Welcome to night one of ProWrestling.com’s exclusive live coverage of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14, live from the historic Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan! We’ll be with you all night/morning long, so continue to refresh this page for updated results. Bell time for the pre-show is 2:00 AM ET, which is when our coverage will begin.
Read our detailed Wrestle Kingdom 14 Preview & Predictions for night one.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Results
January 4, 2019
— Prior to the start of the live feed, a tag team dark match between four stars from the joshi promotion STARDOM took place. Legally the match could not be aired with the Wrestle Kingdom stream in Japan, so there was a slight delay getting started.
PRE-SHOW MATCH
Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji & Yuya Uemura vs. Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin
Quick, explosive match from the Young Lions to get things started. Makabe and Honma showed the youngsters how it’s done, firing off with mounted punches from opposite corners early on. Lots of great intensity from the L.A. Dojo boys, who took advantage of their time here. Honma eventually managed to hit the Kokeshi on Henare, but the rest of his team breaks it up. A huge brawl breaks out and spills to the floor. Tsuji slammed down Henare and slapped on a Boston Crab, wrenching down on the hold. Coughlin, then Connors hit the ring and lit him up with kicks and chops, but he still held on. He eventually broke the hold and took out Coughlin with a big spear. He started throwing elbow strikes, but Henare gave them right back, hit the Rock Bottom, and scored the win.
Winners: Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin
PRE-SHOW MATCH
Manabu Nakanishi & Yuji Nagata vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
Nakanishi started things out tossing Tenzan, then Kojima who hit the ring trying to save his partner. The big man somehow got both men over with a mighty suplex – not bad for an old 52-year-old tree trunk. Nagata tagged in and worked pretty much the rest of the match on his own, trying to get moment going as Tencozy double teamed him with quick tags, reminding “Blue Justice” why they have the most IWGP Tag Team Championship reigns of anyone in history. Kojima hit a big DDT and delivered his signature lariat in the corner, but it wasn’t enough. Eventually Nakanishi got the hot tag, but was quickly overcome as well. Kojima gave him a round of machine gun chops in the corner and another DDT, but he wouldn’t stay down. After a short back and forth exchange, Kojima delivered the running lariat to put his opponent away.
Winners: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima
— There will be a short break with the pre-show matches now wrapped up. We’ll be back at the top of the hour (3AM ET) so don’t go far!
JUSHIN THUNDER LIGER RETIREMENT MATCH #1
Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke & Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi
All 8 of these absolute legends (take a victory lap Taguchi, you’ve earned it) get their own individual entrances, as do their respective cornermen El Samurai and Kuniaki Kobashi, as well as special referee Norio Honaga. Fujinami got a great reaction, as he should, but the roof nearly blew off the Tokyo Dome when Liger’s music hit. Great Sasuke is wearing a half mask with Liger’s trademark horns to pay respect.
Liger takes down Takaiwa with a shoulder block as the bell rings, before trying for an early Romero Special, but his old rival won’t go down easy and whips him to the floor, before following with a surprise suicide dive! Otani tags in and throws Liger to the corner, giving him a face wash with his boot over and over again. Sasuke tries to break it up but gets sent over the ropes to the floor, and Otani goes right back to the face wash. No respect!
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Tiger Mask eventually gets the hot tag for his team, but ran right into a DDT from Sano. In comes Taguchi to deliver kicks and knees all over the body. The opposition begins to alternate with quick tags, keeping Tiger isolated in their corner. Takaiwa actually delivers a picture perfect diving elbow drop from the top rope, but it wasn’t enough to put it away.
The match ultimately built up to Fujinami getting the tag and running with, sending everyone flying with Dragon Screws. He put down Takaiwa with the Dragon Sleeper before tagging in Sasuke, who unfortunately crashes and burns on the Swanton Bomb attempt. Everyone is down. Otani put him on the top rope and began a slow climb, but in the end managed to get him over for a big superplex.
Liger and Taguchi tag in and pick up the pace with some quick exchanges. Things turn into an all-out brawl as the ref completely loses control. Liger rolls him up with a small package for a close two-count, but Taguchi responds with a dropkick and the running knee strike, complete with Nakamura theatrics. When that’s not enough, Taguchi scoops Liger up and connects with the Dodon facebuster. 1…2…3.
Winners: Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi
— After the match, Liger goes around the ring and bows to all 7 of his opponents, their corners and the referee in a huge show of respect. They play his theme one more time, which again gets a massive pop, as the celebrates with the fans and bows to all four sides of the ring. Fujinami tries to put him over and raise his hand, but Liger won’t have it and puts over Fujinami instead. Tiger Mask and Great Sasuke put him on their shoulders and parade around the ring a bit, before the legends all make their leave.
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