Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day 1 2020-01-04

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Event
Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day 1

Date
Sat 4th January 2020 (UTC)
Sat 4th January 2020 (Local)

Timestamp

Time

00:00:00 UTC

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League
NJPW

Season
2020

Round
1

Status

Location
Tokyo Dome

Video Highlights

Description

Wrestle Kingdom 14 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The event will take place on January 4 and January 5, 2020 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It will be the twenty-ninth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the fourteenth promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name; it is also the first time the event is held over two days, instead of taking place solely on January 4.

Background:
On March 7, 2019, it was announced that Wrestle Kingdom 14 would feature the retirement match of NJPW's junior heavyweight legend Jyushin Thunder Liger, who wrestled in the opening televised match at the first January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 1992. On August 12, 2019, Kota Ibushi won the G1 Climax 29 by defeating Jay White in the tournament final, entitling him to a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom. On night eighteen of the G1 Climax, White defeated Tetsuya Naito to advanced to the finals. On September 22 at Destruction in Kobe, White defeated Naito to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. During the year; Ibushi, Naito and White all stated their intentions to become double champion at Wrestle Kingdom. On November 3 at Power Struggle, after White's Intercontinental Championship match; Okada, Ibushi, White and Naito came to the ring where Okada suggested to have a fan vote to check if the NJPW fans wanted to see a double title match for both the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental championships as the main event of night two at Wrestle Kingdom. NJPW held a public poll the next day, where the fans voted in favor for a double title match. On November 5, an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match between White and Naito for night 1 and the double title match for night 2 was scheduled. With the losers of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship matches on night 1, facing off in a match on the night 2. On July 7, 2018, Hiromu Takahashi suffered a neck injury during his title defense for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Dragon Lee at the G1 Special in San Francisco. On August 20, NJPW stripped Takahashi of the title as he would not be able to defend the title and would have been out of action for 9–12 months. On June 5, 2019, Will Ospreay won the Best of the Super Juniors by defeating Shingo Takagi in the finals, and later captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall on June 9. At Power Struggle, after Ospreay defended the title against Bushi, Ospreay issued an invitation to anyone in the Junior Heavyweight division to a match at Wrestle Kingdom for the title which was answered by a returning Takahashi. The match was officially scheduled by NJPW on November 5. At Dominion, Chris Jericho faced Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, which Jericho lost. After the match, Jericho attacked Okada, which led Hiroshi Tanahashi to come to Okada's aide; when Jericho left the ring he insulted Tanahashi. At Power Struggle, after Tanahashi and Ibushi defeated Chaos' Okada and Yoshi-Hashi in a tag team match, a video of Jericho was played to Tanahashi, where Jericho challenged Tanahashi to a match at Wrestle Kingdom on January 5, which Tanahashi accepted. At the final night World Tag League tournament, another video of Jericho was played to Tanahashi. In a later interview with Tokyo Sports, Tanahashi expressed interest in challenging for Jericho's AEW World Championship if he happened to beat him. On December 28, 2019, via Jericho's Instagram, it was announced that Jericho conferred with All Elite Wrestling (AEW) founder, president, and CEO Tony Khan, and Khan granted a future title shot, should Tanahashi win. On December 8, 2019, after the final match in the World Tag League tournament fought by Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki, Jon Moxley appeared, to challenge Archer, demanding a Texas Death match for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship. The match rules were later clarified by NJPW: no disqualification rules, and the victory would come only by knockout or submission. The winner of the Texas Death match would then go on to face Juice Robinson for the title on night two.

Main Card: