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Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 1 (January 4) Full card, preview 【WK16】
2022 kicks off in style January 4
Night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16 will see New Japan Pro-Wrestling kick off its 50th anniversary year with a fitting card that features the return of Katsuyori Shibata and four championship matches.
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship- Shingo Takagi vs Kazuchika Okada
Singles record: 2-1 Takagi Championship record: 1-0 Takagi
January 4’s main event will see IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi defend his title against the challenger and G1 Climax 31 winner, Kazuchika Okada.
While his designation reads ‘challenger’, Kazuchika Okada has consistently stated that he is walking into this bout feeling like a champion. The ‘G1 Championship’, symbolised not by the briefcase that he made a G1 tradition in 2012 but rather the V4 IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt that he made into an icon of pro-wrestling supremacy, is a greater achievement even than the IWGP World Heavyweight prize that Takagi holds. In the wake of Wrestle Kingdom, Okada has stated, we will find out who the strongest champion truly is.
The Rainmaker’s reasoning comes from having put himself through a near flawless G1 Climax 31 campaign, one that saw him to a 9-1 record during block action, with his sole blemish loss to Tama Tonga rectified weeks later at Power Struggle. Okada says that he put himself through a tournament of the best heavyweights in the world, including Shingo Takagi, and emerged on top. All true, but he did not beat the Dragon to do so. Indeed, Okada didn’t beat Shingo Takagi in two encounters this year, the LIJ member having rectified a G1 Climax 30 defeat with an impressive New japan Cup first round victory, and then delivering Last of the Dragon in Osaka at Dominion to claim the gold that sits around his waist.
Having lost to the Money Clip in 2020 though, one thing that Takagi has not experienced is the Rainmaker. That can be said of the move, and arguably of the man; after Okada lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4 2020, he would undergo a period of reinvention and experimentation before finally coming full circle, defeating eternal rival Hiroshi Tanahashi to start his G1 31 campaign, and stating proudly that the Rainmaker had returned. This is a different Okada to the one that Takagi has faced before. Is it one that has the better of the champion?
7th Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship- El Desperado vs Hiromu Takahashi
Singles record: 2-2-1 Championship record: 1-0 Takahashi
After Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado went the 30 minute distance in their Best of the Super Jr. 28 league match, they both vowed to make the finals so that they could face off without the clock in the way. Hiromu would hold up his end of the bargain, battling YOH to a 38 minute victory to become a three time holder of the BOSJ trophy. Desperado would just fall short at the final hurdle, but this will only redouble his resolve to defeat his career rival in the semi main event tonight.
With every singles match Takahashi and Desperado have had since their first singles meeting in the 2018 Best of the Super Jr. tournament, another layer to a deeply complex relationship that swings wildly from love to hate to the fiercest of competition, gets added. Tonight, they will be driven not just to one up the other, but to further a junior heavyweight division that they both hold so dear. On January 5 2020, Takahashi walked out of the Tokyo Dome with the gold, declaring that one day, the title would be headlining in this building. Should the show be stolen on night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16, there will be a huge step made to just that very goal.
6th Match: IWGP Tag Team Championships: Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI)
Direct Tag record: 2-1 Dangerous Tekkers
IWGP Tag Team gold is on the line in the sixth match of the night as Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI challenge Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. In Hiroshima on December 12, CHAOS defeated the champions against the run of the match, Goto having had his knee severely damaged over the course of the bout before a quick flash pin saw he and YOSHI-HASHI to victory. The frustrated Taichi would make the CHAOS side swear to win the World Tag League so that the match could be run back; as CHAOS have kept their end of the bargain, could Tekkers get a raw deal?
In seven out of nine World Tag Leagues the winners of the trophies have maintained their momentum to sweep to championship victory in the Tokyo Dome. It is a statistic that Sabre and Taichi know all too well having fallen to 2020 WTL winners Guerrillas of Destiny at Wrestle Kingdom 15. Will the side buck historical trends to stay on top in the Tokyo Dome January 4?
5th Match: NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii vs EVIL
Singles record: 4-1 Ishii
Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI’s place in the IWGP Tag Team Championship bout can be attributed in no small part to the efforts of Tomohiro Ishii. As CHAOS struggled in the face of constant interference in their World Tag league final with HOUSE OF TORTURE, Ishii would hit the ring to clear the deck of Dick Togo and the steel chair that EVIL had brought to the ring. In the process he would reignite an issue with the King of Darkness that the Stone Pitbull will be only too happy to settle with the NEVER gold at stake.
Earlier in the summer EVIL would seek to go back to his roots in order to rest and aim for the top in NJPW. Facing a poor front half of 2021, EVIL aimed to take down a man that he had never beaten in five years of singles matches, and would take any means necessary to achieve success. In the end, it would be three men that took down Ishii in Nagoya at Summer Struggle, as Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo got involved. Will Ishii be able to overcome the odds to retain his gold at the Dome?
4th Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs X (Catch Wrestling Rules)
No strikes are permitted in this match
1,199 days have passed since Katsuyori Shibata last wrestled an official match in a New Japan ring. The victim of a subdural hematoma, it was widely believed that The Wrestler’s career was over, as Shibata rehabilitated and recovered, changing focus as he prepared the next generation of talent in the LA Dojo. Yet with a five minute grappling exhibition in the Nippon Budokan at the G1 finals, something, in Shibata’s own words ‘went from zero to one’, and a major step forward to an in ring return almost five years in the making had been made.
Then, Shibata promised that the next time he stepped in the ring, it would be in his ring gear, and in an official match. That match is January 4. The opponent is still to be determined, as are the rules that the contest will be fought under. But what is guaranteed is that The Wrestler will wrestle, and that this will be a moment in time every wrestling fan in the world needs to be a part of.
3rd Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (SANADA, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay & Great-O-Khan)
On night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16, the United Empire will advance into the Tokyo Dome looking to right a lot of perceived wrongs. Their Wrestle Kingdom 15 was intended to be a show of force for the faction, Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan each in highlighted singles matches. Yet the group lost each one of their bouts, and spent the year re-asserting themselves, in fearsome form.
Now the group looks to conquer in the Tokyo Dome, with Cobb and O-Khan in particular looking to set the pace tonight before their singles bouts with Tetsuya Naito and SANADA respectively. As Ospreay wrestles his first match in Japan since May 5 and prepares to face the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion on night two, the Dominator and the Imperial Unit want to make a definitive statement in a six man environment that they are arguably at their most dangerous in.
2nd Match: Rocky Romero, Ryusuke taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs BULLET CLUB (KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo)
NJPW Hontai will face off with BULLET CLUB in six man action in the second match of the night. On January 5, Hiroshi Tanahashi faces KENTA with the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at stake in a no disqualification match. Meanwhile, after a seemingly unilateral challenge from Ryusuke Taguchi on December 15, he and Mega Coaches partner Rocky Romero will be looking to claim IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team gold on night two, a challenge that BULLET CLUB’s Cutest Tag Team are taking exception to. It’ll all add up to a wild six man tag at the start of the night.
1st Match: YOH vs SHO
Singles record: 19-11-22 YOH
After staring down the barrel of a 0-4 deficit in Best of the Super Jr. 28, YOH would turn everything around by December 15. Ending the league 7-4, he made his way to the final where he battled Hiromu Takahashi to the longest and arguably most hard fought final in history.
That hard fought final was crashed, and almost ruined by SHO. HOUSE OF TORTURE’s Murder Machine was stopped by YOH on the last night of league action, crashing out of the tournament as his former partner made the finals. SHO attempted to stop the final he was no longer a part of, wiping out both contenders with piledrivers on the floor before being seen off by members of CHAOS and Los Ingobernables De Japon. Post match, a furious Hiromu Takahashi would declare that it was YOH’s responsibility to ‘shut SHO up for good’, and that’s exactly what he will seek to do in the first official match of Wrestle Kingdom 16.
Kick-Off: KOPW 2022 New Japan Ranbo
Kicking off the broadcast at the special start time of 4PM local will be the Tokyo Dome tradition of the KOPW Ranbo. With the KOPW title resetting as the calendar turns from 2021 to 2022, an as yet unspecified number of contenders will enter into a timed battle royal with elimination coming from over the top rope, pinfalls, submissions or DQs. The last four members remaining will be part of a four way battle for the new trophy January 5!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 night 2 (January 5) full card, preview 【WK16】
Second night of Tokyo Dome action with massive singles clashes, and history made
Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 sees the immense start to NJPW’s 50th Anniversary celebrations continue. Five title matches highlight the card, and the women of STARDOM make NJPW history!
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 night 2 (January 5) full card, preview 【WK16】
Second night of Tokyo Dome action with massive singles clashes, and history made
Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 sees the immense start to NJPW’s 50th Anniversary celebrations continue. Five title matches highlight the card, and the women of STARDOM make NJPW history!
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship- Shingo Takagi or Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay
Our main event on night two will see the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on the line again as Will Ospreay will face the winner of January 4’s main event between Shingo Takagi and Kazuchika Okada.
Okada’s number one contender status, earned with a victory in G1 Climax 31 was undeniable, and cemented with a victory over Tama Tonga at Power Struggle on November 6. Yet Will Ospreay’s claim to the title is strong and legitimate in its own right. The second holder of the IWGP world Heavyweight Championship, Ospreay successfully defended his title on May 5 against Takagi, but, putting his body on the line in the process, would fall to injury, being stripped of his title as a result.
Ospreay, correctly, argues that he was never beaten for the championship, and is correctly next in line. In fact, confirmed by both Okada and Takagi in the wake of a face to face confrontation between the Rainmaker and the Commonwealth Kingpin at Battle in the Valley, neither January 4 contender has issue with Ospreay’s challenge. Yet plenty of fault can be found with Ospreay’s claim to being the ‘true world heavyweight champion’, and with the belt that ospreay has carried to rings around the world over the last four months.
On January 5, months of controversy will be resolved. On one hand, Ospreay could finally seek Tokyo Dome revenge over Okada from last year’s Wrestle Kingdom. The Tokyo Dome saw an epic clash between Okada and Ospreay to start 2021, and they were initially on course for a May 2021 rematch in the Tokyo Dome before injury and fate intervened. Meanwhile Shingo is hungry for revenge of his own against Ospreay, having fallen in defeat to the Briton in the New Japan Cup final and at Dontaku in 2021. Who will reign undisputed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2022?
7th Match: IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship- No DQ: KENTA vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Singles record 3-2 KENTA Championship record 1-0 KENTA
The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in the semi main event January 5 as Hiroshi Tanahashi takes on KENTA. After winning the red and gold belt in style at Resurgence back in the summer, Tanahashi’s IWGP United States reign came crashing to a premature halt on November 6. Though the Ace had designs on frequent defences both in Japan and America, KENTAput paid to those plans, besting Tanahashi and bending every rule in his path in the process.
Tanahashi gave as good as he got in Osaka at Power Struggle, the Ace uncharacteristically driving KENTA through a table before he finally fell to the Go2Sleep. As KENTA declined to defend his gold on a November sojourn to the US, the Ace would make a direct appeal during World Tag League; that he get another shot at the gold, with KENTA able to choose any stipulation he liked.
On December 15, after initial refusal from the BULLET CLUB member, the challenge was accepted, and the stipulation announced. January 5 will see a no disqualification bout. There is no doubt that classical master Tanahashi is going to be out of his comfort zone wrestling a style he has openly decried. Yet he must fight fire with fire if he is to defeat KENTA and become two time US Champion.
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Cobb
Singles record: 1-0 Naito
On January 4 2021, Tetsuya Naito, defeated by Kota Ibushi in the main event made a vow that he would be back in the headline picture by 2022. Such is not the case. As an injury put paid to his G1 Climax 31 campaign, and after narrowly missing out on the World Tag League final, Naito was without a Tokyo Doem narrative as he headed into tag team action on December 15 opposite Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan.
The Imperial Unit was on powerful form as ever as he seemed to sweep to a dominant victory alongside O-Khan. Yet as he scooped Naito for the Tour of the Islands, a hurricanrana counter would see Naito victorious, and not wanting to pass up the chance to grandstand, El Ingobernable was quick to rub his win in.
The furious Cobb would rush to attack Naito backstage, and issue a singles match challenge. That match now made, Cobb seeks to get even, while Naito will look for his second career win over the big man, and to carve his own narrative for 2022.
5th Match: SANADA vs Great-O-Khan
In the same tag team match that saw conflict arise between Jeff Cobb and Tetsuya Naito, Great-O-Khan declared that he had found ‘a new toy’ in SANADA. Cold Skull would humiliate the proficient grappler during the tag bout as he placed O-Khan in the Paradise Lock and yanked at his ceremonial braids. Admitting that SANADA had some admiration for the United Empire’s Dominator, SANADA still mocked O-Khan’s appearance, further drawing his ire, and making a confrontation inevitable. Two phenomenally skilled classical competitors will be squaring off one on one for the first time January 5.
4th match: NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships: HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH)
After CHAOS and HOUSE OF TORTURE’s feud spilled over both World Tag League and Best of the Super Jr. finals on December 15, the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Championships will be on the line in a match that will also carry with it fallout from night one on January 4. After YOH faces SHO on the night one opener, bad blood will still linger, and after championship action for Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI and EVIL, double champions could be present in the aftermath of this six man war.
3rd Match: KOPW 2022 Four Way
After night one’s kickoff will see a New Japan Ranbo to determine entrants, a four way battle on January 5 will see the first KOPW 2022 provisional trophy holder determined. Will Toru Yano continue his vise like grip on the King of Pro-Wrestling label, or will new philosophies flourish in 2022?
2nd Match: STARDOM Special: Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid vs Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani
For the first time in 20 years, Japan’s premier female athletes will take to a NJPW ring on the main card January 5 in this tag team bout. With broadcast TV, pay per view and NJPW World audiences watching, more eyes will be on STARDOM than at any point in history, as all four women will seek to make a mark for their promotion, and themselves. As four factions are represented here tonight, a random drawing saw uneasy partnerships made, as ‘Icon of STARDOM’ Mayu Iwatani teams with a former partner in current High Speed Champion Starlight Kid, now a member of the fiendish Oedo Tai. Meanwhile Saya Kamitani and Tam Nakano will team with one another just one week removed from what will be a vicious battle over the Wonder of STARDOM Championship December 29. What star will shine brightest in the Tokyo Dome?
1st Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championships: Flying Tiger (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) vs Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero) vs BULLET CLUB’s Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori)
A three way bout for the IWGP Junior tag titles will kick us off, as Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask defend against both BULLET CLUB’s Cutest tag Team and the Mega Coaches. When Ishimori and Phantasmo took on Tiger Mask and Ryohei Oiwa December 15, Phantasmo buried his loaded boot in the gut of Tiger Mask to make a violent challenge, Robbie Eagles rushing to his partner’s aid. Taguchi would come to assist Eagles, only to turn tail and land a hip attack on the Sniper of the Skies, declaring that he would bring Mr. Azucar with him to the Tokyo Dome. It’s a three way environment for the tag titles in the Dome; one to which Taguchi and Romero are well accustomed with partners from their past. Could that big match three way experience see them to the championships at last on January 5? Will BULLET CLUB regain tag glory? Or will Eagles and Tiger’s reign continue?
With an added kickoff to be announced at 4PM local time, it’s a huge night two for Wrestle Kingdom 16!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena card set
NOAH and NJPW in full force on ABEMA Pay-Per-View
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena LIVE IN ENGLISH ON PAY PER VIEW
Matches have been determined for Wrestle Kingdom 16, emanating from Yokohama Arena on January 8, and broadcasting live worldwide on ABEMA Pay-Per-View. The order of the PPV event’s nine main card matches has yet to be determined, but all will see the best both promotions have to offer in all-star collisions.
Two of NJPW and NOAH’s most popular factions will clash in a massive five on five tag team collision when Los Ingobernables De Japon on Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI face Kongo (Diamonds) in Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke and Aleja. At time of announcement, Shingo Takagi is IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, while Katsuhiko Nakajima wears NOAH’s richest prize in the form of the GHC Heavyweight title. Yet both men will see championship main event action across the Nippon Budokan and Tokyo Dome before January 8. Will they be the standard bearers for their companies at large tonight?
LIJ was formed under the ungovernable charisma of Tetsuya Naito, but Nakajima has an antagonistic charisma all his own that has seen him flourish in the emerald green. With current GHC National Champion, and often times rival of Nakajima, Kenoh together with the tank like Soya and junior heavyweight tag specialists Tadasuke and Aleja, they form a formidable group; but are they enough to compete with the all-star LIJ lineup?
An iconic tag battle will see NJPW’s dream team of Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi face Keiji Muto and Kaito Kiyomiya. The young Supernova of NOAH, Kiyomiya has been gunning for a match with Okada for over a year, and now gets his chance against the Rainmaker. Meanwhile Tanahashi, who directed pointed words toward Kiyomiya and NOAH at the announcement press conference, sees a lot of himself in the young star, and his struggles in the past against the legendary Keiji Muto. Tanahashi and Muto haven’t crossed paths since 2009, while Okada has a lot of praise for what Muto ‘used to mean’ to professional wrestling. Muto has done it all in the wrestling business, and will seek to show the Ace and the Rainmaker that he is still capable of fighting with the world’s very best.
EVIL and Dick Togo of HOUSE OF TORTURE will face NOAH’s Go Shiozaki and Masa Kitamiya. If a partisan NJPW fanbase will be rooting for NJPW’s best up and down the rest of the card, they may hold their applause for EVIL and Togo as they go up against Shiozaki and Kitamiya. Set to wrestle Nakajima for the GHC Heavyweight title on New Year’s Day, Shiozaki could be representing NOAH at large as its top champion tonight, and will not take nonsense gladly from the BULLET CLUB sub group, and the fiendishly strong Kitamiya will not take nonsense gladly from anyone.
Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinobu Kanemaru will represent NJPW on January 8, but both have rich histories with pro-wrestling NOAH, and the two men they face in Naomichi Marufuji and Yoshinari Ogawa. Sabre was a long time partner of Ogawa’s, and has credited the veteran junior heavyweight with moulding his European catch stylings to fit in Japanese rings. Kanemaru is arguably NOAH’s greatest GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, and can include among his many successes, several classic bouts with Marufuji.
Suzuki-Gun meets Sugiura Gun in six man action as Taichi, Minoru Suzuki and TAKA Micghinoku take on Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, and shockingly KENTA, the current IWGP United States Champion representing the emerald green in Yokohama. Sugiura has long fought on behalf of NOAH in their clashes with NJPW over the years, but when Suzuki-Gun invaded NOAH in the mid 2010s, it would be Sugiura that joined the group in their reign of terror, betraying NOAH in the process. Eventually seeing the error in his ways, Sugiura would rejoin the NOAH fold and saw to it that Suzuki-Gun were banished back to NJPW. Tonight, payback comes five years in the making, but where do KENTA’s allegiances lie?
CHAOS’ Tmohiro ishii, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI join Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato as they face former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Daisuke Harada and Hajima Ohara, along with the Mad Dog Daiki Inaba, young powerhouse Yoshiki Inamura and rising star Kinya Okada. The powerful clashes between Ishii and Inamura will be something to watch here, while Master Wato will be one to look for as he tries to assert himself against promising younger NOAH talent and accomplished juniors.
Suzuki-Gun’s El Desperado and DOUKI will be facing YO-HEY and NOSAWA Rongai of Perros Del Mal de Japon. The Dogs of Evil, Perros Del Mal earned a reputation in Mexico, in both CMLL and on the independent circuit. NOSAWA’s long history in Mexico granted him the connections to bring the group to Japan, and to NOAH, where he brought in members like former two time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion YO-HEY. Perros Del Mal is a faction with which DOUKI and Desperado are well familiar in their own journeys in Mexico. DOUKI’s nickname of Japones Del Mal is no coincidence, but how will he interact with the Japanese version of the group in Yokohama?
Taiji Ishimori will change up from his regular partner El Phantasmo to team with Gedo in action against STINGER’s HAYATA and Seiki Yoshioka. HAYATA and Taiji Ishimori have some previous, as the two frequently battled over the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Chamopionships before Ishimori made the leap to NJPW and BULLET CLUB. Now they pick up where they left off, and HAYATA being the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion on ly makes him a amore attractive prospect to the Bone Soldier.
SHO will face Atsushi Kotoge. The well travelled Kotoge will be looking to make a mark for himself and NOAH against SHO, whose loyalties lie firmly with HOUSE OF TORTURE rather than with NJPW at large. Fighting for himself rather than his company, SHO seeks to make an example of Kotoge and NOAH.
In the second of two special kickoff matches starting from 4PM local, the Third Generation of Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata face NOAH’s veteran trio of King Tany, Muhammad Yone and Akitoshi Saito. Both teams will seek to show that their generation can still bring the action, and fight with pride for their respective companies.
Yasutaka Yano of NOAH will face Kosei Fujita of NJPW in the first kickoff match of the night. The next generation of each promotion is being showcased here, as 21 year old Yano, at 15 months into his career, faces 19 year old Fujita at seven months of experience. Whose future will be brightest?
2022 kicks off in style January 4
Night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16 will see New Japan Pro-Wrestling kick off its 50th anniversary year with a fitting card that features the return of Katsuyori Shibata and four championship matches.
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship- Shingo Takagi vs Kazuchika Okada
Singles record: 2-1 Takagi Championship record: 1-0 Takagi
January 4’s main event will see IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi defend his title against the challenger and G1 Climax 31 winner, Kazuchika Okada.
While his designation reads ‘challenger’, Kazuchika Okada has consistently stated that he is walking into this bout feeling like a champion. The ‘G1 Championship’, symbolised not by the briefcase that he made a G1 tradition in 2012 but rather the V4 IWGP Heavyweight Championship belt that he made into an icon of pro-wrestling supremacy, is a greater achievement even than the IWGP World Heavyweight prize that Takagi holds. In the wake of Wrestle Kingdom, Okada has stated, we will find out who the strongest champion truly is.
The Rainmaker’s reasoning comes from having put himself through a near flawless G1 Climax 31 campaign, one that saw him to a 9-1 record during block action, with his sole blemish loss to Tama Tonga rectified weeks later at Power Struggle. Okada says that he put himself through a tournament of the best heavyweights in the world, including Shingo Takagi, and emerged on top. All true, but he did not beat the Dragon to do so. Indeed, Okada didn’t beat Shingo Takagi in two encounters this year, the LIJ member having rectified a G1 Climax 30 defeat with an impressive New japan Cup first round victory, and then delivering Last of the Dragon in Osaka at Dominion to claim the gold that sits around his waist.
Having lost to the Money Clip in 2020 though, one thing that Takagi has not experienced is the Rainmaker. That can be said of the move, and arguably of the man; after Okada lost the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on January 4 2020, he would undergo a period of reinvention and experimentation before finally coming full circle, defeating eternal rival Hiroshi Tanahashi to start his G1 31 campaign, and stating proudly that the Rainmaker had returned. This is a different Okada to the one that Takagi has faced before. Is it one that has the better of the champion?
7th Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship- El Desperado vs Hiromu Takahashi
Singles record: 2-2-1 Championship record: 1-0 Takahashi
After Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado went the 30 minute distance in their Best of the Super Jr. 28 league match, they both vowed to make the finals so that they could face off without the clock in the way. Hiromu would hold up his end of the bargain, battling YOH to a 38 minute victory to become a three time holder of the BOSJ trophy. Desperado would just fall short at the final hurdle, but this will only redouble his resolve to defeat his career rival in the semi main event tonight.
With every singles match Takahashi and Desperado have had since their first singles meeting in the 2018 Best of the Super Jr. tournament, another layer to a deeply complex relationship that swings wildly from love to hate to the fiercest of competition, gets added. Tonight, they will be driven not just to one up the other, but to further a junior heavyweight division that they both hold so dear. On January 5 2020, Takahashi walked out of the Tokyo Dome with the gold, declaring that one day, the title would be headlining in this building. Should the show be stolen on night one of Wrestle Kingdom 16, there will be a huge step made to just that very goal.
6th Match: IWGP Tag Team Championships: Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI)
Direct Tag record: 2-1 Dangerous Tekkers
IWGP Tag Team gold is on the line in the sixth match of the night as Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI challenge Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. In Hiroshima on December 12, CHAOS defeated the champions against the run of the match, Goto having had his knee severely damaged over the course of the bout before a quick flash pin saw he and YOSHI-HASHI to victory. The frustrated Taichi would make the CHAOS side swear to win the World Tag League so that the match could be run back; as CHAOS have kept their end of the bargain, could Tekkers get a raw deal?
In seven out of nine World Tag Leagues the winners of the trophies have maintained their momentum to sweep to championship victory in the Tokyo Dome. It is a statistic that Sabre and Taichi know all too well having fallen to 2020 WTL winners Guerrillas of Destiny at Wrestle Kingdom 15. Will the side buck historical trends to stay on top in the Tokyo Dome January 4?
5th Match: NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii vs EVIL
Singles record: 4-1 Ishii
Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI’s place in the IWGP Tag Team Championship bout can be attributed in no small part to the efforts of Tomohiro Ishii. As CHAOS struggled in the face of constant interference in their World Tag league final with HOUSE OF TORTURE, Ishii would hit the ring to clear the deck of Dick Togo and the steel chair that EVIL had brought to the ring. In the process he would reignite an issue with the King of Darkness that the Stone Pitbull will be only too happy to settle with the NEVER gold at stake.
Earlier in the summer EVIL would seek to go back to his roots in order to rest and aim for the top in NJPW. Facing a poor front half of 2021, EVIL aimed to take down a man that he had never beaten in five years of singles matches, and would take any means necessary to achieve success. In the end, it would be three men that took down Ishii in Nagoya at Summer Struggle, as Yujiro Takahashi and Dick Togo got involved. Will Ishii be able to overcome the odds to retain his gold at the Dome?
4th Match: Katsuyori Shibata vs X (Catch Wrestling Rules)
No strikes are permitted in this match
1,199 days have passed since Katsuyori Shibata last wrestled an official match in a New Japan ring. The victim of a subdural hematoma, it was widely believed that The Wrestler’s career was over, as Shibata rehabilitated and recovered, changing focus as he prepared the next generation of talent in the LA Dojo. Yet with a five minute grappling exhibition in the Nippon Budokan at the G1 finals, something, in Shibata’s own words ‘went from zero to one’, and a major step forward to an in ring return almost five years in the making had been made.
Then, Shibata promised that the next time he stepped in the ring, it would be in his ring gear, and in an official match. That match is January 4. The opponent is still to be determined, as are the rules that the contest will be fought under. But what is guaranteed is that The Wrestler will wrestle, and that this will be a moment in time every wrestling fan in the world needs to be a part of.
3rd Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (SANADA, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay & Great-O-Khan)
On night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16, the United Empire will advance into the Tokyo Dome looking to right a lot of perceived wrongs. Their Wrestle Kingdom 15 was intended to be a show of force for the faction, Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan each in highlighted singles matches. Yet the group lost each one of their bouts, and spent the year re-asserting themselves, in fearsome form.
Now the group looks to conquer in the Tokyo Dome, with Cobb and O-Khan in particular looking to set the pace tonight before their singles bouts with Tetsuya Naito and SANADA respectively. As Ospreay wrestles his first match in Japan since May 5 and prepares to face the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion on night two, the Dominator and the Imperial Unit want to make a definitive statement in a six man environment that they are arguably at their most dangerous in.
2nd Match: Rocky Romero, Ryusuke taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs BULLET CLUB (KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo)
NJPW Hontai will face off with BULLET CLUB in six man action in the second match of the night. On January 5, Hiroshi Tanahashi faces KENTA with the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at stake in a no disqualification match. Meanwhile, after a seemingly unilateral challenge from Ryusuke Taguchi on December 15, he and Mega Coaches partner Rocky Romero will be looking to claim IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team gold on night two, a challenge that BULLET CLUB’s Cutest Tag Team are taking exception to. It’ll all add up to a wild six man tag at the start of the night.
1st Match: YOH vs SHO
Singles record: 19-11-22 YOH
After staring down the barrel of a 0-4 deficit in Best of the Super Jr. 28, YOH would turn everything around by December 15. Ending the league 7-4, he made his way to the final where he battled Hiromu Takahashi to the longest and arguably most hard fought final in history.
That hard fought final was crashed, and almost ruined by SHO. HOUSE OF TORTURE’s Murder Machine was stopped by YOH on the last night of league action, crashing out of the tournament as his former partner made the finals. SHO attempted to stop the final he was no longer a part of, wiping out both contenders with piledrivers on the floor before being seen off by members of CHAOS and Los Ingobernables De Japon. Post match, a furious Hiromu Takahashi would declare that it was YOH’s responsibility to ‘shut SHO up for good’, and that’s exactly what he will seek to do in the first official match of Wrestle Kingdom 16.
Kick-Off: KOPW 2022 New Japan Ranbo
Kicking off the broadcast at the special start time of 4PM local will be the Tokyo Dome tradition of the KOPW Ranbo. With the KOPW title resetting as the calendar turns from 2021 to 2022, an as yet unspecified number of contenders will enter into a timed battle royal with elimination coming from over the top rope, pinfalls, submissions or DQs. The last four members remaining will be part of a four way battle for the new trophy January 5!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 night 2 (January 5) full card, preview 【WK16】
Second night of Tokyo Dome action with massive singles clashes, and history made
Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 sees the immense start to NJPW’s 50th Anniversary celebrations continue. Five title matches highlight the card, and the women of STARDOM make NJPW history!
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 night 2 (January 5) full card, preview 【WK16】
Second night of Tokyo Dome action with massive singles clashes, and history made
Night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 sees the immense start to NJPW’s 50th Anniversary celebrations continue. Five title matches highlight the card, and the women of STARDOM make NJPW history!
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 LIVE IN ENGLISH on NJPW World!
Or watch on the device of your choosing on FITE!
Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship- Shingo Takagi or Kazuchika Okada vs Will Ospreay
Our main event on night two will see the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on the line again as Will Ospreay will face the winner of January 4’s main event between Shingo Takagi and Kazuchika Okada.
Okada’s number one contender status, earned with a victory in G1 Climax 31 was undeniable, and cemented with a victory over Tama Tonga at Power Struggle on November 6. Yet Will Ospreay’s claim to the title is strong and legitimate in its own right. The second holder of the IWGP world Heavyweight Championship, Ospreay successfully defended his title on May 5 against Takagi, but, putting his body on the line in the process, would fall to injury, being stripped of his title as a result.
Ospreay, correctly, argues that he was never beaten for the championship, and is correctly next in line. In fact, confirmed by both Okada and Takagi in the wake of a face to face confrontation between the Rainmaker and the Commonwealth Kingpin at Battle in the Valley, neither January 4 contender has issue with Ospreay’s challenge. Yet plenty of fault can be found with Ospreay’s claim to being the ‘true world heavyweight champion’, and with the belt that ospreay has carried to rings around the world over the last four months.
On January 5, months of controversy will be resolved. On one hand, Ospreay could finally seek Tokyo Dome revenge over Okada from last year’s Wrestle Kingdom. The Tokyo Dome saw an epic clash between Okada and Ospreay to start 2021, and they were initially on course for a May 2021 rematch in the Tokyo Dome before injury and fate intervened. Meanwhile Shingo is hungry for revenge of his own against Ospreay, having fallen in defeat to the Briton in the New Japan Cup final and at Dontaku in 2021. Who will reign undisputed in New Japan Pro-Wrestling in 2022?
7th Match: IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship- No DQ: KENTA vs Hiroshi Tanahashi
Singles record 3-2 KENTA Championship record 1-0 KENTA
The IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship will be on the line in the semi main event January 5 as Hiroshi Tanahashi takes on KENTA. After winning the red and gold belt in style at Resurgence back in the summer, Tanahashi’s IWGP United States reign came crashing to a premature halt on November 6. Though the Ace had designs on frequent defences both in Japan and America, KENTAput paid to those plans, besting Tanahashi and bending every rule in his path in the process.
Tanahashi gave as good as he got in Osaka at Power Struggle, the Ace uncharacteristically driving KENTA through a table before he finally fell to the Go2Sleep. As KENTA declined to defend his gold on a November sojourn to the US, the Ace would make a direct appeal during World Tag League; that he get another shot at the gold, with KENTA able to choose any stipulation he liked.
On December 15, after initial refusal from the BULLET CLUB member, the challenge was accepted, and the stipulation announced. January 5 will see a no disqualification bout. There is no doubt that classical master Tanahashi is going to be out of his comfort zone wrestling a style he has openly decried. Yet he must fight fire with fire if he is to defeat KENTA and become two time US Champion.
6th Match: Tetsuya Naito vs Jeff Cobb
Singles record: 1-0 Naito
On January 4 2021, Tetsuya Naito, defeated by Kota Ibushi in the main event made a vow that he would be back in the headline picture by 2022. Such is not the case. As an injury put paid to his G1 Climax 31 campaign, and after narrowly missing out on the World Tag League final, Naito was without a Tokyo Doem narrative as he headed into tag team action on December 15 opposite Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan.
The Imperial Unit was on powerful form as ever as he seemed to sweep to a dominant victory alongside O-Khan. Yet as he scooped Naito for the Tour of the Islands, a hurricanrana counter would see Naito victorious, and not wanting to pass up the chance to grandstand, El Ingobernable was quick to rub his win in.
The furious Cobb would rush to attack Naito backstage, and issue a singles match challenge. That match now made, Cobb seeks to get even, while Naito will look for his second career win over the big man, and to carve his own narrative for 2022.
5th Match: SANADA vs Great-O-Khan
In the same tag team match that saw conflict arise between Jeff Cobb and Tetsuya Naito, Great-O-Khan declared that he had found ‘a new toy’ in SANADA. Cold Skull would humiliate the proficient grappler during the tag bout as he placed O-Khan in the Paradise Lock and yanked at his ceremonial braids. Admitting that SANADA had some admiration for the United Empire’s Dominator, SANADA still mocked O-Khan’s appearance, further drawing his ire, and making a confrontation inevitable. Two phenomenally skilled classical competitors will be squaring off one on one for the first time January 5.
4th match: NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships: HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO) vs CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH)
After CHAOS and HOUSE OF TORTURE’s feud spilled over both World Tag League and Best of the Super Jr. finals on December 15, the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Championships will be on the line in a match that will also carry with it fallout from night one on January 4. After YOH faces SHO on the night one opener, bad blood will still linger, and after championship action for Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI and EVIL, double champions could be present in the aftermath of this six man war.
3rd Match: KOPW 2022 Four Way
After night one’s kickoff will see a New Japan Ranbo to determine entrants, a four way battle on January 5 will see the first KOPW 2022 provisional trophy holder determined. Will Toru Yano continue his vise like grip on the King of Pro-Wrestling label, or will new philosophies flourish in 2022?
2nd Match: STARDOM Special: Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid vs Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani
For the first time in 20 years, Japan’s premier female athletes will take to a NJPW ring on the main card January 5 in this tag team bout. With broadcast TV, pay per view and NJPW World audiences watching, more eyes will be on STARDOM than at any point in history, as all four women will seek to make a mark for their promotion, and themselves. As four factions are represented here tonight, a random drawing saw uneasy partnerships made, as ‘Icon of STARDOM’ Mayu Iwatani teams with a former partner in current High Speed Champion Starlight Kid, now a member of the fiendish Oedo Tai. Meanwhile Saya Kamitani and Tam Nakano will team with one another just one week removed from what will be a vicious battle over the Wonder of STARDOM Championship December 29. What star will shine brightest in the Tokyo Dome?
1st Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championships: Flying Tiger (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) vs Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero) vs BULLET CLUB’s Cutest Tag Team (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori)
A three way bout for the IWGP Junior tag titles will kick us off, as Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask defend against both BULLET CLUB’s Cutest tag Team and the Mega Coaches. When Ishimori and Phantasmo took on Tiger Mask and Ryohei Oiwa December 15, Phantasmo buried his loaded boot in the gut of Tiger Mask to make a violent challenge, Robbie Eagles rushing to his partner’s aid. Taguchi would come to assist Eagles, only to turn tail and land a hip attack on the Sniper of the Skies, declaring that he would bring Mr. Azucar with him to the Tokyo Dome. It’s a three way environment for the tag titles in the Dome; one to which Taguchi and Romero are well accustomed with partners from their past. Could that big match three way experience see them to the championships at last on January 5? Will BULLET CLUB regain tag glory? Or will Eagles and Tiger’s reign continue?
With an added kickoff to be announced at 4PM local time, it’s a huge night two for Wrestle Kingdom 16!
Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena card set
NOAH and NJPW in full force on ABEMA Pay-Per-View
Watch Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena LIVE IN ENGLISH ON PAY PER VIEW
Matches have been determined for Wrestle Kingdom 16, emanating from Yokohama Arena on January 8, and broadcasting live worldwide on ABEMA Pay-Per-View. The order of the PPV event’s nine main card matches has yet to be determined, but all will see the best both promotions have to offer in all-star collisions.
Two of NJPW and NOAH’s most popular factions will clash in a massive five on five tag team collision when Los Ingobernables De Japon on Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI face Kongo (Diamonds) in Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke and Aleja. At time of announcement, Shingo Takagi is IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, while Katsuhiko Nakajima wears NOAH’s richest prize in the form of the GHC Heavyweight title. Yet both men will see championship main event action across the Nippon Budokan and Tokyo Dome before January 8. Will they be the standard bearers for their companies at large tonight?
LIJ was formed under the ungovernable charisma of Tetsuya Naito, but Nakajima has an antagonistic charisma all his own that has seen him flourish in the emerald green. With current GHC National Champion, and often times rival of Nakajima, Kenoh together with the tank like Soya and junior heavyweight tag specialists Tadasuke and Aleja, they form a formidable group; but are they enough to compete with the all-star LIJ lineup?
An iconic tag battle will see NJPW’s dream team of Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi face Keiji Muto and Kaito Kiyomiya. The young Supernova of NOAH, Kiyomiya has been gunning for a match with Okada for over a year, and now gets his chance against the Rainmaker. Meanwhile Tanahashi, who directed pointed words toward Kiyomiya and NOAH at the announcement press conference, sees a lot of himself in the young star, and his struggles in the past against the legendary Keiji Muto. Tanahashi and Muto haven’t crossed paths since 2009, while Okada has a lot of praise for what Muto ‘used to mean’ to professional wrestling. Muto has done it all in the wrestling business, and will seek to show the Ace and the Rainmaker that he is still capable of fighting with the world’s very best.
EVIL and Dick Togo of HOUSE OF TORTURE will face NOAH’s Go Shiozaki and Masa Kitamiya. If a partisan NJPW fanbase will be rooting for NJPW’s best up and down the rest of the card, they may hold their applause for EVIL and Togo as they go up against Shiozaki and Kitamiya. Set to wrestle Nakajima for the GHC Heavyweight title on New Year’s Day, Shiozaki could be representing NOAH at large as its top champion tonight, and will not take nonsense gladly from the BULLET CLUB sub group, and the fiendishly strong Kitamiya will not take nonsense gladly from anyone.
Zack Sabre Jr. and Yoshinobu Kanemaru will represent NJPW on January 8, but both have rich histories with pro-wrestling NOAH, and the two men they face in Naomichi Marufuji and Yoshinari Ogawa. Sabre was a long time partner of Ogawa’s, and has credited the veteran junior heavyweight with moulding his European catch stylings to fit in Japanese rings. Kanemaru is arguably NOAH’s greatest GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion, and can include among his many successes, several classic bouts with Marufuji.
Suzuki-Gun meets Sugiura Gun in six man action as Taichi, Minoru Suzuki and TAKA Micghinoku take on Takashi Sugiura, Kazushi Sakuraba, and shockingly KENTA, the current IWGP United States Champion representing the emerald green in Yokohama. Sugiura has long fought on behalf of NOAH in their clashes with NJPW over the years, but when Suzuki-Gun invaded NOAH in the mid 2010s, it would be Sugiura that joined the group in their reign of terror, betraying NOAH in the process. Eventually seeing the error in his ways, Sugiura would rejoin the NOAH fold and saw to it that Suzuki-Gun were banished back to NJPW. Tonight, payback comes five years in the making, but where do KENTA’s allegiances lie?
CHAOS’ Tmohiro ishii, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI join Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato as they face former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Daisuke Harada and Hajima Ohara, along with the Mad Dog Daiki Inaba, young powerhouse Yoshiki Inamura and rising star Kinya Okada. The powerful clashes between Ishii and Inamura will be something to watch here, while Master Wato will be one to look for as he tries to assert himself against promising younger NOAH talent and accomplished juniors.
Suzuki-Gun’s El Desperado and DOUKI will be facing YO-HEY and NOSAWA Rongai of Perros Del Mal de Japon. The Dogs of Evil, Perros Del Mal earned a reputation in Mexico, in both CMLL and on the independent circuit. NOSAWA’s long history in Mexico granted him the connections to bring the group to Japan, and to NOAH, where he brought in members like former two time GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion YO-HEY. Perros Del Mal is a faction with which DOUKI and Desperado are well familiar in their own journeys in Mexico. DOUKI’s nickname of Japones Del Mal is no coincidence, but how will he interact with the Japanese version of the group in Yokohama?
Taiji Ishimori will change up from his regular partner El Phantasmo to team with Gedo in action against STINGER’s HAYATA and Seiki Yoshioka. HAYATA and Taiji Ishimori have some previous, as the two frequently battled over the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Chamopionships before Ishimori made the leap to NJPW and BULLET CLUB. Now they pick up where they left off, and HAYATA being the current GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion on ly makes him a amore attractive prospect to the Bone Soldier.
SHO will face Atsushi Kotoge. The well travelled Kotoge will be looking to make a mark for himself and NOAH against SHO, whose loyalties lie firmly with HOUSE OF TORTURE rather than with NJPW at large. Fighting for himself rather than his company, SHO seeks to make an example of Kotoge and NOAH.
In the second of two special kickoff matches starting from 4PM local, the Third Generation of Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima and Yuji Nagata face NOAH’s veteran trio of King Tany, Muhammad Yone and Akitoshi Saito. Both teams will seek to show that their generation can still bring the action, and fight with pride for their respective companies.
Yasutaka Yano of NOAH will face Kosei Fujita of NJPW in the first kickoff match of the night. The next generation of each promotion is being showcased here, as 21 year old Yano, at 15 months into his career, faces 19 year old Fujita at seven months of experience. Whose future will be brightest?
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