There are four title matches closing out Night One.
TOMOHIRO ISHII vs. EVIL
NEVER Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii is a pillar of the NEVER division. Ishii won his sixth championship, more than anyone else in the history of the belt, this past November at NJPW Battle In The Valley in San Jose. Before that, he was one-third of the longest reigning NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champions ever, holding the titles for 454 days and defending them 9 times alongside Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI.
It was EVIL that ended their record-breaking reign, and he looks to end another of Ishii’s record-breaking reigns on January 4th. Where there is one House of Torture member, there are usually others lurking in the wings.
TAICHI & ZACK SABRE JR. vs. HIROOKI GOTO & YOSHI-HASHI
Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. had a serious 2021. While they started the year losing the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, their feud with Tetsuya Naito & SANADA lit Japan on fire, culminating in a spectacular 40-min match at Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome. A dominant showing in World Tag League, as well as good singles outings in the G1 Climax, and even an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match for Zack Sabre Jr. cemented the team’s status as serious contenders within and without the tag division. They capped off 2021 by winning the Tokyo Sports Best Tag Team Award.
Their opponents also had a magnificent 2021. Two-thirds of the previously mentioned NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Championship team that carried the trios belts for over a year, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI became an impressive team, raising the stock of plucky underdog YOSHI-HASHI in the process. The new tandem brought a new fire to the rudderless Hirooki Goto, who won his first World Tag League since 2014 alongside YOSHI-HASHI to close out the year.
Both teams have a lot to prove to the fans, and to themselves. Dangerous Tekkers have seemingly shed the label of “singles stars, thrust into a tag team,” and are out to prove that their reign is no fluke. They won the titles in the Tokyo Dome, and in the Tokyo Dome they seek to defend them.
Hirooki Goto has always been, for lack of a better term, always the bridesmaid and never the bride. A standout talent who had the misfortune of coming up in NJPW alongside Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada. Many an NJPW star has been built at the expense of Hirooki Goto, despite holding almost every single title in NJPW besides the IWGP Heavyweight. It was the tag division where Goto found the most success, alongside folks like Ishii, Karl Anderson, and Katsuyori Shibata. Now he’s found himself back in the tag title hunt, and the argument can be made its a place where Goto is most deadly.
YOSHI-HASHI probably has the most to prove of all four men. He’s only won a single Wrestle Kingdom match in his career, ending up on the winning side of an eight-man tag match. Otherwise, he’s been a non-entity in the Tokyo Dome. After a year that saw him make history in his first ever title reign in NJPW, as well as his first tournament win in NJPW, the sentimental favorite is heading into the Tokyo Dome with a lot of momentum, and a lot to prove.
EL DESPERADO vs. HIROMU TAKAHASHI
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Desperado has been entangled with Best of Super Juniors winner Hiromu Takahashi since Takahashi’s debut. Both members of the NJPW Dojo Class of 2010, Desperado defeated Takahashi in Takahashi’s debut match on August 24th, 2010. They developed a passionate rivalry in the dojo, but then passed like ships in the night on excursion. Desperado was sent to CMLL in Mexico from 2012-2013, while Takahashi was sent over in 2014.
By 2016, both men were back in NJPW and proving themselves as breakout talents in the Junior Heavyweight Division, with Hiromu breaking out earlier than Desperado. Desperado quietly watched as Takahashi won title after title, Super Junior tournament after Super Junior tournament. He watched Hiromu ascend to the top of the division like an angel, beloved by all.
Desperado would challenge Hiromu for titles often, be it the Junior Heavyweight or Junior Heavyweight Tag Championships. Challenges came in the form of everything from professions of love to bouquets of flowers, but rarely could he ever get the job done. The love-hate relationship between the two hit a fever pitch in the finals of the 2020 Best of Super Junior tournament. In a brutal, blistering match that saw El Desperado ripping off his own mask, showing Hiromu the face of the man that beat him in his debut, Desperado wrestled the angel, but he could not overcome him. Hiromu triumphed over Desperado that night, and went on to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship in the Tokyo Dome.
When Hiromu suffered a pectoral injury in February, El Desperado swooped in, winning the vacant championship, and even challenging Kota Ibushi for the final IWGP Heavyweight Championship defense in the history of the belt. Now, Desperado heads into the Tokyo Dome as the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion. Where he once watched Hiromu rise up the ranks, he is now the only obstacle between Hiromu and the top of the mountain; the only man that stands between Hiromu and his ascent. El Desperado is going to make Hiromu Takahashi climb a mountain of swords with his bare feet to reach to that pinnacle.
SHINGO TAKAGI vs. KAZUCHIKA OKADA
In Greek mythology, Atlas carrying the world on his back was a punishment, a joyless responsibility with immense stakes. No one understands that more than Shingo Takagi. The man has carried NJPW on his back since Will Ospreay’s injury in May, to the point where Tokyo Sports lauded him with their MVP of 2021 award, and how does NJPW repay him? The IWGP World Heavyweight Champion must run the gauntlet through two men carrying world title belts that they ordered from the NJPW Tokon Shop.
The first of Shingo’s challengers, Kazuchika Okada is currently the boy king of NJPW. What he wants, he gets. Okada asks for a new trophy called KOPW, and now its on its third year. Okada asks for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt to represent his G1 Climax victory over Kota Ibushi, and Okada has it over his shoulder less than a week later. There is no better symbol for the “past vs. present” mentality of this match than these men’s championships.
There was a time when Okada, like Shingo, was the one carrying NJPW on his back, while fans clamored for the Kenny Omegas and Tetsuya Naitos of the world, Okada was the constant, the stalwart. No disrespect to Hiroshi Tanahashi, but Okada has been the real Ace of the promotion since about 2016, and he did so with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship that he’s carrying into the Tokyo Dome on January 4th.
Shingo Takagi has rightfully called out Okada for living in the past. Okada hasn’t held a legitimate world title since 2020, and in the years since the new IWGP World Heavyweight Championship has taken the place of Okada’s beloved IWGP Heavyweight Title, and in that way, so have the Ospreays, Ibushis and Takagis of the world.
Takagi defeated Okada on June 7th to begin his current reign, and he looks to do it again in Tokyo Dome to keep that reign alive. It’s possible that Okada finds a way to slay the dragon, and head on to January 5th’s match against Will Ospreay, but it is going to be a motivated Takagi that he faces. It takes more than the rain to put out a dragon’s fire.
