NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 In Tokyo Dome

Pre-Show Tag Team Match
Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda - 6.5/10

A good little Tokyo Dome exposure for these guys, it was the opener while people are getting in the building, so there's not much going on here. Murashima and Kato are on their way to their respective excursions, so they got to show off a bit more towards the end, with Murashima getting the win over Kato via Boston crab.

Pre-Show NJPW World Television Title Match
El Phantasmo (c) vs. Chris Brookes - 6.5/10

I was really hoping to hear Brookes' Human Fly over the Tokyo Dome speakers, but unfortunately, that wasn't the case.

Match was ok, both guys looked good and got the crowd going for a bit. I thought Brookes looked like a bigger star than Phantasmo, but truth be told, the match had a pre-show warmup stank to it. I didn't really feel like Brookes was winning here anyway, and indeed he fell to a CR2 and Thunderkiss '86 finish. There's just something in me that says these two men should be in each other's spots right now, feeling that Phantasmo could be better suited for DDT and Brookes being big enough to become a New Japan mainstay.

NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Title Rambo Match
Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs. Kaisei Takechi, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) & Oleg Boltin vs. House Of Torture (Ren Narita, SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors, OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) (w/Thekla) vs. Team 150 (Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii) - 3.5/10

The usual fun clusterfuck that the rambo is, a fun clusterfuck nonetheless, but I will say, I was disappointed by the lack of surprises. You're telling me that you couldn't secure a single AEW team to show up? DDT? Stardom even?

Anyway, the main spots here were mostly the TMDK vs KOB confrontation, leading to their tag match, YOH coming out as Toru YOH-no, Boltin's great performance as a monster, and ultimately, things coming down to TMDK and Bishamon/Boltin. TMDK secured the victory at the end when Sabre pinned Boltin with a roll-up.

IWGP Women's Title / NJPW STRONG Women's Title Match
Syuri (c) vs. Saya Kamitani (c) - 9/10

Loved seeing the H.A.T.E. Kamitani entrance inside the Dome, truly deserving of the Wrestler of the Year award with that aura she walks along with.

The match was fantastic, bell to bell these two were, to the surprise of no one, fantastic. If anything, I think this match will be overlooked by many, especially on the MOTYC forums, because it was packaged on an early spot at a New Japan show, this match lacked the rivalry that Kamitani and Anou had been building up, and with a fanbase that is here for Tanahashi, more than Joshi wrestling, the match wasn't as hot as it deserved to be. Furthermore, this being a title vs title, but both titles being New Japan's, made it harder to anticipate who would walk out with the win, so a positive to this bout.

Match saw Syuri work on Kamitani's arm, while Kamitani mostly when for the body. Finish eventually came after many kick variations from Syuri until Kamitani couldn't kick-out anymore, no pun intended.

United Empire (Andrade El Idolo, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, HENARE & Jake Lee) vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay, Drilla Moloney & Gabe Kidd), Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi - 8/10

Jake Lee was revealed to be the surprise addition to the United Empire, and wow, did he look shitty with his new attire. I mean, honestly, at least he's not dressed as prince charming Callum Newman, who is supposed to be the new de facto leader of the UE. Homeboy is gonna need to work on that if he's trying to take over Ospreay's spot. Also, unless I missed something, I didn't really see any reaction to Lee being with the Empire, when he had originally debuted as a hitman for the War Dogs.

Not part of the match necessarily, but I was also disappointed on how things just ended up for this War Dogs and LIJ situation. With Finlay and Hiromu leaving the company, the creation of a new stable, Unbound (terrible name), seems perfectly acceptable, but underwhelming that there was no repercussions to it, everyone is just fine with it, as far as we've seen, and we now have this weird grouping of people that feel more like Parejas Incredibles than anything else. I just can't see Kidd in this group, as he should be leading the War Dogs; likewise, I just can't get behind Shingo and Moloney as a team, a babyface team at that. All that considering, they're feuding with THE original Ingobernable. Through exits, replacements, returns, and debuts in the last two or so years, New Japan is in desperate need for a faction restructuring. We've come to the point that the now leaderless House of Torture is the stable that makes the most sense.

Anyway, rant over. Match was fun, chaotic, all over the place. Lee and Finlay quickly paired up, as did Andrade and Kidd, kinda telling you who the main guys are regardless of who is supposed to be on top. The other pair up was Shingo and HENARE going at it again, but now Moloney got involved as Shingo's new boy. Finlay and Hiromu kept using each other as weapons, which was the best thing that came out of the whole WD/ex-LIJ grouping. Match was eventually won by Lee, after a Facebreak Shot.

Post-match - Jakob Austin Young joined the UE for the celebration, as did Francisco Akira, returning from injury, and wearing a mask for some reason. The surprise I guess.

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship #1 Contendership 4-Way Match
Taiji Ishimori vs. El Desperado vs. SHO vs. Kosei Fujita - 7/10

Douki joined the commentary table. Everyone also had a second out there with them, which eventually came into play later in the match. This was a weird addition to the card, nothing against the match itself, it was a good, fun match, but I don't know why they didn't just have this include Douki and make it a title match, you can easily have a second defense at New Year's Dash if it's that important to fill in that card.

Story of the match was that everyone hates SHO, so ganged up on SHO until he was out of the ring and then the rest just fought each other, eventually Kanemaru and Douki also got involved, which prompted Robbie Eagles, Robbie X, and Kuukai to get involved and hit a spot. Finish saw SHO hit Fujita with a Shock Arrow, only for Despe to run in, hit Pinche Loco, and take the win. If Douki is not set to drop the title just yet, this really should had gone to Fujita, who could get a big win at the Dome and then just take the loss the next day.

NEVER Openweight Championship Match
EVIL (c) w/House of Torture vs. Aaron Wolf - 7.25/10

This was the big surprise of the night, for many reasons. First big surprise came when Wolf showed up ready to be a Young Lion, dropping his gear to reveal the classic black trunks and boots, shaved head and all. Crowd really appreciated that.

The match was all smokes and mirrors, and a lot of heavy lifting by EVIL, who made Wolf look like the money spent was worth it. Wolf did step up to the challenge, but for a totally green guy, he was carried to a great, exciting match with tons of near falls, fighting spirit, and a huge surprise win for Wolf, getting a W at the Dome, on his debut, for a championship, by choking out EVIL nonetheless.

It was a big risk putting the title on Wolf on his first match, but with the investment on Wolf, and EVIL leaving to be a dork at the fed (presumably), may as well go all out and kickstart Wolf's career with a big note, and then start working from there.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship Match
Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Yota Tsuji (c) - 9/10

The story coming in was that the IWGP title had landed on the hands of a non-NJPW made wrestler, and Tsuji is on a quest to bring NJPW back to its glory and bring the title back to a man that was New Japan made from day 1. Because of this story, these guys don't hate each other, rather they want to be the best. Therefore, the story of the match revolved around them challenging each over and over.

Behind the curtain, this match, and potentially Takeshita's reign, seemed like it was crafted for the sole purpose of establishing Tsuji as the new main guy in the promotion. For every single spot, Tsuji was made to seem like the guy that was never going to back down, like the guy who enjoyed the hardship and challenge, the guy willing to push the tough champion to bring it, and in the end, to showcase how he had more power, more heart.

Match itself saw Tsuji work Takeshita's mid-section, while Takeshita worked the neck, after Tsuji had a nasty landing.

Post-match - Tsuji and Takeshita showed respect and sportsmanship to each other, but before he could leave, Jake Lee attacked Tsuji and made it know that he was going to be Tsuji's first challenger.

Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada (w/Gedo) - 9.75/10

This is a weird one for me, I legit think this was as perfect as this match could have gone, but somehow, I still didn't finish the match with that feeling in my gut that I had just seen a 10/10 match. Darn close to it though.

This was the final dance for Tanahashi, and so, we got the greatest hits by a man that can't exactly land them anymore. Nonetheless, a man that never stopped making us feel like he could do those things and make them matter.
Story of the match, or a resemblance to one, was that this was Tanahashi's last dance, he was challenged by Okada, but it wasn't the old New Japan Okada, instead, it was the AEW "Don Callis' Family" Okada, the one that cheats when needed and cares not for Tanahashi at all. Cares not for the fans at all. Yet, throughout the match, Tanahashi was able to pull out the Okada of old and push him to the limit, forcing respect out of Okada, forcing him to take things seriously, as this wasn't just going to be a quick win over an old man. They pulled out moves from their past, Tanahashi hitting a Shibata PK and a Nakamura BOMAYE, while Okada hit a Destino and a Cobra Flowsion. At the end, while Okada couldn't take much more, he finally decided to close things down by giving Tanahashi a proper Rainmaker pose and Rainmaker combo for the pin.

Post-match - Okada was quick to give Tanahashi his much deserved Otsukaresama, which translates more to a "You look tired, thank you for your effort", than just a thank you, and then leaving the ring as prompt as possible. Tanahashi took a second to recover, but once up, he was blindsided by the theme of the Switchblade Jay White, followed by Ospreay, Omega, Shibata, Mutoh, and Fujinami. At the end, BUSHI and Naito came out, showing off their newly won GHC tag titles, and after Naito's 30 minute entrance, they finally made it to the ring and, in the most Naito way, just kinda disrespected the moment that Tahanashi deserved. Once gone, good riddance, Tanahashi had a chance to do his thing, and then get on a little card that took him around the Dome to say his thanks and goodbyes.

Otsukaresama Ace!

Overall Thoughts
A Dome show that felt like it was standing solely on the shoes of Tanahashi's retirement, ended up being a fun and exciting night of wrestling. It's clear that New Japan is in a huge transitional era, bigger than when Nakamura and AJ left, bigger than Omega and company leaving to create AEW, bigger than Okada leaving for that matter. There are a ton of new faces being positioned here and there, and it really felt that way once we closed out with Takahashi's retirement. I don't know what the rewatchability of this show will be down the line, but I'm glad I watched it live for sure.