Wrestle Kingdom 14 Thread

Lithium93_

New Japan Pro Wrestling kicking off the 2020's, with their biggest Wrestle Kingdom yet, spread out over 2 nights instead of the usual 1. The cards for both shows being absolutely stacked from top to bottom.



NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 match cards

Night 1

Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP heavyweight championship

Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental championship

Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship

Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley in a Texas Death Match for the IWGP United States championship

Guerrillas of Destiny vs. FinJuice (David Finlay & Juice Robinson) for the IWGP tag team championship

Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Yoshi-Hashi) vs. Bullet Club (Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens)

Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada, Evil, Shingo Takagi & Bushi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & El Desperado)

Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi


Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) vs. Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi (pre-show match)

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

Night 2

Winner of Kazuchika Okada - Kota Ibushi vs. Winner of Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for both the IWGP heavyweight championship and IWGP Intercontinental championship

Loser of Kazuchika Okada - Kota Ibushi vs. Loser of Jay White - Tetsuya Naito

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho

Kenta vs. Hirooki Goto for the NEVER Openweight Championship


Winner of Lance Archer - Jon Moxley vs. Juice Robinson for the IWGP United States championship

Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Sanada for the British heavyweight championship

Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo vs. Roppongi 3K for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship


Jyushin Thunder Liger & Naoki Sano vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Ryu Lee

The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano) and Ryusuke Taguchi (c) vs. Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii, Yoshi-Hashi, and Robbie Eagles) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) in a Gauntlet match for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man tag team championship

LineOfBeauty

I could not be more excited! Because it is spread out over 2 nights there is more filler on the undercards, but I really don't mind that, if anything I think it might give the main matches more of a chance to breathe. Also, and I don't want to tempt fate, but I do feel like this is Naito's year.

RollieFingers

Hoping it's Naito's year myself, been stung so many times before though that I dont want to get my hopes up. Can't wait for this, likely to be the best weekend of wrestling all year. I also think we'll see a coup, Suzuki booted out for the rise of Taichi-Gun.

LineOfBeauty

RollieFingers wrote: »

Hoping it's Naito's year myself, been stung so many times before though that I dont want to get my hopes up. Can't wait for this, likely to be the best weekend of wrestling all year. I also think we'll see a coup, Suzuki booted out for the rise of Taichi-Gun.

The last Okada Dome match from a few years ago still weighs heavy on the mind. Thing is, as great as it would be for Naito to win both titles at the Dome, I think it would be just a bit disappointing if he doesn't do it by beating Okada. It just wouldn't feel the same if he does it by beating Ibushi on the 2nd night. That being said, it'd be typical if he lost to White on night 1 and then lost again on night 2.

Lithium93_

I think it'll be Okada/Naito in the Double Gold Dash for the IWGP Heavyweight & Intercontinental Championships. Naito walks away with both championships.

RollieFingers

Equally wouldn't be surprised to see Naito take the double loss, it's really now or never for him. White for me is the best heel in the business so it would also be great to see him reek his way to double gold. Can't see Okada losing two nights in a row...might be a rough two nights for Ibushi.

Johnny Sausage

Really looking forward to this

quick question if anyone knows, can you have 2 people logged into an NJPW world account at one time or is it single use only?

sky88

havent watched new japan properly in ages fully ready to jump back in this weekend

Naito/okada for me and okada wins as usual

cian68

Is it at 8am over here?

bennyl10

cian68 wrote: »

Is it at 8am over here?

Tomorrow and then 6 on Sunday.

Naito and Okada, Naito to finally do it!


Also Tanahashi to beat Jericho by any means.. because god damn I want that match in AEW

cian68

Six? f*ck me. Guess I'll give Liger's retirement match a miss so.

Cherry_Cola

bennyl10 wrote: »

Tomorrow and then 6 on Sunday.

Naito and Okada, Naito to finally do it!


Also Tanahashi to beat Jericho by any means.. because god damn I want that match in AEW

Ugh the possibilities! Would love to see it!

Lithium93_

Cherry_Cola wrote: »

Ugh the possibilities! Would love to see it!

Would make sense for NJPW, seeing as they've dumped from AXS by Anthem. Plus with them expanding into the US, their talent popping up on Dynamite would help further familiarize NJPW talent to US audiences.

bennyl10

Will Ospreay is absolutely insane.
Phenomenal match!

raven136

bennyl10 wrote: »

Will Ospreay is absolutely insane.
Phenomenal match!

If that's Ospreay last match at jr's then he went out great
What a match

raven136

I love NJPW

LineOfBeauty

Lads I'm drunk on a bottle of wine, I'm sweating like God knows what but I'm coming in hot! What a show, God what an amazing final match, how is there more of this tomorrow? I don't know, but I love NJPW. I love it!! Naito for the win tomorrow!

Johnny Sausage

LineOfBeauty wrote: »

Lads I'm drunk on a bottle of wine, I'm sweating like God knows what but I'm coming in hot! What a show, God what an amazing final match, how is there more of this tomorrow? I don't know, but I love NJPW. I love it!! Naito for the win tomorrow!

I hope you're wearing that suit from work and sweating into it 😂, perhaps a few wine stains too

LineOfBeauty

Johnny Sausage wrote: »

I hope you're wearing that suit from work and sweating into it 😂, perhaps a few wine stains too

😂😂 And more where that came from tomorrow.

Agent Coulson

Christ those last 3 matches WOW.


Ibushi's neck will be destroyed in the next few years.


I had a big smile for the old timer 8 man.

Sirsok

Enjoyed the event, becoming a regular occurrence for me, just once a year but really enjoyed it. Completely different from what I am accustomed to. Jericho is the man that got me to watch looking forward to him tomorrow.

Ospreay phenomenal! Love ibushi!

Shingo is a beast and has stood out anytime I've watched him.

Thought they built up the next night very well.

Only match I'm not looking forward to is ZSJ as not a big fan!

RollieFingers

Ospreay/Takahashi and Ibushi/Okada are MOTY contenders for me, just phenomenal stuff. Seen some negativity online towards Naito/White. The match wasn't as technically proficient as the other two but for me the drama was great, some very close calls had me thinking Naito was gone.

Can't wait for today now, particularly Naito/Okada, Jericho/Tanahashi and SANADA/ZSJ, which could be a dark horse for match of the weekend if you like technical wrestling.

LineOfBeauty

Lads I can't believe that. Naito finally gets his moment, 7 years, even hits the Stardust Press and he's attacked. I doubt it's what they mean but to me it was like LIJ abandoned him. Where were they for the role call? Rejected by the fans, he forms a band of misfits and then he's rejected by them too? The Naito story is a sad story.

raven136

That was some serious heel heat at the end

What a two nights

Clegg

Just finished Day 1:

Ospreay v Hiromu Takahashi was outrageously good. Ospreay's Sasuke Special with the spinning dive through the bottom rope, and the powerbomb into the Canadian Destroyer are some of the best spots I've ever seen. And they happened in the match!

Okada v Ibushi was phenomenal. We got to see the sadistic side of Ibushi again. When he turns that on he's frightening. Throat punches and everything. The Rainmaker reversal into Omegas V-Trigger totally got me. I was sure Ibushi had it won.

4 days into 2020 and I don't think either of these matches can be topped this year. They were that good. Every year I think we'll never see a better card than that particular iteration of WK. But the next one is always better. This is a golden age of wrestling.

Ali Bomaye

Okada v Naito was perfection. Naito going for the Stardust Press, hitting it and only getting a 2 count is something that will live in the memory for a long, long time. Just tremendous long term storytelling payed off in the best way. I was getting emotional right from Naito's entrance. One of the best matches I've ever seen. Okada looking back with the fist in the air was class too. And then just as Naito was about to finish his promo and the confetti was about to drop Kenta attacks. So looks set for Naito v Kenta and Moxley v Suzuki now, two fresh and exciting matches. And they're running Osaka Jo Hall next month. All hail Gedo with this level of booking. Like really the Suzuki & Moxley thing is so great. Moxley hits Suzuki with a ddt last month because he happened to be in the ring with Archer at the time, and Suzuki comes for his revenge here.

From night 1 two spectacular matches. Ibushi v Okada was so brilliant from the moment Ibushi hit those punches. Ibushi is so, so great. The levels of violence he can bring to a pro wrestling match is unreal. Also I was totally convinced Okada's first rainmaker was the match ender, and thought just for a second when Ibushi hit that V-Trigger that he was actually going to win it.

Ospreay v Hiromu was amazing too. That Powerbomb countered into the Canadian Destroyer was an amazing spot. And Hiromu's new finisher is great. Just a shame Ospreay so clearly missed with a missile dropkick attempt because everything else in this match was so great.

Also from night 2 Goto v Kenta was a tremendous hard hitting match, Goto delivers in the Tokyo Dome again! And ZSJ v Sanada was really good too. Oh and Tanahasi's bit in the hype video was gas, really fun match between himself and Jericho.

Really excited for Dash now and for the year ahead. This Shibata Kenta match has to happening at some point with how much they've teased it already.

RollieFingers

The EVIL/Shingo vs Goto/Ishii tag match from New Year Dash is absolutely fantastic, as brutal and hard-hitting as you'd expect from those four.