NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 Night 1 Road Review
2020.01.04
Talk about an early morning jaunt. I am very much a worrier. I worry that I’m going to be late to something, I worry it is going to be too crowded, I worry that if I leave my general admission seat during a wrestling show that someone is going to take it and I’ll be left with a worse seat. That last one annoys Mean Mark to no end as I sit in the GA seat and become passive aggressive when he takes too long to get back. So imagine my worry when New Japan announces that you have to pick up your tickets from one specific box office window at the Tokyo Dome at 11:30 AM the morning of the show.
Last time we bought tickets for WrestleKingdom 11, we went through the New Japan website and they sent a QR code to get in a few days before the show. I had issues with this as well because I wanted an honest to God ticket stub to add to my collection but at least with the online QR code, I didn’t have to worry about waiting in line to get my tickets. I swear, you just can’t win with me.
So out and about I was at 11:15 AM in the morning to pick up the tickets with Mean Mark trailing behind screaming on the phone at a psychotic ex-girlfriend (Always a great way to start the day I imagine). The AirBNB was about a 20 minute walk from the Dome and even in my haste to get tickets, I still managed to stop and get a great Belgian Cocoa that had the consistency of a warm chocolate milkshake and tasted like heaven. Seven extra minutes, a bit of translation problems, and fumbling through 100 yen coins was worth it.
I arrived a bit past 11:40 AM to what I expected. A very long line that wrapped around the concrete benches next to the Tokyo Dome. And again, you are probably asking yourself why I am so worried about being in line so early for tickets to a show that has doors open nearly 4 hours from this moment. Again, no real answers.
But even as long as the line is (I’d venture a guess that there were maybe 100 people in front of me), as usual with the efficiency you find in Tokyo, we had our tickets by 12:15 PM. The process was very easy, I provided the box office attendant with the QR code on my phone and my state-issued ID (Luckily didn’t have to carry my passport) and I was handed an envelope with tickets for myself, Mean Mark, Sarah, and Kevin Dunn Thurgood III.
Now one caveat to this adventure was that KDTIII found out that the Challenger store had done a collaboration line with Ribera where they were selling branded jackets (Similar to the Ribera jackets which we unsuccessfully attempted to receive twice during the trip, another story for another day), Zubaz as well as long and short sleeve shirts. I was very keen on the idea of attempting to get some of the collab merch but they opened at 12 PM 35 minutes away and I knew there was no way I could get the tickets and get over there in time for opening to meet up with KDTIII and Sarah. Luckily the good brother that KDTIII is, he waited outside the store for them to open and sent me the play-by-play of what they had in the store. To our dismay, they sold out of the jackets the first day as they made only 250 of them but he managed to snag me a pair of Miami Hurricanes Zubaz along with Zubaz for himself and Sarah (And who am I kidding ,we know Sarah paid for them).
With time to kill, myself and Mean Mark headed out OUR favorite Japanese restaurant, the Sizzler inside of the Tokyo Dome Hotel. Yes, I am a very cultured person having traveled the world for professional wrestling and managing to only stumble onto landmarks in passing to a show (Here’s to you X in the road I noticed in Dallas on my way to the Ring of Honor show that I found out was actually the spot where JFK was assassinated) but there is something about buying a 3400 yen steak with the free salad bar add-on and cheese toast that is magnificent. Is the meal slightly expensive? Yes. Did I load up on nachos and spaghetti from the salad bar and then gorge myself on a small Ribeye? Also yes.
Here is the part where KDTIII and Sarah are going to kill me for when they read this (NOTE: Sorry guys), they texted us to let us know they were on their way and starving and wanted to go to the Bucks’ favorite restaurant, Fridays. They went all the way to get me Zubaz and I didn’t even wait for them to grab lunch, I am literally the worst. So me and Mean Mark do what any good friends would do and lie through our teeth. We say we are hungry and are ready to meet up for lunch. We then proceed to race out of the Sizzler and meet them in front of the Dome.
One thing I didn’t mention earlier was the merch line. You see, the Tokyo Dome set up giant tents for merch in front of the venue. There had been pretty much five straight days of events at the Dome including a few pop bands and the Rice Bowl. The majority of these events took advantage of the tents to sell copious amounts of merch and New Japan was no different. However, this line was INSANE. Like I’m talking saw a guy walk to the back of it when we went to Sizzler and was nearing the front after our meal 45 minutes later. We met in front of the line for the tents but really had qualms about getting into line although KDTIII promised a friend to get him a Yano shirt.
They were hungry (and we were not) so I decided to stall to see if we could recover any small sort of appetite. This is when I pulled out the secret weapon. You see, if you follow my VLOGs, Mean Mark had never tasted a White Claw until Survivor Series weekend the month prior in Chicago. The second the sweet, sweet Mango hit his lips though he was hooked but there was one problem, Mean Mark lived in England and White Claw does not make its way across the Atlantic. KDTIII and Sarah also love White Claw and while the Kirin Peach alcoholic drinks and Strong Zero drinks are enough to keep you satisfied, the Claw is the Law and needed to be indulged at the Tokyo Dome. So, customs searches be damned, I transported four Mango White Claws’ to the Tokyo Dome. And as I pulled them out of the bag to the surprise of all, we stood in front of the Tokyo Dome tasting a little bit of home and getting curious looks and a few “Holy shit, is that White Claw!” exclamations from onlookers. We even managed to give Joey Janela a bit of delight on Twitter with a great photo of us in front of the Tokyo Dome drinking the Claw.
The drink didn’t last quick and we were off to Fridays. Now here is the first of many hot takes about Japan that there is likely a good reason for but I do not understand. There were about 15 groups waiting outside of Fridays at 1:55 PM (Yes, I’m likely making these times up, what do you take me for, Green Lantern Fan?) and inside of Fridays with all of us waiting outside, 90% of the restaurant was empty. I don’t know why this occurs and what the reasoning is behind it, but it took us 20 minutes to get seated into a half empty restaurant. I’m going to assume it is because they want to spare the chef and not make you sit too long before you get your food but I’m unsure if standing is any better plus at least with sitting you can drink. Which is all Mean Mark and I did when we sat down (Sorry again Sarah and KDTIII). Nothing too exciting, we drank, KDTIII and Sarah ate, and of course Sarah paid because she is the powerhouse of this team and they headed to drop off their bags at the hotel while Mean Mark and I headed into Lawsons.
One of the best things about seeing shows in Tokyo is the ability to carry your food and drink with you into the venues. Nothing beats loading up on snacks and drinks at Lawsons and walking into Korakuen Hall and the Tokyo Dome with them. My choices during this visit were two fried squid sticks (Essentially a big stick of kalmari) which are 118 yen each, two bottles of Peach water at 100 yen each, and a Strong Zero at 178 yen making my grand total of food and beverage for the Tokyo Dome 496 yen or $4.86. Yeah.
And one of the nice things about being able to take the food and drink into the venue is this also means you didn’t get too price gouged on the food and beverage inside either. There is a slight mark-up but you aren’t spending $20-$30 inside on a meal unless you are getting a large or typically expensive even outside the venue meal. I’ll mention this later as a man has to eat dinner at some point, right? Anyways, on to the Dome.
WrestleKingdom 14 Night One!
I’m already nearing 1,700 words and now just getting to the show. I’ve either lost everyone or maybe my wit and experience is enough to hold everyone’s attention… I really hope it is the latter.
We were to enter through Gate 22 which luckily had a short line. We went through the search and got to the revolving doors. If you’ve ever attended a show at a venue with an air pressurized Dome, I’m assuming that you have experienced this but to date, the Tokyo Dome is the only venue I’ve ever been to like this so that really is just an assumption. Walking through the revolving doors is interesting because as soon as you get in, you can feel the pressure change and every time I walk in, my ears pop. It (and the later exit) definitely leave a lasting impression of the venue.
We are Section 8, Row 5 and as you can imagine, the majority of the foreign fans who bought through ePlus have been sat together. We have some great (and not so great so I’m not going to give them the time of day) fans around us from all over. To our left was a great group from Ireland who we had some great conversations with, upper left was a group from New Zealand who had the only Jay White fan remotely near and we had fun razzing him during the match, directly behind was a group of Japanese fans who also spoke English and we had some amazing conversations with them including a phrase that we coined the phrase of the week which I’ll bring up later on, and then to our right was another Japanese fan who spoke a bit of English which we also conversed and cheered with.
And did I mention that the Dome was packed? Like the floor, the first level, and the second level was full and they were putting people on the benches in the outfield. This was definitely a much different experience than the last WrestleKingdom I was at.
Now finally after 2,000 words, onto the show.
Arisa Hoshiki and Mayu Iwatani Vs. Giulia and Hana Komura
Okay fine, 2,000 words in and I’m going to say it again, I’m trash. Even after all of the warnings and threats of ejection, I attempted to record this match. I never claimed to be an upstanding citizen. But the joke was on me, my DSLR pulled focus from the match and onto the crowd in front of me so the ring and the performers are blurry. I just believe historic matches such as this deserve to be preserved in case the company who owns them do not let them out into the night of day. But I failed, sad day.
The match itself was exactly what they said it was, an exhibition. The performers worked very hard from what I saw when not fidgeting with my camera. There was a great top rope hurricanrana that popped the crowd and the group behind me loved Giulia and Hana and cheered loudly for them. There wasn’t a lot of people in the building at this point but the ones that were seemed at least semi-interested in this match and there was very vocal support for them. I wish I hadn’t been fidgeting with my camera and could have actually enjoyed this match but here we are. If it sees the light of day, I do recommend seeing it.
Yuya Uemara, Yota Tsuji, Tomoaki Honma, and Togi Makabe Vs. Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors, Karl Fredericks, and Toa Henare
KDTIII and Sarah showed up late so arrived during this match. This is also where we and the guys behind us became life-long friends. It seems like the LA Dojo guys get so much more offense than the Tokyo Dojo guys. Clark Connors is an absolute beast who I think will make it far off of his intensity and I love watching his exchanges with the other guys. There is a Boston Crab during this match and the guys behind me start cheering and saying “YOUNG BOY SPECIAL!” and I nearly fell out of my seat. What a great name for it and now my vocabulary has officially renamed the Boston Crab. The match was decent and the guys tried hard but people were still filing in so the distraction of everyone moving around made my ADHD-riddled brain people watch more than pay attention to the entire match.
One of the main distractions was that we were sat directly behind where they were handing out the blankets. What blankets you ask? New Japan designated a ladies section for both the floor and 1F seats where women could purchase seats in and with that purchase came a New Japan blanket. Now two things: Yes, I wanted one and yes, I considered trying to use Sarah to get me one. Unfortunately my mini-quest for a blanket was not achieved but it was a great topic for discussion as we saw all of the wonderful women get their awesome blankets.
Kojima and Tenzan Vs. Nakanishi and Nagata
I remember going to a WCW show in the mid-90s and seeing Yuji Nagata and just being amazed at his wrestling style. The people around me saw this as just getting everyone on the show and to an extent I did too but it was hard to not see the history in this ring. I made an observation to the group that it was crazy to think that this is a ring full of former IWGP World Heavyweight Champions which floored KDTIII to think about. This match was all signature spots which is exactly what it should have been. I love all of these guys and three of the four could likely still go if called upon but this was more letting us pop for things like Kojima’s machine gun chops which we did. This match could have been left of the card but again, people were still filing in and it was good to walk in and see some familiar faces as there is a good chance that this could be my last time seeing the first ever NJPW/AJPW Dual Heavyweight Champion, the guy who had amazing hair and threw down with Randy Savage at Starrcade 95, the guy with a breakfast I envied last time I was in Tokyo in 2017, and the guy that had the crowd popping in the Tokyo Dome in 1996 when he was serving dudes (including Sakuraba) kicks in the opening match of Wrestling World 1996 (Seriously, go check it out if you haven’t).
Tiger Mask, Great Sasuke, Tatsumi Fujimami, Jushin Liger w/ El Samurai Vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Shinjiro Ohtani, Naoki Sano w/ Kuniaki Kobayashi
The show officially starts and we have pyro! The crowd gets into it and while it was apparent during the last two matches, it is very much apparent during this match that this is not the crowd we had seen the last few days at Korakuen. These fans are loud and here to cheer and chant and have fun! Which isn’t a knock on the Korakuen crowd or the Dome crowd, just an observation that the crowds were very different.
Suddenly I am transformed to watching third-gen dubbed tapes off of Crazy Max as the iconic announcer from the 90s that you would see doing the Dome shows voice boomed throughout the Dome. It instantly made this feel so much more special than it already was. Each guy got a special video to come out to showing their historical moments with Liger and helped jog my memory to what their significance was with Liger.
Now I remember getting goosebumps many times in my life while watching professional wrestling. Live at a show it has only happened a few times since until 2015, I was never able to go to a lot of shows. Jushin Thunder Liger’s music hitting for his second to last match gave my goosebumps. I had seen him many times before this but knowing this would be my last weekend seeing him live didn’t hit me until that iconic music hit. Liger got a hero’s entrance and everyone cheered and screamed for Liger as he stood in the ring for his second to last match.
Everybody was into seeing all of the guys even if you didn’t think any of them could do much. That instantly changed when Sano did a dive outside of the ring! Many of these guys came with their working boots on and had us popping for nearly every move! But the crowd quickly deflated as Taguchi pinned Liger. There were a lot of boos around us but this is what I think many of us expected, Liger going out on his back for a guy who will be sticking around but I don’t think there is much of a rub as it seems like Taguchi is not likely to move back up the card to where he was from a few years ago. Nevertheless, Liger was helped back up by his team and put onto their shoulders for fans to cheer him and say farewell.
BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, EVIL, SANADA Vs. El Desparado, Taichi, Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr.
Can I mention how pissed the people were around us about New Japan using Sabre’s music for everyone and not playing Suzuki’s? Like it was very vocal from our side because we were the centralized foreigner section but boy, you could feel the heat around me. I was more upset it wasn’t Sabre’s other music so I could yell at Mean Mark that “THE BEST WAY TO SCARE A TORY IS TO READ A BOOK AND GET RICH”! He hates that.
MOONSHOT IDEA 1: One of the things I had thought about going into this trip was what would happen to Suzuki during this week. I had been hearing rumors of Suzuki wanting to leave New Japan and based on him being nowhere near the focal point of this match made me wonder if he would show up at NOAH’s Reboot the next day.
The eight-man is to get some heat for the next night’s Sabre/SANADA feud. The match is just there. We all wanted to see Shingo and Suzuki so this was our shot but it was a lot of brawling outside of the ring we couldn’t really see and it ended with Sabre getting his win back from BUSHI. Decent heat, it made sense for Sabre to get that win back before facing SANADA but didn’t really do anything to further the match other then pointing out there was a match tomorrow night. And people around me are still pissed that they didn’t get to shout “KAZE NI NARE”!
YOSHI-HASHI, Toro Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto Vs. Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale, KENTA
Should I just copy and paste the last few paragraphs here again? Nobody seemed to care about this match. I get that the two nights mean you need to fill in to make a full card for each but this again did nothing to further the build for KENTA/Goto and seemed like another way to get everyone on the card. Everybody in the section popped for watching Ishii, especially him and Fale with the great suplex. Match ended and the entire crowd rose up and started making their way up the stairs.
Guerrillas of Destiny Vs. David Finlay, Juice Robinson
Have I mentioned how narrow the seats are in the Dome? KDTIII is decently tall, I want to say about 6 foot and his knees were dug into the seat in front of him. Me, him, and Mean Mark also have broad shoulders so we are just on top of each other the entire time. So compound all of this together and this was about the time for KDTIII and Mean Mark to stand. It was nice for me because I got about half the row to myself at this point as KDTIII, Sarah, and Mean Mark went to go get food and be able to stand and stretch for a bit.
I love the Guerrillas of Destiny music so this immediately got me in a good mood (along with having room to stretch out). But they were coming out to everyone filing out. And then Finlay and Juice came out. Juice reminded me of Fandango with his outfit and it made me question what happened to him. KDTIII and Sarah came back about three quarters of the way through this match and we had a conversation on what would happen if Juice ever went back to WWE and agreed that he would probably be the next No Way Jose, his character wouldn’t fit there but then began to question what his shelf life is with New Japan as his look just doesn’t seem to be working anymore. I think it is the loss of the dreads.
Anyways, the match was good but the crowd was dead as the bathrooms and concession stands were full. Not a huge pop for the title win although the fans who were there seemed to be happy.
Jon Moxley Vs. Lance Archer — Texas Death Match
The fans were back and excited for this. A LOT of people were singing Archer’s song as he came out. People love his old school bruiser character although I’m not sold on his icon claw chokeslam, that might just be me though. Everyone then began looking around when Moxley’s music hit and sure enough, he popped up on the top of one of the dugouts to a HUGE pop. These guys had a great brawl that everyone was into with the people around us cheering every time that Moxley hit something. The elevation of the ring and ringside area helped us see what was going on compared to a big WWE show where if they are around the ring, you would have to rely on the screen. The finish was huge and the fans were going crazy for the Implant DDT through the tables and we let out a huge gasp seeing the blood on Archer’s arms where it seemed like he got cut up going through the tables. Win for Moxley and everyone was excited to see him stay at least for the night as he immediately challenged Juice for tomorrow night.
MOONSHOT IDEA 2: This wouldn’t happen in a million years but hear me out. Now this is not knowing what the New Japan/AEW relationship is but I started to fantasy book during this match. Lets say that AEW wants to help another Japanese brand with New Japan being unwilling to really work with them. Now NOAH has a Reboot show on the 5th before the Dome and haven’t announced any talent. Keep in mind, I joked about this with three different promotions so this was more a joke than anything BUT imagine if The Bucks and Omega showed up during this show and announced their partnership with NOAH and worked a match and then possibly Jericho or Moxley worked a match (Not knowing their New Japan contract status but imagine). Then Jericho went in and I’m assuming (and this is a stretch) had something signed to let him do the match with Tanahashi where he had to win based on the AEW stipulation unofficially announced. New Japan has the option to let him beat Tanahashi or pull him from the card. I know, never happen and don’t do drugs. Cool to think about though.
Will Ospreay Vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Oh. My. God.
The sound of the people when this match graphic popped up was insane. Hiromu was probably the second or third most over person on this show. The crowd went insane when his very interesting entrance video came up. This crowd was so pro-Takahashi and hung on everything he did. Ospreay coming out was a great ovation but nowhere near Takahashi. There was this interesting split second of silence between the bell ringing and the two locking up and then everyone went CRAZY.
The crowd was building in this match. The Sasuke Special miss, roll into the ring, to hitting the Sasuke Special had everybody going insane. This was the first time I realized that the floors could rattle. Like people were clapping and stomping and the Dome literally felt like it was shaking. The last five minutes had these two hitting moves and trading finished and every near fall had people holding their breath and going “OH MAN!” when it wasn’t the end. When Takahashi won, people were literally on their feet with excitement. I high fived someone behind me and couldn’t believe what we had just saw. This huge crowd loved what they saw and everyone knew they had just saw a special match here.
Tetsuya Naito Vs. Jay White
Talk about a change of pace. I think it was needed after such a great match, you needed to let the crowd catch their breath. Jay White stalling worked to let us get over the amazing match we just saw and realize another match was going on. Shoutout to the ONE GUY in our section who was pro-White. I worried he was going to get mugged by everyone around him. This match was good but being sandwiched between Ospreay/Takahashi and Ibushi/Okada put it in an awkward position because everybody was still talking about the last match for the first few minutes and then clamoring about the next match while taking time out to see what was going on in this match.
The final sequence of this match was great and I think one of the things that makes a lot of these matches is how they create sequences where finishers are reversed, finishers are hit, pins seem like they could be it and aren’t, and everything repeats itself in such a climaxing way that when the pin comes, you are on the edge of your seat. Does anybody else get excited and start counting along with the ref but the stalling after two makes you feel awkward because you’ve already committed but realize it isn’t the finish or is that just me? The crowd came around at the end and got into the match for the last 5 minutes and really exploded when Naito won.
Kazuchika Okada Vs. Kota Ibushi
KDTIII and Sarah were exhausted at this point and between that and the cramped seating, decided to take in the main event from the top of 1F where you could stand behind a railing and see the show. It worked for me as I was able to move one spot over and have some breathing room as well. This main had a big fight feel for it in the arena and Okada’s entrance was amazing.
Similar to the last match, they started out slow to let the fans breathe but everyone was completely into this and hanging off every spot. There was a small smattering of boos for Okada and the crowd loved Ibushi. Both played their roles so well in this and Ibushi getting pissed and throwing hands definitely energized the crowd. Ibushi’s fuck my neck tour continues with the tombstone on the ring apron. As predicted, the finishing sequence had you guessing who was going to win until the last Rainmaker and the crowd goes crazy when they realize that they’re going to get Okada and Naito as the main event for night two.
Post-match showdown between Okada and Naito is great and the crowd is going insane but a lot of people are trying to make their way out of the Dome. This is hyping me up for tomorrow but being an old man and kind of tired at 9:15 PM, I’m already ready for bed. KDTIII and Sarah had already appeared to have left as we start our ascent up the 1F stands to the exits. Being great at crowd control, the Tokyo Dome staff hold the lower level on the stairs to not create a rush to the exit. It is fine aside from my impatience and need to use the bathroom. Like I’m literally about to start looking for cups for my tiny bladder but then I remember the cleanliness of the country and realize I’m just going to have to dance around until I get up to the main area which luckily didn’t take too long.
Now here is one of my favorite parts of leaving the Dome. Now as I mentioned when you walk in, you’re going through the revolving door but when you’re going out, if they are in a rush to start getting more people out, they will open the regular doors and above the regular doors there is a sign that says “Please be careful about strong wind”. Why? Because the Dome being held up by air pressure, that air escapes through the regular doors and literally shoves everyone out the door. Let me tell you, it is an experience! You are literally getting pushed out of the arena by the wind and it was one of the most memorable things about the last trip too.
And that, dear reader, was night one of WrestleKingdom through my eyes. I have many more events I attended and many more writings that I am thinking of putting together about the shows, my experiences, and all of the hijinks that I have gotten into. Let me know your feedback, should I keep this up? Let me know on Twitter @ifightgiants and make sure to subscribe to my YouTube for my travel vlogs!
