Sound Off EXTRA - Wrestle Kingdom 20 And The EPIC FINALE For Hiroshi Tanahashi
Solomonster Sounds Off
The Solomonster
4.8 • 1.7K Ratings
🗓️ 5 January 2026
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
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Solomonster reacts to NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 at the Tokyo Dome and FOUR of the key matches on the show, including the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi against Kazuchika Okada, the greatest retirement ceremony ever with some big cameos (and a big name missing)... the crowning of a NEW IWGP World champion and the return of the greatest belt in wrestling... the debut of Aaron Wolf and the New Japan star who could be on his way out of the company.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey guys, Salomonster here with a sound-off extra for wrestle kingdom 20, the end of one era and the |
| 0:08.2 | start of another for New Japan Pro Wrestling with the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi, but also the |
| 0:14.9 | crowning of a new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion in Yotasuzzi and the debut of Wolfe. And if you are new Japan, you have to be |
| 0:23.5 | ecstatic right now because as debuts go, I don't think that one could have gone any better than it did. |
| 0:30.0 | They announced the attendance as 46,913, which is the first pro wrestling sellout out the Tokyo Dome in decades since Antonio |
| 0:39.7 | Winochi's retirement in 1998. |
| 0:42.3 | And you could thank Tanoashi for the house, because without that final match, they don't |
| 0:46.5 | get anywhere close to that for this card. |
| 0:49.1 | You know, on paper, it was a weaker Tokyo Dome card than most, but the key matches all delivered. And I really just |
| 0:56.7 | wanted to see four matches. The women's match, which was a double title match, the Wolf |
| 1:02.6 | debut, the double title match with Takeshita and Suji, and the main event. So I can't comment on |
| 1:08.8 | anything else because I haven't watched it yet. |
| 1:15.8 | The main event was everything that is great about pro wrestling. You know, you have two old rivals clashing for one final battle, one of the greatest in ring rivalries in wrestling history. |
| 1:24.3 | You will be hard pressed to find two men that have had as many big matches as these |
| 1:28.2 | two have had that were of the quality that they had. The other two that come to mind would be |
| 1:34.4 | Okada and Kenny Omega. So Okada was the perfect opponent to give Tanahashi the best possible match. |
| 1:41.2 | And Tanahashi, you know, he more than held up his end, even with the bad knees. |
| 1:44.7 | They had a great match. It was a great story. Great drama with 50,000 people invested in everything |
| 1:51.1 | that they did. And yet, Tanahashi giving it everything he had until the final rainmaker put |
| 1:56.6 | him down for good. And then an hour-long retirement ceremony, an hour this went. That is legitimately |
| 2:04.9 | the greatest wrestling retirement ceremony that I have ever seen. Right down to the parade float |
| 2:10.6 | that they had Tanahashi on going around the Tokyo Dome so he could say goodbye to every fan in every |
... |
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