With many events from this time period missing matches, I've decided to jump forward two years, from the first Wrestle Kingdom to the third. By this time, New Japan's Tokyo Dome show had been completely invaded by members of other promotions, most notably TNA, who had basically become the American version of New Japan by this point. Say what you will about that decision, or the call to put the IWGP title on Keiji Mutoh, who was nearing 50 and only appearing sporadically in New Japan, but from the attendance numbers, it seemed like this trick was working. According to Dave Meltzer, the attendance for Wrestle Kingdom 3 was up 50% from two years prior. You could chalk that increase of interest up to the working agreements in place with TNA, All Japan, CMLL and others, but some credit should go to the main event, featuring Mutoh defending against his protegee, Hiroshi Tanahashi. Since our last trip to the Dome, Tana was defeated by Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 2, leading to an angle that saw the veteran Mutoh take the strap for All Japan, turning back multiple New Japan competitors who attempted to bring the gold back for their company. Meanwhile, following a disappointing performance in the G1 Climax, Tanahashi has gone on excursion, working a few matches in TNA before being brought back to his home promotion to reclaim the pride and honor of New Japan by facing his mentor in the main event. It's classic storytelling, a really good way to truly establish Tanahashi as the "ace" of the company, as New Japan's fortunes slowly began to turn.
- Wrestle Kingdom 3 comes to you, as all January 4th events do, from the Tokyo Dome, in front of a claimed attendance of 27,500. Before the show gets underway, we've got a special treat, as New Japan World has footage of the sole dark match that took place beforehand, a six man tag featuring some familiar names.
- That dark match sees Milano Collection A.T. team with Minoru Tanaka and current New Japan veteran Taichi Ishikari to face Mitsuhide Hirasawa (better known as Captain New Japan) and the "young lion" versions of Yoshi-Hashi and Kazuchika Okada. For those that aren't aware, the "young lion" system in NJPW is essentially a way for trainees of the company to begin getting some work, before they had off on excursion. The "young lions" are only allowed to compete in basic black gear and their moveset is restricted, to ensure that they don't overshadow the established veterans. As such, it's always fun to watch them in action, as quite a few end up as big names in puroresu, and that's certainly the case for Okada, the future five time IWGP champion. This match is pretty fun, six minutes of hectic action that allows Okada to show off some of his athleticism, hitting a few dropkicks and crashing and burning on a dive to the outside. As they often do, the "young lions" come up short, with Yoshi-Hashi going down to a superkick sandwich.
- Our opening contest is another six man tag, as longtime CMLL competitor Averno teams with Gedo and Jado to take on Mistico (the first Sin Cara in WWE), Ryusuke Taguchi and Prince Devitt (Finn Balor). The crowd is really impressed by Mistico, who is so much cleaner in this match than I remember him in the WWE, he hits a couple nice dives to the floor, has a really impactful enziguri and finishes Averno off with the head-scissors armbar, which gets a nice pop. The best spot in the match belongs to Devitt, though, as he flies from the top rope over a barricade to take out, I believe it was Jado, with Devitt even managing to perform a front flip in mid-air, just incredible.
- Jushin Thunder Liger has been a staple of New Japan's junior heavyweight division for many years by this point, approaching two decades since the debut of the character in 1989, so, for nostalgia, he teams up with former rival Takuma Sano to take on Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue. Unfortunately, both Liger and Sano are not what they used to be, with Sano in particular looking awful, getting gassed early and either unable or unwilling to sell the strikes delivered by his opponents. They do manage to mine some drama when Liger is trapped in an ankle lock by Kanemoto, before Sano makes the save and Liger gets the win with a top rope brainbuster. I haven't watched any of the battles Liger and Sano had in the past, but I've read good things, so that's something I plan to do in the future, and maybe then I could better appreciate this match.
- The next three matches are not on New Japan World due to copyright reasons, as they feature TNA performers, so I'm going to skip them. I know you can find quite a few of these matches on Dailymotion, but it's difficult to review matches when they're cut into different parts, and it just feels a little skeezy, so I'm going to stick to completely legitimate content.
- Yuji Nagata is running a similar angle to Keiji Mutoh, capturing Pro Wrestling Zero1's World title by defeating champion Masato Tanaka, who is looking to win it back here. Most American wrestling fans, myself included, probably known Tanaka exclusively from his wars with Mike Awesome, most notably at ECW's Heatwave 1998 and One Night Stand 2005. While this match is not even close to that same level of violence, it wasn't intended to be, and it was still very enjoyable. Tanaka busts Nagata open and controls the match, punishing the champion. After Tanaka hits back to back sliding forearms, Nagata makes a dramatic comeback, suddenly snatching Tanaka's arm and applying his "White Eyes" seated armbreaker to a massive pop. Nagata finishes Tanaka off with a bridging back suplex, another solid Tokyo Dome performance under his belt.
- New Japan and Pro Wrestling Noah collide up next, as Manabu Nakanishi, representing the former, takes on Jun Akiyama. Nakanishi looks good in this one, using his power to toss the sizeable Akiyama around, and also utilizes some unexpected agility, hitting a falling splash to the floor. Akiyama is known for his creative offense, and shows us some here, countering a belly to belly suplex into a guillotine choke and dropping Nakanishi with a big slam. Akiyama perseveres to get the win, battering Nakanishi with a running knee before finishing him off with his wrist-clutch exploder. This was a really solid strong style match, both men knocked lumps out of each other and every move had serious impact.
- The semi-main is another collision between New Japan and Noah talent, as Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto of the RISE faction in NJPW team up for a battle with Noah loyalist Takashi Sugiura and the legendary Mitsuharu Misawa. Lots of talent in this ring, and seeing puroresu's past and future collide with Misawa and Nakamura was fun, but the bulk of the match was mostly filler, and Misawa is noticeably showing his age, which sucks. There is a hot stretch where everyone hits their finisher on each other, before Nakamura manages to force Sugiura to tap with his cross armbreaker. I felt so sad watching Misawa in this one, as I've seen what he was capable of at his peak, and I knew what was coming in his future. Just six months after this match, Misawa died in the ring, a tragic but ultimately fitting way for one of wrestling's best to go out.
- Main event time, as Keiji Mutoh and Hiroshi Tanahashi collide for the IWGP Championship. I was nervous about this one heading in, seeing that half hour runtime and wondering how the near 50 year old Mutoh would fare. To my relief, this was a really excellent main event, more than worthy of closing New Japan's biggest show of the year. Mutoh is just tenacious, constantly going after Tanahashi's leg with that damn dragon screw. Mutoh hits that move from everywhere throughout this contest, off the apron, into the barricade, even off the top rope, and it gets a gasp from the crowd each time. Tanahashi, meanwhile, does what he does best, selling the agony and desperation of what the older champion is putting him through but still refusing to give up, fighting with everything he has in him. If I had one nitpick on this match, I thought a few moves were overused, especially Mutoh's shining wizard and Tanahashi's sling blade. We see those moves so often throughout this match that they completely lose their impact by the end, which is unfortunate, as the shining wizard in particular has a big role in the finale. Before we get there, though, I do need to shout-out the spot where Tanahashi is trapped in the figure four, after yet another dragon screw, and he's just in so much pain that he grabs the shirt of referee Hiroyuki Unno (the much beloved Red Shoes) and begins sobbing. In front of a crowd in any other country, that would probably be laughed out of the building, but this one laps it up, you can tell that Tana has them in the palm of his hand, this man is a promoter's dream. Tanahashi finally manages to cement himself as the face of New Japan, surviving everything Mutoh threw at him to hit two High Fly Flows, before delivering a post-show speech and posing in front of some weak pyro to end the night.
8/10
I thought the Suzuki/Nagata match was better than anything on this card, but Wrestle Kingdom 3 succeeded more on overall quality rather than delivering a one-off classic. Of the matches I watched, none of them were particularly bad, with the obvious highlight being the main event. This could be considered a very important night in hindsight, as with his victory, Hiroshi Tanahashi finally stepped into his role as the "ace" of New Japan, which would end up being a driving force to get them back to relevance.
I enjoyed my brief time in New Japan Pro-Wrestling, both of these events provided plenty of entertainment, and I hope I did them justice. More New Japan in the future is certainly something I could consider, but in the meantime, I have another project that I want to move on to, so I must bid farewell to these reviews, at least for now. See you soon.
- Henry
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