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WRESTLE KINGDOM 11

January 4, 2017

Kuniaki Kobayashi . . . adds himself to the list, along with Lyger, of legends who still have it or never actually lost it.

Katsuyori Shibata . . . drags Hirooki Goto (seemingly kicking and screaming) to one of his better singles matches.

Kazuchika Okada . . . attempts to end the discussion of best match of the year a whopping four days into it.

NEW JAPAN RUMBLE

Wow, this may be the most half-assed version of the Royal Rumble that’s ever been done. It has the same basic layout, a few surprise entrants, and none of the things that make the real thing a fun experience. The fact that the best thing to see here, by a decent margin, are the exchanges between Lyger and Kuniaki Kobayashi speaks volumes for just how uninteresting this truly is. After what seems like years, it’s whittled down to Elgin and Cheeseburger, and, if they had bothered doing anything to make ‘Burger seem like a threat, like eliminating a big guy (and compared to him they’re all big guys), then maybe there would have been some doubt as to the finish. But, ‘Burgers attempts to stay alive are only stall tactics.

TIGER MASK W vs. TIGER THE DARK

Aside from the dives, there isn’t much to see here, but this is supposed to be a special exhibition, so it’s not a big deal. Their Tombstone sequence throwback to the original TB/BT series was nice, and it was surprisingly smart to see Dark go back to an abdominal stretch to wear down W, when he couldn’t get him up the first time around. It would have been nice to see the Tiger suplex get the pin, but it was done so slowly that it gave away the fact that it wasn’t the finish, and with W getting the pin after a Last Ride, it’s not much secret who was under the mask.

NICK JACKSON/MATT JACKSON © vs. TRENT BARRETA/ROCKY ROMERO (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles)

Between some of the clever spots, a good finish, and the fact that they don’t go into finisher overkill, it’s easy to see that this isn’t a bad match. But, there isn’t a whole lot of substance to make it a particularly good match either. Neither of the ‘Bucks control segments lasted all that long, although Nick’s constant miscues that led to Trent tagging out were a very nice touch. The segment on Rocky was a bit better, because Trent’s missed dive left Rocky on his own, and, the ‘Bucks didn’t go crazy with the tandem spots. But, they don’t do much to build up any real heat to anticipation to a hot tag. Probably the biggest spot of the match was Nick saving Matt from the Strong Zero. The finish is almost surprisingly smart. Rocky finds a clever counter to MBFYB, and Trent only needs to hold Nick back from saving, so that he can still put over his missed dive. I haven’t seen any of their other matches with each other, but, I can’t imagine them not doing better than this. ***

SATOSHI KOJIMA/RICOCHET/DAVID FINLAY © vs. YUJIRO TAKAHASHI/BAD LUCK FALE/ADAM PAGE vs. EVIL/SANADA/BUSHI vs. JADO/YOSHI-HASHI/WILL OSPREAY (NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Titles)

With this many wrestlers involved, doing it gauntlet style, with three separate matches was the right way to go. The Bullet Club/CHAOS opening leg is watchable, if nothing else. It’s a total spotfest to be sure, but, everyone gets something to do, with only Jado coming across as the weak link, and, indeed, it’s Jado who winds up dropping the fall. The Page/Ospreay exchanges seem to hint at something bigger happening between them, either here or in ROH. The second leg is far too short to be worth much, as far as work goes, but, I’ll be damned if Los Ingobernables don’t look like the swankiest heel trio ever. They survive the early ambush, and wind up leaving Yujiro on his own, after Page takes a nasty fall the floor, and BUSHI hits a wicked tope to Fale, a couple of chairs get involved and Yujiro gives up to SANADA’s Dragon sleeper.

The final leg is a bit like the first one, everyone more or less showing off their stuff, but, this comes off better, with Ricochet and Finlay’s flying, and Los Ingobernables heeling things up as much as they can, especially the low kick to Kojima to prevent his elbow. It’s another smart finish, with EVIL blocking the ref’s view (but doing so in a way that looks completely legit) from BUSHI blinding Kojima with the mist, and then EVIL swoops in and finishes him off.

CODY RHODES vs. JUICE ROBINSON

Juice showed more here than he ever did in NXT as a hippie, breaking KO’s nose notwithstanding. If they had made Juice hurting his knee early in the match matter, then this would have been a good match. It’s ironic that Juice hurt his knee on the cannonball into the guardrail, since it was the biggest spot of the match, and it hurt him a whole lot more than it wound up hurting Cody. But, Cody wasn’t very good about working it over, his only good spots were the chop block and the Indian deathlock, Cody was more concerned with playing to the crowd, taunting the announcers, and, doing things like pushing and slapping Juice.

It also didn’t help that Juice’s selling was inconsistent. It seemed like the knee only hurt him, when it was convenient to let Cody take over. He busts out dropkicks and even does a gutbuster without a second thought. Hell, the finish sees Juice lose Cody on a powerbomb because his knee gives out, but, he immediately grabs Cody for the Pulp Friction, only to get countered to the Cross Rhodes. It would have made more sense for Cody to go right for the finisher, or at least counter the Friction with a kick to the knee. Overall, this stands out as far as what Juice has shown he can do, but, between this and his ROH match with Lethal, Cody’s post-WWE work has been underwhelming.

KYLE O’REILLY © vs. ADAM COLE (ROH World Heavyweight Title)

The work here is good, which is par for the course with these two, and the result is pleasing, but, this still comes off anticlimactic. Cole hurts Kyle’s shoulder early on, and it’s kept in mind throughout the whole match. Even when Kyle is firmly in control, he’ll favor the arm, or appear to be a bit off of his game, like his brainbuster to Juji-gatame sequence not having its usual snap to it. Adam doesn’t even attack it all that much, he only gets in a few stomps and the kick to the shoulder to escape the ankle lock. He really doesn’t have to attack it, because Kyle was doing so much to show how hurt it was, but, Cole should be enough of a jerk to at least take a couple of cheap shots.

The work itself isn’t anything that hasn’t been seen before, Kyle’s shootstyle flairs along with Cole’s more traditional pro-style work, and, with how often these two have worked together, it’s no surprise that their work is as smooth as it is. Unfortunately, they still have some goofiness, most notably the punching sequence they love to do, but, there’s also Cole blowing off a German suplex just to hit a knee strike. Luckily, they go into the home stretch right afterwards, with Kyle selling Cole’s superkicks and both of the Last Shots (not exactly the ‘Last’ when Cole needed two of them), like they were all but killing him, and after the flurry of superkicks, there was almost no doubt that Kyle was staying down for good after the Last Shot, which goes back to the finish feeling a bit anticlimactic, and, while it’s easy to chalk up Cole’s declaration of him being better than Kyle to just his heel persona, it’s hard to argue with him, given how this plays out. ***1/4

TAMA TONGA/TONGA LOA © vs. TOGI MAKABE/TOMOAKI HONMA vs. TORU YANO/TOMOHIRO ISHII (IWGP Tag Team Titles)

As far as three-way matches go, this is actually a lot of fun. It certainly helps that it’s not structured in the usual manner. It almost looks like a regular tag match, with Honma getting worked over by both teams, and eventually making a hot tag to Makabe, who comes in and cleans house, which also leads to the match breaking down into the usual free for all. I would have preferred to see Honma more involved in the finish, since the main story revolved around him, but, Yano’s blind tag to steal the win works in its own way. It demonstrates the “anything can happen” nature of these matches, and, it wasn’t like Honma was on the verge of winning the match anyway.

KUSHIDA © vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title)

Between the crazy spots and overall hatred of this, there are plenty of things to like here, as long as you don’t mind the fact that they basically kill the Hoverboard lock as a serious finish. KUSHIDA targets the arm very early, and does a great deal to wear down Takahashi, including a juji-gatame on the floor for a decent length of time, and then has him trapped in the Hoverboard lock for an even longer time. Not only does KUSHIDA not win with his finishing hold, but, he goes on to lose the match cleanly to a member of Los Ingobernables.

They don’t seem to do much to play off it, but, one could argue that Takahashi’s win was due to KUSHIDA getting his bell rung from the early powerbomb on the floor. Aside from stunning him for a minute, it doesn’t seem like it had any long term effects on KUSHIDA, but, between the powerbomb, the series of Germans, that victory roll slam off the top (which someone needs to steal as a finisher), and the Time Bomb, it’s certainly plausible that there was something of a cumulative effect that led to KUSHIDA’s undoing.

Anyone under the impression that junior matches in Dome settings doesn’t get heat, needs only to look at this match to see how wrong they are. They damn near try to kill each other, even if means killing themselves in the process, with a couple of insane dives, especially Takahashi’s senton to the floor, and show just how much they want to win, with things like Takahashi’s powerbomb off the apron, KUSHIDA risking the count out with the juji-gatame on the floor, and Takahashi seemingly willing to let KUSHIDA break his arm instead of submitting, and, the fans reciprocate their effort by responding in kind. ***1/4

If this was only being judged by Shibata’s performance, then it wouldn’t come off disappointing at all. His work is tight, the strikes look good, and he does most of the heavy lifting in making the whiplash story with his neck work so well. But, the match lacks anything outstanding from Goto. The best things from Goto are the spots to keep the story of Shibata’s neck moving forward, like the inverted takedown, the fireman’s neckbreaker, and the GTR finish. Goto’s headbutts don’t look all that good, if one looks closely they’ll see he’s actually hitting Shibata’s chest and shoulders. His no-sell of the backdrop is horrible, as is the sequence where he and Shibata take turns doing it. The lariat sequence isn’t as bad, since that’s what establishes Shibata’s neck as a weak spot. The storyline, and the opening sequence, suggest that Shibata is trying to prod Goto into getting fired up and fighting, but, it doesn’t appear that Goto took the hint. This is still good overall, thanks to Shibata, but, if Goto put in the same effort, it would have blown away everything else before it. ***1/4

With all the dropkicks to the knee and Dragon screws, it looks like Keiji Mutoh appreciation night at first, but, they wind up being good enough to get past it, especially with Naito’s selling. Both Tanahashi and Naito show a knack for coming up creative spots that fit a situation, like Naito’s first Destino coming after Tanahashi misses the splash, Tanahashi’s grounded dragon screw when he can’t pull Naito away from the ropes, and Tanahashi countering the whip to the ropes directly into the Sling Blade. The only real misstep from them in that regard is Tanahashi’s counter of the Indian Deathlock into the Texas Cloverleaf. Someone like Nakamura, Angle, Tamura, or Suzuki could convincingly pull that off, because they have the mat acumen for that, Tanahashi not so much, and especially not after Naito already has the hold on. Tanahashi’s cloverleaf doesn’t even look that good, which makes it an even worse idea.

The other downer to this is that they don’t seem to have any regard for protecting their finishing moves, and they both come off looking bad by the time this is over. Granted, Tanahashi has always been that way with the HFF, but, it’s disappointing to see Naito go along with it. The first Destino is one of their better moments, coming when Tanahashi wipes out on the splash. Naito doesn’t even try for a pin after it, he just waits for Tanahashi to get up, and tries for a second one, that gets countered. It’s the same story for the finish, with a top rope Destino not being worthy of a pin (and again, coming on a good note, with Naito getting knees up on the HFF), but a regular one afterwards is. Tanahashi is the same old Tanahashi in that regard too, with plenty of HFF’s to go around, on the floor, in the ring, with Naito standing or laying. Overall, this is still better than Shibata/Goto, by virtue of not being essentially a one-man show, but, it’s the second straight match where the few issues they had dragged it down considerably. ***½

It’s too bad that they went crazy with the head drops and head shots toward the end, because this was coming along very nicely, and, even as it is, it’s still the best match of the show. The story is as simple as it gets, with Okada wearing down Omega’s neck for the Rainmaker, and Omega trying to soften up the midsection for the One Winged Angel, but, there are plenty of good moments and smart touches along the way. One of the best things that they accomplish is not making their bigger spots look contrived and telegraphed, Okada hits the hanging DDT on the floor when he counters Kenny’s attempt at the vertical suplex and sees the opportunity for it. It’s the same thing with the table spot. They’d both been teasing it, but couldn’t follow through, and then Kenny charges at Okada, and gets back dropped through it. It happens because Kenny outsmarted himself by getting into a position that he couldn’t escape.

They’re both good about staying relatively on task with their game plan of wearing down the body part for the finisher. Omega gets much more time than Okada in this regard, but, that gives Okada plenty of opportunity to sell, and he’s as great as he’s ever been. His disorientation after Omega’s big dive is perfect, and he even remembers to sell his midsection after something relatively minor, like when he misses the standing senton. Even after they go off the deep end with the neck bumps, Okada tries to be sensible by holding on after a German suplex and going directly to the Rainmaker, and it’s great to see Kenny trying to avoid it by pushing Okada into the corner and throwing shoulder tackles into his ribs. Omega’s selling isn’t nearly as good as Okada’s, or even Shibata’s, but, he makes up for it with his onslaught to the ribs, between inventive stuff like his one-man version of MBFYB, and the diving stomp with the table.

I can understand that they wanted to cap this off with a hot finishing stretch, but, the last leg of this still goes way overboard. Okada’s use of the Tombstone is fine, since that’s considered more of a mid level move, and it’s something he’s known for using to set up the Rainmaker. But, there’s no need for Dragon suplexes off the top or head spike Germans or kicks and knees directly to the head. Considering how well worked the early headlock segments were, it’s surprising they didn’t try going that route, and using something like a grounded necklock, although that may have been for the best, with how poor Okada’s STF looked. And, it still takes umpteen Rainmakers to keep Kenny down. It doesn’t say much about your finisher, when someone can take such an onslaught, and still not stay down right away. They wind up doing a much better job in protecting the One Winged Angel, because, despite everything Omega dished out, he’s never able to hit it, Okada always has a counter or escape ready. It leaves one wondering if the result would have been different had Kenny been able to hit the move. As frustrating as the final stretch is, it doesn’t even come close to ruining this, and, with how high a level they were working at, there’s no reason why this can’t be the best match of the year, unless we get a rematch that clears up their few issues. ****

Conclusion: A good undercard, capped off by a great main event. The only real negatives are the two pre show matches.