NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 8 Results

DARK MATCH

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tomoaki Honma, Captain New Japan & BUSHI over Manabu Nakanishi, Super Strong Machine, Jushin Thunder Liger & Tiger Mask

*I bought the IPPV from ustream.tv as opposed to the Japanese website, so my commentary will be in Spanish.

Sweet opening video to start the show.

Show opens with a musical performance to give a big show type atmosphere.

The Spanish commentary broadcast has English ring announcing.

1) 4 Way For the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles: The Young Bucks(c) vs. Time Splitters (KUSHIDA and Alex Shelley) vs. Forever Hooligans (Rocky Romero and Alex Koslov) vs. Suzuki-Gun (TAKA Michinoku and Taichi)

Shelley and KUSHIDA came out in the Delorean from Back to the Future and KUSHIDA is wearing the Marty McFly vest.  Suzuki-Gun spent the first 1/4th of the match on commentary.  No tags were made.  Fun, creative spots involving all eight guys at the same time.  Had a slight CHIKRA influence with a pinch of old-school TNA X-Division.  Young Bucks retain by More Bang For Your Buck on Taichi.

Winners: The Young Bucks

2) IWGP Tag Team Titles:  Killer Elite Squad of Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer(c) vs. Bullet Club (Karl Anderson and Doc Gollows)

Bullet Club come out dressed as soldiers with camo and paint.  Killer Elite Squad come out on bikes again like last year.  Good heavyweight style, big man match.  Lots of big slams and suplexes.  There were some good false finishes down the stretch with attempted interference from Tama Tonga, but Tonga ended up getting Killer Bombed.  After some more back and forth after that, Bullet Club hit the Magic Killer for the win to become the NEW IWGP Tag Team Champions.

Winners: Bullet Club

3) NWA World Heavyweight Title: Rob Conway(c) vs. Satoshi Kojima

Harley Race punched Bruce Tharpe before the match.  This was better than their first match and better than I thought it would be. Not a great title match, but a fun one.  It’s cool to see Kojima with the NWA World Heavyweight Title and hopefully that means he’ll visit the states this year and defend the title around the country.  Kojima was really over and didn’t have to take any big bumps.  Conway was a typical American heel.  Kojima eventually won with the lariat.

Winner: Satoshi Kojima

4) Kazushi Sakuraba and Yuji Nagata vs. The Gracies

This was bad.  The Gracies looked weak and really green.  There was almost no psychology.  Match ended with on a DQ when one of the Gracies (I couldn’t even tell which one) choked out Nagata with his gi.  There was a promo afterward.  It sounded like a singles challenge for Nagata.

Winners: Kazushi Sakuraba and Yuji Nagata

5) Minoru Suzkui and Shelton Benjamin vs. Toru Yano and The Great Muta

Muta and Yano had a sweet entrance.  Great Muta’s music was played live and costume dragons danced on the stage.  Muta had barbed wire on the shoulder pads of his ring jacket.  This was such a badass entrance as it made it seem like Yano was leading this crazy monster to the ring.  Yano had this great evil grin too.  This a really entertaining match.  When Muta was involved, it was more of a brawl.  Taichi attempted to interfere, but he got the mist from Muta.  Yano exposed a turnbuckle as well.  Finish came when Muta gave the mist to Suzuki and Yano rolled him up for the win.  Fun to watch and it protected Muta from taking any bumps.

Winners: Toru Yano and The Great Muta

6) King of Destroyer Match (KO, TKO or SUBMISSIONS ONLY): Togi Makabe vs. Bad Luck Fale

This match some good moments, but it went too long for what it was.  Some of the early parts where Fale was playing big man heel were not really exciting.  Makabe made his babyface comeback after taking a huge powerbomb from Fale and getting up at 9.  Makabe ended up power bombing Fale through a table outside and then nailed two King Kong knee drops for the ten count winning via TKO.  This had some good moments, but it went too long and the pacing suffered.

Winner: Togi Makabe

7) Hirooki Goto vs. Katsuyori Shibata

This match was what you’d expect.  Tons of stiff shots and suplexes.  Of course they played off the double KO spot from their first match, but it wasn’t as believable as the first time.  It also had the kickout at 1 spots.  Some crazy stiff head butts from both as usual.  Goto finally got his win over Shibata with the Shoten Kai.  The crowd was really into and responded well.  Excellent match but not the best in the series.

Winner: Hirooki Goto

8) IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Prince Devitt(c) vs. Kota Ibushi

And yet another awesome entrance as Devitt comes out in a coffin carried by masked, caped people that looked they were from Stanley Kubrick’s “Eyes Wide Shut”.  Also, Devitt has face and body makeup depicting a crazy looking zombie.  I made none of that up.  There must be a contest backstage to see who can come up with the best entrance of the night.  Match started off good then Bullet Club started to interfere.  Ibushi dived on all them but they kept interfering.  Then the Bullet Club members where banned from ringside and became fair and square.  The matched finished hot too.  Towards the end, they played off last year’s spot where Devitt did the Avalanche Bloody Sunday but Ibushi reversed it into a smooth top rope hurricanrana.  Match ended with Ibushi hitting the Phoenix Splash to become the NEW IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.  Great match, and that’s the fourth new champion tonight.  As Rowdy Roddy Piper from Summer Slam 91′ would say, “What a night!”.

Winner: Kota Ibushi 

9) IWGP Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada(c) vs. Tetsuya Naito

The first ten minutes were okay and then the next ten or so were fantastic.  Great back and forth action, with unexpected counters and extremely close near falls.  If this were to have gone on last, I wouldn’t have minded.  Naito looked like he earned his spot and took Okada to the limit.  Both guys worked their submissions in as well, both getting near tap out finishes.  Naito showed slight shades of aggressive heel but still playing the underdog babyface.  The finishing stretch was very exciting and the tombstone counter at the end was creative and very well done.  Okada breaks the streak of crowning new champions.

Winner: Kazuchika Okada

10) IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura(c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Tanahashi had live entrance music as Marty Freeman from Megadeth played guitar following Tanahashi to the ring.  Nakamura topped that with pole dancers in his entrance.  Nakamura was also wearing a red jacket that either Freddie Mercury or Michael Jackson would where in 1988.  The entrances tonight have been outstanding.  If anybody from WWE is watching tonight, they better take notes.  I doubt Wrestlemania XXX will have as many creative entrances as tonight.  As you’d expect, these two had a great match.  They both kicked out of each other’s finishers but after the second High Fly Flow, Nakamura was done.  Hopefully this means we can now slowly build to Okada/Nakamura down the line.  Usual Tanahashi victory title speech afterwards to send the crowd home happy.

Winner: Hiroshi Tanahashi

OVERALL

I liked last year’s Wrestle Kingdom more as I felt it had a better flow to it.  The first half was good and the second half was excellent.  Still, this was a great show from top to bottom.  The entrances tonight were off the charts and I hope people from WWE were watching to get them inspired.  Awesome show, as you’d expect at this point from NJPW.  With Tanahashi as IC champ, it opens up the door for a whole new set of title matches.  I think Naito will bounce back and build his way to another title shot possibly in the summer before the G1.  I’d expect Goto/Okada pretty soon too based on the booking.

9/10

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