Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome was a two-night professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4 and January 5, 2020 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 29th
January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the 14th promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name; it was also the first time the event was held over two days, instead of taking place solely on January 4.
The main event of night 1 saw
Kazuchika Okada defeat
Kota Ibushi to retain the
IWGP Heavyweight Championship. In other prominent matches during night 1,
Tetsuya Naito defeated
Jay White to win the
IWGP Intercontinental Championship, the returning
Hiromu Takahashi defeated
Will Ospreay to capture the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship,
Jon Moxley defeated
Lance Archer in a
Texas Deathmatch to regain the
IWGP United States Championship and
FinJuice (
David Finlay and
Juice Robinson) defeated
Guerrillas of Destiny (
Tama Tonga and
Tanga Loa) to win the
IWGP Tag Team Championship.
In night 2's main event, Naito defeated Okada in a
Double Gold Dash match to become the first ever dual holder of the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental championships. In other notable matches in the undercard of the night 2, Jay White defeated Kota Ibushi,
Chris Jericho defeated
Hiroshi Tanahashi,
Hirooki Goto won the
NEVER Openweight Championship from
Kenta, Jon Moxley successfully defended the IWGP United States Championship against Juice Robinson,
Zack Sabre Jr. retained the
British Heavyweight Championship against
Sanada and
Roppongi 3K (
Sho and
Yoh) defeated
Bullet Club (
El Phantasmo and
Taiji Ishimori) to win the
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The event also saw the retirement match of Japanese wrestling legend
Jushin Thunder Liger.
Just to clarify, I'm not going to comment on
EVERY match on this card. Just the ones that really stood out to me since I honestly don't follow New Japan's product as closely as I should. Wrestle Kingdom always marks my annual tradition of renewing my subscription to NJPW World and promising myself that I'm going to give their product a chance to follow in the new year, only to cancel shortly thereafter since I don't have the time to watch their shows live like this. In all honesty, I get see a wealth of spoilers and gifs on my social media timelines by the time I get to my desk and login at work in the mornings when those shows do take place.
(Dark Match) Stardom Special Tag Team Match
Mayu Iwatani and Arisa Hoshiki defeated Hana Kimura and Giulia (with Jungle Kyona and Konami)
Even though this match wasn't televised on the live feed, it was a rather big deal going into this event. NJPW's parent company, Bushiroad, is investing into Stardom going forward and wants to elevate the company starting with this slot on this year's Wrestle Kingdom card.
There's a rather bit of a pickle on why the match couldn't be broadcast as part of the card, but
this article details why New Japan couldn't air the match. I wouldn't mind getting a chance to check it out at some point if someone recorded it or it pops up on Stardom's YouTube channel or something.
Eight-man tag team match
Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, and Alex Coughlin defeated Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma), Yota Tsuji, and Yuya Uemura
Tag team match
Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) defeated Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi
Eight-man tag team match with Norio Honaga was the special guest referee
Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi (with Kuniaki Kobayashi) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask (with El Samurai)
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| #ThankYouLiger |
This is was like a who's who of greatest friends and rivals for Jushin Thunder Liger. I was honestly surprised a lot of these guys were still alive, no less still able to go have a match. Regardless, this wasn't much to write home about, even more disappointing that Liger was pinned here in a lackluster manner. I thought he would at least get one win on his way out but damn.
Eight-man tag team match
Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, and El Desperado) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada, Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) by submission
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| Just wow. |
Eight-man tag team match
Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Yoshi-Hashi) defeated Bullet Club (Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, and Chase Owens) (with Pieter)
I honestly was getting sick of these 6 and 8-Man tag team matches to the point where I was drifting to sleep watching live (despite having a pretty lengthy nap prior) but boy did seeing Pieter's fineness wake me up for sure. There were some pretty good spots in this match, mostly involving the heavy-hitters, Fale and Ishii, to no surprise.
Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay) defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) (with Jado)
I live for the Guerillas of Destiny's Wrestle Kingdom ring entrances, but I was ultimately letdown this year. They came out without anything other than their normal ring gear on, doing their best imitation of their "cousins" (the Usos), looking like they just came straight from the nearby club to do this match. At least their entrance music is still as bad ass as I remember. This match wasn't bad at all with a lot of near-falls that had me fooled that GoD were going to retain, but nope, FinJuice won the gold by the time it was all said and done.
Texas Deathmatch for the IWGP United States Championship
No DQ; No pinfall; Victory by 10 count KO or submission
Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer (c) by knockout
I felt like I was having deja vu watching this match. This felt like the same few "deathmatches" that Moxley has had since leaving WWE for AEW and everywhere else. That being said, this wasn't a bad match, just a lot of instances where I felt that I've seen this before but with different dance partners.
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| Those Japanese tables look like they don't have any give at all. |
Archer got a nasty wound on his arm after going through those unforgiving Japanese wooden tables for the finish that saw Moxley pick up the win via knockout since he was unable to return to the ring before the 20 count.
Singles match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay (c)
Out of everything in Night One, I'm sure everyone's going to be talking about this match as an early Match of the Year candidate. It wasn't perfect though as Ospreay and Takahashi had a few botches that they were quick to disguise/mask and recover from to keep people engaged. There was a sequence towards the end of this match that you have to see to believe that was just pure insanity in terms of athleticism.
It sucks to hear that Ospreay got injured at some point during this match as him and Takahashi (who just came back from a pretty gnarly neck injury) killed it here. Takahashi has to be nuts to take so many neck bumps to say that he literally JUST came back from injury though.
Just go out of your way to check out this match. You won't be disappointed.
Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White (c) (with Gedo)
Here's the thing. I never thought Jay White was the guy, even more so when NJPW shoehorned him into top gaijin spot following Kenny Omega's departure last year. I just don't see what is the fascination with "Discount Seth Rollins" here. White and Gedo did everything they could to heel it up and garner some heat into this match with Naito while playing up to the narrative of his ailing knees, but I just wasn't feeling this match at all. Out of the three main events that closed out Night One, I felt this was easily the weakest of the three, despite the fact the right man went over.
Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Kota Ibushi
Whereas Naito vs. White was the weakest of these three main events that closed out Night One, this was arguably the best match - by a small margin in comparison to Takahashi vs. Ospreay. I found myself caught up into the narrative of this match - much like a LOT of people by the reactions online. I was getting anxious the longer this dragged out that Ibushi kept Okada against the ropes and couldn't put him away. Ultimately, Okada got his second, third, and fourth winds and picked up the win over Ibushi in a convincing manner.
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| Kota Ibushi just popped up like it was nothing. |
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| They definitely had me fooled this was over there. |
But Jesus Christ listen to those strikes.
As much as I wanted Ibushi to win gold here, I understand why they went with Okada going over. It wouldn't have meant shit if Naito beat Ibushi in Night Two to end his narrative that started when Okada beat him about two years ago, so Okada had to win here to face Naito in Night Two to properly conclude the story that New Japan started. It wouldn't surprise me in the least that we see Ibushi holding gold before the year's out or beating Naito this time around next year. It seems like Ibushi has inner demons to exorcise out of himself before he's properly slotted into that position.
Closing Thoughts on Night One:
Ospreay and Takahashi had the definitive match of the evening up to the point, Okada versus Kota Ibushi started. They went out there and had one hell of a match too. If you don't watch anything else from Night 1 go do yourself a favor and watch both of those matches. Hell, I'll go as far as saying that those matches were better than anything on Night 2 too. Far too many tag team matches in the first half of this for my taste. Like I mentioned earlier, the only thing that woke me up was seeing Pieter's fineness on my NJPW World feed coming out with the rest of the Bullet Club.
Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) defeated The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano) and Ryusuke Taguchi (c), Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Yoshi-Hashi, and Robbie Eagles), Suzuki-gun (Taichi, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) and Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, and Chase Owens)
Tag team match
Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee defeated Jushin Thunder Liger and Naoki Sano (with Yoshiaki Fujiwara)
This was Jushin Thunder Liger's retirement match
If you were watching this live on Sunday morning/Saturday evening over on NJPW World, the app crashed after this match - appropriately so, if you ask me. That was a pretty anti-climatic finale for Liger's retirement. I'm fine with Liger doing the honors on his way out, but two "meh" worthy losses to end his career on wasn't how I saw his career ending, especially from how much marketing went into this grand finale of sorts. By the time you have read this, he would have had his formal retirement ceremony during the New Year's Dash event.
Tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
Roppongi 3K (Yoh and Sho) (with Rocky Romero) defeated Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo) (c)
The highlight of this match for me was these guys pulling out the athletic cups to protect themselves from the Low Blows from the Bullet Club. Someone should've enlightened AJ Styles, Nakamura, and Brock Lesnar about that technical marvel a few years ago.
Singles match for the British Heavyweight Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. (c) defeated Sanada
It goes without saying that I love the technical mastery of ZSJ. That's like my annual treat from these Wrestle Kingdom events for the last few years that I started watching them. I thought Sanada was a solid talent back during his time in Impact/TNA Wrestling and I'm glad to see him in a high profile match on this card. Close but no cigar homie. I love seeing ZSJ tie guys up like a pretzel.
Singles match for the IWGP United States Championship
Jon Moxley (c) defeated Juice Robinson (with David Finlay)
I was in the mindset of a lot of people thinking that Moxley was dropping the title back to Juice Robinson here on Night 2, but boy was I wrong. This wasn't a bad match, but I liked Moxley's match from Night 1 more than this one. That's not a knock on either talent here; it's just that I wasn't feeling this as much as the one on the previous night.
Business definitely picked up with Minoru Suzuki coming out following the win and challenging for the belt next though. I think people have been clamoring for that match since Moxley debuted for New Japan last year.
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| Sums up everyone's feelings after Suzuki came out there to lay out Mox. |
Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto defeated KENTA (c)
This was a master versus student sort of narrative, since New Japan couldn't get Katsuyori Shibata cleared for a match no matter how badly fans wanted to see him against KENTA, especially after they teased the fuck out of it last year. Way to play with our emotions there, New Japan... Goto versus KENTA wasn't bad for a consolation prize. Can't say I knew what GTR was before this match but now that I've seen Goto pull it off, I think the move was pretty darn awesome.
Singles match
Jay White (with Gedo) defeated Kota Ibushi
This didn't bore me to death like the one with Naito in Night 1 did, but I can't say that I'm any much more of a fan of Jay White or who I jokingly call
"Discount Seth Rollins".
Much like Night 1, I'm more intrigued with the Kota Ibushi's "dark side" that White was dead set on unleashing to Ibushi's own detriment in this match. It seems like New Japan is trying to tell the tale as if this is Ibushi's own version of Ryu (from Street Fighter) dealing with his own struggles with the
Satsui no Hadou within him. I don't follow New Japan's storylines full-time, but I was under the impression that they have Ibushi on this path where he can't harness this destructive power positively at first, but once he does, that will be the moment where he finally captures the World Championship.
Singles match
Had Tanahashi won, he would've received a match for Jericho's AEW World Championship
Chris Jericho defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi by submission
The tale of the tape going into this match had Jericho egging people on that Tanahashi would get a AEW World title match if he somehow beat Jericho. While that made people doubt that Jericho was going over here, I thought it would have been stupid if AEW allowed their World Champion to go to another promotion and fucking lose on their equivalent of WrestleMania. I enjoyed this for the most part, but the fact that Jericho has let himself go in terms of physique cannot be ignored at this point. He's got flab oozing over his weight belt and his body is showing little to no definition. I thought as a veteran he would going over and beyond to set the example to AEW's younger talent on how to carry himself as the flagbearer of that company but no dice. I've listened to other podcasters point out Jericho's physique and laughed it off since AEW's debut as a joke but it's REALLY noticeable in this match to the point that it's distracting.
Double Gold Dash match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship
Tetsuya Naito (IWGP Intercontinental Champion) defeated Kazuchika Okada (IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
As good as this match was, I can't say that this match was as good as Okada vs. Ibushi to close off Night One. I would like to blame that shortcoming on the fact that both men probably were spent after their matches from the night prior from being banged up and having to come out to do this dance again 24 hours later. I thought all of the Destino and Rainmaker reversals were getting redundant at one point as everyone just kept kicking out of each other's finishers to same result over and over and over. I think they could accomplished the same thing in this match given half the run time of this match. In the end, the right man won with Naito going over Okada.
Naito wasn't allowed to enjoy his victory for long as KENTA ran down and attacked him post-match. I understand why NJPW did this, but I can't say that I liked it. They could have allowed Naito to enjoy that win at least for the finale to Night Two and set up the first challenge from Bullet Club's KENTA at New Year's Dash the following night. Instead, they went with the narrative that the Bullet Club wanted to close Wrestle Kingdom by stealing the spotlight away from Naito and his faction coming out of the event strong following Bullet Club's string of loses in both nights. That decision sets up an easy first challenger for both of Naito's newfound wealth of gold and it wouldn't damage KENTA in the long run with a loss there, given the massive amount of heat he has garnered for himself in a such a short time.
Closing Thoughts on Night Two
Like I just mentioned above, I wasn't too crazy about the main event of this event but I was satisfied with the right man coming out on top to conclude Naito's narrative from the last two years. Everything thing else here paled in comparison to high points in Night One, even though I enjoyed a lot of the matches on this card. I just felt that nothing was as strong as those Ibushi/Okada and Ospreay/Takahashi matches that blew me away in Night One. I do want to add that the English commentary team was great for both nights - a small thing that a lot of us take for granted watching most of the other various wrestling alternatives out there. That being said, I can't say that I would like to see them continue doing the two-night format going forward as I honestly don't see what the benefit was here. It seemed like even the Japanese crowds were burnt out by the time the end of Night Two rolled around. It was a nice experiment that ensured that I wouldn't have to pull an all-nighter with work the following day like usual this year, but yeah, I rather them go back to the one night format for 2021.
