10 Things NJPW Got Right At Wrestle Kingdom 12

5. A Night To Remember For The Juniors

Marty Scurll KUSHIDA Wrestle Kingdom 12
NJPW1972.com

For reasons that are plainly nonsense to anyone paying attention, some people still claim that the junior heavyweights aren’t over in New Japan. Wrestle Kingdom 12 not only showed that the opposite was true - it clearly set out a marker for the importance of the smaller performers in the most exciting promotion on the planet.

This was true even before the main show began. The middle part of the Rumble was entirely dominated by the juniors of Suzuki-gun, and the momentum of the quartet was only stopped by the arrival of Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask IV.

The Bucks and Roppongi 3K opened the main show with aplomb, but it was the four-way bout for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship that almost stole the entire show. Going in, some were worried that Will Ospreay, Hiromu Takahashi, KUSHIDA, and Marty Scurll were going to be involved in a figurative train wreck. What happened was closer to poetry in motion.

The match was an absolute joy from start to end. The action never ceased, with all four individuals getting a chance to strut their stuff. Will Ospreay continued to show that he may well be the best high-flyer on the planet, while Marty Scurll looked like an absolute superstar. Hiromu Takahashi is insane, and KUSHIDA may well be the best wrestler of the four.

Wrestle Kingdom 12 was a great night for junior heavyweight wrestling.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.