5. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows (c) Vs. Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma)
The New Japan tag team world is incredible stale. Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows of the Bullet Club have held the IWGP tag straps for 591 of the last 720 days, and will partake in the championship match at Wrestle Kingdom for the third straight year. This is also the seventh straight year that Karl Anderson will compete in the tag title match at Wrestle Kingdom. This year however, things should be different. The challengers are the relatively fresh team of Great Bash Heel, New Japan veteran Togi Makabe and babyface-extraordinaire Tomoaki Honma. Honma is a special performer to say the least, a man who seemingly never wins yet is as over as any good guy on the entire roster. All of this should be building to a moment of serious redemption for the leader of the Hon-mania movement. Makabe and Honma earned their shot by winning the World Tag League, but it was the disturbing news that came out during that tournament that sours this match a little. It was then that his girlfriend of 18 years, fellow wrestler Kiyoki Ichiki, come out with very serious allegations of domestic abuse against Honma. Honma denies the allegations, and everything is still up in the air. With the allegations against Honma still out, it will be difficult to watch this match without something approaching a sour eye.
John Bills
Contributor
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.
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