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January 4th is a date that pro wrestling fans around the world are familiar with. It’s the date of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s annual Tokyo Dome show, Wrestle Kingdom.
Attendance for the show grows every year, as does the number of foreign fans who fly into Tokyo to watch the event. Wrestle Kingdom has been gaining a reputation for amazing matches each year around, and this year should be no different.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 saw the NJPW debut of Chris Jericho, and he’ll be back again for WK13 as ‘Y2J’ defends his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against New Japan’s most popular star Tetsuya Naito. The main event is IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega battling against G1 Climax winner, Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Let’s look back at the history of this mega event. Here are five surprising facts about Japanese wrestling’s biggest show
#1 The Jan 4th Tokyo Dome tradition predates Wrestle Kingdom
While next month is Wrestle Kingdom 13, it is in fact, the 28th consecutive Tokyo Dome event NJPW has held on January 4th.
NJPW has been running shows at the Dome on Jan 4th since 1992. The show had various names until 2007 when NJPW decided on a moniker.
The Jan 4th show wasn’t as significant as it is now because back in the ’90s, NJPW would run the Tokyo Dome multiple times a year. Most famously, a sold-out Tokyo Dome witnessed Antonio Inoki’s final match on April 4th 1998.
The pre-Wrestle Kingdom shows didn’t have the worldwide appeal they do now, but many noteworthy bouts occurred on the show.
WCW wrestlers would frequently feature on these events, as NJPW had a relationship with the promotion up until 2001 when WCW was sold to WWE.
The first two Jan 4th Dome shows were broadcast to fans in the United States on PPV as WCW/New Japan Supershow.
#2 Tanahashi and Okada’s main event dominance
The last time someone who wasn’t Hiroshi Tanahashi or Kazuchika Okada main evented Wrestle Kingdom was back in 2010 when then-IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura tangled with Yoshihiro Takayama
Tanahashi holds a record six-straight Tokyo Dome main events from 2011 to 2016. The man who defeated him in the 2016 main event - Okada, main evented the Dome shows from 2015 to 2018.
Tanahashi and Okada have battled each other at the Dome three times with ‘The Ace’ trumpeting ‘The Rainmaker’ 2-to-1.
Okada will miss out on the headline spot this time around as Tanahashi will challenge IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega for the title.
The Okada/Tanahashi feud is one of the greatest rivalries in wrestling in history, but things between the two have taken a fascinating turn recently. Okada and Tanahashi have joined forces to create a modern day ‘Mega Powers’. However, like Hulk Hogan and Randy Savage, these two can’t stay on good terms for long. We’ll likely see them clash again soon.
#3 The G1 Briefcase has never been successfully cashed in
The G1 briefcase was introduced after the 2012 edition of the G1 Climax. The winner of the tournament, Kazuchika Okada, won the right to challenge the IWGP Heavyweight Champion at the following year’s Wrestle Kingdom event.
Unlike WWE’s Money in the Bank briefcase, the G1 Briefcase is often defended on major shows. The holder usually puts his case on the line 2-3 times before Jan 4th.
So far, no one has lost their briefcase – and no one has successfully cashed in.
The last time the IWGP Heavyweight Title switched hands at the Dome was in 2011 when Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Satoshi Kojima.
Tanahashi will be in the challenger's position once again when he challenges Kenny Omega for the title at next month’s event. Rumors are swirling that Omega and his friends in The Elite will leave NJPW to set up their promotion when their contracts expire in January. Could Tanahashi be the one to finally break the streak?
#4 TNA vs NJPW
New Japan has had working relationships with almost every wrestling company: WWE (in the '80s), WCW, and recently, Ring of Honor. What less people know about is NJPW’s ties with Total Nonstop Action (TNA).
From the 2008 Wrestle Kingdom up until the 2011 edition, TNA wrestlers competed against New Japan stars on four consecutive events
The first co-promoted show featured a dream match between Kurt Angle and Yuji Nagata. On the undercard, AJ Styles – representing TNA, was in a six-man match against an NJPW team that featured a young Prince Devitt (Finn Balor).
The relationship between the two companies stretched beyond Wrestle Kingdom; TNA & NJPW often traded talent.
While NJPW treated TNA talent well, putting the IWGP Heavyweight and Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships on Team 3D and The Motor City Machines Guns respectively, TNA wasn’t so reciprocal.
NJPW sent over their top star Hiroshi Tanahashi, who was put in their X-Division. After a handful of matches, NJPW recalled him.
TNA’s treatment of a young Kazuchika Okada is well known. Okada’s appearances were limited to TNA’s secondary show, Xplosion, before Okada was given a new gimmick and name based on The Green Hornet TV show – ‘Okato’.
Okada returned to NJPW – not as ‘Okato’ but as ‘The Rainmaker’. He won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship a month later and became one of the biggest stars in wrestling.
NJPW’s current announcer Don Callis is the vice-president of Impact Wrestling (the company once known as TNA). It’s likely that Impact may want to re-establish a relationship, but New Japan will rightfully be wary.
#5 Wrestle Kingdom was originally a video game
The video game company Yukes is best known for their long-running and highly successful WWE 2K series.
Flush with cash from their WWE games and not content with just virtual wrestling, Yukes bought a controlling interest in NJPW in 2005.
Despite being longtime partners with WWE, Yukes made no move in setting up a link between NJPW and WWE. All we got was a few New Japan signature wrestlers' moves and taunts in the Create A Move section of a WWE game.
In December 2005, Yukes released Wrestle Kingdom for the Xbox 360. A version of the PlayStation 2 was released later in June 2006. Along with NJPW stars, the Wrestle Kingdom game included wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah.
NJPW has had on/off relationships with the other big promotions in Japan, but due to the collaboration for the video game, the companies were on speaking terms during that period.
When the 2007 edition of the annual Jan 4th show rolled around, the theme of the event was announced as NJPW vs AJPW. Yukes decided to name the event Wrestle Kingdom. Like the game, it featured inter-promotional showdowns, and it was also a way to promote the forthcoming sequel, Wrestle Kingdom 2.
There were no more Wrestle Kingdom games after the sequel, Yukes decided to keep their focus on their WWE games. Eventually, Yukes sold their stake to Bushiroad in 2012.
While the two Wrestle Kingdom games have drifted off into obscurity, the video game’s name (and theme song) lives on through the successful event.
