NJPW 1/4 WRESTLE KINGDOM 11 in TOKYO DOME

[Raziel]

Full Card and Match Order:

 

Main Event: IWGP Heavyweight Championship

"Rainmaker" Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS) (c) vs. "The Cleaner" Kenny Omega (Bullet Club)

 

Semi-Final: IWGP Intercontinental Championship

Tetsuya Naito (Los Ingobernables de Japon) (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi

 

NEVER Openweight Championship:

Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Harooki Goto (CHAOS)

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship

KUSHIDA (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi (Los Ingobernables de Japon)

 

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Three Way Match

Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) (Bullet Club) (c) vs. Glory Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) vs. CHAOS (Toro Yano & Tomohiro Ishii)

 

RoH World Championship

Kyle O'Reilly (c) vs. Adam Cole (Bullet Club)

 

Special Single Match

"The American Nightmare" Cody (Bullet Club) vs. Juice Robinson

 

NEVER Openweight 6 Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match

Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet, & David Finlay (c) vs.

Los Ingobernables de Japon ("King of Darkness" EVIL, SANADA, & BUSHI) vs.

CHAOS (Gedo, YOSHI-HASHI, & Will Ospreay) vs.

Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi, & Hangman Page)

 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship

The Young Bucks (Nick & Matt Jackson) (Bullet Club) (c) vs. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero and Trent Beretta) (CHAOS) 

 

Special Single Match

Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger The Dark

 

Pre-Show: New Japan Rumble

 

[Attila The Hut]

The IWGP heavyweight tag belts will be defended against the Tag League tournament winners if recent history is any indication.

[Cyanide]

My kneejerk response to Shibata dropping the NEVER belt to EVIL was he finally actually needed rest and/or surgery for all the shit that's fucked up with him (why else sink a potential marquee singles bout for the title at WK?).  But he's Shibata and they're burning the rematch at the Singapore show next week and he's doing Tag League with Nagata.  I doubt he takes the title right back, so maybe they have other things in mind for him (unless he does, and then the rubber match is at WK. SPECULATION~).  Given the fallout from the NOAH match I'd assume Shibata/Shiozaki II is still viable, but all the NOAH sale stuff is probably a huge monkey wrench right now.

Speaking of World Tag League, I'd love to see that Shibata/Nagata team take it all, but really it's hard to see anyone but Goto/Ishii coming out on top, and I'd say there's a pretty good chance they take the titles off GoD at WK.

Other than that, maybe an LIJ challenge for the six-man titles?  If EVIL is still wearing gold come January, maybe they could do SANADA/BUSHI/whoever the new member is.

[Andy Stowell]

It just not Wrestle Kingdom if one of the matches doesn't involve Toru Yano showing up with a wacky mystery partner.

 

[ben.]

I picked up my WrestleKingdom tickets a few weeks ago and got my ringside~! New Years Dash seats this morning, I'm so excited for these shows.

 

I agree on Ishii/Goto taking the tag league, what else do they have for Goto to do at this point? You could move him and Sanada into a feud I guess but if he doesn't have something on the bigger end of the card, it will just be shitting all over him and their attempts to get him over for the past year.

 

I really want to see Shibata in a singles honestly, my original hope was him Vs. Nakajima or Shiozaki but with Nakajima winning the NOAH title along with NOAH getting bought out, I'm not sure either of those is an option. A lot of people are throwing Cody Rhodes' name around and while his showing at BOLA wasn't that bad, it isn't a match I want to see unless it is Shibata's professional soccer tryout. 

[Infinit]

When was the last time the masked LIJ mystery 4th guy made an appearance?

[Cyanide]

39 minutes ago, ben. said:

I picked up my WrestleKingdom tickets a few weeks ago and got my ringside~! New Years Dash seats this morning, I'm so excited for these shows.

That's so awesome.  Enjoy!

Quote

I really want to see Shibata in a singles honestly, my original hope was him Vs. Nakajima or Shiozaki but with Nakajima winning the NOAH title along with NOAH getting bought out, I'm not sure either of those is an option. A lot of people are throwing Cody Rhodes' name around and while his showing at BOLA wasn't that bad, it isn't a match I want to see unless it is Shibata's professional soccer tryout. 

I had forgotten about the whole Cody Rhodes angle - that does seem like something they could transition into pretty easily now, for better or worse.

2 minutes ago, Infinit said:

When was the last time the masked LIJ mystery 4th guy made an appearance?

Not since the Destruction shows, I don't think, but Naito's got a mystery partner for the World Tag League, so we'll see.

[The Z]

I wonder, if Ibushi will be on the show and if so what he will do.

[Raziel]

Updated with the Tag Title match after today's results of the Tag League Final.  Going to wait until it's official, but it's pretty much a lock of Shibata/Goto for the NEVER belt.

[Casey]

The only matches missing from the original post, now that the card is official and you were spot on, are:

1. Pre-show Rumble
2. Tiger Mask W vs. Tiger The Dark
3. NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag-Team Championship: Satoshi Kojima, Ricochet, & David Finlay (c) vs. LIdJ (SANADA/EVIL/BUSHI) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii/Will Ospreay/YOSHI-HASHI) vs. Bullet Club (Hangman Page/Yujiro Takahashi/Bad Luck Fale)
4. Juice Robinson vs. Cody Rhodes
5. ROH World Championship: Kyle O'Reilly (c) vs. Adam Cole

And there's probably going to be an announcement this week about this being broadcast in the US on PPV. I'm pretty sure they at least broke even the last time they did this, maybe even made a little bit of a profit. The latest article I can find about it said they only need 10k ended up with somewhere between 12k-15k.

[Raziel]

OP edited with full lineup and match order.  Cody vs. Robinson is either going to be good or absolutely suck, there won't be much inbetween.  The 6 man Gauntlet is the ultimate "get everyone on the card" match, but with the gauntlet rules at least it'll be 3 matches in one.  It's neat that Ibushi will be on the card, although I  hope we get someone interesting in the Tiger The Dark hood and not just NJPW giving Ibushi a throwaway and stucking Taguchi under there.

[Curt McGirt]

Who are Tiger Mask W and Tiger the Dark? Looked up Juice Robinson and I guess he's a WWE developmental guy, any talent there? He looks like Vampiro's '90s era twin. 

The only match on the show that looks interesting to me honestly is of course the Shibata match. Bullet Club and Ingobernables having a member in just about every single match is getting to be a bit much. 

[The Z]

Tiger Mask W is Ibushi, Tiger the Dark will supposedly be ACH.

Juice Robinson is the fomer CJ Parker from NXT.

[Ace]

33 minutes ago, Curt McGirt said:

Who are Tiger Mask W and Tiger the Dark? Looked up Juice Robinson and I guess he's a WWE developmental guy, any talent there? He looks like Vampiro's '90s era twin. 

The only match on the show that looks interesting to me honestly is of course the Shibata match. Bullet Club and Ingobernables having a member in just about every single match is getting to be a bit much. 

Juice Robinson was CJ Parker in NXT. He was the hippie that busted up Kevin Owens in his first match.

 

[Curt McGirt]

Now I'm imagining a six-man match with all Tiger Masks, minus the obvious one: Sayama/Kanemoto/IV vs. Ibushi/ACH/Rocky Romero. Or if you don't wanna cheat and throw a Black Tiger in steal one of the Tigers from the BattlARTS/FUTEN crowd

[Salads]

There are enough Tigers out there to do a proper ten man and still have leverage to leave IV out.

[Evil Otto]

I have to give him his due, Juice Robinson has worked damn hard to adapt to New Japan, and the fans have started to really warm up to him in kind.  One of the more noticeably improved wrestlers, Japanese or foreign, over the past year in Japan.

[Raziel]

OP Edited to reflect announced changes to the Heavy Tag and 6 Man Tag Title matches

[Spritenaut 32]

Lord, that six-man is going to be a clusterf***.

 

I can get behind a Yano/Ishii team.

[nofuture]

New Japan World has posted all the January 4th Dome shows for free (no account required).  http://njpwworld.com/c/t_0000_2016_41

[Pete]

Oh man, starting to watch last year's show and Jushin Liger, world's biggest Cheeseburger fan is the greatest thing ever. "Go get Fujiwara, Cheesey! You can do it, we got your back!"

[Curt McGirt]

Wrestle Kingdom is going to be airing on AXS TV starting Friday, Jan. 13th if you want to see it there. They're stretching it out over four weeks. Nice of them to pick up the pace. They also renewed World Pro for over 50 more episodes! 

[Jenalysis]

A bit unrelated, but thinking about New Japan World, what sort of weekly content do you get there- would be getting it for the 1/4 show of course, but is there a reason to keep it afterwards?

 

[Infinit]

There are 6 other live shows in January, along with Wrestle Kingdom.

[lostinube]

Going on at the Tokyo Dome right now: