New Year Dash!! is a professional wrestling event held annually by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It is held every year the day after Wrestle Kingdom, the biggest show of the year for New Japan, starting at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014. There have been eight events under the name held so far, with the traditional January 5 date. In 2020 and 2021, with Wrestle Kingdom a two-night event, New Year Dash!! was held on January 6. The event was not held in 2022. After it was confirmed that Wrestle Kingdom would return to a one-day event for 2023, the event returned to its original January 5 date.
Production
Background New Year Dash!! is traditionally held at Korakuen Hall, a prestigious venue right next to the Tokyo Dome, where Wrestle Kingdom is held. The 2020 edition, however, was held at Ota City General Gymnasium due to the event being the official retirement ceremony for Jyushin Thunder Liger. The 2021 edition was held at Tokyo Dome City Hall, another venue right next to the Dome.
Storylines New Year Dash!! features professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches. New Year Dash!! is the night were New Japan Pro-Wrestling starts many new storylines and feuds after most have ended the night before at Wrestle Kingdom. Dash!! is an exciting show, where fans tune in to see how the promotion will start the year in terms of stories leading into the New Beginning shows. Because of its "reset"-like nature after the company's biggest show of the year, many fans see Dash!! as NJPW's equivalent to the first Raw after WrestleMania in WWE.
Date and venues
EventDateCityVenueMain eventNew Year Dash!! (2014)January 5, 2014Tokyo, JapanKorakuen HallCaptain New Japan, Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tetsuya Naito vs. Chaos (Shinsuke Nakamura, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, and Yoshi-Hashi) New Year Dash!! (2015)January 5, 2015Bullet Club (AJ Styles, Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson, and Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata and Tetsuya NaitoNew Year Dash!! (2016)January 5, 2016Toru Yano and The Briscoes (Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe) (c) vs. Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Nick Jackson and Matt Jackson) for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team ChampionshipNew Year Dash!! (2017)January 5, 2017Los Ingobernables de Japón (Evil, Bushi, and Sanada) (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Manabu Nakanishi, and Ryusuke Taguchi for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team ChampionshipNew Year Dash!! (2018) January 5, 2018 Los Ingobernables de Japón (Evil, Bushi, Sanada, Hiromu Takahashi, and Tetsuya Naito) vs. Chaos (Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto, Gedo, Will Ospreay, and Yoshi-Hashi)New Year Dash!! (2019)January 5, 2019Bullet Club (Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, and Gedo) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi and Chaos (Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi) New Year Dash!! (2020)January 6, 2020Ota City General Gymnasium Los Ingobernables de Japón (Sanada and Tetsuya Naito) vs. Bullet Club (Jay White and Kenta)New Year Dash!! (2021)January 6, 2021Tokyo Dome City HallLos Ingobernables de Japón (Tetsuya Naito, Sanada, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, and Bushi) vs. Master Wato, Golden Ace (Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi) and Roppongi 3K (Rocky Romero and Sho) New Year Dash!! (2023)January 5, 2023Ota City General GymnasiumKazuchika Okada and Kenny Omega vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare and Jeff Cobb)New Year Dash!! (2024)January 5, 2024Sumida City GymnasiumTMDK (Zack Sabre Jr., Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls) vs Chaos (Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada) and Blackpool Combat Club (Jon Moxley and Bryan Danielson)New Year Dash!! (2025)January 6, 2025Ota City General GymnasiumChaos (Rocky Romero, Yoh, Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) vs. TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa, Kosei Fujita and Robbie Eagles))New Year Dash!! (2026)January 5, 2026Knock Out Brothers (Oskar and Yuto-Ice) (c) vs. TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa) for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
Results
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2023
2024
2025
2026
References
External links New Japan Pro-Wrestling Official website