NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13: Results, Grades, and Analysis

The biggest show of the year for NJPW always kicks off the start of their year, ending stories, and starting new ones. NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 13 not only proved to be an incredible show, but it also setup many future stories that will carry NJPW for the next year. Read on for the review!

Before the main card, there is the preshow, and NJPW began the show with the gauntlet match to determine the No. 1 contender for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship

The Elite (Yujiro Takahashi, Marty Scurll, & Hangman Page) w/ Chase Owens & Pieter vs. Yuji Nagata, David Finlay, Jeff Cobb – Gauntlet match to determine the #1 contender for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship

The opening part of the gauntlet match saw The Elite and Nagata, Finlay, & Cobb. Marty Scurll and Nagata started the match, and suddenly I find myself wanting to see a singles match between the two. Some good chain wrestling between the two before Nagata tagged out to Cobb. Page made a hot tag and hit his shooting star off the apron and a Buckshot Lariat on Cobb. Cobb blocked a superkick and then threw Page across the ring with a fallaway slam. Yujiro hit the fisheman’s buster on Finlay, but Nagata broke it up. Chase Owens grabbed Finlay and Hangman Page tried to hit Finlay, but Finlay dodged and nailed Owens. Yujiro shoved Hangman, and Hangman shoved Yujiro right into a rollup from Finlay. Finlay pinned Takahashi!

CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Chuck Taylor, and Trent Beretta) made their entrance next and immediately attacked. Goto and Nagata exchanged offence before Nagata went for an armbar, but Taylor and Beretta broke it up. Trent went for a crossbody to the outside on Cobb, but Cobb caught him and tried to powerbomb him. Beretta countered, landed on the apron, and ducked as Chuck Taylor flew over the tope rope with a tope con giro, taking out Cobb and Finlay. Beretta then hit a springboard moonsault to the outside on both men. Great stuff.

Taylor and Beretta worked over Nagata for the next few minutes. Cobb came in and started throwing everyone around, which is always incredible to see. Trent went for a moonsault, but Finlay dodged and rolled up Trent and got the pinfall! Finlay got the win twice!

Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki & Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) entered next, and you can hear a hush over the announcers as Suzuki came out looking to kill everyone. Nagata and Suzuki went to war right away, beating the crap out of each other, and it was awesome. Suzuki locked on a Octopus Stretch, and Nagata countered and hit an exploder suplex. While Cobb and Smith wrestled on the inside of the ring, Suzuki and Nagata brawled on the outside. KES managed to hit the Killer Bomb on Finlay to pin him.

The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe & Toru Yano) & Ryusuke Taguchi made the entrance, and Suzuki destroyed Taguchi right away. While doing so, Suzuki took a swing at Kevin Kelly, and Kelly crashed to the floor and Don Callis ran away. Suzuki destroyed Taguchi in the ring for a bit, before Taguchi managed to hit a hip attack, and he tagged in Makabe who ran wild. Suzuki killed Makabe with a penalty kick, but Makabe kicked out. Makabe ate a forearm, but he liked it and hit back.

Yano tagged in, and immediately asked for direction from Taguchi, who tried to do his baseball signs to direct him, but Yano didn’t understand. Yano ran and untied the turnbuckle pad, looked to Taguchi, and yelled “Okay!” and swung the turnbuckle pad, but Davey Boy Smith Jr. ducked and took him out. Taguchi saved KES from killing Yano, but almost died himself. Suzuki tried to lock on the sleeper on Makabe, but Taguchi saved him and hit two hip attacks on Suzuki. Yano went for a low blow on KES, but both men blocked it. Yano threw the ref towards the corner and hit another low blow on both Archer and Smith, and he rolled up Smith to win the match!

Result: Most Violent Players & Ryusuke Taguchi 

Rating: *** (3 stars out of 5)

In the intermission between this and the main show, NJPW aired a video about their upcoming dates, and it featured some major announcements. NJPW is coming to Dallas for the first night of the G1 Climax Tournament in 2019, London, England in August 2019, and the Tokyo Dome show next year in 2020 will be a two-night show! 2019 is going to be a huge year for NJPW.