Pantoja’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 Review

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19

January 4^th, 2025 | Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 24,107

I’ve been vocal about my issues with New Japan since around 2019. I do think 2024 was a bit better for them, especially when them doing things like having a good G1, putting the title on ZSJ, and giving some new guys chances so let’s see what their biggest show has in store for us.

New Japan RAMBO

A new twist here as the winner gets an IWGP Title shot rather than the KOPW gimmick that was retired. The Great-O-Khan was out first with a surprise Josh Barnett out second. There were 17 entrants from legends like Yuji Nagata and TenKoji (I popped for them) to guys with a shot to win like SANADA and Ishii to guys who have fallen like KENTA and, honestly, also SANADA. He has to be the first guy to headline WK one year and then not make the main card the next (not counting people who left the company). For the most part, this was your typical RANBO with everyone getting a moment or two to get their shit in. I got reminded that a lot of these guys are even still under contract like Yujiro. The only storyline thing that really stood out was Taichi’s quest for revenge against SANADA. Alex Zayne was the final entrant. It came down to Goto against O-Khan. The guy with the renewed push after a strong run last year and the guy who retired the KOPW gimmick looking to move up. Goto sent him over the top to win in 34:35. The match was what I expected. I don’t think Goto gets a courtesy run so 0-10 in title matches I guess. [**]

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Ladder Match: Intergalactic Jet Setters [c] vs. Catch-22 vs. Ichiban Sweet Boys vs. War Dogs

New Japan isn’t known for their ladder matches. I think I’ve seen like three in total. They do love a clusterfuck junior match on their Tokyo Dome cards though. The War Dogs had four ladies in some PIETER level outfits accompany them to the ring. Now I just miss PIETER. I say it whenever we get a multi-man/team ladder match but they all kind of blend together these days. They all feature some cool and impressive spots while chaos reigns supreme but by tomorrow, almost every bit of it will be forgotten. That was kind of the case here with some tables also being brought into play. Knight and KUSHIDA had a cool tandem move off a ladder in what was probably the match’s biggest spot. There were a few blown spots and weird moments where people chose to hit a spot rather than actually win the match. I did like the finish though with Kosei Fujita holding Akira in place on top of the ladder as he pulled down the titles in 13:05. The right winners but only a decent ladder match. [***]

IWGP Women’s Championship: Mayu Iwatani [c] vs. AZM

I tell you no lies when I say this is my most anticipated match on the card. They had an incredible match in the 5STAR Grand Prix last year (****½) though I’m expecting this to be shorter and not quite as good given the setting. AZM is absurdly good, especially for being 22. They knew they didn’t have a lot of time and they made sure to get the most of it. Right from the start they were trading shots and AZM hit a dive. As someone who dominated the High Speed division, it should come as no surprise that this style suits AZM and Mayu formerly ran the division so it worked. Mayu got going but missed a moonsault and ate a vicious kick from AZM. I’ve seen so many people get their feet up on a splash but it has rarely ever looked this good as Mayu ROCKED AZM with them. She ended up with a bloody mouth because of it. The Azumi Sushi got two which was how AZM beat Mayu last time they met. I bit on the Two Step counter by AZM for a rollup since so many STARDOM matches end like that. It was at this moment that I noticed Starlight Kid and Hazuki at ringside who, along with these two and Natsupoi, make up my five favorites from STARDOM. AZM survived a moonsault but fell to the Two Step Dragon Suplex in 8:46. Yes, that was so my shit. Let two great wrestlers pack a ton of action into a sub-10 minute match. I bet you they did more with 9 minutes than guys later on the card will do with 20 or 30. [****]

NJPW Television Championship: Ren Narita [c] vs. El Phantasmo vs. Jeff Cobb vs. Ryohei Oiwa  

I always forget this title exists. Also, I will never forgive Gedo for what he did to Ren Narita. It’s not quite on the level of how he ruined SHO but it’s up there. This was similar to the opener in that it was designed to a clusterfuck. People were moving in and out seamlessly and that meant there wasn’t much time for slowdown, which was good. I’m not really invested in most of the guys in this match so consistent action kept me engaged. Cobb knocking a balanced ELP onto the others outside only to then hit a sick tope con hilo was one of my favorite spots of the nights. I love me some Matanza Cueto. Cobb had this won but ELP broke up a pin with a dive, then dove out onto Oiwa, and then hit a springboard splash onto Narita to win the title in 10:04. A good little sprint with a fair bit of action and a feel good win for ELP. [***]

Lumberjack Match: EVIL vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Can my Ace get something good out of the perpetually awful EVIL? Tanahashi’s hair is majestic. The lumberjacks were House of Torture members and Tanahashi’s friends like Oleg, Tiger Mask, and Yano. Tanahashi and EVIL made this match work because they played their roles expertly. It sounds so simple but Tanahashi is such a great babyface and EVIL is so hated that they just played into that and made it work with a few lumberjack spots thrown in for good measure. I do like cases like this for Tanahashi where his storytelling capability can carry him the way his body no longer can. Simple spots like Oleg carrying the cowardly EVIL back to the ring and Tanahashi relying on some classic moves to overcome the odds did a lot. Tanahashi really got going with Sling Blades and High Fly Flows only for interference to cut him off. Our resilient legend survived whatever EVIL threw at him though, and after getting hit with Everything is EVIL, he turned a lazy pin into a small package to win in 15:07. Better than I expected. A case of good vs. evil (pun intended) that worked and didn’t overstay its welcome. [***¼]

Post-match, the House of Torture jumped Tanahashi until a hooded Katsuyori Shibata entered the ring and they scattered. The crowd popped for his return and he helped Tanahashi up. He then respectfully challenged Tanahashi to a match at Wrestle Dynasty tomorrow, which was accepted. That was cool.

AEW International & NEVER Openweight Championships: Konosuke Takeshita [c] vs. Shingo Takagi [c]

Other than Mayu/AZM, this was my most anticipated match on the show. If you put these two together, I want to see them beat the shit out of each other for 12-15 minutes. Like the heyday of the NEVER Title. They gave me just that, dropping each other with various suplexes, trading forearms, and harkening back o what the NEVER Title was all about at its best. I do think a handful of sequences didn’t flow as smoothly as they could’ve, keeping this from being as good as it could’ve been. Understandable though given its their first ever meeting. The spot where Shingo popped up on a lariat only to eat several suplexes and then respond with a lariat of his own was kind of a good microcosm of the match itself. Shingo kicked out quickly from a pump knee and survived a Blue Thunder Bomb, making Takeshita wonder what it would take to beat him. Shingo hit Last of the Dragon but couldn’t capitalize, leading to the wildest spot of the match where they traded poison ranas. In the end, Takeshita won with Raging Fire at the 12:42 mark. Not quite as good as I was hoping for but still great stuff and exactly the direction the division needs to be back to. [****¼]

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

There was potential for this to be special. DOUKI had a hell of a 2024 and is one of New Japan’s better stories, as was Desperado when he reached the top of the division. Their BOSJ match last year ruled too (****¼). After a dope entrance involving Shido Nakamura II, which Desperado seemed to appreciate, DOUKI looked poised for a great night. Unfortunately, we never got the chance to find out. They got off to a hot start but DOUKI did a senton to the outside and his arm hit the floor in awkward way, clearly breaking. The referee called for the bell in 5:42, awarding DOUKI the title. That’s a damn shame because I really wanted to see these two in this slot. Hopefully, DOUKI can be back asap. [NR]

IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: David Finlay [c] vs. Yota Tsuji

The push of David Finlay hasn’t worked for me. He’s like Jack Perry to me. Good wrestler, solid babyface, but the tough guy heel act hasn’t clicked at all. New Japan is nothing if not stubborn though and are still trying it with him. Meanwhile, Yota feels like THE GUY for the future and he badly needs a big win at some point soon. Both of their G1 matches last year were good but not great (***½ and ***¾). Here, Finlay continued to be the role of aggressor and that’s a hard sell given how Yota comes across as a bigger, tougher guy. He managed to get it to work after putting Yota through a table. That gave him the upper hand and meant Yota was down so David could portray more of a bad ass. He dissected Yota for a bit as he’s done so many times during his title reign but Yota refused to stay down. Yota rallied only to have his Spear interrupted by a Gun Stun and Oblivion for two. He also survived Overkill and went on a barrage capped with the Gene Blaster to become the new champion after 19:39. I’d heard a lot of hype about this coming into watching it. I thought it was really good though not something overly special. They made stuff work that I never expected to and we finally got a big win for Yota. [****]

Hiromu Takahashi vs. Tetsuya Naito

We were so close to this when the pandemic hit. Naito was mostly broken down by then but now five years later, he’s beyond broken down. I still can’t believe they waited so long to give him the top spot but whatever. Hiromu walked away from an LIJ fist bump before the bell. They told a fine story revolving around how long Hiromu has wanted this match to happen and the teacher/student dynamic. The problem is that Naito is indeed broken down so their exchanges just didn’t click. The botched satellite DDT was the only thing that was a huge mishap, though nothing else really stood out and it just felt kind of sad watching this knowing what could’ve been a few years ago. Then, to top it off, Naito won after multiple Destinos in 17:08. That was certainly a booking choice. The match wasn’t awful but it also wasn’t good. [**]

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. Shota Umino

This is kind of make or break for Shota. He’s been far surpassed by Yota Tsuji in basically every single way while also disappointing in his biggest spots. There’s no bigger spot than this in Japan though. It is good to see ZSJ in a Tokyo Dome main event though. This was a LONG one so I’m not going to go into too much detail about what they did. What I will say is that one of the biggest issues I’ve had with New Japan for years reared its ugly head here again. Shota Umino is NOT ready for 45 minute main events and yet they just HAD to do it again here. They also couldn’t do what Omega and Okada mostly did or what Jay White and Ibushi did, which was make that time entertaining. Instead, this was two guys who seemed to have zero sense of urgency and were just out there doing cardio to kill time. It was painfully boring and just kept going and going. The Sabre Driver mercifully ended this after a whopping 43:44. This was genuinely a bad match, the wrong choice to book something like this, and just an absolute snooze. Tanahashi looked downright disgusted after the bell. [*]

6.5

The final score: review Average

The 411

It’s hard to give an average score to a show with three four star matches but here we are. There are a couple of other good matches but most of this was either forgettable or flat out bad. Gedo continues to be the biggest problem for New Japan and until someone fresh is booking things, we’ll likely keep running into these same issues over and over.