NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: Highlights, Analysis, and Grades

Photo Source: njpw1972.com

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match

Marty Scurll (c) vs. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi

Result: Will Ospreay defeated Marty Scurll via pinfall to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars

If the right person would have won this match, I would have given it another quarter star – maybe even made it a 5-star match. But even though I like Ospreay, Takahashi should have left the Dome as champion. The crowd was solidly in the corner of Takahashi, and his performance absolutely warranted a victory. Plus, Daryl was wearing a mask!

Regardless of the victor, there were a bunch of times in the match where I just threw my hands up and said “ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!” Counter upon counter, ridiculous spot after ridiculous spot – it was bonkers. Sometimes I think Ospreay overdoes things a bit – he’s good, and athletic, but he almost always operates at full tilt. That’s great, but look at it this way – in music, if everything is loud, it loses its power. You need a soft section here and there to change it up, which makes the loud more impactful. If Ospreay is always at an 8 or a 9, there’s no impact anymore, even if he kicks it up to a 10.

KUSHIDA impressed me a lot in this one. I enjoyed that he didn’t roll over and give up after the powder in the eyes. You don’t need to be able to see to catch your opponent if he’s making physical contact with you – especially for a signature move you should literally be able to do with your eyes closed.

Scurll is great, too. The umbrella shots to the head made me cringe, but his joint manipulation is top rate. I get the impact of Scurrl and Ospreay sort of joining forces, but to me, it made both guys look dumb, mostly Ospreay. Why would you randomly start to trust your mortal enemy – who is a member of a whole group of relatively untrustworthy numpties – and work with him?

The fact that so many high impact moves led to false finishes was a little ridiculous, like the imploding 450 splash. In general, though, the match was awesome – even if the wrong guy won.