The biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and maybe the biggest in the world after WWE WrestleMania, New Japan’s 1/4 signature event, WRESTLE KINGDOM 20, is finally today. The biggest event in the series will be a very melancholy event and one perhaps some have secvretly been dreading as the promotion says goodbye to perhaps their greatest ever, Hiroshi Tanahashi, who will retire after today. He’s not really leaving as he will remain in his second job as President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, 3rd in command in the promotion (behind Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi and Bushiroad Corporation President Takaaki Kitani-Bushiroad is the owner of New Japan), but for the first time in more than 25 years he won’t be a wrestler, marking the end of a career that has seen him become a once a century generational talent-imagine RIc Flair, Hulk Hogan & John Cena all rolled into one. It’s about so much more than that, with several title matches including Stardom being featured in a double title match, the debut of highly-touted Aaron Wolf and much more, but the focus is largely on the main event as Tanahashi’s final match comes against one of his greatest rivals and who perhaps was going to be the future torch-bearer for the promotion: Kazuchika Okada, who left for All Elite Wrestling but returns today for one glorious finale. (A lot of internet fans thought it would be-and should be-Shinsuke Nakamura instead, but there was zero chance of that because Nakamura is in WWE and New Japan has a working relationship with AEW. That’s Not Best For Business)
Today’s event will be held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE & EXCLUSIVE OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World in Japanese & English (no Triller/FITE or anywhere else). This is a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan, which the NJPW World feed will be a simulcast of. The event is a legit advance sellout. The start time has been moved up 30 minutes for a pre-show match. This is also perhaps the promotoin’s longest event of the year even with only 8 matches scheduled but 6 are title matches, and if you’re watching live in the US it’s an all-nighter as the running time will probably be 4 1/2-5 hours, maybe longer depending on how much of an epic send-off Tanahashi gets-and gives-us as there surely will be one final air guitar concert to send the crowd home happy (hopefully). I may not make it through it despite it being a 10:30 PM start for me but I’ve hopefully got enough caffeine to push through. If updates suddenly stop near the end, I didn’t make it through and will update the results after a few hours’ sleep.
Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo vs. Chris Brookes for the title
Main show:
8 team 24-man battle royal for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship. When one wrestler is eliminated, his entire team is out. Last team left wins. Current Champions Yoh, Master Wato & Toru Yano are participating
IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri vs. STRONG Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani for the titles
Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi vs. HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo & TBA
El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way for an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot
Aaron Wolf Debut Match: NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL vs. Aaron Wolf for the title
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji for the titles
Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM PT/1:30 AM ET. The main card is scheduled to begin at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
Pre-Show Update; There has been a late addition of a pre-pre-show match added to the event: Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda. Because of this, updates will now begin at 10:15 PM PT/1:15 AM ET.
10:15 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata (remotely, presumably at Korakuen Hall still as Tokyo Josih Pro’s evnt he called for WRESTLE UNIVERSE finished less than an hour ago) & Milano Collection A.T. No guest on commentary yet.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a legit advance sellout but it’s not the full capacity Dome, which is 65,000 for baseball. I’m thinking it’ll be around 50,000. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance-a legit advance sellout with standing room included-was 46,913. That’s about 70% of normal Dome capacity)
Pre-pre-show match: Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda. 10 minute time limit
Result: Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda beat Shoma Kato & Tetauya Matsumoto. Murashima beat Matsumoto with a modified Boston Crab.
We go right into the pre-show afterwards so it’s starting 5 minutes early. By the way, no free YouTube opening simulcast today. But the next match will be available on demand FOR FREE on YouTube at some point after the event.
Pre-show:
Pre-show match: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo vs. Chris Brookes (DDT) for the title. 15 minute time limit. DDT wrestler Super Sasadango Machine (Muscle Sakai) and a member of BALLISTIK BOYZ are guests on commentary for this match
Result: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo beat Chris Brookes to retain the title. V6 for Phantasmo.
End Pre-show. Updates will resume when the main portion of the event begins in about 15 minutes. The live stream will resume at that time.
Main show:
This event is airing in Japan as the premiere of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2026 on TV Asahi. New host on commentary.
Match 1: 8 team 24-man battle royal for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship. When one wrestler is eliminated, his entire team is out. Last team left wins. No time limit. Staggered entry. Order of entry: Kaisei Takechi/Yuya Uemura/Shota Umino, Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Ren Narita/SANADA, Clark Connors/OSKAR (The Grouch)/Yuto Ice (Ice Baby (with Thekla, who is married to Connors), Zack Sabre Jr/Ryohei Oiwa/Hartley Jackson, Togi Makabe/Ryusuke Taguchi/Tiger Mask (final Tokyo Dome for TM 4 as he is retiring in the next few months), Hirooki Goto/YOSHI-HASHI/Boltin Oleg, Tomohiro Ishii/Taichi/Satoshi Kojima, NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Master Wato/Yoh/Toru Yano
Order of elimination: OSKAR (Connors/OSKAR/Ice out), TM 4 (Makabe/Taguchi/TM 4 out), Taichi (Taichi/Ishii/Kojima out), Uemura (Uemura/Umino/Takechi out), Yoh (Wato/Yoh/Yano out-that means whoever wins will be NEW CHAMPIONS), SANADA (Kanemaru/SANADA/Narita out), Oleg (YOSHI-HASHI/Goto/Oleg out)
Result: Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Zack Sabre Jr. win, last eliminating Oleg/YOSHI-HASHI/Goto, to win the titles. Oiwa, Jackson & Sabre become the 32nd NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions.
As Ishii/Taichi/Kojima entered, cameras caught sumo wrestler & Yokozuna Grand Champion Onosato sitting at ringside.
Host change as Haruo Murata is back on Japanese commentary. Might be alternating today. Stardom wrestler Maika is a guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 2: IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri (Stardom) vs. STRONG Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani (Stardom) for the titles. 1 Hour time limit. Stardom’s ring announcer handles the introductions here
Result: Syuri beat Saya Kamitani to win the titles. Syuri becomes the 7th STRONG Women’s Champion. IWGP V1 for Syuri.
Match 3: Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi vs. HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo (who the English announcer billed as from AEW) & TBA. TBA is revealed to be…Jake Lee! 30 minute time limit
Result: HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo & Jake Lee beat Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi. Lee pinned Takahashi. Afterwards, another mystery man wearing Andrade’s mask appeared, and revealed himself to be the returning Francesco Akira who then laid out Takahashi.
Yoh is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 4: El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way for an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot. 1 Hour time limit
Before anyone entered, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI came out. With microphone in the ring. A few words amidst heaby boos before intros began.
Result: El Desperado beat Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way by pinning Sho. As a result, Desperado gets the next IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot. No surprise, Desperado always wins at Tokyo Dome, or so it seems.
Afterwards, a short promo was shown for the next DESPE INVITATIONAL event…4/16 in Las Vegas, NV. This was followed by a promo video for upcoming major events in 2026 including the New Japan Cup in March, SAKURA GENESIS on 4/4 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, WRESTLING REDZONE in HIROSHIMA on 4/25, WRESTLING DONTAKU on 5/3 & 5/4 in Fukuoka, Best Of The Super Junior, DOMINION on 6/14 in Osaka, the G1 CLIMAX opener in the USA on 7/11 at NOW Arena in Chicago, IL followed by the Finals on 8/15 & 8/16 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
The guests on commentary for the next match are Yano, Yuji Nagata and…Masahiro Chono!
Match 5: Aaron Wolf Debut Match: NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL vs. Aaron Wolf for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Aaron Wolf beat NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL by ref stoppage (technical submission) to win the title. Wolf becomes the 50th NEVER Openweight Champion.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Match 6: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Yota Tsuji beat Konosuke Takeshita by submission to win the titles. Tsuji becomes the 15th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Global V2 for Tsuji. Tsuji’s post-match promo was interrupted by Jake Lee, who beat down the new double champion and silently seemed to issue the challenge, at least for the World title.
That means the time has come…
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Kazuchika Okada beat Hiroshi Tanahashi. And after 30+ intense minutes, it’s all over. 25+ years of Hiroshi Tanahashi ends with a loss to one of his greatest rivals. Now he will transition to President full-time. The retirement ceremony for Tanahashi followed (will watch later as after 9 hours of wrestling I have to throw in the towel). Several former New Japan wrestlers were present for flower presentations including Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi (hobbling badly alongside Omega), Katsuyori Shibata (who traded some chops with Tanahashi), Keiji Muto, of course Tatsumi Fujinami and, in a big surprise, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito. The final 10 bell salute followed and Tanahashi rightfully took his time leaving, including being pushed out on a rolling platform by the Young Lions as the festivities went on for about an hour. Now he is President Ace but always FOREVER ACE.
The next event is NEW YEAR DASH!! tomorrow at Ota City General Gym. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. (The original post incorrectly said the event was at Korakuen Hall. Why I should not be posting at 3 AM)
UPDATE: In non-Dome news, there was a STRONG Tag Team Championship match this weekend in CMLL in Mexico, in which current champions Angel De Oro & Niebla Roja beat Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs to retain he titles. V1 for the champs.
You can also watch the full backstage comments from today, including highlights of Tanahashi’s retirement ceremony and his final epic air guitar performance to send the crowd home happy, FOR FREE on YouTube.
UPDATE 2: The full card for tomorrow is set now, and for now there is a hilarious typo on New Japan’s English website. Take a look at the screencap below about the main event and see for yourself…
Last I checked, that’s not Yota Tsuji pictured there with Ryohei Oiwa…Tsuji is to be in an 8-man tag earlier in the card. Before the main event, there is also a 4-way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
UPDATE 3: You can now watch the full Phantasmo-Brookes match FOR FREE on YouTube via the NJPW WORLD Official channel.