[3.0] "There were some solid moments but overall it was way too chaotic and angle of the camera couldnt made it worse. It was hard to follow the action, they didnt showed some of the spots because there were too much action at the same time. Final minutes saved some points for this match but its too little. ZS Jr did great finish but it felt so random after all."
[3.0] "The "get these guys on the card" match, which is crazy to say when you have people like Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura, Zack Saber Jr, Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Oleg Boltin, Knockout Brothers in here and have their star power wasted. Just a clear sign of Gedo not being able to book long-term when someone like ZSJ, main evented both Tokyo Dome shows last year just to be put here. I know we needed as much time as possible for Tanahashi's flowers at the end of the show, but damn. I hope some of these names get some real card action next year. The match itself is a match I probably will never watch again, a shame to start Wrestle Kingdom with this."
[4.0] "Probably the weakest match on the show, unfortunately. As usual with the Wrestle Kingdom Rambo, this was mainly a way to get more people on the card who weren't anywhere else. Crazy that Umino and Sabre went from being in the main event of last year's show to being in the Rambo opening up the main show this year."
[2.0] "Der Rambo, muss immer dabei sein. Für die meisten ist er einfach da, damit die Wrestler auf der Card stehen. Oft zusammengewürfelte Teams oder Wrestler, die einfach nichts anderes zu tun hätten bei der Show. Hier ist es alles andere als unterhaltsam, leider. (*1/4)"
[3.0] "Die Struktur dieses Matches war furchtbar. Es waren zu viele Teilnehmer im Ring, sodass ein Großteil der Leute durch das mittlere Ringseil nach draußen befördert wurden oder sich durch das untere Ringseil nach draußen rollten und dort dann um den Ring herum lagen. Gekoppelt mit der kurzen Zeit zwischen den Entrances entstand kaum ein Matchfluss. DIe Teilnehmer haben allesamt ordentliches gezeigt, aber das konnte leider die Probleme des Matches an sich nicht lösen."
[4.0] "Embarrassing to put on the main card and wouldve functioned much better as a Gauntlet. Some fun spots in here though. ZSJ main evented both Tokyo Dome nights last year btw. **"
[7.0] "I just don't get why this match has a low rating like that. It was not the best match on the card ofc, but it was really fun. Some nice exchanges, storyline building and a surprise for the winners. Might be the best rambo we've had in years."
[3.0] "I honestly didn't understand anything about this match. Several names that could have been in much better matches on this card were thrown into this awful and boring stipulation. Nothing in this match got me excited at all. At least I liked that TMDK won. Even though I didn't really care much about it, the result was unexpected, which is something."
[4.0] "From what I could see, the work itself was solid enough. Given the names here (Taichii my beloved) that shouldn't come as a surprise. But there's wayyy too many bodies here for this to be coherent in the slighest, both from a match perspective and just in terms of production. The actual presentation of the match, epsecially the editing here, was kinda embarrasing."
[2.0] "This was simply not a good match. This has nothing to do with any of the participants - they all tried their best given what they had to work with - but the entire structure and concept behind this match was bad. I understand they wanted to show off as much of their roster as possible but the production kept tripping over its own feet to do so, frequently cutting away from the action during crucial moments to show a new entrance, actively sabotaging the goal of highlighting these guys in the process. I do not watch pro-wrestling purely for costumes and entrances. If I wanted that, I'd watch a fashion show."
[0.0] "An absolute clusterfuck that had no business being on the Wrestle Kingdom main card, let alone as the opener. Just imagine wanting to watch New Japan for the first time and this being the very first match you see. You don't understand the rules, you don't understand the teams, the in-ring action is constantly interrupted by entrances and whatever does happen in the ring feels like a horde of NPCs running around. There's nothing positive to take away from this match."
[6.0] "Just fun fucking bullshit honestly, it's great stuff. Liked the rambo last year way more, obviously, and I do think one dude being eliminated shouldn't disqualify the entire team, but beyond that it's just a good bit of fun. Nothing huge."
[4.0] "Ziemlich egales Match, wenig bis gar keine Highlights. Dadurch ziemlich langweilig und fad. Wirkte eher als hätte man damit noch möglichst viele Wrestler irgendwie auf die Card bringen wollen."
[4.0] "I don't like the concept of this match and the execution. The first two thirds are just a mess with the focus on those entrances and having no view of what is going on in the ring. The editing was really unprofessional and the intervalls are too short to build up any tension. After the last two teams were in, it went up. Little things like Yoh cosplaying Scary Yano and using his move set were fun. Unfortunately no eliminations were memorable. The last bit was the best with TMDK winning, which of course makes me happy every time. Nice to see ZSJ still winning at Wrestle Kingdom, even though it was the opener. But overall, i hope NJPW ditchches this gimmick match finally. I know the hope is little, because its important to NJPW to give its entire roster a "moment" at the Tokyo Dome. Nice welcoming from the crowd to Tiger Mask and TMDK. The song entrance from the forst team was cringe as was Shota Uminos continuesly increasing ugly attire set."
[1.0] "VERY messy. Don't wanna give it any more than 1 point, cus I really didn't know what was going on. Stipulation sucked ass. Takechi's entrance was cool though. +1."
[4.0] "Dieser Rambo bestand leider aus viel nichts. Es kamen halt mir sehr kurzen Zeitabständen Teams herein um ein Matchfluss konnte so einfach nicht entstehen. Es wurde dann besser, als alle Teams drin waren. Im Gedächtnis wird maximal der überglückliche Hartley Jackson bleiben"
"[3.0] Weakest match on this show. It felt clunky, was poorly shot, and the characters moments were flooded out from where they should've been. A couple unfortunate botches bring this match down for me."
[4.0] "The amount of star power in this match was astonishing, especially for an opener, including (but not limited to) two wrestlers who have held world championships within the past twelve months. However, I believe that this star power was largely wasted. The match felt disjointed, mainly because of the excessive number of participants and, more importantly, the camera work, which was focused far too much on the entrances instead of the in-ring action. As a result, it was extremely difficult to follow what was actually happening in the ring. The overall score is partially salvaged by the closing sequences between TMDK and Bishamon, which were solid."
[6.0] "Fun opener even if it tripped over itself a bit. It was scattered, camera missed stuff and seeing Sabre here after his 2025 run feels like watching your buddy go from CEO to hosting trivia night. Still, it was fun in a mess. Narita and Boltin looked good."
[2.0] "[1.0*] The fact that this match existed with these wrestlers involved is just baffling. ZSJr and Umino main evented last year's show, Goto was a World Champ in 2025, Yuya is a God, Oiwa is amazing and Yuto/OSKAR are the Tag Champs. There's absolutely no way they couldn't have put these dudes in interesting singles/tag matches. A waste of everyone's time and a waste of their talent."
[3.0] "Traditionally, Wrestle Kingdom hosts a Rambo match at the beginning of the show, which, as usual, is a small fan service involving a large number of wrestlers who have not received solo matches in the card. And traditionally, it's just a very chaotic, not particularly outstanding action. 3 points."
[4.0] "I honestly think this fight wasn't that bad. It was supposed to be an entertaining and not the longest match at the beginning, which would start or develop some storylines. And yet, sometimes there are things that make the match worse and the wrestlers can't do anything about it, I'm talking about camera work here. Yes, this is an extremely chaotic and inconsistent match, but to miss such a huge number of key points is to try, and it severely affects the perception of the match, more than any flaws in the structure or work in the ring."
[3.0] "This was just dumb. Too many people in this match, not a lot of things that they can really do and overall stupid. This honestly should've been a 6 team gauntlet match (although I don't know who would win that) and have TMDK vs Knockout Brothers here at Wrestle Kingdom instead of at New Years Dash. It's good to see Jackson and Oiwa win their first titles, but yeah this sucked."
[4.0] "The New Japan Ranbo was a straight up clusterfuck, but it did have a few bright spots, especially the exchanges between Yuya/Shooter & Taichi/Ishii. TMDK was a brilliant choice to win and giving Oiwa/Hartley their first titles (**)."
[4.0] "It was a massive random match and full of mistakes not only by some wrestlers but also from the directors team who didn't take the right time for many scenes. The only good thing is TMDK winning it & ZSJ capture new gold in New Japan"
[4.0] "Just a match to put a maximum of wrestlers on the card, it wasn't very exciting, i'm happy for Oiwa ZSJ and Jackson, who deserves it a lot, but that's it."
[2.0] "I, of course, expected this to be chaotic. However, I didn't find this to be so in a positive way. The majority of this math ran with a big proportion of the active competitors on the outside of the ring, despite it being partially over-the-top-rope elimination, which felt totally besides the point. The single eliminations ruling-out an entire team meant that there was a lot of unsatisfying conclusions to entries and allowed predictable scapegoats to take the brunt of the eliminations. It wasn't easy to follow by any means - even commentary was confused - and I'd really have preferred to just exclude this from the card entirely."
[6.0] "Fine Ranbo with a bunch of good wrestlers and all the names you want. Lukewarm action, some cheap heat eliminations, not too many stakes, and a decent sweet moment for the big man Hartley Jackson. Also, built for the upcoming KO Brothers vs. TMDK tag title match next day. Takechi didn't do enough, but brought some attention with his entrance. Toru YOHno was cute too! Also, thank you Tiger Mask!"
[6.0] "I quite liked the match. It brought the 6-man titles on the card, a lot of the roster got moments that wouldve went to max 6 people elseway. Also the feelgood moment Jackson deserved. It was a fun start to the show"
[4.0] "A mediocre match with very little to remember, most of the time spent on entrances. Hartley Jackson stood out somewhat, but it was still a low point of the show. In-ring quality: 0.25/4. Stakes: 1.25/2. Justification: 0.75/1. Card placement: 0.75/1. Suspense: 1/1. Bonus/penalty: unworthy of a Wrestle Kingdom -0.75. Total: 4.25/10. Match seen on NJPW World."
[6.0] "It was a match? I dont know nothing fucking really happened in the grand scheme, Im happy for hartley jackson i love him but other than that this match is totally forgettable even by now less than a day later. Nothing of note happens, its the same case for every ranbo every year."
[6.0] "wasn't great, but I thought this one was pretty fun. Some cool spots with a lot of the guys I like, and a nice win for the TMDK boys. Could've done more with a lot of the talent involved but I think this served its purpose well"
[3.0] "This was basically one team sends another to the floor, another one comes in and sends them to the floor, and so on for the first ten minutes of this. The WWE type focus on entrances made the first 15 minutes impossible to actually follow, even more so than usual rambos. That said, it was about 10 minutes shorter than the Rambo usually is, so thank Gedo for small mercies. Would have liked more focus on Yuto."
[4.0] "It's...whatever. My only real gripe is that the eliminations were sooo fast. Like, Knock Out Brothers didn't even get to do anything. And they're the tag team champions! And not to mention Clark Connors, who I don't even think actually entered the ring. At least TMDK won the match and Oiwa got to hold his first title. Very proud of how far he's come."
[3.0] "**1/2 match meh, honestly, nothing was to be expected despite some of the big names. This match was a pretty basic exhibition; it wasn't terrible or anything awful, but it was very basic and practically irrelevant. Before the final sequences, the only relevant thing was seeing a few entrances and Thekla appearing with the War Dogs, who I didn't like being the first eliminated"
[4.0] "Kind of an odd match. Was there really no way we could've gotten a singles match for some of the absolute legends still in their primes in this match? ZSJ, Ishii, Goto? Including those guys in this match did prevent it from being true filler, as odds are there was *somebody* you're a fan of in this match. It was hard to keep track of who was still in and who wasn't. I really liked the finish."
[4.0] "This was fine I suppose. Very hard to get invested with whats going on as more people flood the ring and it becomes more of a mess. But they did good in the final two teams. One of them being the superteam of Bolton and Bishimon was a must and Zack getting the flash pin in the end will make for a good follow up potentially."
[4.0] "This wasn't so much a wrestling match as it was a parade of entrances. I've never seen a RAMBO match before, but if it's always 1-minute intervals for the next entrants, I can't see how any of them are good. As soon as we focus on the ring action for a little bit, there's a new entrant that takes focus away from the match. Did I see much great wrestling? No. Did I potentially miss some when the camera cuts to a new entrant? Possibly. 8 teams of 3 is too many with that interval window. And as is usual with multi-man matches, we get a fair amount of "laying out" on the outside once all the entrants have come down. So, despite there being a bunch of teams left, it's a lot of 2 or 3 guys in the ring at once while everyone rests on the floor. While I'm only very familiar with a few guys (ZSJ, Ishii, Sanada, Connors), I have seen probably half of the rest wrestle at least once. Did I get to see any of them really put on a show or see something out of someone new to me that made me want to check out more? No. Kind of a waste. If they're going to put a 6-man belt on a new team I don't think this is the best format. Seems like they were using this as an excuse to get as many guys as possible onto the card for Tana's retirement, which is understandable. At least ZSJ got a very cool pin on Boltin."
[4.0] "NO REASON that this match should have been anywhere near 20 minutes. At times I have enjoyed the Rambo match but this year not at all. Not a reason to why we should have had it be this big trios match this year because it just made it over cluttered and confusing as hell. Also disappointed that this is what Sabre was put into after carrying the world title for a big part of this year in two seperate reigns. Didn't expect them to win this match at all rather I expected oiwa and Sabre to win the tag belts over the knockout bros. (**1/4)"
[4.0] "Yeah this was pretty fucking pointless this it the third year i have watched WK and i am once again left wondering what is the fucking point of a Rambo they are so dross like every battle royal to be fair to them though. It was just such a cluster fuck the whole time i was thinking what is the point we missed lots of it as the camera kept cutting to people making entrances which was not great. The whole 20 minutes i was just thinking good god how many talents were fucking wasted in this stupid fucking match surely we could of has TMDK vs the Knockout Bros open the card instead. I guess it was cool to see Thekla come out with the wardogs, Oiwa eliminate Oskar ahead of New years dash and some of the action in the ring that we actually got to see was passable and in the ended a really cool counter pin from ZSJ to win TMDK the belts and a feel good moment for Hartley. But god this match was a big waste of time for the most part. (**1/4)"
[3.0] "A pretty boring, convoluted and WAY overlong anti-spectacle. A traditional battle royale would've been much more enjoyable, but hey, I guess you have to find a place for guys like Tomohiro Ishii and ZSJ (who was HEADLINING WK just a year earlier) *somewhere* on the show. A very, VERY easy skip right here."
[6.0] "3.25 stars - while yes disappointing to see some huge names like Zack Sabre Jr wasted away in a 24 man match like this, it was still fun. In a chaotic fun kind of way. I maybe expedted it to be better yet but it was still good"
[7.0] "Understandably for the most part this was a cluster, but it was a reasonably fun one. I've moved it into 7 territory for the closing stretch between TMDK and Boltin/Bishamon. I had the latter down to win this so was surprised with the result, but they had a fun mini-match for the closing stretch and I didn't see anything offensive in this match."
[6.0] "Three stars, a clusterfuck in NJPW managed to not be a major disaster despite the review bombing it is getting. Some nice exchanges that played into current storylines. I think the intervals needed to be spaced better but the bar is in hell for NJPW gimmick multimen matches."
[4.0] "A very short match for such a packed Rambo, which led everything to feeling very rushed, I do wonder what the point of this match was aside from getting as many faces in as possible. I did not think the action was bad, I quite enjoyed watching it overall, but it definitely felt abrupt and bizarrely paced. TMDK got the win in a nice moment for Hartley Jackson, not exactly worth a watch."
[7.0] "While I'm not a fan of the booking toward this match (So many people that could/should have been featured in bigger positions like ZSJ, Goto, Umino, Uemura, KOB, and others), the match itself was pretty fun to watch. KOB's elimination to TMDK is a fun teaser for tomorrow, and Yano and "YOHno" (as english commentary put it) was a funny bit even if they didn't end up winning."
[6.0] "A perfectly fine and fun way to open Wrestle Kingdom proper. A lot of the major stories were furthered (TMDK vs. War Dogs, everyone vs. House of Torture, and most wrestlers got at least some moments in the match to showcase themselves. Standouts were Takechi and Toru YOH-no i.e YOH. If I was to levy a criticism of the match, it's that some wrestlers were eliminated during the entrances of others, and that the entrances took a little too long. Otherwise, as stated before, perfectly fine and fun opener."
[2.0] "What a shit useless Match..why this crap is on the main show? Why Zack sabre jr and Goto despites had a fantastic 2025 are in this shit match? Do goto vs sabre not this shit"
[7.0] "This seems as though I was the only person who enjoyed this match. Was it a classic ? No . But what this match is , is a fun , chaotic, simple match on wrestle kingdom to get the show started , I enjoyed large amounts of the offence and found it to be a unpredictable match"
[5.0] "NEVER RAMBO = [3 Stars] - It was surprisingly enjoyable to watch. I'm very happy with Hartley Jackson's performance in the match. It's wonderful to see moments like this at the Tokyo Dome."
[3.0] "The Ranbo was a terrible match, way too chaotic, and just emblematic of Gedo's shit booking this year. Uemura losing the sumo battle to Taichi(! ) and then eliminating himself and his team was dumb as hell. This is a guy who should be a major player. You build the match around getting over your next group of main eventers (Uemura's team, despite how little I care about Shota). Instead, it was just a mess that I don't think helped anyone get more over. I'm happy for Hartley that he won a belt, but TMDK didn't need this."
[5.0] "This was a fun match, nothing amazing but it was entertaining and gave everyone an opportunity to get on the card. Nice to see TMDK win here and be the new NEVER 6 Man champs"
[3.0] "Man, nothing good here. It does shine a bit at the end, has a few good moments but holy shit was this structured terribly. The first few entrances were taking like an hour a piece. It was hard to follow, everybody was all over the place, and I don't think anybody shined or got over. It didn't go on super long which is good, but it went on long enough for it to feel like a royal waste of time. It seemed like a masterclass in how to get nobody over. A very early WOAY candidate. [*.5]"
[2.0] "I think that sums up the problems with this card, how come most of the upper card is in this match? And we haven't had enough hoopers in the other matches to entertain us."
[2.0] "This was bad but what can you expect from a chaotic match type like this where there is very little chance to do something meaningful. For the majority of this match, you are basically just watching entrances. However, what was really bad was that the best action in the ring happened while a new team was walking to the ring, so the camera did not even catch a lot of it or if so, it did it from an unpleasant angle. The only good thing about this rambo bout was basically to see veterans like Makabe, Tiger Mask or Kojima getting their WK moment."
[0.0] "When I saw this match announced i literally asked myself "when NJPW got a sold out Tokyo dome, with Prime TV spot live coverage of the show with TV asahi the top media network in the country, and also a massive media hype nationwide, what can you do to utilise it? Maybe give chance to new talent that should be able to carry your sorry ass for literally next 12 months, let alone 3-4 years, which NJPW haven't given them and the attendance is in the toilets" and then the lineup made me more disappointed. More young talents that would have benefitted from a single or tag match rather then this glorified battle royale. Talking about the match, I didn't notice that the opening dance choreography was actually part of the entrance i thought it was apart of the show, since NJPW used to have musical acts in their Tokyo dome shows in the 90s then that pop idol from DDT came, so came Shota and yuya, the two people that desperately needed the audience to care for them in future to build their career, with shota Literally pinned as this generations Three musketeers. Then HoT came along with Ren Narita who was also apart of the new three musketeers and needed the audience to care to progress his career. And the match starts and it becomes increasingly difficult to follow what the heck is going on. Entrances kept coming and the match becomes a crowded mess. The ending also felt flat. God i hate the idea and planning went through creating this abomination of a match.. total timewaster and maybe total career killer and year killer"
[5.0] "The New Japan Rambo is as nothing as ever with a prize that doesn't really mean an awful lot and a match structure that makes it bloody impossible to keep on top of what teams are actually still in the thing at any one point. Still, it's harmless, so you can't feel too strongly about it one way or the other."
[4.0] "A bit of a sloppy mess of a Rambo this, but, let's be honest the format of the match meant it was always going to be thus. Unusual this year as the Rambo wasn't part of the pre-show - perhaps because it was more star studded than usual years because of the slim card. Mostly skippable guff although the action got a bit better with the final two teams and the finish was executed well from ZSJ."
[5.0] "No issues with Zack Sabre Jr. being in an opening match, especially at a night like this, however, I do have an issue with putting him in a match like this - what a wasted opportunity. This match is chaotic and boring in equal measure. Team comes in, fight for 30 seconds, throw opponent out of the ring, then the next team comes in; rinse and repeat until the end."
[4.0] "Interesting idea, but it didn't really pan out, I know having all of your top stars and future stars on the card is hard, but putting all who don't have a story in such a ranbo type deal really doesn't help anyone. And the rules, while they made sense, it was really hard to follow. Not the worst thing k in the world and I hope that this can be a plot point for the future stars."
[6.0] "I don't think I hated this as much as others did. I thought it was a nice collection of teams and granted they could've done more with the talent they had but still some good moments in here. TMDK picking up the win popped me greatly as well. One of the better 6 man rambos."
[6.0] "I enjoy New Japan Ranbo's. This was a nice change from the usual ranbo, showcasing three-man teams. While this seemed like a "get as many people on the card" style contest, this was a watchable spot-fest. I acknowledge this is not meant to be the highest quality wrestling, and at times the broadcast focused way too much on entrances resulting in missing a lot of action, but I still enjoyed seeing all of these wrestlers on the card and some decent spots happened."
[4.0] "I did not care about this one bit, usually Ranbos can either be intriguing or plain boring. This was boring to me. I am glad TMDK won but this turned into background noise sooner than later. The Oleg/Ishii segment of the match really made me wanna see a singles match between them though."
[4.0] "A match that was half entrances and a quarter filler. Beyond the final stretch that was just two teams the ONLY highlights were the Ishii/Oleg sequence and the champs' entrance. I think it's also insane that this is Tiger Mask IV's final Tokyo Dome match and he doesn't do anything of note and gets pinned during Team 150's entrance (speaking of, I think either them or Bishamon/Oleg should've won). **"
[3.0] "Not for me. Match was a mess as expected with too many guys for any to really get anything going. I'm not sure what the point of bringing in Takechi was when he did nothing in the match but what can you expect with so many guys stuffed into the match and each trying to get their one spot in"
[3.0] "Too many good wrestlers unable to shine due to the nature of the chaotic match along with the shenanigans that really didn't help it improve. War Dogs, TMDK, Taichi/Ishii/Kojima and Bishamon all should've been the last four so they could really shine and bring some light and good action to the match, but I guess that couldn't happen."
[6.0] "Wow surprised to see this marked so harshly, most people got their spots in and the flow to such a chaotic match was fine. Would have liked to see Uemura team last a little bit longer but these things happen. I will say that this was definitely just a way to mash as many onto the card as possible."
[4.0] "This was quite simply a Tokyo Dome roll-call, with the entrances being the most important bit. Oleg, Oiwa, and Heel Yano YOH were the in-ring highlights, but eliminations were occuring while we watched slow entrances down the walkway. It was so poorly produced that I didn't know the finish was the last elimination. Happy for Big Jag though."
[3.0] "This was bad. A "let's get the whole roster on the card" match. Rumbles usually suck, rumbles in japan suck even more. Many of my favorites were in this instead of having a proper match in the card. Damn unfortunate. Atleast Ryohei Oiwa, Zack Sabre Jr, Harlet Jackson won i guess."
[5.0] "This match was alright in some aspect, but the ring got overcrowd quickly and you could tell the crowd wasn't into this match, so that is why i think this match was dull in some parts with the final two teams being Hirooki Goto, Yoshi Hashi and Boltin Oleg vs Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa and Hartley Jackson was a good choice for the final two teams and Hartley Jackson finally having his First Tokyo Dome match and winning his first NJPW Title belt was a special moment for him."
[5.0] "Das Rambo Match war ein ziemliches durcheinander. Vom Matchverlauf her etwas zu vergleichen mit dem Royal Rumble, es passiert viel aber auch irgendwie nichts. Es gab dann immer mal wieder Momente wo dann eine Person was mehr zeigen durfte, aber größtenteils war es Recht überschaubar was besonderes Momente angeht (** 1/2)."
[5.0] "I don't mind the action but in all honesty when I do think about it this match wasn't necessary and the time could've been used for like ZSJ VS Goto singles match or something like that. Or give the time to literally anyone other match like Syuri VS Saya. Anyway the actual match itself is fine, just a way to get a bunch of big names on the card so like just standard fun brawling and some big moves. Harley Jackson looked like the happiest man alive so I'll give it a 5 for him."
[4.0] "These matches are always a mess, and it was hard to really keep track of things. The ranbo hasn't been fun overall ever since they made it about the NEVER belts. Some seemingly botched/poorly timed eliminations and a lot of messy overcrowding makes this hard to watch but the finishing stretch is fine. Hartley Jackson getting his first ever dome match in his 25+ year career and winning the NEVER belts with Zack and Oiwa (who also gets his first NJPW belt here) was a nice moment overall, but it doesn't make up for what is basically a "everyone gets paid" opener for the main show. Really wish they'd just go back to the original ranbo format."
[4.0] "These matches almost always suck, but you sometimes get a little bit of novelty from the entrants. There wasn't any mystery here, though, and it's another of those bizarre battle royales in which everyone seems to be outside of the ring for most of the match."
[5.0] "Rules sounded convoluted but I assumed it would play out in a way that was easy to follow, I was wrong. Was not expecting Thekla to come out with the war dogs but they get eliminated early which says a lot about their contract status and interests from elsewhere. Good to see ishii healthy again, he injected some life into this. The structure of this was a bit of a mess but the eliminations of the holders and HOT at least gave this some life. Final pinfall from Zach looked cool. 2.75*"
[4.0] "This was just a complete mess, and confusing not just for the viewer but also for the wrestlers too. Putting this sort of match to get everyone on the card of the biggest show of the year is precisely why the model of NJPW doesn't work. If there was good wrestling in this match, I didn't see it."
[3.0] "Really poor start to the show and just bad advertising for wrestling in general. Confusing for even experienced watchers, let alone all the new people that were likely watching for the first time. Not to mention the action for most of it was really weak with punches/strikes barely landing and people lying all over the place, unsure if eliminated or not. Multiple botched eliminations too."
[3.0] "A really poor start to the show, the stipulation didn't work and didnt get over with the fans, Hirooki Goto and Zack Sabre Jr should be positioned at the very top of this company, and this performance seemed beneath them. I did find it funny that Thekla travelled across the world just for War Dogs to be the first team Eliminated without a fuss"
[3.0] "[2.0*] Ehhh, it was a mess. The rules were weird, and the crowd was dull but there was a bit of fun, I guess? Part of it was the booking, specifically all the main event talent doing 6-man tag work (Sabre, Goto, Shingo, etc.) but the match just was a lot."
[4.0] "I'm really not a fan of this match type. It's a serviceable match for what it is, and it is just a way to get more people on the card. It's cool to see TMDK get the win with Jackson and Oiwa getting their first titles. Sort of a mess for a match but it isn't terrible."
[4.0] "A bit of a mess but at the very least it was a fun mess at times. The ranbo style makes it so that wrestlers rarely get any shine as the second they enter the ring another team begins their entrance which really took away from the action. Team 150 should've gotten a better showcase because they were insanely disrespected here."
[4.0] "Until the final two teams I didn't really have a clue what was happening. The commentary did their best but it felt like they were confused by the whole ring as well. Why not just have everyone in at the same time, make it the whole team eliminated to simplify? I got it see ZSJ though so that was nice. 4/10"
[4.0] "This was a bit of a mess. The concept was a mess, and the execution wasn't much better. I don't think this did all too much for anyone involved here but I am very happy for Jag. One of the major players in the early Australian wrestling scene who's waited over twenty five years for his big moment to come. **1/4."
[3.0] "This was a painfully terrible Ranbo. Non-sense eliminations, little to no action for the bulk of it. Stop and start when it came to momentum throughout. This was just a messy way to open this Wrestle Kingdom. It seemed HOT got eliminated early from the match too. Overall, not good. [*1/2]"
[4.0] "The first half of this especially was plain boring, not much happened and the biggest excitement was people making an entrance. The Knockout Brothers being eliminated early was a little disappointing, but I get, since they were eliminated by TMDK. The highlight was probably the brief clash between Ishii and Boltin."
