Tag: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom

How to watch Wrestle Kingdom 18: Where to catch NJPW’s biggest show

Find out when and where to watch NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18, the company’s biggest event of 2024.

With New Year’s Day behind us, it’s time to shift focus to one of the biggest pro wrestling events of the year — and fortunately, it happens this week. New Japan Pro-Wrestling will once again hold its biggest show of the year at the Tokyo Dome, presenting Wrestle Kingdom 18.

This will be the 33rd event to be held on Jan. 4 at the Tokyo Dome, but what’s particularly intriguing about this one is the change at the top. Hiroshi Tanahashi, the Ace of NJPW, is now the president of the company, installed in an effort to attempt to return New Japan to its pre-pandemic peak of popularity (that’s some fun alliteration).

The effects of that change may not be evident right away, but Wrestle Kingdom is once again loaded with big matches featuring the top stars in the company, as well as a few AEW guests. The main event will see Sanada defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito in a showdown that could be seen as both a referendum on Sanada’s title reign and Naito’s time remaining as a main event star.

Even without a championship involved, the penultimate match might be even more highly anticipated. Bryan Danielson and Kazuchika Okada, two of the best wrestlers on the planet, will have another battle to try and settle once and for all which one of them is higher on the totem pole.

If you’d like to catch Wrestling Kingdom 18 live, there’s one easy place to do it thanks to the NJPW World streaming service. Here’s everything you need to know to watch this week, no matter where you are.

How to watch NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

  • When: Wednesday, January 4, 2024
  • Where: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo
  • Start time: 1:30 a.m. ET/10:30 p.m. PT (Jan. 3)/3:30 p.m. JST
  • How to watch: Worldwide on NJPWWorld.com
  • Cost: ¥1298 (for a month’s subscription) in Japan, $9.99 USD outside Japan

[lawrence-related id=40626]

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 card: All the matches confirmed for the Tokyo Dome

The inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship will be awarded in a three-way match at Wrestle Kingdom 18.

It’s almost time for the biggest show on New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s annual schedule. Wrestle Kingdom 18 is set to take over the Tokyo Dome on Thursday, Jan. 4, once again offering a full (and we mean full as it tends to run very long) slate of matches that includes the best NJPW has to offer plus some top stars from North America as well.

At the heart of it all will be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship between Sanada and Tetsuya Naito. The story connecting these two men is a good one, as both were former teammates in Los Ingobernables de Japon. However, Sanada felt the need to leave the group to ascend to the next stage in his career, which has proven a good move so far.

Beating his former stablemate would be a validation of his reign. Meanwhile, this may be the final chance Naito has in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom, so he’ll be highly motivated aside from the personal angle. The winner figures to be the person who leads NJPW into 2024 in earnest.

Another title match with plenty of implications beyond the event is the three-way IWGP United Kingdom Heavyweight Championship match where Will Ospreay will try to fend off both AEW star Jon Moxley and Bullet Club leader David Finlay.

Though Ospreay is off to AEW in 2024, he’s suggested he wants to continue working with New Japan and might keep his title as a result. A Finlay victory could be a sign the promotion wants to build even more around him, and with the strong working relationship between NJPW and AEW, a Moxley victory can’t be ruled out either.

Unlike some of the past few years, Wrestle Kingdom 18 is being promoted as a one-night affair. We’ll add more matches as they are confirmed, but here’s a look at the full card as it stands now.

Latest update: Dec. 29, 2023, 11:15 a.m. ET.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 card:

  • New Japan Ranbo for a shot at the Provisional KOPW 2024 Championship at New Year Dash (pre-show match)
  • Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) (c) vs. Catch 2/2 (TJP and Francesco Akira) – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match
  • Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi – NJPW World Television Championship match
  • Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
  • Shota Umino and Kaito Kiyomiya vs. House of Torture (Evil and Ren Narita)
  • Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga – NEVER Openweight Championship match
  • Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) (c) vs. Guerillas of Destiny (Hikuleo and El Phantasmo) – IWGP Tag Team Championship and Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship match
  • Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match
  • Will Ospreay (c) vs. David Finlay vs. Jon Moxley – IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
  • Sanada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito – IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom results throughout history: Every match, every winner

See the full history of Wrestle Kingdom results over the years, including every match and every winner since 2007.

Though the history of a January 4 show at the Tokyo Dome goes back more than 30 years, it was a partnership over a video game that gave birth to the Wrestle Kingdom name we know today for New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s biggest annual event.

In 2007, NJPW was considering ending the Tokyo Dome show as it had been experiencing declining interest compared to its heyday in the 1990s. But the promotion decided to press forward with it under the Wrestle Kingdom name to capitalize on the video game of the same name at the time, and the rest, as they say, is wrestling history.

While NJPW has played around with the format of Wrestle Kingdom over the years, expanding to additional nights and tinkering with other parts of the show, several things have remained constant: It’s always at Tokyo Dome (with the exception of one night of one multi-day edition), some of the biggest titles in the company are always on the line, and it always begins on January 4.

It should be no surprise, then, that the event has featured not only the biggest stars of New Japan in the 21st century, but a wide array of the most recognizable names in professional wrestling from the last few decades. Keep reading to get full Wrestle Kingdom results throughout its rich history below.

Sanada on Wrestle Kingdom clash with Naito: ‘I want to be a proper champion’

Sanada will have his Wrestle Kingdom main event moment, but will it be enough to validate his title reign?

When Sanada meets Tetsuya Naito in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 in just a few weeks, it will the culmination of a journey for both men. Yet even though Sanada enters the match as the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, it’s hard to shake the feeling that he has much more at stake.

Part of it is because Sanada hasn’t felt like the top star in New Japan even though he holds its top championship. It’s telling, for example, that it was Naito who won the Tokyo Sports MVP Award for this year, even though he holds no titles — though he did win the G1 Climax, which is how he earned his shot at Wrestle Kingdom.

Even Sanada feels it. In his pre-Wrestle Kingdom interview, which you can see below, one of the things he feels he needs to prove by defeating Naito is not just that he was right to part ways with LIJ, but that he is in fact “a proper champion.”

“I left my old team, became the champion, it was a shock to the system,” Sanada said. “I think the results have been there, but part of me doesn’t quite feel like a real champion.”

He noted that without leaving LIJ, he probably never would have won the title, saying that the group is more like “Tetsuya Naito and friends.”

“If I stayed put I wouldn’t become a champion. I want to be a proper champion.”

A victory over the always popular Naito might help with that. Even if the fans don’t like it, there’s a chance that if the two men tear it up at Wrestle Kingdom, they’ll at least respect Sanada more than they do now.

He also spoke about wanting to sell out every building and perhaps have festivals in places like his hometown of Niigata, “to show wrestling to people who have never seen it.”

Will he get the chance? We’ll find out on Jan. 4.

[lawrence-related id=40626]

Two title matches confirmed for Wrestle Kingdom 17

Participants from the first two of many title matches for Wrestle Kingdom 17 had their say.

With Wrestle Kingdom 17 once again looming as the biggest show of the NJPW calendar year on Jan. 4, there are guaranteed to be a number of title matches. Thanks to a press conference held late Monday night, U.S. time, we officially know what two of them will be.

In what figures to be the show’s main event, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White will defend his title against Kazuchika Okada. It will be the latest in an interesting series of singles matches between the two that has seen White take four victories in five meetings, even when Okada was the unquestioned top star in the promotion.

They’ve met twice before for the world championship, with Okada beating White at ROH/NJPW G1 SuperCard in 2019 and White returning the favor at NJPW Dominion 6.12 In Osaka-Jo Hall earlier this year. White then successfully held off Okada, Adam Cole and Hangman Adam Page in a four-way match to retain the title at Forbidden Door, the crossover event with AEW in Chicago.

Okada secured his spot for Wrestle Kingdom in August, pinning Will Ospreay in the G1 Climax final. Yet he didn’t know who he’d face until this week, when White turned back Tama Tonga in an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match. At the press conference, White seemed annoyed that Okada didn’t have the same stakes in his match with JONAH.

“I’m still confused as to why his match against the monster JONAH, why that wasn’t for the right to challenge me at Wrestle Kingdom,” White said. “It doesn’t make sense to me, but then I’m not surprised, or shocked because of course this man is going to get that treatment.”

The other Wrestle Kingdom 17 match made official was a four-way bout for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship that will see champion Taiji Ishimori try to retain against Hiromu Takahashi, El Desperado and Master Wato.

The junior heavyweights’ portion of the press conference was a bit wilder, with Hiromu passing out a flier he made for a proposed “Miyakojima tour” for the four combatants, as well as confusion over the actual rules of the four-way.

“When we’ve done tag team three ways and four ways there’s always been tags and two guys in,” El Desperado said.

“This is singles, so it’s got nothing to do with it,” Hiromu replied. “Five years ago when I had a four-way, everyone was all over the place.”

They also bickered a bit over a Nov. 5 show in Osaka where the four of them will be in a tag team match with the sides decided by random draw. No one seemed eager to tag up with anyone else, and Wato ended up posing for photos intended for the whole group by himself.

Wrestle Kingdom 17 is set for the Tokyo Dome on Jan. 4, returning to a single-night event for the first time since 2019. Other matches already expected to be confirmed will be the final bout in a tournament to determine the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship, as well as an IWGP Women’s Championship match after that title is first awarded at the Historic X-Over show on Nov. 20.