Dylan Waco

Pretty sure that is one of Ricky's kids. He's had a kid with him as a towel boy/manager who works the crowd for YEARS now on indie dates

Here is one that will (possibly) cause some eyes to bug out. At least if you we are restricting to 88 and 89 Fuyuki over Kawada.

I have to say the announced Feb shows look very interesting to me. They are the kind of shows I would actually consider purchasing depending on the cost. I have no interest in Goto as a challenger, but I will grant he's probably the best option in the short term

I will probably do a top 200 or 300 matches of the year by mid march at the latest

Los Matadores v. Thunder and Lightning - WWC 1/5 We don't get very many full matches from Puerto Rico, so when they show up I always consider them a treat. This wasn't a great match, but it was complete, it was a well worked tag, and it was the best Los Matadores match I've seen by far. This was really pretty straight forward with your face shine, your heel control and then your babyface comeback,but I thought they did some cool stuff working with the staples. I really liked Thunder and Lightning's punches, their big lariats and the mid-match devastation device variation. The hope spot with one of the Matadors getting pulled off apron was good stuff and I liked the powerslam before the Eddie Guerrero tribute finish a lot too. Kind of a marginal match to kick things off with, but again it's modern PR and we don't get a ton of that this complete.

Tenzan/Honma/BUSHI/Captain NJ vs. Liger/Nakanishi/Super Strong Machine/Yohei Komatsu I actually thought this was pretty good. I wouldn't tell anyone to go run off and watch it, or present it as a hidden gem, but Komatsu was far better here than he was in the heavily praised singles opener he had from the last iPPV. Here he actually sold, worked at different speeds, timed his comebacks well, et. I actually liked the entire vibe with him in this, as it came across as in ring Japanese wrestling dojo ritual starting with his teammates literally throwing him to the lions, and proceeding from there with him constantly winding up in a position to get his ass beat no matter what he did well. Sure he wasn't washing Liger's balls and Sasaki wasn't on hand to kill anyone, but other than that it fit the mold. The worst part of this was Nakanishi who's offense looked terrible, and the Honma headbutt which had good form but completely missed the target. The finish actually played off of the young lion staple/finish of the 12/23 match Komatsu was in, so I liked that too. Young Bucks vs. Time Splitters vs. Forever Hooligans vs. TAKA Michinoku/Taichi I admit I loved the Back To The Future entrance from the Time Splitters. For mindless spotfests this was fine. Yeah this is a style I have little use for for the most part, but I've seen far worse matches within the style than this. I actually kind of liked the Young Bucks sneak attack, and the ECWesque dive train that started with two people nearly dying on a suplex over the top gone wrong was kind of entertaining. Honestly if matches like this are going to exist I would prefer they not even have the formalities of opening "feeling each other" work, so that part of the match could have been chucked out, but generally a multi-man or multi-team match worked this way is going to be far better than one on one where the no selling and just getting shit in, to get shit in, aspects become almost impossible to disguise. This wasn't any good, but I didn't hate it either. Davey Boy Smith Jr./Lance Archer vs. Karl Anderson/Doc Gallows The first half was this okay, but it was a match that got worse and worse. I really hate Karl Anderson at this point. Even when he doing things are theoretically okay, they just don't look right. And that ace crusher variation is shit. I thought Gallows looked fine in this, but it really is a huge waste of him to saddle him with Anderson, I'd match rather he be teaming with Tonga or working singles. Anyway, the front end of this with the heat section on Harry Smith was okay, but shortly after Archer tagged in this morphed into back and fourth, low impact, uninteresting wrestling. Rob Conway vs. Satoshi Kojima Okay match. I love Bruce Tharpe's Col Robert Parker tribute gimmick so I enjoyed all of his overacting and ridiculous antics. People were talking this up like Kojima really busted his ass, but I thought he looked really tired at points in this. I did think his big spots were well timed, but I didn't think it was a particularly good performance from him. My favorite moments were probably Conway trolling Tenzan with Mongolian chops and Kojima's finishing lariat. Actually the best part about this was how hyped Kojima was to be posing with Race post-match. Nagata/Sakuraba vs. Daniel and Rolles Gracie Not good. I thought Nagata was unbelievably awful in this. The shoving exchange he had with one of these guys was just about the most unintentionally comical thing I've ever seen in a wrestling match, his selling was just overworked dog shit, his attempts to work exchanges pathetic. I didn't see anything exciting out of Sakuraba either, but I didn't think he embarrassed himself the way Nagata did. I didn't expect much out of this, and it wasn't as bad as some or saying, but it was easily the worst match up to this point on the show. Muta/Yano vs. Suzuki/Benjamin Man this was a chore to get through. It wasn't even that bad a match, but it's sad watching Muta who is barely able to walk, Benjamin is the shits, and the fact that Suzuki has been wasted on this Yano feud just pisses me off. As a match I actually thought it was put together fairly well, and they did a reasonable job disguising the short comings of people, but it's a match that was always going to have a stupid finish and was never going to appeal to me. Makabe vs. Fale For a match that was sold as the "out of control brawl of the show," with Makabe supposedly scouting the Dome and surrounding areas for potential advantages in street fight, this was remarkably tame and at times incredibly tedious. The first third or so of this I thought was really uninteresting, and almost boring. It wasn't helped by how bad some of Makabe's punches looked. People might think striking is overemphasized by some of us, but in a street fightish atmosphere you'd better know how to throw hands and there were some shots in here where he looked clueless. Having said that I did think this got better as it went along. After the missed knee drop off the top, they did a decent job setting up the big spots, including some teases that I thought worked well (I thought the tease of the table dive was a strong spot). Fale took a nice bump on the table powerbomb, and I did like the finish of this too. I actually thought this slowly morphed into a pretty decent match, but I have to admit that I spent a lot of this cursing NJPW for leaving Ishii off of a show, when he would have had a better match with either of these guys than they had with each other. Shibata vs. Goto I was all prepared to hate this after hearing about the dueling one count stuff, so I was fairly surprised when this started off with a real heat section, Goto working as a true undergo and Shibata as a true asskicker. They had just about hooked me in....and then we got the back drop driver contest, the dueling one counts I was dreading and the uber-staged double knockdown and man did that take me almost completely out of this. I understand those are staples of the Japanese scene to one degree or another, but it's not a norm I'm ever going to being able to enjoy on any level. Then they went into the sequence with the weird overhead "breaker" moves (not clue what else to call them) and those just felt really out of place in this match to me. I can enjoy a good shoot headbutt, but by the time they had gone to that I pretty much had no fucks left to give. I guess this was a nice return win for Goto, but the way this was worked they made me not care. Devitt vs. Ibushi At this point the Bullet Club gimmick just sort of makes me laugh because if any other company on earth were running this interference stuff as a theme of matches it would be universally panned and loathed, but for some reason there are a lot of people who like it in New Japan. I thought it was funny how Devitt kept avoiding real contact on Ibushi's dropkicks so this match had that. Actually this had the promise of being decent during the initial heat section, even with all the Bullet Club b.s., but that immediately went out of the window because Ibushi really hates to sell. The guy took a half dozen insane bumps here, but they really went nowhere at all and the only thing enjoyable about Devitt was his get up. Not a fan. Okada vs. Naito This was better than I expected. I don't hate Okada, but I really don't care about him either. Naito has been pretty bad since his return, though he was good enough in the 12/23 tag match and Masato Tanaka forced him to sell some in their matches. Still on paper the idea of these two going thirty minutes sounded pretty nightmarish, and on scale I thought this was pretty good. Naito has definitely gotten better with his pacing and selling. The guy is still not great at either, and at times not good at either, but it's not distractingly terrible like it was during the G1 either. I thought it was a smart move to stay away from limb work here as it didn't expose him on that front, and instead it allowed them to work an almost WWEish main event, with each guy getting big runs of offense. In that sense I thought this was fairly well put together as none of the transitions felt out of place, and though this was a back and fourth match, it was a back and fourth match based on real momentum swings. Having said that I thought the momentum too many times and this really seemed needlessly long. The big spot with Naito's submission probably worked well in real time, but knowing the match still had ten more minutes I was left thinking "what the fuck, why?" Some of the spots in this were cuter than I would like, but generally speaking this came across like two guys pissed that they were demoted from the main event, who were going out to prove that was a mistake. This might have been my favorite NJPW main event match, involving two clear NJPW main eventers, since the resurgence, which is one way of saying I liked it well enough, but didn't love it. Nakamura vs. Tanahashi I didn't hate this, but I don't think you could ever convince me to watch it a second time. The idea of dueling body part work was there, and I am a mark for that, but the execution was just completely off. One of my big criticisms of the Okada v. Tanahashi Invasion Attack match everyone fawns over is that the arm work is there, and Okada does sell, but he still uses his arm for the overwhelming majority of his offense and it was really hard for me to get past that. Here Nakamura's leg gets worked over. I liked the set up for it, I like Nakamura more than any other NJPW main event guys, and I liked aspects of the way they built the leg work, but virtually every offensive move Nakamura did in this match was with his legs. Worse yet, he showed much less weakness in the leg, than Okada did in the aforementioned Invasion Attack match. This also felt way more "your turn, my turn" than the previous match did, though it may have seemed that way in part because of the way the offensive spots were worked. I did like the way the finish was done here with the cloverleaf spots, and shortly after that Nakamura getting his head taken off with a cross body, but I didn't think this was a strong showing for Nakamura, and Tanahashi didn't do anything in this match that jumped out at me either. Overall Thoughts The show was long as fuck and felt long as fuck. Last years show had the better best match (Nakamura v. Sakuraba), but other than that I thought they were reasonably comparable in terms of quality, this show being a bit worse. I thought the main event of the 12/23 ppv was easily better than any match on this show, and I liked the 12/21 ppv they did a lot better than this one (though that was admittedly helped by the novelty of it). There were some really cool entrances to be sure, but when the "pre-show" match was either my second or third favorite match on the show it is a disappointment no matter what my expectations were coming in. I'm really glad I didn't fork over cash for this show like I originally planned to.

Daniel Bryan fans have been screaming the sky was falling about him since he lost in 18 seconds at WM

There was a ton of good stuff in 2013, but there was also a lot of bad booking. On the Board, the problem was that the TOS came to late. I enjoy posting things here or there, and there are some decent threads, but the reign of the trolls and gimmick accounts chased off a ton of people who aren't likely to come back.

I actually already mentioned that to Loss, his follow up was pretty funny, I'll let him deliver it

I will post my review in a few hours when I am done with the show. One thing I would say Loss is that you should watch the main event of the 12/23 show which I thought was actually as good an NJPW main event players match as I've seen out of these guys. The other thing I would say is that you should watch the 12/21 show to see what the main event guys do against undercard talent because I thought that was an interesting show. I agree with a lot of your thoughts, but not all of them. More later.

Harper is clearly working Henry Lee Lucas gimmick, the truck driver bit works

The problem with the fan voting being a huge indicator is both the Naito issue and the fact that Okada drew the exact same or better against guys not named Tanahashi as he did against guys named Tanahashi. I can't get passed that because historically, with the strong drawing aces, they are nearly always going to draw at least a little better than other guys, and in every case I can think of they are definitely going to draw much better against the other top guy. I know because of my thoughts on Tanahashi there are people who will dismiss that as bias against him, but it has more to do with the historical research I've done over the last several years, and the strong patterns you normally see that just weren't there last year for the Tanahashi v. Okada matches regardless of what you think about their quality. As I mentioned here before, there is actually more of a record of the "failed" ace Akiyama popping shows, than there is Tanahashi, though none of this should be taken as an attempt to diminish the very strong showing in the Dome this year, and the fact that Nakamura v. Tanahashi was the marquee match. I think NJPW's business has been "very healthy" in the sense that it's been profitable, self sustaining and showing growth for a couple of years, but is it "very healthy' in the sense that it is indicative of a new boom? I think it's still to early to tell, in part because the business model is shifting (we know it is with the WWE in many ways, and we see it obviously with iPPV and New Japan), and in part because it's not like they are doing out of this world business outside of the Dome. Yes they are doing their sellouts of mid-level buildings, and have done strong numbers and relatively strong numbers other places (Yokohama for example), but even Dave Meltzer - about as big an NJPW fan as there is at this point - recently noted that the strength of their business can be easily overstated if you forget they are sometimes running the smaller buildings in a market, presumably because they don't think they can pack the bigger ones. I DO think this is the year where we are going to find out just how far this Tanahashi/Okada/IPPV/Nakamura/whoever the fuck you want to throw into wave is going to go. The talk of them looking to run a Dome tour sounded insane at the time, and still sounds insane to me, but it is clear that NJPW can run a big production and make it feel like a big production, something even their critics readily concede. Here are the questions I would like to see answered going forward for them: 1. Can they finally sell out Sumo Hall for a non-G1 show? For those who think I'm harping on that, keep in mind that this is in many ways their home arena. During a hot period, you would think they could sell it out with some regularity, the fact that they haven't done so for anything other than the G1 final in quite some time is one of the reasons I have trouble trying to quantify just how hot they actually are. 2. Can they put 20,000 people (or more) in the building for the G1 Final? 20,000 is the magic number for me at Seibu. The building would be 2/3rds full, which is a solid showing in a building that size. It would be the first time NJPW had draw more than two houses at 20k or more since the bottom fell out. It would also probably mean that NJPW would have two of the three biggest drawing pro wrestling shows of the year, a feat that would have seemed laughable just three years ago. On top of that it would be an undeniable success, would be something to build on for future G1's and would be something to build on for future stadium shows outside of the existing 1/4 model. 3. Can they continue to grow iPPV business? The problem with this is that to a degree this is speculation. We know the business is good, we know it is at worst stable, and likely growing, and we know it has helped them become a profitable company again. What we don't know is how many people are buying these shows, and whether or not these shows are driving increases in live attendance. Beyond that, it's possible that these shows will NEVER help to increase live attendance, but still be key parts of the business going forward as they are still paying fans, with their eyes on the product. I would say if we see an increase in the number of shows from last year - and last year seemed to have a ton - it would be another notch in NJPW's belt. 4. What about new contenders? Even NJPW super fans seem to acknowledge that something was off with Naito build, and the end result is a weird situation at the top of the card (more on that below). Complicating things, the obvious IWGP title contenders are Nakamura who is coming off of a loss of the secondary title (albeit in the main even of the biggest show of the year) and Shibata, also coming off of a loss on the big show. There have been whispers about Devitt coming up the cards, but he is also coming off of a big loss at the Dome. In order for this run to sustain and grow they need more depth at the top of the cards, and it is going to take smart booking to get there. Right now the second tier of guys (Suzuki, Makabe, Goto) all seem like weak options for title matches, particularly title matches expected to carry iPPV's. 5. What will the roles of Tanahashi and Okada be going forward? In many ways I think this is the key. Because of the way the Naito push came off (and perhaps other factors), and the results of the Dome show, Okada is in a much worse place than he was a few months ago. If the goal was to make the I-C title seem more important by putting it on Tanahashi (something I think was already accomplished under Nakamura) I can see the value in what they are doing, but having Tanahashi and Nakamura main event the show over Okada seems even more unwise after the results of the show than it did to me going in. As it stands all of the logical challengers for Okada are coming off of losses, and the next tier down seems like a stretch (see above). At this point if they run Okada v. a bunch of lame duck challengers, it's possibly Tanahashi could be working against bigger stars and/or more believable opponents. My point is that there is going to be a real challenge here for Gedo and Jado in terms of how they are going to balance Okada and Tanahashi in terms of presentation, challengers and card placement over the next few months. Even if you believe Tanahashi is a bigger, stronger star than Okada (something I'm not at all convinced by), you don't want that star to burn at the expense of Okada. I would personally like to see Voices of Wrestling take on these sort of questions in a written piece or a podcast. I think there is a lot of interesting stuff going on with NJPW and it worth discussing.

I honestly think I would build toward Okada v. Nakamura and Tanahashi v. Shibata as the double main for next years show. Mind you the only one of those guys I'm a fan of is Nakamura, but I think those are matches that could play huge at the Dome. I suspect they will do Okada v. Tanahashi again at the Dome though, and next year might be the best chance to milk it for all it's worth. I also wouldn't be shocked to see Nakamura win the title from Okada and defend it against Tanahashi at the Dome next year. I think running Seibu is well worth the risk. It gives them the opportunity to sell another "super show" and the G1 Finals is the only time they can sell out Sumo as it currently stands so they can play it as a necessity as well. I do think they need to fill it more than half way for it to be considered a real success though. I'm thinking about 18k or so would be the "worth it" mark, with anything over 20k being a strong success. I also think if it works it could have the added benefit of making the Sumo shows feel bigger on their own, which means they might finally sell the place out for something other than the G1.

I think the reaction to this show has been interesting. Following the comments in real time a couple of places it seemed to me that people were looking for things to enjoy about the show for the first half to 2/3rds of it and the entrances were what people latched on to. That sounds like I'm shitting on the show, but I'm not, because that sort of fierce brand loyalty/ability to really get something out of a show that might have been disappointing in other ways is something that only the WWE has really been able to tap into over the years. The people who were hardcore New Japan fans largely seemed to like the show (though in real time, Meltzer was clearly lower on this than could have been expected coming in), though no one is talking about this show they were talking about WK7. Only a couple of people who I expected to hate the show have seen it and commented on it, and both were lukewarm at best which is what I figured. I know probably eight or nine people who I would describe as either first timers, casuals, or middle of the road on NJPW who have already watched and commented this year. These are the people whose response I will be most interested in in the coming days, and I expect to hear more from them. Right now the consensus I'm hearing from them is that it was a show that had a Wrestlemania like atmosphere, but the crowd seemed flat, and that kept them from getting as deeply invested in the matches as they might have normally. Kind of an odd statement given how flat Mania crowds have been at times in recent years, but it's there. I haven't watched the show yet myself. I had originally planned to order it live this year, and already had the day off for it, but the lineup was so horribly unappealing to me on paper I couldn't justify dropping thirty bucks on it. I am looking forward to seeing it though, as NJPW really has succeeded at making it feel like a must see show.

New Japan announced 35k paid for the Dome show which is finishing up now, which I would consider a very good-to-great result for them. They are also running a 30k seat stadium on the last day of the G1 this year which I consider a smart move for a couple of reasons.

Total miracle here as this was lost in the ether for almost 48 hours. I think it's probably one of the five best shows we've ever done.

I thought Jumbo v. Flair was underwhelming too. I enjoyed it, thought it was a very good match, and ranked it reasonably well on the set. But I didn't think it was even close to an upper tier match for that set.

I actually think Cena is the only guy who can beat Taker and it not have negative consequences, but only if he beats him and turns heel in the process.

Good news there as I don't need piles of shit like Edwards and Richards ruining the best show on television.

It's in the WON

So I have decided to review the 12/23 NJPW show as a New Years Day project while I watch bowl games. Sho Tanaka vs Yohei Komatsu I saw this get praise elsewhere so I was sort of psyched to see it. Generally I am a fan of your stripped down, young lions matches, as the guys always work hard, but don't try and go beyond their capabilities, so if anything I was coming in with a bias towards this style of match. Well, this had the look of Kimura v. Fujinami, with your black trunks v. black trunks, grappling sequence early, but I actually thought this was a pretty flat match. I appreciate the idea behind some of this, but I thought this was one of the worst examples I've seen from 2013 of guys not knowing how to change speeds at all. When it was time to go on offense there was absolutely no delay, no struggle, no emotion, no build, it was just someone else's turn to start doing stuff and by god they were going to do it. Very Naito-esque, though unlike Naito these guys would actually grip their backs some at least. I did dig the importance of the Boston Crab, and I kind of like the finish, but I can't get excited about a match where the big runs of offense feel meaningless. TAKA Michinoku & Taichi vs KUSHIDA & BUSHI vs Jado & Gedo I like Gedo as a rule, and Taka looked really good against Tajiri (who doesn't?) but man this had a lot of dead weight in it. Taichi is just embarrassingly awful. Everything he did in this was either off time, looked terrible, or both. I get that he's not really a "serious" player, but he's not funny either and not entertaining at all. Also Jado is shit. I hate his comedy stuff more than I hate anything else in New Japan. KUSHIDA and BUSHI are both limited, but I give it to them - they always work hard, to the point where I wish NJPW would find something of more note to do with them. This match didn't have the flow, pace or big spots you want out of a balls out, workrate, sprint, and it didn't have anything else going for it either. Boring. Toru Yano & Takashi Iizuka vs Jushin Liger & Tiger Mask This match would have benefited a ton from having a heel team with decent offense. It is rare for me to criticize a match on the grounds that the offense was weak, but I don't think Iizuka did anything other than lame looking chokes on Liger, and Liger is a guy who can eat offense and make even piddling shit look good if you just give me a real chance too. This was put together well, and I kind of liked Tiger Mask as your tenth generation copy of Rey Mysterio. I also thought the finishing run was solid, as it was the first time Liger had the chance to do anything of note at all in the match. Still this wasn't much. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Captain New Japan vs Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi & Tomoaki Honma I actually thought this was quite good. I think the WWE in 2013 has shown that trios matches are a good idea across the board, as they are matches that can draw out the best in guys, while hiding their weaknesses. On top of that there is a ton of stuff you can do with the structure that keeps the match logical, without making it uninteresting. You look at this lineup on paper and thing, "ah hell, this is not gonna be much," but really I thought everyone looked good. With guys like Kojima and Tenzan, there biggest aspects are there charisma and identifiable spots, and both guys made good use of them here. Honma's best asset is being the underdog that everyone sort of loves, and he got to be that here in a different setting. Nakanishi is someone you just want to see lariat guys and he did that. Captain New Japan is someone I like way more than most, as he always seems to do enough to look good, without going outside the lines of his gimmick and in this match he sold well, and hit his one big spot right on cue. Nagata I pretty much loathe at this point, but this was probably the best I've seen him look all year, precisely because so little was expected of him. Nothing outstanding here, but there were heat sections, the match had a sound progression to it, and everyone contributed. Hard to complain about that. Togi Makabe & Kota Ibushi vs Tomohiro Ishii & Yujiro Takahashi Basically an all action tag match here. That is not my favorite style of tag, and even within that style of match, I didn't think this was all that good. As a vehicle to get over a potential feud with Ishii and Ibushi it worked, but I have no confidence that NJPW is going that route, considering the fact that Ishii isn't even on the Dome show. There were some fun spots in this, and better selling than normal for matches of this type, though I wanted more to the Ishii and Ibushi segments than we got. I did appreciate the finality and "case closed" nature of the finish, which was refreshing given the staples of this style. Minoru Suzuki vs YOSHI-HASHI There was probably too much bullshit in this, but it as largely forgivable because Suzuki is so completely believable as a sadistic mauler of easy victims, that the outside interference and weapons shots feels more like an animal toying with his prey, than a desperate man cheating to win. As a whole this was pretty much how you should work a match between a semi-main event level, vet and an up and comer undercard guy. The vet was the clear star, the clear asskicker. The young guy, was clearly working from underneath and trying to make the most out of his chances. YOSHI-HASHI doesn't have the best offense in the world, but it largely worked here, and they mixed in some cool spots, namely the Suzuki dropkick cutoff and some of the stuff out of the sleeper. Pretty good, albeit modest, match. Kazuchika Okada & Shinsuke Nakamura vs Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito Meltzer almost went the full five stars on this, so I came in with extremely low expectations. I realize that reads trollish or mean spirited, but it's more of a general comment on how far off I am from him and a lot of other hardcore NJPW fans when it comes to their main event scene. Having said that, I thought this was actually a very good match all things considered. In some ways it was sort of the opposite of most NJPW main events I see in that that there were lots of moments and individual spots I disliked, but as a big picture match I thought it worked very well and achieved it's goal which to my eyes was getting over Naito as a believable contender and opponent for the IWGP at the Dome show. I could see an argument that they sort of telegraphed they were going long (which was obvious anyhow) with the opening stuff, but I actually liked some of the opening work more than usual for a match with these guys involved, and it was used primarily to set up the early Naito in peril stuff which to me was the most compelling part of the match. Nakamura is a guy who will lay down a stiff ass beating and that is exactly what he did. In some ways Nakamura - who I thought was clearly the best guy in the match - was too good here, as it sort of lessened the impact of the Okada/Naito exchanges that were really what this match was theoretically about, but I can't really call that a negative. Tanahashi was sort of used as a decoy here, switching things up for a bit, and teasing big moments, that would then be paid off in the person of Naito. I actually thought that was a good role for him, and I have to admit I have enjoyed him more in the last three months of 2013 than at any point in his career. I still hate the Rainmaker as a finish (really I hate it period), but I have to say the big dropkick save to block it was a pretty great spot, and the fact that it ended up leading to more of Naito trying to prove himself was even better. I could have dealt without some of the details/spots they worked, but the selling this was actually pretty good as a whole, and there were probably fewer spots that made me shake my head than any Naito match ever. Also Nakamura's running knee right before the finish was great, even if I thought the last second rainmaker was kind of silly. This isn't a MOTY, let alone a five star match, but I got more out of than I could have ever imagined looking at the names on paper and knowing the length of the match. Overall Thoughts: A rare NJPW show where I thought the main event was easily the best match on the show, and in many ways it was a show saving match. I wouldn't say the show was terrible up until that point, but it certainly wasn't good. As a go home show for the Dome, I thought it was sort of a mixed bag. If you are a big NJPW fan coming in you probably would love the main event enough to get you super psyched for Jan. 4. As a match I liked the main event, but I still don't have a ton of faith in either of the big matches at the Dome. If anything it made me want to see Nakamura v. Okada and Nakamura v. Naito. Also the fact that Ishii, Honma and Suzuki are either not on the Dome show, or in uninteresting matches, irritates me even more after seeing this show.

I think it's clear the people in the thread responding don't agree with your original premise.

I can see not liking this at all, but I think Steamboat v. Snuka is easily worse because it was so transparently phony. It looked like two backyarders performing their big spots without even trying to make them look good, where this was just a slow match.

The Wyatts have been presented strong in every match they've had on t.v. They squashed the Usos last week, a team that has gotten a mammoth push by WWE standards. They've been presented as a main event stable from day one.

Also to Kris point, I know what has been reported, but I am really starting to think the reported matches are off. I could be wrong and I would be fine with those matches, but I have a feeling Brock won't be working Taker. In my heart of hearts I feel it will be Brock v. Batista and Taker v. Cena though I admit I have no reason to believe that.