Wrestle Kingdom 13/New Years Dash

[Convoy]

Below is the full card for the show. This thread can also serve as discussion for the "Road to" shows on 12/14 & 12/15, as well as the New Year Dash thread for 1/5.

Matches Announced:


IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Kenny Omega (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi


IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Chris Jericho (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito


Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White


IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship: KUSHIDA (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori


IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: Cody (c) vs. Juice Robinson


IWGP Tag Team Championship: Guerrillas of Destiny (c) vs. EVIL & SANADA vs. The Young Bucks


RevPro Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.


IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championship: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado (c) vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI & Shingo Takagi


NEVER Openweight Championship: Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Will Ospreay

Preshow: NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship No. 1 Contender Gauntlet Match
Winners get a title match versus GOD & Ishimori on 1/5
Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Yuji Nagata, Jeff Cobb & David Finlay vs. Hirooki Goto, Beretta & Chuckie T. vs. Hangman Page, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.

[chrom]

Press Conference is on their youtube page

[ISO Mid Thigh Pull]

This is the first time in years that I've seen the initial WK card and not been immediately hype at all tbh

[Deleted]

The top of the card looks great. Omega-Tanahashi will be great, Naito Jericho will be a good semi-main. Okada-White has a good angle going in, but not holding my breath for an Okada classic this year, Whites still not there. Kishida-Ishimori should be f***ing great if it gets enough time.

Really annoyed at the Jnr Hvy Tag match. The Power Struggle match was great, but I’m not craving a rematch and it undermines R3K’s win. Would match rather Suzuki-Gun drop the belts somehow and we get a R3K-LIJ match so Takagi and SOH can go nuts on each other, but oh well, it’ll happen.

So yeah, cards looks real good. Plus we might get Ospreay vs Ibushi which will be f***ing nuts. And if they don’t give Ishii a singles match this year I will be very disappointed.

[Magic knows Black Lives Matter]

Honestly, I've really soured on Omega with all his outside foolishness this year. I hope Tha God Tanahashi gets strapped up one last time in the Dome so he can air guitar for all the hoes while Omega pouts and maybe gets cuddled at ringside by Ibushi.

[corndog]

Goto challenged Ibushi on twitter, so I would expect that match as well. Should be a good card, better than last year, but not better than the previous 3.

[Convoy]

Ishii could defend his RPW title vs. ZSJ, and Goto put out a challenge to Ibushi.

Assuming the 6-Man titles are dropped at some point before this event, and defended in the usual gauntlet match which helps get everyone on the card. Ishimori obviously has bigger plans, and GOD will have to defend their tag titles against the WTL winners.

Speaking of World Tag League, we should get the full rundown of teams this week. Last year they were announced on 11/9. Kevin Kelly apparently already noted the Best Friends and Juice/Finlay are in (so no return for Callihan).

[ISO Mid Thigh Pull]

Nov 5, 2018 11:58:49 GMT -5 Magic knows Black Lives Matter said:

Honestly, I've really soured on Omega with all his outside foolishness this year. I hope Tha God Tanahashi gets strapped up one last time in the Dome so he can air guitar for all the hoes while Omega pouts and maybe gets cuddled at ringside by Ibushi.

f***ing saaaame. Also his e-fed tier promos are genuinely embarrassing.

[chrom]

If I had to guess I say the US is Cody/Ishii

[Brood Lone Wolf Funker]

Jericho looks like a fat Crow

[Allie Kitsune]

Nov 5, 2018 12:29:06 GMT -5 Brood Lone Wolf Funker said:

Jericho looks like a fat Crow

Or the world's shittiest indie-folk singer.

[Clash, Never a Meter Maid]

Nov 5, 2018 12:19:12 GMT -5 chrom said:

If I had to guess I say the US is Cody/Ishii

I know I’m a Cody defender but I see that being a really memorable match. If they’re not going to give Ishii a Heavyweight Title run, at least let him hold another highly regarded belt (so far into its run).

[TGM]

Jericho is going to use a katana as his foreign object

[cabbageboy]

See, I haven't really soured on Omega as a wrestler exactly but more The Elite in general. In fact I think they might be in for a rude awakening if they think they can go off on their own and do all of this stuff without NJPW, ROH, and Bullet Club ties. The constant "Will they/won't they?" nonsense is already tiresome.

[Tea & Crumpets]

I'm very disappointed that Ishii, Suzuki, and Ibushi all seem to be spinning their wheels into a whole lotta nothing this year, while EVIL and SANADA are probably gonna be in the tag title picture again if they even make the card. I'd really hoped we'd get more out of Suzuki as IC Champ than we did, and still don't want Jericho/Naito as Naito is above the IC picture. Jericho vs Suzuki or Ibushi or Okada all sound more fun to me. As it is, the prospect of Ibushi/Goto feels like something Ibushi is better than, while Ishii not even being discussed for anything is a shame.

Okada/Jay....eh. I should be hyped but I'm not. I don't know why.

Omega/Tana I'm looking forward to and pulling for Tana to have 1 last run, but I've really cooled on Omega the last couple months, when he first won the title I was pumped but post-G1 he's been pretty disappointing, as has pretty much all of NJPW tbh.

A lot of top top talents are really stalling this year, have all year tbh, and I feel like the majority of that is due to:

- Jericho coming in to take up big match slots and a title without doing much with either
- Omega, whether through an attempt at meta-heeling or just being a fool, cooling off a lot of his fanbase right after he wins the title
- Jay White possibly being pushed too hard too soon without being given longer to mature in the US picture, because he's seen as their next big western draw if/when Omega leaves.

All in all I feel like a lot of the non-Japanese talent are being spotlighted at the expense of guys like Naito, Ibushi, and Suzuki who are all still excellent talents, and consequently they're in the spots guys like Ishii, EVIL and SANADA should be moving up towards, meaning THOSE guys haven't progressed at all. Hell look at Goto, dude is likely to enter WK13 basically in the same card spot he was in last year.

Mind you I felt last year like the post G1 to WK run was rough, it seems to be a recurring theme for New Japan lately that the stretches between big shows can be a holding pattern.

[cabbageboy]

Jay White as a big western draw seems like a particularly bad idea. In the shows they've run in the U.S. he is seriously despised as as heel.

[chrom]

Nov 5, 2018 14:42:45 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Jay White as a big western draw seems like a particularly bad idea. In the shows they've run in the U.S. he is seriously despised as as heel.

He's doing his job right then.

Heels are meant to be despised

[2coldMack is even more baffled]

Chris Jericho's "Please don't notice I'm almost 50" fashion choices are somehow worse than his "Please don't notice I'm almost 40" fashion choices ten years ago.

[Deleted]

Nov 5, 2018 14:42:45 GMT -5 cabbageboy said:

Jay White as a big western draw seems like a particularly bad idea. In the shows they've run in the U.S. he is seriously despised as as heel.

Guy gets booed as a heel, people outraged!

That also applies to people being annoyed at Omega being a heel to Tanahashi, because he’s saying outrageous things... like a heel.

[cabbageboy]

Well I mean it's bizarre to try and push a guy for western audiences if he's a heel. In fact White may be more hated in the States than he is in Japan, which is kind of the opposite of what you'd want.