Jan 3, 2018 18:26:31 GMT Strobe said:

I'm out of the loop, like usual these days, but given the violent beatdown angle that was done, do we expect Jericho/Omega to be a nasty, gritty brawl as it should be? Or will it be Jericho trying to keep up with the youngsters and failing, like with AJ in 2016?

Luckily it is going to be a No DQ Match. 

It will naturally open like most blood feuds... Collar elbow tieup.

Kenny Omega has made a point in his promos/interviews that Jericho's attack made it personal, it will be a fight, he needs to change his style completely to win, it won't be a "best bout" style match. So yes, nasty, gritty brawl. As it should be. Jericho trying to work like his peers would expose him even more in NJPW than it did in WWE, and it would be a bad match.

Old Man Jericho is basically Terry Funk now.

I'm expecting at least a moonsaulty looking thing.

How do I switch to English commentary when it starts? Is there two options or?

I missed the rumble but I am here and ready to watch Naito become the ace!!!!!

Cody vs. Kota was great! It may have been Cody’s best match ever!

Oh man the show started an hour earlier than I thought because I'm awful at timezones and I also overslept. Had this really weird and awful dream where I was watching Wrestle Kingdom and it was full of weird matches with guys I'd never heard of and people on PW were complaining about how all these amazing Indy wrestlers were being misused and then there was this segment with 100 year old Hulk Hogan winning the IWGP title. Crazy.

I guess I'll start watching the tag title match live instead of playing catchup.

Goto is going to be hating life tomorrow morning.

Yeah I only tuned in from the end of Cody/Ibushi. Been a really fun show since then though. Goto/Suzuki was intense.

The phrase 'cheeky nandos kick' is what stops me from fully embracing Will Ospreay. Just so much cringe.

So far every title has changed hands. Obviously the US/IC are safe, but now I'm worried.

#AnyonebutOkada

Bucks vs Roppongi 3K, Cody vs Ibushi, and Goto vs Suzuki were all fun matches, but far from great.

EVIL/SANADA vs Killer Elite Squad is the best match so far, but even that had its flaws.

I'm about 30 minutes behind, about to start the junior four way.

Been watching since 6pm, (its 10:42pm here) had quite a few non-wrestling fans over to watch. Enjoyed, but run time was too much for them. Friend that missed the first half is loving it though 😂.

Loved the Zack Sabre Jr match.

Well Jericho/Omega absolutely delivered. One of the best matches of Jericho's career for sure.

Jericho/Omega lived up to the hype and then some. Jericho out of the WWE is a breath of fresh air. He showed more than he has in years.

Hats off to Jericho vs Omega. They completely obliterated my expectations. Amazing match. Best match Jericho has had in a very long time.

Naito is crazy over.

Naito should have won. With that said I love Okada, so I am okay with him retaining.

Makes sense. He has to defend it 3 more times to get the new record in a single reign. Fuck you Okada I hope you get soap in your eyes.

Awesome match. Great way to end the show. Better than Jericho/Omega? Not sure. They're both in the ****1/2 - ***** range.

Great work from Jericho and Omega. I think it would've been better had Jericho fallen through the table originally rather than hold on. The second go round he was still hanging on, so it almost seemed like he was hesitant to take the bump. No harm there as it was a Japanese table...

Jan 4, 2018 16:30:20 GMT @ness said:

Great work from Jericho and Omega. I think it would've been better had Jericho fallen through the table originally rather than hold on. The second go round he was still hanging on, so it almost seemed like he was hesitant to take the bump. No harm there as it was a Japanese table...

Yeah that spot was weird. Maybe Jericho didn't feel comfortable with his positioning the first go around. Or maybe he was just building suspense. Japanese tables break very easily, which may mean they absorb less of the impact.

I stayed up for this show as it was my first live Wrestle Kingdom and I loved it. The only match that fell a little flat to me was the IC match but I didn't hate it. Jericho/Omega definitely delivered and Naito/Okada was great as well, I was rooting for Naito but I like Okada too so I'm not mad he retained. Juniors match was fun as was Cody/Kota, which told a good story with Cody bringing up Kenny to Kota.

Bucks/Roppongi 3K was tons of fun too, Sho and Yoh killed it with The Bucks. Goto/Suzuki was stiff as heck but I liked it more than I thought I would. 

Overall a really great, fun show. I can't wait to see the outcome on New Year's Dash.

Spoiler-free match thoughts:

Roppongi 3K vs Young Bucks - They tried to do too much. They went for a spotfest spectacle, while telling a long term story of Yo's injured back (almost identical to Bucks vs Roppongi Vice from last year), while doing comedy. An entertaining match, but a shallow one that didn't have a cohesive feel. But I understand their desire to kick the show off with a bang, and they succeeded. The rematch ought to be more focused.

Cody vs Ibushi - Decent enough midcard bout. Good heel work from Cody, and he was able to keep up with Ibushi in the athletics department.

KES vs LIJ - Great start, but I think the story they chose to tell was fundamentally flawed, and at least oculd have been executed better.

Goto vs Suzuki - A lot of people love the stiff, smash-mouth matches. For me this only works consistently with Shibata. This match is not an exception. That kind of match has its place on the card, it's a breath of fresh air, but it's not one I particularly enjoy.

Scurll vs Ospreay vs KUSHIDA vs Takahashi - Above average spotfest, with some decent psychology underpinning all the crazy action. One of the rare junior heavyweight clusterfucks I'd happily rewatch.

Tanahashi vs White - Tremendous pressure must have been on White's shoulders. Return from excursion, debut at WK against NJPW's "Mr Wrestlemania" Tanahashi. Not even Okada got that treatment when he returned from excursion. He faced YOSHI-HASHI on the undercard. To say White blew it is unfair and inaccurate. I thought he did a good job, and they worked a good match, but it was basically Tanahashi by numbers. Would have been fine on a lesser show, but considering its prominent placement on the company's biggest event, it's hard to call this anything other than a failure.

Omega vs Jericho - Amazing match that lived up to the hype and then some. Definitely had an Attitude Era WWE brawl vibe, which is a very good thing, and kudos to Omega for thriving in unfamiliar territory. The way they worked the match also did an excellent job in hiding Jericho's flaws and accentuating his strengths.

Okada vs Naito - Fantastic match, and a dramatic way to end the show. I feel like it won't be looked upon as fondly as last year's main event, despite being tighter and more consistent, nor Jericho/Omega because it's such a historic and different match. That's my perspective, anyway. Naito was by far the most over guy on the night, and they were heavily into the match start to finish.

Fantastic show top to bottom. Even the things that were disappointing (looking at you, Jay White) were only disappointing relative to the rest of the card.

I really did think they were going to pull the trigger on Naito, and I thought it was the right time, but I'm not totally surprised they're sticking with Okada. I still think Naito might ultimately be the guy who's going to beat him, but it might be this summer rather than at the dome. Either he or Omega are the only logical guys to put the belt on at this point, and I think they're going to keep rolling with Kenny as US champ (unless they finally go into the Ibushi feud and swap the belt at the LA show).

They could also play the ultra long game and bring Danielson in to take the belt off of Okada, but that would seem weird to me when Omega and Naito have such history with Okada.

Also, the Jericho/Omega match was my favorite match of the night. I really loved it.

I likely won’t see anything until this weekend, but my first initial thought after seeing some clips on a Twitter: Okada should never wear bell bottoms in the ring again.

I’m in he minority but I don’t get what’s so great about Okada. He’s a good wrestler but Naito should’ve won. Bullshit anti-climactic ending. The NJPW fans that bash WWE fans have lost some of their high ground after that main event.

Jericho vs. Omega was a really good Attitude Era/Ruthless Aggression PPV main event.

I mean that as a compliment.

Overall, the show lived up to expectations, decent enough to be called Wrestle Kingdom, but probably the weakest effort in years.

The opener was one of the weakest matches I've seen the Bucks have in a long time. They controlled the majority of the match, but rarely got out of second gear and Roppongi 3K barely got anything. Anytime they were on offence, it was the typical meme 'gee this would make a great GIF' shtick that made them look like clowns. The Young Bucks reclaim their throne and have arguably cemented themselves as the most dominant junior tag team in NJPW history.

The NEVER Openweight Gauntlet was an enjoyable enough mickey mouse undercard match. The important thing about the match is that it mostly showcased the right guys - ZSJ with an impressive submission on Rowe, Yano getting away with two cheap roll-ups and Berreta overcoming Tama Tonga after the impressive 'outta nowhere' Gun Stun.

I hated the Brandi Rhodes spot in the Cody/Ibushi match, what a way to make Kota look like a geek. Who would even do that? I can understand stopping what you're doing, but to physically lift your opponents wife and carry her to the back was seriously dumb. It was a shame because the opening portion was quite good but it took awhile for the match to get going again. It wasn't until the Cross Rhodes from the apron that the match became compelling again. Didn't really care for how the finish played out, Ibushi was practically dead after the Cross Rhodes and they worked another five minutes, trading bombs along the way.

Something happened with the IWGP Tag Team match. I was really into the opening portion of the match, loved Archer going all HHH on everyone and spraying water into every section of the front row. Even loved how they laid out EVIL, but then their entire heat portion became like white noise to me. Maybe the show was beginning to drag for me, but nothing caught my attention save for some SANADA spots and before I knew it we had some new tag team champions.

Normally I would hate consecutive matches having a similar opening, but considering they both come from Suzuki-gun, I actively enjoyed it. This was one of the few matches that actually exceeded my expectations. Suzuki working on top is always a joy to watch and Goto's offence can look good when it's used well. Also liked the drama of Suzuki-gun trying to rush to Minoru's aid when Goto had reclaimed control only for Kojima to distract Taichi at the last moment. Didn't really care for Goto going over, but he's got a pretty good track record at WK so I can live with them playing that up. It does make me wonder what's left for Suzuki moving forward, outside of ZSJ his stable doesn't have any prospects.

The Junior 4-Way was just video game wrestling. Enjoyable if you're into it but really silly if you're not. A couple of nice near falls made it stand up above other matches but there were so many stupid meme moments for me to get into it.

Tanahashi/White maybe the worst WK match Tanahashi has ever had. Maybe it's because Hiroshi didn't bother to adapt at all and just worked his own match against a guy who hasn't worked on any offence yet? Two moments stick out - the turnbuckle spot where the crowd laughed at Switchblade and the shitty looking brainbuster on the apron.

Omega/Jericho was the best match of the show, and Jericho's best match in years, but still not an all-time classic by any stretch of the imagination. What worked for the match is that Jericho is great at chaining counters so there were some great moments like the One Winged Angel being converted into a Liontamer. There was also that great spot where Jericho hit the springboard dropkick which intercepted Omega's own springboard attempt causing him to get winded. That was great and all, but the match was all Jericho, it was mostly bland WWE style no-DQ 'rasslin and there was no suspense because none of Jericho's signatures are match winners anymore. Nothing felt original or clever about the match and this was the fifth match on the card where the heels dominated only for the babyface to pull it out at the end. Perhaps the biggest complaint was the officiating with the rope breaks which hurt the finish. While I wouldn't consider it a classic or anything like that, it certainly went about as well as one would expect.

And the main event continued the long line of disappointing Naito/Okada matches. Unlike other matches, they actually worked it fairly even but there was barely any difference between this match and others they've had in the past. The only wrinkle was the cobra clutch which Naito had already exposed in the lead up to the show, so it wasn't like there was any suspense surrounding that spot. The match just seemed like both guys hitting their spots until it was their turn to swap over, so they'd go up top, miss their move and the match would swing. None of it would be relevant come the finish which only gets going when we get the customary fore-arm contest and guys kick out of finishers and reverse finishers. The biggest complaint about the match seems to be the result, which I don't have an issue with.

It just isn't Naito's time, will be interesting to see how they rehab him.