Wrestle Kingdom 20
2026 New Japan Pro-Wrestling event
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Wrestle Kingdom 20 was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2026 at the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 35th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the 20th promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name.
| Wrestle Kingdom 20 | |||
|---|---|---|---|
Promotional poster featuring images of Hiroshi Tanahashi throughout his career | |||
| Promotion | New Japan Pro-Wrestling | ||
| Date | January 4, 2026 | ||
| City | Tokyo, Japan | ||
| Venue | Tokyo Dome | ||
| Attendance | 46,913[1] | ||
| Event chronology | |||
| |||
| Wrestle Kingdom chronology | |||
| |||
It was the first January 4 Tokyo Dome show to be aired on TV Asahi in Japan since 2004 and was also broadcast live on the NJPW World streaming service.[2] Wrestle Kingdom 20 featured the final match of Hiroshi Tanahashi's 25-year professional wrestling career, the professional wrestling debut of former judoka Olympic gold medalist Aaron Wolf, the NJPW debuts of DDT Pro Wrestling's Chris Brookes and Kaisei Takechi, and the NJPW return of Andrade El Ídolo, who last wrestled in NJPW as La Sombra back in 2015. The event also marked the NJPW returns of Jake Lee, Francesco Akira, Jay White, Will Ospreay, Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Katsuyori Shibata, Keiji Muto, Tatsumi Fujinami, Tetsuya Naito, and Bushi.
Nine matches were contested at the event, with two taking place on the pre-show. In the main event, Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi. In other prominent matches, Yota Tsuji defeated Konosuke Takeshita in a Winner Takes All match to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and retain the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship, Aaron Wolf defeated Evil to win the NEVER Openweight Championship, United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Henare, Andrade El Ídolo, and Jake Lee) defeated Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, and Drilla Moloney) and Unaffiliated (Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi) in a ten-man tag team match, and Syuri defeated Saya Kamitani in a Winner Takes All match to retain the IWGP Women's Championship and win the Strong Women's Championship.
Production
| Role: | Name: |
|---|---|
| English Commentators | Walker Stewart |
| Chris Charlton | |
| Rocky Romero (Guest) | |
| Japanese Commentators | Shinpei Nogami |
| Milano Collection A.T. | |
| Katsuhiko Kanazawa | |
| Kazuyoshi Sakai | |
| Maika (Guest) | |
| Toru Yano (Guest) | |
| Masahiro Chono (Guest) | |
| Ring announcers | Taisei Watanabe |
| Makoto Abe | |
| Referees | |
| Daichi Murayama | |
| Kenta Sato | |
| Yuya Sakamoto | |
| Marty Asami | |
| Red Shoes Unno |
Background
The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show is NJPW's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest professional wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl".[3][4] The show has been promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name since 2007.[5]
Wrestle Kingdom 20 was announced on October 14, 2024 at King of Pro-Wrestling by NJPW president Hiroshi Tanahashi; who would retire from in-ring competition at the event.[6][7]
On June 23, 2025, NJPW announced that they signed former Olympic judoka gold medalist Aaron Wolf and that he would make his pro wrestling debut at Wrestle Kingdom 20.[8]
On October 2, NJPW announced that over 20,000 tickets had been sold in the first day of onsale, with sales increasing to over 31,000 by November 3.[9][10] By November 16, the event was completely sold out; as a result, NJPW announced they'd be expanding the seating plan in order to release more tickets, which went on sale on November 30.[11][12]
Results
Notes
- Other participants in order of elimination: Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors, Oskar, and Yuto-Ice), Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, and Ryusuke Taguchi, Team 150 (Tomohiro Ishii, Taichi and Satoshi Kojima), Kaisei Takechi, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura), Toru Yano, Master Wato and Yoh (c), and House of Torture (Ren Narita, Sanada, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru).