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

1. Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. KENTA

KENTA and Hiroshi Tanahashi had one of the most insane matches in Wrestle Kingdom history. Using their no disqualification stipulation to inflict brutal, bloody violence on each other, they worked several nutty spots into a dangerous closing stretch that left KENTA's face mangled and Tanahashi's ageing body battered and bruised, having held nothing back in the quest to shock and awe.

Fair play, these two veterans destroyed themselves for the sake of entertainment. This cannot be denied. But while visually stunning, this match's cheap thrills satisfied on a visceral level only towards the end.

KENTA vs. Tana was a relatively standard plunder brawl prior to the big spots near the fall. Though The Ace executing weapon spots and taking bumps in his supposedly diminished physical state adds a layer of drama, there was little creativity in how the plunder was utilised for the first two acts. Guys hit each other with stuff. Guys did their moves with stuff onto other stuff. Spots weren't built to in ways that generated peril, either. Little felt like it mattered - until the wrestlers decided to kill themselves.

It took KENTA an aeon to set up an oversized ladder that was at least thrice his height while Tana sold for an awkwardly long period of time, slowing the pace all the way down. Then, after scaling the mega-ladder, the IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion fell as The Ace wobbled the bottom, crashing down on a trashcan face-first. His nose immediately exploded, leaving smears of blood everywhere. All that was left was for Tanahashi to scale the ladder himself, catch his balance, and dive off, drawing a loud, audible gasp from the clap-crowd.

Visually arresting spots, no doubt, but that the duo had to go to these extremes in order to elicit a reaction tells the match's story. Prior to this, it was a disappointingly typical hardcore match from two of the smartest wrestlers in the company.