Here are your quick, editorial-free results for the first night of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14. The show included a legend-filled first retirement match for Liger and matches for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight, Intercontinental, and Heavyweight Championships.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Night 1 results
1. Pre-show: Toa Henare, Karl Fredericks, Clark Connors, and Alex Coughlin defeated Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Yota Tsuji, and Yuya Uemura. Henare pinned Tsuji with an uranage.
2. Pre-show: Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Yuji Nagata and Manabu Nakanishi. Kojima pinned Nakanishi after a lariat.
3. Jushin Thunder Liger Retirement Match I: Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi (with Kuniaki Kobayashi) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, The Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask (with El Samurai.) Taguchi pinned Liger after hitting Dodon. Norio Honaga was the special referee for this match, and Liger and each of the other wrestlers in it bowed to each other afterward.
https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1213377773043159040
4. Suzukigun (Zack Saber Jr., Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, and El Desperado) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Sanada, Evil, Shingo Takagi, and Bushi) when Sabre forced Bushi to verbally submit. Sabre didn’t release the submission after the match was over and Sanada saved his stablemate. ZSJ taunted Sanada with the RevPro British Heavyweight Championship.
5. Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano, and Yoshi-Hashi) defeated Bullet Club (Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi) (with Pieter.) Goto pinned Takahashi after hitting the GTR. Bullet Club was accompanied to the ring for this match by Hendrix Tui and Timothy Lafaele from the Japanese national rugby team, who had gone to school with Fale.
6. IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: David Finlay and Juice Robinson defeated The Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c). Finlay hit the Acid Drop on Tonga for the win after an assist by Robinson with the Left Hand of God.
7. Texas Death Match for the IWGP United States Championship: Jon Moxley defeated Lance Archer (c). Moxley put Archer through two tables with a Death Rider DDT from the apron. He made it back in the ring before the ten count but Archer wasn’t able to get up in time.
– Moxley cut a short promo on Juice Robinson about their U.S. title match the following night.
8. IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: Hiromu Takahashi defeated Will Ospreay (c) after pinning him with a new finishing move.
https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/1213407433122557957
9. IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match: Tetsuya Naito defeated Jay White (c), pinning him after a Destino.
10. IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match: Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Kota Ibushi. Okada pinned Ibushi after a Rainmaker.
– The January 5 event match for both the Intercontinental and Heavyweight titles is now set: Tetsuya Naito vs. Kazuchika Okada.
– Naito entered the ring after the main event and laid the white belt in front of Okada. He cut a promo about how he’s made it back where he was two years ago. He said tomorrow he’ll become the first double champion in the main event and he’ll do an L.I.J. roll call in the Tokyo Dome. Naito and Okada posed with their belts and Naito left the ring.
– Okada got on the mic and cut a promo about how he doesn’t care if the fans want to hear the history-making L.I.J. roll call tomorrow; he’s the strongest IWGP Heavyweight Champion of all time! He thanked the audience for coming to the show and promised they’ll see the best of NJPW and the best of Kazuchika Okada again tomorrow, when he will make it rain.
With Spandex will have results from Night 2 tomorrow and a complete Best and Worst of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 column on Monday.
