Wrestle Kingdom 13 in Tokyo Dome

Hooray, hooray ... it's Wrestle Kingdom day! Well, almost .... I'm posting this a day ahead as the event will take place live in Tokyo, but it'll be 3AM EST in the States when it airs.

Anyway, After watching "All In" back in September, I've been interested in keeping tabs on other non-WWE wrestling so I started watching Ring of Honor TV on and off. I've also been following the happenings in New Japan via the wrestling news sites. January 4th just happens to be New Japan's biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, which is their version of WrestleMania. So I thought it'd be fun to run through the show with cards I found on COMC ...

Kenny Omega
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Hiroshi Tanahashi
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

I'll start with the main event, which is Kenny Omega defending the IWGP Heavyweight Title against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Omega won the title back on June 9, ending the near two-year reign of Kazuchika Okada. Tanahashi won the right to challenge Omega for the title by winning the 2018 G1 Climax tournament and is looking to capture the title for an 8th time.

Chris Jericho
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

One of the other top matches on the card is Chris Jericho defending the IWGP Intercontinental Title against Tetsuya Naito. This feud has been going on for nearly a year since Jericho first attacked Naito at New Years Dash 2018 back on January 5, 2018. Jericho beat Naito for the title at the June 9 Dominion event. The match was made official following a challenge by Naito after saving his teammate EVIL from a Jericho assault after a match on November 3rd.

Taiji Ishimori
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Taiji Ishimori will be challenging KUSHIDA for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Ishimori is in his second run with New Japan, having re-debuted for the promotion at the Wrestling Dontaku event on May 4. At the Power Struggle event on November 3, Ishimori cost KUSHIDA a tag team match by hitting him with a crutch, which set up this match. KUSHIDA is currently in the midst of this 6th reign as IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion after having won the vacant title by beating Marty Scrull on October 8.

Cody Rhodes
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Cody is currently the IWGP US Champion and is defending against Juice Robinson (the former C.J. Parker in NXT), who he beat for the title back on September 30 in Long Beach. If Cody retains, chances are he's sticking around or keeping a working relationship with New Japan as part of All Elite Wrestling. 

The Young Bucks (aka Generation Me)
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The Young Bucks will be challenging for the IWGP Tag Team Titles in a three way match against the current champions The Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) and the winners of the 2018 World Tag League, Los Ingobernables (EVIL & Sanada). Again, the result of this match will tell if the Bucks are going to be working with New Japan while part of All Elite Wrestling.

Tomohiro Ishii
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Tomohiro Ishii will be putting the RevPro British Heavyweight Title on the line against British star Zack Sabre Jr. The match was put in place after challenge by Sabre following a successful Ishii title defense on a RevPro show on November 9.

Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Shingo Takagi
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The final match I was able to find cards of the participants on is the three way match pitting the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) against the Super Junior Tag League winners Roppongi 3K (Sho & Yoh) and Shingo Takagi & BUSHI, who represent the Los Ingobernables stable. These same three teams met in the finals of the Super Junior Tag League on November 3 with Roppongi 3K victorious. Soon after, the rematch was scheduled for Wrestle Kingdom.

There were also a couple other matches I didn't get to, those being the grudge match between Kazuchika Okada and "Switchblade" Jay White, which I'm guessing will be pretty wild considering the backstory between the two, and the NEVER Openweight Title Match between Kota Ibushi and Will Ospreay, which should be a pretty awesome match. On the pre-show, there is a five-team gauntlet match which will determine the #1 contenders for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles.

This will be the first time for me watching a WrestleKingdom show so I'm looking forward to it. Since I don't have AXS TV, I'll be ordering the show via the FITE app so I can watch it on demand with a friend of mine on Saturday.

Are You "All In"?

Tonight is the biggest non-WWE wrestling show in years, "All In". 

If you're not familiar with it, Cody Rhodes and the Young Bucks (Matt & Nick Jackson aka Generation Me in TNA Wrestling) have promoted this show and it will feature most of the top wrestlers currently who are not affiliated with WWE. When tickets went on sale earlier this year, they sold out instantly which made it the first non-WWE wrestling show in over 20 years to sell more than 10,000 tickets.

I've been trying to figure out a way to commemorate this show with a blog post. However, I couldn't really come up with anything incredibly creative besides borrowing scans from COMC for those on the main card so I could talk about the show.

Cody Rhodes
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Nick Aldis
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

In one of the top matches on the card and what was the first announced match for the show, the man simply known as "Cody" will challenge for the Nick Aldis (the former Magnus in TNA/Impact Wrestling) for the NWA World Championship. Aldis won the belt back on December 9 from Tim Storm. 

This is probably the highest profile match for the NWA World Championship since it was aligned with TNA Wrestling (now Impact Wrestling) nearly 10 years ago. The story of this match is simple. Cody wants to hold the same championship his father Dusty Rhodes did and Nick Aldis, the current champion, is the best the NWA has to offer.

The Young Bucks
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Rey Mysterio
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Fenix
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The main event of the show is rumored to be the giant six-man tag team match pitting The Young Bucks & Kota Ibushi (collectively known as the Golden Elite) against a trio from Mexico of Fenix, Bandido, and the legendary Rey Mysterio.

Mysterio has made the rounds this year, appearing in two Royal Rumble matches for WWE and making appearances in both New Japan and AAA. Fenix and Bandido I've heard of but I haven't seen many of their matches. 

Kenny Omega & Kota Ibushi
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

This is the only card I could find of both Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi. As I mentioned, Ibushi is teaming with the Young Bucks. However, Kenny Omega, the current IWGP World Champion (and #1 ranked in the world in the recent PWI 500) is facing one of the top wrestlers from Mexico, Pentagon Jr.

Pentagon Jr.
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

I wasn't aware of Pentagon Jr. until he won the Impact Wrestling world title at their "Redemption" pay-per-view earlier this year. He's been wresting in the US on and off since 2015 making the rounds in promotions such as PWG and AAW. Much like Fenix and Bandido, I've never really seen any of his matches as I don't follow lucha libre but him against Omega should be a wild match.

Jay Lethal
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

Jay Lethal is the current Ring of Honor World Champion and will be defending his title in the only other title match on the show against the winner of the "Over Budget Battle Royal" on the All In: Zero Hour pre-show featuring such names as Colt Cabana, Moose, Punishment Martinez, Jimmy Jacobs, and Billy Gunn among others.

Madison Rayne
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

The only women's match on the show is a four-way match featuring Madison Rayne, Britt Baker, Chelsea Green, and Tessa Blanchard. The only one I'm somewhat familiar with in the match is Madison Rayne as she actually got her start working southwest Ohio independents in the mid-to-late 2000s. I first saw her on an HWA show in 2009 wrestling as Lexi Lane. 

As far as the others in the match go, Tessa Blanchard is the daughter of former Four Horsemen member Tully Blanchard, Chelsea Green in a Storm Wrestling Academy graduate who's wrestled in Impact Wrestling as Laurel Van Ness, and Britt Baker debuted in 2015 and has wrestled in numerous independent promotions across the midwest.

Christopher Daniels
Scan courtesy of COMC.com

In one of the more interesting matches of the show, Christopher Daniels is wrestling the star of the "Arrow" TV show Stephen Amell. I'm not sure how I feel about the match as Amell has only had two other matches, both of those being tag matches and the first of those being at WWE SummerSlam in 2015 against Stardust (aka Cody Rhodes).

So, that's all the cards I could find related to the matches on the show. There are other matches on the show with Kazuchika Okada facing "The Villan" Marty Scurll, Joey Janela fighting Hangman Page in a Chicago Street Fight, and Jay & Mark Briscoe facing Kazarian and Scorpio Sky on the All In: Zero Hour pre-show.

I'll admit, I'm ordering the show and watching it mainly out of curiosity as I just want to see what all the hype is about. Plus, it's something fun to do on a Saturday night over Labor Day weekend. A friend of mine has also offered to bring pizza so there's that too. 

I have gotten into Ring of Honor recently and watching their TV show has helped me familiarize myself with those on the show I don't really know. But overall, I'm really looking forward to this show.