By Jason Powell, ProWrestling.net Editor (@prowrestlingnet)
New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the following matches for day one of Wrestle Kingdom for Saturday, January 4 in Tokyo, Japan at the Tokyo Dome.
-Kazuchika Okada vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
-Jay White vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
-Will Ospreay vs. Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Jr. Hvt. Championship.
-Lance Archer vs. Jon Moxley in a Texas Death Match for the IWPG U.S. Championshp.
-Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa vs. Juice Robinson and David Finlay for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Titles.
-Shingo Takagi, Evil, Sanada, and Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, and El Desperado.
-Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, and Yoshi-Hashi vs. Kenta, Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, and Yujiro Takahashi.
-Jushin Liger, Tatsumi Fujinami, Great Sasuke, and Tiger Mask vs. Naoki Sano, Shinjiro Otani, Tatsuhito Takaiwa, and Ryusuke Taguchi in Liger’s retirement match with Norio Honaga as special referee.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced the following matches for day two of Wrestle Kingdom for Sunday, January 5 in Tokyo, Japan at the Tokyo Dome.
-IWGP Heavyweight Champion vs. IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
-The loser of Saturday’s IWGP Heavyweight Championship match vs. the loser of Saturday’s IWGP Intercontinental Championship match.
-Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Chris Jericho.
-Kenta vs. Hirooki Goto for the Never Openweight Title.
-Lance Archer (or Jon Moxley) vs. Juice Robinson for the IWGP U.S. Championship.
-Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Sanada for the British Heavyweight Championship.
-Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo vs. Sho and Yoh for the IWPG Jr. Hvt. Tag Titles.
-Jushin Liger vs. Naoki Sano vs. Ryu Lee (a/k/a Dragon Lee) vs. Hiromu Takahasi in Liger’s final match.
Powell’s POV: Both events will be available for live streaming via New Japan World and presumably via FITE.TV again. The New Year Dash event will be held on January 6 in Tokyo at Ota City General Gymnasium. The card will be announced in the ring on the day of the show, and the Liger retirement ceremony will also be held.
I’m looking forward to it, but the cards are a bit disappointing.
Night 2 outside of Liger’s retirement falls apart pretty quickly if it isn’t Naito beating Okada for the title after all these years.
I’m assuming they’ll add more matches. This is the Dome after all and it wasn’t that many years ago that these lasted 5 1/2 hours.
4 Single’s matches on night 1 isn’t enough. You have to go back to 09 to find that few on 1/4. When they’d at least throw the likes of Misawa out there in a novelty tag. Before the company climbed it’s away out off the dark years.
I hope this isn’t regular thing. We don’t need the Dome shows to become a January New Beginnings tour.
Very well stated. I haven’t had time to watch NJPW closely since the G1 tournament, so I thought maybe my lack of enthusiasm for the lineups was a product of that. Glad to know it’s not just me.