 Zero Hour: Yuya Uemura, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado and Paragon (Kyle O'Reilly and Roderick Strong) def. CRU and The Don Callis Family (Josh Alexander and Hechicero)I remember Uemura from the time he spent in TNA a few years ago. Based on the way he was spotlighted here, it looks like he's come a long way since then in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, even picking up the pin for his team here. This was your run-of-the-mill eight-man tag team match, but it got these guys on the card and it was well worked, so I guess it served its purpose.
0 Comments
 Pre-Show: Momo Watanabe def. Willow Nightingale, Persephone and ROH Women's World Champion Athena in the Four-Way Finals of the International Women's Cup (Non-Title)The winner of the International Women's Cup would get a shot at a championship from one of the participating promotions. I like that AEW took the time to make this mini tournament feel important by holding their qualifying matches on Dynamite and Collision over the last month or so. All four of these women are talented and thus it was no surprise that this was a quality four-way. Personally, I didn't really care who won, but I'm curious if Watanabe will use her title shot on a championship from either AEW or Ring of Honor.
 Pre-Show: Hirooki Goto Won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender's New Japan RanboIn the past, the final four of the New Japan Ranbo would advance to New Year Dash to challenge for the Provisional KOPW Championship, but I'm glad they changed that this year with the winner instead earning a future shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. The match wasn't any more memorable than it normally is, but the bigger stakes did help improve its overall quality.
 Zero Hour: Kyle Fletcher def. SerpenticoOf all the pre-show matches, this one made the most sense to go on first considering there was barely anyone in the building at this point. For those that missed it, Fletcher lost the ROH World Television Championship to Atlantis Jr. at a CMLL event on Friday night, which is why he didn't have the belt with him here. This was a simple squash for Fletcher, but I don't know why it needed to exist.
 Pre-Show: Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, Toru Yano and YOH in the New Japan Ranbo and Advanced to New Year Dash to Challenge for the Provisional KOPW 2024 ChampionshipThis accomplished what it always does and that's getting everyone on the show. I was surprised how many names I recognized were involved, but that's probably because Wrestle Kingdom was just one night this year and not spread across two or three. I didn't think it was much different than any other New Japan Ranbo I've seen in the past, but it was fine for a pre-show Battle Royal. Yano always seems to be one of the last remaining entrants in these things.
|
Categories
All
Archives
December 2025
|
RSS Feed