New Japan Pro Wrestling had a special night on their hands at Wrestle Kingdom 20. A sold out Tokyo Dome, two strong winner take all championship matches, and the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi. Three good reasons to wake up long before dawn to watch pro wrestling.
New Japan got this night right. All the way through it. Aside from House of Torture nonsense, the booking across the premiere matches was smart in the moment and for the future of the promotion. The current stars showed up and delivered and the newer stars shined with the bright lights on them for the first time.
As for Tanahashi, the NJPW legend got a wonderful send-off into retirement. Not only was the match with Kazuchika Okada excellent, but the ceremony after was emotional and touching.
Here are my Brass Ring Ratings for the event and here’s how they work … I call it like I see it and grade accordingly. Period.
Never Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship Ranbo
This had good action for an opener and served it’s overall purpose to get as many stars on the card as possible. TMDK were the winners, which was both fun and jarring. Fun because they’re a good team, but jarring because last year at this time Zack Sabre Jr. was in the Wrestle Kingdom main event.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
Syuri vs. Saya Kamitani - IWGP Women’s Championship and New Japan Strong Women’s Championship
This was great. I had high expectations here and the match met them. Loads of great action start to to finish and near falls that made the match feel like an epic Wrestle Kingdom encounter.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/4
David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, Shingo Takagi, and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Andrade El Ídolo, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Henare, and Jake Lee
Pretty much your standard New Japan 10-man tag team match. Pace and spots. Lots of both. It was cool seeing Andrade El Idolo out there and he looked great. NJPW has plenty of matches they can do with Andrade if he sticks around for a bit. Andrade vs. Yota Tsuji and Konosuke Takeshita are both matches fans would pay to see. How about Andrade in the G1 in 2026? Manifesting …
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 1/2
El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Sho vs. Kosei Fujita - Winner Becomes IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship #1 Contender
I’m a sucker for El Desperado, so this was a blast. Desperado has such a violent take on the junior heavyweight style in New Japan. He showed that off in the match. The House of Torture stuff was annoying, but didn’t overstay it’s welcome in this one either.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OO 3/4
Evil vs. Aaron Wolf - Never Openweight Championship
Wolf walking out in a full on Young Lion appearance was a nice touch given the story that he and Evil were in. The crowd reacted to Wolf in a big way and that investment helped the match greatly. House of Torture got involved and that part of the match was ridiculous. At the same time, that involvement very much helped fans invest in Wolf as a babyface. The right move here was getting Wolf a strong win and they did. Wolf broke out a sick submission for the victory. That move is already massively over because of how it looked and how quick Evil tapped to it. Good selling.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOO 1/2
Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
The match of the night. Action packed and Tsuji very much stood out. Not just in the match, but when compared to other stars up and down the show. He’s working in another gear right now and Takeshita was the perfect talent to work with to enhance that gear even further. Takeshita can hit a beautiful Blue Thunder Bomb at a moment’s notice and got a couple in this match — one off the top rope too. Not only did Tsuji need to win in order to fully capitalize on his momentum, but the storyline between Takeshita and Tsuji with Takeshita not really fully respecting the top spot in New Japan called for a Tsuji victory. Anything else would have seemed odd and New Japan seemed to understand that. Tsuji is the guy now.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO 1/2
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada - Tanahashi Retirement Match
About as good of a match as could be expected from Tanahashi at this point. He hit his spots and Okada heeled enough to create the drama you’d want in a retirement match. I liked the action in this and it was worthy of the pomp and circumstance around it. The retirement ceremony after Tanahashi lost was wonderful. It was star-studded with appearances from Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Tetsuya Naito, and others. Most of all, it was touching and it recognized Tanahashi as the company legend that he is.
Heydorn’s Brass Ring Rating - OOOO
What did you think of Wrestle Kingdom 20? Let us know in the comments!
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