Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day Two 05/01/2020
Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match II: Naoki Sano & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Ryu Lee & Hiromu Takahashi
This was a fairly simple match. They went out, hit there spots, entertained the crowd, got a few good near falls, end of story. ***
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title Match: BULLET CLUB (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) (c) vs. Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH)
A solid tag team match. The heel work from Bullet Club was good. With R3K being the pure tag team, there was a great dynamic throughout the match. R3K were smart with the cup spot, knowing Bullet Club’s antics. Maybe it went on a bit too long. ***
RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Title Match: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. SANADA
This was a very counter focused match. Except it was lacking any struggle or nuance in the country. It lacked substance and just felt like counters for counters sake. It was still a pretty fun match and arguably they just wanted to do a greatest hits match so job done I guess. ***
IWGP United States Heavyweight Title Match: Jon Moxley (c) vs. Juice Robinson
This was a fun-ish brawl to follow up their on their other matches with Moxley being the aggressor while Juice fought from beneath. Juice punching the chair was a bit stupid and I could’ve done with it not being in the match or them follwing up on it. The finish was fine as well. Felt very definitive. The post match angle was awesome. I;m maybe the only person that wasn’t begging for a match between those two but after that fight, I’m all for it. ***
NEVER Openweight Title Match: KENTA (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
This was pretty good. KENTA vs Shibata would’ve been better but Goto is a fine alternative. One of the main flaws in the match is that, despite the 15 minute run time, it felt a bit too long. Mainly KENTA on top seemed to be a bit long in the tooth and it felt meandering for a minute or so. Once they switched gears and began wailing on each other it got back on track pretty quickly. My other big problem is that Goto won pretty easily once on offence. KENTA beat him up almost the entire match, Goto goes on offence hits his moves and wins. It didn’t feel earned. A good, fun match though. ***1/2
Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi
This was great. Ibushi has been the clear MVP of these WKs with two tremendous individual performances. He and White are perfect opponents because Ibushi is willing to bump big and struggle through everything to make White’s work feel that much better. White squeezing on Ibushi’s neck was great, as was his selling during that strike exchange. I love how vulnerable he was as it adds something different to the otherwise stale macho strike exchange spot. Tons of people will sour on the match because of the interference, and I won’t blame them, but it worked well for me because of the nearfall you got out of it and Ibushi nailing Gedo with a slap after that chair shot. ****
Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
One match I wasn’t looking forward to seeing was this match. But they made it work through their charisma and knowing their limits. Jericho limited his walk and brawl style to one part of the match which was just a transition of him going on offence. Some of the counters were sweet like the judas effect into the dragon suplex. They built up the drama of the Walls of Jericho superbly well. Good match. ***3/4
IWGP Heavyweight Title / IWGP Intercontinental Title Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito (c)
You know a match is good when you root against one wrestler at the start of the match and slowly turn for him as the match progressed. That’s pretty much what happened here. I was ready for Okada to win and enjoy Naito losing but Naito brought a BIG effort with his crazy moves and counters. Okada playing up his heel side only increased that. Some of the limb work was disregarded but in the grand scheme of things, the match played out very well. The finishing stretch was full of twists and turns (literally in Naito’s case). Okada’s timings of the cut offs were great, allowing more and more anticipation for the eventual pay off which...actually came. Great match. ****1/4
New Year's Dash 06/01/2020
Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Ceremony
Crying right now
Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi vs. Bullet Club (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens)
A good tag team match. Tanahashi and Ibushi showed some wicked tag team titles. Ibushi had a lot of things to think about after losing twice in a row. And him teaming with Tanahashi would do wonders for him and the tag team division. ***1/4
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & Shingo Takagi)
This delivered on a BIG level. This was hot and heavy from the very start and went at a great, non stop pace. There was tons of variety of strikes and offence in this match which can sometimes be a flaw of these types of matches, so it was always exciting to watch. The final stretch with Shingo and Goto was awesome. ****
CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Robbie Eagles & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Taichi)
A great multi man tag team match setting up tons of potential feuds such as Ospreay vs ZSJ, Suzuki vs Eagles, Okada vs Taichi. All mixed very well. Loved the rare DQ finish as well, giving more heat to Taichi vs Okada and a nice lead into Moxley coming down and attacking Suzuki. ***1/2
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA) vs. Bullet Club (KENTA & Jay White)
A good main event. Bullet Club were good heels on top working over LIJ. Naito got to shine as the new champion. SANADA got the win. The post match angle was probably better though. ***
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