Match order set for biggest Wrestle Kingdom of all time!

With winner take all championship matchups, the first pro-wrestling match for Olympic gold medalist judoka Aaron Wolf and the retirement of the legendary Hiroshi Tanahashi, Wrestle Kingdom 20 has smashed all records for a Wrestle Kingdom event, and has sold out the Tokyo Dome for the grandest scale Japanese wrestling event of the 21st century. The main card is now set for this historic night on January 4 2026.

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Headlining the event will be Hiroshi Tanahashi's official retirement ceremony. After 26 years, 2985 matches and a profound impact on the professional wrestling world we bid farewell to the Ace inside a sold out Tokyo Dome; all on top of a seven match card, with six championships at stake:

Main event: Kazuchika Okada vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Singles record: 9-5-3 Okada

Before an event closing special retirement ceremony for Hiroshi Tanahashi, one last singles match sees him take on his greatest rival for the final time. The history of Tanahashi and Kazuchika Okada, spanning matches in Japan and America, from the infamous 'Rainmaker Shock' when a young Okada defeated then champion Tanahashi in a massive 2012 upset, through multiple title clashes, G1 Climaxes and even surprising tag team combinations is one well told, but what is key to this final bout is the venue it's staged in.

While Okada has defeated Tanahashi nine times to the Ace's five wins, and while all of the pair's most recent fights, up to Osaka in 2024 in Okada's last singles bout as a full time NJPW wrestler, the Tokyo Dome tells a different story. There the two have main evented three times, with Tanahashi holding the 2-1 advantage. While Okada's return in 2012 and immediate capturing of Tanahashi's IWGP title set the stage for their first Wrestle Kingdom meeting at Wrestle Kingdom 7, Okada had not arrived on the global stage with the greatest of them all until Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 2016, their last Dome battle to date, and one where Okada finally arrived as the top star in professional wrestling at the time.

Much has changed over the last ten years, but Tanahashi feels the Tokyo Dome magic is still within him to defeat an Okada who is at the top of his game. Promotional pride plays an added role tonight, as voices across the nJPW landscape have asked the Ace to successfully defend NJPW from a Rainmaker who is now on the AEW side, and all that comprises, including his disdain for the fanbase. Will Okada level up the scoreline with Tanahashi, or can the Ace get his hand raised one last time, as we see one of the greatest of all time, for the last time?

6th Match: IWGP Global & IWGP World Heavyweight Double Title Match- Yota Tsuji vs Konosuke Takeshita
Singles record: 1-1

Both IWGP World Heavyweight and IWGP Global Championships are on the line as Yota Tsuji takes on the G1 Climax winner and World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita. Back in November at Final Homecoming, an emotionally charged victory for Tsuji had a hugely significant epilogue, the Unaffiliated member stating that Tanahashi could entrust NJPW to him. That led directly to Tsuji challenging Takeshita for the Tokyo Dome, in what he deems as a bid to take back the top title in NJPW, and to link its past to a new golden future.

Should Tsuji win, he plans to abandon the 'cursed' IWGP World title and to revive the IWGP Heavyweight gold. It's a key tenet, Tsuji feels in his dedication to ushering in a new boom period for NJPW, a philosophy that stands distinct from Takeshita's. The Alpha has talked at length about doing the unprecedented, as a triple contracted wrestler, and advancing all of professional wrestling as a whole with himself at the forefront. While Takeshita's goals are admirable, Tsuji states that it speaks to Takeshita's ego in general, claiming that 'a true champion doesn't merely demonstrate strength, but protects the company he's champion of'.

In this winner take all scenario, the victor will doubtless shape New Japan Pro-Wrestling and all of professional wrestling moving forward into the post-Tanahashi era. Will it be Tsuji or Takeshita that carries the weight of the world on their shoulders when all is said and done?

5th Match: NEVER Openweight Championship- Aaron Wolf vs EVIL

Olympic judo gold medalist Aaron Wolf is no stranger to high pressure sporting situations, but his professional wrestling debut in the Tokyo Dome might just be the highest pressure sutation in the life of a national sporting hero. Wolf's first pro-wrestling matchup will be viewed by the world and a sold out Tokyo Dome, with stakes raised by the NEVER Openweight Championship being on the line as EVIL seeks his first defence of his fourth reign.

The match came about when EVIL won the title from Boltin Oleg at King of Pro-Wrestling. The usual chicanery that we have come to expect from HOUSE OF TORTURE permeated the bout, and H.O.T continued to pile on the punishment after the bell sounded. After stewing at ringside, Wolf finally became physically involved, sending the H.O.T members flying and sending EVIL flying into a blind rage.

Delcaring himself pro-wrestling's only gold medalist, EVIL spray painted his NEVER title gold and said that after he defends at the Tokyo Dome, it would cement that status. Wolf continued to remain unfazed though, and would not be backed into the corner. Accepting EVIL's challenge, Wolf continued to be an enforcer against HOUSE OF TORTURE for the rest of the year, most recently at the World Tag League finals when EVIL and company tried to steal away with the NEVER 6 Man gold.

Yet it takes more than resolve to prove successful in the NJPW ring. Will Wolf claim the NEVER title in his debut bout?

4th Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Number One Contender's Four Way Match- SHO vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori vs Kosei Fujita

For the first time since 2012, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship is not scheduled to be defended in the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom this year. Indeed, DOUKI is nowhere to be seen on the Wrestle Kingdom card as of this writing, all despite, or perhaps more accurately because of a strong collection of challengers.

DOUKI won the title back in October, ending a spectacular and MVP worthy title reign for Desperado in the cheapest way possible, as SHO repeatedly cracked a black mirror over the head of the champion and allowed him to succumb to DOUKI's Darkness Stretch. That 'victory' alone would be enough for Desperado to demand a rematch. Then there was Best of the Super Jr. winner Kosei Fujita, who had leveraged his tournament victory to a sensationally hard fought challenge against El Desperado back in June, just coming short of then champion in a Korakuen Hall classic, only to see the title denigrated since. Fujita and his partner Robbie Eagles had already been screwed out of the Junior Tag Titles by DOUKI and SHO in September, a chain of events that had sent Fujita into a violent rage as he vowed he'd get his hands on Japones Del Mal.

Then there's Taiji Ishimori, who was the first defence for DOUKI during his first reign as Junior Heavyweight Champion in 2024. Then DOUKI was a proud fighting champion looking to prove himself in victory over men he hadn't overcome before. From heroic victory to cowardly escape was something Ishimori wanted to fight against. Yet cowardly escape exactly explained DOUKI's actions in November. Faced with three challengers, DOUKI bowed out of the match, saying that SHO would step in to determine a number one contender. Whether DOUKI is upset at the harsh odds should he have defended the title, or simply feeling trauma at his injury inside the Tokyo Dome against Desperado in 2025 is a matter of some debate. Regardless, it's number one contender ship that's at stake here and a burning desire for at least three of our four tonight to get vengeful hands on the champion.

3rd Match: David Finlay, Shingo takagi, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney & Hiromu Takahashi vs United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, HENARE, Andrade El Idolo & X)

Callum Newman made incredible gains in 2025. A two time IWGP tag team Champion in the spring, Newman became and remains the youngest man to ever win an IWGP title, let alone two of them. In May, even in defeat, Newman became the youngest man to ever challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight title, and more than acquitted himself as an individual star during the G1. Yet he did so on the backdrop of a crumbling United Empire that this year saw the departures of Jeff Cobb and TJP, and the faction blighted by injury elsewhere, all as this once dominant team seemed destined to fade away.

Newman put the blame for that on the doorstep of David Finlay and the War Dogs, with the United Members all badly affected by Fberuary 2024's Dogpound Steel Cage match, in which Finlay put an end to Will Ospreay in NJPW. Newman sought to start a new chapter for the group and get revenge on Finlay in World tag League, but instead found himself and O-Khan eliminated at Finlay and Hiromu's hand, sending the Prince off the deep end.

A violent attack from Newman on the War Dogs and Unaffiliated members led to challenges offered and accepted for the Tokyo Dome. Newman stated that Wrestle Kingdom would see the return of HENARE from knee injury after a year on the shelf, but didn't state who else will be on the United Empire side until December 22. There, a new financial benefactor for the United Empire was revealed as Andrade El Idolo, who brings a lot of intrigue, and personal history to the table tonight. The former La Sombra was a key part of Los Ingobernables in Mexico, and was the one who invited Tetsuya Naito into that fold over a decade ago, a move that begat the Los Ingobernables De Japon home of both Hiromu and Shingo Takagi until they became Unaffiliated in May. Who else joins this mega team when one of the most violent factional feuds is revived?

2nd Match: IWGP Women's & NJPW STRONG Women's Double Title Match- Syuri vs Saya Kamitani
Singles record: 1-0-1 Syuri

Both the IWGP Women's and NJPW STRONG Women's title is on the line between two of the world's best female competitors as IWGP Champion Syuri faces STRONG Champion, and current World of STARDOM Champion at time of writing, Saya Kamitani. Kamitani's 2025 has been nothing short of extraordinary, having held STARDOM's top title all the way through the year, bringing record crowds to the promotion's door, and earning mainstream media attention in the process.

Syuri meanwhile has had her own journey of struggle and strength to make it through injury to become a two time IWGP Women's title, in her own way showing the IWGP standard of strong style wrestling in the female field. Syuri's in ring skill meets 'Saya-sama's sinister superstardom with both of NJPW's Women's titles on the line in the Tokyo Dome tonight, in what is the first singles confrontation for the two women in close to five years.

1st Match: NEVER Openweight 6 Man Championship Tornado Ranbo: Toru Yano, YOH & Master Wato vs Kaisei Takechi, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino vs Boltin Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa) vs Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs War Dogs (Clark Connors, OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) vs Team 150 (Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii) vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SANADA & Ren Narita)

The Wrestle Kingdom 20 main card will start with a first time ever Tornado Ranbo match with the NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag titles on the line. So bound and determined was YOH to mark the tenth anniversary of the NEVER 6 Man titles at Wrestle Kingdom 20 with a Tokyo Dome title defence that he staged a sit in protest at Korakuen Hall until Chairman Naoki Suagabayashi granted his request. In quite a different form to the way YOH perhaps expected to defend the gold, the NEVER 6 Man titles will be at stake in this unique Ranbo environment, where eight teams enter at one minute intervals, and if one member is pinned, submitted or thrown over the top rope, that team is eliminated.

As pressure mounted during the Road to Tokyo Dome tour to get onto the Wrestle Kingdom card, alliances were formed, with perhaps the most fearsome being that of Bishamon, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI, alongside the Kazakh Beast Boltin Oleg. Then there's the presence of pop star and dancer turned DDT pro-wrestler Kaisei Takechi alongside Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura, or IWGP Tag Team Champions the Knockout Brothers alongside the returning Clark Connors and much more besides on a chaotic start to our main card.

Kickoff: NJPW World TV Championship- El Phantasmo vs Chris Brookes
Singles record: 2-0 Brookes

A special addition was made to the Wrestle Kingdom card on December 22 in Korakuen Hall as DDT Pro-Wrestling's Chris Brookes stepped up to challenge the NJPW World TV Champion El Phantasmo. ELP recorded his fifth successful defence of the TV title against Ryusuke Taguchi on the final stop to the Road to Tokyo Dome, and looked set to continue his open challenge into January 4, but Brookes wasn't waiting around, and showed up to shock the champion and issue a major challenge.

Brookes and Phantasmo have maintained a friendship for years, stemming from ELP's time on the UK independents. Competition has come alongside that friendship, but although Phantasmo has come out on top in three and four ways that also included Brookes, the former King of DDT Champion has always had Phantasmo's number one on one. While Brookes has appeared in NJPW circles, battling alongside Phantasmo, MAO and Masashi Takeda in a hardcore four way during Despe Invitacional in 2024, this match marks his official NJPW debut, and in a title match on the biggest stage possible.

With such a big opportunity in front of him, Brookes made sure not to stand on ceremony, and laid his supposed friend out in Korakuen with a Praying Mantis Bomb. Might that move be the key to a new TV Champion crowned in the first match of 2026?​