NJPW ‘Wrestle Kingdom’ Recap: Sasha Banks Debuts, Okada Wins World Title
Sasha Banks is back. And she is going by a new name.
Now known as Mercedes Moné, she attacked Kairi during New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event at the Tokyo Dome. Kairi—who wrestled in WWE as Kairi Sane—is the reigning IWGP women’s champion, and Moné will challenge for the belt next month at New Japan’s Battle in the Valley card in San Jose.
Banks performing outside WWE is a major deal. She will wrestle in NJPW and its partner women’s promotion Stardom, and the possibility exists she also could work for AEW. While it is somewhat of a surprise that she did not come to terms with WWE now that Paul “Triple H” Levesque is overseeing talent and creative, the split was a long time coming since Banks walked out in May over creative differences. She now has the opportunity to work matches across the globe, and to do so in her very distinct manner without any interference from her former employer.
Wrestle Kingdom 17 also saw Kazuchika Okada defeat “Switchblade” Jay White to regain the IWGP world heavyweight championship. This marks his second run with the title, and he was also a five-time title holder of the now defunct IWGP heavyweight title. But the match of the night occurred right before the main event, as Kenny Omega defeated Will Ospreay in a phenomenal bout.
Omega-Ospreay was an instant classic. Clearly both men had a lot to prove. Omega, who had not worked Wrestle Kingdom in four years, wanted to show that he could still steal the show at the Tokyo Dome—and Ospreay is still aiming to prove he is a world-class, main-event talent. Those objectives were met, even surpassed, at Wrestle Kingdom, in a match where Omega crowned himself the new IWGP United States champion. This is his first reign with the title since he was the inaugural champion in 2017.
Other results included Zack Sabre Jr. defeating Ren Narita to become the first NJPW television champion. FTR lost the IWGP tag titles to Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi, a disappointing end to their run of holding multiple titles from multiple companies. WWE’s Karl Anderson returned to work Wrestle Kingdom, losing the NEVER openweight title to former Bullet Club partner Tama Tonga. This was the plan for the show as recently as June, but it was quickly thrown into flux when Anderson re-signed with WWE. The fact that Anderson was allowed to return and drop the title at Wrestle Kingdom could serve as a significant building block in the relationship between WWE and NJPW.
In his final match for the company, the great Keiji Muto teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shota Umino to win a six-man tag against Los Ingobernables de Japon’s Tetsuya Naito, Sanada and Bushi. Hiromu Takahashi also won the IWGP junior heavyweight title for a fifth time in a four-way that included Taiji Ishimori, El Desperado and Master Wato.
The show was held in honor of the memory of company founder Antonio Inoki. Six legends combined to work the Antonio Inoki Memorial six-man tag, a match where Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima and Togi Makabe defeated Tatsumi Fujinami, Minoru Suzuki and Tiger Mask.
Justin Barrasso can be reached at JBarrasso@gmail.com. Follow him on Twitter @JustinBarrasso.
