Welcome to the Road to New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest event of the year, WRESTLE KINGDOM 11.
The Annual January 4th show has been a staple of the Japanese wrestling calendar for over 25 years, and this year’s show looks set to be action packed. Before we look at the entire card, we need to look at one of the main talking points of this show, as we could be witnessing a real turning point in the company, as two stars look set to shine on January 4th. One Year Ago...
Last Years Wrestle Kingdom featured 3 matches that were all MOTY contenders, as Katsuyori Shibata defeated Ishii in a brutal contest for the NEVER Openweight title, Shinsuke Nakamura successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental title against the Bullet Club leader AJ Styles, and in the 5 star main event, Kazuchika Okada finally defeated the ace of NJPW, Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight title, which was the culmination of a 4 year feud which finally crowned Okada as the top star of the company.
However, this day was also important for what happened backstage too, as it saw 4 of the top stars hand in their notice. Nakamura, Karl Anderson, Doc Gallows, and AJ Styles. Each have gone onto moderate (Gallows and Anderson) to great (Nakamura) to outstanding success (AJ Styles, you may have heard of him). These four stars, as well as an injury to Hiroshi Tanahashi, lead to the creation of new stars to help the company continue the growth it had found thanks to the new exposure in the western world brought on by its streaming service, NJPWworld, as well as NJPW on AXS TV in the US. The Year of the Rising Stars
Throughout the year we saw the rise of two stars in particular, firstly was Tetsuya Naito, who’s Los Ingobernables de Japon group became one of the hottest acts in wrestling. He started the year with a loss to GOTO at WK10, however his ride to the top started shortly afterwards with a victory in the NJPW Cup, giving him a shot at the IWGP championship.
Naito would go on to win the championship, and defend it until Okada eventually regained the title shortly before the G1 Climax. Naito would go into the G1 climax and build up an impressive record before meeting with another man on the rise on the final night of the B Block, more on him later. Naito would then go on to challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental title, then held by Michael Elgin (someone who would have featured prominently on this card if not for an injury sustained in a match with Naito). Naito won the title and defended it throughout the year. Naito continues to be one of the biggest stars in the company, and this show serves as a way to cement his place on the top of the card as he faces Hiroshi Tanahashi. Tanahashi’s name is synonymous with the Tokyo dome and this encounter could steal the show.
The second person that has had an outstanding year was Kenny Omega. Kenny Omega has been a long-standing fixture of the Japanese wrestling scene in DDT and AJPW before jumping to NJPW. Omega started the year losing the Junior Heavyweight title to KUSHIDA at Wrestle kingdom 10, however the next night at New Years Dash, he would make a huge mark on the company.
During a tag match where he and AJ Styles took on Shinsake Nakamura and YOSHI-HASHI, Omega scored the win by pinning the IWGP Intercontinental title. He not only announced he was entering heavyweight competition, he challenged Nakamura to a title match, and then proceeded to attach the outgoing AJ Styles, ousting him from the Bullet Club. Omega would not get his match with the departing Nakamura, as he was stripped of the title, he instead would win the title in a match over Hiroshi Tanahashi, cementing his new role as a heavyweight. Omega would lose the title later in the year against Michael Elgin in the companies first ever ladder match (again, his original opponent Tanahashi would be pulled from the match due to injury). Omega would then enter his first G1 Climax tournament. In the pre tournament press conference, he would say this.
“Wow, my first G1, it’s a big deal right? However, I’m hearing a very big shortage of clicks, and that’s because I know that you little dickwads, a lot of you anyway, are on the payroll. I know that the company pays you to take pictures of your favourite wrestlers, and that’s ok because it is my job at the G1 this year to prove, A, a lot of these guys are washed up, B, a lot of these guys are overrated, and C, a mixture of A and B. (make sure you translate that Kudi) Now, of course, I’m going to win, and of course, I’m going to do my job and what’s expected of me, which is to get good matches out of all of these pieces of shit.”
How did that turn out you ask? Kenny Omega became the first westerner to win the G1 Climax, and on the way he had a 5 star match with Tetsuya Naito. (Hunt it out) Omega would go on to defend his Wrestle Kingdom title opportunity against CHOAS members GOTO and YOSHI-HASHI, putting him in place to challenge the IWGP Champion Kazuchika Okada on the biggest stage in Japan. An Unhappy Ending?
Will NJPW leave their biggest show of the year with the leaders of the two biggest villain stables holding their two biggest championships? An Omega victory catapults him into the very top bracket of competitors and cements him as a star in the company. Naito at this stage could see a victory confirm the place he has held in the top star bracket with his title runs of the previous year.
Both of the men have tough challenges in front of them, and their matches lead to many interesting scenarios.
Come back tomorrow as we run down the entire Wrestle Kingdom 11 card, and then on Tuesday we will have our Wrestle Kingdom 11 Predictions contest before we follow the show live on Wednesday over at our Twitter.
You can watch Wrestlekingdom live on January 4th at 8am over on NJPWWORLD (sign up guide here), you can also see 25 previous January 4th shows, as well as all last years NJPW title matches FOR FREE on NJPWWORLD right now. Our twitter, facebook and links to subscribe to the podcast are all avaliable on the right had side of the screen.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
NEW EPISODES EVERY SUNDAYArchives
March 2017
Categories
All
|