5-Star Match Reviews: Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Kota Ibushi – NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9 (Ten-Year Anniversary Review)

Hey, did you know that NJPW has their annual Tokyo Dome show today? If not, well that’s not all that surprising. New Japan has been kinda underwhelming since the Pandemic happened and despite some solid efforts here and there the company’s future seems to be a bit uncertain. The days of Tanahashi and Okada headlining big shows with their epic matches are long gone. Naito, Ishii, Shibata, and Goto are way past their primes. And while there is some level of promise in their newest class of rising stars like Tsuji and Narita, there seems to be an overall lack of spark in the company’s roster. So that’s why I figured I’d revisit a genuine classic from the company’s 2010s critical heyday, when they were the #2 company in the world and earning praise left and right. It’s time to look back at a match between two guys who are no longer with the company but who still left an indelible mark on it all the same, Shinsuke Nakamura and Kota Ibushi.

The Story

Back in 2015 Ibushi was still working his way up the ranks in New Japan, having officially graduated from junior heavyweight to full-fledged heavyweight. Come 2015 he was already rubbing shoulders with the company’s biggest stars, and in time he made it to the Intercontinental title picture, which at the time was synonymous with the man who made the belt into something prestigious, Shinsuke Nakamura.

Shinsuke Nakamura had a very interesting wrestling career. He was the youngest world champion of any major wrestling promotion in the world, having won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in 2003 at age 23. But at the time, and indeed, for the better part of the 2000s, Nakamura was also one of the most boring wrestlers on the planet. He was a generic ‘angry MMA fighter’ with absolutely no personality and lacked anything truly unique in terms of how he was presented. Then, at the beginning of the 2010s, something changed. Nakamura embraced his artistic background and turned into one of the most charismatic and attention-grabbing personalities in ever seen.

Gone was the always-serious MMA fighter that never showed emotion. In his place was a character that was, and is to this day, painstakingly hard to explain. So I’ll let Jim Ross do that for me:

“He is one of the most unique human being I’ve ever talked with. He loves Freddie Mercury, the former lead singer of Queen for you kids out there that don’t know. He’s a Michael Jackson devote. He’s also called the ‘King of Strong Style’. Meaning he’s a badass. How you can go from Freddie Mercury and Michael Jackson to being a badass is a unique journey, but this multi-talented, unique personality gets it done.” – Jim Ross, NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 9, January 4th, 2015

So there you have it. Nakamura is basically a walking performance art masterpiece with a wacky haircut and some of the most unusual mannerisms ever seen in a wrestling ring. But that ‘artistic’ persona belies how dangerous he is. Not only does Nakamura have some legitimate MMA experience (he went 3-1 in his early years), but he has been built up as having the most dangerous knee strike in the entire business. So an opponent of his would step into the ring with him and laugh at his wackiness, only to be taken completely off-guard by Nakamura’s very real wrestling and striking ability.

And that’s what makes Nakamura so dangerous. He knows people will mock him, not take him seriously and try and take advantage of him. But those people would be walking into a trap. Nakamura acts all smug and obnoxious in the ring because he can back it up. He’s bold because he can take someone down with ease. He taunts his opponents because he knows he can rile them up enough for them to make a mistake, which he’d capitalize on. And he knows all he has to do is get them in position for the Bome Ye and the match is over. But will all of that work on Ibushi, a man who has seen it all (and in some cases much worse) on the Japanese indies and who earned a reputation for being harder to predict than pretty much anyone else?

The Match

This took place on January 4, 2015. It is for Nakamura’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship.

Things start of slow yet tense with some kickboxing style strike attempts until Nakamura gets Ibushi on the ropes. He mocks Ibushi by putting his head in his gut but Ibushi piefaces him right away. Nakamura reacts with hostility and then the two men start avoiding big strikes from each other. Nakamura offers a handshake and Ibushi accepts. Big mistake. Nakamura lands a big kneelift and an ax kick. He goes for the Boma Ye but Ibushi dodges and lands a dropkick. Then Ibushi does Nakamura’s vibrations corner stomp which pisses Nak off something fierce. Seriously, the look on his face might as well say, “alright, come here you little shit”.

Nakamura hits back with his own vibrations stomp and somehow manages to make this spot look wacky and vicious at the same time. He follows with more kneelift/kneedrop variations around the ring. Ibushi makes it back into the ring, at which point Nakamura locks him in a cravate hold and drops a knee on his face for two. Then Nakamura goes to the mat with a chinlock into some MMA-style ground holds, getting two-counts here and there until Ibushi gets a ropebreak.

Nakamura continues his mockery but now Ibushi starts firing up. Nak brushes off some strikes to the chest, hits back with some stiff forearms of his own, and paintbrushes Ibushi’s face while holding his head down. At this point Nakamura’s just messing with Ibushi and knows he can get away with it. Ibushi falls to his knees and Nakamura charges for his finisher. Ibushi ducks and fires off some palm strikes but Nakamura gets right up in his face. Ibushi swings one more time but Nakamura ducks and lands a backstabber. He goes for his inverted Exploder. Ibushi lands on his feet, lands a headscissor, a dropkick, and then finishes his sequence with a triangle moonsault to the floor.

Back in the ring Ibushi lands a springboard dropkick followed by a martial arts blitz that ends with a STIFF roundhouse kick to the chest. A shooting star splash gets him a two-count so he goes for a corner charge, only for Nakamura to counter and drape him on the top rope. Ibushi fires back with a springboard, but Nakamura kicks him in midair right under the chin.

Ibushi ducks a roundhouse but fails to avoid a follow-up wheel kick. Nakamura follows with a gourdbuster and some vicious grounded knee strikes to Ibushi’s head. He misses another Boma Ye and Ibushi sets him up for some top rope move. Nakamura elbows out but Ibushi pulls off some wild cruiserweight shit and hits a springboard headscissor off the top rope for another two-count.

Nakamura blocks one dragon suplex but not a second one. He ducks a roundhouse kick but that sets Ibushi up to land a standing corkscrew splash for another near-fall. Nakamura resists a powerbomb so Ibushi stomps on his head. He reverses another but Ibushi counters that with a sunset flip for two. Then Ibushi lands another big roundhouse kick to the side of Nak’s head and the camera zooms in on this somewhat funny expression on his face like “what have I gotten myself into?”

Ibushi lands a Golden Star Bomb but only gets two. He tries a Phoenix Splash but misses which allows Nakamura to land a Boma Ye to the back of the head. Now in control, Nakamura stomps Ibushi’s head angrily and with malice, which starts to awaken Ibushi’s dark side. Nakamura even goes so far as to force his boot into Ibushi’s mouth and against his nose, which causes Ibushi to smile. He turns around and just starts…throwing…hands. The ref warns him not to use close-fisted punches but this momentary distraction allows Nakamura to shove the ref into Ibushi. Nakamura thinks he’s back in control and goes for another forearm. Ibushi counters with a knee and cocks his arm big a huge lariat. Nakamura counters that with a flying cross armbreaker. Ibushi rolls over into a position that allows him to stomp on Nakamura’s face.

Ibushi stomps on Nakamura’s head, hits Nak’s own signature inverted Exploder, and teases a Bome Ye. And he lands it with as much force as Nakamura does. The champion goes flying…and then kicks out at one. Ibushi continues to attack viciously but this only serves to fire Nakamura up. Nakamura lands a stiff strike barrage of his own. Both men continue hitting each other as hard as possible. Then they both charge at each other…and Ibushi turns a dropkick into a double stomp to the chest. Nakamura ends up on the apron and Ibushi has another smile on his face. That crazy bastard jumps onto the top rope and deadlifts Nakamura over it and into the ring with a German suplex. One, two, Nakamura survives.

Ibushi goes for a Phoenix-plex but Nakamura elbows out. Nak lands a jumping Boma Ye that sends Ibushi across the ring, but then Ibushi gets to his feet and smirks. Both men charge and knee each other at the same time. Then Ibushi charges…and runs into a Landslide. Then Nakamura caves his face in with a full-power Boma Ye. One, two, three! Nakamura retains his title!

Winner and STILL IWGP Intercontinental Champion after 20:12: Shinsuke Nakamura

Review

This was all kinds of awesome back then and it still holds up well a decade later. These two had great chemistry as two multidisciplinary wrestlers that could pull from different backgrounds to bring the best out of each other. It had its moments of wacky acrobatics and MOVEZ from Ibushi to be sure but it wasn’t overwhelming or excessive. Instead this match was all about telling a detailed story in such a short amount of time. Nakamura in particular shined here as he gave everyone both a sampler and a main-event-level showcase of what he can do. First-time viewers got all they needed to understand Nakamura as a gimmick and a wrestler while longtime viewers got an exciting and competitive match that elevated the wrestlers, the title they were fighting for, and the company that promoted them.

With both guys embracing an all-or-nothing mentality in this match they were able to do something special, even by peak 2010s NJPW standards. Both guys hit each other as hard as possible and took those hits like champs. Both guys showed incredible athleticism at different points, hitting high speed or high risk moves without seeming to hurt themselves at all. Most of the moves looked impactful, painful, and realistic. Nothing looked all that phony, not even Nakamura’s stomps as he actually looked like he was really pushing his foot into Ibushi’s face as much as he could. Ibushi escaped his typecasting as a token flippy guy and showed a wider variety in what he did but also did these things meaningfully and not just for random creativity’s sake. He threw everything he had at Nakamura and even resorted to matching Nakamura’s in-ring obnoxiousness and arrogance with his own.

Even if you had never seen either of these wrestlers or went into this match completely blind they told their story with clarity and an ease of understanding that made the match so much more engaging and therefore entertaining. All too often the language barrier makes it hard for some people to understand this sort of wrestling and the nuances that come with a different style and a different culture. But this wasn’t that sort of match. It could be understood and followed by anyone and had enough of an entertainment factor to it while still delivering on the promise of an intense, back-and-forth contest that could’ve headlined this show had Tanahashi and Okada not occupied that position once again.

Final Rating: *****

Ten years have gone by and this match still holds up incredibly well. Obviously there are other ***** matches that outclass it but it’s still entertaining and captivating in its own right. It isn’t too long, encompassing about 25 minutes including Nakamura’s entrance (Ibushi’s isn’t worth watching) and the short post-match show of respect. The match doesn’t get too sluggish or too explosive at any point, which makes its 20-minute bell-to-bell runtime go by at a silken pace. Neither guy was too heavy-handed with any offense and the parts that did feature the hard striking were completely on-brand with the in-house style and the wrestler’s own backgrounds as well. The end result was one of the most fun matches out of New Japan in years, and one that really brought some much-needed attention to the company’s other wrestling stars.

Though it isn’t either wrestler’s single best performance, and looking back on this it’s kind of disappointing where both wrestlers’ careers are a decade later, I still give this the highest recommendation possible.

Thanks for reading.