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#2 Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship (NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day 1)
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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 Day 1 may have been the promotion's best major event of the year. One of the main reasons for that has to be the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship bout with Will Ospreay defending his title against Hiromu Takahashi. These two men had quite the history heading into this show.
Hiromu Takahashi was making his long awaited return to the ring after 18 months away due to neck surgery. After winning the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Dominion 2018 against Ospreay, Takahashi broke his neck against Dragon Lee a month and half later.
In his absence, Will Ospreay won the Best of Super Juniors 26 against Takahashi's Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate Shingo Takagi. "The Aerial Assassin" then moved on to defeat Dragon Lee for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title at NJPW Dominion 2019. Ospreay spent his reign elevating the title and continuously calling out Hiromu for his return before he finally came back at Power Struggle 2019.
These two men competed in a spectacular match that was filled with amazing sequences, counters and reversals that kept the Tokyo Dome crowd captivated. The champion attacked the previously injured neck of the challenger, while Takahashi tried to overcome the arsenal of Ospreay.
In the end, Takahashi pulled out a new finisher, Time Bomb 2, to gain the victory and become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. This NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 14 contest received a five and a half star rating from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter and universal praise as one of the greatest junior heavyweight matches in the promotion's history.
