This Sunday is the 20th annual NJPW WrestleKingdom show, and this year it's built around the retirement of one of the all-time greats, the man who almost singlehandedly saved New Japan Pro Wrestling, Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Yes, the company's greatest Ace is hanging up his boots and focusing solely on being NJPW President. To mark the occasion he'll be wrestling his greatest rival, Kazuchika Okada, and the Tokyo Dome will be completely sold out at nearly 50,000 fans. Seems like a great opportunity to hook a lot of new viewers by showcasing the full-time roster in a slew of killer matches. Which begs the question: Why in the hell didn't they do that??
Aside from the legendary main event, there will be an IWGP World/Global Title match pitting Konosuke Takeshita against the company's presumed new Ace, Yota Tsuji. But aside from that there's nary a big match on this show, and I'm beyond baffled by it. No Jr. Title match, no Tag Team Title match, no big singles bouts for Finlay, Umino, Uemura, Shingo, Hiromu, Kidd, ZSJ, Newman, Oleg or numerous other young stars who could really use the opportunity in front of the largest audience NJPW's had in years. Instead everyone is crammed into multi-man bouts with the exception of newcomer Aaron Wolf, an Olympic judoka who's become a mainstream star in Japan. Unfortunately from the sounds of it he's a charisma vacuum thus far. Maybe he'll step up in the NEVER Openweight Title match against his mentor Evil, but as of now it sounds like another Gable Steveson scenario. Why this guy gets a big singles match but the other names I mentioned do not, I'm sure as fuck I dunno. You have the chance to deliver one of the great Tokyo Dome shows and instead it's mostly a WrestleMania 27-type clusterfuck.
Anyway let's look at this card....
Pre-Show NJPW World TV Championship: El Phantasmo vs. Chris Brookes
Yeah, they even stuck this singles match on the pre-show. Brookes is a DDT-contracted wrestler, so I don't expect him to win the title here. This'll be more of a showcase for ELP I suspect, viewed by far fewer people than the main card.
Pick: ELP retains
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Championship Ranbo
This one just pisses me off. The Ranbo has been a completely skippable pre-show tradition for years and years, like the pre-show WrestleMania Battle Royals, just an excuse to cram the leftovers onto the card. So this year they're putting up the company's least meaningful titles in a Ranbo that will no doubt take up way too much time and ensure guys like Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura, Boltin Oleg, Zack Sabre Jr, Ryohei Oiwa and more don't get enough ring time to actually stand out. How do ZSJ and Umino go from MAIN EVENTING WrestleKingdom 19 to being shoved in this piece of shit match at WK20? This is 2010s Vince McMahon nonsense and I want to smack whoever made this decision.
Pick: Who the fuck cares? I guess Shota Umino, Yuya Uemura and Japanese pop star Kasei Takechi? May as well cash in on the name value I suppose.
IWGP/Strong Women's Championship: Syuri vs. Saya Kamitani
Ok this should be really good if they actually give it time this year. In past years the lone women's match on a WK show has always gotten horribly shortchanged, but given there are only seven matches on this main card there is no excuse for Syuri and Saya not getting at least ten minutes.
Pick: No idea, Syuri I guess
David Finlay/Gabe Kidd/Shingo Takagi/Hiromu Takahashi/Drilla Molony vs. Callum Newman/Great-O-Khan/Henare/Andrade El Idolo/TBA
No idea who that tenth man is, but Andrade will be making his Tokyo Dome debut, having finally been freed from WWE's bullshit no-compete. Lots of good talent in this one so it should be a fun one at least. I think the story is United Empire needs to figure out who their new leader will be since Will Ospreay is long gone from the promotion. Only waited two years.... Anyway I dunno if the TBA will be someone of long-term significance or a one-off from Tetsuya Naito or something. If it's the former I could see the UE team winning here, if not, it's the War Dogs.
Pick: TBAs in New Japan are usually a letdown so I'll go with the War Dogs
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender: El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Sho
In what fucking universe does it make sense for the biggest show of the year to have a 4-way for a title SHOT and not for the actual title? How do you not just put Douki in this and have it be a championship match? Just fucking nonsensical. Anyway, this match should also be very good if given time. Everyone here is a fine worker.
Pick: I'll go with El Desperado I guess?
NEVER Openweight Championship: Evil vs. Aaron Wolf
Alright, on one hand Evil is Aaron Wolf's mentor so they should have chemistry, and also a match with bells and whistles should conceal any of Wolf's shortcomings. On the other hand, it's fucking Evil and his stupid House of Douchebags stable, and all their matches suck. I hope Wolf proves himself to be the huge deal they're presenting him as, I really do. I don't have very high expectations for this match though.
Pick: Wolf
IWGP World/Global Championship: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji
Hey look, a match that's actually worthy of a WrestleKingdom card! This is gonna be fantastic. Likely an easy show stealer, at least from a pure wrestling match standpoint. The main event will have bigger emotion and crowd reactions but this will be mechanically the best thing on the show by far. Tsuji is finally being positioned as the company's new flag bearer and hopefully he can help right the ship that's been struggling to stay afloat since COVID. Takeshita will sure as shit make him look like a million bucks.
Pick: Tsuji
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
One last time, a decade after their most recent Tokyo Dome match, the greatest rivalry in NJPW history will come to a close. I'll never forget how awestruck I was by the match these two had eleven years ago. WrestleKingdom 9 is still one of my all-time favorite PPV events, and their main event was a masterclass. This will be a bittersweet occasion indeed. Okada was the only correct pick to be Tana's final opponent, as it was their feud that took NJPW to the next level all those years ago. Back in 2015 Tanahashi defeated Okada, sending him back to the locker room in tears. I expect Tanahashi will win again here and Okada will once again be in tears, but out of respect and admiration rather than disappointment. This won't be on the level of their 2013-2018 bouts but it will be quite memorable nonetheless.
Pick: I think The Ace goes out on top
So there's the lineup. The top two matches are quite fitting for the biggest show of the year. The rest not so fucking much. If I live to be a hundred I will not understand why the company didn't load up this show with big singles matches and feature as many titles as possible to capitalize on their biggest live crowd in over 20 years. It just doesn't make any goddamn sense. Hopefully the undercard will overachieve and the two main events will make up for the lack of depth underneath.
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