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Wrestle Kingdom 12

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Wrestle Kingdom 12

Postby Hanley! » Jan 07, '18, 5:58 pm

Did anyone watch this show yet? Even just a couple of the major matches? I'm curious what people thought about the show this year, after all the hype coming up to it.

Once again New Japan have kicked off the year with a bang, and what could wind up being the best wrestling show of 2018. Lots of good matches that are worth seeking out. Wrestle Kingdom 12 has done really good business for the company too apparently. They drew the largest Tokyo Dome crowd in 15 years and I think the New Japan World numbers went up something like 30%.
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Re: Wrestle Kingdom 12

Postby VaderBomb » Jan 08, '18, 10:09 am

I thought that the whole show was great and perfectly booked by Gedo. Okada vs Naito was match of the night, in my opinion. Hiromu impressed me a lot in the junior fatal four way. I have no doubt that he will have a lengthy reign with that title at some point soon. Ospreay's win was perfect. The Bucks did a great job, especially Matt selling the back injury. EVIL and SANADA winning the tag titles was cool. Suzuki cutting off his own hair was just so Suzuki, I loved it! Tanahashi carried his match and as always was a flawless storyteller. Alpha vs Omega was Jercho's best match in years.

Lots of great matches and title changes made for a very exciting show. Okada may be in the midst of one of the top five greatest world championship reigns of all time from any company.
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Re: Wrestle Kingdom 12

Postby Hanley! » Jan 08, '18, 1:53 pm

Man, I'd say this Okada reign just is the greatest reign of all time. I can't think of anything to rival it off the top of my head, at least when it comes to match quality. He had two great G1 tournaments with the title, the best trilogy in wrestling against Omega, and awesome pay per view matches against guys like Suzuki and Naito. It's pretty hard to top that. Dude is only 30 too, it's crazy. At this rate, not only is this going to be arguably the best wrestling title reign of all time, Okada's going to go down as the best wrestler of all time period.

I thought the main event was the best match of the show too. The drama throughout was on another level. Some of the counters were really creative, and Okada's selling was note perfect. It helped that the stakes were so high, considering the length of Okada's reign and how long Naito has been building towards this moment. I didn't want either guy to lose.

The Jericho match was good, but I didn't like it as much as everyone else. Jericho's heel work was really good throughout the match, but I think some of it maybe distracted from the story they were telling. It was supposed to be a blood feud, but Jericho spent so much time antagonising the crowd and the ref that his hatred for Omega didn't come across the way it should. And Kenny didn't get as much babyface sympathy as he should have, because Jericho was stealing too much focus from him. I still thought it was a great match and one of Jericho's best in recent years (though I do think he's had better). But I'm not seeing where all this 'Match of the Night, Early Match of the Year contender' hype is coming from.

The Junior Heavyweight title match was insane. All four of these wrestlers are spectacular. Marty Scurrl has come out of nowhere to become one of my favourite wrestlers in the last year. I've seen him live a few times with OTT Wrestling and he's always a highlight. Takehashi was the star of this match for me, but given the story they were telling Ospreay's win made sense.

Suzuki v Goto was a really fun, stiff fight. I'm not the biggest fan of the Goto character, whenever I've seen him he's come across as a little bland. But I love Suzuki and this was very much his match. Loved him shoving away Suzuki Gun and shaving his own head. One of the best moments of the show for me.

Cody had probably his best ever singles match against Ibushi. Really good midcard affair. I like Cody's new look, and Brandi brings a lot to his act at ringside. When he gestured for the Cross Rhodes from the apron I was sure it was going to look shit, but holy fuck did Ibushi sell the hell out of it.

The Bucks match was really good too. I like Roppongi 3K from what little I've seen of them, and Yoh was the star of this match for me. The selling of the back from Yoh and Matt Jackson (I think) was fun here. Not what most people expect from a Bucks match.

My only big criticism of the show is one of the many criticisms I have of Wrestlemania: it's too damn long. I ended up watching it in three sittings. They could have cut a couple of matches, and maybe shortened one or two others. It would have benefited the show as a whole. Still, having too much of a good thing isn't the worst complaint.
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Re: Wrestle Kingdom 12

Postby Str8Shooter » Jan 08, '18, 5:48 pm

I enjoyed the show, I mean you know with this show you're going to get a tremendous show almost by default at this point just by looking at it.

Okada's reign is ridiculous. The matches he has are off the charts. I know there's a sizable group online who feel like it's getting boring at this point and this would have been the perfect time for Naito to get the belt at what could be argued is his peak in terms of overness, but It's hard to argue with Okada as champ and the business he's doing.

Jericho vs Omega was really good, probably better than I expected with a 47 year old Jericho. Of course I have a soft spot for this as it's two guys from my hometown tearing it up on this stage. I might agree with Steve in that I don't think it was necessarily a MOTY contender. I've seen people calling it Jericho's best match of his career, which I think is recency bias as he's had a bunch of great matches. Jericho heeling it up was great, putting the Walls on Red Shoes son after shoving him was amazing.

I loved the Junior title 4 way, all these guys are athletic as hell and did some crazy stuff. It was exactly what a Junior title 4 Way should be, lots of fast paced action and spots. I liked Scurll's heel mannerisms with the powder and what not, he's just fun to watch, as are all four guys really.

Goto vs Suzuki was a stiff brawl which is exactly what I expected with these two. I think Goto was legit choked unconscious early on. It looked like it anyway. Suzuki just beat the shit out of him with strikes and Goto showed good fire fighting back and winning.

Cody vs Ibushi was really good. The thing I thought all match with the heel stuff from Cody and Brandi was that I think this exact gimmick with those two would be great at the top of the WWE card right now. Maybe he'll head back one day. The Cross Rhodes off the apron to the floor looked sick as hell.

The rest of the card was really good as well but these stood out to me. Looks like some interesting stuff going forward as well with potentially Naito vs Jericho, Tanahashi vs Suzuki, and Ospreay vs Hiromu.
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