The biggest annual event in Japan, and the biggest wrestling spectacular in the world after WWE WrestleMania, WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 in TOKYO DOME, is now in the books as New Japan held their annual year-opening January 4 extravaganza today.
Due to time differences and event length, for those waiting until later to watch on demand and trying to avoid SPOILERS, I am posting a warning here so you can stop scrolling and come back later. If you do want to know what happened, click below and read on.
Last warning, click back now if you don’t want to know what happened!
Today’s event was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English outside Japan only. This event aired in Japan as the premiere of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2024 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 27,422. Obviously the biggest crowd of the year in Japan but the earthquake a couple days ago may have negatively impacted the number (that and it’s a Thursday). Compared to years past this also is only about 40% capacity but I also don’t yet know what the setup was for (the Dome’s max capacity for wrestling is about 65,000). (Watching the on demand replay, it definitely was not a 65,000 setup. It looks like full capacity probably would have been in the 45,000-50,000 range, but still a slight disappointment against expectations)
Pre-show Match: Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, Yoh & (of course) Toru Yano “won” the New Japan Ranbo by being the last 4 left. As a result, they will be in a 4-way tomorrow to determine the first KOPW 2024 Champion. Among the surprise entrants in the field of 20 were retired wrestler Takashi Iixuka.
Match 1: Francesco Akira & TJP beat IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors to win the titles. Akira & TJP become the 74th IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. TJP pinned Moloney after 2/2.
Match 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. to win the title. Tanahashi becomes the second NJPW WORLD TV Champion. UPSET ALERT!!! Seriously, I was thinking Sabre would never be beaten for the title.
Match 3: Yuya Uemura beat Yota Tsuji.
Match 4: Ren Narita & EVIL beat Kaito Kiyomiya (Pro Wrestling NOAH) & Shota Umino. Narita pinned Umino after Double Cross.
Match 5: Tama Tonga beat NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi to win the title. Tonga becomes the 42nd NEVER Openweight Champion.
Match 6: STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto to retain the STRONG titles and win the IWGP titles. Phantasmo & Hikuleo become the 100th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Hikuleo pinned Goto after Thunder Struck 91. STRONG V3 for the champs.
Match 7: El Desperado beat IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi to win the title. Desperado becomes the 94th IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Match 8: David Finlay beat Will Ospreay & Jon Moxley in a 3-way by pinning Ospreay to become the inaugural IWGP Global Champion. Afterwards, Nic Nemeth-the former Dolph Ziggler in WWE-showed up and brawled with Finlay.
Match 9: Kazuchika Okada beat Bryan Danielson (All Elite Wrestling).
Main Event: Tetsuya Naito beat IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA to win the title. Naito becomes the 8th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The post-match was crashed by EVIL & Dick Togo, but SANADA sent EVIL packing with Shining Wizard and Naito closed the show to send the crowd home happy. DESTINO REALIZED.
The next event is New Year’s Dash!, the official start to the new year for New Japan and the start of the Road To Tokyo Dome 2025 (365 days to go! Or 366 as it’s a leap year), tomorrow at Sumida City Gym in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET and everyone can watch live & on demand FOR FREE! Except for the KOPW 2024 match, no matches will be announced before he event begins-it all will be a surprise!
UPDATE: Backstage post-event shocker: Tama Tonga is leaving New Japan at the end of the month. According to his comments to the Japanese media, he wants-in his words, must-to be closer to his family. He is from Tonga and his father is the legendary Haku (Meng), although he may have family in the US as his real-life brother, fellow New Japan wrestler Tanga Loa, is from Hawaii. He did not give any indication he was retiring from wrestling (he’s 41 and has been wrestling for 15 years) but no clue as to future plans.
