Black Cat vs. Hiroyoshi Yamamoto 10:28. Before the January 4th NJPW show became known as Wrestle Kingdom in 2007, it was already a big deal. It actually became a yearly tradition with this particular show in 1992. And this was the opening bout. Black Cat was a solid veteran who carried this well. Hiroyoshi Yamamoto was the future Tenzan, and he was still quite green here. There was stuff happening, but it was hard to get invested because Tenzan didn't know what he was doing. The interesting part was seeing Black Cat carry this and trying to guide Tenzan to a somewhat cohesive bout. Tenzan was clearly nervous and tried his best to pretend to wrestle. Even though this wasn't good, being in the first-ever NJPW January 4th Toyo Dome match was a big moment early in Tenzan's career. Mediocre match. *½  

Kantaro Hoshino & Kengo Kimura vs. Kuniaki Kobayashi & Osamu Kido 11:54. This was practically a legends match. This wasn't a terrible match, but it was quite dull, slow and somewhat sloppy. However, this was to be expected from four middle-aged guys who were all past their respective primes. Mediocre match. *½ 

Jushin Thunder Liger & AKIRA & Masashi Aoyagi vs. Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito & Super Strong Machine 15:12. Akira Nogami was working under his AKIRA gimmick, which is kinda like a mixture between The Great Muta and the lucha martial artist gimmicks. It's a shame seeing Jushin Thunder Liger buried in a trios match in the undercard, because he was arguably the best (male) Japanese wrestler in the world at the time. He was wearing his blue costume here, which he saved for special events. Masashi Aoyagi added very little. His style didn't suit the Dome. It probably would have been more interesting if Liger & Nogami faced the Blond Outlaws in a regular tag match. Norio Honaga & Hiro Saito wore matching gear and had blond mullets. Saito understood how to work a Tokyo Dome match, and he played his role well. Honaga, who had the usual dirty look on his face, was in some of the best sequences of the match. Super Strong Machine was just kinda there, further proving my point that this should have been a tag match instead of a trios one. The Blond Outlaws worked extremely well together. The final minutes had plenty of exciting action. The match served its purpose as an action-packed "juniors" match quite well. Good match. ***¼   

Shiro Koshinaka & Michiyoshi Ohara vs. Arn Anderson & Larry Zbyszko 12:32. Interesting clash of styles here with Larry Zbyszko working like he was on WCW Saturday Night. The crowd appeared to be quite annoyed by his outdated American style. Arn Anderson was a lot more effective. Michiyoshi Ohara didn't know what to do here, so he basically did nothing. Shiro Koshinaka tried his best to make the most of his segments with the Americans. Apart from the unintentionally funny aspect of having the obstinate Zbyszko in a match at the Tokyo Dome, this was quite dull and not good. Anderson pinned Ohara. Mediocre match. *¾   

Masa Saito & Kim Duk vs. Dusty Rhodes & Dusty Rhodes Jr. 14:23. Yes, that's Dustin Rhodes working as Dusty Rhodes Jr. here. Dustin has always been an okay-ish worker, but he was definitely kinda bland as a wrestler, and he relied a lot on being Dusty's son (and later on gimmicky bizarreness). Kim Duk was too old and slow to do the sequences Dustin was trying to work with him. Dusty was too out of shape and too slow to do anything useful, but he was being “charismatic.” If he's not cutting a promo, Dusty is just a waste of time, really. His selling was particularly bad. Masa Saito tried his best to save this match, but it was an uphill battle. Dustin got the pin over Kim Duk. Terrible match. ¾*  

Scott Norton vs. Tony Halme 8:41. Finnish heavyweight Tony Halme (the future Ludvig Borga) was an untalented pro wrestler. He only seemed interested in coming across as a badass. He was quite unimpressive. His offense was a standing side headlock and punches. At least his selling wasn't terrible. Scott Norton tried his best, as usual, and he kinda managed to save the match somewhat. Norton had to do the job, unfortunately, though. Bad match. *

Shinya Hashimoto vs. Bill Kazmaier 8:37. Bill Kazmaier was a super strong powerlifter, but he was a super dull pro wrestler. Shinya Hashimoto, the fat Elvis look-alike wannabe, gave a rather uninspiring performance as well. Hashimoto was the better worker, but that wasn't saying much. The work looked very unsmooth. Hashimoto won via pinfall. Bad match. *

Big Van Vader vs. El Gigante 4:49. Jorge “El Gigante” Gonzalez was a 7'6”-tall giant of a man, but he was a former basketball player from Argentina who knew nothing about pro wrestling. He was just a freak show attraction who couldn't wrestle. His work looked terrible because he was so big and clumsy. He was so tall that he made the 6'4”-tall Vader look like Espectrito. They were roughly the same weight, though, because Vader was a true super heavyweight. Jushin Thunder Liger joined the broadcast booth to try to save the match. Gigante couldn't do much, but Vader was a good opponent for him, because Vader was so heavy and powerful. For what it's worth, this was one of Gigante's best matches. It was a smart idea to keep this under five minutes. Bad match. *

Hiroshi Hase vs. Antonio Inoki 10:09. Prior to this match, they showed clips of the Antonio Inoki vs. Masa Saito Ganryujima Island Death Match and the Hiroshi Hase vs. Tiger Jeet Singh Ganryujima Island Death Match. The crowd went nuts for the legendary Inoki. Hase understood what type of match Inoki wanted to work and practically upgraded the Inoki match by keeping the workrate high. While Hase was able to challenge Inoki quite a bit, at times he was perhaps (understandably) a bit too respectful. Either way, this worked. Hase showed his greatness, and Inoki was about as good as he could be for a 48-year old legend. Good match. ***

Scott Steiner & Rick Steiner vs. Sting & Great Muta 11:03. The Steiners did exactly what you'd want them to do here, as they threw their opposition around with all kinds of suplexes and slams. The Japanese crowd was happy to see WCW's Sting at this event. Sting's charisma and presence made him quite a good tag team partner for Great Muta. While this was mainly a Steiner match that was all about a few big moves here and there, which worked well in this Tokyo Dome setting, Sting and Muta clearly were in the mood to work, and both even hit a dive to the floor towards the end. Overall, this was quite an enjoyable tag team bout that didn't disappoint (apart from the crappy finish that saw Sting pin Scott after a fast count by referee Bill Alfonso, who would later be known for calling it "right down the middle, baby"). Very good match. ***½

WCW World Heavyweight Title: Lex Luger vs. Masahiro Chono 15:09.  Lex Luger did his usual unimpressive American powerhouse stuff, but his reaction to Masahiro Chono's early STF attempt was a really good way of selling it. Masa Chono was adequate, but he couldn't really carry this to a noteworthy match. Unfortunately, Chono did not win the WCW Title. Okay match. **¼ 

IWGP Heavyweight & Greatest 18 Club Nintei Belt Double Title Match: Riki Choshu vs. Tatsumi Fujinami 12:11. Not bad but definitely kinda boring, as they wrestled like it was a 1982 house show match instead of a 1992 Tokyo Dome show main event. These two clearly didn't have what it takes anymore. Okay match. ** 

Show rating: 5.5/10. Decent show.

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