NJPW 2018: Road To Wrestle Kingdom

Everyone strives for something new when midnight hits on January 1. Many look into the future for that year, setting personal goals. For professional wrestlers, the dream never changes – win all the top titles of your company and be the “best in the world.”

New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) rings in the New Year with its annual extravaganza: Wrestle Kingdom. With a line up so huge for the 2019 show, you have to wonder how did we get to Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White and Tetsuya Naito vs. Chris Jericho? That story is now set to be told as we approach January 4.

The road to Wrestle Kingdom actually begins the night after it happens, when all storylines hit a reset. New rivalries are born and new challengers step up. At New Year’s Dash 2018, some issues were still simmering, especially within the Bullet Club.

After losing to Kota Ibushi at last year’s Wrestle Kingdom, Cody was looking for revenge. The problem is that he began to mess with the wrong man’s best friend. As leader of Bullet Club, Kenny Omega always had one unwritten rule” “target anyone you want, except Ibushi.” Their bond and friendship as the former “Golden Lovers” was stronger than any alliance, even the almighty Bullet Club. Omega would come to Ibushi’s rescue from a Cody chair attack and confront “The American Nightmare.” After a quick shoving match, cooler heads prevailed. During “The Elite of Bullet Club,” Omega would address the situation.

“This group hasn’t been whole for a long time. We need unity. We need to be a team again. No more fighting. So I have an idea. I know what we need. ‘SWITCHBLADE’”

As Jay White entered the ring, Omega would toss his Bullet Club shirt to welcome him to the group. White put the shirt on, appeared to embrace with Omega and then laid him out with his “Blade Runner” finisher. White then threw the shirt at Bullet Club, officially balking at the offer.

A special press conference would be held the next morning with the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion and leader of the “CHAOS” faction, Okada. He would welcome a new member into the fold, Jay White. White warned Okada that he would fight by his side for now, but would eventually be coming for him and the heavyweight championship.

In the main event of New Year’s Dash, Los Ingobernables de Japon would be victorious over CHAOS. Tetsuya Naito would address the live crowd and begin to make his exit, but was attacked by Chris Jericho. The former WWE Superstar was so irate over comments Naito made about Jericho going into Wrestle Kingdom and Jericho finally responded.

The two-night A New Beginnings event took place at the end of January, easily setting the tone for the rest of the year. On night 1, Hiroshi Tanahashi walked in with a knee injury to face the sadistic Minoru Suzuki with his Intercontinental Championship on the line. Minoru hooked in every submission possible on Tanahashi, compelling the referee to threaten to stop the match on multiple occasions despite Tanahashi pleading to continue. Red Shoes finally called the match off as Tanahashi was trapped in a knee bar, awarding the Intercontinental Championship to Suzuki. Tanahashi would be out for months with the knee injury.

Night 2 featured the upset of the year when “Switchblade” Jay White defeated Kenny Omega to win the IWGP United States Championship. After the match, Hangman Page would make it known to “Switchblade” that he would be the next challenger, taking the title from Jay White before he could be presented with it. Omega then snatched the title from the hands of Page to give it to Jay himself. Arguments ensued, which would bring down Cody to defend his friend Page. Cody claimed that Omega was “not being a leader.” After all members of The Elite entered the ring, Omega would accidentally shove down Matt Jackson, who at the time was battling a lower back injury suffered during a match at Wrestle Kingdom. The Young Bucks left in frustration, followed by Marty Scurll. Hangman would be sent back by Cody. Omega and Cody talked calmly in the ring for a brief second and then shook hands, claiming it was all “water under the bridge.”

As Omega tried to exit the ring, Cody grabbed him from behind and hit Cross Rhodes. As Hangman came back to the ring, Cody would toss him a chair and tell him “he ruined your moment.” Before the attack could begin, Kota Ibushi returned the favor from New Year’s Dash and saved his former teammate. After a few tense minutes alone together in the ring, Omega and Ibushi would come to an embrace and A New Beginning would go off the air with the reunion of the Golden Lovers.

In conjunction with Ring of Honor (ROH), NJPW would present Honor Rising in February. The main event was the return the Golden Lovers, as they defeated Cody and Marty Scurll. After Omega claimed that the “greatest tag team in the world” had returned, The Young Bucks took exception, announcing their move from the Jr. Heavyweight division to the Heavyweight tier and subsequently challenging Omega and Ibushi.

The annual New Japan Cup Tournament was set to take place with the winner earning a title match of his choosing against either the Intercontinental, NEVER Openweight or IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Zack Sabre Jr. won the tournament: shockingly defeating Naito in the first round, forcing a referee stoppage in the second round against Ibushi, submitting Sanada and finally tapping out Tanahashi, who had recently returned from his knee injury. Before the tournament ever began, ZSJ had already claimed that he would call out Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

Strong Style Evolved would be the company’s return to the United States and would host, arguably, the biggest tag team dream match in NJPW history. In the main event, the Golden Lovers defeated The Young Bucks in an over 40-minute classic match. Omega and Nick Jackson would shake hands, but when Omega kneeled down next to Matt Jackson, Matt refused the embrace and walked away in disgust.

When the calendar turned to April, Sakura Genesis would be the night that Okada looked to tie his title defense record at 12 against the New Japan Cup winner Zack Sabre Jr. Okada would be twisted and beaten by Sabre for several minutes, but just like for the past two years, Okada would prevail and retain the world title. After the match the previous record holder, Tanahashi would come out and challenge Okada. “If you want to break the record, you have to go through me.”

New Japan would help ROH put together its biggest event in history during WrestleMania weekend: SuperCard of Honor. The most anticipated match would feature “The Elite” exploding as Cody and Kenny Omega finally faced each other one on one. Lost in the shuffle of this issue would be where everyone else in The Elite aligned themselves. Backstage, The Young Bucks paced in front of a monitor. When the referee was knocked down, the Bucks rushed the ring and teased super kicking both men, until it finally seemed that they had locked their eyes on Cody. The Bucks went to super kick Cody, but he dodged the kicks and the Bucks nailed Omega by accident, allowing “The American Nightmare” to win. The roles would now be reversed as Omega would now be the one leaving in frustration over The Bucks’ actions, ignoring all attempts at handshakes. Cody would claim that “Bullet Club is fine and Bullet Club is mine.”

On the road to Wrestling Dontaku, Tetsuya Naito would help complete a one-night clean sweep of victories for LIJ over Suzuki Gun by defeating Minoru Suzuki and winning the Intercontinental Championship. There would still be one man left on Naito’s radar that he would have to encounter sooner than he would anticipate.

At Wrestling Dontaku in May, NJPW would pit Bullet Club vs .Bullet Club when The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll would square off with Bad Luck Fale and Guerillas of Destiny for the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Titles. The newly dubbed “Super Villains” would win the titles over their fellow stablemates. Tension began to rise amongst the other members of Bullet Club towards The Elite. In the main event, Okada defeated Tanahashi and broke the record for most successful world title defenses.

As summer rapidly approached, Okada listed the names of the men he had defeated, but revealed that there was still one man that bothered him the most: Omega. Okada won at Wrestle Kingdom 2017, they went to a 60-minute time limit draw at Dominion 2017 and Omega finally defeated Okada during the round robin tournament of the G1. Okada needed to win the series against Omega to prove once and for all who the better man was. Okada would lay out the challenge for the title match at Dominion to Omega on the condition that it would be 2 out of 3 falls. Omega would counter offer with making the match “no time limits, there must be a winner.” Okada accepted.

During the Dominion event, many newsworthy events would take place. The Young Bucks defeated Evil and Sanada to win the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, cementing their spots as heavyweights in NJPW. Hiromu Takahashi (winner of the previous month’s Best of Super Jr. Tournament) would defeat Will Ospreay to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. Chris Jericho, fresh off of an attack on Naito a month before, would defeat him to win the Intercontinental Championship, becoming the only man to win an Intercontinental Championship in two different promotions (NJPW and WWE).

In the main event of the evening, fans would witness what has been called the greatest match in professional wrestling history. Omega defeated Okada after 65 minutes of war to finally win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. As tradition, NJPW officials would present the championship to the new champion; however, Omega pushed the title to the side and embraced the Young Bucks to finally squash their beef. Ibushi, Omega and The Bucks would end the show becoming “The Golden Elite” of wrestling. During the championship celebration, Cody would be shown on the stage staring at the events in the ring. He couldn’t bring himself to congratulate Omega on the victory and also couldn’t bring himself to ruin his moment either.

Meanwhile, Cody had the opportunity to win three separate world championships from three different promotions. He had an NWA World Heavyweight Title match scheduled for his self-promoted event ALL IN, a ROH World Title shot in late June at Best in The World and a shot at the IWGP World Championship against new champion Kenny Omega during the G1 Special in San Francisco.

During the G1 Special, the Guerillas of Destiny would come to the ring for a special 10-man tag team match to open the show alongside Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi and their father, the legendary Haku. It was the first time the sons had teamed with their father and it was something that would never be forgotten. Juice Robinson later in the evening shocked the world when he won the IWGP United States Championship from Jay White. It would be the first major championship Juice would win in New Japan and certainly hushed all critics of his career after making the decision to leave WWE and reinvent his career overseas. This night, though, would take two very seriously bad turns.

While defending his Jr. Heavyweight Championship in a match against Dragon Lee, Hiromu Takahashi would sustain a serious neck injury when falling due to a botched maneuver. Hiromu would retain the title during the match, but sadly, has not wrestled again since the injury occurred. Many fans await his return in 2019, but management would have to react according beforehand and strip him of the Jr. Heavyweight crown.

In the main event, Omega would spoil Cody’s title aspirations. After the match, a heartbroken Cody left the ringside area and Omega was joined by The Young Bucks in celebration. Haku and Guerillas of Destiny – Bullet Club stablemates – joined The Elite as well. Then, Tama Tonga attacked Omega from behind and the GOD and Haku laid out The Elite. Cody would return down to ringside and seemingly join the GOD in the beat down, only to turn the chair shots on them. The G1 Special went off the air with Bullet Club laid out and Cody and Kenny reaching out to each other for comfort.

Then the annual G1 Tournament was ready to begin with the field of 20 men set. Newcomers to the group this year included Page and “Switchblade,” while previous winners like Omega, Hiroki Goto, Naito and Okada looked to punch their tickets once again to Wrestle Kingdom 2019. The tournament began with shockers and didn’t stop: White defeated Okada using every underhanded tactic possible. Omega defeated Naito in the 2017 tournament finals rematch, beginning an impressive run that was halted by Tomohiro Ishii. On the A-block side, Okada and Tanahashi went to a time-limit draw, with the advantage going to Tanahashi, having only lost one match the whole tournament (Jay White). The B-block side came down to the Golden Lovers as Ibushi beat his best friend Kenny Omega.

On the undercard of the final night of the tournament, the battle of the “Bullet Club” raged on as the GOD won the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championships from The Young Bucks and Marty Scurll. While a major setback for Matt and Nick Jackson, they still had the Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in their possession. In the main event, Tanahashi went on to win the G1 Tournament, guaranteeing him a main event spot at Wrestle Kingdom.

Before the Destruction Tour, New Japan officials would have to make a decision on what to do with the newly stripped IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship due to Takahashi’s injury. A four-man mini tournament would be announced to crown a new champion including all former champions in Kushida, Scurll, Ospreay and Bushi. Scurll and Ospreay were set to face each other when NJPW returned to the United States, but first Kushida and Bushi would face off during the Destruction Tour.

The defending IWGP Heavyweight Champion Omega would have to cross paths again with a man who defeated him in the G1 Tournament, Tomohiro Ishii. Omega would take one of the worst beatings of his career in the match, but somehow retained the championship. On night 2 of the tour, Naito defeated Suzuki for the second time of the year in their rematch. However, the second night would be remembered for the upset in the NEVER Openweight Championship match when Taichi defeated Hiroki Goto to win the title.

Night 3 would host the first semifinal match in the Jr. Heavyweight Title tournament and would see Kushida advance and defeat Bushi. Tanahashi would also get exactly what he wanted and defeat Okada to retain the briefcase. As he celebrated his victory, another challenger would step up and attack him: Jay White. Just as Okada began to recover and see the events taking place, he would step up into the face of “Switchblade” and seek his own revenge. Then, Okada got stabbed in the back (figuratively) by his mentor and manager, Gedo. Jay White and Gedo ended the show having united, leaving the “CHAOS” faction in just that, chaos.

New Japan’s return to the United States would come in October with an event called Fighting Spirit Unleashed. This night would feature many significant moments to set up the rest of the year including Scurll defeating Ospreay in the semifinal of the Jr. Heavyweight Title tournament, Cody would defeat Juice Robinson to capture the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, GOD would defeat the Young Bucks to win the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships and the Golden Lovers would defeat Ishii and Okada in the main event. During the closing moments of this show, Omega would do the same thing that Tanahashi did months earlier in his road to Wrestle Kingdom. He would challenge his partner Ibushi to another match to avenge the loss from the G1. What Kenny didn’t anticipate would be that Cody would insert himself into the mix and suggest a triple threat match for the championship.

In late October at King of Pro Wrestling, a match was set up between Evil and Zack Sabre Jr. after much issue between the two and Evil having not been able to beat Sabre in all previous meetings. However, the match would not take place. As Evil and his masked disciples made their way to the ring, a masked man attacked Evil. That man would reveal himself to be the returning Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho.

In other matches for the evening, Kushida would cement his legacy as one of the best Jr. Heavyweights of all time by defeating Scurll and winning the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. He now is set to defend the title against Bullet Club member Taiji Ishimori on January 4th.

Tanahashi would retain his main event spot defeating “Switchblade” Jay White, but White would have the final laugh. Once again, alongside Gedo, he attacked Tanahashi after the match. Okada would run down to help stop the attack, but when he and Gedo came to a standoff in the ring, Bullet Club members Ishimori, GOD and Bad Luck Fale would come to ringside and attack Okada. Jay White and Gedo would join Bullet Club and the new “Cutthroat Era” would begin in New Japan. “Switchblade” and “The Rainmaker” are now set for a grudge match one year in the making at Wrestle Kingdom.

In the main event, Omega would retain the championship in the triple threat match. He would be met at the end of the night by Tanahashi, his opponent in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom.

Power Struggle would be the beginning of the final few events left to secure a spot on the Wrestle Kingdom card. The show would feature a three-way tag team match to determine the winners of the Super Jr. Tag League tournament and for the second straight year, Roppongi 3k (Sho and Yo) would win and earn a title shot on January 4th in the Tokyo Dome.

Meanwhile, Ospreay was announced for the show to receive a shot at the NEVER Openweight Championship against Taichi. A bad rib injury during an independent wrestling show would cause Ospreay to miss the show and the title shot would be given to Hiroki Goto with what turned into his rematch. Goto wouldn’t let Taichi’s tactics come into play again and Goto would recapture the NEVER Openweight title and immediately promise that Ospreay has a title shot once he returns.

Chris Jericho would defeat Evil to retain the Intercontinental Championship in the main event. He would continue the attack on Evil with a post-match beat down that only got stopped once Evil’s stablemate in Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ), Naito would come down. Jericho would retreat and Naito would demand that Jericho give him a rematch for the title. New Japan officials have made the match official for the Tokyo Dome. Both men in the build-up for the match have promised that neither man will ever be the same again.

The final show in the build to Wrestle Kingdom was the conclusion of the World Tag League tournament. For the second straight year, the tournament finals would come down to the defending Heavyweight Tag Team Champions GOD and last year’s winners Evil and Sanada. GOD would fall once again to Evil and Sanada and would guarantee that the two teams from Bullet Club and LIJ would meet again at Wrestle Kingdom. One other team stepped up last minute to put their names on the list for the match. The Young Bucks would come down and remind everyone that they had a contractually obligated rematch for the titles they lost. Rather than wait for the winners after Wrestle Kingdom, Matt and Nick Jackson thought it would just be best to make it a triple threat for the title.

Ibushi would be scheduled to face off with Goto for the NEVER Openweight Championship, while a returning Ospreay would be made to earn his title shot by facing off with Taichi in the originally cancelled match from Power Struggle. Ospreay would punch his ticket defeating Taichi while Ibushi would win the championship from Goto. As Ibushi would celebrate his victory with his partner and best friend Omega, Ospreay would enter the ring and stare down the new champion. Both men shook hands showing respect for one another, but the respect is out the window when they open the show for Wrestle Kingdom in what will be a much talked about dream match.

The stage is now set for January 4th at the Tokyo Dome. Many championship battles set to take place including Ibushi and Ospreay, Ishimori and Kushida, a triple threat for the Heavyweight Tag Team Championships, amongst others. A triple main event will take place as “Switchblade” looks to complete his promise from last year’s press conference to take out Okada. Naito looks to reclaim the Intercontinental Championship and send Jericho back to WWE. Finally, Tanahashi looks to climb the mountain once again against a man who future is indeed in question, Omega.

This will likely be one of the most exciting shows of 2019. Granted it is the first major show of 2019, but one has to predict that this will set the tone for the year to come and likely be very hard to upstage for the remainder of the year.