Ranking NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 11 Matches From Worst To Best
Just the four Match of the Year candidates this time...
Yesterday, New Japan Pro Wrestling presented its annual January 4 supershow from the Tokyo Dome and it's safe to say it lived up to the hype.
As the most renowned company for quality pro wrestling on the planet, NJPW were under pressure to deliver once again at the big show. We needn't have worried though; with a solid card and the highly anticipated main events of Okada vs Omega and Naito vs Tanahashi, not to mention numerous title bouts and a highly anticipated debut, the promotion once again hit it out of the park. Seriously, good luck to every other wrestling promotion trying to deliver a show as good as this in the rest of 2017.
Considering that last year could have been a disaster for New Japan following the departures of Shinsuke Nakamura, A.J. Styles, Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows for WWE, Wrestle Kingdom 11 was the culmination of Gedo and Jado's hard work over the last 12 months to create new stars and continue the momentum of delivering the hottest in-ring product around.
With news that NJPW is bringing shows to the U.S in 2017, as well as the return of Suzuki-gun at today's follow up New Year Dash event, the future is looking very bright for NJPW once again.
It all started on January 4 though with numerous title changes, star making moments and four (yes, four) Match of the Year contenders just several days into 2017. Here's our take on the best and the worst matches of an incredible Wrestle Kingdom 11.
10. Juice Robinson Vs Cody
It was by no means the best match on the card but the debut of Cody (née Rhodes) in New Japan Pro Wrestling was everything it needed to be.
Taking on fellow underutilised former WWE employee Juice Robinson - who has come on leaps and bounds in NJPW over the past 12 months - Cody gave a good account of himself in showing what he could do to a new audience. Juice got in more offense than people perhaps expected but, in the end, it was the cocky grandson of a plumber who came out on top, in the most obvious result of the evening.
Ultimately this achieved its purpose of introducing new Bullet Club member Cody to the NJPW fans and gave him the insane claim of being the only man to appear at WrestleMania, Bound For Glory, Final Battle and Wrestle Kingdom within 12 months. An incredible achievement.