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!
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask IV (with El Samurai) vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi (with Kuniaki Kobayashi)
That’s right, Jushin Liger’s first retirement match is so important that unlike nearly all the other matches for Night 1, it’s getting a special graphic! Though to be honest, I think of this less as a match and more of a retirement party of sorts. One that a lot of special guests were invited to.
Liger captains a team of Junior heavyweight legends who really paved the way for men of their size and style, especially Tatsumi Fujinami, who is also a six-time IWGP Heavyweight champion and, unbelievably, a WWE Hall of Famer. Great Sasuke and Tiger Mask IV are Liger’s most famed contemporaries, whom he’s had many a great match with. Sasuke actually won the first the ever Super J-Cup, a famed tournament, and the brainchild of Liger himself. Tiger and Liger have been closely associated in the New Japan for the past few years.
The other side is made up of many of Liger’s most storied rivals, captained by his first great nemesis in Naoki Sano. They came up together as young lions in 1984, and in fact the second-ever match for both men was against one another. Their feud is credited with making stars of them both.
It’s not going to be a crazy spot-filled match but it’s sure to be an emotional and meaningful one. Liger over.
