5 Ups & 5 Downs From NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 (Night 2)

2. Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb

Jeff Cobb was involved in the best match of Wrestle Kingdom 15's two nights last year, falling to Shingo Takagi in a belligerent bomb-fest typical of both mens' styles. Hitting that level here was always going to be difficult, particularly as the announcers were putting over the idea that the ageing Tetsuya Naito might be running out of chances to make it back to the top, but the duo still put forth a good, impactful match rife with drama and big bombs.

When focused on his strengths, Cobb is one of the most exciting wrestlers in the world. The ease with which he casually tosses his opponents around is astounding. Often, the big Hawaiian resembles a video-game character, so what did Naito do to stop him? Attacked the knee.

Though Jeff was able to overpower Naito easily early on, his limb was chipped away to the point that he couldn't hit his Tour of the Islands finisher towards the end. He survived that setback, fighting on, but after flubbing on another Tour due to the accumulated damage, a Destino ended his night.

A gritty effort from Naito, who spent much of the match working from beneath, and the right in-ring story, this was comfortably one of the best things WK16 has delivered thus far.