TildeGuy~! Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 1 minute ago, westlondonmist said: Amazing how little attention WK 18 got. A few years ago it seemed like a big deal. Didn’t help that the card was absolute shit. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Only watched Bryan v Okada II. It was good but didn’t blow me away Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westlondonmist Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 17 minutes ago, TildeGuy~! said: Didn’t help that the card was absolute shit. Well yeah, NJPW seems clueless with the main event. They tried Shingo, Sanada and Evil and none of it seems to stick. They've really struggled with Tana getting old and guys like White and Omega leaving. I'm guessing that they wanted to do Osprey Omega 3 but couldn't. So put him in a match with a 3 way that isn't interesting. Danielson Okada wasn't that long ago, if it had been a first time it would have been a big deal. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 4 Paid Members Share Posted January 4 (edited) Ah I thought Danielson/Okada 2 was great. Can’t comment on the rest of the show but I had to check this one out after Danielson’s incredible end to 2023 and their Forbidden Door match not hitting the heights we wanted. Hard to beat an Okada Tokyo Dome entrance. The colour changing jacket using what I am choosing to believe is actual magic was excellent. Danielson also had the coolest boots I’ve ever seen him wear. His whole American House of the dragon look was tremendous. Really simple story to it. Danielson wants to break the rainmaker arm, Okada is targeting the orbital bone. Okada also defending against going 0 and 2 versus Danielson, and doing so on home turf. I loved Okada trying to end it early by going for some big hail mary offense on the outside. When he failed to do so and Danielson then got to torture the arm for 5-10 minutes you could hear the real concern growing in the crowd. He said he was going to break Okada’s fuckin’ arm and it felt like the people believed him. Okada’s fire and facial expressions really are exceptional. He draws sympathy so effectively when he’s in trouble, then you see him get more defiant and fired up as it goes on and it’s impossible not to get behind him. Danielson’s eyepatch wearing villain role he’s perfected over the course of the Continental Classic is now the ideal opponent for our hero to overcome. I would have liked five more minutes as I felt the ending came a little bit too suddenly, but I’m wondering if that’s because part 3 is still to come. We didn’t get to find out if Danielson’s claim that Okada is “not even in the top 50” without the rainmaker is true, because the weakened rainmaker was hitting a pre-weakened face. Also at the risk of being called a workrate pervert, Danielson switching to his left hand for the handshake post match because he saw Okada couldn’t lift his right arm was such a lovely bit of attention to detail. There is a third match to be had that I feel can surpass this one. It felt like chapter 2 of an ongoing story rather than the ending, but it was so much better than the Forbidden Door match. Maybe these two are only Good in Japan? Edited January 4 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Supremo Posted January 4 Paid Members Share Posted January 4 (edited) Danielson vs. Okada was definitely better than their Forbidden Door match. Still doesn’t feel like they’ve met their potential though. You hope they’re holding stuff back for a rubber match, but given Danielson’s run of injuries it feels extremely risky to not just blow your load and then worry about topping it when the time comes. I’m reminded of that Omega vs. Ibushi match in the G1, where you could tell they held back for the inevitable rematch, only for it to never materialise, with Ibushi eventually aging fifty years in six months. Wild seeing Danielson in the Tokyo Dome though. He looked over the moon to be there. Can’t imagine I’ll watch more else from this show. Too much product and too little time to be wasting it on a crap card. The Ziggler brothers? No thanks. Edited January 4 by Supremo Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Snitsky's back acne Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 1 hour ago, Supremo said: Wild seeing Danielson in the Tokyo Dome though. He looked over the moon to be there. He has worked there before. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 4 Paid Members Share Posted January 4 (edited) His previous Tokyo Dome appearance for New Japan was at a pre-show in front of a few hundred people the day before an actual Tokyo Dome Show while a pachinko tournament was happening at the same time. I reckon this appearance probably meant a bit more to him, given that his dream when he started wrestling was to be a big star in Japan. Edited January 4 by JLM Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Keith Houchen Posted January 4 Share Posted January 4 Apparently my brothers eldest, hardly ever leaves his bedroom except to go to work and the gym and is ND as fuck, took himself off to Japan for a week to go to this and a couple of other shows. I’ll have to ask him what shows and how this was, but I suspect the answer will be “Yeah, was good” before disappearing back to his room. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 4 Paid Members Share Posted January 4 I myself have been inside the Tokyo Dome for all of five minutes. I was a bit drunk on Strong Zero, it was a dark evening. I went to a ticket booth to try and get a ticket to ride the Thunder Dolphin rollercoaster located at the dome site. I ended up accidentally buying a ticket to the Yomiuri Giants baseball game which was already in progress. I thought I might as well use it. I stepped inside and was greeted with a spectacular wall of noise and colour. Stood in there for about five minutes but, even in this majestic setting, I still found baseball to be a devastatingly dull sport. Also my friends had not made the same ticket purchasing blunder and were ready to go and ride the rollercoaster. I then went and got the rollercoaster tickets and did that instead. In some small way, I think I relate to how Danielson felt as he stepped through the curtain to face Okada. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
WyattSheepMask Posted January 5 Share Posted January 5 2 hours ago, Snitsky's back acne said: He has worked there before. He has, but it’s the better part of 15 years since he last did Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members air_raid Posted January 8 Paid Members Share Posted January 8 So, after Dash Tana vs Matt Riddle is on the horizon. I'd have been psychotically looking forward to this match if it was announced, say, 7 years ago, and if you can still separate the work from the artist, it might still be good. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
westlondonmist Posted January 8 Share Posted January 8 1 hour ago, air_raid said: So, after Dash Tana vs Matt Riddle is on the horizon. I'd have been psychotically looking forward to this match if it was announced, say, 7 years ago, and if you can still separate the work from the artist, it might still be good. One thing I love about Riddle is that I don't have to ever feel guilty about enjoying his matches because he's awful anyway. I get the impression that with the loss of Ospreay, they are hoping to find a new star. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members Chris B Posted January 9 Paid Members Share Posted January 9 Got to admit, the timing of announcing Riddle was amazing. I almost ordered WrestleKingdom because of the buzz coming off it, as the first NJPW show in a good few years, and that was an immediate deterrent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members waters44 Posted January 9 Paid Members Share Posted January 9 I really enjoyed Wrestle Kingdom. Danielson vs Okada was great but I think the three way with Mox / Ospreay / Finlay just pipped it for my match of the night. it gets extra points for this chap literally going through a table Speaking of Mox - his post show ramble is really good fun if you’ve got a spare few minutes, like everyone else he’s getting pissed off with the 36 different title belts! The Jr Heavyweight tag title match was really good, as well as Shingo Takagi vs Tama Tongo so honestly there’s more stuff to enjoy here than just the Danielson match. I haven’t watched NJPW for years, and I went in blind, so seeing Naito in the title picture and then winning was a bit of a shock for me! I didn’t realise he’d had this great last year, l was so out of the loop I thought he was always injured and considering retirement. Can’t believe he won the G1, no idea how that passed me by! My bad. New Years Dash up next! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paid Members JLM Posted January 9 Paid Members Share Posted January 9 Haha yeah Botchamania Maffew must be absolutely thrilled that Coughlin has given him the most on-the-nose "I AM THE TABLE" bit of all time. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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