clothesline. Slam/diving headbutt combo for 2. Bigelow hooks up a time killing chinlock. Since we're in that a long while, commentary starts discussing Bigelow's famous head tattoo. Heenan tells Tony to shave his head, get that tattoo, then grow your hair back and no one will know it's there. Fantastic. Wrath's comeback is killed with a back elbow. Dodge in the corner from Wrath and he hits a dropkick. Powerslam from Bigelow for 2. DDT for 2. Double clothesline and both guys are down. Bigelow dodges a corner charge, plants Wrath with Greetings from Asbury Park, and it's over. 3/4*

 

"The Total Package" Lex Luger def Konnan in 9:31- This is our first NWO match of the night. Soon after the reunion of the NWO factions the Wolfpac decided to kick Konnan out, with Luger delivering the message. Despite there only being one NWO again the Wolfpac's music is still being used. Luger takes a mic before the bell and offers Konnan an out. Konnan says no. With fists. Wild fists. Inverted atomic drop on Luger. Back elbow and Luger powders. Konnan tracks him down and brings him back. More pounding and Luger is selling pretty well, I'll give him that. He could be very prone to phoning it in. Luger dodges a dropkick and lays in a ton of stomps and slaps to huge boos. He works on Konnan's back. Konnan gives Luger a flurry of buckle shots but is soon down getting stomped on again. Konnan falls out to the floor. Back in Luger (barely) hooks on a bear hug. Konnan fights out but takes a clothesline. Luger hits a slam. Konnan rolls across the ring and completely ignores Luger's attempt to drop an elbow on him, then no sells it when Luger does. On the floor Konnan says something to Luger, then Luger gets in the ring and goes into stall mode. Konnan slowwwwwwwwwwly crawls his way back up into the ring. He gets boots up on Luger and hits a crossbody for 2. Rolling clothesline. Snap mare/dropkick combo with Konnan still only going about 50% of his usual speed, which isn't exactly lightning quick to start with. Elizabeth is coming out! While the camera is focused on her Konnan gets Luger in the Tequila Sunrise. Elizabeth sprays black paint in Konnan's face! Wait, they're Wolfpac. Shouldn't it be red? Anyway, Luger gets Konnan up in the Torture Rack and as always it's academic at that point. They had some good blood feud energy the first few minutes, but quickly burned through it and it devolved into a typical Konnan or late career Luger match. *

 

Loser Wears a Dress Match: Chris Jericho (w/Ralphus) def Perry Saturn in 11:44- Just like it says on the tin, whoever loses the match has to wear a dress. Ralphus comes out with a large paper bag that we assume the dress is in. Before the match starts commentary points out Scott Dickinson is reffing this match. He had been having issues with Saturn lately, seemingly egged on by Jericho. In other words, everyone can already see some variation of the finish coming. Lockup, Saturn hits a slap, and Jericho goes right out to the floor. Back in Jericho tights pulls Saturn down. He walks up the corner to keep Saturn in a headlock. Another walk up and this time Saturn tosses him away. Saturn ducks a clothesline and hits a back elbow. Jericho jawbreakers out of a chinlock. Saturn clothesline to Jericho's back. Ugly spin kick. Springboard legdrop for 2. Ralphus takes the dress out of the bag so the cameras, and Saturn, can get a look at it. Jericho gets a hot shot and springboard dropkicks Saturn to the floor. He slams Saturn on the floor. Delayed suplex back in. Arrogant cover! That sets Saturn off. Jericho gets a kick to the face and hits a senton for 2. Legdrop for 2. Slaps fire Saturn back up. Jericho punches him back down and goes for a quick Lionsault, but Saturn gets his knees up. Jericho comes off the second rope but gets caught into a Saturn exploder suplex. Saturn counters a Jericho corner flying headscissors attempt into a faceplant for 2. Jericho double underhook slam. Saturn dodges a dropkick and slingshots Jericho out to the floor! Baseball slide. Big splash off the top from Saturn back in for a long 2. After a long counter run, including some roll up counters, Jericho hits a bridged German suplex for 2. Saturn crotches Jericho on the top rope. He goes for a back superplex but Jericho flips over onto his feet. Jericho fights out of a DVD attempt. Saturn fights out of a Liontamer attempt. Jericho hooks up for a suplex. Saturn uses that to wrap up a small package. Dickinson then literally rolls them over so Saturn's shoulders are on the mat, then does a super fast 3 count. Yup, you saw that coming. Commentary says that was "maybe" a fast count. Give me a break, that was faster than one of Shane McMahon's fast counts. After the bell Jericho gives Dickinson the bag and slaps him, telling him to get Saturn in it RIGHT NOW. Dickinson gives Saturn the bag and Saturn, ex-Army Ranger tough guy, reluctantly dons the dress in an image for the ages. Jericho, Ralphus and Dickinson all leave together laughing. **1/4

 

Four Corners Match for the WCW Cruiserweight Championship: Billy Kidman (c) def Rey Mysterio Jr, Juventud Guerrera and Psychosis in 14:25- This is essentially a rematch of the three way at Starrcade with Psychosis added to the mix. This is under two guys start and you have to tag in and out rules, at least to start. Kidman and Mysterio, the two faces, "won" the coin toss backstage to get to start. The two heels, Juvy and Psychosis, try to interject themselves but get forced back to the apron by ref Lil' Naitch. Code of Honor handshake between Mysterio and Kidman and we're off. They go immediate speed and Mysterio hits a flying headscissors. After forcing the heels back again they hit the jets and have a big crossbody collision. Again the heels come in and try to stomp away on them. Mysterio has enough and tags Psychosis in. From the apron. Is that legal? Kidman then tags Juvy in from behind while Juvy's playing to the crowd. The heels shove each other and Psychosis gets the first shots in. Juvy does a victory roll for 2 with a Psychosis cradle counter for 2. Both guys trade chops. They have a bit of a fumbling exchange in the middle of the ring then go into some standing switches ending in a stalemate. They shake hands, hug, then both go to tag out but the faces hop off the apron! When Juvy and Psychosis' backs are turned they then run in and attack. Kidman and Mysterio hit some double teams on the heels. Kidman crossbody off the top on Psychosis for 2. Juvy trips Kidman into a Psychosis front suplex. Juvy flying headscissors off the top rope. Psychosis 360 clotheslines Kidman to the floor, then backdrops Mysterio onto him! Juvy and Psychosis go out, but then argue over who gets to hit the high spot. They start trading fists on the apron. The faces get up and sunset bomb them both to the floor! Kidman lifts Juvy up in the ring and Mysterio gives him a springboard doomsday device for 2. Mysterio and Psychosis fight on the apron. Mysterio monkey flips Psychosis over the corner to the floor! Kidman hits a senton off the top rope onto Psychosis on the floor. Juvy/Mysterio collision in the ring. Juvy lifts off Mysterio's back into a dive onto the others on the floor! Mysterio then does a tope con hilo over Lil' Naitch! The heels bail and Kidman takes the whole thing. Then Juvy accidentally clotheslines Psychosis on the floor. The teamwork portion of the match is over now, it's become a straight four way with no one worrying about tagging or who's legal. Which I won't complain about because this is how a four way should be. Mysterio hits what would become the west coast pop on Juvy in the ring. Juvy reverses into a cradle for 2. Juvy hits the Juvy driver, but Psychosis breaks the pin up with a missile dropkick to Juvy. Psychosis reverse hurricanrana off the top to Juvy. Kidman counters into a faceplant on Psychosis. Mysterio hits a bulldog on Psychosis. Psychosis clotheslines Juvy and Kidman to the floor, then slides Mysterio out. Juvy sets up the faces laying down on the floor. Psychosis tope con hilo onto them! Juvy hits a missile dropkick on Psychosis in the ring. Mysterio dodges a Psychosis dive on the floor. Meanwhile, Kidman has Juvy set up in the ring. The shooting star press hits, and that gets the pin to retain. The breakdown of the match from teams to everyone for themselves was fun, but apart from that it was pretty much a spotfest like the Starrcade match. ***1/4

 

"Nature Boy" Ric Flair and David Flair (w/Arn Anderson) def Curt Hennig and Barry Windham in 13:56- This is all part of the Flair vs NWO battle, with the NWO SUPER pissed Flair took Bischoff out of power. Windham had recently returned to WCW and was logical to throw in here as another guy, like Hennig, that had extensive history with Flair. This is also the very first recorded match for Flair's 19 year old son David, who initially didn't want to be a wrestler but had recently changed his mind. I'm honestly not sure how much formal training he'd had before this, but one look at him and you can pretty much guess not much. If any. Essentially this is Erik Watts 2.0. Lots of words are exchanged on the mic before the match, including Flair threatening Hennig with banishment to WWF if he didn't get in the ring. I can't see how that'd be a threat considering where the two companies were at this point. Windham then demands David starts with him. David talks his dad into it. David's wrestling in a tshirt and shorts. He goes right for a leg takedown that Windham easily avoids. Windham grabs a headlock. David muffs a headscissors counter, but Windham sells and bails anyway. Ric hops in and struts around like something good actually happened. As always, credit to him for trying to make the best out of it. Windham uses a test of strength to get a kick in. David slips out of a slam, hits chops and a hiptoss. Windham comes back with a slam but misses an elbow drop. David mercifully tags right out to his dad. Corner chops and jabs on Windham. Hennig comes in and takes a chop with a huge Hennig sell. Ric backdrop on Windham. Hennig tags in throwing chops. Ric eye pokes him and hits another huge chop, then an elbow to Hennig's knee. Hennig is trying to throw in as much classic over the top Hennig selling as he's physically capable of anymore. Hennig does the snap mare/neck snap combo, then chops David off the apron. Corner whip and Ric does the Flair Flip to the floor! Windham hops down to give him chops and a guardrail shot. Back in Ric back elbows Hennig, then makes the mistake of going up top and gets slammed off. Windham hits the superplex for 2. Arn and Hennig stand off on the floor. Ric counters Windham mounted punches into an inverted atomic drop. Hennig comes in and starts working on the knee. Corner beatdown and Flair Flop! Hennig hooks on a figure four with leverage help from Windham. Windham tags in and continues the knee work. He goes for a figure four but Ric small packages him for 2. He tries to come back but Windham eye pokes him and we continue with Ric in peril. He ends up in the wrong corner again. Arn drags Hennig out and lays into him! Ric back suplexes Windham and hooks the figure four on! Hennig takes Arn out then breaks the hold up. The heels hook up for a double suplex. David comes in and low blows Hennig! Ric small package on Windham for 2. Hennig drags David in and goes for the perfectplex on him. Arn gets in behind him, whacks him in the back of the head with the tire iron that was his thing at this point, and David literally falls on top of Hennig to get the pin. The kid just had to get the pin. Dumb booking and David looking more lost than Bronny James in an NBA game aside, the bulk of the match when David was parked on the apron wasn't too shabby because everyone else had their working boots on, even if they weren't as physically capable as they used to be. Hennig and Windham were pulling stuff out of parts of the tank I didn't even think they had left. The Flair effect. **1/2

 

After the bell the NWO run in, and I mean the WHOLE NWO. Wolfpac, Hogan, everyone. They handcuff Ric to the ropes then proceed to beat David in front of him while Ric looks on bawling. It goes on for so long the crowd chants for both Goldberg and Sting but of course neither show up. They spraypaint "EZE", Bischoff's nickname, on David's back before leaving. This is nowhere near over, but I hope you're ready for nonsensical swerve heel turns because, boy, we've got one coming up here.

 

Stun Gun Ladder Match: Goldberg def Scott Hall in 17:45- It was a shot from Scott Hall with one of the Mountie's old shock sticks that cost Goldberg the World title and the streak to Kevin Nash at Starrcade, so this is Goldberg looking for revenge while also trying to start a new streak. "Who's next" has turned into "Who's first". That's not me, that's literally what Goldberg's saying. Listening to Buffer trying to get through the rules for this match is freaking hilarious. It doesn't matter who retrieves the stun gun that's hung up where a title belt would normally be in a ladder match, it's whoever uses the gun to ZAP his opponent that will be the winner. Hall kills time cutting an entire promo before the match. He tries to claim Goldberg can't wrestle due to the attack at the start of the show, but of course 20 seconds later here's Goldberg is making his way out. He does have a knee brace on. Lots of stalling at the start. Hall shoves. Goldberg shoves harder. Easy lockup win for Goldberg. Hall bounces off Goldberg trying a shoulderblock. Eye poke from Hall and he starts the usual arm work, until Goldberg clotheslines him. A Hall slam attempt goes nowhere. Goldberg hits a slam but has to shake his bad knee off. Hall kicks the leg. Goldberg shrugs it off and hits a powerslam, but is still favoring the knee. Now Hall really starts to go to work on it. Apron and post shots for the knee. Hall goes over to get the ladder. Goldberg cuts him off. While stepping backward Goldberg literally legit trips over the ladder. He tosses Hall back in the ring and limps back to get the ladder. Hall baseball slides the ladder into Goldberg. Stair shot and Goldberg is busted open. Blood on a Turner show! Time for the cameras to go wide for the rest of the match. Hall sets the ladder up and climbs. He stops decides to drop an elbow on Goldberg from the ladder, but he puled the ladder too and it comes down on top of him! Hall climbs again. Goldberg comes behind and back suplexes him off the ladder. Hall picks the ladder up and runs it into Goldberg, then drops it on him. Another Hall climb. Goldberg pushes it over and Hall goes into the ropes. Hall tries to run the ladder into Goldberg but Goldberg cuts it off with a clothesline. Hall sets the ladder up in the corner. Goldberg reverses a whip and Hall goes into the ladder. Now it's Goldberg's turn to give Hall some ladder shots. Goldberg climbs. Hall dropkicks the ladder to knock him off! Then he pushes the ladder down onto Goldberg. Hall slow climbs while Goldberg wanders around the ring. Finally Goldberg pushes the ladder over again. Goldberg climbs and is almost there. Here come the run ins. Disco Inferno is out and pushes the ladder down. Goldberg falls THROAT FIRST RIGHT INTO THE TOP ROPE! His head snapped back hard when he hit it. That was completely unintentional and could have been really, really bad. Reminds me of Enzo Amore throwing himself into the bottom rope and damn near killing himself one of his first WWE main roster matches. Disco gets Hall up. He climbs and gets the taser. Goldberg dodges it, then fights Hall off. Superkick from Goldberg. The taser bounces out to the floor. Goldberg gets his feet caught in the ladder and literally falls out of the ring going to get it. Damn this this has been sloppy. Disco takes a nice casual taser shot, like Goldberg barely knew he was there. Goldberg gets back in. Hall begs off. More standing there taking forever. Goldberg tosses the taser up like a jump ball. When Hall leaps for it Goldberg spears him! Jackahmmer! After more moment milking there's the taser shot and it's over. Bigelow runs in and beats Goldberg down. Hall then zaps BOTH guys because why not. And just like that the show ends incredibly abruptly. It shows 2:55 on the runtime so clearly they didn't want to go over again like Halloween Havoc. That was like watching a ladder match underwater. **1/4

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- The very definition of a filler, mostly skippable B PPV. There's nothing truly horrendously awful, which is a borderline miracle for WCW, but there's also nothing significantly good and only the David Flair beatdown and maybe the main event and, sadly, Saturn in a dress can claim any kind of long term significance.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: D+

Royal Rumble '01

Legacy Review

Royal Rumble '01

January 21, 2001 from the New Orleans Arena in New Orleans, LA

 

Commentary: Jim Ross and Jerry Lawler

 

This is a card that is not messing around. Four title matches, including all of the top three belts, and the Rumble. 2000 was one of WWF's most successful years ever by any metric you care to use, and coming into Rumble/Wrestlemania season it was time to finish off floundering WCW once and for all.

 

WWF Tag Team Championship: The Dudley Boyz def Edge & Christian (c) in 9:58- The Dudleyz are coming into this match with concussions due to chair attacks from E&C on Raw the previous week. This is well before post-playing NFL injuries made concussions what they are today. We get a jump start while the video package was still playing. E&C slide out and try to leave but the Dudleyz chase them down. D'Von and Edge settle in back in the ring with D'Von hitting a neckbreaker for 2. Hiptoss and flying back elbow from D'Von on Christian. Dudleyz double shoulderblock. Bubba Ray jabs Chrisitan down in the corner while still selling his hurt head/neck. Christian gets a rope assisted flying headscissors in the corner, but Bubba Ray responds with a side suplex for 2. Edge tags in and runs into a D'Von powerslam for 2. Christian hits D'Von in the back of the head from the apron to finally turn things around for E&C. Back suplex from Edge. He cuts D'Von off with a swinging neckbreaker for 2 and continues the attack on the head. Edge sets up for a piledriver. D'Von counters and slingshots Edge into Christian, who'd positioned himself on the top rope, then rolls Edge up for 2. Double clothesline. Christian distracts ref Tim White and we get the phantom tag spot. E&C get chairs and set up. D'Von ducks a conchairto, double clotheslines E&C and tags. Hot tag run from Bubba Ray. Hot shot on Edge. Bubba Bomb for Christian. Edge takes the Whazzup Drop. Get the tables time. Christian cuts D'Von off before the table has fully emerged. Bubba Ray ducks an attempted belt shot from Edge and rolls him up for 2. Christian goes for the Unprettier but D'Von makes the save. 3D setup. Edge spears Bubba Ray before it can hit! Cover and Bubba Ray kicks out! Now E&C do their own version of the Whazzup Drop, going gloriously over the top on the WHAZZUPs. But before it can hit Bubba Ray rolls Christian over, and D'Von pushes Edge off the top rope into Christian's crotch. 3D on Edge! The Dudleyz get the pin and are champions again! Amazingly, this is only the second time they've won the titles and the first time they've been champs since losing the Triangle Ladder Match at Wrestlemania 2000. That was damn good formula tag stuff, and yet more proof these teams (and the Hardyz) didn't need the gimmicks to have a good match with each other. ***1/4

 

We get footage from earlier tonight of Drew Carey arriving at the arena. He's here because WWF is helping promote an improv show he's putting on PPV the next weekend. For those too young to remember, before Carey became the new Bob Barker and took over as host of The Price is Right he was a fairly famous comedian and even had his own sitcom on ABC for nearly a decade.

 

We then go live to the Trips/Steph locker room. Steph assures Trips her hatred of Trish Stratus won't affect his match tonight. Carey then invades their locker room. After the usual pleasantries Carey asks where Vince is. Steph offers to take Carey to Trish's locker room instead, with Trips sniggering in the background. We then cut the APA's office for the night. Faarooq and Bradshaw flash their Rumble entry numbers to each other, then both decide they need another beer.

 

Ladder Match for the WWF Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho def Chris Benoit (c) in 18:43- The battles between the Canadian Chrises was one of the best feuds of 2000, so why not run it back one more time, and add a ladder what the hell. Immediate slugfest jump start. Jericho hits a back elbow and clothesline. Both guys make early attempts at their signature submission holds that are fought off. Benoit tosses Jericho shoulder first into the post. Shoulderbreaker from Benoit. Jericho responds with a flying forearm. Benoit dodges the springboard dropkick, causing Jericho to splat on the floor right on his hurt arm. He whips Jericho arm first into the post, then Benoit goes and gets the ladder. They do an obvious setup for a baseball slide, but it was thankfully too obvious. Benoit pulls the ladder out of the way, then tosses Jericho into the stairs. Benoit sets the ladder up in the ring and climbs. Jericho lifts him off the ladder and hits an electric chair. He runs the ladder into Benoit's face! Another ladder shot in the corner. Jericho sets the ladder up on top of the corner. Benoit reverses the whip, sending Jericho into the ladder and causing them both to collapse to the floor. Benoit loads up for a tope suicida. JERICHO BLOCKS IT WITH A CHAIR! Fantastic. Jericho drops Benoit on the barricade, gets on the apron, and tries to fall on Benoit with the ladder but Benoit dodges. Benoit runs the ladder into Jericho on the floor and gives him a chairshot. Back in Benoit props the ladder up in the corner and runs Jericho into it. Another go, Jericho reverses the whip and Benoit takes the shot. Jericho lifts Benoit up, wraps his legs up in the ladder, climbs himself, and drops Benoit with a back superplex WITH THE LADDER! Benoit dropkicks the ladder into Jericho and hits his own regular back suplex. The ladder goes up in the corner again and Benoit gets whipped into it. Jericho goes to the apron, hops down and pulls the ladder over the top rope, ricocheting it into Benoit's jaw! Then Jericho goes up top, gives Benoit the ladder, and missile dropkicks it into him. Ladder setup in the middle and Jericho climbs. Benoit cuts it off and dumps Jericho over the top to the floor. Now Benoit climbs. Jericho fights up to join him. He grabs Benoit's legs and stretches him out over the ladder top with the Walls! Amazing visual. He dumps Benoit down and just gets a hand on the belt before Benoit kicks the ladder down. Jericho runs Benoit over with the ladder. He tries coming off the ladder. Benoit grabs him and hooks on the crossface! Jericho taps, but that's irrelevant here. Benoit CRANKS back on it. After letting go he gives Jericho another shoulder shot on the post. Jericho hot shots Benoit into the ladder and squashes him in the corner with it. Both guys climb the ladder in the corner. Benoit fights off a ladder superplex and Jericho falls down. Benoit goes for the diving headbutt off the top of the ladder. Jericho dodges! Jericho sets the ladder on top of Benoit and climbs. Benoit lifts the ladder up and dumps it over! Now Benoit climbs. Jericho tries to stop him with chairshots but Benoit shrugs them off. Jericho pushes the ladder over and Benoit FLIES to the floor! Almost all the way into the aisle. Jericho climbs. Benoit tries but he can't get his broken body back up into the ring, and Jericho gets the belt to win and get the title back! The fourth of Jericho's record nine IC title wins. As always from these two that was physical, hard hitting, and mostly psychologically tight. My only little quibble is Jericho's hurt arm didn't get used or sold as much as it could have. ****1/2

 

Drew Carey is in Trish's locker room trying to get somewhere with her. Nothing doing there. Vince strolls in. Carey asks him about promoting his improv show. Vince responds by saying you want to do some improv, why not enter the Rumble! Trish pushes by saying she'd be "super impressed" by it and Carey agrees.

 

WWF Women's Championship: Ivory (c) (w/Steven Richards) def Chyna in 3:27- Chyna is coming back from having her neck broken at the hands of a Right to Censor spike piledriver. Jump start #3 with Chyna clotheslining Ivory as soon as she hits the ring. Hair tosses from Chyna. Corner whips. She sets Ivory on the top rope and snap mares her off. Corner forearms and stomps. Again she places Ivory up top and this time punches her off down to the floor. Ivory tries to escape through the crowd. Chyna follows, her presses her, holds her up for a hell of a long time, and deposits her back ringside. Back in she slams Ivory. Richards gets in the ring, takes a clothesline and gets tossed right back out. Chyna goes for the handspring elbow. She stops well short, nudges Ivory, then goes down in a heap holding her neck. Ivory drapes an arm over and gets the pin. 1/4*

 

After the bell Chyna still hasn't moved a muscle since going down. Lawler gets up from commentary to check on her while JR goes into serious voice. When they show replays they fortunately go for a different angle that doesn't show Chyna pulling up before hitting Ivory so obviously. Chyna's partner Billy Gunn and a bunch of officials come in, then come the medics. They backboard and stretcher Chyna out. They were trying to do the whole work shoot injury angle here to lead into WM but it doesn't come off as well as it could have, everyone saw through it.

 

Steph and Trish get catty with each other at the hairdresser's. I'd assume it'd be like one of those Real Housewives of (insert random city here) if I watched one of those things. Probably just as real too. After that we cut to Carey again. A gofer presents him with his gear for the match and he asks no one in particular if that makes him an official wrestler now. Probably a good thing he said that in an empty room. Then he says "Who's the guy in the goofy mask?" as Kane walks by. Carey tries to engage him in conversation. Kane has no interest and walks away. Elsewhere elsewhere Tiger Ali Singh's wrestlers D'Lo Brown and Chaz are arguing which of the two of them should be in the Rumble. Vince comes in and kills it immediately by saying their slot's been taken by someone else. Who? Drew Carey of course. Another deserving wrestler passed over because of celebrity chasing.....oh hell, it's 2001 D'Lo and Chaz, who am I kidding.

 

Setting up the WWF Championship match: I wish I could say this grew out of the big Trips/Steph/Angle love triangle from the summer, but no, that's been completely forgotten about. This started when Vince awarded Trips the #1 contender slot because of nepotism. To try to mess with his opponent, Angle hired Trish as his "business manager". This is during the period where Vince was using Trish as his personal bit of fluff (insert a Mel Brooks "It's good to be the king" here) so he didn't take kindly to that. But who took it even less kindly was Steph. She was already furious at her dad for messing around with Trish and how that hurt his relationship with Linda, but now she's going to be in her husband's opponent's corner? Unacceptable. All in all this is as much Steph vs Trish as it is Angle vs Trips.

 

WWF Championship: Kurt Angle (c) (w/Trish Stratus) def Triple H (w/Stephanie McMahon-Helmsley) in 24:18- Despite all the soap opera storylines this is still heel vs heel. Angle wrestles the whole match with the straps down, not that it meant anything back then. Lockup! HHH works an arm wringer. Angle does a fancy escape into a fireman's carry takedown and an ARMBAR. Corner break. Speed run with Angle getting a hiptoss and clotheslining HHH 360 to the floor. Huge "Angle sucks" chant. HHH goes on offense when he gets back in and lays in some corner forearms. Angle gets a backdrop and does some arm work. A trio of suplexes from Angle hit and he covers for 2. HHH rolls out again. Angle follows. HHH runs him into the barricade. Back in HHH drop toe holds Angle into a reverse Indian death lock. HHH hits a dragon screw! We don't see nearly enough of that in a WWF/E ring. He goes for another but Angle counters with an enzuguri for 2. HHH goes back to the leg. After another loud HHH spot call they do the corner whip dosido and HHH does the Trips flip in the corner to the floor. Angle pulls HHH into the post, then gives him a stair shot. Back in HHH dodges a corner clothesline. He goes to post Angle's knee again and gets it this time. Steph distracts Hebner and HHH gives the knee a chairshot. Kneebreaker on the stairs. Back in HHH hits a couple of chop blocks and drops elbows on the knee. He hooks on a side Indian death lock. I love it when HHH breaks out the classics. Angle pummels HHH with punches to break himself free. HHH hits the facebuster for 2. He gets back on the leg, kneedropping the knee off the ropes. Figure four! That gets a near fall. HHH works over to get some extra rope leverage. Trish tries to get in the ring. Steph pulls her out. They slap each other. Full on cat fight on and over the Spanish announce table! I don't know why Savinovitch is getting out of the way, let them fall on you. Vince comes out, tries to separate them, can't, tries to carry Trish out, Steph stops that, and finally they slowly work their way to the back. After multiple minutes focused on that the camera finally gets back on the match that's still going on. HHH goes for another figure four but Angle small packages him for 2. After another elbow drop to the knee HHH goes for the figure four again. Angle pushes him out into the corner. Slugfest. Angle hits a DDT for 2. Inverted atomic drop into a German suplex from Angle for 2. That's a nice combo that I don't think he kept. Russian leg sweep. Still selling the knee, Angle starts climbing for the moonsault. HHH low blows him. He lifts Angle up and Razor's Edges him off the ropes! Hi Scott Hall. Angle kicks out! HHH hooks up for the Pedgiree. Angle counters. HHH pushes Angle out into the corner, but Angle bounces off and falls into HHH's crotch! Angle climbs up again. The moonsault hits! But he hurt his knee on the landing and can't cover right away, allowing HHH to kick out. HHH tosses Angle to the floor. He tries coming off the apron but it takes out Hebner, who'd come out to the floor for reasons. Angle takes a post shot. HHH climbs up top back in. Angle springs to the second rope and armdrags him off! Cover but no ref. Angle goes out to try to get Hebner up. HHH pulls Angle into the stairs, with Hebner right underneath him so now Hebner's even deader than he was before. HHH goes over and gets the belt. Angle cuts the belt shot off and hits a belly to belly suplex. Then he picks the belt up. Kick wham Pedigree! Cover but still no ref. Now HHH goes out to try to revive Hebner. Austin runs out! He attacks HHH! Belt shot from Austin to HHH! Austin drags Hebner up and deposits him in the ring. Then he goes back in. Stunner to HHH! Austin leaves. Angle crawls over and puts an arm over HHH. Hebner very slowly crawls over, does the super slow count, and Angle gets the pin to continue his unlikely title reign. After the bell a furious HHH storms to the back, presumably looking for Austin. There's definitely some really good chemistry here, but all the focus on Steph and Trish plus the overbooking at the end kept this from reaching the heights it otherwise might have. Angle's initial title reign might have been a flop from a booking perspective, but there's no denying he continues to consistently improve every time out. ***1/2

 

Royal Rumble- Traditional 2 minute intervals tonight. The main storylines going into this year's Rumble are the impending Rock/Austin showdown and if it would lead to the WM main event or not, and if so how would it happen, Undertaker and Kane seeming to be on the same page again and what that could mean for everyone else, and the fact that it had already been determined that Rikishi would come in at #30. Oh, and now Drew Carey.

1 & 2. Jeff Hardy and Bull Buchanan- Slight clash of styles to start here. Jump start #4 tonight. Buchanan's not wearing his tie, which has to be an RTC bylaws infraction. Good power vs speed stuff to open with Jeff doing another great Ricky Morton impression. Both try eliminations.

3. Matt Hardy- Reinforcements are here. The Hardyz hit Poetry in Motion on Buchanan. Double clothesline and Buchanan is eliminated. The Hardyz hit hands, circle, and go at it! Matt tries to delete Jeff but that doesn't work. Yet. Back suplex from Matt, jawbreaker from Jeff. Matt goes over the top but not out. When the countdown hits they call peace to get ready for the next guy.

4. Faarooq- The Hardyz jump but Faarooq hits a double clothesline. Poetry in Motion is blocked. Jeff saves Matt from taking a Dominator. Twist of Fate/Swanton Bomb combo and they toss Faarooq out! Then Jeff immediately tries to dump Matt! Matt lands on the apron, gets back in and is not happy. The shirts are off! The brothers slug it out! Jeff hits Whisper in the Wind during the countdown.

5. Drew Carey- Getting this out of the way early. Carey's "gear" is a full Adidas track suit. He gladhands with all the fans while slowly working his way to the ring. Meanwhile the Hardyz continue to fight it out. Jeff misses a shotgun dropkick to Matt's back so has to get up and push him over to the apron. Carey gets in the ring. The Hardyz ignore him, both go over the top rope and fight up the corner. They both crash down to the floor! Carey's all alone in the ring.

6. Kane- Carey's fucked. He wants the refs to help him, like that would do any good. Kane takes his sweet time stalking around the ring to make Carey sweat more. Then he gets in and sets the corner pyro off. Carey offers a handshake. Then some money! Kane goozle! The countdown hits zero before anything else can happen.

7. WWF Hardcore Champion Raven- He saves Carey with a kendo stick shot. Carey's had enough. He climbs over the top rope and drops to the floor, eliminating himself. Kane pounds away on Raven. They almost blow a side suplex spot. Raven sets off a fire extinguisher in Kane's face, then goes under the ring for more toys. Welcome to the hardcore Rumble. Al Snow runs in and attacks Raven! He's in the Rumble so commentary presumes he's next. The refs stop him getting in until the countdown is over.

8. Al Snow- Now he can come in. Trash can lid shots all around. Snow tosses yet more toys in. Bowling ball shot on Kane. He rolls the bowling ball into Raven's crotch! There's trash all over the ring. Kane no sells trash can shots. Snow and Raven slowly work him down with more and drop toe hold him into a can.

9. Perry Saturn- Too bad WWF couldn't or wouldn't acknowledge Saturn's history with Raven here. Instead Saturn tries to do some proper wrestling and works on Kane's knee. Everyone takes turns on Kane and slowly manage to pummel and sleeper hold him down to the mat.

10. Steve Blackman- He's got his sticks and he's using them as the hardcore Rumble continues. We get an all around hardcore brawl.

11. Grandmaster Sexay- He grabs a can lid and uses it. Kane finally says enough is enough. Sexay is eliminated. There goes Blackman. Snow's out. Raven's out! Saturn's gone! All by Kane's hand. Kane is all alone in the ring as the countdown hits.

12. The Honky Tonk Man- What? Yup, Honky's back for a one-off Rumble surprise appearance. He takes a mic and stops everything because he knows his fans want him to sing his song. He does while Kane looks on, letting the moment play out. When Honky hits the chorus Kane grabs the guitar! He nails Honky with his own guitar! Then tosses the handle away in a superb casual way. Goodbye Honky. Kane is killing it tonight. This also ends the hardcore portion of the Rumble, which was a fun departure from the usual.

13. The Rock- Business picks up. Rock's going to have to go much longer than last year if he wants to go back to back. He slugs away on Kane and hits a diving clothesline. Kane blocks a toss, hits a clothesline, and spends the rest of the period working Rock over.

14. The Goodfather- Rock intercepts him coming in. Smackdown punches and Goodfather goes over the top and is gone! Kane continues to keep Rock in peril.

15. Tazz- As soon as Tazz hits the ring Kane places him on the top rope and punches him down to the floor! Thanks for coming. Rock finally starts to get some offensive momentum on Kane, hitting a Samoan drop.

16. Bradshaw- He goes right for Kane. Rock thinks he and Bradshaw have an agreement to work on Kane. Bradshaw disagrees, clotheslining Rock. Rock hits Bradshaw with a spinebuster but then gets clotheslined by Kane.

17. Albert- Four way brawl as things start to settle in a bit for the next stretch. Gotta let it breathe at some point.

18. Hardcore Holly- Albert hits Bradshaw with the Albert Bomb. We get more Rock elimination teases. Rock then almost but not quite gets Kane over.

19. K-Kwik- He quickly gets schooled by Albert. Bradshaw and Kane plant Hardore and Kwik at the same time.

20. Val Venus- Kane hits a spinebuster. Bradshaw almost murders Kwik with a spear tackle that definitely could be a roughing the passer flag in modern football depending on who the QB is.

21. WWF European Champion William Regal- Quick European uppercuts on Kwik. Rock spinebusters Venus, then Venus gets Rock almost over again.

22. Test- As soon as he gets in he unceremoniously tosses Regal. Test then stomps Albert down in the corner. This was after their tag team broke up.

23. The Big Show- Another "WHAT?" surprise entrant. He had been out for months. On screen it was called an injury, but in reality he'd been shuffled down to OVW to try to polish his work up as well as work on his physical condition. Show wastes no time, tossing Test out, then press slamming Kwik out. Chokeslams for everyone else in the ring. I mean EVERYONE. Even Kane, who does a great job kicking his legs like he's fighting it the whole way down. Well, almost everyone. Rock is last and he low blows Show before he can hit it. Rock slugs away, charges, and eliminates Show! Can't say he didn't maximize his barely plural minutes. Show throws an absolute hissy fit, trashing the English announce table as the countdown hits.

24. Crash Holly- The focus is still on Show as he drags Rock out. He chokeslams Rock through the announce table! After that Show finally leaves. In the ring, everyone that's left is again trying to pound Kane down. The group has him teetering on the ropes as the clock hits zero.

25. The Undertaker- Presumably perfect timing for Kane. Taker still rides his bike out, then gets in and does indeed save his brother. The Brothers of Destruction team up and absolutely clear the ring out. Bradshaw, Crash, Hardcore, Albert and Venus are all tossed out in short order. Rock is still laying in the announce table remains. Kane and Taker stare down and slowly go nose to nose, but don't fight.

26. Scotty2Hotty- Scotty is understandably very reluctant to get in the ring. When he gets in he predictably gets knocked around. Taker and Kane go into full lions playing with their food mode with him. After a double chokeslam Scotty is eliminated. Rock is still recovering so the Brothers turn to the entrance to see who's next.

27. "Stone Cold" Steve Austin- GLASS SHATTER! AUSTIN POP! But before he gets near the ring HHH runs in and attacks him from behind! While that's happening Rock gets back in the ring. The Brothers pound him down while HHH destroys Austin around the stage area. Austin's bleeding.

28. "The One" Billy Gunn- He tries to fight the Brothers. The ref gaggle comes out and drags HHH out. We can see Austin isn't just bleeding, he's absolutely gushing blood. Taker hits a huge leaping DDT on Rock.

29. Haku- One more surprise entrant? Why not. Haku, as Meng, had won the WCW Hardcore Championship literally the week before at Sin, then bolted the company. When he left their Hardcore title was retired. This is his first WWF appearance in nearly a decade. He's got one hell of an afro going on too. He takes the fight to the Brothers. Austin's still lying in the stage area. Huge "Austin" chant from the crowd.

30. Rikishi- Austin's slowly walking back toward the ring. Rikishi makes the mistake of stopping to look at Austin. Austin attacks him! He throws Rikishi in the ring, then finally gets in himself. Austin pummels Gunn down in the corner, then eliminates Haku. Taker chokeslam on Rikishi. Taker tosses Rock but Rock lands on the apron. Headbutts from Taker on Rikishi go nowhere. A superkick from Rikishi eliminates Taker! Rikishi drags Rock into the corner and goes for the Banzai drop. Rock gets up and low blows him, then dumps Rikishi over to eliminate him!

FINAL FOUR: Kane, Rock, Austin, Gunn- Gunn counters a Stunner and hits the Fameasser. Austin shrugs that off and tosses Gunn out to eliminate him. Rock DDT on Kane. Austin and Rock lay in opposite corners and stare daggers at each other. Then they get up and stare some more while the crowd eats every bit of it up. Austin is still covered in blood. They meet in the middle and here we go! Back and forth slugging. Austin fights a Rock Bottom off. Stunner! Kane grabs Austin. Thesz Press on Kane! Rock Bottom on Austin! Rock tosses Kane, but clearly THROUGH the ropes so everyone knows he's not eliminated. Austin and Rock slug it out again. Austin tries to lift Rock but Rock eye rakes. Rock lifts Austin up. Kane comes from behind! Rock goes over and is eliminated, but Austin *just* manages to hang on! Austin pounds away on Kane against the ropes, runs back, charges....into a goozle! Chokeslam! Kane throat slashes to say it's over. Austin low blow! Kane goes out and gets a chair. Austin cuts it off. Stunner! Austin gets the chair and pummels Kane in the head with it repeatedly! One more charge and Kane is eliminated! Austin wins and is going to Wrestlemania! It's Austin's record third career Rumble win, a record that still stands to this day. It's also the fourth time someone had won from #27, which was the record for a long time until #30 overtook it in '22 and '23. No one's won from magic #27 since 2001. It needs to happen again.

 

That was a phenomenal Rumble. The best since the best one ever back in 1992. It was well laid out with fun moments sprinkled throughout, some good surprise entrants, the early stretch going full hardcore was well done, and it had good drama with Austin probably the most likely winner, but by no means a foregone conclusion as there's several different directions they could have gone even with Austin vs Rock the plan at WM. And while Austin winning and becoming the first three time winner huge, so was Kane's performance. He was this year's ironman at 53:46, set a new single Rumble record with 11 eliminations (sadly not mentioned on TV), and was the perfect buffer between Austin and Rock at the end to keep them from interacting more than necessary. He rose to the booking with legitimately one of the best performances of his career. ****

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- A tremendous IC title ladder match, good tag and WWF title matches, and a great Rumble. Can't ask for much more than that as WWF kicks off one of the greatest Wrestlemania seasons of all time.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: A

Wrestle Kingdom V

Legacy Review

Wrestle Kingdom V

January 4, 2011 from the Tokyo Dome

 

Once again interpromotional battles are the focus of this year's show, but unlike last year which was mostly NJPW vs Pro Wrestling NOAH, this year is more like WK 3 with promotions from all around heavily featured. It's also mirrored by the same basic "Tanahashi trying to wrest the Heavyweight title back from a former New Japan star that defected to All Japan and stole the title" main event that WK 3 had. At 13 matches, including two on the preshow, this is also the largest New Japan Tokyo Dome card since Wrestling World 2004's 15 match card. (2005 doesn't count even though it shows 16 on paper, it's padded by that stupid "Ultimate Royal" MMA thing that had multiple matches happening in the ring at the same time.)

 

As usual this is from the NJPW World archives so Japanese commentary only.

 

Preshow: Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, Wataru Inoue and Tama Tonga def Tomohiro Ishii, Gedo, Jado and Yujiro Takahashi (CHAOS) in 7:33- Tama is making his Dome debut here, having joined New Japan in mid '10. He and his adoptive brother, the future Tanga Loa, trained and broke in together in the US and Puerto Rico, but when Tama came to Japan Loa chose to try the FCW/NXT WWE developmental route instead. Tama is sporting an afro and wearing an exact copy of Jimmy Snuka's gear. He starts out for his team against Jado. Or he tries to, but Yujiro jumps him from behind. Tama fires up and takes out the whole CHAOS team, topping it off with a Snuka-style double chop. TM tags in and the face team take turns working on Jado a bit. Jado ducks a Honma lariato and low bridges him out to the floor. Hangman's DDT from Jado back in the ring. Honma tries to hulk up off Yujiro shots but takes an eye rake. Brain buster from Yujiro for 2. Ishii, still with hair, also cuts off a Honma comeback with an eye rake. Corner lariato for 2. Big suplex leverage fight. Honma fights Ishii up and plants him! HONMAMANIA IS RUNNING WILD BROTHER! Tag to TM, who comes in with a crossbody off the top and dropkicks. Yujiro runs in and powerslams TM. A double team misfires as Yujro lariatos Ishii. TM crucifixes Ishii but Jado breaks it up. Lariato from Ishii for 2. He goes for TM's mask! TM flips out of a German suplex attempt and kicks Ishii in the head. Tags on both sides. Inoue kocks Gedo around. Fisherman's buster. The pin is broken up and it's EVERYONE IN THE POOL time. Gedo gets set up. Honma goes up to the top rope. KOKESHI MAKE YOU HAPPY! Inoue follows up with a spear and that gets the pin. After the bell Ishii goes for TM's mask again and the ring attendants have to separate everyone. Decent enough preshow multi-man tag. **1/4

 

Preshow: Koji Kanemoto and Ryuske Taguchi def Kenny Omega and Taichi in 8:04- Two more of my all time favorite wrestlers in Japan are making their Dome debut tonight. The first is Kenny Omega, who yes is not Japanese but I always associate him with New Japan first as his best years were there. He and his more than tag partner Kota Ibushi (the other favorite debuting tonight), who were both primarily working for DDT at the time, are the reigning IWGP junior tag champs as Golden Lovers. They're not defending tonight as Ibushi has something a bit bigger happening on the main card. Kenny starts with Taguchi. Basic start with Taguchi cranking a headlock. Speed run, armdrag tradeoff, both go for dropkicks at the same time and stalemate. They hip swivel at each other and have a quick "this is fun" handshake. Both sides tag and Kanemoto kills the ha-has, pounding Tagichi down. Taichi drop toe holds Kanemoto in the ropes and Kenny basement dropkicks him in the head. Taichi goes right to the heel 101 eye gouges and chokes. Kenny and Kanemoto get into a chopfest. Slam from Kenny for 2. Kenny gets all fired up and hits a wild flying elbow in the corner. He tries a springboard but flies into a Kanemoto back kick. Taguchi tags in with a springboard flying chop. He and Kenny trade some counters, ending with Taguchi hitting a basement dropkick and Kenny rolling to the floor. Kenny's definitely in 110% selling mode tonight. He's also already got a lot of his little signatures, like the way he drops to his knee while doing a whip and doing a little leaping air sprint before starting a run. Kenny dodges a Kanemoto plancha attempt, gets back in the ring, gets a huge head of steam....TOPE CON HILO ONTO EVERYONE! The future Rise of the Terminator. Took out his teammate in that too. Back in Kanemoto lays in kicks and corner shots on Kenny. Boot wash time. Kenny cuts it off with a back kick. Great duck under and Kenny hits a dropkick to the knee. The Kintaro crusher hits. Kanemoto fights out of a dragon suplex attempt. He and Kenny trade more shots while Taichi works on Taguchi on the floor, even using a ring attendant as a weapon. Kenny hits the snap dragon suplex. He lifts Kanemoto up for I assume One Winged Angel. I honestly wasn't sure if he was doing that yet or not. Kanemoto grabs at Kenny's eyes, then rolls through into the ankle lock! Taichi gets back in to break it up. Taguchi tags in, but Kenny outmaneuvers him in the corner. Rolling Samoan drop and running 360 splash from Kenny for 2. Almost You Can't Escape but not quite. Tag to Taichi. The pants are off! Taichi hits a standing enzuguri and Taichi drops like a tree! Kenny breaks the pin up. Taichi fights off a Taguchi German and goes to the eye rake again. More run ins and Kenny gives Kanemoto an enzuguri that sends him to the floor. He goes for the golden triangle moonsault but Kanemoto dodges and whips Kenny into the guardrail. In the ring Taguchi rolls Taichi up, stacks him up in a cradle, and gets the pin. Another pretty fun preshow tag. The contrast between Kenny trying his ass off and low effort Taichi couldn't be more clear. Taichi wouldn't get good until a year or two after his move up to heavyweight many years after this and he actually started trying. **3/4

 

Triple Threat Match for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Bad Intentions (c) (CHAOS) def Beer Money and Muscle Orchestra in 8:36- TNA legends Beer Money had worked a handful of New Japan matches during the TNA/NJPW partnership but this is their first time in the Dome. Just a week after this they'd capture the TNA World tag titles again. Muscle Orchestra is the team of Manabu Nakanishi and short lived NJPW wrestler Strong Man. He'd wrestled in CMLL as Jon Strongman. Bad Intentions (Karl Anderson and Giant Bernard) won the titles at Dominion in June and were in the middle of a reign that would end up lasting 564 days, the longest in the title's history, over 100 days past the previous record set by Cho-Ten. All three TNA matches on this show, like previous years' TNA matches, have been scrubbed from the New Japan World archives but fortunately can be found elsewhere. Strong Man is a big guy, I'll give him that. A bit surprising Vince didn't make a play for him. It's weird for me seeing Bobby Roode in his mode, I've never been a TNA viewer so I'm used to him as mini Ric Flair from his NXT run. The tag belts have finally been updated from the originals to the version still in use today. Beer Money attack as soon as the champs get in and it's on. Crazy back and forth everyone brawling start with all the big guys slapping meat and Beer Money taking a couple of dives. Anderson also does a big over the top flip onto a bunch of guys on the floor. Bernard goes to the top rope and teases a dive but gets powered down by SM. Nakanishi chops Anderson down in the ring. Corner lariatos. Suplex toss. Roode hits a headbutt off the top on Anderson and Storm covers for 2. BM keep Anderson isolated. Roode chokes him with some of his wrist tape. BM work to keep everyone else out of the ring so they can focus on Anderson. Double suplex on Anderson. Ooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.....BEER! MONEY! Bernard lariatos! He takes out both BM guys. Big splash on Roode for 2. Big shoulderblocks for both BM guys. Storm gets a boot up in the corner and hits a neckbreaker. Spinebuster from Roode. Nakanishi is up top! Shotgun dropkick! BM try to crank Muscle Orchestra's arms but get nowhere. MO pump the crowd up and hit stereo lariatos. BM and Bad Intentions swap. MO get both BI guys up in torture racks! Bernard gets free from Nakanishi. Nakanishi tries to 360 lariato Bernard over the top rope but Bernard either can't or won't go so Nakanishi tosses him through the ropes instead. SM presses Anderson down into the top rope and Nakanishi Germans him on the rebound. Another German with a bridge that's JUST broken up by BM before 3. Superkick from Roode on SM. BM double team Nakanishi but Anderson breaks it up. Bernard squashes both BM guys in the corner. BM hit a slingshot DDT on Anderson for 2. Storm calls for a beer. Roode swallows it and loads up. Storm takes it in the face! While everyone else fights on the floor Anderson hits Roode with something off camera and gets the pin. Not the best camera work. A pure chaos match but it works well enough. **1/2

 

La Sombra and Mascara Dorada def Jushin Thunder Liger and Hector Garza in 7:42- Everyone in this match but Liger is representing CMLL. Sombra is the future Andrade Cien Almas/El Idolo still working under a mask. Dorada would later have an NXT/WWE run as Gran Metalik. Garza is wearing a full body suit in Liger colors. Liger and Dorada start with some basic lucha armdrags and flippydo. Liger gets Dorada on the mat and wraps him up in a full pretzel. Sombra comes in to break it up. Dorada tries a springboard armdrag but slips off the top rope and has to do it on the mat instead. That's the danger of lucha style, looks great when it goes right but it's so easy for it to go badly wrong. Flying headscissors from Dorada that sends Liger to the floor. Dorada teases a dive but flips back in the ring. Both sides tag with Garza and Sombra seemingly trying to outdo each other on how fancy they flip into the ring. Garza takes his shirt off and shoves Sombra down. Armdrag from Sombra. Now Garza's pants are off! Guess that mean's we're serious now. Sombra does some serious flipping around but takes a shot in the gut. After some more Garza out maneuvering Sombra ducks a couple of lariatos and flying headscissors Garza to the floor. Tope con hilo! Liger goes up top and dives onto Sombra! Dorada loads up and dives onto everyone! Garza's turn. Low spin corkscrew off the top rope onto everyone. Garza running knees Sombra against the ropes and Sombra dangles down by his foot. Liger spinebusters Sombra, but then Sombra and Garza have a hard time getting on the same page on what they want to do. Finally Garza hits a Lionsault. Dorada breaks the pin up. Liger hooks Sombra up in the surfboard. Again Dorada comes in to break it up. Garza lifts Dorada up into a knee for 2. Garza and Liger get Sombra in peril again. Sombra dodges Garza in the corner and flying headscissors Liger. Again some communication issues as Sombra takes forever to whip Liger into a dropkick. Somba springboards and hits a reverse senton onto Garza and Liger on the floor. Dorada walks the top rope, barely holds his balance, and hits a moonsault to the floor. Springboard corkscrew crossbody on Liger from Sombra back in. Liger pops back up and hits a shotei for 2. Tiltawhirl backbreaker from Sombra. He almost screws up a split legged corkscrew moonsault but manages to hit it. Another corkscrew to a standing Liger and that gets the pin. OK enough but fairly sloppy lucha spotfest. Others will probably enjoy it more than me because nonstop lucha flippydo has never really been my cup of wrestling tea. I'm much more a strong style guy. **1/4

 

Deep Sleep to Lose Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan def Takashi Iizuka (CHAOS) in 11:13- A rare for the time all New Japan battle here. Tenzan is wrestling his first match in the Dome since the first WK in '07 due to various injuries. "Deep Sleep to Lose" means to win you have to render your opponent unconscious to end the match. Iizuka goes after the play by play commentary guy during his entrance and drags him over the guardrail with his headset still on! Holy shit that's insane. It looks like someone else replaces him. Iizuka attacks Tenzan on the ramp during Tenzan's entrance. Tenzan lays on the Mongolian chops to fight him off and get some space to get his gear off. Iiuzka hits a DDT on the ramp. He dumps Tenzan over the guardrail and I'm pretty sure takes out someone in the crowd doing so. They brawl through the crowd as we cut to commentary and see either the original play by play guy or his replacement with a Blue Justice shirt on under his tie. Iizuka continues to drag Tenzan through the crowd with the cameras honestly not making much effort to find them. Chairshot for Tenzan. Iizuka goes to the ring and takes a corner pad off. Tenzan finally crawls into the ring and Iizuka chokes him with wrist tape to a very vocal ref protest. It's not clear if this is straight up no DQ or not but I'd assume so. Tenzan finally starts firing back but gets beat down again. More Iizuka chokes. Tenzan starts mounting another comeback with chops. Iizuka pulls him into the exposed turnbuckle. Tenzan gets a couple of shots in, pulls Iizuka into the corner, and hits a corner lariato. Tenzan hits the falling kneedrop off the top and follows it up with a diving headbutt. Anaconda vice! Iizuka fights to get a foot on the rope. Suplex from Tenzan. Iizuka dodges the diving headbutt off the top rope. Sleeper! Tenzan flips him over to get free. Iizuka hits a pedigree. After a lot of stalling back to the sleeper. Tenzan backs him into the exposed corner but Iizuka hangs on! The crowd's sure into it, I'll give it that, they're going nuts now. Tenzan flat powers out. Iizuka pushes him right into the ref, then throws the ref into the exposed corner for good measure. Greco Roman nut stomp to Tenzan. Iizuka does a ton of playing to the crowd, then goes and gets the Iron Fingers out of his corner. Wataru Inoue leaves commentary to take them away! Tenzan uses that opening to hit Mongolian chops. Leg lariato. Michinoku driver. Tenzan hooks the vice back on. Iizuka fights back up. Tenzan slams him back down and puts it on again. The ref comes to, slowly crawls over, says Iizuka is out and calls it. The whole ring attendant gaggle has to get Tenzan to break the hold. The crowd might have been into it but it didn't do a whole lot for me. *3/4

 

Hardcore Match: Rob Van Dam def Toru Yano (CHAOS) in 11:28- After spending a few years working part time on the indies following his '07 WWE departure to clear his head and recharge a bit (and making a surprise appearance in the '09 Royal Rumble, setting off years of "Did RVD re-sign or was it a one shot deal?" jokes in the 411Mania comments section, in which I was a happy participant), RVD signed with TNA in March '10 to resume his full time career. This would be his only match in New Japan. Yano was the closest thing New Japan had to a serious hardcore wrestler. It was because of this match that Yano stole RVD's thumb point to use himself. As soon as the bell rings Yano takes a swig from his giant bottle of sake and offers RVD a swig. Not hardcore a drug enough for RVD. RVD blows him off and gives him the R-V-D thumb point. Yano spits sake in his face! RVD manages to fight Yano off with a couple of kicks. Spin kick and Yano rolls out to rethink things. Baseball slide from RVD. Over the top leap into a moonsault to the floor! RVD comes up limping a little. Might have tweaked his knee on the landing. Whip reversal and RVD goes into the guardrail. Yano slams him on the floor. RVD suplex drops Yano on the guardrail and spin kicks him off from the apron. RVD goes under the ring and start bringing out chairs. Three of them are tossed in the ring. Then he tosses Yano back in. RVD then takes his sweet time getting back in, giving Yano plenty of time to grab a chair and toss it at RVD. Yano slams him on a chair for 2. Now Yano goes out and gets a ladder from under the ring. He sees RVD going for a baseball slide, pulls the ladder out of the way, then runs RVD over with the ladder. Another chairshot from RVD. Now Yano gets a couple of trash cans along with a bunch of other toys. Trash can shot to RVD. He has a mop and puts it in RVD's face! I hope it's used, that makes it much more effective. Hey, the US 83 sign is back! RVD takes a shot with it. I went into detail on the previous show how that's a road I travel on occasionally. Still wondering how that got to Japan. Now Yano has an umbrella! He nails RVS with it. He puts the trash can on RVD and whacks it with a chair, then does the R-V-D thumb pose. RVD starts to punch back but Yano pulls his ponytail to put him back down. Boot up in the corner from RVD. Top rope flying kick. Inverted atomic drop from RVD. Yano is down in a corner. RVD runs around with a chair and dropkicks it into Yano for 2. Yano tries to German RVD into the ladder. RVD fights free and knees Yano in the face, putting him on the ladder. RVD puts a chair on top of Yano and calls for rolling thunder. Yano dodges and RVD splats on the ladder! Chairshot to RVD's head for 2. Yano places the ladder on the top rope in a corner. RVD reverses the whip but Yano hits the brakes, then slingshots RVD into the ladder! Spinebuster from Yano for 2. He gets his personal red chair from his corner. RVD kicks it into his face. He puts a chair on top of Yano and goes up top. FIVE STAR FROG SPLASH! RVD covers and gets the pin. Once again tonight, fine but nowhere near amazing. **3/4

 

Yuji Nagata (Seigigun) def Minoru Suzuki in 16:15- This is the middle match in the WK trilogy for two of the greatest forever rivals Japan has ever seen. Suzuki won round one at WK 1 in a match for the All Japan Triple Crown championship. This is Suzuki's first WK appearance since then as he'd been working mainly with All Japan, but he was about to hop over to New Japan full time, and he would absolutely make his presence felt in short order. KAZA NI NARE! This is the much superior original version too, not the later remix that wasn't as good. Just having these two stare at each other across the ring is electric. The bell rings and they waste no time laying into each other! Nagata grabs a waistlock on the ropes and we have a break. Suzuki uses that to hit an open hand slap and they start absolutely pummeling each other with open hand slaps! Suzuki is definitely getting turned on. Nagata switches up with some hammy kicks that put Suzuki down, then a PK. More PKs to the front and back. Nagata tries to boot choke Suzuki on the apron, forcing a break. Suzuki stands back up on the apron. Nagata charges with a kick, but Suzuki dodges it, grabs the leg and does his rope drape armbar, but with the leg! They go the floor with Suzuki hitting forearms. He wraps Nagata's leg around the guardrail, cranks on it, and kicks the guardrail. The ref tries to stop him so Suzuki grabs him and pushes him down. He stays on Nagata's leg back in. Nagata gets back up with a forearm but Suzuki kicks the leg to put him back down. Suzuki then switches to straight ground and pound. He teases a closed fist shot, holds back for a minute, then hits it. Big chest kicks to Nagata. Nagata uses them to try to fire himself back up. He grabs Suzuki's leg, drags him into the corner and hits a high knee! Chest kicks to Suzuki in the corner, followed by some forearms. Corner whip and Nagata hits the helluva kick/exploder suplex combo for 2. Nagata hooks up for a suplex but Suzuki deadweights him. That sets off another strike exchange. They start booting each other in the face. Nagata hits the ropes for momentum and wins that round. Another suplex lift. Suzuki slips out, pushes Nagata in the corner and hits a running kick. PK from Suzuki for 2. He hooks on a sleeper. Nagata fights free and snaps Suzuki's arm. Kicks to the arm as Suzuki is clearly hurt. Another arm snap. He goes for Nagata Lock. Suzuki spins free and tries another sleeper. Nagata uses the bad arm to fight it. Suzuki rolls away and hits a knee to the gut. More open hand slaps. Nagata responds with a kick to the arm. Suzuki REALLY lays into some slaps. Nagata takes a wild swing in response. Suzuki ducks and goes for the sleeper again. Nagata tries for the ropes but gets drug back in. He tries to power into another arm snap but Suzuki fights the sleeper back in. Nagata starts to fade. Suzuki lets go and covers for 2. Running boot to the face for 2. Suzuki hooks in a guillotine. He tries to spin Nagata around into something else, but Nagata uses that to hit a kick to the arm and a belly to belly suplex. Running PK from Nagata. He starts connecting kicks to the arm again. Nagata Lock! Suzuki gets a foot on the rope, but Nagata drags him back to the middle. The eyes roll back! Nagata cranks for all he's worth but Suzuki will not give up. Literal minutes in this hold but Suzuki refuses to die. Finally Nagata lets go and hits another kick. Suzuki is back up. They stand toe to toe again and it's time for the sweat flying open hand strikes. Both guys lay in all they have and ask for more. Suzuki gets a few rapid fire shots in and staggers Nagata. He tries for another sleeper. Nagata counters with a backdropeh! Suzuki is wobbly but still standing! Another backdropeh puts him down for 2. Nagata connects with two kicks to Suzuki's head. Another backdropeh with a cradle, and Nagata gets the pin! They continue to stare down after the bell with Suzuki throwing a bit of spit Nagata's way. It's not on the level of their WK 1 match, but you'll never get anything less than excellence from these two. They always go all out for each other. ***3/4

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Prince Devitt (c) def Kota Ibushi (w/Kenny Omega) in 16:22- After winning Best of the Super Juniors in '10, Devitt defeated NOAH's Naomchi Marfuji at Dominion '10 to bring the junior title back home, cementing himself as the new star of the junior division. Ibushi is getting this shot because he got the deciding pin on Devitt when he and Omega defeated Apollo 55 (Devitt and Taguchi) for the junior tag titles in October. Ibushi is much smaller than he will later be once he moves up to the heavyweight division. Code of Honor handshake to start as this is face vs face. Feeling out start. Devitt gets a waist takedown leading to a good mat exchange. Headlock/headscissors exchanges, more mat maneuvering and stalemate reset. They hit the jets, both guys dodge like crazy and Ibushi hits a dropkick that sends Devitt to the floor. Ibushi loads up for the golden triangle moonsault. Devitt sees it coming, dodges to put Ibushi on the apron, and shotgun dropkicks him to the floor. Now he loads up for a dive, but Ibushi hops up and cuts it off with a springboard dropkick. Ibushi grounds things with a sleeper. Devitt takes a rope break. Ibushi keeps him on the ground with some stomps. Devitt pops up with a dropkick that puts Ibushi on the floor again. Tope con hilo! On the short side too with the guardrail right there. Shotgun dropkick from Devitt back in for 2. Ibushi gets a kick counter and hops to the second rope, but Devitt wobbles him with a head kick and joins him. Superplex from Devitt. The way he landed it was almost a full on avalanche brain buster. That gets a 2 count. Ibushi gets a hurricanrana that sends Devitt to the floor. Golden triangle moonsault from the TOP rope! Putting the extra juice on for WK. Another springboard dropkick from Ibushi back in for 2. Stand up forearm slugfest. Ibushi ducks and hits a rapid fire combo! Standing corkscrew moonsault. He springs to the second rope, sees Devitt dodging, lands on his feet then instantly launches another moonsault for 2! Ibushi pulls Devitt in to try a dragon suplex. Devitt escapes, but Ibushi pulls him back in for a German for 2. Devitt gets a boot up in the corner. He goes up top, but Ibushi nails him with a handspring knee right to the back of the head! Devitt is draped over the top rope. Ibushi drags him up and hits a top rope hurricanrana! Stack up! Devitt kicks out! Ibshi goes up again. 450 splash! Devitt kicks out again! Ibushi goes for the kill kick to the head. Devitt ducks. More kick ducks and Devitt lands a Pele kick. Both guys get up in opposite corners. Devitt charges, but Ibushi ducks, rolls him over, and deadlifts him into a backdropeh with a cradle for 2. Setup powerslam from Ibushi. He goes up top. Devitt dodges the phoenix splash! Double stomp from Devitt off the top to the back of Ibushi's head! He goes up again. Full Coupe de Gras! Ibushi kicks out! Spin kick to the back of Ibushi's head. Bloody Sunday! Ibushi kicks out again! Devitt puts Ibushi up top. Ibushi fights free and gives Devitt a Pele kick from the apron. He springs to the top rope. Devitt blocks! Avalanche Bloody Sunday! That gets the pin! Fantastic match, and to think neither of these guys have hit their prime yet. And as great as it was, it felt a bit rushed or condensed. They easily had an additional 10 minutes in them. ****1/4

 

Ibushi continued his pursuit as the year went on. He would end up winning Best of the Super Juniors in '11, then challenge Devitt again at Dominion and this time defeat him, ending Devitt's first reign at 364 days and 7 defenses, the longest junior title reign in 8 years. Unfortunately for Ibushi, his first reign would end a few months later in September when he was forced to vacate due to injury. Devitt would win the title back a week later, defeating a young newcomer from the Japanese indie scene named KUSHIDA.

 

GHC Heavyweight Champion Takashi Sugiura and Yoshihiro Takayama def Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada in 12:08- Sugiura and Takayama are both NOAH wrestlers that have worked multiple WKs before. Sugiura and Goto had an absolute war for the GHC Heavyweight title at last year's show. In fact, Sugiura is still in the same reign. Over a year and counting. This is the first time Takayama hasn't faced Shinsuke Nakamura in the Dome for New Japan. Okada is making a temporary return home in the middle of his infamous TNA excursion. He'd make his full return from excursion at next year's WK and immediately change everything forever. Okada, sporing a small beard and wearing his TNA gear, jump starts everything with a shotgun dropkick on Takayama on his entrance. Still a hothead. He tries to go toe to toe with Takayama in strikes and manages to stay upright, then puts Takayama down with a kick off the ropes. Goto tags in, tosses Takayama into his corner, and DEMANDS Sugiura tags in. He hasn't forgotten last year. Big shoulderblock standoffs. That leads to a forearm exchange. Then open hand slaps. Another shoulderblock standoff. Goto then plants Sugiura with a headbutt. Double dropkick from the New Japan team for 2. Okada lays in some chops on Sugiura that only seem to annoy him. Now he starts trading forearms with Sugiura. That's not going to work, kid. Okada stays up through sheer force of will. A big boot from Sugiura puts him down and Sugiura tosses him out. Now Takayama pounds on him on the floor. The NOAH team goes into full beat the kid down and teach him a lesson mode. Okada shows appropriate fire trying to fight back but he's clearly overmatched. Takayama goes for an arrogant one foot pin after hitting a PK. Sugiura switches his angle off the ropes to kick Goto off the apron, then suplexes Okada for 2. Another arrogant one knee cover from Takayama for 2. Okada tries some chops but a forearm puts him back down. Another one foot cover. Takayama lifts Okada up for a back suplex, lets him think about it forever, then drops him for 2. Okada tries to fire back up off Sugiura shots. He does and hits an Everything is Evil (as it will be known)! Tag to Goto. He and Sugiura lay into each other again. Elbow off the top from Goto. German suplex for 2. Big midring suplex leverage fight. Sugiura wins it and tosses Goto face down. Running corner knee. Goto blocks another running knee. Another German. Sugiura ducks a lariato and hits a German. Big lariato from Goto. Tags on both sides. Okada hits a diving lariato. Shotgun dropkick off the top rope for 2. Standing switches. Takayama hits a knee to the gut. Goto breaks up a German attempt. Double team backdropeh neckbreaker on Takayama for 2. We get into a full on donnybrook. Okada gets isolated again and the NOAH team shows no mercy on the kid. Sugiura tosses Okada into a Takayama knee, almost a double team GTS. Goto *just* breaks the pin up. Okada manages to get Takayama up for a German! He tries a bridge but can't hold it. Knee to the gut from Takayama. Backdropeh for 2. Another German from Takayama, and that gets the pin. Back to TNA for another year, kid. There's enough in there to get it to borderline good. Goto and Sugiura continue to have phenomenal chemsitry based purely on loving to hit one another as hard as they can. ***

 

TNA World Heavyweight Championship: Jeff Hardy (c) def Tetsuya Naito (CHAOS) in 11:04- Over the years the TNA/New Japan partnership has gone on, this is the first time the TNA World title is being defended in the Tokyo Dome. Yes, there was a short time Naito was in CHAOS. He and Yujiro are still teaming up as No Limit, but are also starting to pursue the individual opportunities that would soon lead to their breakup. This is only about two months before Hardy had his disastrous drug-induced complete breakdown at Victory Road '11 against Sting, so that should tell you all you need to know about where he is right now. Hardy has his full facepain on and Naito's in his dyed red hair phase. They let the crowd soak things in a bit before hooking up. Naito's leaving his shirt on. Basic exchange with Naito putting on an arm wringer. Hardy reverses it. Naito does a flippy escape into a headlock. Reset and it honestly looks like Hardy is already sucking wind or mentally composing himself in the corner. Speed run. Hardy does his leapfrog wrong and Naito runs into his leg, knocking him down. Naito then has to come to a dead stop to wait for Hardy to roll over and stick his ass up in the air for lord knows what. Naito rolls him back over and clubs him in the back. For frak's sake that looked terrible. Naito hits a dropkick. Snap mare/senton combo for 2. Naito goes up top. Hardy runs over and crotches him, then manages to hit a superplex. Hardy does some low speed classic Hardyz dancing before covering for 2. Naito fights out of a chinlock and gets a sunset flip for 2. Hardy puts him back down with a lariato. He legdrops Naito's legs into a cradle for 2. Naito gets tossed to the floor. Diving lariato off the apron from Hardy. We get a closeup of the custom title belt Hardy's been using for this reign. He rolls Naito back in and covers for 2. Hardy hooks Naito's arms in about the weakest looking submission hold I've ever seen. Naito, bless him, does his damndest to sell the thing before taking a rope break. Floatover in the corner and Naito hits the jets so fast Hardy probably legit doesn't see him before Naito hits a neckbreaker. Naito, like Steve Austin, could really fly before his knees were shot. Shotgun dropkick off the top for 2. Hardy tries to get his boots up in the corner but Naito uses that to give him another neckbreaker in the ropes. Naito hits a top rope hurricanrana! Hardy kicks out! Setup slam for Naito. The Stardust Press, as always in the Tokyo Dome, misses. Hardy tries a Twist of Fate. Naito counters into a backslide for 2. Naito small package for 2. Flying forearm from Naito. Naito runs into a back elbow in the corner. Whisper in the Wind hits for 2. The Twist of Fate hits. Hardy doesn't cover. Instead he goes up top. Swanton Bomb, and it's over. Well, it's far from one of the all time worst disasters I've ever seen, but it's certainly still pretty rough. Hardy clearly was not in any kind of shape to work a match of this level, though Naito was trying his best to make it work. It's very appropriate Naito drew the short straw for this no-win assignment. Just another early step his career long love/hate relationship with the Tokyo Dome. I also have to wonder if Naito's long standing distain for American wrestling has something to do with having to work this match. *1/2

 

That would end up being the final WK match in the New Japan/TNA partnership. New Japan was extremely unhappy with how TNA used Okada during his excursion, and when Okada fully came back they severed all diplomatic ties with TNA. Even after a change in management and an apology from TNA to both the company and Okada personally New Japan still wouldn't work with them again. It was only after AEW started up and formed a partnership with both that New Japan would be willing to give it another try with AEW as an intermediary. That also ended up not lasting very long, as now as I write this TNA has a formal partnership with WWE, mostly with NXT, and that shuts them off from New Japan again while New Japan is still in bed with AEW.

 

Shinsuke Nakamura (CHAOS) def Go Shiozaki in 14:17- After enjoying his longest ever reign with the IWGP Heavyweight title at 218 days, Nakamura lost it to Togi Makabe in May, which was also Makabe finally getting a measure of revenge on Nakamura for his role in destroying GBH. It would also be Nakamura's last run with the title. He definitely could have won more, but later this year would see the creation of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, and Nakamura would make it his personal mission to make that title as important as the Heavyweight title. In that he succeeded spectacularly. NOAH star Shiozaki is back for his second straight WK after losing to Hiroshi Tanahashi the previous year. Nakamura's slowly starting to look a little more King of Strong Style on his entrance but is still not fully there yet. Cautious start into a lockup. Shiozaki tries a chop on the rope break but Nakamura ducks it. Nakamura does a duck under into an indecisive mat wrestling sequence. After a waistlock exchange Nakamura gives Shiozaki a quick scrape across the face with the bottom of his boot as he gets up. Shiozaki seems to get the message and they go nose to nose. They trade some forearms, then Nakamura starts laying in the knees. Nakamura's style he's way more dangerous with his legs than his arms. Shiozaki grabs a kick swing and low superkicks the back of Nakamura's leg. Chops to Nakamura's thighs, then Shiozaki tosses him to the floor. He runs Nakamura's knee into the post! Damn. That's one way to take away his best weapon. He drapes Nakamura on the apron and hits a running knee to his head. Running dropkick to the knee as Nakamura gets back in. Shiozaki continues to pick it apart. I like the chops to the leg, that's definitely unique. As I've said before these two WK matches are all I've ever seen of Shiozaki, but there's no doubt he has very stiff hands. Shiozaki hooks on a half crab. Nakamura manages to fight to get a rope break. He lays in some body shots and forearms. Shiozaki cuts it off with more chops. Running chop in the corner. Nakamura reverses a whip into a ripcord knee, but then runs into another chop. Nakamura uses a Shiozaki charge to place him on the top rope and hit a running knee. Another signature Nakamura move makes its WK debut. Kicks from Nakamura put Shiozaki down. Hard knees in the corner. Nakamura pushes Shiozaki out of the corner and is looking very King of Strong Style the way he's sauntering around now. Light Swagsuke. Signature grounded Nakamura knees to the gut and a cover for 2. More grounded knees and Nakamura hooks on a guillotine, then switches to a straight sleeper. Shiozki fights free, but Nakamura comes up with an enzuguri to the back of the head! German suplex from Nakamura. Shiozaki dodges a running corner knee and drapes Nakamura on the ropes for a GTR. Nakamura takes a punch swing and rolls into a cross armbreaker! Shiozaki gets to the ropes. Lariato from Shiozaki. We get another stand up forearm exchange. Shiozaki switches to chops and Nakamura goes to kicks. Superkick from Shiozaki, roundhouse kick from Nakamura and both guys are down. Shiozaki blocks a kick, clubs the bad knee again, lifts Nakamura up in a suplex and drops him right on the knee. He hooks on a cloverleaf. Nakamura gets a rope break. Another Shiozaki superkick. He stars pummling Nakamura with shots on the side of the head and covers for 2. Setup slam. Nakamura dodges the moonsault. Reverse exploder from Nakamura! He charges for the bomaye but Shiozaki cuts it off with a huge lariato for a long 2. Fisherman's buster, but Shiozaki doesn't cover. Go Flasher! Nakamura kicks out! A stunned Shiozaki covers again for 2. He goes for another one. Nakamura blocks and hits a knee to the face. Shiozaki kicks the bad knee again. Another knee from Nakamura. Shiozaki manages to block a bomaye. Straight right hand punch from Nakamura that puts Shiozaki down. BOMAYE! Nakamura gets the pin! Really good stuff, but missing that extra something to get it to the next level. ***3/4

 

Togi Makabe def Masato Tanaka in 12:46- As noted earlier, Makabe defeated Nakamura to win the Heavyweight title in May, which would be his one and only run with the title. How he lost it we'll get into later. Tanaka is a Pro Wrestling Zero1 wrestler who's regularly been coming over to New Japan to work the big shows. There's also a grudge match element here as Tanaka injured Makabe's neck in a match during the '10 G1 Tag League in November (the tournament now known as World Tag League). I'm not sure if this match is officially no DQ or not but they sure work it like it is. Not like Red Shoes ever DQ's anyone anyway. Tanaka swings at Makabe with his kendo stick before the bell but Makabe blocks it with his chain and lariatos Tanaka down. Ground and pound from Makabe with un-New Japan like right hands. More straight punches on Tanaka in the corner. Tanaka uses Makabe's misdirection to hit a lariato. Tanaka starts working on Makabe's taped up neck and upper back. Corner lariato. Makabe fights off a superplex. Tanaka instead hits a running elbow that knocks Makabe off the top to the floor. Makabe gets the edge on the floor and gets his chain. Tanaka ducks a chain lariato and Makabe hits the post! Tanaka gets the chain, hits Makabe with it, then chokes him with the chain. He wraps the chain around the post to really get some torque. When Red Shoes protests he goes down. Kendo shot from Tanaka right to Makabe's head! He rolls Makabe's carcass back in the ring and continues the punishment. Though slapping Makabe and telling him to fight back is probably not the smartest move. Brain buster from Tanaka for 2. More slaps wake Makabe up. Tanaka forearms have no effect. Makabe swings back with more right hands. Lariatos on Tanaka. Makabe hits the mounted punches. Tanaka uses that to hit a spinebuster. Running forearm against the ropes. Makabe hits a powerslam. 360 larito from Makabe to put Tanaka on the floor. Makabe gets a chair from under the ring and smashes it on Tanaka's head! Broke the seat right off. Now Makabe has a table. He sets it up way up the ramp. He sets Tanaka up for a powerbomb. Tanaka reverses and brain busters Makabe into the table! While he's recovering Tanaka sets up another table on the other side of the ring. Back in the ring Makabe backdrops out of a piledriver attempt. Tanaka hits a swinging neck breaker followed by two more brain busters. Makabe manages to kick out. Makabe dodges a sliding forearm and hits a German suplex. Tanaka pops right back up and hits the sliding forerarm to Makabe's neck! Cover for 2. Makabe blocks another slide with a goozle. Tanaka lays in forarms to counter. Rapid fire forearms. Makabe goes down. The sliding forearm hits! Makabe kicks out! They go outside next to the table. Tanaka sets Makabe up on it. He goes up top. Makabe gets up and knocks him back down into the ring. He gets Tanaka up and powerbombs him off the apron through the table! Another powerbomb in the ring. Tanaka kicks out! DVD from Makabe. He goes up top, the King Kong Kneedrop hits, and good night. Fun car crash match, by New Japan's car crash standards. ***1/2

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi def Satoshi Kojima (c) in 21:57- Kojima was originally a New Japan wrestler, but was one of the ones to join Keiji Mutoh in the giant defection to All Japan in 2002 due to disagreements with how Antonio Inoki was running the company. He initially returned to New Japan in August '10 to participate in that year's G1 Climax tournament. Then he went and won the thing, his only career G1 Climax win. That earned him a title shot in October, where he defeated Makabe to once again put the title in the hands of an outsider heading into WK. Tanahashi is finally getting his first crack at getting the title back since being forced to vacate it due to injury in August '09. This is also the start of six straight WK main events for Tanahashi as we're now getting fully into his peak years. We have English commentary for this match! Kevin Kelley, the best in the business the years he was with New Japan, is on the mic. He may not have been *the* best when it came to conveying excitement though he certainly gave it his all, but there was no one better at laying out a story in both a detailed and understandable way than him, especially a long term one. I'm assuming this was recorded a good chunk of time after the show took place. The ring announcers announce Kojima as Tanahashi is coming out. The hell? Did that happen on the night or does it have something to do with the re-recorded commentary? Kelley mentiones Kojima starting to build a stable in New Japan but it doesn't have a name yet. More on that later. No caution here, they go right into the lockup. Tanahashi takes the first shot, hitting a chop on the rope break. Long mat exchange with a Tanahashi headlock and Kojima headscissors counter before another reset. Tanahashi works a hammerlock. Kojima gets it into a top wristlock leverage fight and goes so far as to pull Tanahashi's hair to get him in a headlock. Speed run. Kojima gets a shoulderblock. Tanahashi hits an armdrag and a dropkick to Kojima's arm. Snap mare/kneedrop combo from Tanahashi, then he starts working on the arm some more. Big splash on the arm. Man I love that little thing, Tanahashi's big splashes onto specific body parts. In the corner Tanahashi hits European uppercuts on the arm. Springboard crossbody from Tanahashi. Kojima grabs a leg, elbows the knee, then hits a dragon screw. Now Kojima starts working on his chosen body part. He chop blocks Tanahashi off the apron. Half crab from Kojima on the floor. Red Shoes makes him break it quickly. Back in Kojima hooks on a Scorpion Death Lock. Tanahashi turns and gets to the ropes. He gets in the corner and it's classic Kojima machine gun chops time. Running forearm on the other side. Kojima goes up top and hits an elbow drop for 2. Stand up slugfest. Tanahashi lands forearms and a European uppercut. Kojima hits the knee again. Tanahashi responds with the lightning fast left hand palm strike. Flying forearm from Tanahashi. Somersault senton off the second rope for 2. Kojima fights out of a German suplex attempt and hits a DDT. Neckbreaker. Tanahashi slips out of a suplex attempt and tries for a dragon suplex. Kojima fights out of it and hooks up for the Kojicutter. Tanahashi counters with the back end of a slingblade! He starts working on the arm again. Kojima uses that to work around and hit the Kojicutter! He puts Tanahashi up top. Avalanche Kojicutter! That gets a 2 count that the crowd didn't bite on as much as I thought they would. Kojima tosses his elbow pad away, thinking Cozy Lariat and finishing it. Tanahashi sees it coming, tackles Kojima against the ropes, and rolls him up for 2. Another dragon suplex attempt. Kojima breaks that, but that only allows Tanahashi to hit the straitjacket German for 2. Dragon screws on the arm from Tanahashi. He goes up top. High Fly Flow to the back! Up top again. HIGH FLNO Kojima gets his knees up! Lariato to the back of Tanhashi's head. Slingblade from Tanahashi! Fisherman's driver. A second. Tanahashi goes up top again. HIGH FLY FLOW! Kojima kicks out! Kojima backdrops Tanahashi onto the apron then lariatos him off to the floor. Tanahashi landed head first right on the apron and Red Shoes is quick to hop out and check on him before starting a count. Tanahashi gets up at 17 and Kojima stops the count himself. Kojima brain busters Tanahashi back in for 2. He puts Tanahashi up top and hits a hurricanrana! He calls for the finish. COZY LARI...NO! Tanahashi blocks it! More dragon screws on the arm. Tanahashi ducks and ducks, but third time Kojima hits the lariato! Tanahashi kicks out! Now that one the crowd bit on. Full Cozy Lariat! But Kojima's arm is hurt and he can't follow up! He barely drapes an arm over Tanahashi for 2. He lifts Tanahashi up and swings again. Tanahashi ducks and hits a dragon suplex! Another duck and another dragon hits with a bridge for 2. Slingblade! A sloppy one, he collided bad with Kojima, but it hit. Tanahashi goes up. Aces High! Up again. HIGH FLY FLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Tanahashi wins and gets the title back! It's Tanahashi's 5th reign, one shy of tying the record (held by Tastumi Fujinami). It would also be his longest at 404 days, which at the time was second all time (behind Shinya Hashimoto), and this reign would set a new record for most successful defenses with 11. It's the reign that made him undoubtedly The Ace. And when it ended, it would end specatularly. As for the match, like most of the big matches tonight it's very good but falls just short of greatness. As good as Kojima was and is, the Tokyo Dome main event might have been a *bit* above his ceiling. ***3/4

 

Before we wrap up, back to this Kojima faction. Kojima stuck around New Japan a bit longer after this loss. During his title reign he had already been teaming up with Taichi. Later in the month he also picked up Taka Michinoku and the current Black Tiger (Nosawa Rongai) and dubbed his new faction Kojima-gun (basically translated into Kojima's Team or Team Kojima). During the New Beginning tour in February the new stable gained former WWE wrestler MVP as a member when he debuted in New Japan. Things changed however during the annual spring Wrestling Dontaku tour. Kojima was defeated again, this time by Togi Makabe. After the match he was attacked by Taichi and Michinoku. Following the beatdown, one Minoru Suzuki entered the arena. Suzuki announced Taichi and Michinoku were now with him, and from now on he was the leader of Suzuki-gun. Suzuki-gun would take over as New Japan's lead heel stable and wreck such havoc that they would end up being (kayfabe) banished from the promotion for years. Kojima-gun, probably the shortest lived stable in pro wrestling history.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- Another good but not great early Wrestle Kingdom, and a year after the best to date, probably the weakest of the bunch so far. But not to worry. The next year would be a game changing event, and is generally seen as the kickoff show for New Japan's new golden age.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B-