Wrestle Kingdom 10/NJPW thoughts

[Str8Shooter]

What did everyone think of the show? I know a few people saw it from the shout box, feel free to give your thoughts on it, and perhaps NJPW in general and what's next, or nxt , for them in 2016.

I'll give my thoughts later when I have more time, just wanted to get this up while I remembered it.

[Hanley!]

I had long comments written up on this and then my laptop decided to delete them like a dickhead. So I'll make it shorter this time. This was a great show. Every match was good, half the matches were very good, and a couple of matches were fucking fantastic. That's a pretty damn great hit ratio.

The opener was good, though I worry that big tag team matches are confusing to the newer viewer. I knew everyone here, but they did a similar match to start Wrestle Kingdom 9 and it confused the hell out of me. Also, I hate the Young Bucks. I can't quite put my finger on why. I think it's that they're so derivative of better wrestlers, and are the epitome of style over substance. The rest of the guys were great though. Ricochet is one of the best high flyers out there, and I thought Kyle O'Reilly and Bobby Fish were awesome, adding that stiff, technical element to a cruiserweight match.

The Briscoes match was cool - I would have actually liked to see it go another five minutes, I thought it was really picking up towards the end. I like the Briscoes - they show a lot of personality in the ring, which is something I value highly. I like their old school style. They could have done well in WWE if given the opportunity. I don't know much about their opponents from this match, but they played their part well. This might have been my choice to open the show.

Lethal vs Elgin was a great big man vs small man match. Elgin is powerful as fuck, some of those feats of strength were really impressive. And this is really the only match on the show where we got those sorts of spots, so it added real variety to the card. Lethal is a cool champion and it's evident how much he's grown in the last few years. I don't like the Lethal Injection though - looks cool, but the set-up is too contrived. I prefer the RKO. This was a bit short for a world title match, but this wasn't supposed to be a show stealer on this card. These guys did what they were supposed to do, and did it well.

Kushida vs Omega was great, probably my third favourite of the night (no points for guessing the first two). It was just really fast-paced, balls to the wall action. The Doc Brown stuff was mental, but it was fun all the same. No harm in having a little of that on a big card. Kenny Omega has so much charisma - I'm not sure if he's the right fit for the leader of the Bullet Club, but he definitely has it in him to be a big star.

Makabe and Honma vs the Bullet Club was fun enough. Gallows has come on a bit since I saw him last, and Anderson looks impressive. Makabe and Honma are silly characters, but they still seem like decent performers. This was a good match, but this definitely felt like they were giving the audience a chance to catch a breath before the main events. The same goes for Naito vs Goto; I enjoyed it, but it didn't leave much of an impression.

Shibato vs Ishii very much did leave an impression. This isn't my usual kind of match. I don't like wrestling where the guys are actually trying to hurt each other. And matches that are 100% strikes usually turn me off (see Itami's usual snoozefests), but the strikes looked so good here that they won me over. The psychology was weird, but it did make sense - rather than trying to beat the other guy, each man was trying to prove that they were tougher than the other guy, so they kept allowing themselves to get hit, and then no selling. Though they sold their no selling well, if that makes any sense. They seemed like guys who were hurt but were forcing themselves not to show it (maybe because that's what they literally had to do as performers), rather than invincible supermen. They'd both just keep hitting each other and refuse to show any pain, but would then just collapse from exhaustion. My biggest problem with the match (and with matches of this type) is that there's no real way to make things climax for the finish. After a match filled with tough strikes, one more hard hit just doesn't feel like a fitting punctuation mark. Very good match all the same though.

Styles vs Nakamura was fucking ace, and WWE needs to throw all the titles at these guys. They both need to debut on the main roster, and should be given matches at Wrestlemania. Styles should get a singles match. Nakamura could too, though if they wanted to give him a little time so the American fans could learn more about who he is, I guess that'd be okay. But fuck, these guys are good. They worked this match really well. I loved all the sequences and counters, into and out of their signature spots. The triangle into the one armed Styles Clash was great. And that's a brilliant false finish, because it doesn't hurt the Styles Clash: Styles didn't get it locked in completely. Styles sold the back well during the match, and I liked that they evened the odds by having him weaken Nakamura's leg. Nakamura has so much personality. He's such a larger than life character, that language barrier should not pose a problem in America, much like with Asuka. Given a few more minutes, this would have been my favourite of the night. It still might be, but the main event probably edges it for me.

Okada vs Tanahashi was epic. This was a brilliant, classic passing-of-the-torch match. The dynamic going in was really cool, because if Okada won then he'd finally break his losing streak against Tanahashi at the Tokyo Dome and establish himself as top guy, but if Tanahashi won then we'd have a new champion. Either way, it felt like history would be made. These guys started slow and built to a crescendo which is what you want from a big main event. The crowd was in their pocket from the start so they didn't have to rush things. This is the first match where they really went to the finisher kick outs, and it was warranted here. That's the kind of thing that should be spared only for the biggest matches. They changed it up nicely with the false finishes too, like executing each other's finishers. I liked how they built up to the piledriver spot too. This was just really good stuff. It would have been easy for them to fail to follow the great Styles vs Nakamura match (which also had the benefit of being fresh, which this match didn't), but they knocked it out of the park.

Really good show overall. I do think that there was interference in too many matches though, and too many jump starts. You don't want to see that kind of booking repeating itself multiple times in one show.

On the commentary: I thought they did a good job for the most part, but Yoshi Tatsu wasn't a good enough English speaker to really fill his role effectively, and I thought Striker made things worse by trying to drag stuff out of him. Kevin Kelly is a strong play by play guy though, and Striker adds great insight when he isn't getting too carried away.

On the crowd: I really enjoy watching Japanese crowds, because it's a different atmosphere. People act like they're dead quiet during the shows, but they're not really. It's not like an American crowd who chant all the way through the show; in fact there are rarely chants. But you can hear them. What I like about Japanese crowds is that none of the reactions feel forced. They feel like spontaneous, natural reponses from the audience. Which must make it all that much sweeter for the wrestlers when they get a loud reaction.For the last three matches, fans were so into things that they were buzzing for the matches before anyone even threw a punch.

Two thumbs up!