NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11 Review: Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega

NEVER Openweight Championship Match
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Hirooki Goto

Result: Hirooki Goto defeats Katsuyori Shibata via pinfall to win the NEVER Openweight Championship.

Rating: 4.25 out of 5 stars

Shibata is one of the hardest hitting wrestlers in the business. His MMA background always comes through in his matches, with what we saw at Wrestle Kingdom 11 being the case once again.

Goto played to Shibata’s neck and shoulder injuries throughout the match. Shibata’s body was pretty much taped up from a variety of ailments, which commentary played up as thinking he may not be anywhere close to fully healthy.

As always with these Shibata matches, he and his opponent just beat the living daylights out of each other with stiff shots, brutal punches, and likely a handful of bruises given. Certainly the best match of the night so far from what we saw between these two.

For the sixth time, the challenger took the championship, which is almost unheard of. There’s still the top two belts in NJPW left to be defended as well with four of the biggest stars in the promotion set to battle for then.