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-