Hiroshi Tanahashi Retires: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 Review
POST Wrestling
POST Wrestling
4.6 • 1.2K Ratings
🗓️ 4 January 2026
⏱️ 174 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Bruce Lord and Karen Peterson review NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 20 in Tokyo Dome, featuring Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada and the retirement of Tanahashi after a twenty-six-year career.
The semi-main event of Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji in a double championship match for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship and IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
Highlighted topics including the impact of live domestic broadcasting on the company’s biggest show on their annual calendar, utilizing various fandom paths to draw in new viewers, the imbalance of ring-time versus length of entrances, inclusion of STARDOM and DDT talents, the EVIL/Wolf group project debrief, the emotional closure of Tanahashi’s career with the parade of old rivals in Jay White, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Katsuyori Shibata, and a returning Tetsuya Naito and cherished mentors in Keiji Muto and Tatsumi Fujinami.
Access all of our NJPW reviews by becoming a member at http://postwrestlingcafe.com
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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20
January 4, 2026
Tokyo Dome
Tokyo
- Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada - Recommended
- IWGP World & IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: Konosuke Takeshita (c) World vs. Yota Tsuji (c) Global - Recommended
- Aaron Wolf Debut/NEVER Openweight Championship: EVIL (c) vs. Aaron Wolf (Debut) - Recommended
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship No. 1 Contender 4-Way: El Desperado, Kosei Fujita, Taiji Ishimori & SHO
- Shingo Takagi, David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Great O’Khan, Callum Newman, HENARE, Andrare El Idolo & Jake Lee
- IWGP & NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship: Syuri (c) IWGP vs. Saya Kamitani (c) STRONG - Recommended
- NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championships Tornado Rambo: TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) & Oleg Boltin vs. BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors, OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) vs. House Of Torture (Ren Narita, SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) vs. Kaisei Takechi, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs. Team 150 (Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii)
- NJPW World TV Championship: El Phantasmo (c) vs. Chris Brookes
- Young Lions Kick-Off: Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | This month at post wrestling cafe.com, go Excel, and you get live editions of Rewind a raw, |
| 0:06.3 | rewind a dynamite, and rewind a Smackdown, featuring all the news of the day, your questions |
| 0:11.1 | and answers, as well as feedback. Post Wrestlingcafe.com. $6 gets you in the door. |
| 0:17.2 | Hello, and welcome to Post Wrestling's review of Russell Kingdom 20, the arguably biggest New Japan Pro Wrestling show since Antonio Noki's retirement on April 4th of 1998, and that's very fitting, as this was, of course, a card featuring the retirement of the most important wrestler in New Japan history since that of its founder. My name is Bruce Lord, |
| 0:39.9 | and it is my duty to introduce you listeners and my co-host, Karen Peterson, to the post Hiroshi |
| 0:45.3 | Tanahashi era of New Japan. Karen, is the sky a bit more overcast? Are the birds a bit more |
| 0:51.8 | silent down there in Florida as we face the prospect |
| 0:54.7 | of an aceless New Japan. It did rain a little bit earlier today. So, you know, the sky is crying. |
| 1:00.7 | I've had a, for those watching on video, you can see I'm a little, still a little splotchy |
| 1:06.8 | after washing my face and putting on a full face of makeup. But yes, it is a new dawn. |
| 1:11.8 | It is a new day. |
| 1:12.5 | It is a new life for a new Japan. |
| 1:14.7 | So we'll see where it goes from here. |
| 1:17.6 | We should note that while this show will be going up on the free post-restling feed, |
| 1:23.2 | John Pollock and Waiting will have a show up for Cafe patrons with their takes on the show. |
| 1:29.3 | So if you want to know what they thought of Aaron Wolf's debut, or if you want even more Jake Lee discourse, if you're a patron over at post wrestling cafe.com, you can get their takes on this show as well. |
| 1:44.4 | We are, of course, here to review Russell Kingdom as well, but it is impossible to not already be looking forward, I think, to the year ahead. |
| 1:52.6 | Yes, this was a show that was very much closing the book on a lengthy chapter and a chapter that has been marked by a lot of high points and low points as well, |
| 2:03.4 | but certainly a lot of high points brought about by Hiroshi Tanahashi. |
| 2:08.0 | I would strongly recommend the piece that John has up on pro wrestling.com titled Wrestling Kingdom 20 |
| 2:14.9 | is the most important show for New Japan's future, in which it wasn't |
| 2:18.8 | so much a preview as it was a contextualization of the stakes of what this show was, what needed |
... |
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