NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1: Results, Grades, and Analysis

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom is one of the biggest shows of the year and is comparable to WrestleMania in terms of the scale for NJPW. The show normally takes place on January 4th every year, though this year a bit different with NJPW holding a triple header weekend with two shows in the Tokyo Dome (Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1 & 2) and NJPW New Year Dash on the 6th.

The stakes in this show couldn’t be higher, with several high-profile matches. The biggest being Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and Tetsuya Naito vs. Jay White for the IWGP Intercontinental championship. The winners of each of those matches move on to night two where a double title match will main event, while the losers will compete against each other as well. This three days of shows will prove historic for NJPW.

Also on the show will be Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, and if Tanahashi wins, he will get an AEW World title shot. This has led to speculation that a partnership between the two companies might be in the mix, but no official word is out. It’s safe to say that if Tanahashi wins, the two have come to some sort of agreement, but Jericho winning doesn’t mean there can’t be one down the line either. Either way, the stakes are very high in this one too.

Preshow

https://twitter.com/njpwworld/status/1213364880708780032

Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, & Great Bash Heel (Tomoaki Honma, & Togi Makabe) vs. Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks, & Toa Henare

This match featured a battle between the NJPW Japan Dojo and the NJPW LA Dojo, with Henare leading the LA Dojo crew, and GBH leading the Japanese dojo. All five young lions got a chance to shine in this one, with Tsuji standing out to me the most. He had a Boston crab on Henare at one point and ate several chops before letting go of the submission. Henare scored the pinfall with a Toa Bomb.

Result: LA Dojo & Henare

Rating: ** (2 stars)

The young lions in this group are a very exciting bunch. Some of them are getting in ridiculous shape, and you can tell they will be ready for excursion soon, meaning that they are going to start developing their characters soon. Very exciting to see them develop.

Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Tenzan and Nagata attacked Nakanishi right away, but Nakanishi hit a suplex on both men before continuing to overpower both of them and tagging out to Nagata. After some standard exchanged between all the legends here, Kojima was able to score the pinfall over Nakanishi with a lariat. Solid little opening tag here.

Result: Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Rating: ** (2 stars)

Kojima was the right guy to get the win in this one, as he has the most mileage left in his career and can easily bounce into a midcard to upper midcard feud, no problem. Plus, if you need a challenger for the tag titles, it’s always helpful to have TenCozy have a few wins under their belt.