4 Ups & 3 Downs From NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 (Night 2)
New Japan Pro Wrestling deliver an early Match of the Year contender. Jeff Cobb, take a damn bow...
Night 1 of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 15 was a triumph, given the distanced and muted crowd that soaked in the show.
It still rocks, and it doesn't diminish how iconic it is, but the cavernous and gigantic Tokyo Dome doesn't generate the most fervent of atmospheres in normal times, much less the sadness whirlpool at the edge of which we are all trying desperately to cling. This helped, to an extent, in that it didn't feel as bittersweet. It's not quite the Budokan.
Or maybe that's bargaining.
Grim as it reads, everybody seems used to this now. The days of packed-in houses feel at this point as much of a relic as low-res fan-cam footage from an ancient, long-forgotten 1970s house show.
Kazuchika Okada is a professional wrestling genius. Knowing how f*cked all of this is, and was probably going to be for a long, long time, he deliberately created a fictional layer of hopelessness to reward fans even if they couldn't react to the great comeback in full voice.
Across the worst year of NJPW's great resurgence, he struggled as a character but informed, steadily, the majesty of his Wrestle Kingdom performance. He toiled. Bereft of confidence - again, in character - he toyed with a new Money Clip submission finisher to middling effect. He didn't have it in him to execute the Rainmaker until he finally busted it out at the apex of a blinding match against Will Ospreay that, in addition to the dangerous thrill-ride of a happy ending, highlighted a very strong show.
As for night Night 2...?