NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13: Every Match Ranked From Worst To Best

By Jack Pooley / January 4, 2019

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

NJPW World

Result: Ospreay puts Ibushi away with the Stormbreaker to win the strap (18:13).

Rating: What an insane way to open the main show. Ospreay and Ibushi's chemistry is just off the charts, and whether flipping around or simply trading fists, their exchanges were brutal. Ibushi's top-rope stomp in particular was stomach-churning.

The pacing was fantastic with some methodical sequences breaking up the more frantic action, and it didn't need to be almost 40 minutes long to tell a great story.

Scrappy and ludicrously entertaining all around, this was a near-masterpiece to kick WK13 off, and wouldn't have looked out of place in the main event spot. Bravo. 9/10