The 20th annual NJPW WrestleKingdom show is in the books, and it ran the gamut, going from dismal to fantastic over the course of four hours. It will be most remembered for the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi, but also for the long-awaited crowning of Yota Tsuji as the company's new face. It was your textbook two-match show, like so many old WWE PPVs where the undercard was mostly skippable but the big matches delivered. Let's examine the Tokyo Dome show that was....
So yeah, thinking about this show frustrates me in a way because if Gedo had just booked a few noteworthy undercard bouts we'd be talking about WK20 as a slam dunk. As I said in my preview, if any card should've been assembled to hook new and lapsed fans alike who tuned in for Tanahashi's final match, this was the card. But instead Gedo shoved everyone outside the top three matches into clusterfuck bouts and as a result no one really got time to shine. If I'm a former NJPW viewer who bought a ticket to see Tanahashi retire, no one on this undercard is catching my attention other than Tsuji and Takeshita. I will go to my grave not understanding the thought process behind this lineup.
The show started with an absolutely useless Ranbo match for the Six-Man Titles. Two teams started, a new team entered the fray after ONE MINUTE of action each time, except their entrances took forever because of the size of the building. Thus no one was really paying attention to the action in the ring, and no one got time to do anything memorable. The Ranbo featured Zack Sabre Jr., Shota Umino, Yuye Uemura, current Tag Champs Oskar and Yuto-Ice, Shingo Takagi, Tomohiro Ishii, pop star Kaisei Takechi, Boltin Oleg and Hirooki Goto, and made good use of none of them. If the idea was to cram as many names in as possible so new and lapsed fans could get to know them, this was an abject failure. Cut this garbage from the show and add the Knock Out Brothers vs. Umino & Uemura for the Tag Belts (Seriously, how do you have the TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS vying for Trios Titles in a schmozz match on your biggest show of the year??), and ZSJ vs. Boltin Oleg, and this show immediately moves up a full letter grade. This shit took up 21 pointless minutes. DUD
Fortunately things picked up big with the IWGP/Strong Championship unification match pitting Syuri vs. Saya Kamitani. They only got twelve minutes but packed a lot into them. I still think this should've gone fifteen considering there were only seven matches on the show, but I'll take what I can get. They traded a ton of nearfalls before Syuri put Saya away with a Buzzsaw Kick, becoming a double champ. ***3/4
The obligatory ten-man tag was next as David Finlay, Gabe Kidd and Drilla Moloney teamed with Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi against the new United Empire - Callum Newman, Henare and Great-O-Khan, plus the two newest members Andrade El Idolo and the returning Jake Lee. This had some good action, and none of it came from Jake Lee. I dunno who this guy has dirt on, but holy shit is he not good in the ring. Finlay and Takahashi had some fun moments; as tag partners they like to throw each other into opponents because they don't like each other very much. After some dive spots to the outside, Hiromu rolled back into the ring and was abruptly knocked out with a Jake Lee running kick, and pinned. That finish stunk. Match was alright otherwise. ***1/4
Probably the most disappointing match of the night was the 4-Way for a shot at the Jr. Heavyweight Champion Douki, pitting El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Sho. This only got about eight minutes and much of that was taken up with run-ins from other Juniors not in the match. See what I mean about trying to cram everyone into these matches at the same time? As a result no one stands out and your prospective new fans don't care. After the run-in clusterfuck Despy pinned Sho to end this one way too fast. Pretty pointless. **
Finally the show settled into three matches the company actually cared about, as Olympic Judo star Aaron Wolf debuted against his real-life mentor Evil. This was pretty basic House of Torture fare but Wolf got a huge reaction and mostly held his own. He desperately needs to improve his look though; he's very doughy and comes off as just a guy. But aside from not managing his cardio well yet, he delivered well in the ring. The HoT guys ran in extensively, knocking the ref out, pulling him out of the ring, using weapons, etc. But Wolf overcame all of it and locked Evil in a stretch hold, rendering him unconscious. Aaron Wolf is the new NEVER Openweight Champion. Hopefully this guy can move tickets in 2026 AND improve in the ring to the point that he's still a draw even after the novelty tour is over. ***
Alright, now for the two matches that felt like they belonged on the biggest show of the year, starting with the IWGP World/Global Title match, Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji. Why this company took SO long to make Tsuji the new top guy I'm sure I dunno. He may not be on the level of an Okada but he's very good in the ring, he has a great look, and the female fans LOVE him. But no matter, at long last, after close to three years, Yota Tsuji finally had his career-defining match at the Dome and walked out as the company's top champion. This was exactly what a thirty-minute WK main event match should look like, with tons of action, dramatic nearfalls, stolen finishers, a Blue Thunder Bomb off the top rope(!), and finally Yota Tsuji using the designated Young Lion finisher, a Boston Crab, to force Takeshita to tap out. This was all kinds of great. The post-match wasn't so much, as Jake Lee of all people attacked Tsuji to announce himself as his first challenger. Imagine choosing from that roster Jake fucking Lee as your new champion's first hurdle. Side note: Yota brought back the REAL IWGP Championship belt the next night, thank fucking Christ. Anyway the match itself gets *****.
And then it was time for the final match of the iconic Hiroshi Tanahashi, against his greatest opponent, Kazuchika Okada. While Tana obviously couldn't equal his 2015-2016 form, he made up for it here with ring psychology and emotion. Okada on the other hand played the Don Callis Family version of himself and the crowd absolutely hated him. Midway through the match he did his lazy falling elbow off the top rope, teased the Rainmaker pose, and gave the finger, as he's been doing for the last two years. But he failed to put Tana away after multiple Rainmaker clotheslines. Tana mounted a comeback, hitting Shibata's Penalty Kick, Nakamura's Boma Ye (which sadly looked pretty feeble), and his own Hi-Fly Flow for a nearfall. Okada hit Naito's Destino and his own Cobra Flowsion, climbed to the top rope, and hit the REAL flying elbow, followed by a proper Rainmaker pose, followed by one more Rainmaker clothesline to end the career of one of the all-time greats. Post-match he cut a brief, surprisingly tear-free promo paying homage to Tanahashi, and then the retirement ceremony began in earnest. Jay White, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, and a hobbling Kota Ibushi brought flowers, Katsuyori Shibata started a chopping battle with Tana before giving him a big, emotional hug, and finally Tetsuya Naito brought flowers and cut a promo. Tana then gave his own farewell speech, thanking everyone. Conspicuous by his absence of course was Shinsuke Nakamura. I know WWE are cunts about letting their talent wrestle on non-WWE (or WWE-annexed) shows, but fuck that company forever for not allowing Nakamura to be part of this ceremony. There is no excuse for that. WWE is run by toxic, parasitic shitbags. Anyway, excellent match, great, emotional post-match payoff. *****
So yeah, go out of your way to see the final two bouts, they're fantastic. If you watch one undercard match it should be the women's match. But it's just frustrating that we could've gotten two or three more good matches instead of that Ranbo shit. Overall a good show though.
Best Match: Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji
Worst Match: The Ranbo
What I'd Change: Give ZSJ and Boltin a singles match, give the Knock Out Brothers and Umino/Uemura a Tag Title match, give Douki and Despy the Jr. Title match they should've had last year, and bump the Ranbo garbage to the pre-show.
Most Disappointing Match: The Jr. 4-way
Most Pleasant Surprise: That Tana vs. Okada was able to deliver at the level they're known for
Overall Rating: 8/10
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