Will Ospreay Vs Kenny Omega - NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 (4/1/23)

  

Just a little bit of housekeeping here before mania week puts me too far behind in my 2023 viewing.  Ospreay/Omega feels like the biggest match this year I’ve not shared my views on, mainly because back in early January I was cranky as hell having just been diagnosed with a hernia and was not in the mood for the high-end athletic ability of Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega.  After Kenny’s great match with El Hijo Del Vikingo last week I was finally in the mood to revisit his big Dome Show encounter with Ospreay over the IWGP US Championship.

The first 80% of this match is absolutely fantastic and on another level to any other wrestling match I’ve seen this year.  

You know both guys are gonna bring flawless execution of their brand of wrestling to the table, but the bonus was they brought the aggression and petty hate to the match that was warranted after the shots fired leading up to Wrestle Kingdom.  A minute in they're already doing nasty bumps into the guard rail to go along with their high-octane offence - not a hint of a feeling out process at all in this one.  Omega works over the back for a while and Ospreay hits some of his regular routines, but then they start sprinkling in spots worthy of the biggest show of the year.  Omega does the Japanese table stomp spot to Ospreay, who retaliates with a suplex onto the metal frame of the underside of the table followed by a sensational corkscrew dive.

Where things reach the next level is Omega giving Ospreay a DDT onto the exposed turnbuckle which busted Ospreay open.  A huge spot which sets up the next chapter in this match - the butchering of Ospreay.  With blood streaming down his face, Ospreay then has his head repeatedly bashed into the broken table by Omega.  He then went on a parade of piledrivers, dragon suplexes and V-Triggers that reduced Ospreay to a lifeless ragdoll being flung around the ring without mercy.  Vicious Kenny is the best Kenny.

And then we come to the final 20% of this match where the match went in a direction I hated.  Despite hanging onto the match by a thread for the last 5 minutes since he got busted open, Ospreay then rallies to run through his finisher combos in a baffling comeback.....only to lose to Omega anyway.  I’m an Ospreay fan generally speaking, but I can’t stand his closing stretches where every match, regardless of his opponent, he insists on running through the Oscutter, Stormbreaker and Hidden Blade where the first couple will always be kicked out of.  It’s like a bastardised, modern version of Undertaker’s Chokeslam, Last Ride and Tombstone Piledriver nearfalls during streak matches – only Ospreay is doing it every match he has!!  I remember when the Hidden Blade was created as Ospreay’s death move and it concussed Ibushi in the Tokyo Dome, it was his Burning Hammer, and now he’s hitting the fucking thing 3 times a match and they always kick out of the first one.  I'll be here for another 1,000 words if I go into detail about how dumb the counter to the Oscutter looks. 

For me the ending of this match would have been so much better if Ospreay just toned down his ridiculous comeback, maybe limit it to one big hope spot, and he loses to Omega about 5 minutes earlier than he did to put over the blood loss and how on the ropes he looked.  To insert Ospreay’s ‘epic’ closing stretch actually turned an extraordinary match into an ordinary match.  In these moments Ospreay isn't a wrestler who reacts to the situation he's faced with.  He resorts to his instincts and empties his chamber when it's time to go home - and after years of watching him do in every match it all starts to ring hollow.  This is why I'm never quite all the way in with him and have to stop short of 'wrestler of the year' or 'match of the year' talk.  

That Kenny Omega though, he's off to a good start for 2023 wrestler of the year conversations.

So I don't know what to do with this match given how much I loved the majority of the action, but how irritating I found the ending.  I'm gonna add it to the MOTY ongoing list, but right at the bottom so it sets the standard of what to beat to make the list.  Typically I only add matches that are the whole package that I enjoyed from start to finish, but this is too good to write off.

Ed's Ongoing 2023 MOTY List

Kairi Vs Mercedes Moné - NJPW Battle of the Valley (18/2/23)

Mercedes Moné didn’t make a great first impression in NJPW.  The IWGP Womens title match before her debut lasted six minutes buried in the undercard just to let you know how important the division she’s joined is, her new music is a big downgrade and she completely blew hitting her new finisher on Kairi.  It was a lacklustre arrival after months of excited speculation that Sasha Banks was returning to wrestling and not with WWE.    

Thankfully in the never-ending world of pro-wrestling there’s always a chance to make a second impression.  At Battle of the Valley Mercedes challenged her former colleague Kairi for the newly established IWGP Womens title and even on a show headlined by the famous rivalry of Okada Vs Tanahashi, it was the womens match that felt like the main event - Echos of Takeover Brooklyn.   To the fans in the arena, Mercedes’ Tokyo Dome disappointment didn’t matter, she was a bonefide star and the reason they were live in attendance. 

Mercedes took the early advantage in the match, showing no-ring rust as she ran through some lucha inspired armdrags and threw Kairi into the turnbuckle posts before focusing in on the arm to reduce the impact of her cutlass backfist and insane elbow drop down the pike.  As popular as Mercedes is, once the bell rings she’s at her best when she’s a heel and here she leaned into those mannerisms that have served her well in the past.  Mercedes paid tribute to Hana Kimura in her entrance with the gas mask and furry boots, but as the match got more intense, Mercedes ripped off one of the furry boots and chucked it at Kairi. 

This wasn’t just the Moné show though.  Kairi put on a great performance throughout the match, incredible facials and selling to put over Mercedes offence, but when it was her time to attack she made her impact.  Her rolling spear was a highlight, her pirate march corner elbow is always over, and in kayfabe her ‘Anchor’ double leg submission really worked well against Mercedes who’s knees would have taken a self-inflicted pounding from the multiple meteora’s she went for in this high-stakes match.

As the match heated up, Mercedes paid tribute to her best friend with a Belly-to-Bayley nearfall which the fans loved.  I hate the three-amigos tribute spot to Eddie Guerrero, so when Kairi countered the third suplex into a nasty vertical drop DDT I was howling.    This match took place on the same day as The Elimination Chamber, so I was certainly not in the  mood to see more ref bumps in big matches when Mercedes pulled the referee in harms way to eat Kairi’s backfist.  Thankfully this one set up for a big set piece spot up on the ramp resulting in Kairi powerbombing Mercedes through a table with the chefs kiss of her celebrating by kicking Moné’s fake dollar bills from her entrance down to her limp body.  Kairi dragged Mercedes back into the ring and attempted the insane elbow, only for Mercedes to counter by raising her feet – a textbook counter to a top rope move you’ve seen 1,000 times but looked incredible this time around.  Case in point, this is followed up immediately by Mercedes doing a frog splash and Kairi getting her feet up which looked less impressive. 

After some lovely counter-wrestling, Mercedes was able to get Kairi into a Gory special position and float her over into a DDT for the Moné Maker to end the match and win the title.  There must have been some nerves from Mercedes about executing her new finisher after the botch inside the Tokyo Dome, but this time everything went swimmingly. 

Mercedes is in a really exciting time in her career.  She was already in my mind the best womens wrestler the US has ever seen even if WWE never fully appreciated her, but now she has the chance to break new ground by being a top level drawing star in the business and establishing the womens division in New Japan.  Selfishly for me it’ll be great to see her have all these fresh matches with great wrestlers from Stardom rather than get back on the WWE hamster wheel against the wrestlers she’s spent the last decade facing.  I always admire it when wrestlers bet on themselves and go for a fresh challenge (look at Jon Moxley), and in Moné I’ve no doubt this next chapter of her career will be a successful one. 

Ed's Ongoing 2023 MOTY List

Zack Sabre Jr Vs Tomohiro Ishii - NJPW The New Beginning in Sapporo (5/2/23)

How fitting that in the week that Lanny Poffo passed away, we were treated to yet another battle between these two former 'Champions of the British'

This was the first defence of Zack Sabre Jr's NJPW Television title after he became the inaugural champion at WrestleKingdom when he defeated Ren Narita in the tournament finals.   New Japan have had a chequered past with introducing new championships over the last decade.  The NEVER Openweight title originally was supposed to be defended exclusively on NJPW's NEVER events, before it quickly turned into an undercard title coveted by typical strong style wrestlers such as Katsuyori Shibata, Hirooki Goto and Tomohiro Ishii in show-stealing matches.  The IWGP United States Championship never really differentiated itself enough from the IWGP IC title as their US expansion stalled and both titles felt devalued by the existence of each other.  The NEVER Trios titles have been pretty worthless ever since their inception and the KOPW title was an pandemic era experiment that should have been abandoned by now.  By making 35-year old Zack Sabre Jr your first TV Champion instead of Ren Narita, and the next challenger being 47-year old Ishii, the early premise of the title being something for the younger wrestlers to challenge over already feels compromised.  What does give me hope that this title can find it's niche is in it's time limit rules.  By imposing a 15-minute time limit for every title match, it forces wrestlers to cut out the fat and the stalling of the house style and cut to the chase in a dramatic fashion.  I was a big fan of the 2012-2018 boom in New Japan, but have long since grown tired of the 30-40 minute epics that get served up for title matches in this company.  The main event of this show was Hiromu Vs Yoh for 30 minutes for example.  Who has time for that? 

Another cool aspect of this title is that all TV title matches are free to watch on NJ World without a subscription, so if you have a spare 15 minutes today there's no excuse not to check this out!

Zack is now the leader of The Mighty Don't Kneel, teaming up with Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste (remember TM61?) which feels like a step up after being an upper-tier guy in Suzuki-Gun since he joined the company six years ago.  He also now sports the famous WrestlingClique Orange and Black colour scheme 😉  I'm not certain this will ever lead to him becoming a top guy in the company, but it's a positive sign nevertheless that he has been given the opportunity to lead a faction and carve this title in his image.  

These two have met six times before in singles action, so by now both men should know what to expect from each other, but Ishii has a trick up his sleeve straight away with a cross armbreaker which transitioned into a kneebar.  Zack was thrown off guard slightly by Ishii's 'teckers' as he called it,  This later turned into Zack returning the favour and firing off some Ishii like chops in the corner to let him know two could play at that game.  

The match then settled down more into the styles clash we expect of these two.  Ishii brings the brutal strikes and Zack goes for the submission work and show-off pins and as the clock ticked on it was a battle of whether Zack could snatch a win before Ishii knocked him out.  I particularly enjoyed Ishii countered an arm wringer with a headbutt.  I don't want to see a code red become a staple part of Ishii's moveset, it felt a bit PWG-era John Cena for my liking, but it was a cool spot in isolation.  The last 3 minutes or so of the match you could feel the pace and intensity increase as Ishii knew he needed unload his big hitters now-or-never otherwise the title would stay with Zack in the event of a draw.  There was a good nearfall off the sliding lariat for a 2 count, before Zack countered the 2nd lariat attempt into a roll up.  Zack's offence is perfect for this TV title environment where a quick, sneaky pin out of nowhere doesn't feel like a deflating finish.  That's actually how I expected this match to go down, so I was surprised when the brainbuster was countered into a Zack Driver to end this one with 22 seconds left on the clock.  

It might not be the best match these two have ever had together, but I'll champion anything that proves you can have a great match within 15 minutes - ESPECIALLY in this company.  

Ed's Ongoing 2023 MOTY List

Match of the Week - AJ Styles vs. Minoru Suzuki - NJPW G1 Climax 2014, 1st August 2014

A few days ago on the discord we were discussing AJ Styles' best match. Me and Ed seemed to agree that the choice was likely his TNA match with Samoa Joe at Turning Point 2005, though other matches were mentioned. Both of us were interested in revisiting his New Japan work, as it marked a career resurgence for AJ Styles after stagnating within TNA. His NJPW work elevated AJ back to the forefront of everyone's mind when discussing the best wrestler in the world, and that is why I chose this match for the Match of the Week. Watching AJ here is such a joy. He's still amazing today, but he's into his 40s at the time of writing - here he's so agile and fluid in his movements, which is a reminder of what a special, special talent he is and was.

My immediate impression of this match is that Suzuki's facial expressions throughout this are priceless. Odd thing to notice first, but I love that he's just an angry old man and he's here to let AJ Styles know it. Within the match itself it's as if he's getting frustrated that AJ would dare to even strike him. He brought the violence to the match, which was complemented by some fantastic selling by AJ. The audible selling of Styles is magnificent. It's the sort of thing I've always lauded Ric Flair for in the past, and I give similar praise to Styles here. It truly put over the nasty work that Suzuki was doing to his arm. This is a prime example of two guys using their strengths to improve the match. Speaking of which, I think this is a feather in the cap of both men considering how wildly different their styles are, that they were able to have a match of this quality.

I loved the limb work, in particular the nasty little touches that Suzuki would do. He wouldn't just put in an arm bar, he'd twist at the fingers, or he'd move to a crossface. He wouldn't just stretch the right arm, he'd start working over the left one if it was available. Every hold he put on worked because of how he mixed it up. This is how you do engaging holds. For a match that concentrates a lot of work on more subtle aspects like stretching fingers, AJ's audible screams helped put it over to the crowd. Visually, this arm work looked stunning, and suitably aggressive for what they were going for. 

This in turn led to Styles himself becoming noticeably more aggressive later in the match. He'd gone from being flashy AJ Styles in the first few minutes, to a guy that had to do the nitty gritty stuff to compete with Suzuki. In turn, that puts Suzuki over even in eventual defeat - he's beaten by Styles, but he forced AJ to come out of his comfort zone and gave him the fight of his life. 

While Suzuki's offence looked fantastic, and certainly warranted the selling that Styles delivered, it's the performance of Styles that puts it over the top. From the subtle way he'd try and regain feeling between moves, to the moment where he stops using it because it was a liability. He made us, the viewer, feel every bit of pain in his arm. 

The best part of this match is the struggle between moves. Each move used feels like either guy has to fight tooth and nail for. In particular the suspense they built up down the finishing stretch for their big moves. I loved Suzuki's strategy of using the ankle lock to bait Styles into a counter that would expose the injured arm, leading to a wonderful tease and struggle in an arm bar. That arm bar leads to a Styles Clash that AJ can't capitalise on due to his injured arm. The finishing sequence had practically no near falls, but the drama and energy was built from the previous arm work that made the finish exciting in spite of a lack of near falls.

One glaring negative is I did think the interference was totally unnecessary. It added nothing to the match, nor did it add any drama - especially coming right in the middle of the match. Instead it just felt like a distraction to a match I was already thoroughly enjoying. 

Overall I had a blast revisiting some NJPW AJ Styles work. This might not be his best match from this run, but it's certainly up there and a match I wouldn't mind watching again and again. An excellent match from two great wrestlers.