My oh my, was that ever a long night… but it was sure worth it! Ladies and gentlemen, Wrestle Kingdom 14 is, technically still upon us as we speak as we are now between halves of this pro wrestling extravaganza! Night 1 finished a few hours ago as I type this and frankly I’ve only just now begun to decompress from all that I’ve witnessed. As I said before any of this even started, it’s going to go down as a truly unforgettable weekend in professional wrestling’s storied history.
The first main card bout of the night was in many ways a historic one. It was the first of Jushin Liger’s two retirement matches. An eight-man tag team match where both his partners and opponents were comprised of some of his greatest adversaries, contemporaries and general Junior Heavyweight legends.
Ryusuke Taguchi, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Naoki Sano defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask
While it’s true you’re meant to go out looking up at the lights, given the nature of this match and all the one-off folks on Taguchi’s side, it seemed likely to me that Liger would get one last win here, likely pinning Sano, before going on to put over Hiromu and Ryu Lee the next night. But that did not come to be, with Taguchi pinning Liger on his second-to-last night instead.
You can see an excerpt of my recap of this match below:
Tag to Taguchi and in comes Liger to counter the hip attack with an inverted atomic drop! Takes Taguchi up top, Super Frankensteiner for the nearfall, broken up! Tiger Mask flies off the top to the floor with a crossbody! Fujinami and Sano brawl on the floor as Taguchi gets hooked with a Victory Roll for a nearfall, Enziguri nailed but Liger no sells! Charges into a second one, Taguchi now doing the Shinsuke poses! Charging Hip Attack, nearfall! Hooks both arms, Tiger Facebuster! And that is that, he pins Liger!
Winners: Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi
