Ladies and gentlemen, after much wait and much hype, the time has come! New Japan Pro Wrestling brings you Wrestle Kingdom 14 – two days of it, in fact! The WrestleMania equivalent of Japan’s biggest promotion becomes all the bigger, starting tonight! This is sure to be one of the most incredible weekends in wrestling history! I’m Jordan Huie of the Overtimer and I’ll be here with my coverage of the shows as they happen!
With all my duties covering WWE and AEW I haven’t really had much time to talk about New Japan this past year, but I am a massive fan and I can’t let a stop at the Tokyo Dome go by without getting in on it! So let’s take a look at what we have on tap for Night 1!
Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada, Evil, Bushi & Shingo Takagi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & El Desperado)
Faction warfare is for sure a staple of New Japan, and these two stables have certainly had their fair share of run-ins. As is often the case in the lead-up to a big singles match, we have both oppositions being part of larger tag team matches designed to tease the upcoming battle. In this case, it’s Sanada on his side preparing to challenge Zack Sabre Jr. for his RevPro British Heavyweight Championship on Night 2.
24 hours before that, the two will be repping their teams in this bout. Given that Sanada is just about to challenge for a title, I would have to think that he’s getting the nod here to give him that extra boost of momentum and credibility. I don’t suspect he’ll pin ZSJ, with the match having already been made there’s really no need. But seeing as Suzuki isn’t scheduled for anything else, it’d certainly be quite the bolster to have Sanada get the win over the group’s terrifying leader! LIJ to win, regardless.
