wrestling / TV Reports
Kevin’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night Two Review
Loading...NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night Two
January 5th, 2020 | Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 30,063
After a good (but not great) night one, New Japan brings us Wrestle Kingdom 14 night two. I have to write a lot so let’s just dive into it.
As always, you can check out more reviews exclusively over at www.patreon.com/the_kevstaaa.
NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet: Most Violent Players [c] vs. Bullet Club vs. CHAOS vs. LIJ vs. Suzuki-Gun
It’s our annual gauntlet. Can you imagine being a booker and this being the best you can come up with for guys like Shingo and Ishii on the biggest show of the year? The match began with the Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi) against CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Robbie Eagles, and YOSHI-HASHI). That first section of the match was kept relatively short but was a fine little sprint. Eagles and Ishii brought energy to it. Ishii put down Owens with the Brainbuster. Next in was Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and El Desperado). Again, this wasn’t a long segment, going only about four minutes. Taichi ripped off his pants (he’s no Angel Garza) and Eagles rolled up Kanemaru to advance again. It was Los Ingobernables de Japon time (Shingo Takagi, EVIL, and BUSHI). This was our longest segment so far. It went about seven minutes and had the most action. Probably because guys like Shingo, Ishii, Eagles, BUSHI, and EVIL are all good. EVIL pinned Ishii with Darkness Falls but they flubbed it as he kicked out. The champions arrived last. Another decent segment. Shingo scored the win after some BUSHI mist and Last of the Dragon in about 23:25. This was most gauntlet matches though I think I liked some of the previous installments better. Fine though. [**½]
Time for the main card.
Hiromu Takahashi and Ryu Lee vs. Jushin Thunder Liger and Naoki Sano
The final match in the legendary career of Jushin Thunder Liger, the greatest junior heavyweight in history. Ryu Lee is formerly known as the awesome Dragon Lee. He’s ROH TV Champion. Omg ROH wtf thought they were dead lol. I loved Lee holding the ropes open for Hiromu. The classic rivals are good after the injury. The vast majority of this match is Liger playing the hits and that’s exactly what it should be. This isn’t about reinventing the wheel. It’s about having an entertaining match while saying goodbye to an icon. Sano got one highlight of his own with a dive. It came down to Hiromu and Liger. Liger escaped Time Bomb and got a near fall but then took a lariat and a successful Time Bomb to lose in 12:16. I really enjoyed that. The score is probably a bit higher because of the moment but whatever. A really fun match with an emotional ending. [***½]
Post-match, everyone gets to say goodbye and then Liger cuts a short promo. There are tears in the crowd. It’s wild to think that I’ll never watch this man wrestle again.
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori [c] vs. Roppongi 3K
Roppongi 3K basically run this division at this point. ELP and Ishimori are a solid team and the best part is that they understand their roles. They were the clear heels here and they did it without having to go overboard on tropes or shenanigans. ELP did a really strong job with that, especially with his rope walk back rake. It’s such a dick move. SHO and Ishimori had some fantastic exchanges here. SHO is an absolute beast and as much as I like this team, I’d love to see him get a sustained junior heavyweight title push. After all of ELP’s success in 2019, his cockiness may have gotten the better of him. He fell to SHO’s Shock Arrow to give us new champions in 14:08. That was some very good tag team wrestling. The concept of the match was simple, yet effective. [***½]
RevPro British Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. [c] vs. SANADA
These guys usually do well against each other, with some of the smoothest wrestling you’ll find. I gave their New Japan Cup and G1 29 outings ***½ each, with their G1 28 meeting getting ****. They’re still trying to push the narrative that SANDA is Sabre’s technical equal. However, I only ever felt it during that G1 28 match. SANADA’s an interesting wrestler because I’m not sure how to feel about him. I like him but a lot of what he does feels hollow and he only works well in certain situations. Anyway, this match was crisp, with lots of fancy and smooth counter wrestling. The start was a bit of but once they got going it flowed better. Still, it just never seemed to truly get going and hold my interest completely. Sabre Jr. won with a flash pin in 12:32 as SANADA continues to be a geek. Maybe Gedo has an overly long 8 year arc set for him. [***¼]
IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Jon Moxley [c] vs. Juice Robinson
Their match at the BOSJ Finals was outstanding (****¼) and the G1 meeting was very good (***½). Juice started this with a dive onto Moxley during his entrance, signaling that it would have a more aggressive pace than what we’ve seen so far. Unfortunately, they couldn’t quite keep that up. Stuff like Juice punching a chair into Moxley’s face worked but parts of this were sluggish. It was severely lacking what made their first encounter so great. I wanted to like this so much more. Still, it’s quite good and the closing few minutes are rather intense. Moxley countered Pulp Friction and hit two Death Riders to retain in 12:46. I saw people saying they were surprised that he retained but I’m not. I couldn’t imagine Juice would be a double champion before anyone in the main event was. No matter how funny it would be. [***]
Post-match, Minoru Suzuki arrived and slugged it out with Moxley. He dropped him with the Gotch Piledriver. Okay, Moxley/Suzuki has me more interested than anything on this card.
NEVER Openweight Championship: KENTA [c] vs. Hirooki Goto
They should just rename this the Goto Openweight Championship. Remember when he won in and Kevin Kelly was like, “HE FINALLY WON THE BIG ONE” even though that story was originally about the Heavyweight Title and dude is a former IC Champion/G1 winner. Sometimes, NJPW is dumb. Anyway, a lot of this match is bland. KENTA did a really good job as the prick heel you want to boo. However, Goto continues to wrestle like a guy who doesn’t care (can you really blame him with how he was booked?). A lot of this died a slow death until Goto got fired up for the final third or so. Maybe he figures it works for Okada. Once that happened, the match picked up in quality but not enough to make it great or anything. Goto won with the GTR in 16:12 TO FINALLY WIN THE BIG ONE AGAIN. [***]
Jay White vs. Kota Ibushi
Could you have any less interesting of a match? I actually dug their G1 Final (****) but this is literally a loser’s match. Knowing that this is just two losers, the setup should be simple. Get in, have a 12-15 minute match that has a good pace, and go home. Nobody wants to see this dragged out. So what did Gedo book? A match that is dragged out. Again, my gripes with this aren’t about Jay White or the concept. It’s that it’s tired stuff. I loved watching Jay before the Gedo BS interrupted every match of his. He can be a great heel who is different from the rest of the roster on his own. This was sluggish and when it seemed to come to life as Ibushi fired up, we got a ref bump and the shenanigans to bring it back down. Since the match is kind of pointless anyway, it makes all the extra stuff feel even more worthless. White won with the Blade Runner in 24:58. This should have been closer to 15 minutes. It was the same overbooked mess that we see too often and it keeps bringing back diminishing returns. Ibushi seemed more game than Naito and this was ten minutes shorter, so it was slightly better. [**¼]
Chris Jericho vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
If Tanahashi wins, he gets a shot at the AEW Title. Jericho came out wearing it but “Judas” was dubbed over so we were the real losers. Not White or Ibushi. Most of this match felt like the rest of Jericho’s run in New Japan. It was a brawl worked at a methodical pace. I’m not saying that like it’s a bad thing, by the way. They lifted the DDT on the announce table spot from the Naito match and Tanahashi sold it like a champ. Tanahashi is a great opponent for Jericho because he can work at his slow pace. Guys like Okada and Naito get going when things are quickened but Tana is a master who can do it all. The pacing here was key, as Tanahashi seemed to lay it out expertly so the big spots came at the right moment. The tension down the stretch with the Boston crab stuff worked well. Jericho turned one into the Liontamer to win in 22:24. I thought this was great and just what I wanted from them. Two of the best to ever do it just had a smart match that told a good story. [****]
IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Championships: Kazuchika Okada [c] vs. Tetsuya Naito [c]
Their 2012 match remains their best (****½). In 2014, they met at WK 8 (***¾) and the G1 (****¼). Naito beat him for the title at Invasion Attack 2016 (****) but Okada regained it at Dominion (****) and ended Naito’s threat as a top guy at WK 12 (***½). I stand by that statement regardless of who takes home both titles. I’ll give you three guesses on how this started? Slowly like all big Okada matches. At least make it interesting and useful. They don’t even do much with Naito’s leg, which was a major storyline in yesterday’s match. He should still be hampered by it here. Once the big spots came, they were notable. Okada landing on his head on a poison rana was rough. I don’t know how these guys do it. Props to Okada for how late he kicked out of an early Destino. I never bought it as the finish because that move never ends a match on the first try but Okada tried his best. I think Naito did a great job in stressing the importance and his desperation. I also dug the callbacks, like Naito busting out the Stardust Press just as he did at WK 12. The knee seemed to come back into play after it though that was inconsistent. Eventually, enough offense capped by another Destino ended this in 35:37. Not an all-time classic but a great main event. I wish the early stuff felt like it meant more rather than come across as filler to kill time so they could go 30. That being said, there were plenty of great callbacks and story elements to make this work about as well as yesterday’s main event. [****¼]
So there you have it. Naito gets the two titles and is on top. Okada raised a fist to him out of respect and Naito got to cut a promo to end the show. That is, until KENTA arrived and attacked him, laying him out. Naito can’t even have one nice moment. I know it’ll get KENTA more heat but it’s an angle that could have been done on New Year Dash. Let the man have his moment.
