{"id":10872,"date":"2019-01-04T19:32:29","date_gmt":"2019-01-05T00:32:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/?p=10872"},"modified":"2019-01-04T19:53:05","modified_gmt":"2019-01-05T00:53:05","slug":"njpw-wrestle-kingdom-13-review-4-1-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/2019\/01\/04\/njpw-wrestle-kingdom-13-review-4-1-19\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 Review 4\/1\/19"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Will Ospreay def. Kota Ibushi, 18:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Shingo Takagi and BUSHI def. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru\nand Roppongi 3K, 6:50<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Zack Sabre Jr. def. Tomohiro Ishii, 11:35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">EVIL and SANADA def. The Young Bucks and Guerrillas of Destiny,\n10:15<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Juice Robinson def. Cody, 9:02<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Taiji Ishimori def. KUSHIDA, 11:17<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Jay White def. Kazuchika Okada, 14:18<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Tetsuya Naito def. Chris Jericho, 22:35<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Kenny Omega, 39:13<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Twelve months ago I sat in the Tokyo Dome, willing Tetsuya Naito to overcome The Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada in the main event.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The biggest result of the night was, of course, Tanahashi winning the IWGP Heavyweight Title for the eighth time.&nbsp; This match was the longest on the card \u2013 indeed the only match to go over thirty minutes \u2013 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.&nbsp; Tanahashi tapped into his darker side here, complete with new purple tights, although the lines between heel and face were blurred for both wrestlers.&nbsp; 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).&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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 \u201cI love you!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">GO ACE! <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/ro0dmlTbpv\">pic.twitter.com\/ro0dmlTbpv<\/a><\/p>&mdash; Super J-Cast (@thesuperjcast) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/thesuperjcast\/status\/1081157885403361280?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 4, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">This show saw some major changes, as all the titles that\nwere available changed hands.&nbsp; In the semi-main\nevent Naito beat Chris Jericho to reclaim the Intercontintenal Title that he lost\nat Dominion.&nbsp; I haven\u2019t been the biggest\nfan of Jericho in New Japan, but to be fair to him he has come in and done the\njob at two consecutive Wrestle Kingdoms, and his inclusion probably has drawn\nmore casual fans from America and Europe.&nbsp;\nThe pre-match promos for this match were quite good too, as Jericho\nclaimed to be a bigger star than Naito, who didn\u2019t really rise to the\nbait.&nbsp; A no-DQ stipulation was added to\nthis match, which presumably helped Jericho to cover for the fact that he can\u2019t\nreally go full pace in a New Japan ring.&nbsp;\n&nbsp;This match had a lot of call\nbacks to their previous match in Osaka, but I thought it was a better performance\nfrom both men.&nbsp; Naito bumped like crazy\nto help get the match over, including a particularly nasty DDT on a table\noutside the ring.&nbsp; Jericho came close to\nwinning with a Codebreaker and the Walls of Jericho, but eventually it was\nNaito who picked up the win by using the hated Intercontinental Title belt to\nhit Jericho in the face and then hit a Destino.&nbsp;\nThis result meant that all the members of Los Ingobernables de Japon\nended the night holding belts, after BUSHI and Shingo Takagi won the Junior\nHeavyweight Tag Team Titles and EVIL and SANADA won the Heavyweight Tag Titles.&nbsp; Both matches were surprisingly short \u2013 the Junior\nTag Team Title match was only just over six minutes long, and featured Shingo\nin a starring role.&nbsp; Special mention has\nto be made of EVIL\u2019s new braided hair style, which looked quite Predator-esque.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Short matches were a theme that ran through the night, as only two matches on the main card went over twenty minutes.&nbsp; This led to several matches that felt like they ended abruptly \u2013 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.&nbsp; It\u2019s 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.&nbsp; Ospreay hit Ibushi with a savage looking elbow that nearly decapitated him, then finished the match with a Storm Breaker.&nbsp; Ospreay winning the NEVER Title presumably solidified him as a heavyweight, but hopefully it will also lead to more inter-weight matchups.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Titles also changed hands in the matches between Tomohiro Ishii and Zack Sabre Jr., and Cody and Juice Robinson.&nbsp; Both matches again were short affairs, but they delivered in terms of match quality.&nbsp; 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! &nbsp;Another Year, Surely This One Will Be Better Than The Last: The Inexorable March of Progress Will Lead Us All to Happiness.&nbsp; Sabre and Ishii have great chemistry together, and delivered here, although I would have liked to see them get more time.&nbsp; 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.&nbsp; Juice gained a measure of revenge here, beating Cody with a Pulp Friction to regain the US Title and start his second reign.&nbsp; 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed-twitter wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter\"><div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\"><p lang=\"ja\" dir=\"ltr\">\u30101.4\u6771\u4eac\u30c9\u30fc\u30e0\u5927\u4f1a\u30fb\u7b2c7\u8a66\u5408\u3011<br>\u30b9\u30da\u30b7\u30e3\u30eb\u30b7\u30f3\u30b0\u30eb\u30de\u30c3\u30c1\uff01<br>\u30aa\u30ab\u30c0\u30fb\u30ab\u30ba\u30c1\u30abvs\u30b8\u30a7\u30a4\u30fb\u30db\u30ef\u30a4\u30c8\uff01<br>\u4e21\u8005\u3001\u65b0\u30b3\u30b9\u30c1\u30e5\u30fc\u30e0\u3067\u767b\u5834\uff01<br>\u30aa\u30ab\u30c0\u306e\u30b3\u30b9\u30c1\u30e5\u30fc\u30e0\u304c\u30b7\u30e7\u30fc\u30c8\u30bf\u30a4\u30c4\u306b\u2026\u2026!?<br>\u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30fb\u30b9\u30de\u30db\u30b5\u30a4\u30c8\u3067\u72ec\u5360\u8a73\u5831\u4e2d\uff01<a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/YWh0dANZix\">https:\/\/t.co\/YWh0dANZix<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njpw?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njpw<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/njwk13?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#njwk13<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/grYJ7Q8UIL\">pic.twitter.com\/grYJ7Q8UIL<\/a><\/p>&mdash; \u65b0\u65e5\u672c\u30d7\u30ed\u30ec\u30b9\u30ea\u30f3\u30b0\u682a\u5f0f\u4f1a\u793e (@njpw1972) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/njpw1972\/status\/1081139630282485760?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">January 4, 2019<\/a><\/blockquote><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script>\n<\/div><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The final big result of the night was Switchblade Jay White beating\nThe Rainmaker Okada to firmly establish himself as the top heel of New\nJapan.&nbsp; White joined CHAOS early in the\nyear, but made it clear that he was gunning for Okada.&nbsp; After Okada lost the title to Omega at Dominion,\nWhite beat him in the G1 and with the help of Bullet Club, and Okada\u2019s former\nmanager Gedo, waged a campaign against the former champion.&nbsp; White even got the upper hand on the team of\nOkada and Tanahashi during the World Tag League, which led to this singles\nmatch (the only match of the night on the main card that didn\u2019t involve at\ntitle).&nbsp; The outfits in this match were a\nhighlight, with Jay in an all-white number, and Okada drawing a big pop from\nthe crowd when he revealed that he had ditched his long trousers and returned\nto shorts.&nbsp; This was a good match,\nparticularly when you consider that when Jay White faced Tanahashi one year ago\nat Wrestle Kingdom no one cared about him or thought he had any chance of winning.&nbsp; New Japan have managed to create a heel that\nthe crowd desperately wanted to see get his ass kicked, but one who can\ncredibly beat people like Okada.&nbsp; The crowd\ngot really behind the returning Rainmaker, but when White hit a Blade Runner\nfor a three count they booed him out of the ring.&nbsp; This was the culmination of a great job at\nmaking a top heel in the space of twelve months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The most interesting questions to come out of Wrestle Kingdom 13 are regarding the direction of the various belts going forward in 2019.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 We know that Cody, The Young Bucks, and Hangman Page are joining All Elite Wrestling, and it\u2019s quite possible that Omega will be too (or even going to WWE).\u00a0 Omega\u2019s contract runs until the end of January, but with Tanahashi\u2019s victory it\u2019s clear that the company are prepared for the possibility of Omega leaving.\u00a0 We also don\u2019t know what the status of AEW will be when it comes to working with New Japan \u2013 it\u2019s possible that Cody and The Bucks will be back again, but equally this may be their last Wrestle Kingdom.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Los Ingobernables de Japon had a perfect night, winning all the titles they were able to.\u00a0 Despite my complaints about the booking of LIJ, and Naito in particular, it\u2019s clear that they will be an important part of the company in 2019.\u00a0 I don\u2019t 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.\u00a0 We\u2019re 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.\u00a0 The NEVER Six Man Tag Team Titles will be decided at New Year\u2019s Dash on January 5<sup>th<\/sup>, 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.\u00a0 We should get some clarity regarding the direction of some of the titles at Dash, and I wouldn\u2019t rule out a return for Hiromu Takahashi either.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">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 &#8211; 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\u2019t helped by some of the pacing of the show.&nbsp; However, this year\u2019s 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.&nbsp; The finale delivered an emotional climax that is likely to be remembered longer than the actual matches on this show.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>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 [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":10794,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0,"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[2,204,37,22],"tags":[716],"class_list":["post-10872","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-featured","category-njpw","category-njpw-reviews","category-reviews","tag-wrestle-kingdom"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9jnWd-2Pm","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/12\/serveimage-2.jpeg?fit=1400%2C1047&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10872"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10884,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10872\/revisions\/10884"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10794"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10872"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10872"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prowrestlingjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10872"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}