25 Best Wrestling Shows EVER
11. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13
Will Ospreay Vs. Kota Ibushi opened the show in a match that was almost too good - breathtaking and scary in-ring action worked so close to the sun that they did indeed fly too high. Ibushi was concussed during it.
A safer match that didn’t feel like it in the dramatic throes, Zack Sabre, Jr. Vs. Tomohiro Ishii was a beautiful, deliberate styles clash. ZSJ was as unreal as ever when he sold flailing panic at the threat of being struck by the Stone Pitbull. The three-way IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team match between EVIL & SANADA, Guerrillas of Destiny and the Young Bucks was 10 brisk minutes of non-stop excitement.
The unusual sequencing - NJPW tends to book traditional openers, and not long matches that happen to open the show - was felt at the midway point. Cody Vs. Juice Robinson was just there, and, continuing a slight lull, Taiji Ishimori Vs. KUSHIDA was merely good.
Gedo was at his most bold, effective best when booking Jay White Vs. Kazuchika Okada. Okada generated a monster pop by once again wearing his trunks. It felt like he had been restored. In a masterful subversion, he lost in a very atypical Okada match. It went just 14:18, and Jay, at his counter-master best, was made.
Chris Jericho also entered the performance of a lifetime in defeat to Tetsuya Naito. He was spellbinding and totally believable as he bullied Naito into showing elusive fire in an incandescent No Disqualification brawl.
In the main event, the purist Hiroshi Tanahashi beat the spectacular and dangerous Kenny Omega in a masterpiece. The match was meta-premised on opposing in-ring ideologies. In a mind-blowing twist, Tana fought fire with fire by drilling Omega with a sick poison ‘rana - quite possibly the coolest and most unexpected means of putting one’s opponent over in defeat.