Csonka’s NJPW WrestleKingdom 14 (1.04.20) Preview

WELCOME back to column time with Larry! Today, I am going to discuss and preview NJPW WrestleKingdom 14, which is a two-day mega event this year. Despite the fact that I watch so much wrestling and have been doing so for so long, I still get really excited for the big events. You simply don’t watch as much wrestling as I do unless you’re a huge fan. I love wrestling, because when the wrestling is great, it’s some of the best stuff around. While many will claim WrestleMania to be “THE big show of the year,” and I get that, there is another big show that I feel is extremely important, WrestleKingdom. On January 4th & 5th, New Japan takes center stage; and in my opinion, many times, this show sets the tone for the entire year. So today I will break down the card, which features part one of the double gold dash, with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi, IWGP IC Champion Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito, and more. I hope that you enjoy today’s preview, and feel free to share your thoughts. It’s wrestling, we love it and will disagree. The only rules are “have a take, be respectful of other’s opinions and don’t be a dick.” Also, don’t be afraid of sharing your predictions. Have fun, and always, thanks for reading.

PRE-SHOW MATCH: Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yuya Uemura, & Yota Tsuji vs. Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, & Toa Henare: This is our pre-show opener, as GBH (the Drunk uncles) & the college students (Yuya Uemura, & Yota Tsuji) battle the frat boys (Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks, & Clark Connors) and their friend Henare, who graduated college two years ago but still lives in the attic of the Frat House. This is a fine pre-show match and gets Makabe on the card as well as the lions, who have busted their asses all year. Team drunk uncles likely win here, but I strongly feel team Henare should win, with him pinning Makabe or Honma to finally give him a signature win to kick off the new year. WINNER: Alex Coughlin, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, & Toa Henare

PRE-SHOW MATCH: Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi: Back at the NJPW World Tag League 2019 Finals, Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi defeated Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan in the opener and the lovable dads will clash once again here at WrestleKingdom. The last match was actually enjoyable, because they know how to work with each other, and I’m thrilled the dads are getting a pre-show spot. TenCozy should pickup the revenge win here. WINNER: Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

Jushin Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask, & Great Sasuke vs. Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, Naoki Sano, & Ryusuke Taguchi: El Samurai will be in team Liger’s corner, while Kuniaki Kobayashi will be in the Otani team corner. So some background for this one, Fujinami was the childhood hero of Liger. Tiger Mask has been his regular tag team partner for years. Sasuke worked with him in the mid-90s when there was a junior heavyweight boom, including the two helping put together the original Super J Cup in 1994 and J Crown tournaments in 1996. Otani was both a tag team partner and rival to Liger, as was Takaiwa and Samurai. Sano was Liger’s first major rival when Liger started to be considered one of the best in the world and in Japan, the Liger vs. Sano rivalry was a huge deal in 1990, setting the standard. Finally, Kobayashi (who had a major rivalry with the original Tiger Mask in 1982 and 1983) lost to Liger on April 24, 1989 in his first match with the gimmick, held on the first-ever pro wrestling at the Tokyo Dome. Liger has largely been doing the honors during his retirement tour, because he feels he’s doing the right thing. This will largely be these guys playing the hits and that’s all it has to be for this special match, but Team Liger should win this one. WINNER: Jushin Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask, & Great Sasuke

Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, & Desperado) vs. LIJ (EVIL, SANADA, Shingo, & BUSHI): This is the first of our multi-man tags, with this one building to Sabre vs. SANADA &the NEVER trios gauntlet on night two; it may also be another tease for the Suzuki vs. Shingo match they had seemingly been building to. I get that people are down on these matches, and I can see why, but they do have a purpose. The match has a lot of talent involved and potential to be good as the two factions have delivered in the past. I am thinking that LIJ take this one as I see Suzuki-gun having a bigger night two. WINNER: LIJ

CHAOS (YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano, Big Tom Ishii, & Hirooki Goto) vs. Bullet Club (Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale, & KENTA): This is the second of our multi-man tags, with this one building to Goto vs. KENTA and the NEVER trios gauntlet on night two. I don’t have as high of hopes as I do for the previous match, especially with Fale involved, because he’s been really lazy and unmotivated as of late. I pray that this changes in this match. This one feels like more of a coin flip, so I will go with Bullet Club here. WINNER: Bullet Club

IWGP Tag Team Champions The Guerrillas of Destiny vs. David Finlay & Juice Robinson: Fin-Juice winning the 2019 World Tag League was a pleasant surprise, not only because they were fresh winners, but because e it served as the culmination of Finlay’s return from injury and also his first major win/accomplishment (unless you count replacing captain cannabis Matt Sydal as a Never Openweight trios champion and I don’t) in NJPW. It may just be an other box checked off of a list for Juice, but it’s absolutely huge for Finlay. The Guerrillas of Destiny are fine champions, but completely unspectacular champions that can on a rare occasion breakout a great match (The Briscoes & Aussie Open did it with them in 2019), but are too inconsistent and more importantly, WAY TOO OVERBOOKED, which holds them back. They have dropped the titles at the last two WrestleKingdom events, which makes me feel that they finally win at the big show, walk out with the titles, and foil the happy days of Fin-Juice. WINNER: The Guerrillas of Destiny

Texas Death Match: US Champion Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley: After a lot of early speculation, NJPW has officially announced the rules for this one (which is important because the Texas death match has had about, 100 or more variations over the years. The rules are that the match is “No Disqualifications, No Pinfalls, and Victory only by 10 count KO or submission only.. Jon Moxley won the title back at the Best of the Super Jr. 26: Final over Juice Robinson, worked the G1 and held the championship for 130 days. He was scheduled for the big rematch with Juice at King of Pro-Wrestling, but travel issues held him from appearing and in NJPW tradition, Moxley was stripped of his championship. At King of Pro-Wrestling, Lance Archer battled Juice for the vacant championship and won, reigning ever since. Moxley would return at the World Tag League finals, attacking Archer and making it known that he wants his championship back and made the challenge for this match. These two crazy fuckers working this style of match should rule. Mox has been great since leaving WWE, while Archer has been having he best in ring year of his career at age 42 not that far off of a back surgery many thought would be career ending. Mox is looking to win back the championship he never lost while Archer is trying to keep the biggest prize of his career. I think they have an insane brawl, but unfortunately for them it doesn’t end here because the winner and champion defends against Juice Robinson the next night. Either man makes sense to face Juice, but the original plan was for the Juice vs. Mox rematch and I think that’s where they are going. WINNER: Jon Moxley

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi: With all due respect to everyone else on these two shows, THIS IS MY WRESTLEKINGDOM MAIN EVENT. Will Ospreay is my wrestler of the year for 2019, in my opinion, based off of what I watched, no one touched his work in terms of the volume of top tier matches he delivered during the year. Hiromu Takahashi finally made his return from what could have been a career ending neck injury, one of 2019’s best moments, and I now back and is looking to regain the championship he never lost. Big match Will never disappoints, and will be here to not only impress on NJPW’s biggest stage, but the man loves Hiromu and will be doing everything in his power (like with Amazing Red) to ensure that the match is spectacular. Hiromu came back and worked three dates on the Road to Tokyo Dome shows and looked great. He looked ready, his timing, speed, and intensity were all there; this wasn’t Honma trying to make a comeback, Hiromu is here and he looks ready. I am beyond excited, taking their history together into account, their ability to deliver on the big shows, on top of their quality interactions on the Road to Tokyo Dome shows, this one certainly has the chance to steal the show. My feeling is that this match that we start a new chapter here in the juniors division, with Hiromu winning his title back, Ospreay moving on to heavyweight full time, and Hiromu moving on to feud with Robbie Eagles (who pinned him on the Road to Tokyo Dome shows), and old rivals Ryu Lee & Desperado. WINNER: Hiromu Takahashi

IWGP IC Champion Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito: And now we get into the big stuff, the first part of the Double Gold Dash which starts on night one and culminates on night two. In match one, the man that started all of the double gold talk, Naito looks to win back the IC Title against the man who ruined his plans and took over the idea, Jay White. White is a great heel whose matches end to suffer from the Bullet Club overbooking trope, which I really hope isn’t the case here. These two have had great interactions on the Road to Tokyo Dome shows, but I feel have had mixed results in their singles matches. If we’re being honest, Naito is, physically speaking, a shell of his former self. But in his defense, he’s also a guy who can seemingly duct tape himself together like late era TNA Kurt Angle and deliver in the big time matches and I expect that here. You can certainly make the argument that White should win here, they heavily invested in him in 2019 and he gives you a legit heel for the day two main event. But this was all Naito’s baby and I think if he loses here you risk a giant backlash like when he lost to Okada in the dome previously. The only saving grace to a Naito loss here if he would be facing Okada in the loser’s bracket to get that win back, which of course means much less. I am going Naito here, it just makes the most sense for either the big rematch with Okada or another clash with Ibushi. WINNER: Tetsuya Naito

IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi: And now we get into the main event, and the second part of the Double Gold Dash.

Lets be honest with each other, it’s likely going to be Okada because they will be afraid not to have him in the match and a potential rematch with White (to avenge last year’s WrestleKingdom loss) or Naito (to try and give Naito his win and avenge his biggest WrestleKingdom disappointment) both make sense and aren’t the wrong call booking wise. I get that, but I also feel that they have put too much into Ibushi in 2019. They locked him down to a contract, he beat Okada, he won the G1 after failing last year against Tanahashi, and he is 37. He still looks great, isn’t broken down, and will deliver your top tier main events. I would go with Ibushi and will pick him here even if I may be completely wrong. WINNER: Kota Ibushi

JOIN 411 FOR MY LIVE COVERAGE OF THE SHOW STARTING AT 1AM ET JANUARY 4TH!

The 411 on Wrestling Podcast returns to the 411 Podcasting Network for episode 79. On the show, 411’s Larry Csonka & Jeremy Lambert hit a quick news roundup on the Raw Wedding angle and then review the January 1st edition of AEW Dynamite. Finally, Larry’s daughter Hana joins the show to discuss her favorite things in wrestling. The show is approximately 105–minutes long.

* Intro
* QUICK NEWS ROUNDUP (NJPW off AXS TV, Charlotte & Andrade Get Engaged, Thoughts on Raw’s Wedding Angle): 2:45
* AEW Dynamite (1.01.20) Review: 21:05
* Quick NXT TV (1.01.20) Thoughts: 1:04:20
* Talking Wrestling Favorites & Opening Christmas Cards With Hana Csonka: 1:13:20

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