Chris Jericho’s Genius and Other WrestleKingdom 12 Thoughts

Like many wrestling fans, I watched NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12 on Thursday morning. And, like a few of them, it was my first time watching NJPW.

Not my first time ever, mind you. I’ve watched my fair share of NJPW matches throughout the years. But I had never seen a full NJPW show and I definitely had never pulled an all nighter to watch an event.

That all changed on Thursday morning, thanks to the double main event. People may scoff at the idea that Chris Jericho meant everything to this show, but he certainly meant something. Longtime US wrestling fans like myself were intrigued to see Jericho in Japan. They were intrigued to see him face Kenny Omega, arguably the biggest independent star in the US.

I was certainly intrigued. Jericho is one of the smartest wrestlers in the history of the business. The way he’s able to reinvent himself with every WWE return is nothing short of amazing. His creative genius is on a level that every wrestler should aspire to achieve.

When Jericho attacked Omega, I was hooked. I wanted to see this match right then and there. The way they set it up was smart. Both men said it would be a fight and not a wrestling match. Right there, they lowered expectations. While Omega is one of the best wrestlers in the world, Jericho has lost a step or two. It was very evident in his WrestleMania match with AJ Styles. There was no way he could keep up with Omega in a one-on-one wrestling contest. But a fight? Yeah, he could do it.

Jericho looked like he had not stepped foot in a gym since his last WWE appearance. Omega came out in some Overwatch gear with a gun that he didn’t use, despite this being a No DQ match. My expectations were lowered again.

The bell rang. The fight was on.

Omega was his usual smooth-self. He bumped his ass off for Jericho and looked like he could have had a similar match with a blow up doll. Jericho was a little slower, a little more plodding, but in this match, it worked. He used theatrics, like attacking the referee and the referees son, to get the crowd into things.

It was a spectacle in the best sense. They worked around the limitations of Jericho and delivered on their promise of a fight. To Jericho’s credit, he was not a bystander. I worried that he wasn’t going to be able to get up for certain moves and get over on others, but he did.

Jericho no longer has his fastball. He can’t work step-for-step with the likes of Styles and Omega. That’s what makes Jericho great, though. He no longer needs his fastball. He’s been around the game so long that he can outthink hitters. He can keep them guessing with off-speed pitches. Jericho is wrestlings version of Greg Maddux.

I had my issues with the match: Rope breaks, count outs, breaking up the pre-match brawl. In a No DQ match, those thing standout. But those are minor complaints that didn’t kill my enjoyment of the match. It just made the match flawed, which is the beauty of wrestling and Chris Jericho. Even flawed, it can be perfect.

Other Wrestle Kingdom 12 Thoughts

*While I came for Jericho vs. Omega, I stayed for the rest of the show. I didn’t enter the show blind, having listened to a couple of WK12 preview podcasts and read Csonka’s reviews.

*The consensus leading up to the show was that Tetsuya Naito should win the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Kazuchika Okada had been the longest reigning champion and the time was right to cash in on Naito. When Naito entered and received the biggest pop of the night, I was excited to hear the reaction when he won the title. It didn’t happen and I was disappointed that I was robbed of that pop. Still, it’s tough to complain about the match they delivered. It got off to a slow start, but that ending stretch was some of the hottest wrestling I’ve ever witness. I’m all in on Okado never losing the title. I love long reigning champions. I know he’s already had the title for 500+ days. Have him hold it for 1,000 days.

*I wanted to be all in on Jay White, but that match did nothing for me. It felt like a Triple H match at WrestleMania. Hiroshi Tanashi wanted to go out there and have an epic, but he couldn’t have an epic. Instead, he had a flat match where neither guy looked all that good and the veteran went over.

*Give Marty Scurll all the titles.

*I have to give credit to Cody Rhodes. I haven’t been impressed with the majority of his independent work, but he brought it against Kota Ibushi. It helps that Ibushi is awesome, but I don’t want to take anything away from Cody. He stepped his game up.

*The Young Bucks are good. If you only know them from their GIFs or Twitter antics, you’re doing yourself a disservice. I wanted to hate the Young Bucks because they seemed full of themselves and thin-skinned when it comes to criticism. Those two things may still be true, but damn do they put on an entertaining wrestling match.

*Kevin Kelly is bad. His Jim Ross-lite enthusiasm, his forced sports analogies, talking about star ratings betting lines. He did nothing to enhance the matches for me.

*Not only was every match good, but every match was different. No matter your wrestling preference, you likely found something you enjoyed on this show. That’s the mark of a well-rounded roster and promotion.

*That said, six hours is way too long for a wrestling event. Granted, the time difference probably made things worse. If this show went from 6 p.m. ET to midnight, I may have been able to deal with the length. But 2 a.m. ET to 8 a.m. ET felt like forever.

*Following this show, I vow to keep up with NJPW this year.