Wrestle Kingdom is over – what a great show it was! Good undercard, awesome title matches (EVERY single’s title match became an instant classic), and, most importantly, absolutely unforgettable main event. Let’s take a closer look at the Okada vs. Omega match and think what’s next for both Rainmaker and Cleaner!

I was waiting for this fight since August. Omega did awesome job in last year, proving that he’s one of the best wrestlers in the world and definitely the biggest western non-WWE superstar. Great psychology, incredible athleticism and spots. Spots that only he could take.

I was pretty sure that we’d see some high-risk actions in this match too, and I knew that Omega would sacrifice his body really bad – he’s a risk taker. Okada needed something special as an ace and I think that Omega was the best option for him on Wrestle Kingdom. Kenny represents such a different style than, for example, Goto and Tanahashi. Everyone knows that Omega can do absolutely everything in ring and we witnessed it once again on Wednesday.

First of all – terminator-styled Omega’s entrance. It was fun, slightly parodic and well-suited Kenny’s persona. I don’t think I could imagine a better way for him to enter Tokyo Dome’s ring.

The road to Tokyo Dome was very intense for both Okada and Omega. After succesfully defending his G1 title shot against YOSHI-HASHI and Goto, Omega took on Okada pretty hard, as he and Bullet Club had matches with CHAOS on almost every NJPW show in October and December. We had some memorable moments on this road, we jumped on the hype train. Omega’s journey in 2016 was incredible – after taking over BC from Styles, Kenny made a lot of steps to have an opportunity to main event Wrestle Kingdom. In a period of one year he did more than a lot of guys in their whole career. I’m pretty sure that last year will definitely shorten his career, but hey – who knows if he would have second chance to prove his skills?

So they entered the ring and… the time stopped. Literally, the match took 46 minutes from our lives, but it felt like they were fighting for 15 minutes. A lot of people complained that the beginning of the fight was boring. When I sat down in front of the screen I knew that this match was going to be pretty long. It’s obvious that you can’t handle the same tempo throught 45 minutes, even if you are Okada or Omega. It was a storytelling that needed some substructure and the first 15-20 minutes did this work. This part was all about the locks and mat wrestling, searching for rival’s weaknesses and trying to make them even more problematic for the opponent.

Then we had the moonsault – display of Omega’s inhuman speed and agility. As always in his fights, spot like this means the beginning of the second stage of the fight – it’s some kind of a turning point. The match speeded up, with more moves from both Kazuchika and Kenny. Insane Dragon Suplex and Rainmaker’s landing on his neck made me almost scream. Earlier on WK11 we saw KUSHIDA taking similar bump from Takahashi, but this… This was insane. Just take a look at this:

After this suplex it was clear to me that regardless of the result this match would become an classic, even more than that – maybe one of the best matches that wrestling world had ever witnessed. So much sacrifice from both Okada and Omega.

The ending… The ending was the quintessence of everything that I love in wrestling. Crowd went absolutely nuts when Omega kicked-out after Rainmaker. The fact that Kenny didn’t use One Winged Angel once in entire fight works really well for his finisher. If I’m correct he made three attempts to OWA and each time it felt like this would end the fight immediately. He made his finisher more dangerous without even using it in the fight!

I think it was very unlikely that Okada would lose Tokyo Dome defence to the gaijin who just a year ago was in the Junior Heavyweight division. I believed that Kenny could do it, but it was the voice of the heart. My mind told me something totally different. I don’t understand people complaining that NJPW buried Omega. How he would got buried if he gave so awesome fight in his first main event in Tokyo Dome? As I said to my friend – he didn’t lose anything. I’m pretty sure that this feud is not over, although after Suzuki’s return things got pretty complicated. NJPW have just announced that G1 Special will take place in USA. They want to expand to the world and Omega will definitely help them. Is 2017 going to be the year of first Omega’s IWGP Heavyweight title reign? YES!

New Legend? In my opinion Kenny will change his gimmick a bit. YB didn’t help him in the match against Okada. Omega seems like losing his “crazy” persona and heading into more serious version of Cleaner. Do I like this direction? Yes. As much as I like the current Kenny, I think that he needs to change something in his character. In my opinion he will become less arrogant, maybe BC won’t help him anymore as much as they used to do? Time will tell.

Poll

You guys have given 39 votes in my poll “Which stable made better addition?” under my last article about LIJ’s and BC’s additions after WTL. The results:

26 votes (66.67%) – LIJ made better addition (Hiromu Takahashi)

13 votes (33.33%) – BC made better addition (Cody Rhodes)

I think it’s a good way to connect with you guys. I want to know what do you think about WK11’s main event booking – who deserved more to be the IWGP Heavyweight Champion?

Plus: I’ve started my fanpage! If you enjoy reading my articles and want to keep up with me, maybe ask some questions or just want to give some feedback – feel free to do it on my Facebook!

http://facebook.com/korakuenwrestling

PS: You can now also rate my posts! ↓