Wrestle Kingdom 14 at Tokyo Dome

This entire Tokyo excursion was built around Wrestle Kingdom - and this year was the first year that Wrestle Kingdom would take place over two nights. The historic two-night event was one of the main motivating factors in deciding to finally make the trip to Japan in 2020. There were a lot of storylines and historic moments that really made me decide that this was the right Wrestle Kingdom to go to the most important being the retirement of the great Beast God Jushin Thunder Liger and Tetsuya Naito’s quest to become the first ever New Japan Double Champion. 

The Double Gold Dash was so fun to follow and watch over the past two years - as most long term New Japan fans knew that the Double Gold Dash was Naito’s story, but I was cautiously optimistic as to whether or not he would actually win the weekend. I remember reading so many Reddit threads where old-school New Japan fans would discuss how a lot of the storytelling in puro is tragic, and that they were certain Natio would not be victorious. But, in my mind it was Naito’s story to win - and he was who I was most pulling for. Tetsuya Naito has been my favorite wrestler on the New Japan roster since I started watching - and his rise to achieving his goal of holding both the IWGP Heavyweight and the IWGP Intercontinental titles has been so greatly satisfying to watch unfold. Naito coming so close to greatness at Wrestle Kingdom 12, but being defeated by Okada was so deflating. Long term readers of Torture Wracked will know how much I loved his match in the 2018 G1 Tournament against Tama Tonga - though this match by New Japan in-ring workrate standards was nothing to write home about the story telling was so great. It was incredibly satisfying that Los Ingobernable De Japon were the only faction prepared for Bullet Club’s DQ antics throughout that entire 2018 tournament with Naito getting the first actual pinfall on Bullet Club. I also remember last year, during the finals of the G1 being absolutely livid that Naito lost to Jay White in the finals. I thought that his dreams were dashed - up until Switchblade and Kota Ibushi both started mentioning that they also wanted to be Double Champ. This is the one single thing that gave me hope that somehow Naito would make his way to the IWGP Title by Wrestle Kingdom as he was the only New Japan wrestler really talking about achieving such a goal prior to the 2019 G1 Tournament. From a long-term storytelling perspective in professional wrestling there really is no better arch than Naito’s. During Night One he was set to face Switchblade Jay White, former IWGP champion and scourge of New Japan. In order to obtain our tickets for Wrestle Kingdom we were required to wait in-line outside of the Tokyo Dome. This was an effort to make it harder for people to scalp tickets as we were required to show our passports at the time of pick-up. 

While waiting on line I overheard a familiar voice, and looked up ahead to see Chris Charlton greeting all of the foreign fans. I received his book Eggshells for Christmas and I had been quietly hoping to get to meet him at some point - as he is more or less the voice of all of the Japanese speaking wrestlers for western fans. I snapped  a picture with Chris and had a brief conversation about what the weeks leading up to Wrestle Kingdom were like for him and how excited we both were for the matches that night. We said goodbye, obtained our tickets, and found a nearby ramen shop for lunch. Afterwards we went to the Tokyo Dome Sports Complex where on the sixth floor is an actual bowling alley. In recounting a lot of this trip it’s wild to think of what a surreal place Tokyo really is - in the span of this day we ate great ramen, bowled on the sixth floor of a building outside the Tokyo Dome, and watched the best professional wrestling on the planet. After bowling a few games we headed for the queue and started filing into the Tokyo Dome. Upon entering the stadium you immediately get a view of the ring situated at the center of the baseball stadium. For night one we were seated in the 1F stands and our seats were great. We had clear views of the entrance and the ring, and were close enough to see nearly all of the action. To no surprise the food and drinks at the Tokyo Dome are great: the takoyaki (fried octopus) is so good and paired with a classic ballpark hotdog and a cold beer is the stadium food of dreams. Some of my favorite moments from Night One were Jon Moxley defeating Lance Archer in a Texas Death Match - the ending spot where Mox threw down a Death Rider on Archer through two tables from the apron was so sick, Okada’s incredible entrance (by far one of my favorite wrestling entrances ever), Jushin Thunder Liger’s historic second last match ever that featured Tiger Mask, Great Sasuke, Taatsumi Fujinami, Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Ootani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi, and the banger match that was Ospreay vs Takahashi that Meltzer called the best Super Junior match to ever take place in the Tokyo Dome. Okada and Ibushi put on one of the best New Japan matches in recent years - Ibushi is a babyface through and through but in this match actually had the entire crowd loudly booing him when he started to throw closed fist punches at Okada. Ultimately The Rainmaker would go on to defeat Ibushi - solidifying his dominance as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and place in the main event of Night Two at the Tokyo Dome. Okada v Ibushi is without question  a modern classic, but I was most interested in the outcome of Naito v Switchblade. It is surely an understatement to say that I  was so happy that Naito defeated Switchblade the first night, his victory on this night was such a sight to see. Switchblade Jay White has really become one of the best heels in professional wrestling and Gedo did such a great job booking us to believe he was going to win. A lot of Jay White’s storylines last year were centered around the fact that he was never wrong. He said he would beat Tanahashi for the title and he did, he said that he would go on to ruin Naito’s dreams of getting a title contract in the G1 and he did, he said that he would beat Naito once again in the Tokyo Dome… but he didn’t! Tetsuya Naito triumphantly defeated Switchblade and would go on to face his greatest adversary - The Rainmaker Kazuchika Okada in the main event of the second night of Wrestle Kingdom. 

We left night one feeling so excited and anxious for night two - on our way home we got dinner at a restaurant on the third floor of a building outside of the Takadanobaba Station. No one in the restaurant spoke any English, and the menu was all text based. Thomas luckily learned the phrase “Omakase” which means chef’s choice and we were treated to a great meal of sushi, sauteed ramen noodles, pickled ginger, and various meats on a kebab. We returned to our AirBnb that night imbued with the energy of a day filled with good food and puroresu in the Tokyo Dome. 

I awoke the next morning so amped up for the main event of Night Two at the Tokyo Dome. Naito completing his hero’s journey and achieving Double Gold status was one match away - but it would be against his greatest opponent “The Rainmaker” Kazuchika Okada. We eagerly headed to the Dome to wait in line for our tickets - while waiting I got to say hi to my friend Kevin from Los Angeles, Kevin is a wrestling photographer that I imagine most readers would be aware of. If not you should follow him at @35MM.WRESTLING on Instagram, he also helps put together MIND GAMES MAGAZINE. We had some extra time to kill once we got through the ticket line and decided to check out another wrestling event that was happening at that exact time. STARDOM was running a show at Korakuen Hall - we initially did not buy tickets for this show because we didn’t want to overkill the amount of wrestling we were attending that weekend. The STARDOM show happened in the early afternoon between both Tokyo Dome shows so we cautiously planned to not attend in the case that we were burnt out from Night One. But me and Thomas were flying high on puroresu so we decided to try and make our way to the show, and at the very least see the historic Korakuen Hall. We took the elevator upstairs and were told by a girl working the desk that to buy tickets we needed to walk over to a door across the lobby. We misunderstood this and ended up walking over to a door that took us down four-five flights of stairs and right back to the elevator that we had just used to get up to the ticket desk. It was really a happy accident as getting to walk down the historic stairways of Korakuen that are covered in scrawlings and graffitti was really cool. We headed back up the elevator and noticed the girl at the desk realizing what happened in our misunderstanding and apologetically pointing us in the right direction while laughing. By the time we figured out how to buy tickets there were only a few matches left so we decided to call it and headed back to the Tokyo Dome Sports Complex to hit up their batting cages. The area around the Tokyo Dome is filled with activities beyond watching events at the Dome itself (including a Haunted House)! I had not been to a batting cage in years and it was such a fun way to kill time before we had to line up for Night Two of Wrestle Kingdom. 

We filed into the Dome for the final night of Wrestle Kingdom - we were able to secure Arena A floor seats and they were everything that we hoped they’d be. It was so wild walking on the actual Tokyo Dome baseball field and slowly getting closer and closer to the ring as we would be seated in such close proximity to the action. There were so many highlights from this night beginning with Liger’s final match where he teamed with Naoki Sano against Ryu (Dragon) Lee and Hiromu Takahashi. This match was so good, with actual heel/face dynamics throughout and up until Hirormu disrespectfully left the ring after securing the pinfall. Ryu Lee paid his respects to Liger as we all clapped and cheered for the great Beast God. Liger delivered an emotional speech and said his goodbye to the Tokyo Dome crowd clapping, chanting, and crying his name. The emotions would fill the weekend and spill over to the following night’s retirement ceremony in Ota City at New Year Dash!!. 

There were a few other undercard matches that were all great to watch live - but the next, most notable match was ZSJ vs SANADA.  After Hiromu secured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title during Night One and with BUSHI, Shingo, and EVIL winning the Never Openweight Six Man belts in that night’s opener I was certain that SANADA was going to defeat Zack Sabre Jr. However, this was not the case as ZSJ would go on to retain his RevPro title. I remember at the end of this match feeling nervous for the great Tetsuya Naito - as I thought that by the end of this night all of Los Igobernables De Japon would be draped in gold. ZSJ is one of my favorites on the New Japan roster and it felt conflicting wanting to see him lose - but I was really hoping for this to be an entirely victorious weekend for the ungovernable ones. In retrospect (and given the outcomes of night two) maybe they are setting Sanada up to break off of LIJ and establish himself as a breakout singles star. Next up, Mox and Juice had a hell of a match - with Mox retaining the strap. At the end of this match the entrance music of the one and only MINORU SUZUKI hit - and me and Thomas went apeshit. Screaming “KAZE NI NARE” along with the Tokyo Dome crowd was a highlight of the weekend for sure. Suzuki hit the Gotch Style Piledriver on Mox - and challenged him for the U.S. title before departing the arena and leaving Mox and his title in a pile in the center of the ring. Another favorite from Night Two - was Jericho vs Tanahashi, the match felt like a classic early 1990s WWF match - like we were watching a modern day version of Randy Savage vs Hulk Hogan. The stipulation added to this match was that if Tanahashi were to win he’d get a title shot from Jericho at the AEW World Championship. It felt very plausible that this could happen as Tony Khan was mentioned in the promo packages - and this really made the match feel like a lot was on the line beyond just two titans of the professional wrestling industry doing battle. Chris Jericho had a lot of spots peppered throughout the match where he’d flex his muscles and would get the crowd to legitimately jeer in unison at him. The Painmaker would go on to win this match - dashing Hiroshi Tanahashi’s dreams of becoming the second ever AEW World Champion. 

After this match a quiet washed over the crowd as we seemed to collectively realized it was time for the main event and the conclusion of The Double Gold Dash. Naito and Okada put on an incredible match that was my favorite of the weekend for a lot of reasons. As a professional wrestling fan I care most about story, build, and psychology - with in-ring workrate being slightly less important in my enjoyment of a match. I know many friends and fans who are very high on the Ibushi v Okada and Hiromu v Ospreay matches from Night One (rightfully so) but Okada v Naito is by a far margin my match of the weekend (and of the year thus far). Naito and Okada masterfully built this match around a few key spots - my favorite being Naito hitting the Stardust Press only for Okada to kick out. It was at this point that I thought that Naito might not be able to pull it out over Okada. You could feel the crowd behind the tranquilo one as he continued to bring the fight to Okada. I am getting chills writing this and thinking of chanting NAI-EE-TOE along with the Tokyo Dome faithful. The ending sequence of this match was so sick with Naito ultimately hitting the DESTIIIIIIIIIIINNNOOOOOOO on Okada for the 1-2-3. The crowd exploded when this happened, Thomas and I jumped out of our seats hugging and screaming along with the Tokyo Dome as we all celebrated with the IWGP Double Champion of the World. Following Naito’s two year journey to the title and witnessing his coronation live is honestly the most satisfying narrative I have ever read/watched/consumed. The way New Japan and Gedo built this story is a masterwork in subtle storytelling and long term booking that is truly unrivaled. It was a little deflating having Tetsuya Naito’s LIJ roll call: