IWGP Heavyweight Championship “Rain Maker” Kazuchika Okada (champion) vs. “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega (G1 Climax 26 winner)
IWGP Intercontinental Championship Tetsuya Naito (champion) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Championship Katsuyori Shibata (champion) vs. Hirooki Goto
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship KUSHIDA (champion) vs. “Ticking Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi
IWGP Tag Team Championship (Three-Way Match) Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa) (champions) vs. G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) (2016 World Tag League winners) vs. Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii
ROH World Championship Kyle O'Reilly (champion) vs. Adam Cole
Juice Robinson vs. “The American Nightmare” Cody
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (Gauntlet Match) Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet and David Finlay (champions) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon: SANADA, EVIL and BUSHI vs. Chaos: YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay and Jado vs. Bullet Club: Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Hangman Page
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (champions) vs. Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) (2016 Super Junior Tag Tournament winners)
Special Attraction Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger the Dark
New Japan Rumble (Pre-Show) Featuring: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, Ryusuke Taguchi, plus others to be announced.
Omega Naito Shibata Takahashi Guerillas of Destiny O’Reilly Cody LIJ Young Bucks Tiger Mask W Michael Elgin
-This guy is stoked to be watching his first WK live! Well, I’ll *try* to watch live. Putting this out there a couple days earlier than a normal prediction thread to account for the holidays.
-The last four matches have the potential to be an amazing string of professional wrestling contests.
-Rationale for Omega: not wasting his history-making G1 Climax win.
-Rationale for Naito: Big Match Tan is the greatest, but Naito is just on fire.
-Cody is the newest member of the Bullet Club. Wondering if there’s a Cody Coup around the corner?
-I saw O’Reilly’s title win over Cole live and in person. That was one hell of a match. No way this one matches the quality of the previous encounter, but still should be pretty awesome.
-Jado replaces Ishii in the 6-man Gauntlet match, who was added to the Tag Title match. No Ishii kicking the shit out of people takes my anticipation for the Gauntlet match down a notch, but not by much, since my anticipation really centers around Ospreay vs. Ricochet.
-Adding a third team to the Tag Title match took my anticipation down a lot, until I realized there’s like a decade of history between Makabe, Honma, Yano and Ishii. Now I want a straight up tag match without the Guerillas.
-The Tiger Mask special attraction is a tie-in to an anime series. Kota Ibushi and ACH are rumored to be the men under the masks, and that’d be amazing.
-Sadly, no Elgin (recently recovered from injury) on the main card. Have to imagine he takes a spot in the Rumble, and he would be a natural pick to win, if so.
Okada-Omega: Okada. They built to Okada beating Tanahashi for years and just paid it off last year. Okada needs to have a WK win streak of his own so someone can someday unseat him.
Naito-Tanahashi: Tanahashi. By that same token, since Tanahashi lost last year, and the IC Title has eluded him all 2016 (he was originally supposed to beat Omega for it), he gets it here in maybe the best match on the show.
Shibata vs Goto: Goto. This one's tough, because Shibata just won it back, but I have to think they're moving Shibata up the card at some point. I think it's entirely about whether he signs a new deal since his contract is up in March. I think he loses regardless, though.
KUSHIDA-Takahashi: Takahashi. KUSHIDA can afford to lose this one and Takahashi should go over here.
GoD vs GBH vs Yano/Ishii: Ishii/Yano. They're such a great team that they can get a lot of mileage out of a run with them. Really tired of GoD at the moment.
O'Reilly-Cole: O'Reilly.
Robinson-CODY: CODY.
Kojima/Ricochet/Finlay vs Los Ingobernables vs Bullet Club: Los Ingobernables de Japon.
Bucks vs Roppongi Vice: Young Bucks.
Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger the Dark: Kota Ibushi (Tiger Mask W).
Rumble: Tenzan. They seem to be hinting at him retiring soon, and this could be a great last hurrah.
IWGP Heavyweight Championship “Rain Maker” Kazuchika Okada (champion) vs. “The Cleaner” Kenny Omega (G1 Climax 26 winner) Okada
IWGP Intercontinental Championship Tetsuya Naito (champion) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Tanahashi
NEVER Openweight Championship Katsuyori Shibata (champion) vs. Hirooki Goto Shibata
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship KUSHIDA (champion) vs. “Ticking Time Bomb” Hiromu Takahashi Takahashi
IWGP Tag Team Championship (Three-Way Match) Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa) (champions) vs. G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) (2016 World Tag League winners) vs. Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii G.o.D.
ROH World Championship Kyle O'Reilly (champion) vs. Adam Cole O'Reilly
Juice Robinson vs. “The American Nightmare” Cody Cody
NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship (Gauntlet Match) Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet and David Finlay (champions) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon: SANADA, EVIL and BUSHI vs. Chaos: YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay and Jado vs. Bullet Club: Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Hangman Page Ingobernables win gauntlet and then titles
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) (champions) vs. Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) (2016 Super Junior Tag Tournament winners) Roppongi Vince
Special Attraction Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger the Dark TMW
New Japan Rumble (Pre-Show) Featuring: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, Manabu Nakanishi, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV, Ryusuke Taguchi, plus others to be announced. Liger
STOP BREAKING MY KAYAK, PLEASE. PLEASE STOP! GOSH DARN IT. OH, WHY ARE YOU DOING THAT?
Go Pack Go! Owner of one (1) share. (8-6, 2nd NFCN) Let's Go Riders! Owner of one (1) share. (5-13, 5th West)
I don't enjoy reading about untrained individuals attempting some of these moves, even the ones that *seem* less dangerous than some others. But I'm also not going to stop anyone from doing it. It's their responsibility and risk to take.
Thread rated: 7.62
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