January 4 2007 saw the Wrestle Kingdom tradition begin
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After 15 years of January 4 events with different titles, it was January 4 2007 that started a brand new tradition. With the world’s eyes now converging on the Tokyo Dome every year and NJPW setting forth into a brave new era after a trying period, it seemed fitting that New Japan prepare to conquer, and that its domain be known as Wrestle Kingdom.
The first Wrestle Kingdom was themed around NJPW being tested by the best from All Japan Pro-Wrestling. The then All Japan affiliated Minoru Suzuki had an intense battle with Yuji Nagata over Suzuki’s Triple Crown Championship, while Taiyo Kea would challenge IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. The future ace had captured the IWGP gold earlier in the summer, defeating Giant Bernard in an impromptu tournament. As NJPW struggled through the mid 2000s, Tanahashi also found difficulty in courting the support of the fans, but as he defended home turf against the All Japan competition that Kea presented, the crowd chanted for Tanahashi as he set to his larger opponent, finally coming out on top with the High Fly Flow.
As Tanahashi defended IWGP gold against AJPW’s Kea, Minoru Suzuki, mainly plying his trade for All Japan at the time, would take on New Japan’s Yuji Nagata. Nagata and Suzuki would be a rivalry that played out over several of the ensuing Wrestle Kingdoms, and started in violent form at Wrestle Kingdom 1. With the ringpost and a steel chair involved, both combatants would be bloodied. Nagata, no stranger to bleeding at the Tokyo Dome, called on the same fighting spirit that brought him success against Kensuke Sasaki three years earlier, and kicked out of the Gotch Style Piledriver when Suzuki was slow to make a cover. Ultimately though, the rear naked choke would see Nagata slip into unconsciousness, and Suzuki survive with the Triple Crown.
Six years after Kensuke Sasaki did battle with Toshiaki Kawada in an iconic New versus All Japan clash that was the meeting point of NJPW’s Strong Style and AJPW’s King’s Road, the first Wrestle Kingdom saw Kawada face the man that would be billed King of Strong Style in years to come, Shinsuke Nakamura. Still in the midst of finding a new direction for himself in the wake of a meteoric early career rise to his first IWGP Championship aged just 23, Nakamura certainly wrestled Kawada according to the reputation Strong Style carried. Straightforward aggression would be met by steely defiance and tenacity from ‘Dangerous K’, who stuck through the onslaught of his New Japan foe and late in the match blasted Shinsuke as he dropped his head for a takedown, a knockout kick to the head earning victory.
Yet at the top of the card, for the last time that a non-title match headlined on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome, was something very different. What could arguably be called the second and third generations of New Japan Pro-Wrestling met in an all-star tag match, with Masahiro Chono and Keiji Muto battled Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan.
This in itself was an AJPW and NJPW meeting; Muto and Kojima had both caused controversy and a rift with their partners when they left new Japan for All Japan at the turn of the millennium. But their bonds with their partners ran deep. TenCozy were back together after a fierce rivalry, and Chono and Muto resembled two-thirds of the original Three Musketeers of the Fighting Spirit.
One member was missing from the scene. Still with much to contribute to the wrestling world, Shinya Hashimoto had passed away at the age of 40 in 2005. As he, Muto and Chono reunited in spirit, the surviving members of the Three musketeers engaged in an emotional tribute to close a historically important night.
