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-

Wrestle Kingdom IV

Legacy Review

Wrestle Kingdom IV

January 4, 2010 from the Tokyo Dome

 

Like last year's Wrestle Kingdom this is being booked like an old school Tokyo Dome show, focused on interpromotional battles. The bulk of it is New Japan vs Pro Wrestling NOAH, but every match outside the opener is a cross-promotional battle of one sort or another.

 

As usual this is from the NJPW World archives, or elsewhere for matches scrubbed from there, so Japanese commentary only.

 

Wataru Inoue, Mitsuhide Hirasawa and Super Strong Machine (Seigigun) def Jushin Thunder Liger, Koji Kanemoto and Kazuchika Okada in 4:59-  Liger and Kanemoto have officially hit New Japan Dad status, chaperoning Young Lion Okada here. I believe this is Okada's sendoff match, if not it's close to it, before heading off to his excursion to TNA which will last nearly two years and become infamous. TNA didn't really know what to do with him and New Japan, who (it turned out rightly) saw him as a major prospect, got very upset with that. In the end it completely destroyed the New Japan/TNA working relationship that had been in place since around 2008, fences that were partially mended only recently in the past few years as I write this, and mostly only because both companies were working with AEW at the time. Now, of course, TNA has entered into a full partnership with the Triple H led and now open for business WWE. I'd love for New Japan to dump AEW and follow suit. On the other side, Seigigun, AKA Blue Justice in its rough English translation, was a stable formed by leader Yuji Nagata in the fall of '09 as a babyface unit seeking truth, justice and the Japanese way. That means this is face vs face across the board, except perhaps young boy Okada. We can boo him. Okada does the mandatory Young Lion run to the ring on the team's entrance, leaving his escort behind. After both teams jaw at each other a bit Kanemoto's decides he's waited enough and attacks Inoue. Big forearm exchange. Kanemoto hits some kicks to get Inoue down and tags in Okada. What a good dad. Got the guy down for him. Inoue ducks a double clothesline but takes an Okada dropkick. Inoue hits a knee to the gut and tags out to Hirasawa. He and Okada slug it out, followed by another Okada dropkick. Hirasawa responds with a spear. Tags and now we have Liger in with SSM. Shoulderblock standoff. Liger puts SSM down with a sort of shotei. Corner clothesline and weak DDT from SSM, followed by a senton for 2. Hothead Okada runs in to try to break up a hammerlock, only putting Liger in more trouble. Liger running shotei on Hirasawa, follwed by a powerbomb for 2. Kanemoto tags in and blocks a Hirasawa spear. He goes for the ankle lock but SSM breaks it up. Diving clothesline and kip up from Okada. Everyone unloads on Inoue, capped off with an Okada shotgun dropkick off the top rope for 2. Inoue gets Okada over into a Fujiwara armbar. Kanemoto saves the kid. Okada hits what will become Everything is Evil for 2. Inoue flips Okada down, quickly followed up by an SSM senton and Hirasawa diving headbutt off the top for 2. Inoue then flips Okada over into another Fujiwara armbar. Okada's teammates try to save him again but can't get Inoue to break. They get drug into corners by SSM and Hirasawa and Okada has no choice but to tap out. Not a whole lot to that opener. Too many guys and too little time. It felt more like a Korakuen Hall multi man tag than a Tokyo Dome match. *1/2

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Apollo 55 (c) def Averno and Ultimo Guerrero in 9:07- Averno was a CMLL representative on last year's show, and this year he's bringing Guerrero with him instead of Mistico. Not a bad call, I thought Mistico was kind of sleepwalking through last year's match. Though Mistico did get a run with the junior title in the fall of '09 so I guess he did enough to impress someone. The Apollo 55 team of Ryuske Taguchi and Prince Devitt formed shortly after last year's Wrestle Kingdom. They defeated TNA team the Motor City Machine Guns in July to bring the belts back to New Japan and were in the middle of one of the longest reigns in the title's history. This is another face vs face matchup. The CMLL team comes out to We Will Rock You. Oh the rights fees. Apollo 55 are using Taguchi's music, which is 100% the right call. Taguchi's got a full on afro going. Guerrero and Taguchi start. A Guerrero waist takedown kicks off a nice mat sequence and stalemate. Guerrero tries a monkey flip out of a test of strength knucklelock leading to another indeterminate mat exchange. Both sides tag. Averno gets the takedown but Devitt holds his own on the mat. Long speed run with lots of dodging that ends with a Devitt armdrag. The champs hit a pair of Poetry in Motion style double teams. The Hardyz' influence on tag wrestling can't be overstated. Averno grabs Taguchi's arm and cranks him around for a faceplant. Taguchi and Guerrero exchange some chops. Guerrero drop toe hold and elbow drop for 2. Double powerbomb from the CMLL team. Straight sit out powerbomb from Averno for 2. They get Taguchi down in their corner and try to play to the crowd. Nothing doing there. Taguchi comes out of the corner with a flying headscissors on Averno and tags. Devitt comes in with a crossbody off the top on Guerrero. Pele kick for Averno. Devitt tope con hilo! Shotgun dropkick off the top on Guerrero for 2. Top rope fight and Guerrero plants Devitt for 2. Up top again and Guerrero hits a reverse superplex! Tagichi breaks the pin up. Things starts breaking down as Taguchi basement dropkicks Averno before getting put down by a Guerrero chop. Enzuguri from Devitt on Guerrero. Tag to Taguchi. Averno hits him with a cutter for 2. Taguchi tries a springboard hurricanrana but Averno blocks it for 2. Averno's shaking his knee off a lot, he seemed to tweak it after taking Devitt's tope con hilo. He gets Taguchi up and hits an avalanche Angel's Wings! Devitt just saves the pin. The champs get some double team momentum on both opponents. Springboard dropkick from Taguchi. Devitt hits the coupe de grace! Though I'm sure it wasn't called that yet. The champs wheelbarrow Averno up into a codebreaker, and that gets the pin! Perfectly fine but not a blowaway match. Not quite the style you'd expect either from the juniors or a match with lucha guys, which is an observation rather than a complaint. ***

 

Triple Threat Hardcore Match for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: No Limit def Team 3D (c) and Bad Intentions (CHAOS) in 13:28- Team 3D is making their third consecutive appearance at the Tokyo Dome. They won the tag titles on last year's show and took them to TNA, where they've stayed the entire last year with the former Dudleyz holding them most of that time. Former junior tag champs No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi) had just returned from an excursion to Mexico. This marks their first match back and their first match since moving up to the heavyweight division. The Bad Intentions team of Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson are the first representatives tonight from the new Shinsuke Nakamura led heel faction CHAOS, which was created when Toru Yano rebelled against Great Bash Heel leader Togi Makabe with Nakamura's help. I think No Limit lost a hair vs hair or mask match on their way out of CMLL because they come into this match with buzzcuts. Seeing Naito with a buzzcut.....I thought seeing Ishii WITH hair was freaky. This is like ten times that. Naito is still a LONG way away from becoming LIJ Naito, but he's already doing the open eye pose. Yujiro also already has a Tokyo Pimps shirt on. Devon looks like he's actually shed some weight and bulked back up a bit since last year's show. As soon as T3D hit the ring they attack and the big brawl is on. T3D have Naito down in one corner while Bad Intentions have Yujiro down in another. Pretty clear who the targets are. Ray and Bernard back into each other in the ring, but we don't see the follow up immediately as the cameras are focused on fighting on the floor. Finally we cut back to the two big guys locking up. Big shoulderblock standoff. Bernard shouts "COME ON MOTHERFUCKER! GO!". Another big hit with no one moving. Before anything else can happen No Limit jump in and attack them. Ray and Bernard fight them off, then T3D start working on Bernard. Until Bernard double lariatos them both down. Naito runs in and chops Bernard to absolutely zero effect. Dodge in the corner from Naito. No Limit hit a Poetry in Motion dropkick. Yujiro lariatos Bernard 360 to the floor! No Limit lift Anderson up and hot shot him on the top rope. Devon comes in with a kendo stick and waffles Naito with it! Kendo shot for Yujiro. Ray starts tossing all kinds of toys in. How did a US 83 street sign end up in Tokyo? Double freaky for me because part of US 83 runs not too far from where I live. In fact I always hop on 83 to drive up to Abilene whenever I go there. Cookie sheet shot for Yujiro. Ray has a cheese grater! Ref Tiger Hattori tries to stop it, but Ray rakes Naito across the forehead with it! Naito was already bleeding a bit, that'll just make it worse. Yujiro gets slammed on a ladder. Anderson tosses Ray a chair and kicks it into him! Devon tries to Cactus lariato Anderson but has a hard time getting himself over. Bernard and Ray are in the ring alone again. And now they have toys. Both guys pick up chairs. Chair sword fight! Ray loses his chair and begs off, then kicks Bernard. Full on slugfest. Naito comes in with a trash can. Yujiro hits Bernard in the head with the cookie sheet to absolutely zero effect! Fantastic. Then Naito hits Ray with the trash can again getting nowhere. Bernard no sells another cookie sheet shot. Ray ASKS for another trash can shot.  Naito leaps up and puts everything into it, but still nothing. Lariatos from Bernard and Ray put No Limit down again. Ray and Bernard handshake....then double lariato each other! Anderson and Devon run in and both cover for 2. Meanwhile No Limit has gone up to the top rope. Stereo crossbodys for 2. Ray gets the US 83 sign and nails everyone with it! T3D double suplex on Bernard. Bernard takes the Whazzup Drop. Get the tables time. Wow, that's getting booed in the Dome now. I guess T3D holding the tag titles hostage in TNA for a whole year hasn't gone over well with the home Japanese crowd. Anderson gets the classic Dudley powerbomb through a table to initially a small pop, but then more boos as Ray poses. Naito then also goes through a table. A third table is set up. Anderson double lariatos T3D down. Yujiro tries to attack Bernard but gets tossed out again. Bernard has a table set up on the floor. He sets Yujiro up on it. Bernard goes up to the second rope. Big splash on Yujiro through the table! That's it, Yujiro's dead. When Bernard gets back in the ring Ray nails him with a "watch opposing traffic" sign. He wasn't watching. Devon tries to lift Bernard up for the table powerbomb but can't. Bernard low blow on Ray! He chokeslams Devon through the table! Devon just kicks out of a cover at 2. Bernard kicks the cookie sheet into Ray's face for 2. Naito low blow on Bernard! Flying forearm on Bernard. Anderson gets shots in on Naito. Anderson spinebuster! Gun stun! Naito kicks out! 3D on Anderson! Bernard pulls Devon out of the cover! T3D attack him on the floor. Yujiro Alabama slams Anderson. No Limit double team neckbreaker finisher on Anderson! They get the pin and finally get the tag titles back in Japan! That was by far the best of the Dudleyz' trilogy of WK matches.They used the hardcore stip better and played well to what the Dudleyz could still do, especially the multiple Bernard/Ray standoffs. No Limit's experience from excursion also showed as they looked much more confident and polished than at last year's show. The biggest downside is the outcome was never in doubt no matter how hard they tried during the match because the entire build was focused around No Limit's return and there was no way the Dudleyz were getting out of Japan with the belts again. ***1/4

 

Masato Tanaka and Tajiri def Yuji Nagata and Akebono (Seigigun) in 9:37- Oh yay. They brought Akebono back in. I'm thrilled. He was mostly working for All Japan at this point, but Nagata made him an honorary member of Seigigun for this night. Tanaka and Nagata had an absolute war over the Pro Wrestling Zero1 World title on last year's show so getting them back together made sense. Tajiri was, of course, a star in the US early in his career before ever seriously working in his native Japan. After an initial run in ECW he became a staple of the WWE cruiserweight division during the famous Paul Heyman booked Smackdown Six era that actually took that division seriously. He was currently working as a freelancer among many different Japanese companies. Tanaka has Gedo and Jado with him on his entrance. Red Shoes check in early to ref this one, showing it was considered a major match. Tanaka and Nagata want at each other, but Tajiri backs Tanaka into the corner and talks him leting him start. Then Tajiri turns around and sees Akebono! Great reaction. Tajiri wants out but Tanaka says you're the one that wanted in, deal with it! Tajiri decides to superkick Nagata off the apron. That works, as Nagata is hot enough to tag in. Tanaka also tags in and we're off. Great stalemate exchange. Lockup into an arm wringer exchange and another reset. Test of strength. Nagata hits a belly to belly suplex for 2 and is upset that Tajiri broke the pin up. Nagata works a suplex attempt around into almost getting Nagata Lock 2 on but Tajiri breaks that up too. Nagata is not pleased, but stays on Tanaka. Running corner forearm from Tanaka. Tajiri tags in with a kick combo. He tries to arm wringer Nagata, but Nagata says nuts to that and quickly turns it around. Tajiri is one of those guys that always does all the little things right, throwing in those extra mannerisms to really put things over the top. That's what he's doing here. Nagata cranks away on his arm, then hits a couple of chest kicks. Tag to Akebono. He slams Tajiri then does the big man stand on him. "Running" avalanche from Akebono, followed by an elbow drop. He bear hugs Tajiri and drops him in his corner. Nagata tags back in with corner kicks. He hits a couple of forearms and almost asks Tajiri to fight back. Knees from Nagata. Tajiri comes off the ropes with the handspring elbow! Tag to Tanaka. Running forearm against the ropes on Nagata. He charges again, but into a Nagata exploder suplex! Rapid fire slugfest. Open hand slap from Nagata. Lariato from Tanaka. Nagata backdropeh! Tanaka is right back up with a sliding lariato! Running corner knee from Nagata. Both guys trade brain busters. Tajiri tags in but Nagata gets him right back down. Akebono comes in with another avalanche. Helluva kick/exploder combo from Nagata. Akebono big splash! Nagata covers but Tanaka breaks it up. The Seigigun team gives Tanaka a magic screw. Nagata gets the Nagata Lock on Tajiri but Tanaka quickly breaks it up before any eyes can be rolled back. Nagata kicks him back out to the floor. Jado trips Nagata and pulls him out to the floor. Akebono lifts Tajiri up but gets the green mist in the face! Lariato from Tanaka. Nagata gets back in and tries to backdropeh Tajiri but Gedo blocks it from the apron. Red Shoes does a crazy leaping kick to break it up! Where the hell did that come from? That might be the best move I've ever seen a ref do. Tajiri rolls out of the backdropeh. Green mist for Nagata! Sliding elbow from Tanaka. Tajiri hits the big head kick, and pins Nagata! Fun match and a surprising result. Fortunatley Akebono wasn't in it enough to drag it down too much. ***

 

Manabu Nakanishi, Masahiro Chono, Riki Choshu and Terry Funk def Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Takashi Iizuka and Abdullah the Butcher (CHAOS) in 8:52- Mostly an all New Japan battle here between legends and CHAOS, joined by old men Funk and Abby. Funk is actually working his first match in about four years, presumably coming out of retirement again, while Abby was entering what would be the final year of his in-ring career. 2009 was a banner year for Nakanishi. Nearly 10 years after pulling off the biggest upset win in G1 Climax history but doing nothing of note since he finally won the IWGP Heavyweight championship, defeating Hiroshi Tanahashi in May. He lost it back to Tanahashi barely a month later at the first ever Dominion, which would later become New Japan's second biggest annual single show, and would never see it again, but he could finally check that off his career resume. Abby seems to have difficulty just walking to the ring and really should have hung it up ages ago without even getting into the hep C concerns. Funk wants to start with Abby but the heel team doesn't want to let him loose. Yano starts instead. After the lockup Yano feigns a clean break but then hits a chop. Twice. The third time Funk ducks and hits his own chop. Tag to Choshu. He shoulderblocks Yano down. Snap mare from Choshu and he beats on Yano some more, then finally realizes Chono's been perched on the top rope forever waiting for him. Choshu holds Yano and Chono hits the tackle off the top. Funk tags in and hits a DDT for 2. Yano eye gouges Nakanishi to get him in the heel corner. Ishii hits some chops, then holds Nakanishi for Abby to give him a thrust to the throat from the apron. Nakanishi absorbs more Ishii chops and hits a headbutt. Ishii ends up in the wrong corner. He fights out and hits Chono with a powerslam. Chono gets an inverted atomic drop. Iizuka takes some shots in the face corner. Abby slowwwwwwwwwwly works his way into the ring. Funk goes for a figure four on Iizuka. Abby puts him down with a throat shot. More shots from Abby before Funk slugs back. Funk tries to headbutt Abby but only hurts himself. That was as close to classic Funk wobblelegged selling as he can get anymore. Everything breaks down and Abby accidentally hits Iizuka. Iizuka attacks Abby! Ishii and Yano try to hold him back. Choshu lariato on Yano! Chono shining wizardo! Another one on Ishii. Choshu gets the Scorpion Death Lock on Yano but Iizuka breaks it up. Nakanishi swings double ax handles on everyone and covers Iizuka, but Yano pulls Tiger Hattori out at 2. Iizuka has the iron fingers! He nails Nakanishi with them. Funk comes in and slugs Iizuka and Ishii down. Funk has the iron fingers! He gives them to Abby and tells him to hit Iizuka! Abby does! Yano protests and gets them too! Elbow drop from Abby. Nakanishi gets Iizuka in the torture rack and Iizuka submits. Pretty big mess with too many guys past their sell by date in there (Abby had no business being anywhere near a ring anymore), but the story of Abby turning on his evil teammates was decent. 3/4*

 

Togi Makabe def Muhammad Yone in 5:39- Every match left on the card is NJPW vs NOAH. Makabe had been enjoying a fresh babyface run after being betrayed by Yano and Nakamura, including picking up his one and only G1 Climax win in '09. He got a shot at the Heavyweight title soon after that, which had just been vacated due to a Tanahashi injury, but was again defeated by Nakamura. Yone is a career NOAH midcarder, the one guy on this show I honestly knew nothing about going in. Yone charges up the ramp during Makabe's entrance. Makabe sees him coming and wraps his chain around his arm. Yone ducks a chain lariato, scoops Makabe's chain up, and hits Makabe with it. He brings Makabe into the ring and we're on officially. Suplex from Yone. PK to Makabe's back and he soaks up a ton of boos from the New Japan crowd. Makabe no sells more kicks. Powerslam from Makabe. Shoulderblock and lariatos. Corner lariato. Mounted punches. Northern lights suplex for 2. Yone blocks a German suplex. He beats Makabe to the lariato punch and gives him a kick right in the back of the head. Corner lariato and kick from Yone. Setup slam. Legdrop off the second rope for 2. More kicks from Yone. Backdropeh for 2. Legdrop off the top rope to the back of Makabe's head for another 2. Makabe ducks a swing, plants Yone with a German and hits a lariato. Both guys fire up and it's forearm slugging time. Yone runs into a swinging double ax handle. Makabe puts Yone up top and hits the avalanche German. King Kong Kneedrop and it's over. Eh. They did OK for the time they got. Can't say I was overly impressed with my first taste of Yone, and Makabe was always a low ceiling guy. **

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Naomichi Marufuji def Tiger Mask (c) in 14:14- Marfuji is one of the great legends of NOAH, making his first appearance in the Dome for New Japan. He won the 5th Super J Cup in December to get this shot. The junior title belt modeled after the v4 Heavyweight title belt is making its Dome debut tonight. Ironically that belt is still in use today years after the v4 was retired in favor of the World Heavyweight title. Red and gold trimmed in black was definitely the gear memo for this match as that's what both guys are wearing. Cautious start. TM hits a quick kick. Both guys try some arm wringers and both do some flippydo escapes. Headlock into a speed run. TM gets a monkey flip. Marfuji dodges a wild dive but runs into a tiltawhirl backbreaker. He rolls out to the floor. TM teases a dive but stops halfway. Back in Marfuji tries to work a cravat. He snap mares TM over and does a double stomp right on his head, followed by a neck crank. Marfuji drapes TM over the middle rope and goes to the floor. Drive by! Back in Marfuji puts on a cobra clutch. TM fights free, both guys try some rope misdirection, and TM hits a back kick to the gut. He wraps Marfuji up in a modified figure four. Marfuji sits up so he adds on a guillotine before cranking on the legs some more. In the corner TM dodges a kick but Marfuji grabs him with his legs in a headlock and drives TM's head right into the corner pad. Running corner elbow. More crazy rope maneuvering and Marfuji hits a lariato. Curb stomp from Marfuji! Superkick follow up for 2. Standing superkick. Sliced bread! TM kicks out! TM gets a knee to the gut and kick to put Marfuji back down. He goes up top but Marfuji dropkicks him off! Springboard basement dropkick from Marfuji that puts TM on the floor. He gears up and goes for a Fosbury flop. TM kicks him in midair right in the knee! Almost thought that got the nads more than the knee there. They trade shots in the floor while the count goes on. Both stagger up and get back in at 18. Weak brain buster from TM for 2. He hooks up for the tiger suplex. Marfuji counters that and goes for sliced bread again. TM sees it coming and blocks, putting Marfuji on the top rope. Marfuji back elbows TM back down. A TM kick wobbles Marfuji. TM hooks up and hits essentially a Pedigree off the top rope! A reverse Pepsi Plunge. From the camera angle Marfuji damn near fell on his head too. TM stacks up but Marfuji JUST BARELY kicks out. Another tiger suplex attempt. Marfuji flips through, tries a counter, but TM grabs him again and hits it for another long 2. Head kick from TM. Standing moonsault for 2. Kimura lock! TM gives up on that, tries another double underhook that gets countered, then works around and gives Marfuji a reverse exploder. TM says that's it. He tries to wrap up the tiger suplex with the arm trapped. Marfuji counters out and waffles TM with a kick combo in the corner. They go up top. MARFUJI SPANISH FLY! We see that all the time today but that was mind blowing new back then. TM kicks out! It also never ever gets a pin ever. Less than the blue thunder bomb. TM counters out of a suplex but Marfuji instantly transitions to hit a superkick. Tiger Flowsion! Marfuji gets the pin and wins the title! Respect handshake and hug after the bell. Very good stuff, but to me missing that just little bit extra to get it to the next level. Marfuji would keep the title until June, losing it to Prince Devitt for the first of his three record setting reigns. ***3/4

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi def Go Shiozaki in 19:04- After taking the Heavyweight title back from Nakanishi for his fourth reign Tanahashi was forced to vacate it in August due to a fractured orbital bone. Being Tanahashi he only missed a couple of months, but he was still trying to climb back into the title picture. Shiozaki was a NOAH original that had developed into one of their top stars since his debut in 2004. He had just dropped the GHC Heavyweight title in December, the end of the first of what would be many reigns. Lockup and mostly clean break. Shiozaki looked like he wanted to mess with Tanahashi's hair a bit. No one messes with Tanahashi's hair. Extended mat exchange controlled by the larger Shiozaki. Tanahashi backs him up for a rope break and does a little return hair mussing. Tanahashi tries to straight power out of a headlock but can't. Eventually he gut punches out into a hammerlock, then his own headlock. Shoulderblock stalemate. Both guys exchange armdrags. Tanahashi doesn't roll over right on the one he takes and almost lands on his head. Test of strength knucklelock. Again Shiozaki shows the superior strength. Tanahashi fights back up and turns it into a northern lights suplex. Shiozaki comes back up with a big chop. He chops Tanahashi against the ropes and Tanahashi flips over 360 to the floor! Another big chop on the floor. Shiozaki hits a DDT on the floor, then slingshots Tanahashi into the post! He puts Tanahashi on the apron and hits a running knee. He tries for another one on the apron. Tanahashi blocks it! He's likely looking for the in ropes dragon screw but Shiozaki fights it off. Basement dropkick to the knee from Tanahashi. He hits a regular dragon screw in the ring. Tanahashi starts picking the knee apart, absorbing more chops to do so. Dropkick to the knee in the ropes. After some forced breaks Tanahashi has some questions for Red Shoes. When he turns back around Shiozaki hot shots him into the corner pad. Tackle from Shiozaki. More chops. Tanahashi blocks and kicks the knee. Running forearms from Shiozaki. Superkick. Fisherman's buster for 2. Running chops in the corner. Tanahashi tries to fire back with forearms but more chops wobble him. Shiozaki switches to a straight beatdown in the corner, then hits a running knee. Tanahashi dodges a kneedrop off the second rope. Punch combo from Tanahashi. Flying forearm for 2. Shiozaki fights out of a German attempt but Tanahashi ducks down and chop blocks his knee. He goes for the slingblade but gets cut off with chops. On the third try he ducks the chop, but Shiozaki grabs him and hits a German! Great scouting. Another superkick. Shiozaki hits the ropes, but runs into the slingblade finally hitting! Forearm slugfest time. They go nose to nose. Tanahashi staggers Shiozaki with a combo. He double underhooks, fights, and hits a suplex. Another slingblade. A third. Tanahashi goes up top. High Fly Flow into Shiozaki's waiting knees! But that tweaked the knee Tanahashi's been working on too and Shiozaki can't follow up. Shiozaki goes to the second rope. Tanahashi grabs his leg. Shiozaki fights him off with chops to the back of the head. Big open hand slap from Tanahashi and he goes up. More fighting. Shiozaki lifts Tanahashi up and slams him back down. I'm not sure that came off exactly like they planned but commentary is REALLY excited about it. Shiozaki mounts Tanahashi for 2. Big chop combo to Tanahashi's head for 2. Lariato from Shiozaki for 2. Setup slam. Shiozaki moonsault! Man that was a beautiful one. Tanahashi kicks out! Suplex fight. Tanahashi fights free. He tries for a dragon suplex. Shiozaki fights that, but Tanahashi wraps up a straitjacket German for 2! The play by play guy on commentary sounds like his voice is going and we're still two matches from the end. Another big forearm slugfest. Tanahashi mixes in some European uppercuts. He ducks a chop but eats another one on the rebound. Short lariato from Shiozaki! Tanahashi JUST kicks out! What there is of the Tokyo Dome crowd (attendance was still recovering from Inokism) is eating up every drop of this now. Another suplex hook up from Shiozaki. Tanahashi tries for a small package counter, but Shiozaki rolls through that and deadlifts him up! Tanahashi counters in midair into a dragon suplex for 2! Slingblade! Dropkick to the knee. Michinoku driver for 2. Tanahashi goes up top again. High Fly Flow to a seated Shiozaki hits! Up again. HIGH FLY FLOWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW! Tanahashi gets the pin! Afterward there's no handshake but a definite respect moment. Absolutely fantastic match that felt every bit a main event. Shiozaki looked amazing loss or no, while Tanahashi is really starting to look like The Ace. Despite the big win here 2010 wouldn't go as well as Tanahashi hoped. It'd still be another year before he got the Heavyweight title back. ****1/2

 

GHC Heavyweight Championship: Takashi Sugiura (c) def Hirooki Goto in 20:54- As mentioned, Sugiura won the title from Shiozaki in December. It's also his first reign, but one that would end up lasting a year and a half. He acquitted himself very well at last year's WK, absolutely killing it with Nakamura in the stretch run of their tag match. This is an interesting spot for Goto after a fairly unimpressive 2009 and not being able to follow up much on his upset G1 Climax win in '08. Though following the events of The New Beginning in Osaka 2025 I suppose I should retire all my "Goto can't win the big one" jokes. I suspect part of the deal with NOAH was to have their title match as the semi-main, and New Japan probably (and rightly) didn't want Tanahashi losing on this show while he was still climbing back up the ladder post-injury. This is treated fully like a NOAH match in a New Japan ring. NOAH ring announcer, NOAH ref, the whole nine yards. Sugiura tries a cheap shot on the lockup rope break but Goto ducks it. Going the other way Goto slaps Sugiura on a rope break! Both guys start throwing hands. Goto gets an arm takedown but then lets go, almost as if it's a message that he can do it. Sugiura uses standing switches to work into an armbar. Goto counters that with a single leg takedown. Speed run and shoulderblock standoffs. Goto gets a quick kick, snap mare and kick to the back. Sugiura responds with the same sequence but with a lot more kicks. A Sugirua big boot sends Goto 360 over the top to the floor. Sugiura suplex drops Goto gut first on the guardrail. NOAH's ring announcer doesn't seem as interested in selling the count as much as New Japan's guys do. Back in Sugiura tries to keep Goto grounded. He hits some chest kicks that fire Goto up. Big forearm exchange. Goto runs into another big boot. Sugiura shows zero respect by sitting right on Goto's chest to try to pin him. Big suplex leverage fight in the middle of the ring. Sugiura wins it and tosses Goto down face first. He hits a couple of running big boots in the corner. Goto responds with a corner lariato on the other side. Elbow off the top rope for 2. Misdirection runs and Goto hits a big lariato. German suplex for 2. Sugiura switches direction to hit another big boot. He deadlift gutwrenches Goto up and tosses him. Goto blocks a superplex and drops Sugiura down. Sugiura pops back up. Top rope hurricanrana! Man, didn't think he had a move like that in him. Goto is right back up! Corner lariato to the back of the head! Goto puts Sugiura on the top rope, then drops him with a hangman's neckbreaker on the apron! Nice. Nasty and nice. Also, Hardest Part of the Ring TM. Sugiura just manages to stagger back in the ring at 19. Goto hits another elbow off the top rope to Sugiura's back. After a ref check to make sure he's still alive after that neckbreaker Goto covers for 2. Lariato for ONE. Lariato to the back of the head! That gets 2. Sugiura slips out of a suplex attempt. Goto escapes an Olympic slam attempt. Double lariato with neither guy moving. Both guys try to murder each other with lariatos. Goto wins and covers for a long 2. Backdropeh from Goto for 2. Goto hits shouten! Sugiura kicks out! He goes for another one. Sugiura tries to counter into a German. Goto fights it, but that only allows Sugiura to German him into the corner pad! Nasty. Running corner knee from Sugiura. Another one. No, Goto blocked it! He lifts Sugiura up, setting off a chain of counters that ends with Sugiura holding an ankle lock! Goto quickly gets to the ropes. Another Suigura German. He rolls over and hits a dragon suplex! Goto just kicks out. Goto fights off another Olympic slam. He manages to get Sugiura around into an armbar! He cranks back on Sugiura's arm almost ZSJ style. Sugiura slowly fights over and manages to get a rope break. Kicks to the chest and arm from Goto. They start throwing haymakers again. HUGE open hand slaps to the face! Sugiura gets Goto wobbled. Goto comes back with a headbutt! Goto hits the ropes but runs into a German! Goto gets right back up so Sugiura spears him, then rolls the ankle lock back on. Open hand slap from Goto to get free and here we go again. Shot after shot after shot after shot. Goto goes down again. The Olympic slam hits! Goto is out at ONE! Sugiura has some words and nails Goto with a knee to the face. Kickout at 2. The ankle lock is back on. Sugiura pulls Goto into the center and gets the grapevine on! Goto tries to fight but there's nothing more he can do and he has to give it up. What beautiful violence. The crowd was red hot for the whole thing too. Back to back main event worthy matches before the main event. Pressure's on, last guys out. ****1/2

 

IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) (CHAOS) def Yoshihiro Takayama in 15:51- After pulling off a massive heel turn in the spring, and completely destroying GBH to form CHAOS in the process, Nakamura won the vacant title in September following Tanahashi's injury to begin his third reign, once again defeating Makabe. This is one of those "twice in a lifetime" dream match deals. These two faced each other in the main event of the 2004 Dome show, when it was still under the Wrestling World name, in as close to a dream match main event as you could get with Nakamura barely two years into his wrestling career. That match was also a title vs title match for both the IWGP and NWF Heavyweight titles. Nakamura took the win in that match, immediately retiring the NWF title afterward. As revenge for that, Takayama has promised to retire the IWGP Heavyweight title should he win here. Takayama was a shoot style legend and a close friend of Minoru Suzuki, though Takayama stayed more in pro wrestling circles and did less MMA than Suzuki. Incidentally, this is also Nakamura's 5th main event in the 1/4 Dome shows, a new record for the time, breaking a tie he held with Keiji Mutoh/Great Muta. With the start of CHAOS Nakamura is also starting to transition into his King of Strong Style look. He's got the pants and the wristbands. The half shaved head, armband and mannerisms are still to come. Big cross ring staredown after the bell. Neither guy is in a hurry. They cautiously start to feel each other out. Nakamura hits a kick and Takayama literally brushes it off. More kicks. Takayama responds with his own kicks that get Nakamura down. Nakamura tries a duck under waistlock. Takayama fights it but Nakamura gets a takedown. Takayama uses his size advantage to fight back up and lifts a leg to put Nakamura down. Cautious reset. Takayama pushes Nakamura into the ropes, teases a clean break, then forearms him. Nakamura fires back and we start trading forearms with Takayama's seeming to land better. He puts Nakamura down with a clubbing blow to the back and stomps him. A suplex leverage fight goes nowhere so Nakamura tries to work an arm hold. Takayama gets him against the ropes and pummels him. Big knees to Nakamura's chest. A sliding dropkick puts Nakamura on the apron. Takayama goes to the floor and lays in a bunch more knees. Nakamura dangles on the apron with only a foot inadvertantly hooked on the bottom rope to hold him up, then when that comes loose he collapses to the floor. Fantastic. Takayama lays in his own unofficial count. Back in Takayama snap mares into a sleeper, then elbows Nakamura right on the nose. More elbow drops. Legdrop for 2. More forearms. Nakamura gets hung in the tree of woe. Running knee to Nakamura's gut. Basement dropkick and Nakamura falls free. Takayama and Red Shoes seem to have an argument about something. Takayama decides to hook a sleeper back on. Nakamura blocks it with his hands so Takayama hits another knee against the ropes. He goes for another one but Nakamura catches his leg and starts to fire back. He hits the ropes but runs into another knee to the gut for 2. PK from Takayama for 2. He goes for a backdropeh but Nakamura counters with a knee to the head. Running leaping knee from Nakamura. He starts laying in some kicks. Single leg dropkick and Nakamura's fired up. The crowd's pretty with him in this interpromotional match despite his heel status. Nakamura starts laying in his classic measured knees to the gut. Nakamura tries a German, Takayama fights it, Nakamura hits a knee and gets him over! Takayama hits some back elbows. Nakamura ducks a swing and tries to spin into the cross armbreaker! Takayama locks his hands to block it. Nakamura elbows his hands apart and gets it fully on! Takayama uses his long legs to get a rope break. More Nakamura kicks focused on the arm. Takayama grabs one and kills him with another knee. Backdropeh from Takayama. Running corner knee into a double underhook suplex and now Takayama has a cross armbreaker on! Nakamura fights and manages to get a foot to a rope. Takayama just plain pummels Nakamura with knees against the ropes. The last one flush on the jaw. He lifts Nakamura on the apron, hooks up a dragon suplex, and suplexes Nakamura over the top back in the ring with it! Cover for 2. Takayama German for 2. Nakamura uses that to try to get the armbreaker back on! Takayama fights free. Nakamura runs into knee right on the jaw! That's a potential knockout blow and Red Shoes is right there. Nakamura isn't moving so Red Shoes starts a KO count. Nakamura staggers up at 8 and hits a knee to Takayama's gut. Bomaye to the back of Takayama's head! Now we get a double KO count. Nakamura's up first. He puts a sleeper on. Takayama backs him into the corner. Nakamura swings around and waffles him with a forearm. Straight right hand punch from Takayama! They're trading right hand punches! Unheard of in Japan. Punches, headbutts, kicks. They're unloading everything they've got left in the tool box. Nakamura hits his leaping double kick. BOMAYE! Takayama is still up! He tries to block another one, but Nakamura hits it on the second attempt! Another full bomaye! Nakamura covers and gets the pin to retain! They had a lot to follow the last two matches, but by God they damn near got there. That was another physical war with the crowd remaining as hot as they had been the last two matches, and perfecly Tokyo Dome main event worthy. ****1/4

 

As soon as the bell rings Nakanishi gets in the ring and bumps chests with Nakamura. Guess he's calling next. Nakamura and Takayama then hug it out and Takayama raises Nakamura's hand. Exactly how a battle like that should end. Once again it's young boy Okada on trophy and belt snapping duty.

 

OVERALL SHOW THOUGHTS- This is easily the best Wrestle Kingdom yet in terms of pure in ring quality,. The undercard was hit and miss, but the final stretch was insane and worthy of the coming peak Wrestle Kingdom years. The downside, as I also went into on last year's show, is these interpromotional matches just don't mean as much in the long run as a straight New Japan show would. WK won't get to the next level until New Japan realizes their roster can, and needs to, carry this show mostly on their own. As great as the matches on this show are, it's the Nakamura/Tanahashi main event at WK 2 that still stands out as THE WK match so far, largely because it's way more important historically.

OVERALL SHOW GRADE: B+