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DIR Return to: Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week
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#Post#: 22818--------------------------------------------------
Sheriff Lonestar's PPV of the Week; Back at Dome
By: SheriffLonestar Date: January 11, 2014, 1:15 am
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JP said "Add a banner" so here is a banner;
HTML http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7442/11884115094_656fe3baaa_o.jpg
So last week I told you about an Egg Dome show that was 20 years
ago. This week we are back in the Egg Dome and bang up to date.
The New Japan's January 4th Tokyo Dome has become an
institution; The Eastern World's Wrestlemania. It has bore the
name Wrestle Kingdom for the last eight years and before that
had various titles, mainly coming under the name Battlefield,
but if nothing else it means wrestling in The Dome, and for the
last few years its the only show that has been in The Dome. It
has never reached the huge sell outs of the late ninties of
64,000, but this years 35,000 has shown a strong and steady
growth implying that company is well on its way to writing
itself after the lean years of the 2000s when things that where
going on in NOAH and PRIDE where so much more interesting. This
card was packed to the gills, and so let us break it down for
you into information like chunks;
Bushi, Captain New Japan, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Tomoaki Honma vs
Jushin Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Super Strong Machine and Yohei
Komatsu
This was a dark match but thankfully appeared on the internet
feed anyways and appears here. You can't have a Dome show
without Super Strong Machine, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Jushin Liger,
these are guys who have carried the company over many years and
I was glad they had time to fit them in even if they didn't get
to the main show. This was a typical NJPW eight man, played for
laughs a lot of the time especially as it was two face teams
together, but a fun outing if not vital viewing.
The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (c) vs Forever
Hooligans (Alex Koslov and Rocky Romero), Suzukigun (Taichi and
Taka Michinoku) and Time Splitters (Alex Shelley and Kushida)
Four Way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles.
The hottest tag division in the world by a long streak has been
as entertaining as it has been breathtaking this year. With Alex
Shelley off the shelf and back in action they where allowed to
take the safety catch off and give an exhibition of high spots
rarely seen in one place. Every crowd pleaser was here, every
well known and well trod spot refined and placed into a new
environment. It is always going to be hard to try and steal the
show in the first match, but by gum they gave it a try. A total
lack of story telling hurt this match a bit as did having three
heel teams but everyone gave their all. Historically important
to as this was Taka Michinoku's last match with New Japan. He
will return to his own promotion K-Dojo a lot richer and with
another notch in his widely notched belt.
K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lance Archer) © vs Bullet Club
(Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) (with Tama Tonga)
This, I will not lie, was the match I was most looking forward
to. SuzukiGun's Killer Elite Squad versus those upstart Bullet
Club folks. Gallows and Anderson where on fire here. Since their
victory at the World Tag League they have excelled in tag
performance. For KES another day at the office, but they have
worked hard this year and they put forward a great piece of
work. This bouts length and intensity was exceptional and with
some American style wrestling broke up the Strong Style fest
that we are about to incur. Just what the crowd needed from a
Heavyweight match.
Rob Conway (c) (with Bruce Tharpe and Jax Dane) vs Satoshi
Kojima (with Hiroyoshi Tenzan)
Accompanied by their respective tag partners who would run
interference for them later. Kojima ploughed into Conway with a
start. This match was again dominated by story telling, but
judging by the smile on Harley Race's face it was stiff enough
for his liking and if you can please The King you are on to a
winner. Harley introduced both men having been the NWA Champion
8 times, and it was great to see that tough old bastard fly out
from Saint Louis to with the aid of a cane. The slap he puts on
current NWA president Bruce Tharpe was awesome as well. The
match had an interesting mix of styles, Conway the WWE graduate
vs the quintessential Japanese Pro in Kojima. Kojima's record of
2 IWGP Titles and 2 Triple Crowns makes him one of the most
decorated wrestlers in Japan ever and he belongs, and really
excels, in title matches. Conway has developed depth and balance
since his WWE days so this was a mini barnstormer.
Kazushi Sakuraba and Yuji Nagata vs Daniel Gracie and Rolles
Gracie
To be honest I can normally find lots of nice things to say
about these kinds of matches, shooters vs wrestlers often brings
up sterling results, but this was a dud. Sakabura is a pro
wrestler turned MMA fighter who still wrestles predominantly for
New Japan. In fact he pretty much single handedly saved pro
wrestling's skin in Japan in the late 90's. He entered the UFC
Japan Heavyweight tournament (despite being 20 lbs under weight
for it) he went on to beat Marcus Silveira in the final who was
quoted as saying "In fact, professional wrestling is strong". He
became known as the “Gracie Hunter” after double top wrist
locking Royler Gracie in an MMA fight in a Pride event in 2000.
The previous man to beat a Gracie in any competition? Masahiko
Kimura, who used a double top wrist lock on Royler's father
some many, many years before. Weird huh? Anywho having disgraced
the Gracie family in 2000, they regrouped at Wrestle Kingdom to
challenge Sakubra and Yuji Nagata in a pro wrestling match.
Daniel Gracie and Rolles' lack of wrestling experience makes it
tell that is not going to be great even though it is a great
drawing card. Most popular doesn't always equal best quality I
am afraid. By the way, not only was Sakubura the first man to
beat any member of the Gracie in MMA competition since Kimura,
he also beat Renzo and Ryan Gracie as well in straight up
fights, pro wrestlers are soft huh?
It can't be a big stadium centre piece show without a grand
return, ask the Rock, so next we have;
The Great Muta and Toru Yano vs Suzukigun (Minoru Suzuki and
Shelton X Benjamin) (with Taichi and Taka Michinoku)
To be honest I am not a great fan of Yano as a pure wrestler
(myself and long time British wrestling manager and commentator
Dean “The King” Ayass where watching this at the same time on
twitter and he remarked “whose the red headed fat bloke?” when I
explained who he was Dean replied “he's fat and awful” and that
about sums it up. Yano is a comedy cat and this wasn't the place
for comedy. Mutoh as The Great Mutoh is often a smoke and
mirrors effort, but we got everything we needed and everything
to send the crowd home happy in this one. For once Suzuki and
Benjamin were along for the ride, this was a one man show. If
you ever needed an all conquering hero this was the time and
this was the place. Should give Wrestle 1 some serious exposure
to.
Bad Luck Fale vs Togi Makabe
Togi hits people really hard. So does Bad Luck. That's about it
really. If you want what seems like a never ending stiff as
nails brawl this is the kind of thing for you. Neither guy sells
much so it was going to take a while, this felt like eons, but
in a good way.
Hirooki Goto vs Katsuyori Shibata
In much the same vein but, Shibata and Goto are refined pure
wrestlers who take some stiffness to get going. This had some
classic hallmarks; Goto had had 4 months off due to a broken
jaw. Shibata, who also dabbles in MMA and is very successful,
has had three fights with Goto in the last twelve months winning
once and drawing the other three times so this was high stakes
stuff. They turned it on in a technical Strong Style brawl that
never threatened to get out of hand but left them and the
audience exhausted. If you want intensity and realism this my
friends is a good as it gets and about as far away as you can
think from what we witness on a Sunday night.
Prince Devitt © vs Kota Ibushi IWGP Junior Heavyweight
Championship
The biggest prize in Junior Heavyweight Wrestling sits around
the waist of perhaps the best Junior Heavyweight Europe has
produced since The Dynamite Kid, there is my big statement for
the day, here's my second, against the perhaps the best aerial
wrestler Japan has produced since The Great Sasuke. Devitt never
one to miss out on a big entrance comes to the ring covered in
body paint while Ibushi stares him down looking to get “his”
title back. Devitt has held it for nearly a year and in that
time has made himself and the belt be bigger than ever, this
match wouldn't be third to last on the card without him. Ibushi
has been putting in breath taking performances in those 12
months for DDT as well as NJPW. This was as state of the art as
it get folks. You need to watch this match, it is the future of
what wrestling will look like.
Kazuchika Okada (c) (with Gedo) vs Tetsuya Naito IWGP
Heavyweight Championship
You maybe wondering why the Heavyweight title bout isn't on last
and the Inter-Continental one is? Well here is the thing. New
Japan, always eager to please its fan base, did a vote on who
should go on last. What has been seen as a lack of confidence in
Naito, this one lost out. It is not hard to see why. Okada is so
popular that all he really has to do is raise his hands to the
side and the crowd explodes in a frenzy for his finisher, The
Rainmaker. To be honest if he just raises his hands the crowd
react like Steve Austin came to their high school kegger with
free beer for a month. He is a heel by the way. Naito was on a
loser from the moment he stepped out to relative silence in
front of 35,000 people. I guess he has a year to rebuild and try
again. Or as Ayass put it “Stardust Genius, pah” (if he reads
this, I know I was paraphrasing but it looked better that way).
The match itself was good because Okada was there, which doesn't
bode well for Naito's upward mobility in coming months
especially as they have been building him really since June.
And finally your main event of the evening;
Shinsuke Nakamura © vs Hiroshi Tanahashi IWGP Inter-Continental
Championship
By now these two are old hands at the main event of Wrestle
Kingdom. Shinsuke Nakamura has been there 5 times before,
Tanahashi 6 times. They have been the face of New Japan for the
better part of the decade. They have also headlined with each
other twice before, though the first time for this belt. It
shows how well Okada has done to become the company Ace with
these two veterans still putting in high quality battles well
into their main event careers and they did what it said on the
tin. Nakamura and Tanahashi delivered a main event quality match
for the biggest stage of them all, with a few twists and turns
along the way. Nakamura's facial expressions and heelish ways
bringing the fans into a well told story up against Tanahashi's
pure baby face persona, as always an interesting mix and I hope
these two feud over the belt some more in the coming year. By
running this last it has given some lustre to this relatively
new title which can be no bad thing. New Japan's working
agreement with CMLL has proven that you can take this belt
abroad and do good business with it, which is good for wrestling
and makes more room at the top. New Japan as always breaking new
ground and overall a thoroughly enjoyable card.
Enjoy the show;
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LBDT4l1sSyc
HTML http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-T3bgu3kJ4
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