January 4th has been home to one of the biggest shows of the year in pro wrestling since 1992, with tomorrow marking the 25th annual January 4th Tokyo Dome show in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling. It’s the tenth annual use of the Wrestle Kingdom name, and as always, it’s a loaded card. This year, it’s available in English for the second year in a row, but it’s being handled differently this year. Last year, the English feed with Jim Ross and Matt Striker was available on traditional pay-per-view, while this year, it’s being called by Striker and Kevin Kelly on the NJPW World streaming service, which costs less than $9 per month. While the site is still in Japanese, sign-up (and potential cancellation) is aided by both this guide and the “Select Language” drop-down box (which is a Google Translate front-end). Striker and Kelly will also be calling the January 5th New Year Dash card that serves as the equivalent to NJPW’s “Raw after WrestleMania.”
As for the card itself, it starts at 3:00 a.m. ET tonight/tomorrow morning. The pre-show starts at 1:45 a.m. ET and includes the New Japan Rumble battle royal. This match includes NJPW wrestlers not on the main card as well as surprise outsiders (including legends and more). Here’s the lineup with some notes on what to expect:
IWGP Heavyweight Championship:Â Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
NJPW’s legendary feud of the current generation. The big hook is that while Okada has beaten Tanahashi in major matches, he’s never done it at the Tokyo Dome. So essentially, this is Steve Austin vs. The Rock at WrestleMania 19, but but with The Rock as the champion. Last year, they had a tremendous main event where Tanahashi dominated the latter part of the bout en route to retaining the title and sending Okada staggering to the back in tears.
IWGP Intercontinental Championship:Â Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. AJ Styles
The big dream match of the show, as this is their first singles match together and they’ve only faced off a handful of times in tags. Styles is hurting and his back problems must be horrific if he left the tag tournament early to try to recover, but he’s turned it on against Jay Lethal at ROH Final Battle. That makes you think he’ll do it again here, even if it’s not the wisest move. This is a matchup of the consensus two best wrestlers in the world, and Nakamura stole the show last year against Kota Ibushi, so expectations are sky-high.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gfkOFRLbJ9w
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship:Â Kenny Omega (c) vs. KUSHIDA
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship:Â reDRagon (c) vs. Matt Sydal & Ricochet vs. Roppongi Vice vs. The Young Bucks
From an athletic standpoint, these are going to be the most impressive matches on the show. The division is somewhat stagnant since KUSHIDA is the only pushed native, but the addition of Sydal and Ricochet has livened things up a bit.
ROH World Championship:Â Jay Lethal (c) vs. Michael Elgin
The biggest match of Lethal’s career by far, and you could argue the same for Elgin, who’s become a big fan favorite in NJPW. His style, both physically and in terms of his personality, just clicks better in Japan, where he feels like a star.
IWGP Tag Team Championship: Bullet Club/Guns & Gallows (Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows) (c) vs. GBH (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma)
Honma, the lovable loser character, got the biggest win of his career in the tag tournament last month, which got he and Makabe the title shot. Honma got a big win last year at the Dome and this feels like the match where he finally wins a title in NJPW.
NEVER Openweight Championship:Â Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata
These two will beat the hell out of each other in ways that will shock you if you’ve never seen them before. Shibata has never held any titles in the promotion in spite of a long career, so this feels like another title change.
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Titles:Â Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Takahashi) vs. Toru Yano & The Briscoes (Mark & Jay)
This is a new title and a big match for the Briscoes starting in NJPW, but it feels like a title for the Bullet Club to have if they’re going to add something as extraneous is this. That said, this should be a fun, short, energetic brawl.
Hirooki Goto vs. Tetsuyta Naito
This is part of the feud between Goto and Shibata (Meiyu Tag) and Naito’s Ingobernables group, and feels like it might be used to continue the storyline more than be the climax you’d expect on this level of show. They could have a hell of a match together, but it depends on if Naito brings back his old tricks, which have fallen out of favor since he turned heel.
New Japan Rumble:Â Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Jado, Jushin Thunder Liger, Manabu Nakanishi, Ryusuke Taguchi, Satoshi Kojima, Tiger Mask IV, and Yuji Nagata are the announced participants.
