[2020-01-04-NJPW-Wrestle Kingdom 14 In Tokyo Dome: Night One] Kazuchika Okada vs Kota Ibushi

[paul sosnowski]

Kazuchika Okada defends the IWGP Heavyweight Title   Talk about it here

[ShittyLittleBoots]

My thoughts as of now are that this is the best Dome main event since the last Tana/Okada, and an instant classic. Slow build like in every big Okada match, but they make every headlock & all feel super compelling, and once the thing explodes & Ibushi goes into that fucking killer mode?? OH BOY. Those damn punches! That finishing stretch was something else too -- that V-Trigger got me good. What a goddamn match. ****1/2

[Boss Rock]

Sorta feel like it had the same padding issues as a lot of other Okada matches, but overall they did a great job building to the second half of the match and escalating everything. Ibushi snapping was of course the highlight but the last five minutes or so were terrific. Love Okada making the Michinoku Tombstone a part of his arsenal.

Their G1 match was better as it was more compact but this was absolutely a worthy sequel. ****1/2

[Makai Club #1]

This was dripped in uncertainty. Either could've won in this match, no one would be shocked. It's a rare thing to feel from an Okada title defence - a danger of him losing the title. This big stakes match and both had a real x-factor to show for it. Ibushi really brought an aggressive intensity to his game in this match, more so than you usually see from him even when he's angry. Ibushi's kicks are normally quite stiff but his were brutal at the worst of times. There was one kick early in the match that caught Okada right beneath the ribs that made a nasty THUD sound. You can hear everyone wince at the same time, too. Ha. Okada was more cocky and arrogant, sporting a new look with short trunks instead of the knee length ones he usually wears. Okada spent some time in the match trying to egg Ibushi on to take more risks, show that cold spirit that he brings out rarely. And it all backfiring on him was just amazing stuff when Ibushi changed. Ibushi laid all he had into Okada with palm strikes and kicks while showing no vulnerability in return. Okada's selling of that moment was excellent as well. All Okada could do as a defence was keep grinding away on the neck of Ibushi, hitting gnarly dropkicks and tombstones. The last 10 minutes was gripping wrestling. Type of wrestling that you can get totally lost in. The counters at pivotal moments, the way they let things breathe, the nearfalls, the sells of exhaustion. 5*

[Big Pete]

I thought the first half of the match as underwhelming. It gave me the sense that Ibushi was having an off night and Okada was taking pity on him. One spot in particular that drove this point home was the draping DDT. There was an attention to detail missing because with the way it played out, as soon as Okada hit the move, he just started non-chalantly walking around the ring like he wasn't seconds away from winning the match. Now if Red Shoes had have shown some urgency, the spot would have registered but as it played out, Okada took his time to give Ibushi a fighting chance.

The match didn't really pick up until Okada caught Ibushi with a stiff uppercut that fired Ibushi up. Kota did well to sell his anger and Okada took some extremely stiff shots for his trouble. From that point on, they worked another great Okada epic and the finishing flurry got over like crazy. Okada hitting rainmaker after rainmaker, baiting Ibushi into one final comeback only to counter it made for a thrilling and satisfactory Dome finish.

[ShittyLittleBoots]

This didn't hold up as a top tier MOTYC on a rewatch. The first half, which takes up nearly 20-minutes in this almost a 40-minute long match, is completely boring in all of its time killing hollowness. Nothing there feels like it matters, as it does feel like they're just in a never-ending, generic, time killing feeling out process of sorts. The first great moment of the match comes with Ibushi countering Okada's running attack with that double foot stomp. That woke the match up a little bit, but it's when Ibushi no-sells Okada's uppercut that the match FINALLY hits that second gear & becomes a full-fledged epic; Ibushi no-selling that shotgun dropkick with that blank zombie stare on his face & then straight-up closed-fist PUNCHING Okada was badass as hell. The whole sequence with him doing those punches & some kicks was absolutely amazing. Okada's sell of the shock of eating those stiff looking & sounding punches was phenomenal, too; the glazed look on his face really put Ibushi's terminator-mode over perfectly. That surely was the best bit of the whole match, but everything afterwards is some exciting, great action too -- I especially dug the apron battle leading to Okada's tombstone there, as well as Ibushi's Boma Ye's (& Okada's kick-out at 1 from one of those) + that V-Trigger. All great, and sensational stuff even. Makes the first 20-minutes or so even more frustrating, because if that first half didn't feel so needless, this really would've been a classic. It says something when I still think of it as a great match overall, even with half of it being boring & forgettable. ****

[fxnj]

Skipped the first 15 minutes because life's just too short for that shit. A pretty good bomb throwing match but not much more. Strong example of guys performing the sleight of hand of combining a long run time with lots of laying around/moving in slow motion to force a sense of epicness. Besides some fun Ibushi no selling moments, neither guy's selling or character work stuck out and I couldn't find much of a story besides it just being these dudes hucking bombs. Match is pretty much carried by all the crazy shit Ibushi did in between all the laying around. My favorite parts were the nutty way he landed on his neck off the botched pele kick and him punching out Okada. I continue to be amazed at how much Okada's character work looks to have regressed compared to 2012-2014. It's one thing if he wants to be the cool and stoic ace, but he was still doing a lot of playing to the crowd, so I don't think that's what he's going for. It's just he has the blandest facials and least interesting selling possible. About all he contributed here was a pretty dropkick.