10 Ups & 4 Downs From NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14

2. The Beauty In Brutality

Kazuchika Okada Kota Ibushi
NJPW

Kazuchika Okada is a wrestling god, within kayfabe and outwith it.

The ease with which this man crafts mesmerising in-ring epics with such impossibly dramatic closing stretches isn't fair. It just isn't fair. His slow-building escalations and incremental increase in intensity, in which the slower opening phases are just as important as the big match-ending bombs, mark him as one of the sport's greatest ever storytellers, and this was on full display at Wrestle Kingdom 14.

Kota Ibushi entered a similarly excellent performance on night one, driven first by determination, then destruction after entering his murder trance. The essence of the 'Golden Star' changed before our eyes in this match. Overcome by the will to maim and win, he couldn't undo the wrestling god, and now, the switch-flipping moment and violence he rained upon the 'Rain Maker' (so intense the referee had to interrupt out of concern for Okada's health) may now become him.

Kota's old wrestling sole fell in a dazzling IWGP Heavyweight Championship match. Simultaneously beautiful and ugly, its heart-in-mouth moments felt like the artform's pinnacle.

Until night two...

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Andy has been with WhatCulture for six years and is currently WhatCulture's Senior Wrestling Reporter. A writer, presenter, and editor with 10+ years of experience in online media, he has been a sponge for all wrestling knowledge since playing an old Royal Rumble 1992 VHS to ruin in his childhood. Having previously worked for Bleacher Report, Andy specialises in short and long-form writing, video presenting, voiceover acting, and editing, all characterised by expert wrestling knowledge and commentary. Andy is as much a fan of 1985 Jim Crockett Promotions as he is present-day AEW and WWE - just don't make him choose between the two.