Wrestle Kingdom 16 To Be A 3-Night Event
:njpw:
New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that Wrestle Kingdom in January will be a 3-night event next year. The event will take place on January 4th and 5th from the Tokyo Dome and then on January 8th from the Yokohama Arena. The announcement was made during the intermission of today’s Wrestle Grand Slam event.
While there have been 15 Wrestle Kingdom events in the Tokyo Dome dating back to 2007, there has been an annual Tokyo Dome show in the venue on January 4th dating back to 1992. The Super Warriors in the Tokyo Dome show in 1992 was a joint show with WCW that featured Sting and the Great Muta taking on the Steiner Brothers. Riki Choshu also defeated Tatsumi Fujinami on the show.
The first Wrestle Kingdom event in 2007 saw Keiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono defeat Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima). In 2020, Wrestle Kingdom expanded to two nights. Tetsuya Naito won both heavyweight titles by defeating Kazuchika Okada on Night 2 that year. Kota Ibushi won both belts after defeating Jay White on Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom last year.
Wrestle Kingdom in 2022 will be the 31st consecutive year New Japan has presented a big show on January 4th.
