Wrestle Kingdom 17 in Yokohama Arena notes: Okada/Kiyomiya, Kongo vs. LIJ

Here are notes from Saturday morning’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 event, held at Yokohama Arena, featuring talent from both NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH.

The top five matches on the card featured a best of five series between NJPW’s Los Ingobernables de Japon stable and NOAH’s Kongo stable. In the end, LIJ emerged victorious, with Tetsuya Naito emerging victorious over Kenoh in the deciding match following a destino. The show ended with Keiji Mutoh challenging Naito to what will be his final match at the Tokyo Dome on February 21. Naito said he’d clear his schedule.

Other matches in the series had Tadasuke defeat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi defeat Hajime Ohara, Manabu Soya defeat SANADA, and Shingo Takagi defeating Katsuhiko Nakajima.

Backstage, GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Amakusa challenged the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi to a match. Takahashi accepted, setting up a potential match between the two champions.

A match between the IWGP World Champion and GHC Champion also seems to be in the cards based on an angle that took place during the show’s undercard. A multi-man bout that featured champions Kazuchika Okada and Kaito Kiyomiya ended in a no contest after Kiyomiya kicked Okada flush in the face while attempting to stop a submission. An enraged Okada took out Kiyomiya and the two fought on the outside, with the referee eventually throwing out the match. Later backstage, Kiyomiya issued a challenge to Okada.