For NJPW Tokyo Dome events on other dates, see Professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome.

The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show is a professional wrestling event produced annually on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), a Japan-based professional wrestling promotion. NJPW has promoted events in the venue every January 4 since Super Warriors in Tokyo Dome in 1992. Since its debut on pay-per-view in 2007, the January 4 show has been branded as Wrestle Kingdom.

The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show became NJPW's premier annual event and the biggest event in Japanese wrestling, similar to what WrestleMania is for WWE and American professional wrestling. It has been described as "the largest professional wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl". Since 2014, NJPW has scheduled supporting shows on the days before or after January 4, including a second Wrestle Kingdom show in the Tokyo Dome between 2020 and 2023.

NJPW began running events at the Tokyo Dome with Battle Satellite in Tokyo Dome in April 1989. This proved successful enough to repeat each year, with Super Fight in February 1990, the collaborative WWF/AJPW/NJPW Wrestling Summit in April 1990, and the World Championship Wrestling joint venture Starrcade in Tokyo Dome in March 1991. The latter WCW/New Japan Supershow became a brief annual theme, with the second & third such events being the first two to take place on the date of January 4, a tradition that outlasted the WCW partnership and has remained since. All of the Dome shows have featured championship matches, including several titles not owned by NJPW. On three occasions (1998, 2006 and 2013), no titles changed hands during the show. The 2019 show, which featured eight title matches, was the first in which all contested titles changed hands.

Some of the earlier January 4 show attendance numbers have been disputed. Officially, the 1993 Tokyo Dome show set the attendance record with 63,500 fans packing the Tokyo Dome, while according to Dave Meltzer, the 1998 show holds the record with an attendance of 55,000. The lowest attendances for any Dome Shows were for the 2021 event, held under attendance restrictions due to COVID-19; NJPW announced an attendance of 12,689 for the first night and 7,801 for the second. Prior to COVID-19, the 2007 and 2011 Dome shows drew the lowest unofficial gates, with only 18,000 in attendance.

As of 2021, the January 4 shows (including matches held on January 5 as part of two-night events) have hosted 328 matches (not including dark or pre-show matches), 126 of which were title matches leading to 69 title changes in total. The 2005 Tokyo Dome show had a 16-match card, the largest of any single-night show, while 2001, 2002, 2007, 2013, 2016, 2018 and 2019 featured 9 matches, the lowest number of matches on a single-night show (again, not counting dark or pre-show matches). The first two-night show in 2020 featured a total of 16 matches, tying the 2005 show for the most in a single event, but each night featured only eight matches, fewer than any previous Dome Show card. The second two-night show in 2021, affected by COVID-19, had only 6 matches scheduled for each night.

Events #YearEventMain EventRef1992Super Warriors in Tokyo DomeRiki Choshu (Greatest 18) vs. Tatsumi Fujinami (IWGP Heavyweight) for the Greatest 18 Championship and IWGP Heavyweight Championship1993Fantastic Story in Tokyo DomeGenichiro Tenryu vs. Riki Choshu1994BattlefieldAntonio Inoki vs. Genichiro Tenryu1995Battle 7Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship1996Wrestling World 1996Keiji Mutoh (c) vs. Nobuhiko Takada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship1997Wrestling World 1997Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Riki Choshu for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship1998Final Power Hall in Tokyo DomeKensuke Sasaki (c) vs. Keiji Mutoh for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship1999Wrestling World 1999Scott Norton (c) vs. Keiji Mutoh for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship2000Wrestling World 2000Genichiro Tenryu (c) vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship2001Wrestling World 2001Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toshiaki Kawada in the IWGP Heavyweight Championship tournament final2002Wrestling World 2002Jun Akiyama (c) vs. Yuji Nagata for the GHC Heavyweight Championship2003Wrestling World 2003Yuji Nagata (c) vs. Josh Barnett for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship132004Wrestling World 2004Shinsuke Nakamura (IWGP) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (NWF) for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and NWF Heavyweight Championship142005Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship152006Toukon Shidou Chapter 1Brock Lesnar (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship162007Wrestle Kingdom IKeiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono vs. Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima)172008Wrestle Kingdom IIHiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship182009Wrestle Kingdom IIIKeiji Mutoh (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship192010Wrestle Kingdom IVShinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship202011Wrestle Kingdom VSatoshi Kojima (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship212012Wrestle Kingdom VIHiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Minoru Suzuki for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship222013Wrestle Kingdom 7Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship232014Wrestle Kingdom 8Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship242015Wrestle Kingdom 9Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship252016Wrestle Kingdom 10Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship262017Wrestle Kingdom 11Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship272018Wrestle Kingdom 12Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship282019Wrestle Kingdom 13Kenny Omega (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship292020Wrestle Kingdom 14: Night 1Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship""""Wrestle Kingdom 14: Night 2Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship302021Wrestle Kingdom 15: Night 1Tetsuya Naito (c) vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship""""Wrestle Kingdom 15: Night 2Kota Ibushi (c) vs. Jay White for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship312022Wrestle Kingdom 16: Night 1Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship""""Wrestle Kingdom 16: Night 2Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship322023Wrestle Kingdom 17: Night 1Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship332024Wrestle Kingdom 18Sanada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship342025Wrestle Kingdom 19 Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Shota Umino for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship352026Wrestle Kingdom 20 Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada362027Wrestle Kingdom 21 TBA

See also

List of New Japan Pro-Wrestling pay-per-view events Professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome

Footnotes

References

External links The official New Japan website