NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night 2

 

KOPW time and boy is this is an odd thing to see at the Tokyo Dome in a prominent match slot. Chase accidentally boots Fale and Bushi backstabs Chase. Chase avoids MX, but Bushi avoids the package piledriver. V TRIGGER TO BUSHI! Chase Germans Bushi but Fale boots him and steals the pin for 2. Yano double ballshots them when they lift the ref and he pins BUSHI. YANO IS KOPW! Taguchi and Wato are out to try and win the Jr tags from Kanemaru and Desperado. Taguchi is a good-ish worker, but his style just doesn't fully fit a serious match. Bum-a-ye hits for 2, but a pinche loco ends it. This was...a match.

Jeff Cobb vs. Shingo Takagi is up for the NEVER Title, and this is one of the best matches on paper for the weekend. Jeff Cobb is in the best shape of his life and Shingo is just THE MAN. We get an epic shot of both men on opposite sides of the ring as the fans clap along. Strong tie-up and foreams start off. Tagaki gets a hiptoss and a big tackle! Squatting BELLY TO BELLY ON THE FLOOR! Clubbing warfare on the apron and he sets up a splash mountain to the floor! Shingo escapes and tackles him before a flip dive! 

SPLASH MOUNTAIN HITS FOR 2 FOR COBB! Back and forth lariats! Forearm combo by Shingo before they exchange straight punches. Thrust kick by Cobb leads to a lariat by Shingo, but Shingo eats a German! PUMPING BOMBER! DEADLIFT SUPERPLEX ATTEMPT but Shingo escapes for a walking powerbomb! Fallaway moonsault! PUMPING BOMBER, BUT COBB DOESN'T GO DOWN! PUMPING BOMBER HITS AGAIN AND THE LAST OF THE DRAGON ENDS IT! What a match! This was up there with Ospreay-Okada and exactly as stiff as I expected. 

SANADA vs EVIL is up in a battle of ALL CAPS ENGLISH NAMES. EVIL looks so much better with long gear and they're just beating the piss out of each other. Stiff forearms and lariats lead to a big sequence where SANADA gets a bridge for 2. EVIL hits a big lariat for 2.5, but SANADA gets skull end but EVIL escapes and wants a low blow. Giant lariat hits for SANADA. Pop-up TKO hits and a moonsault wins it! This was a massive win for SANADA, who should go right into the double title picture or do so this spring.

Hiromu Takahashi is out to face Taiji Ishimori and Chris talks about how he's left every group he's been with to get more money. Standing switches but Taiji sends him out and runs up top to be thrown down. Moonsault off the sunset bomb attempt and it leads to a pop-up apron bomb! Hiroumu runs up the ramp and wants a dropkick, but eats a...sorta powerbomb/sideslam thing. Taiji lands a series of hard strikes and lands a nasty shoulder/neckbreaker with a hammerlock! PLUNGER HITS FOR 2! TIME BOMB 2 ENDS IT. This was a crazy match, but one of the best Hiromu matches imaginable after a broken neck. 

Main event time with Jay White coming out looking like a megastar before facing THE FIRST-TIME EVER IWGP HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION Kota Ibushi. His trolling claps are tremendous. White works over Ibushi and Ibushi works defensively to avoid the kiwi crusher. SNAP GERMAN gets 2 for White. DRAGON SCREWS including one on the mat for White. White locks on the TTO, but Ibushi escapes. High kick on the apron gives Ibushi some breathing room and he gets the draping apron German mid-ring! MURDER IBU IS OUT and the last ride hits for 2! REGALPLEX HITS FOR 2 FOR WHITE! 

Blade Runner is avoided and turned INTO A KAMIGOYE FOR 2.9! PHOENIX SPLASH GETS 2 THANKS TO GEDO! "GODDAMN YOU GEDO!" Kevin Kelly is tremendous. Gedo sneaks in and EATS THE KAMIGOYE! ANOTHER TTO IS ON. BLOODY SUNDAY hits but a V TRIGGER SAVES IBUSHI FROM A BLADE RUNNER! EXPOSED KNEE KAMIGOYE ENDS IT AND IBUSHI RETAINS! Tremendous!

Chris runs through all of Ibushi's journey and in just New Japan, he's gone from the bottom to the top. SANADA comes out and says he knows it's hard to be champion now in these times, but he wants to be able to face him. Ibushi says he's done a lot and he is the strongest, the best and he holds both belts. He's down for the challenge whenever it can happen and HE HAS BECOME GOD. 

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 Night 1

 

The ranmbo with KOPW implications for night 2 features some great Ishii-Suzuki exchanged before BLUE JUSTICE AND HIS BLUE MASK ARE OUT! We get some great Suzuki-Nagata stuff before eliminations-aplenty and it comes down to Chase, Fale, BUSHI, and Yano. ELP vs. Takahashi is the opener and the stage design is unreal and Hiromu is EXTRA Hiromu here. ELP goes for old school, but Hiromu bites his finger to end that. Plunger hits for 2 for Hiromu and a superkick stuns ELP. DICK PUNCH BY ELP!

Super Rana and a superfly dive by ELP get 2! Time Bomb leads to a stacked-up pin counter for 2. Buzzsaw kick by ELP sends Hiromu down! Crossarm bomb leads to a rana counter and Hiromu wins it! This was short-ish, but sweet. GoD vs. Dangerous Tekkers is up and Taichi's singing voice is extra-special on January 4. Clean-shaven Tama Tonga looks 15 years younger, and Tanga Loa looks exactly like his father Haku. Loa is a surprisingly good heel here, showing some personality while choking ZSJ. Magic Killer ends it and the GoD wins after laying out Taichi. 

A MOX VIDEO AIRS and he's coming for the winner because he's the boogeyman of NJPW. Tremendous! Kojima vs. KENTA is up for the US Title shot contract, in possibly Kojima's last singles Tokyo Dome match. Kojima gets a fairly grand entrance and KENTA's blonde-dyed hair looks all-grey and that somehow fits his bitter vet gimmick even better. KENTA grinds at the head with headlocks and a headscissors on the mat before forearming him in the corner. KENTA lands a diving lariat for 2. KOJIMA HITS THE APRON DDT! Kojima elbows him a ton and sets up the lariat, but eats slaps! BUSAIKU KNEE HITS FOR 2! GTS ends it! Tremendous sell by Kojima too, as he just falls like a tree hit by an axe. 

 

During intermission, a video airs hyping that NJPW returns to UK and US TV with a purple backdrop being shown - so I'm guessing it's Bein Sports since no other channel is purple...or maybe it's coming to Roku Channel or Twitch. Great O-Khan vs. Tana is up, in the former's greatest test to date. Oka's intro at least got a bit of an upgrade with how its shot and with fans having his getup, he does at least seem like a star. The little hop on the ramp is cute. Tana is THE STAR of all stars.

Oka goes for the leg right away, but Tana dodges him. Tana grinds away before being tossed out and a skin the cat is met with MONGOLIAN CHOPS TO THE FINGERS! Tana fires back with forearms and a flying forearm series before a second rope somersault senton gets 2. Oka hits an atomic facebuster and an overhead belly to belly leads to a skin the cat before HE AVOIDS MONGOLIAN CHOPS AND HITS THE TWIST AND SHOUT. Slingblad-o! Oka hits the inverted brainbuster and gets a chair before getting the claw. Tana avoids the claw slam on the chair and Tana twist and shouts him on the chair. DRAGON SUPLEX GETS 2! HIGH FLY FLOW TO THE BACK. SECOND ON THE CHEST WINS IT! This was...good to great at times. Better than expected.

Will's VTR shows he and Bea watching over his destruction of Okada. He has his RevPro belt while Bea has her Stardom belt. Okada is just the star of all stars here - it's unreal. Belt or not, he is THE MAN. Forearm battle to start before floor brawling sees Okada get the edge at first before Ospreay sneak attacks him to get an edge. Okada sends him into the barricade with a running boot, but Ospreay blocks it and boots him before eating a shotgun dropkick. Another one hits mid-ring, but Will lands a superkick! OKADA DROPKICK TO THE NECK! DROPKICK IS MET WITH A LIGERBOMB FOR 2! 

They fight on the table section and Ospreay high kicks him and hits a rough suplex through the table! Ospreay wants an apron Stormbreaker, but Okada avoids it, but each chops instead. APRON OSCUTTER DENIED AND TURNED INTO AN APRON TOMBSTONE! Okada wants the rainmaker, but a boot nixes that. TOMBSTONE.! MONEY CLIP! ANOTHER, BUT HE GETS THE ROPE IN DESPERATION! Will is down, gasping for air while Okada has all the gas left in his tank and just boots his head to fuck with him. Will eats a slap-style forearm - just done to show how inferior he is. Will fires back, but has NOTHING! Ospreay gets a forearm with 1% of something, but eats an uppercut. They fight up top and a forearm sends Will down hard. Will shoots up and SPANISH FLIES HIM FOR 2! Oscutter into the money clip into a counter into a rebound discus forearm by Ospreay!

OSCUTTER HITS FOR 2, but not 3 due to the delay in getting a solid cover. Will runs INTO THE DROPKICK! Pop-up forearm is met with A MID-AIR INTERCEPTION DROPKICK BY OKADA! DISCUS RAINMAKER! MONEY CLIP! He fights out for a discus forearm! JUMPING TOMBSTONE AND RAINMAKER POSE BY OSPREAY! RAINMAKER HITS FOR 1! Stormbreaker countered into a Michinoku DRIVER AND A RAINMAKER HITS TO END IT! This was unreal! 

NEW YEAR NEW WORLD for Ibushi vs. Naito! It's amazing how good and in-shape Ibushi is for his age. We get a gorgeous split shot with a fade from Naito to Ibushi. We get some nice, slow ground work to start with Naito grinding the head with headlock and necklocks. Snapmare into a sliding dropkick for Naito before a corner kick leads to a lariat by Ibushi to block the Hardyac arrest. Naito avoids an apron driver with a backdrop before NAITO RUNS INTO A RANA OFF THE APRON INTO THE BARRICADE! 

Deadlift German attempt attempt, but Naito fights it off before a SUPER POISON RANA HITS FOR 2. Naito avoids a kamigoye before landing an enzuiguri. KAMIGOYE HITS BUT ONLY GETS 2! he pulls the knee pad down DESTINO MEETS A VTRIGGER! KAMIGOYE! HE HAS BECOME GOD! Naito grabs the titles and presents them to Ibushi. Jay White is out and talks shit and says he'll take the titles tomorrow because every time he reaches high, he'll always be there to pull him down. He appreciates the role he'll play in him becoming God tomorrow. Tremendous show - but unlike last year's night one, it didn't feel like this and this alone could be Wrestle Kingdom.