Chris Jericho and Hiroshi Tanahashi clashed on the second night of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 in what was billed as a special singles match. Jericho was introduced as the AEW World Champion and he wore the title to the ring during his entrance. The stipulation for this match was that Tanahashi would get an AEW title shot if he could beat Jericho.
They brawled around the ringside area in the opening minutes of the match. This included Jericho delivering a DDT on the English announcer’s table and the table didn’t break. There were sound issues that made the crowd hard to hear so that took away from the match for a few minutes until they fixed it. Apparently, Jericho took out the audio for the announcers because there was no commentary after the table spot for a few minutes.
Late in the match, Jericho was able to lock in the Lion Tamer and it looked bad for Tanahashi but Tanahashi was able to fight his way out of it and he turned himself out of it. Tanahashi fought back with a sling blade. Tanahashi went for a body press off the top but Jericho caught him with the Code Breaker out of nowhere but Tanahashi kicked out of the pin attempt. Tanahashi ducked the Judas Effect and hit his own Code Breaker. Tanahashi went for the sling blade but Jericho countered with a lion tamer attempt but Tanahashi reversed into a cradle pin attempt. Tanahashi hit the sling blade and almost pinned Jericho. Tanahashi hit a flying body press off the top but Jericho rolled through and turned him around into a high angle lion tamer. Jericho’s mouth was busted open. Tanahashi tapped out to the lion tamer.
Click here for complete results from NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14.
