Wrestle Kingdom 15

[Slayer]

what's crazier to me with Ibushi's New Japan resume is that he wasn't even under any official contract with them until after his first G1 final

Also I had forgotten he was NEVER champion, had to refresh my memory and saw that was during the run from mid-2018 until Shingo's win a year ago when the title was changing hands nearly every match with no successful defenses (including Ibushi, where I remembered his banger with Ospreay at WK13 but forgot it was for that belt)

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

ill have more thoughts and shit for the moty thread later but that was a fantastic show.

 

[Laz]

...so how'd my man SHINGO look?

 

[King Kamala]

He looked great as always. Really hope he gets pushed higher than NEVER division but him being the guy in the hoss division isn't the worst thing. That was probably best Jeff Cobb's best match I've seen. SHINGO finally got the hoss fire that we wanted to see out of the Smilin' (I guess now Scowlin'?) Hawaiian.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

That main event, that fucking main event was perfect. Ibushi needs to be in the discussion for best in the world, and Jay White is the total package. He cut one of the greatest promos ever post match, too. Give that match all the stars!

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1346496991228874752

 

[King Kamala]

Man, what a show. Night 2 definitely topped Night 1. All meat, no fat (except the comedy opener but even that served its purpose). Even matches that I thought would be lowlights of the weekend (SANDA/EVIL, the Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles match) ended up being very solid. NEVER Openweight and Junior Heavyweight Title matches were fantastic and the main event was one of the best matches I've seen.

Glad Ibushi has reached wrestling immortality. He has athleticism and workmate of a Shawn Michaels with weirdo charisma and personality of an Ultimate Warrior. Total five star stud.

 

[King Kamala]

Also tbh the Tokyo Dome didn't seem any less empty than those WrestleKingdoms they did with TNA in the late '00s. (cue grumbling from @The Valeyard and @Laz ). They announced 20,400 over both nights and that doesn't seem like too much wrestling BS.

 

[Big Beard Booty Daddy]

Also tbh the Tokyo Dome didn't seem any less empty than those WrestleKingdoms they did with TNA in the late '00s. (cue grumbling from @The Valeyard and @Laz ). They announced 20,400 over both nights and that doesn't seem like too much wrestling BS.

I'm listening to WOR now and Meltz said they actually undersold the number. They said there were about 13,000 for Night 1, and they sold about 16,000. They were told that they didn't have to refund tickets if they already sold them, but they didn't want to give a big number to show off that they had a good turnout.

 

[King Kamala]

I really, really liked how the cards were split up too btw. Night 1 seemed more focused on stars of current (Naito, Okada, Tanahashi, having Riki Chosu (and his crying grandson) introduce the show) while Night 2 was focused on New Japan's stars heading into the future (Ibushi obviously fits both nights, SANADA and EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi).

 

[cobainwasmurdered]

sanada/evil while not on the same level as the other big 3 matches was also really fun. Dick Togo's death bump through the table was hilarious. I'd rather SANADA not just get fed to Ibushi right away as a token challenge because he really is just becoming Hirooki Goto.

Dash starts at like 130 am pacific so not sure if ill watch live or not