In the world of Professional Wrestling, hundreds of matches come and go every year. While many enter and leave our consciousness with little more than a fleeting comment, sometimes they deserve a closer look. Welcome to Sheldon’s Study, the place in which matches past and present are broken down and dissected. Here we discuss the how, what and why of a given bout and bring a critical, analytical eye to the medium we love!
January 4th, 2026 sees the final outing of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s ace, as Hiroshi Tanahashi takes his final bow against longtime rival Kazuchika Okada! As we count down to Tanahashi’s final Wrestle Kingdom I thought it fitting to begin this series by travelling back 19 years to his first. Join me as I break down his clash for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against All Japan’s Hawaiian Tornado Taiyo Kea!
The Context:
Many don’t know that the first Wrestle Kingdom was actually promoted as a collaboration between New Japan and All Japan Pro Wrestling. As a result, every match (excluding the main event) saw the best of each promotion face each other for supremacy.
Tanahashi entered the show in the midst of his first run with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, having won the vacant title in a tournament in July 2006. It was expected that Tanahashi’s coronation would come by dethroning former champion Brock Lesnar, but intense contract disputes and backstage clashes prevented the match from taking place. Tanahashi instead toppled fellow WWE Alumni Giant Bernard (better known to Western Fans as Albert, A Train or lest we forget Lord Tensai) for the strap.
Succesful defences over Hiroyoshi Tenzan and a young Shinsuke Nakamura carried Tanahashi into the show with a wave of momentum, which he looked to capitalise on by felling another worthy foe.
His opponent on the night was All Japan’s Taiyō Kea, former football player from Hawaii who, in 2006, had also claimed his company’s top prize. Kea, who debuted under promoter Giant Baba, saw his push ended by new head Mitsuharu Misawa following Baba’s passing in 1999. When Misawa led a talent exodus to form Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000, All Japan’s roster was decimated and those who stayed were gifted strong pushes out of a combination of loyalty and necessity. Kea found home at the top of the tag division, but it took six more years to win his first Triple Crown, besting Satoshi Kojima and ending his 15-month run with the gold. He would successfully defend the belt just once however before losing it to Minoru Suzuki.
Kea therefore came into Wrestle Kingdom seeking a return to the top of the mountain, eyeing the prestigous prize around Tanahashi’s waist as a chance to prove his last coronation was not a fluke.
The Match:
(This match is available to watch on NJPW’s Streaming Service NJPW World)
This is a prototypical underdog match, one you’d honestly expect to see more in the West than the East. Kea has the clear height and power advantage over Tanahashi from the get go, powering the ace to the ropes from the first lock up. When Tanahashi seizes the advantage he slaps Kea, demonstrating his defiant streak and angering the Tornado. The early stages are largely even, though Kea lands a few nasty kicks that look particularly snug, including one directly to the back of Tanahashi’s head.
Tanahashi brings Kea to the outside, but Kea dodges the slingshot crossbody, snaps Tanahashi with a superkick, and drives him into the exposed concrete with a brutal Michinoku Driver Tanahashi beats the count, but runs straight into Kea, who begins an extended beatdown. Kea wears him down with a suplex, backbreaker and sit out lariat, while also beginning to target the leg and back, though this doesn’t play as much of a role as it could in the final stages. Tanahashi mounts a brief flurry, but Kea quickly regains control with a superplex and a nasty elevated powerbomb. Even with a stacked pin, however, it isn’t enough to put the ace away.
Kea lifts Tanahashi up for his TKO finisher (somewhere between an AA and Jackhammer), but Tanahashi wriggles free and start his comeback, hitting a flying elbow to take the big man down. Kea tries to dump him out, but Tanahashi skins the cat instead, ducking a lariat and nailing a crucial slingblade. He follows up with a top rope missile dropkick, a kick to the back of Kea’s head (a mirror of Kea’s earlier strike) and a German suplex for a 2 count.
After an exchange of reversals, Kea gets the better of Tanahashi with a clothesline/russian leg sweep combination for 2. He corners Tanahashi with strikes, a running elbow and a vicious lariat for a close near fall, followed by a brain buster for another near fall. Tanahashi fires back with a flurry, but Kea cuts him off again, reversing the hip toss into a DDT.
Tanahashi again reverses the TKO into a front headlock elbow drop and hits a twisting suplex. Kea nails a back suplex, Tanahashi powers up, and Kea answers by planting him squarely on his head with a disgusting cobra clutch suplex. The two exchange strikes and head kicks, with Kea coming out the victor, stunning Tanahashi long enough to get him up for a TKO for a 1…2…TANAHASHI KICKS OUT.
Big reaction from the crowd! Kea tries a sit-out powerbomb which is still not enough. Kea goes for a cobra clutch but Tanahashi reverses into an arm trapped German suplex. Though Kea kicks out, Tana is right back up for a Dragon Suplex into the High Fly Flow to pick up the win and retain the title.
The Verdict:
For a wrestler as special as Tanahashi, his first Wrestle Kingdom outing feels surprisingly conventional, following a familiar formula: the babyface absorbs punishment for most of the match before stringing together his signature offense for the win. Kea’s intensity and Tanahashi’s excellence at working underneath elevate the structure, but it remains a match built from ideas we have seen many times before. Fundamentally, however, the match is pretty impeccable with no botches to speak of and the crowd is very much into Tanahashi, particularly towards the end.
I think the issue preventing this match from achieving a higher status, beyond it’s familiarity, is the lack of personal dynamic. It is possible for an interpromotional, first time ever match to achieve acclaim in spite of this (Samoa Joe and Kenta Kobashi come to mind), but in order to pull it off the wrestlers need to overcompensate with exceptional ring work. Here, while the styles of both men are complementary (power vs pluckiness), they aren’t anything new and play like a good rendition of an old school hit.
The match does miss some of the more compelling back and forth psychology we come to expect from Tanahashi’s later matches at the Tokyo Dome, falling into a repetitive structure of a big Kea move followed by a Tanahashi kick out, rinse and repeat. The one clear through line from a psychology perspective is Tanahashi escaping the TKO, which makes the resulting near-fall when Kea finally hits it far more impactful. The downside to the predictability however is that once this arc has been payed off, wrestling logic dictates that the comeback must come, further emphasising and telegraphing the final result. Because of this Kea comes across a little as a routine, flavour of the month Tanahashi defence, much like Hogan would often face in his heyday, impressing with his offence and powering around the champion but never quite convincing as a legitimate threat to their title.
This is a good match, and an entertaining defence, showing off Kea’s wrestling prowess excellently, but it’s predictability sadly comes to bite it when ranking it against his other defences on the biggest stage. A very enjoyable clash in the moment, but not one that I will be endlessly revisiting.
Rating:
Fundamentals- 1
Atmosphere- 0.75
Psychology- 0.75
Storytelling- 0.75
Innovation- 0.5
WR Star Rating- 3.75 Stars
But what do you think? Let me know if you’ve seen the match, what you thought, or what other matches you’d like to see enter Sheldon’s Study!
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Photo Credit: New Japan Pro Wrestling
