Over 30,000 cheering fans watched the final match of the legendary Keiji Muto in the Tokyo Dome. Muto has contributed a ton to the wrestling industry in his 39-year-long career, but it was time for him to hang up his boots, and he went out with a great match and a banger show. From TJPW and DDT shining to interpromotional matches to old rivalries being renewed, the show had everything a Puro Fan can ask for.
Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba def. Yoshiki Inamura & Yasutaka Yano
The newly crowned GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Daiki Inaba and Masa Kitamiya opened the show with a victory over Yoshiki Inamura and Yasutaka Yano when the 7x GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Kitamiya planted Yano with the Saito Suplex. The best moments of this match happened during the interactions between Kitamiya and Inamura. They need to face each other in a bigger singles match for a GHC Title down the line. Overall, it was a short-opening match to start warming up the crowd that has a big line-up in front of them.
Rating: **3/4
Miyu Yamashita, Rika Tatsumi, Shoko Nakajima & Yuka Sakazaki def. Maki Itoh, Miu Watanabe, Mizuki & Yuki Arai
This was a perfect match to showcase what TJPW is all about and that they are more than just a “Fun” wrestling promotion. On the one side, you had the Pillars of TJPW that carried TJPW from wrestling on mats into having a match in the Tokyo Dome while on the other side, the next generation of TJPW is waiting for their chance to reach the top of the promotion that has been dominated by the Pillars for the last ten years.
They got 11 minutes and absolutely packed it full of action, got the crowd into it, and killed it. Every Wrestler stood out on their own, especially Miu Watanabe, Miyu Yamashita, Mizuki, and Yuka Sakazaki. The International Princess Champion Miu Watanabe pleased the crowd with her amazing power moves like the Big Giant Swing or the double Powerslam, the next POP Challenger Mizuki showed once again why she’s one of the best in the promotion and even pulled out her Whirling Candy. “The Pink Striker” Miyu Yamashita looked like a cold-blooded killer out there that was destroying everyone, and the current Princess of Princess Champion Yuka Sakazaki had an amazing performance in her interactions against Yuki Arai and her next challenger and tag partner Mizuki. She picked up the win for the Pillars after the Magical Girl 450 Splash, but nobody went out as the loser. The entire match was a win for not only everyone involved, but for the entire company.
It’s hard to ask for more than that, especially when, again, it’s a preshow match. You can’t really book this match better with an 11-minute runtime.
Rating: ***3/4
Jake Lee, Jack Morris & Anthony Greene def. Takashi Sugiura, Timothy Thatcher & Satoshi Kojima
Well, this match was just there to build up Jake Lee as a credible GHC Heavyweight Title challenger, and it didn’t really achieve that. While I like the wrestlers involved, the entire GLG stable feels more like a meme than an actual threat to anyone right now. The Sugiura-gun and Kojima trio was the far more interesting part of this match, but they didn’t try to make this anything special. The finish came out of nowhere too when Jake Lee hit his new finisher which is similar to Sami Zayn’s Helluva Kick totally against Thatcher for the three count. Kojima later announced in the post-match comment that he’s done with NOAH for now and seems to go back to doing NJPW Road To Show Tag Matches that nobody wants to see. Sad to hear, considering he proved over the last couple of months that he still can go when he gets the chance.
Rating: **1/2
Chris Ridgeway, Daga, Eita, HAYATA & Yoshinari Ogawa def. Alejandro, Atsushi Kotoge, Junta Miyawaki, Seiki Yoshioka & YO-HEY
With the NOAH Juniors Match, the official main card of this show started and what a weird choice to kick off the show. This was easily the lowlight of the show and the perfect example of why the NOAH Junior Division stinks and isn’t interesting to watch. The NOAH Junior Army looked like absolute geeks here, getting easily defeated by a team that can’t get along at all with Ridgeway and HAYATA turning on the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Eita and Ogawa just eight days ago. Ridgeway choked out Junta for the win. Miyawaki announced that he is heading back to Mexico to train more.
And what is a NOAH Jr Match without a random attack after the bell? Nothing. That’s why Eita and Ogawa blindsided Ridgeway and HAYATA after the match while Daga looked confused and has no clue what to do, but he seems to support his former R.E.D mate Eita. The Stinger civil war has officially started, and nobody asked for that.
Rating: **1/4
MAO, Shunma Katsumata, Toi Kojima & Yuki Ueno def. Tetsuya Endo, Yuya Koroku, Hideki Okatani & Takeshi Masada
Fellow CyberFight promotion DDT got a showcase match at this show with The 37KAMIINA Members facing former KO-D Openweight Champion Tetsuya Endo and the three Rookies Yuya Koroku, Hideki Okatani, Takeshi Masada, and just like the TJPW wrestlers earlier, they killed it and put on a great showing. The younger wrestlers showed perfectly why they are the future of the promotion, especially Masada, who has been phenomenal since his debut. But the stars of this match were Endo, Ueno, and MAO. All three put on a great performance, with especially MAO standing out for me. He’s great and should get an even more prominent role in the future, but it was Yuki Ueno who got the winning fall over Masada with the WR.
Rating: ***
El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr., Naomichi Marufuji & Ninja Mack def. Diamante, KAI & Shun Skywalker
The DRAGONGATE vs. NOAH match was pretty fun. Z-Brats has been my favorite act in DRAGONGATE for a while now, so I’m glad they were able to get this spot on the card. They did a great job here, especially Shun showed once again why he is one of the best heels in wrestling right now. Him stomping on the NOAH logo was a great visual, and the crowd hated him. KAI, who was trained by Muto at the AJPW dojo, had touching gear with “Bye Bye Muto” written all over it. The brief interactions between El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. and Diamante were great. The two Mexicans teased a future singles match as well which makes me interested in it. Everyone got their big spots in like Skywalker his Monkey Flip, Ninja Mack doing his usual flips, and more. El Hijo del Dr. Wagner Jr. won the Match for the NOAH team by pinning KAI with an insane-looking Moonsault.
Rating: ***1/4
Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh & Manabu Soya def. Kento Miyahara, Suwama & Yuma Aoyagi
The AJPW vs. KONGO Match was built around the history of Katsuhiko Nakajima and Kento Miyahara, and it was felt instantly when the match graphic was shown. The crowd was on a whole other level, couldn’t stop screaming, and it felt like everyone knew the history. The interactions between Kento and Nakajima were the highlights of this match, but all three pairings (Kenoh/Yuma, Soya/Suwama, Nakajima/Kento) rocked and were done more than well. Non-stop action for 15 minutes with a lot of intensity and the crowd going CRAZY over everything that happened inside and outside of the ring. Kenoh got the win for his team after pinning Yuma with the P.F.S.
Backstage, Kento Miyahara invited Masa Kitamiya to the February 27 AJPW Show, while Kenoh and Soya challenged Nomura and Yuma for the AJPW Tag Team Titles. The AJPW-NOAH partnership kicked off more than well here. This match was perfect for what they’ve aimed for and the clear Match of the Night to this point.
Rating: ****1/4
Gedo & Taiji Ishimori def. NOSAWA Rongai & Mazada
The retirement match of NOSAWA Rongai was weird in the funniest and most hilarious way possible. First of all, booking your own retirement match on the Keiji Muto retirement match show is an all-time carny moment and totally fits in with what we know about NOSAWA. This match was nothing until the very end when NOSAWA asked Ishimori to finish him and end his career just four minutes in. Ishimori picked him up, hit the Bloody Cross for the three count, and ended the career of the booker of NOAH, who can now focus on his role to build up the next generation of NOAH.
Rating: NR
Hiromu Takahashi def. AMAKUSA
With the battle between the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, we entered the biggest of the matches. Hiromu and AMAKUSA have a lot of history with each other when they were both competing in the UK and were now finally facing each other again with both having a ton of respect for the other. They had 11 minutes, but don’t let the match time fool you, they packed in a lot here without giving the viewer the feeling that they were rushing through spots.
The spots in this match were insane. AMAKUSA’s dives made the crowd and I pop really loud. He had one of the best performances in a NOAH ring here and stepped up on this big stage. Hiromu was Hiromu and that’s a compliment. He’s been fantastic for years now, even though injuries are holding him back. They build up great drama here with Takahashi hitting his Timebomb finisher with AMAKUSA barely kicking out, but the Timebomb 2 was too much for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. Hiromu wins the match and challenges his opponent to a rematch backstage, while also inviting him to LIJ!
Rating: ****
Kazuchika Okada def. Kaito Kiyomiya
This most anticipated match for many fans of the entire year after their amazing angle at the NOAH vs. NJPW show in January. “The Rainmaker” faced the “Supernova” in front of a red-hot Tokyo Dome crowd. You were able to feel the intensity from home, and it got more intense from the moment the two heavyweight champions from their respective promotions locked up.
Okada tried to big league Kaito from the beginning, but the Ace of NOAH got back into the ring immediately when thrown out which annoyed Okada. They continued where it ended at the NOAH vs. NJPW show, and they brawled on the outside. Okada played the perfect cocky and arrogant heel in this match that didn’t respect Kiyomiya at all. “The Rainmaker” is the best in this role and because of him showing this side so rarely, it’s even better when we see it. He destroyed Kiyomiya, and while Kaito had his hope spots, it never looked like he had an actual chance to beat the IWGP Heavyweight Champion on this night. Okada hit the Landslide and a Rainmaker – One, Two… Okada picked Kaito up at two to disrespect him even more. He hit Antonio Inoki’s Enzuigiri, the Emerald Flowsion, the move that NOAH’s founder Mitsuharu Misawa made popular, and another Rainmaker to pin Kaito clean in under 17 minutes. “The Rainmaker” instantly walked to the back, letting the GHC Heavyweight Champion lay on the mat.
Kaito has come far in his career after tapping out Muto and winning the GHC Heavyweight Championship, but he’s no match for Okada right now. He not only got beaten but also humiliated in front of 30,000 NOAH fans. There’s going to come a day when Kaito beats Okada, and it’s going to be bigger than what they did here. If NOAH and NJPW can continue to get along, they’re onto something special.
Rating: ****1/2
Tetsuya Naito def. Keiji Muto
Keiji Muto’s retirement match was a spectacle that I’ll never forget in my life as a wrestling fan. Alone, his entrance made this must-watch. All his old themes playing before he walks out to his current theme, with loud “MUTO” chants coming from the audience. The production has done a fantastic job on this show, and it peaked here when it matters the most. The quality, the stage, and the pyro all were on point. I had goosebumps for his entire entrance.
The match itself was phenomenal and a fantastic last match for the legendary career of Keiji Muto. They had a typical epic match, with Naito having one of the best performances of his entire career. At some points, he wasn’t tranquilo and nearly shed a tear. Muto pulls out the Baba Chops, the Hashimoto DDT, Misawa’s Emerald Flowsion, and Chono’s STF to pay tribute to the legends of this sport. Pro Wrestling Last Love did this match not for himself, but for everyone who didn’t have the chance to wrestle their final match.
Besides the story about Muto remembering his colleagues and friends who his career outlived. He also told the story about the physical limits of his body. Muto teased his famous moonsault twice but realized he just can’t do it anymore. His body took too much damage in the last 39 years. He had the chance to win the match with one not just once, but twice. Keiji Muto, the professional wrestler who did everything in his power to win his matches has died on that turnbuckle, leaving only Muto the old man. Naito tried to humiliate him by making him tap out with the Figure Four in his last real match, but Muto refused to give up. His career will not end by him quitting in the ring, he would retire when his body had completely given up. Naito hit multiple Shining Wizards and hit the Destino to defeat Keiji Muto in his *final* match.
Naito only got to be Keiji Muto’s final match for about five minutes before Muto gave the honor to his career-long colleague Chono who never got a true retirement match, who Muto had promised they would retire together. The crowd was out of their mind when the bell rang and two of the Musketeers locked up in the ring for one and a half minutes until Muto tapped out in the STF. It was an emotional match that had a big meaning for not only both of them but everyone involved.
The Four Pillars have fallen, and now the three Musketeers too. Not only the era of Muto ended on this day, but the entire era of the legendary 90s Wrestlers from Japan. An amazing ending to one of the greatest of all time. Thank You, Keiji Muto.
.Star Rating: **** 1/2 <3
WHERE TO WATCH: WRESTLE UNIVERSE
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