NEW JAPAN PRO WRESTLING (NJPW) PRESENTS Wrestle Kingdom 17 Night 1 Event Results & Review by Ryan Balkwill

Promotion: New Japan Pro Wrestling

Date: January 4 ,2023

City: Tokyo, Japan

Arena: Tokyo Japan

TV station/network: TV Asahi

Tagline:

Tagline: Antonio Inoki Memorial Spectacular
Fighting Spirit Forever
Role:Name:
English CommentatorsKevin Kelly
Chris Charlton
Gino Gambino
Rocky Romero
Japanese CommentatorsShinpei Nogami
Milano Collection A.T.
Katsuhiko Kanazawa
Kazuyoshi Sakai
Togi Makabe (Guest)
Masahiro Chono (Guest)
Ring announcersHidekazu Tanaka
Kimihiko Ozaki
Makoto Abe
RefereesNorio Honaga
Kenta Sato
Yuya Sakamoto
Marty Asami
Red Shoes Unno
Tiger Hattori

Overall Show Score: 8/10

Pros: The surprising debut of Mercedes Moné in New-Japan. The arena was plenty packed for this event compare to the previous one. The wrestling didn’t disappoint and my favourite match was between Will Ospreay and Kenny Omega.

Cons: Some of other matches were cut short because of time constraint. There were too many title belts on this show.

Pre-Show:

Matches:

Exhibition match:

Ryohei Oiwa 

vs.

Boltin Oleg. Winner: No one because of a Time Limit Draw Rating: solid

New Japan Ranbo to determine who will challenge for the Provisional KOPW 2023 Championship at New Year Dash!!

Rocky Romero 

vs. 

Ryusuke Taguchi 

vs. 

 Yoshinobu Kanemaru

Yoshinobu Kanemaru 

vs. 

Tomohiro Ishii 

vs. 

KENTA 

vs. 

Toru Yano 

vs. 

Taichi 

vs. 

Yujiro Takahashi 

vs. 

Shingo Takagi 

vs. 

Mikey Nicholls 

vs. 

EL Phantasmo
EL Phantasmo

El Phantasmo 

vs. 

Shane Haste 

vs. 

EVIL 

vs. 

DOUKI 

vs. 

SHO 

vs. 

Jeff Cobb 

vs. 

Great-O-Khan 

vs. 

Aaron Henare 

vs. 

Hikuleo. Winner: Great-O-KhanShingo TakagiSho and Toru Yano advanced to the four-way match. Rating: Bad

Antonio Inoki Memorial six-man tag team match:

Satoshi KojimaTogi Makabe & Yuji Nagata 

vs. 

Minoru SuzukiTatsumi Fujinami & Tiger Mask. Winners: Satoshi KojimaTogi Makabe & Yuji Nagata Rating: Descent

Main Show:

Matches:

Tag Team Match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship:

Catch 22 (Francesco Akira & TJP) (c)

vs. 

CHAOS (Lio Rush & YOH). Winners: Catch 22 are still the  IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Rating: Alright

Singles match for the IWGP Women’s Championship:

KAIRI (c)

vs. 

Tam Nakano. Winner: KAIRI is still the  IWGP Women’s Champion. Rating: meh

Tag Team Match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship:

FTR (Cash Wheeler & Dax Harwood) (c)

vs. 

Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI). Winners: Bishamon won the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Rating: Good

Tournament final for the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship:

Zack Sabre Jr. 

vs. 

Ren Narita. Winner: Zack Sabre Jr. became the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship. Rating: Very Good

Karl Anderson (c)

vs. 

Tama Tonga (w/Jado). Winner: Tama Tonga Won back the NEVER Openweight Championship. Rating: Very Good

Six-man tag team match, This was Muto’s last NJPW match.

Hiroshi TanahashiKeiji Muto & Shota Umino 

vs. 

Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHISANADA & Tetsuya Naito). Winners: Hiroshi TanahashiKeiji Muto & Shota Umino. Rating: Good

Four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship:

Taiji Ishimori (c)

vs. 

El Desperado 

vs. 

Hiromu Takahashi
Hiromu Takahashi

Hiromu Takahashi 

vs. 

Master Wato. Winner: Hiromu Takahashi won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Rating: Not That Good.

Singles match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship:

Will Ospreay (c) (with United Empire (Aaron HenareCatch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira), Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb)) 

Vs

Kenny Omega (with Dom Calls). Winner: Kenny Omega won the IWGP United States Championship. Rating: Great

Main Event:

Singles Match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship:

Jay White (c) (w/Gedo)

vs. 

Kazuchika Okada. Winner: Kazuchika Okada won the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship again. Rating: Really Good

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