Wrestle Kingdom 16 is set to be a three-night event for the very first time in the history of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest show.
The traditional January 4th show took place with Shingo Takagi defending his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada in the main event.
The winner of that bout, Okada, would then go on to face Will Ospreay as the main event of Night 2 on January 5th.
According to Eastern Lariat, the attendance for Wrestle Kingdom Night 2 compared to Night 1 can only be considered a disaster.
The attendance for Night 1 of the event was 12,047 and Night 2 of the event was 6,379.
Wrestle Kingdom Night 2 Poor Attendance
There’s a number of reasons as to why the number was so low, as mentioned it is traditional for January 4th to be the date of the big event for New Japan.
Much like you see ‘casual’ fans decide to go to WrestleMania in the US, there may be a number of fans in Japan that opted to go out for the traditional 04/01 show.
Another reason for the abysmal number (comparative to Night 1) may well be the main event itself; which when you look into it objectively, falls on the shoulders of Ospreay as Okada was in the main event of Night 1.
Whatever the reasoning may be, it will be interesting to see what the attendance is for the NJPW vs NOAH event that will be taking place on Saturday 8th January.
