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Pantoja’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 Review

January 4, 2024 | Posted by Kevin Pantoja
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 Hiroshi Tanahashi Image Credit: NJPW
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Pantoja’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 Review  

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

January 4th, 2024 | Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 27,422

Today begins the 10th year of me watching New Japan since I started with Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015. It has been a rough few years for the company, especially since 2019 but there’s potential out there and some major matches set for this event.

New Japan Rumble

I miss when this match was goofy as hell and not for the lame KOPW trophy or whatever it is these days. Chase Owens, who has some kind of title, started against one of my favorite guys in New Japan, The Great-O-Khan. Seriously, follow him on social media because he is great there. For the most part, this was standard RAMBO stuff. Notable moments saw the Bullet Club heavyweight tag getting eliminated by HENARE and Cobb, as well as a few surprise returns. One that popped me was Takashi Iizuka, who was around when I started watching and he has gotten RIPPED in retirement. He must’ve been clanging and banging with AJ Styles and Randy Orton. Kind of wild to see Ishii relegated to this spot as if he’s not one of the best on the planet. Whenever I see SHO these days, I get sad. That has to be Gedo’s biggest booking error, which is saying something. In the end, Owens was last out leaving the four winners as Yano, YOH, Ishimori, and O-Khan in 32:40. Fine enough for what it was though these matches do drag these days. [**]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Clark Connors & Dan Moloney [c] vs. Catch-22

Commentary says we haven’t seen TJP since last month when he was locked in a coffin (yeah, I didn’t watch those shows) and he appeared by coming out of a coffin during his entrance. English commentary did their best to sell this but it was all goofy. I didn’t mind it though because wrestling can be dumb as hell sometimes in the best way. Anyway, he had a Raiden style hat and it was meant to be some reference to a Filipino legend. Oh, he also had a spooky mask and spit mist. It rattled the champions early but they rebounded with some action outside. Akira got isolated and took the heat while the spooky man was on the apron. Akira got the tag after a Destroyer and Catch-22 kind of rolled from that point on. This culminated with the challengers sandwiching Moloney with knee strikes in 9:38. That was a solid opener though it didn’t stand out compared to other Jr. Tag Title bouts. The TPJ stuff was different though not exactly something I’d call good. [**¾]

NJPW Television Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

MY PRESIDENT HIROSHI TANAHASHI! These guys have a LONG history including several big title matches and ZSJ beating Tanahashi in his NJPW debut. Commentary noted that Sabre only had three key losses in 2023 which were to Okada, Danielson, and Ospreay. Tanahashi, as much as I love him, has started to finally show his age in 2023 but ZSJ is a great person to work due to his style. I liked Tanahashi going for High Fly Flows early given how well ZSJ has manipulated the time limit during his reign. That also made it so a lot of the early near falls and close calls had fans biting. From there, this was some classic back and forth smooth wrestling between them. ZSJ switching from submissions every few seconds and Tanahashi finding ways to show that he had hope and wasn’t totally out of it. The finish was great, as they battled over pinning combinations until Tanahashi landed on top for one and got the 1-2-e in a quick 8:53. Just what I was looking for. My Ace puts himself over, ZSJ’s reign ends at the 1-year mark, and they had their kind of quality match in under 10 minutes. [***½]

Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura

Two key cornerstones of the future of this company. Yuya recently returned from excursion and targeted Yota, who has looked like a star since he returned last summer. Of course, Yota has just continued to rack up big losses so that’s classic questionable Gedo booking. This match felt like Yota, despite being a loser, being the higher in the pecking order guy as he held serve for a lot of this. Yuya had to play the plucky babyface who had to rally against his tougher, bigger opponent. The main thing you noticed in this match is how far ahead Yota is in terms of things like in-ring presence and charisma. He felt like a star while Yuya kind of just felt like a guy. Yuya withstood a lot of the big shots Yota threw at him and when he got his fire going with things like a dragon suplex, this was just starting to get good. However, Yuya then hit the Deadbolt to win in 10:57. An underwhelming but good match. And again, Yota loses in a big match. This company is in DIRE need of a new person booking things and while that has been the case for years, it’s more pressing now with the likes of Tsuji, Narita, Umino, and Uemura around. [***]

EVIL and Ren Narita vs. Kaito Kiyomiya and Shota Umino

Who let this onto the card? They should’ve just done Shooter vs. Yota vs. Ren vs. Yuji and put EVIL and Kaito in the RAMBO. Anyway, Shooter came out riding a motorbike which was cool. I saw Ren with House of Torture and I’m just like “what have they done to my boy?” He’s gonna go the way of SHO, which is tragic. The match itself was pretty bad. The House of Torture has been beyond tired for a long time so their constant antics and interference sucked, dragging the life out of this. When it was just Ren against Shooter or Kaito kicking ass, it was fine but those moments were few and far between with too much nonsense going on otherwise. Then, instead of giving us a finisher that worked, we got Ren using a foreign object to win in 7:06. Trash. [*]

NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi [c] vs. Tama Tonga

I saw them go to a draw in the G1 (***¼) but this was better. They played right into everything that I want from the NEVER Openweight Title. I’m not here for 30 minute attempts at epics or stuff filled with interference. I want two dudes beating the hell out of each other for 10-15 minutes. It’s really not a lot to ask for. They brought that energy from the start and it really picked up around the time Shingo delivered a pretty badass superplex. It’s hard to get extra snap and power on a move like that so kudos. The same goes for a powerbomb Shingo hit as it saw Tama bounce hard off the mat. The spot where Tama countered Made in Japan into Gun Stun was pretty rad and I liked him going for Bloody Sunday given his Bullet Club roots. That took us past the 10 minute mark and gave us a frantic final few minutes that even saw Shingo bust out a rana. Tama survived Made in Japan and hit the Styles Clash. He added DSD to win the title in 13:46, giving us our first great New Japan match of the year. Best outing I’ve ever seen from Tama, who announced backstage that he was leaving the company next month. [****]

IWGP & NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships: Bishamon [c] vs. El Phantasmo and Hikuleo [c]

To unify the sets of titles. Nick Nemeth and his brother Ryan surprised many with an appearance and did commentary. Gedo hilariously booked this combo in a 40 minute World Tag League Final, which feels like him trolling fans. Thankfully, this didn’t go anywhere near 40 minutes. Instead, what we got was pretty standard tag team stuff which is about what I expect from these four. Hikuleo was the big man, ELP brought the speed, and Bishamon has worked together long enough that they nail their tandem stuff. I will say that Hikuleo looked better than he usually does here. He was moving more fluidly and didn’t lumber around. ELP leaping off HASHI’s back onto Goto up top was an impressive athletic move before he tagged to Hikuleo for the big man offense. When Bishamon survived the big Thunderkiss combo that commentary said nobody had kicked out of, I thought they’d win for sure. However, ELP hit CR2 and then helped Hikuleo on a not great looking frog splash for the win in 9:47. A fine match here with an attempt at a big, memorable spot to end it. [**½]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi [c] vs. El Desperado

It’s time for the big four matches. This pairing always works but doing it again in the Tokyo Dome cements how shallow this division really is. Their meetings include the 2018 BOSJ (****½), Kizuna Road 2018 (****¼), twice in the 2020 BOSJ (**** and ****¾), BOSJ 2021 (****¼), the Tokyo Dome two years ago (***¾), and the 2022 BOSJ Finals (****½). Desperado hit a dive during Hiromu’s entrance, getting this tarted with a bang. Of course, they don’t just have high octane spotfests and knew how to incorporate other aspects. The psychology was there with Desperado going after the leg (as usual) and Hiromu targeting the recently injured eye. I always dig going after unconventional body parts. It helps your match feel fresh in a world or the same limb work. Given their history, it makes sense that they had counters for everything from the Stretch Muffler to the Time Bomb. Down the stretch, Despy started throwing bombs with vicious right hands that knocked Hiromu loopy. Hiromu had one more big shot in him but Desperado weathered it and ended his one-year reign with Pinche Loco at the 14:21 mark. One hell of a match though they have something in common with the Tanahashi/Okada rivalry. I much prefer their matches outside of the Tokyo Dome to the ones in it. [***¾]

IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: David Finlay vs. Jon Moxley vs. Will Ospreay

ONE OF THESE THINGS IS NOT LIKE THE OTHER. Most people really wanted Moxley/Ospreay but that’ll be saved for AEW. Gedo fumbled the bag with another star. Moxley had Red Hood inspired gear for his entrance while Ospreay’s was from Assassin’s Creed with the addition of a Rey Mysterio jump. To start, Moxley and Ospreay had a truce so they could beat up Finlay since they both owed him an ass kicking in and around the ring. That was a good way to start but once we got the Moxley/Ospreay battle everyone wanted, this took a step up. Their exchanges were great and it acted as a preview for their eventual clash. Their fight opened the door for Finlay to sneak in as they were so focused on each other. He’d bring the shillelagh into play since there aren’t DQs in this kind of match. It’s a Moxley match, so of course he bled. Ospreay’s moonsault spot could’ve been cool but it was one of those dives where the person completely misses the targets. However, Moxley’s Death Rider looked awesome. From that point on, the match took things up yet another notch. Big offense from everyone and Finlay nearly stealing it after Ospreay hit Moxley with the Hidden Blade made for a great close call. It was exactly the kind of way that nobody wanted this to end. Then, we got the run-ins with the War Dogs or whatever they’re called showing up to fight Moxley and Ospreay. Of course, the big stars easily fought them off and the image of Coughlin stuck seated in the broken table was hilarious. Some of the late near falls and finisher kickouts were a bit much before Finlay put down Will with Oblivion in 22:17. That was the match of the night to this point though I think it did fall victim to a few tropes of the triple threat and some overdone late kickouts. [****¼]

Post-match, Finlay yelled at Nick Nemeth who hit the ring and slapped him. They brawled to the back so it looks like we’re in line for David Finlay vs. the former Dolph Ziggler. Alright.

Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada

Their first match was great but underwhelmed (****¼) thanks to a reliance on Okada formula. Hopefully they go with a Bryan match here. Okada had some entrance gimmick that involved his gear magically changing colors. Madness. This was interesting on paper because it’s the rare case of a guy wanting revenge despite being up 1-0 in the series. That’s because of Bryan’s injuries suffered at the hands of Okada and he was violent from the start. Bryan slammed Okada’s arm in the guardrail, clearly putting a target on it. He picked that arm apart at every turn in an attempt to take away the Rainmaker. It took a Tombstone on the apron (made all the worse given Bryan’s history) for Okada to really turn things around. He had to get vicious too, removing Bryan’s eye patch and stomping on his face. I loved the spot where Okada blocked a kick only for it to hurt his already damaged arm and then Bryan just kicked him in the head anyway. Okada kept trying to get his usual closing stuff going but Bryan avoided it, countered it, and trapped him in submissions. Okada wasn’t about to tap out like he did in the States though. This is his home. Okada survived and hit the Rainmaker but it hurt too much for him to make the cover. Okada’s next attempts were met with a kick and forearm from Bryan, who had him expertly scouted. The final two or so minutes saw Okada keep going for it and he finally nailed it to win in 23:24. I’m glad they didn’t try to go 40 or some  shit. A fantastic match that ended at the right time. Okada falling onto Bryan while holding his arm in pain was a great ending as Bryan had wrestled a perfect match to that point but got caught. Okada risked it all for the win. Better than their first outing. [****½]

After the match, Okada bowed to Danielson in the middle of the ring and Danielson returned the favor in a huge show of respect.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA [c] vs. Tetsuya Naito

Their history includes matches in the G1 28 (****), G1 30 (***¾), and 2023 New Japan Cup (**¾) but their biggest connection is obviously their time as LIJ teammates. Now, we’re like six hours into this thing and the Rangers are about to start so this match review will be a bit short so I can get to hockey. Considering I’m consistently underwhelmed by SANADA and Naito’s body broke down several years ago, they had a really good main event. In a lot of ways it was prototypical New Japan main event with a slow start before picking up and racing to the finish line with a special closing stretch. That first half wasn’t great but the back half really lifted this, as did the crowd who was way into everything Naito did. It’s telling of his popularity that Gedo constantly got it wrong with him and the crowd still loves the man. I think parts of it felt like a genuine struggle, like SANADA attempting to escape Destino, but other parts lacked urgency or anything like that. Naito ended up hitting a Brainbuster followed by Destino to win the title again in 25:42. Like I said, really good main event but nothing I’d call great. [***¾]

Post-match, Naito was about to have his celebration ruined by EVIL and the House of Torture just like KENTA did back in 2020. However, SANADA got back into the ring to help him and they cleaned house. SANADA showed him respect and some LIJ love. Naito did his LIJ roll call and celebrated to end the night.

8.0
The final score: review Very Good
The 411
As usual, the big Tokyo Dome show mostly delivers. The stuff you expect to work does (Okada/Danielson, SANADA/Naito, the triple threat, Hiromu/Despy), there were a couple of nice surprises (the NEVER Title match) and a few things missed the mark (tag matches mostly). All in all though, a great show and I hope New Japan gives me more like this in 2024.
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