NJPW x AEW x Stardom x CMLL x RoH Wrestle Dynasty Review

After the events of New Japan’s biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, the promotion teams up with AEW, CMLL, and Stardom to put on another major show less than 24 hours later.

I wasn’t able to catch Wrestle Dynasty live, but I’ve been able to stay away from the results so that I can deliver a slightly-delayed review.

Ten matches. Five title matches, featuring a total of seven different championships on the line. Let’s get things underway.

 

Lucha Gauntlet Match

According to commentary, the rules are as follows… up to eight men are involved in the match, four from New Japan and four from CMLL, and a new man will enter the match after one-minute intervals, with the winner being the first to pick up a pin or submission. It’s basically the Casino Gauntlet from AEW. Okay then.

Hechicero is the first man up. The CMLL star saw a fair share of action in AEW in 2024, including high profile singles matches against Bryan Danielson and MJF.

Kosei Fujita is up next. One-half of the brand new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, he’s looking to follow up on the momentum built at Wrestle Kingdom. That would be quite the weekend for him if he were to pick up a win here.

These minute intervals don’t really allow much to happen, obviously. Pretty much as soon as Hechicero and Fujita lock up, CMLL’s Soberano Jr. makes his way to the ring. Soberano hits the ring and immediately flies all over the place, including a Fosbury Flop to Hechicero on the outside. Once again, I’m glad I don’t need to do play-by-play for this. There’s so much going on.

New Japan’s Master Wato is the next entrant, and Soberano is waiting for him in the ring. They’re trading stiff strikes in the center of the ring, and Wato’s chest has handprints all over it.

The next entrant is CMLL’s Máscara Dorada, and he, too, begins to fly all over the place as soon as he enters the ring.

As Dorada is performing dives everywhere, New Japan’s Taiji Ishimori enters the match. Ishimori and Dorada square off, and things are playing out a lot like the Casino Gauntlet and other “multi-person” type matches do… two people are wrestling at any given time, while everyone else is pretty much standing around on the outside, seemingly waiting for their turn.

CMLL’s Titan is next, and sure enough, Mascara Dorada is out of the ring, so Titan and Ishimori have their chance to go one-on-one for a bit. Dorada enters the ring, so of course, Titan sends Ishimori out of the ring.

New Japan’s El Desperado, the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, is the final entrant. As he walks down the ramp, the other seven competitors all enter the ring and are motioning for the champion to enter the ring. They can’t wait, though, and they all rush Desperado on the ramp.

LOL @ everyone standing in a circle in the ring and just taking turns doing moves on Desperado. As soon as he is slammed on the mat, he is immediately picked up, hoisted, and then slammed on the mat again. This poor bastard.

We’re finally getting some pin attempts!

That didn’t last long. It’s time for more dives to the outside!

Ishimori sneaks in and picks up the pin on Desperado to win the match. So, not only did he win, but he pinned the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. Honestly, that’s pretty smart booking, giving Ishimori the ability to say that he pinned the champ and deserves a shot at his title.

I don’t rate these types of things. The action was fun and exciting, as would be expected, but the formatting of these matches always ends up being awful. If you like the in-ring style of Lucha Libre and/or the NJPW Junior Heavyweight division, you’ll enjoy this one, for sure.

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Katsuyori Shibata

Apparently this is going to be a special “Exhibition” instead of a regular singles match. There are five minutes on the clock. It is being done this way because Shibata hasn’t been cleared to officially wrestle in a New Japan ring after what he went though with his career threatening subdural hematoma in 2017. There has also been heat between Shibata and New Japan after an incident where Shibata went off-script and audibled a match, and that’s also playing into him not being cleared, even though he has wrestled a bunch since returning from his injury.

Well… we got ourselves a time-limit draw. It was five minutes of grappling, with some stiff strikes thrown in for good measure, but that’s still not enough for me to give a rating. As a longtime fan of both men, it was super cool to see them in the ring together for the first time in over eight years, though.

 

Mercedes Moné vs Mina Shirakawa – Winner Takes All Match for the New Japan Strong Women’s Title (Moné) and the RevPro Undisputed British Women’s Title (Shirakawa)

Again, that’s a lot to type.

Even after Mercedes’ entrance music ends, there are still small “C-E-O” chants that can be heard. They’re not the loudest things in the world, but from the notoriously quiet Japanese wrestling fans, they’re very noticeable.

Mina works on the knee of Mercedes, so naturally, Mercedes decides to dedicate a multi-minute stretch of comeback offense that involves her using her knee or landing on her knees. Bold strategy, Cotton.

There have been a couple really awkward spots so far, both of which involved Mercedes sitting on the top turnbuckle. Both times seemed like Mina was late to do something, leaving Mercedes to sit/stand there and wait for Mina to walk up to her.

Okay, it’s getting ridiculous to see how much of Mercedes’ offense involves her knees. I get that it’s part of her regular offense, but it looks really stupid to see Mina work on her knee for two minutes, causing Mercedes to scream bloody murder the entire time, and then Mercedes purposely “hurts” herself even more for the next two minutes, only for Mina to go back and offense and work her knee again.

Mercedes picks up the win, to the surprise of nobody. She is now a three-belt holder, although she technically has four, as she also carries around a defunct championship. She’s the new Belt Collector, it would seem.

The action here was fine. I just can’t get beyond how stupid it made Mercedes look. Combine that with some clunky moments, and I can’t give this one more than 2.75 Stars. Perhaps Mercedes needs to wrestle Kris Statlander again.

 

Brody King vs David Finlay

I’m expecting some physicality here.

Hey, it’s physicality!

Brody is always looking for a fight. Finlay is underrated when it comes to his strength and brawling, and he’s coming off of losing the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom. Both men are hitting each other with some heavy shots.

This is only somewhat off-topic, but I really wish AEW would push Brody King as a singles wrestler. He has been given a lot of singles opportunities, and he always delivers, win or lose. Even as a midcard champion, I feel he could do a great job of being that monster that is seemingly unstoppable.

This was fun. Commentary completely choreographed the final stretch, saying on multiple occasions that Finlay probably wouldn’t be able to use his power game and get Brody up for a powerbomb. Guess what happened at the end? Finlay used his power game and got Brody up for a powerbomb. Outside of that, though, this was a good’n. Both men looked really good. 3.5 Stars

 

Shota Umino vs Claudio Castagnoli

The SECOND that the Umino vs Castagnoli graphic went up on the boards, boos were heard from the Tokyo Dome crowd. They continue to turn their backs on Shota, no matter how hard New Japan tries to make him the top young face in the promotion.

16 or so hours after wrestling a grueling 45-minute main event at Wrestle Kingdom, Shota’s “reward” is having a match with a grumpy Claudio that is looking to do the dirty work for Jon Moxley? Yikes. Claudio is throwing Shota all over the place with no regard for his safety.

LOL @ a high-pitched female voice yelling out “SHOTA” approximately 348 times so far during the match. Sometimes it is accompanied by a much quieter male voice also yelling “SHOTA” right after, too. It’s crazy the type of things you can pick up when a wrestling crowd is quiet.

Claudio puts Shota in the Giant Swing, doing 20 revolutions, with the crowd counting in English (!!!) for each one.

This was another good match, although it definitely followed the “Super Cena” match style. Claudio was a pretty dominant force for most of the match, beating the hell out of Shota, who kept fighting back. At the end, Shota hit Claudio with one Death Rider, and that was enough for the win. That’s definitely not going to help get the fans on Shota’s side. There were some clear boos when the match ended. Still, as I said, it was a good match. 3.5 Stars

 

Konosuke Takeshita vs Tomohiro Ishii – AEW International Title & NEVER Openweight Title Match

I have a hunch that we’re in for some more physicality here.

Jesus Herbert Christ, these two are going for the knockout blow with each strike they deliver. The sound of their strikes is echoing throughout the Tokyo Dome.

Let’s go! Fighting Spirit lives on. We’ve already seen the “beat the hell out of each other with strikes” portion of the match. Now we’re at the “beat the hell out of each other with suplexes and throws” portion of the match. Then, as I typed that, we went back to the “beat the hell out of each other with strikes” portion. Takeshita just hit Ishii with a forearm shot that sounded like a gunshot went off inside the Dome.

So much fun. Ishii just celebrated his 49th birthday a month ago and isn’t the same in-ring performer he once was, but he can still have a super entertaining brawl. Takeshita, on the other hand, continues to make a case for being the best wrestler alive today. Ishii gave it his all, but Takeshita was just too much. 4 Stars. Takeshita is absolutely on fire right now.

 

United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) vs The Young Bucks vs Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) – Three-Way Match for the IWGP Tag Team Titles

An injury for Henare caused he and Great-O-Khan to relinquish the titles a month ago, and now, Great-O-Khan has a new partner as he attempts to regain them.

If I am remembering correctly, this is the first Bucks match in Japan since they competed at Wrestle Kingdom  six years ago.

Hectic. That’s what this match has been so far. Non-stop action, although it seems like most of it has been delivered by the Jackson brothers.

The Bucks win, giving them the IWGP Tag Team Titles for the second time in their careers, to go with seven reigns as the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles and two reigns as the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Titles (twice with Kenny Omega, once with Marty Scurll). They’re definitely one of the most decorated teams of all-time, but especially of this generation.

The match was decent enough, I suppose, but man, it was really one-sided. The Bucks not only got the win, but they got all of the memorable spots, and they got most of the overall offense. 3 Stars. With the Bucks winning New Japan titles here, and with Mercedes Moné winning a RevPro title earlier, there are now going to be approximately 511 different sets of titles on AEW programming soon. On top of that, Jack Perry and Ricochet are still to come tonight, both competing in matches with a title from New Japan on the line.

 

Yota Tsuji vs Jack Perry – IWGP Global Heavyweight Title Match

Heavy talk on commentary about the differences between New Japan Kazuchika Okada and AEW Kazuchika Okada. Yota Tsuji has made a lot of comments about Okada, even going back to Okada’s final days with New Japan. Those comments echo a lot of the social media discussion, where a lot of people are complaining about AEW has done to Okada, taking one of the best wrestlers of all-time and turning him into a “meme” wrestler. I’ve said it before, but I think a lot of this is Okada’s doing, not AEW’s doing. He spent so many years working as grueling a schedule as humanly possible, taking a ton of damage to his mind, body, and soul. Now he’s getting paid even more money to wrestle less, and to showcase more of a personality. Why wouldn’t he jump at that opportunity? He has nothing to prove.

The woman who was yelling “SHOTA” a million times earlier is now yelling “YOTA” any chance she gets. She’s making her presence felt.

Japanese crowds are quiet to begin with, but they seem especially quiet here. Other than the “YOTA” screamer, of course. I don’t know if it’s fatigue, or if it’s because they don’t know much (or care) about Jack Perry.

This one was decent enough. Tsuji picks up the win, earning his first successful title defense. Both men did a good job, but the match just never really seemed to get out of first gear most of the way through. 3 Stars

 

Kenny Omega vs Gabe Kidd

Here we go. Kenny Omega’s first match in 13 months, and his first match for New Japan in exactly two years. I already know what he’s capable of, and what he will bring to this match, but how will Gabe Kidd handle the most pressure he’s ever faced in the biggest match of his career?

Omega appears to be in great physical condition. Not a surprise. Merely an observation.

A very deliberate pace in the early stages of this one. They’re in the “feeling out” process, with Kidd testing Omega and seeing what the veteran has after missing so much time.

“SHUT YOUR FUCKING MOUTH, AEW BITCH!” – Kidd, to Ref Bryce Remsburg, who was admonishing Kidd about getting the match back into the ring after a fight at ringside.

This crowd reaction is incredibly interesting. Omega got a big pop during his entrance, but as the match has gone on, there are more and more people booing him. Wow.

Kidd is busted open, although how it happened looked ridiculous. He was sent through two tables at ringside, and he came up bleeding from the forehead. Sure, you could say that shrapnel from the table flew up and hit his forehead, but it still looks weird to land on your back and come up bleeding from the forehead.

A brainbuster through a table, followed by being hit with a chunk of said table, has Omega bleeding buckets from the head. Blood is just pouring down his face and onto his body.

Superplex from the top onto a stacked pile of steel chairs in the ring! Ouch.

Two consecutive unprotected chair shots to the head of Omega, followed by one unprotected chair shot to the head of Kidd and one semi-protected chair shot to the head of Kidd. It’s 2025. Get that bullshit out of pro wrestling.

Wait… Red Shoes is in the ring as the Referee. What happened to Bryce Remsburg? Where the hell did he go?

Kidd locks Omega in Antonio Inoki’s Octopus Stretch! He performed Katsuyori Shibata’s “pose” earlier in the match, too. Throw in the nods to some of Omega’s past matches against the likes of Kazuchika Okada, and this match is like an ode to New Japan Pro Wrestling.

Strike that… this is an ode to all of Puroresu, as Kidd just nailed Omega with a fucking Ganso Bomb! My goodness. It’s still a scary move to witness, even after all these years.

What a match. My Lord, what a match. Omega picks up the win, but he’s going to feel this one for days to come. 5 Stars. I thought about deducting a quarter-star for the unprotected chair shots, but that wouldn’t be fair to the rest of the match. Hiroshi Tanahashi was shown at ringside, openly weeping. Wow. What a powerful shot that was.

Yes, Gabe Kidd took the loss here, but this was the PERFECT example of someone winning in defeat. Holy shit, what a star-making performance this was. If New Japan has any intelligence whatsoever, they might want to think about putting the rocket on his back in 2025. He looked like a million bucks here, putting on one of the toughest, grittiest performances I’ve seen in a long time. Beautiful stuff here.

Also, it appears as though Kidd’s cut was at the top of his head, not his forehead. I take back what I said earlier about how weird his bleeding was after being put through the tables.

 

Zack Sabre Jr. vs Ricochet – IWGP World Heavyweight Title Match

These guys are in a tough spot. I don’t envy them for having to follow the previous match.

Ricochet kicks the match off at a billion miles per hour, looking to finish things off right away. Good strategy, although it didn’t work.

Ricochet continues to try and make this a sprint, while ZSJ is trying to slow him down at every turn. I love these types of matches with a major clash of styles.

This crowd definitely seems tired after Omega vs Kidd. I can’t say that I blame them.

I’m only half-serious when I say this, of course, but I wonder if Ricochet is feeling these strikes from ZSJ and wishing he was still wrestling in a seven-minute match on WWE television instead.

Wow. With both of his arms trapped in a submission, Ricochet was forced to verbally submit. You don’t see that type of finish very often. I dig it.

This was pretty good. It was hurt by following the previous match, as well as the complete lack of suspense over who would win, but it was still really good. 4 Stars. Both men worked their respective style really well, but in the end, it was ZSJ’s technical wizardry and desire to twist his opponent into 29 different types of pretzels that came out on top.

 

A Match Of The Year contender, four additional matches that were really good to great, and overall, a nice follow up to Wrestle Kingdom. Quite the weekend.