Will Ospreay def. Kota Ibushi, 18:13
Shingo Takagi and BUSHI def. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Roppongi 3K, 6:50
Zack Sabre Jr. def. Tomohiro Ishii, 11:35
EVIL and SANADA def. The Young Bucks and Guerrillas of Destiny, 10:15
Juice Robinson def. Cody, 9:02
Taiji Ishimori def. KUSHIDA, 11:17
Jay White def. Kazuchika Okada, 14:18
Tetsuya Naito def. Chris Jericho, 22:35
Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Kenny Omega, 39:13
Twelve months ago I sat in the Tokyo Dome, willing Tetsuya Naito to overcome The Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada in the main event. The entire Dome was deflated by the final result, when Okada hit a Rainmaker for a three count and stood tall to close the show. A lot happened in New Japan over the past year, including Okada losing his title to Kenny Omega, Hiroshi Tanahashi winning the G1 Climax, and the rise of Jay White to top heel status. Watching this Wrestle Kingdom on New Japan World bright and early in the UK I went in feeling quite underwhelmed by the build-up, but left feeling pleasantly surprised by the results. Another good note was that this year over 38,000 tickets were sold for Wrestle Kingdom, up from 34,995 last year.
The biggest result of the night was, of course, Tanahashi winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title for the eighth time. This match was the longest on the card – indeed the only match to go over thirty minutes – and some parts of the match dragged a bit, but the crowd was clearly into it and they went absolutely crazy when Tanahashi hit a final High Fly Flow for the win. Tanahashi tapped into his darker side here, complete with new purple tights, although the lines between heel and face were blurred for both wrestlers. Omega has been a polarising champion, but he played his part in this match quite well (although his video game entrance package was extremely cringeworthy). There was a moment when I actually believed that Omega was going to win, after he kicked out of a back-to-back standing High Fly Flow and regular High Fly Flow. However, the Ace dug deep into his reserves of resilience, and managed to avoid a One Winged Angel, before hitting Omega with a slingblade, and finally one last High Fly Flow to put him down. The build-up to this match had focused on the differing wrestling philosophies represented by Omega and Tanahashi, new versus old, although this match felt mostly like a standard New Japan main event. Still, it ended up being a good match and the end result was uplifting as Tanahashi broke out the air guitar and told the Dome crowd “I love you!”
This show saw some major changes, as all the titles that were available changed hands. In the semi-main event Naito beat Chris Jericho to reclaim the Intercontintenal Title that he lost at Dominion. I haven’t been the biggest fan of Jericho in New Japan, but to be fair to him he has come in and done the job at two consecutive Wrestle Kingdoms, and his inclusion probably has drawn more casual fans from America and Europe. The pre-match promos for this match were quite good too, as Jericho claimed to be a bigger star than Naito, who didn’t really rise to the bait. A no-DQ stipulation was added to this match, which presumably helped Jericho to cover for the fact that he can’t really go full pace in a New Japan ring. This match had a lot of call backs to their previous match in Osaka, but I thought it was a better performance from both men. Naito bumped like crazy to help get the match over, including a particularly nasty DDT on a table outside the ring. Jericho came close to winning with a Codebreaker and the Walls of Jericho, but eventually it was Naito who picked up the win by using the hated Intercontinental Title belt to hit Jericho in the face and then hit a Destino. This result meant that all the members of Los Ingobernables de Japon ended the night holding belts, after BUSHI and Shingo Takagi won the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles and EVIL and SANADA won the Heavyweight Tag Titles. Both matches were surprisingly short – the Junior Tag Team Title match was only just over six minutes long, and featured Shingo in a starring role. Special mention has to be made of EVIL’s new braided hair style, which looked quite Predator-esque.
Short matches were a theme that ran through the night, as only two matches on the main card went over twenty minutes. This led to several matches that felt like they ended abruptly – the NEVER Openweight Title match that opened the show between Kota Ibushi and Will Ospreay being one, as well as the Junior Heavyweight Title match between KUSHIDA and Taiji Ishimori. It’s possible that the NEVER match was cut short because of injury, and it was revealed after the show that Ibushi suffered a concussion during the match. Ospreay hit Ibushi with a savage looking elbow that nearly decapitated him, then finished the match with a Storm Breaker. Ospreay winning the NEVER Title presumably solidified him as a heavyweight, but hopefully it will also lead to more inter-weight matchups. KUSHIDA versus Ishimori was notable for a mini-KUSHIDA appearing before the match, only to be transformed by Ryusuke Taguchi as Doc Brown into the normal KUSHIDA. Ishimori won in just over ten minutes, after he hit KUSHIDA with a Bloody Cross, which gave Bullet Club at least one title from the night.
Titles also changed hands in the matches between Tomohiro Ishii and Zack Sabre Jr., and Cody and Juice Robinson. Both matches again were short affairs, but they delivered in terms of match quality. In the pre-match promos ZSJ had promised to make Ishii tap out in sixty seconds, and he nearly did it in the match, finally taking the win with the amazingly named Hurrah! Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than The Last: The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness. Sabre and Ishii have great chemistry together, and delivered here, although I would have liked to see them get more time. Juice had a rough 2018, winning his first US Title from Jay White only to lose most of his G1 matches and then drop the belt to Cody in his first defence. Juice gained a measure of revenge here, beating Cody with a Pulp Friction to regain the US Title and start his second reign. Again the match felt rushed, but it ended on a happy note with a deserved win for Juice. Hopefully this reign will be more successful for The Flamboyant one.
The final big result of the night was Switchblade Jay White beating The Rainmaker Okada to firmly establish himself as the top heel of New Japan. White joined CHAOS early in the year, but made it clear that he was gunning for Okada. After Okada lost the title to Omega at Dominion, White beat him in the G1 and with the help of Bullet Club, and Okada’s former manager Gedo, waged a campaign against the former champion. White even got the upper hand on the team of Okada and Tanahashi during the World Tag League, which led to this singles match (the only match of the night on the main card that didn’t involve at title). The outfits in this match were a highlight, with Jay in an all-white number, and Okada drawing a big pop from the crowd when he revealed that he had ditched his long trousers and returned to shorts. This was a good match, particularly when you consider that when Jay White faced Tanahashi one year ago at Wrestle Kingdom no one cared about him or thought he had any chance of winning. New Japan have managed to create a heel that the crowd desperately wanted to see get his ass kicked, but one who can credibly beat people like Okada. The crowd got really behind the returning Rainmaker, but when White hit a Blade Runner for a three count they booed him out of the ring. This was the culmination of a great job at making a top heel in the space of twelve months.
The most interesting questions to come out of Wrestle Kingdom 13 are regarding the direction of the various belts going forward in 2019. This show had quite a transitional feel to it, since all the titles changed hands, and many of the people who lost the belts are either rumoured to be leaving or confirmed to be. We know that Cody, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page are joining All Elite Wrestling, and it’s quite possible that Omega will be too (or even going to WWE). Omega’s contract runs until the end of January, but with Tanahashi’s victory it’s clear that the company are prepared for the possibility of Omega leaving. We also don’t know what the status of AEW will be when it comes to working with New Japan – it’s possible that Cody and The Bucks will be back again, but equally this may be their last Wrestle Kingdom. KUSHIDA had been rumoured to be signing with WWE, and he also dropped a belt, which could be the last we see of him if he does sign. Los Ingobernables de Japon had a perfect night, winning all the titles they were able to. Despite my complaints about the booking of LIJ, and Naito in particular, it’s clear that they will be an important part of the company in 2019. I don’t anticipate Tanahashi being IWGP Champion for too long this time around, if I was Gedo I would have Naito win the belt from Tanahashi at Dominion and go into Wrestle Kingdom 14 as champion, where he can finally get his win over Okada in the main event. We’re entering an interesting period of New Japan booking now, since a lot of the feuds last year centred around people who may not be with the company in 2019. The NEVER Six Man Tag Team Titles will be decided at New Year’s Dash on January 5th, the dark match gauntlet for the number one contendership was won by Taguchi, Togi Makabe, and Toru Yano, who face GOD and Ishimori for the titles. We should get some clarity regarding the direction of some of the titles at Dash, and I wouldn’t rule out a return for Hiromu Takahashi either.
Overall, Wrestle Kingdom 13 felt like one of the weaker Wrestle Kingdoms in recent memory from an in-ring standpoint. This was a Wrestle Kingdom to reset the key pieces of New Japan – whether that was intentional or whether that was in response to developments like AEW is hard to know. Compared to Wrestle Kingdom 12 the undercard matches were quite weak, and this wasn’t helped by some of the pacing of the show. However, this year’s show had a strong finish, and the last three matches were all good and culminated in the feel good moment of Tanahashi standing tall in the Dome one more time. The finale delivered an emotional climax that is likely to be remembered longer than the actual matches on this show.
