Wrestle Kingdom IV: NOAH Rivalries Give the Tokyo Dome Card Its Best Edge

Super Strong Machine, Wataru Inoue and Mitsuhide Hirasawa defeated Jushin Thunder Liger, Koji Kanemoto and Kazuchika Okada in the 4:59 opener at Wrestle Kingdom IV. The teams connected New Japan's veteran junior-heavyweight history with younger wrestlers still finding their place. Liger and Kanemoto were already established names, while Okada remained years away from becoming a headline heavyweight. The winning trio combined Machine's veteran presence with Inoue and Hirasawa, making the encounter a useful snapshot of the promotion's roster at the beginning of 2010.

The match's limited runtime restricted its ability to develop into a substantial rivalry or high-stakes contest. There was no championship at stake, and the victory belonged to the three-man team rather than one singles wrestler. Okada's later success is a reason the match is interesting in hindsight, not proof that his team won here or that his rise had already happened. The attraction served the straightforward role of opening an event that reserved its major title defenses for later in the night.

Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi, competing as Apollo 55, defeated Averno and Último Guerrero in 9:07 to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom IV. The champions represented New Japan's junior division, while the CMLL challengers added a Mexican style and a genuine international test. Devitt and Taguchi's partnership gave the promotion a recognizable young team capable of holding its own on the Tokyo Dome card. The champions' win kept the belts with Apollo 55 rather than awarding them to the visitors.

The relatively brief match had to establish the challengers' different offense quickly, and its place early on the card prevented an extended main-event structure. It was still an official championship defense, not a showcase without stakes. The junior tag title should be distinguished from the heavyweight tag belts that would change hands in the subsequent three-way encounter. For viewers following Devitt's career before his later singles ascent, the defense is an identifiable point in the development of his successful partnership with Taguchi.

Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi, then known as No Limit, defeated Team 3D and Bad Intentions in a three-way contest to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom IV. Team 3D entered as champions, and Bad Intentions comprised Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson. The combination added a high-profile North American veteran team and another NJPW powerhouse pairing to a three-way hardcore title match featuring the younger No Limit. The win reversed the previous Tokyo Dome title storyline: Team 3D had taken the heavyweight tag belts in 2009 and lost them here in 2010. Naito and Yujiro's win therefore changed the division's leading heavyweight tag lineage rather than providing merely another undercard victory.

The three-team format matters when interpreting the result. Team 3D's loss didn't make the contest a one-on-one fall against Naito, and Bad Intentions were not defending a separate championship. The 13:28 bout was long enough for different team combinations to interact before the title switch. Naito's subsequent singles career gives the match additional historical appeal, but that future prominence must not obscure the actual team achievement he shared with Yujiro in the Tokyo Dome.

TAJIRI and Masato Tanaka defeated Yuji Nagata and Akebono in a 9:37 tag match at Wrestle Kingdom IV. The pairing brought together four wrestlers with markedly different public profiles. TAJIRI was known for striking and an unconventional international career, while Tanaka had long experience in demanding Japanese heavyweight contests. Nagata was one of New Japan's established singles names and Akebono brought an imposing physical presence. That difference made the tag an entertaining clash of styles rather than a conventional encounter between two established regular teams.

There was no IWGP Tag Team Championship on the line, and the match didn't settle a tournament or change the promotion's singles title picture. The winning result belongs to TAJIRI and Tanaka together; it shouldn't be described as a singles defeat for Nagata or Akebono. The short runtime made this primarily a supporting attraction between higher-stakes bouts, but fans interested in unusual team combinations have a clear reason to revisit the result. Its historical identity comes from those four distinctive performers sharing the same match.

Terry Funk, Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono and Manabu Nakanishi defeated Abdullah the Butcher, Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka and Tomohiro Ishii in 8:52 at Wrestle Kingdom IV. The eight-man attraction was built around some of wrestling's most recognizable veterans alongside active New Japan personalities. Funk, Choshu and Chono connected several historical eras to the current roster, while Abdullah gave the opposing group an equally distinctive veteran presence. Yano, Iizuka and Ishii added a more contemporary faction flavor to the spectacle.

The result was a straightforward victory for the four-person team, not a singles win by Funk or an IWGP championship change. An event built around title matches can still benefit from a brief nostalgia-driven encounter, particularly when the names involved offer a connection to wrestling's wider international history. Its limited time didn't allow all eight participants extensive individual exchanges. The strongest archival reason to preserve this match is the actual team composition and the rare pairing of major veterans, not an invented effect on New Japan's heavyweight title standings.

Togi Makabe defeated Muhammad Yone in 5:39 during Wrestle Kingdom IV. The match brought a New Japan heavyweight opposite a visitor closely associated with Pro Wrestling NOAH, adding another element to the evening's interpromotional program. Makabe had already developed a reputation for a rough and physical approach, while Yone supplied an established heavyweight opponent from outside the host company's normal singles rotation. Makabe's victory gave the home promotion a clear result before larger cross-promotional contests followed later in the card.

The short match was not intended to carry the dramatic length of Tanahashi against Shiozaki or Nakamura's IWGP title defense. There was no championship being defended, and the finish didn't determine any tournament advancement. Its value lay in presenting a credible visiting heavyweight in a compact encounter while preserving time for the evening's more consequential programs. For a complete Wrestle Kingdom history, the result deserves recording as one of the card's NOAH–NJPW meetings, though a viewer concentrating on landmark matches can reasonably skip it.

Naomichi Marufuji defeated Tiger Mask IV in 14:14 to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom IV. Marufuji arrived with a strong reputation from NOAH's junior division and heavyweight matches, making his challenge an important interpromotional encounter. Tiger Mask entered as the reigning champion, but Marufuji took the belt to begin a New Japan title reign while still closely linked with a rival promotion. The result was a genuine championship change, unlike many of the surrounding special matches.

The title involved here was the junior heavyweight singles belt, not the GHC Heavyweight Championship that NOAH's Takashi Sugiura would defend against Hirooki Goto later in the night. That distinction matters because the card featured two companies' championship lineages. The roughly fourteen-minute match gave Marufuji a clear title-winning result without requiring the length of the final two main events. For viewers tracing junior division history, it is one of the most consequential results on the show, and a strong choice for a full watch.

Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Go Shiozaki in 19:04 in an interpromotional singles match at Wrestle Kingdom IV. Tanahashi was one of New Japan's most important modern stars, while Shiozaki had become central to NOAH's younger heavyweight generation. Their meeting offered a direct contrast between the two promotions' future-facing wrestlers without attaching either company's leading heavyweight belt. Both possessed the credibility to headline other events, which helped make the pairing a notable special attraction in the upper portion of the Tokyo Dome card.

Tanahashi won the official match, but he wasn't awarded the GHC Heavyweight Championship through the result. Shiozaki's NOAH title history should remain separate from Sugiura's later defense on the same show. Nearly twenty minutes allowed an extended meeting that offered more space for sustained action than the earlier guest appearances. This is valuable viewing for fans interested in how New Japan and NOAH presented their leading talent together, even though its result doesn't belong in either promotion's direct championship lineage.

Takashi Sugiura defeated Hirooki Goto in 20:54 to retain the GHC Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom IV. Sugiura was NOAH's reigning top singles champion, yet the defense took place on a New Japan Tokyo Dome stage against one of the host promotion's established heavyweights. The match therefore represented more than a one-night exchange of visiting performers. Goto had an opportunity to capture a major rival promotion's title, while Sugiura needed to protect NOAH's championship standing in unfamiliar surroundings.

The result was Sugiura's successful defense, not a Goto title victory or a change involving the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The latter belonged to Shinsuke Nakamura and was defended in the following main event against Yoshihiro Takayama. The nearly twenty-one-minute match gave the visiting championship meaningful time and placed it near the climax of the show. For title historians, this is a clear example of NOAH's GHC lineage appearing on another company's biggest stage while remaining under its champion's control.

Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Yoshihiro Takayama in 15:51 to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in the Wrestle Kingdom IV main event. Nakamura was entering an important phase of his New Japan career as leader of a more confrontational heavyweight identity. Takayama's size and long record in demanding Japanese singles matches made him an imposing opponent. The challenge gave Nakamura the chance to validate his reign against a veteran whose reputation crossed several promotions and disciplines.

The result preserved the IWGP Heavyweight Championship with Nakamura rather than starting a new reign for Takayama. It also concluded a card featuring separate title activity in the junior division, the heavyweight tag division and NOAH's GHC title. The sixteen-minute runtime was shorter than some earlier championship defenses, but the main-event location gave the contest the responsibility of closing the Tokyo Dome presentation. The win was an important official marker in Nakamura's reign even if other bouts on the card offered longer in-ring development.