NJPW “KING OF PRO WRESTLING” Results & Review

Results & review NJPW “KING OF PRO WRESTLING”, Monday 10/10/2016 @ Ryōgoku Kokugikan/Sumo Hall in Tokyo.

Pre-show) Special “Tiger Mask W” TV Anime Anniversary match: Tiger Mask W. vs. Red Death Mask.
⚫ This dark match was the culmination of episode 2 of the new Tiger Mask anime series, that airs weekly on AsahiTV in Japan and on the NJ network, with the animated version storyline transitioning into a real-life matchup as a final segment.
The match itself was OK, but the biggest news here was, that it was clearly one Kota Ibushi under the (not so comfortable) mask of Tiger. He hit a Golden Triangle Moonsault and a near-perfect Belly-to-Back Suplex on the red guy, that were all very Ibushi-like moves.
So, Tiger Mask W. won (7:25) following a Tiger Driver, but whether this was just a one-off deal remains to be seen, it certainly got a LOT of people talking. The next day it was announced that The Tiger Mask W character is now also booked for Wrestle Kingdom.

1) “CHAOS” Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Will Ospreay vs. “Bullet Club” ROH World Champion Adam Cole, Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi.
⚫ A decent six-man tag match to start off the show, saw Bullet Club dominating YOSHI-HASHI in the early goings. Ospreay came in a house on fire after the hot tag, but had to be helped by Ishii, once he was ran over by BC as well. Ishii ran roughshod on BC, took some beatings from Fale along the way, but pinned Takahashi (8:40) following a Vertical Drop style Brainbuster to end the match quickly.

2) Ryusuke Taguchi, ROH World TV Champion Bobby Fish & “Great Bash Heel” Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. “CHAOS” GHC World Hvwt. Tag Team Champion Toru Yano, GHC Jr. Hvwt. Tag Team Champion Jado & “Roppongi Vice” Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta.
⚫ This was a fun match, with everybody getting in their chance to shine here, even though it was a bit too short.
Honma took home the win for his team (8:10) after he had hit the Kokeshi on Romero, which only intensified the issues between the two members of RPG Vice.
Throughout the match the dissension arised, with Romero continuing to get on Trent’s nerves.
After the match Makabe assaulted Yano, as they rumbled all the way to the back. The trouble had already started before the match, when Yano sprayed water in Makabe’s face and the Unchained Gorilla attacked him during the bout.

3) NJPW vs. NOAH Special 8-man Tag Team match: Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & “TenCozy” Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Go Shiozaki, Shuhei “Maybach” Taniguchi & “The Aggression” Katsuhiko Nakajima & Masa Kitamiya.
⚫ This Third Generation against the Invaders clash was a very good and enjoyable match, if you like some old-fashioned group brawling. There was a lot of action, that spilled to the outside almost every time, with the elder guys regaining the upper hand. It was great and the crowd loved it.
Besides the ongoing hatred between Nagata and Nakajima, the focal point here was Go Shiozaki, who squared off with almost everybody, as if he were to impress the New Japan higher-ups, as well as their hardcore fan base.
Team NOAH won the war today, when Shiozaki pinned Nakanishi (11:49) following the Go-Arm Lariat.
This feud is far from over, as the two groups continued to fight after the match, with Nagata and Nakajima facing off again, resulting in a slap battle to hype a possible match.

4) IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match: “Young Bucks” Matt & Nick Jackson (c) vs. Ricochet & David Finlay Jr.
⚫ This was just fantastic. As expected with Ricochet and the Jacksons involved, this was a very athletic match. Finlay actually fitted in there very well, as he showed once again he’s way past his young lion status.
Matt & Nick took out Ricochet several times to concentrate on Finlay. However, Rico returned in time on separate occasions to cut them off from a Meltzer Driver attempt. Finlay & Ricochet tried their own version of More Bang on Nick, but he pulled his knees up and Rico was out of it again. The Bucks delivered Superkicks to Finlay, as the end drew near.
The Bucks retained the championship belts, thus making it their second successful title defense, when Matt pinned Finlay Jr.(12:47) following the More Bang 4 Your Buck. Must-see match!

5) IWGP World Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match: “The Briscoes” Jay & Mark Briscoe (c) vs. “Guerrillas of Destiny” Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa.
⚫ It is a bad sign, when people start walking out before or during a match. That’s what happened here, and the Briscoes weren’t even the ones to blame. The Japanese fans just don’t seem to like the GoD, let alone get invested in them.
Anyway, the match itself was pretty good IMO, with both teams working hard.
The end came, when Tanga Loa reversed a Doomsday Device attempt by the Briscoes, which gave them the opportunity pull off a double-team Gun Stun and to put the Guerrilla Warfare on Mark Briscoe. Tama Tonga then pinned him for the win (13:57) and the GoD became the new Tag Team Champions.
After the match the Young Bucks came to the ring to celebrate with the new champs, laying out the Briscoes in the process. This brought out Ishii to save his CHAOS-partners from further damage at the hands of the Bullet Club, but the numbers game proved to be too much, as Ishii eventually became the victim of another Guerrilla Warfare by GoD.

6) Special 8-man Tag Team match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Michael Elgin, KUSHIDA & Jay Lethal vs. “Los Ingobernables de Japón” IWGP Intercontinental Champion Tetsuya Naito, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion BUSHI, SANADA & EVIL.
⚫ This was your classic eight-man tag, with all participants getting their stuff in, big brawls and gang-ups on the isolated opponent. BUSHI and KUSHIDA had some pretty dope exchanges during the match, but at one point Naito cut them off and KUSHIDA seemed to have seriously hurt his shoulder. Powerhouse Elgin entered and took out all of L.I.J with his wide arsenal of power moves. ROH’s Jay Lethal joined the fray and hit a Lethal Injection on Naito. That was followed by a Buckle Bomb and Elgin Bomb by Elgin, ultimately to pick up the big win over Naito (10:42), as he’s now headed towards a rematch for the IWGP IC Title.
After the match, the former Jr. Champion KUSHIDA had to be taken out on a stretcher, as he was hit with swinging chairs around the neck by EVIL on the outside and with a chair-assisted MX by BUSHI inside the ring thereafter.
Off note: A few days after this event, it became known, that Michael Elgin had suffered a broken orbital bone on his left eye during this match, and that he would have to take several weeks off to recover from the injury. His scheduled rematch against IC Champion Tetsuya Naito at the upcoming “Power Struggle” PPV is cancelled and now Jay Lethal will get a shot at the title, as he takes Elgin’s place instead.

7) NEVER Openweight Championship match: Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Kyle O’Reilly.
⚫ Brutal. That’s just the one word to describe this whole match. Beforehand, we knew this wasn’t going to be pretty (like most of Shibata’s matches for the past 2 years or so), also because O’Reilly held a win over Shibata in ROH, which didn’t sit well with the champion.
They started off with some ground and pound grappling, but soon thereafter the pace quickened and business really picked up. They went hard, really hard, with multiple kicks, hits, slaps and a series of Suplexes, with both men getting near-falls on eachother. This was just incredible, as neither man wanted to give in. I highly recommend everybody to go see this match to believe it, because it was just insane. At one point O’Reilly laid in several sickening kicks to the chest of a sitting Shibata and the defending champion just brushed it off, as if a flee was bothering him. Crazy. Soon after that, Shibata countered a PK and nailed O’Reilly with a vicious chop and put on a Sleeper Hold. O’Reilly tried to fight it off but Shibata kept on to the hold. He then hit a PK of his own and locked in a Body Scissors, while applying a Choke Hold, intended to never let go again.
Shibata then won the match (18:09) to retain his title, when the referee called for the bell, as O’Reilly had passed out to that Rear Naked Choke hold.
When O’Reilly finally recovered, Shibata helped him in getting up and in a show of mutual respect, both men bowed and shook hands. Bobby Fish, who was supporting his reDRagon tag team partner from ringside during the bout, exchanged the same honors and all three men embraced.
Afterwards, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Go Shiozaki came out to issue a challenge to the NEVER Champion. But as he would later state during a backstage interview, his intentions are not about the gold, instead it is about him and Shibata having a fight to see who’s the better man. Well, they had a staredown, but Shibata simply waved him off.
Then, all of a sudden, EVIL emerged and attacked Shibata from behind. EVIL grabbed the NEVER belt and made it clear, that he’d asserted himself as the next challenger to the title.

8) Tokyo Dome Contract match: Kenny Omega (rights holder) vs. Hirooki Goto.
⚫ As if it wasn’t already hard enough to top that previous bout, Goto and Omega definitely came very close. It asked for a different approach though, as it was both men’s last chance at a shot for the IWGP Championship at Wrestle Kingdom next year. These guys have great chemistry together and it showed once again. Actually, I liked this match more than their previous encounter at the finals of this year’s G1 Climax.
In the early going, it was all Goto, who started off by hitting Omega in the head with the contracted briefcase and took out the Young Bucks, who were at ringside, just to make sure they wouldn’t interfere. Soon, it would be Omega controlling the match and dictating the pace. Goto tried everything in his arsenal to overcome the cunning Omega, who seemed to have an answer to every offensive move his opponent threw at him.
Meanwhile, the Bucks had set up a table near ringside, but they ensued in a brawl with YOSHI-HASHI, who was in Goto’s corner, and fought all the way to the back.
Omega took a dive to the outside onto Goto, but once he was recovered and back in the ring, Goto sent Omega crashing through the table, when he reversed a Power Bomb followed by a Springboard attempt by Kenny.
Back in the ring, Goto pulled out all his finishers on Omega, but the Cleaner wouldn’t give in and kicked out of several pin-fall attempts. Omega came back strong and a few Running Knee strikes later, signaled the end was coming near.
Omega then finally hit the One Winged Angel (21:52) to win the match, therefore solidifying his main event spot at the annual Tokyo Dome show, Wrestle Kingdom 11, on 01/04/2017, where he will invoke his right to challenge for the belt against the reigning IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

9) IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji.
⚫ This match was everything that it was expected to be. With their first encounter at the first day of the G1 still fresh in mind, you just knew this wasn’t going to disappoint. And boy, did they deliver. Marufuji represented Pro Wrestling NOAH, an organization that is known for its no-nonsense hard hitting style of wrestling, and he was intended on taking that style to Okada here once again, as it had helped him being victorious over the champ before.
These two threw everything they had at each other and then some. Marufuji looked unstoppable, but Okada absorbed it all. The knee strikes, chops, and kicks that Marufuji hit during this match were simply brutal. Okada took one hell of a beating, but like the great main-eventer that he is, he knew how to tell the story of this match and eventually come out on top.
Throughout the match, we saw some sick bumps (Pilediver onto the apron by Marufuji), wild back and forth action (Okada Cross-bodying over the guardrail on the outside), and a bit of a slowdown period in between, where Maru worked on Okada’s right arm to enable him from ever going for that vicious Rainmaker Clothesline of his.
The final sequence of this match was pure glorious. Marufuji and Okada threw all their finishers at eachother, only to be countered by the opposing party each and every time. In the closing moments of the bout, Marufuji went for another Shiranui, but Okada reversed it into a Rainmaker Clothesline. Maru then reversed Okada’s pin-fall attempt into a Small Package of his own, only for a 2-count. By this time, I had already lost count on how many times Marufuji had come close to dismantling the champion. Marufuji then continued by laying in even more kicks and knees, but out of the blue, an exhausted Okada picked him up and hit a Tombstone. That did it.
Okada pinned Marufuji (28:00), after hitting an Emerald Flowsion, followed by a Rainmaker for good measure, and the champion retained his title.
Wow! This was an unbelievable match, shooting straight into my top five of New Japan MOTY candidates.
If that wasn’t enough, after the post-match festivities Okada was confronted by the nr.1 contender for the IWGP Championship Kenny Omega, as they will now battle for the title in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 11.