Wrestle Kingdom 14: Night 1 Predictions

Pre Show: NJPW Dads vs. Young Lions

8 Man Tag Match: Great Bash Heel (Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe), Yuya Uemura and Yota Tsuji vs. Toa Henare, Alex Coughlin, Clark Connors, and Karl Fredricks

Despite a power-packed two days, there is no doubt that NJPW has a deep pool of wrestlers allowing for big pre-show contests. With the mentality to get everyone on the card and with a lack of day 1 title matches to fill spots, NJPW is pulling out the NJPW Dads and Japanese Young Lions against the International Young Lions for the pre-show.

With Toa Henare having been a bust in World Tag League while Fredricks gained real clout with the Young Lions Cup victory, it is the perfect time to have the International Young Lions go over huge. However, with Henare in limbo between the rookies and his persona, this has the potential for an intriguing storyline development.

The evolution of Henare has gone through his mentorship under Togi Makabe and with it the return of Tomoaki Honma, in the past year. A wrinkle could be the victory of the NJPW Dad's team of GBH to send Henare eventually spiraling against them or his partners, with this turn most likely for the New Years Dash rather than the pre-show, which will just prolong it.

Result: Togi Makabe takes the International rookies down in a somewhat plodding match to give the New Japan Dads the first win

Edited by Michael McClead