Wrestle Kingdom review

Earlier this week, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented its signature event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom at the Tokyo Dome in front of more than 25,000 fans. The Japanese league, very similar to other wrestling groups, was hit hard by the pandemic, with reduced attendance the past two years. For a comparison, the traditional January 4th event drew a combined 70,000 fans during two nights in 2020 before the pandemic shut the world down. The travel restrictions prevented many of the foreign stars from traveling to Japan and limited capacity kept ticket sales to a minimum to follow social distancing guidelines during the peak of restrictions.

Wrestle Kingdom 17 was the first Toyko Dome event where the promotion could get back to its usual major event of the year, a show that is a staple on the wrestling calendar around the globe. With such a big stage and the increased exposure of the Tokyo Dome, what's the path of the organization now?

The show opened with the Jr. Heavyweight tag titles between Catch 22 and Lio Rush and Yoh, and it was the typical fast-paced opener that you'd expect from New Japan. The match was decent, but TJP and Lio Rush are individually insufferable so I'm not going to discuss the match further, except to mentioned that Catch 22 retained the belts.

Kairi defeated Tam Nakano to retain the IWGP Women's championship, and while it was disappointing that this match was only given five minutes, at least it appears that the stellar Stardom roster will continue to receive increased exposure under the Bushiroad banner. With the trading card company's ownership of both New Japan and Stardom, it allows for more to be done with the women's group, including the funding to sign the league's newest star, Mercedes Mone, the former Sasha Banks, to a contract. The rumor mill suggests that Mone will arrive in All Elite Wrestling soon, but that's a different discussion for a different time. I have to say, her New Japan debut was rather underwhelming. The promo she cut was flat and was almost structured like a WWE promo that didn't gel with the Japanese audience. The move she attempted on Kari was botched, and her new hairstyle looked like she lost a bet. However, there were reports that Wrestle Kingdom had increased viewership on New Japan's streaming service so from purely a number's perspective, Mone's debut was successful. During the promo, she announced that she will compete at the company's Battle in the Valley in California next month. On one hand, it would be wise to use Mercedes to continue to boost crowds in Japan to draw bigger numbers after the slump of the pandemic. On the other hand, because of the transportation costs associated with American events, these shows have some very expensive ticket prices so a former WWE star on the card can help sell tickets.

Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi beat FTR to win the IWGP tag team titles, and it's interesting to wonder what that could translate to since Dax and Cash lost each set of tag belts within a relatively short time frame. The actual match was solid and was an entertaining bout. Still, it should be noted that despite being the tag champions, which they won at the Forbidden Door pay-per-view in June, it seemed like most of the Japanese audience wasn't familiar with FTR. The biggest story could be what this defeat could indicate for the future of FTR. There were rumblings online a few months ago that prehaps the team would opt not to renew their AEW deals to work the indies. The fact that FTR, despite being given secondary championships as props on Dynamite, were still completely underutilized in All Elite Wrestling. If Dax and Cash decide they'd rather work the regional circuit than on TBS, it's a statement about Tony Khan's inability to maximize the roster. Make no mistake about it, FTR were the best tag team in the business last year, but weren't booked on any of the AEW pay-per-views. The biggest exposure the team was given on Dynamite was when Dax had great singles matches before he would get pinned. I'm not usually a conspiracy theorist, but it certainly appears that FTR was kept away from any position that would've allowed them to potentially outshine The Young Bucks, especially when you take into account that FTR weren't featured on pay-per-view and The Bucks didn't put them over for the AEW tag titles. The bottom line is, if Tony Khan allows Dax and Cash to walk from All Elite, it will say much more about his lack of proper management than their in-ring ability.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Ren Narita via submission to win the New Japan Television title. It goes without saying that the last thing NJPW needs is another championship, but this was a really good technical match. The argument could still be made that Sabre Jr. is the best technical wrestler in the world, and this contest gave Narita the chance to progress as well. He was given the opportunity to look like a contender instead of just a young lion and traded counters with Sabre Jr. before the British grappler got the victory.

Tama Tonga beat Karl Anderson to win the Never Open weight championship, and while there are too many titles in the company so the Never belt isn't exactly the most prestigious on the card, it created a fun storyline for this bout. As we know, Anderson re-signed with WWE when he was still a champion in New Japan so in some ways, this contest allowed for Tama Tonga to "fight for the honor" of the Japanese organization to get the belt back. It was a rather short match, but Karl got offense in early so it gave the impression that he might retain to continue a possible scenario where he kept New Japan's championship. Ultimately, Tama scored the pin and this was probably a one-off return for Anderson before he continues full-time in WWE, but it was an entertaining scenario and it shows why some exceptions can be made for working together, even for WWE. Anderson going back to New Japan to drop the belt does absolutely nothing to hinder the WWE, but it gives New Japan an extra boost on their biggest event on the calendar. It might not be the traditional WWE philosophy but it benefits everyone in the industry when other promotions remain stable because the New Japan stars of today might eventually be assets for the WWE to sign in the future.

Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shota Umino defeated Tetsuya Naito, Sanada and Bushi. There wasn't much to this six man tag bout, but there didn't need to be, as it was more a celebration of Muto before his retirement. One of the three musketeers of the organization in the 90s, Muto has such legendary status that just his appearance on the card for his final New Japan match before his retirement in a few weeks was neat segment. Shota Umino got the pin for the team to win the contest.

One of the criticisms of the New Japan style is that some of the product tends to be very formulaic, and that's what happened during the second half of the card, which isn't necessarily a negative since there was quality action, but could impact the perspective of the presentation. Most of the mid-card matches were given about ten minutes so the event had a good pace. The four way Jr. Heavyweight title match was solid, but it was more or less the same multiple competitor high spot match you would've seen several times before in New Japan. Watching this live on the east coast, you just don't need a repeat of a match you've seen before. Hiromu Takahashi got the win, but this wasn't exactly a must see match on the card.

Next, Kenny Omega made his long-awaited return to New Japan and it seems like he had something to prove during this comeback. Will Ospreay, a former IWGP heavyweight champion, made the transition from the high-flying Jr. heavyweight division to work a more main event style that focused on the physicality of the traditional Japanese style. Despite a stellar main event, Omega/Ospreay might've stole the show. This match had fast-paced action, stiff exchanges and drama toward the conclusion. Omega took a stiff kick to the face in the corner and looked to have a lot of swelling near his eye so hopefully it won't affect his AEW schedule. The Wrestling Observer's Dave Meltzer reported that this was intended to be the start of a series of matches between the two that could span across both promotions, which would be a very unique scenario that would benefit both companies. Meltzer also called it one of the greatest matches of all time, but I wouldn't go that far. Too often, Meltzer throws out the term "match of the year" or gives something 87 stars more in the moment of a great match than anything else. Still, this was a tremendous bout that's worth going out of your way to watch if you haven't seen it. With the victory, Omega won the IWGP US title, but I don't think that really confirms anything about his status in Japan. The US belt isn't usually defended often so it will be interesting to see if the next Omega/Ospreay contest is booked for AEW or Japan.

As mentioned, the main event between Kazuchika Okada and Jay White was stellar, but similar to what was mentioned earlier, this bout had a formula and these two already had a series of matches previously. This was a great match, but if you've seen any of their prior contests than you more or less already saw this bout. That's not to take anything away from the quality of the performance because it had that incredible back and fourth action you'd expect from a Tokyo Dome main event, but there wasn't necessarily anything new or ground-breaking during the main event. Okada got the win to reclaim the IWGP championship.