[2019-01-04-NJPW-Wrestle Kingdom 13] Tomohiro Ishii vs Zack Sabre Jr

[paul sosnowski]

Tomohiro Ishii defends the Rev Pro British Heavyweight title.    Talk about it here

[ShittyLittleBoots]

With this only going about 11-12 minutes, they didn’t have enough time to tell their story, so it felt like they just rushed through it. It was still good & very enjoyable, but definitely the weakest of the Ishii vs. ZSJ matches so far, and that makes it quite disappointing. Zack's limb destruction vs. Ishii's bombs commanded at least 20 minutes I feel - that is when this could've hit the level of their previous, brilliant meetings. ***

[Wahoos Leg]

I'll echo SLB and say that I was disappointed, given the people involved. What was here was fine and entertaining, but the match was hindered by the lack of time, and also I felt Ishii should have sold the arm more. 

[cactus]

Not as good as it could of been.  This was very one sided, and there was never a point when it felt like Ishii could retain his title. A lot of the undercard felt under cooked and never got into that second gear, so I can't lay the blame on the wrestlers completely. Sabre did however look like a technical wizard who's not to be messed with, so it achieved what it set out to do. 

★★½ 

[Boss Rock]

I actually liked this one a lot. Really like how quickly they started with both Ishii and Sabre trying to finish each other almost immediately. Thought Sabre's arm work was good throughout and Ishii did a great job selling. Definitely could have used more time but all of their matches have been a bit more on the sprinty side so it still delivered for me. The no-sell on the superplex to hit that arm twist was stupid, though.

****1/4.

[G. Badger]

I'm with Boss Rock on this. The quick pace made this feel like a true athletic competition. We get a striker vs grappler dynamic but, the story is that ZSJ can strike but, can Ishii wrestle? The spots where Ishii escapes or counters are brilliant because we think he's just a one dimensional tank but, here he shows his depth. This pushes Zack to really do everything in order to win. A match like this will fair better over time- Much like Goto vs Suzuki from last year's WK. Great match and a fine example of true Strong Style.

[SmartMark15]

I also thought this was one of the better matches of the night. ZSJ and Ishii both work so well in a compressed amount of time because offense is their strong suit. Thus everything looks great, everything feels urgent, and it's a sprint all the way to the finish. Great match.

****

[Big Pete]

I had a completely different take on ZSJ's strikes, where they were pitiful, but deliberately so to make it easier for ZSJ to lock in his submissions. It was kind of smart, in that ZSJ would bait Ishii into playing his own game, only to turn it into a submission and eliminate Ishii's biggest weapon.

There were a couple of moments that hurt this match for me. Boss Rock brought up one with the Superplex move, that was straight out of the Final Battle 2011 Playbook and there were a few moments where they were jockeying and it just looked like terrible choreography. Outside of that, I thought the finish was weak as well and left me with a 'that's it?' feeling as opposed to 'wow what an excellent counter'.

I'd probably go *** stars for the hot opening and the way they set up the contrast between one another. I was expecting more from them, but the class of both guys was evident.