How many people watched Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome?
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Wrestle Kingdom 9 drew 36,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, reportedly (accordingly to "Wrestleview.com" and the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter") the best attendance for a NJPW January 4 Tokyo Dome Show in 13 years. The event reportedly had 12,000 to 15,000 purchases in North America.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
"Kobe Shimbun" "Daily Sports Online" called Tanahashi "Mr. Tokyo Dome" for winning his fifth consecutive Wrestle Kingdom main event in the arena. Jason Namako of "Wrestleview.com", who watched the Japanese version of the show via New Japan World, said that the event "proved one thing, "puroresu" is, beyond a shadow of doubt, indeed "ichiban"!!" Meanwhile, Aaron Oster of "The Baltimore Sun" wrote that "Wrestle Kingdom 9 has to be considered a success".
Wrestling World 2002
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".
Wrestling Dontaku 1993
"Wrestling Dontaku" was a huge success as the event drew a huge crowd of 55,000 spectators at the Fukuoka Dome. However, the event received mixed reviews from critics. Kevin Wilson of "Puroresu Central" considered that he would not recommend the event to watch, with "Muta vs. Hogan was a spectacle worth watching but nothing else on this tape is worth going out of your way to see. The main event was old school, but nothing great. The Liger match was disappointing, the Sting match was short and inconclusive, the Warriors match was fun but pretty normal for them and the rest ranged from bad to decent." He praised the champion vs. champion match between Muta and Hogan, considering it the best match of the event and the only worthwhile match of the event. He gave the match a rating of 7.6. The main event tag team match considered it to be "classic old school battle, consisting of submission holds (many meaningless) and a slow pace that builds up to a hot ending. There was nothing really wrong with this match, but it was pretty slow and the crowd only got really into it when Inoki was involved". He noted that the match got underway just due to Inoki's fanbase but the quality of the match "wasn’t great by any means".
Wembley Stadium (1923)
In 1992, the World Wrestling Federation (now known as WWE) drew a sellout of 80,355 when SummerSlam was hosted at Wembley Stadium. The main event featured English wrestler Davey Boy Smith winning the Intercontinental Championship from Bret Hart. As of April 2016, the WWE considers this to be their fourth largest live gate in history behind only WrestleMania 32 (2016) which drew a reported 101,763, WrestleMania III (1987) which drew a reported 93,173 and WrestleMania 29 (2013) which drew 80,676 fans.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Tanahashi next tried a "Rainmaker", which Okada countered with one of his own and scored a nearfall. Although Okada attempted the "Rainmaker" three more times, Tanahashi countered with a bridging straitjacket German suplex, a bridging dragon suplex, a series of dragon-screw legwhips, and three "High Fly Flows". The first was a crossbody while Okada was on the ropes; the second a frog splash to a seated Okada, and the third another frog splash, after which Tanahashi scored a pinfall on Okada to retain the title at 30 minutes and 57 seconds. Okada wept as he left the ring, and Tanahashi shouted that his opponent had a long way to go before becoming the New Japan ace. Tanahashi closed the show, thanking the fans and performing his air guitar routine.
SummerSlam (1992)
WWE considers the crowd to be the fourth largest live audience ever to attend a WWF/E event, with 80,355 in attendance; WrestleMania 29 in 2013 is reported as having 80,676 fans in attendance, WrestleMania III in 1987 is reported as having 93,173 fans in attendance and WrestleMania 32 in 2016 is reported as having 101,763 fans in attendance. Some writers believe that the WWF inflated the attendance figure for WrestleMania III, however, and that SummerSlam 1992 had a larger crowd. Between ticket prices and merchandise sales, the WWF made over $3,650,000 in revenue. Reviews of the event are almost all positive, and the Smith-Hart match has been rated the best match in SummerSlam history.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
The pre-show featured one match, the New Japan Rumble. Tiger Mask and Yuji Nagata began the match, with new wrestlers entering each minute. Wrestlers worked to eliminate each other, and the last remaining wrestler won. In this match, eliminations could occur via pinfall, submission, disqualification, or being thrown out of the ring over the top rope. The Great Kabuki, Yoshiaki Fujiwara, and Hiro Saito were surprise entrants. Captain New Japan was the first eliminated when Tama Tonga threw him over the top rope. Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu worked together to eliminate Taichi and Tiger Mask. After Tanaka was eliminated by submitting to Manabu Nakanishi's torture rack, Tonga eliminated Nakanishi and Komatsu via pinfall, the latter after a jumping DDT. Yoshi-Hashi threw Tonga over the top rope for the elimination, leaving himself and Nagata in the match. Nagata won the match by slamming Hashi against the mat with a belly-to-back suplex, bridging into a pinfall elimination at 26 minutes and 9 seconds.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2014. It was the 23rd January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the eighth held under the "Wrestle Kingdom" name. Like the previous year, the event aired worldwide on internet pay-per-view (iPPV). Wrestle Kingdom is traditionally NJPW's biggest event of the year and has been described as their equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
According to the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", although several early matches were "rushed", the final two were candidates for "match of the year". Readers of the publication voted Wrestle Kingdom 9 the Best Major Wrestling Show of 2015; they also named the match between Ibushi and Nakamura the 2015 Pro Wrestling Match of the Year, and the match between Okada and Tanahashi was voted the fourth best of 2015. Dave Meltzer gave commentary for the result in January 2016, describing Wrestle Kingdom 9 as "the blow away show of" 2015 and "the peak show of the rise of New Japan Pro Wrestling from very low levels for much of the late 00s".
Tokyo Dome
In professional wrestling, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has run the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, currently promoted as "Wrestle Kingdom", every year since 1992. The event is the biggest in "puroresu", and roughly analogous to WrestleMania in the United States.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
The event aired in Japan as a pay-per-view (PPV) through SKY PerfecTV!, and worldwide through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World. As opposed to the previous year's Wrestle Kingdom 9, the event did not air on American PPV, despite the previous year's airing being considered a "solid success". Reportedly both Jeff Jarrett and Ring of Honor (ROH) were interested in getting Wrestle Kingdom 10 on American PPV, but were both turned down by NJPW. Instead NJPW announced that the internet stream would include English commentary, provided by Kevin Kelly and Matt Striker, who had been a part of the first English commentary stream for King of Pro-Wrestling in October 2015, as well as the debuting Yoshitatsu, who was brought in to translate Japanese. Yoshitatsu is a former WWE wrestler, who returned to NJPW in October 2014, but broke his neck only a month later and had been inactive from the promotion ever since.
K-1 Grand Prix '98 Final Round
K-1 Grand Prix '98 Final Round was a martial arts event promoted by the K-1. The event was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on Sunday, December 13, 1998 in front of 63,800 spectators. It was the sixth K-1 World Grand Prix final involving eight of the world's best heavyweight fighters (+95 kg/209 lbs), with all bouts fought under K-1 Rules. The eight finalists had all qualified via elimination fights at the K-1 World Grand Prix '98 Opening Round. Also on the card was a number of 'Freshman Fights' fought under a mixture of Jiu-Jitsu Freestyle and K-1 Rules (various weight classes). In total there were eighteen fighters at the event, representing seven countries.
Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall
Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall featured professional wrestling matches that involve wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds, plots, and storylines that played out on NJPW shows. Wrestlers portray heroes or villains as they follow a series of events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestling World 2004
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".
King of Pro-Wrestling (2014)
In the semi-main event, 2014 G1 Climax winner Kazuchika Okada defeated 2013 G1 Climax winner Tetsuya Naito to retain his status as the number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at the Tokyo Dome. Finally, in the main event, A.J. Styles, accompanied by Jeff Jarrett, defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Towards the end of the match, as Jarrett went to interfere in the match, Yoshitatsu made his return to NJPW after a seven-year stint in WWE and stopped his attempt. This was followed by Tanahashi hitting Styles with the "High Fly Flow" to win the match and become the IWGP Heavyweight Champion for the record-breaking seventh time. The event concluded with Tanahashi having a staredown with Kazuchika Okada, setting up the main event for Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
In the fourth match of the event, Kushida won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the third time by defeating Kenny Omega. Next up, G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) defeated Bullet Club (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship, marking Honma's first ever title win in NJPW. In the only non-title match of the event, Hirooki Goto defeated Tetsuya Naito, despite outside interference from Naito's "Los Ingobernables de Japon" stablemates Bushi and Evil.
In the seventh match of Wrestle Kingdom 10, Katsuyori Shibata won his first singles title in NJPW by defeating Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship. In the first ever singles match between Shinsuke Nakamura and A.J. Styles, Nakamura was victorious, retaining the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. After the match, Nakamura and Styles showed respect to one another with a fist bump. Finally, in the main event Kazuchika Okada defeated 2015 G1 Climax winner Hiroshi Tanahashi to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, marking his first ever Tokyo Dome win over Tanahashi and ending Tanahashi's Tokyo Dome main event win streak at five.
WrestleMania IX
After regaining the title, Yokozuna challenged any American athlete to bodyslam him on the deck of the USS Intrepid on July 4, 1993. After many challengers failed, Lex Luger arrived by helicopter and bodyslammed Yokozuna. Luger became a fan favorite and changed his gimmick to an American patriot. He faced Yokozuna for the WWF World Heavyweight Championship at SummerSlam 1993; he won the match by countout but did not win the title. Lex Luger and Bret Hart each earned a title match against Yokozuna the following year at WrestleMania X. Luger was disqualified in his match, but Hart won the championship later that night.
The event was attended by 16,891 fans, who paid a total of $1,100,000 in admission fees. This represents less than one-third of the number of fans at WrestleMania VIII, which had an attendance of 62,167. The pay-per-view drew a 2.3 buyrate, which was lower than the previous year's 2.8 buyrate. It was higher, however, than the buyrates for any of the following four WrestleManias.
The New Beginning in Niigata
The New Beginning in Niigata would also feature a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, where G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma) were set to defend their newly won IWGP Tag Team Championship against previous champions, Bullet Club representatives Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. Gallows and Anderson worked the event as free agents, with Anderson's NJPW contract having expired at the end of January 2016. Though Anderson publicly denied he was leaving the promotion, The New Beginning in Niigata was expected to be one of his and Gallows' last NJPW appearances before leaving for WWE. Also on the card, Kushida was set to defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Bushi. This match stemmed from events taking place at a show the day after Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, where Bushi attacked Kushida and challenged him to a title match.
Super Warriors in Tokyo Dome
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".
Kazuchika Okada
On January 4, 2017, Okada successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome. At 46 minutes and 45 seconds, the match is the longest in the history of the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show. Wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer, in his "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", gave the match a six-star rating. He added that Okada and Omega "may have put on the greatest match in pro wrestling history" and that it was the best match he had ever seen. The match was also praised by the likes of Daniel Bryan, Mick Foley and Stone Cold Steve Austin. The day after Wrestle Kingdom 11, Okada and Chaos were attacked by the returning Minoru Suzuki and his Suzuki-gun stable, which led to his third title defense on February 5 at The New Beginning in Sapporo, where he defeated Suzuki. Okada's fourth defense took place on April 9 at Sakura Genesis 2017, where he defeated 2017 New Japan Cup winner Katsuyori Shibata. Okada's fifth defense took place on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2017, where he defeated Bad Luck Fale. After the match, Okada nominated Omega as his next challenger for the championship. The rematch between Okada and Omega on June 11 at Dominion 6.11 in Osaka-jo Hall ended in NJPW's first 60-minute time limit draw in 12 years, meaning that Okada was successful in his sixth defense. Okada's seventh title defense took place during the first night of G1 Special in USA on July 1, where he defeated Cody. Okada then entered the 2017 G1 Climax, where he finished with a record of six wins, one draw and two losses, failing to advance to the finals due to losing to Kenny Omega in their third match against each other on August 12. On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Okada avenged a loss suffered during the 2017 G1 Climax by making his eighth successful title defense against Evil, setting him up against G1 Climax winner Tetsuya Naito in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12.
Big Egg Wrestling Universe
The Big Egg Wrestling Universe was a professional wrestling event held by All Japan Women's Pro-Wrestling (AJW) inside the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on November 20, 1994 and was attended by 32,500 fans. However, some sources claim the event was attended by over 42,000 fans. The event generated approximately $4 million in revenue from ticket sales, as well as $1.6 million in merchandise sales.
Wrestle Kingdom V
Wrestle Kingdom V featured thirteen professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestle Kingdom V was headlined by Satoshi Kojima defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi in what was described as a "typical" NJPW storyline, where the company had put their top title on an outsider, leading to their biggest star getting it back at the Tokyo Dome. Kojima had started his career in NJPW, but jumped to All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) in 2002 and was now working as a freelancer.
Tokyo Dome
On July 22, 2007, Kinki Kids held their 10th anniversary concert at Tokyo Dome, which drew a crowd of about 67,000 fans, making it the biggest concert ever held at the Dome. The record was previously held by Tsuyoshi Nagabuchi in 1992 when his concert drew an audience of 65,000.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Wrestle Kingdom 9 also showcased a rivalry between Toru Yano and the Suzuki-gun group, which had been going on since 2013. In May 2014, Yano's tag team partner Takashi Iizuka joined Suzuki-gun, which led to Yano recruiting Kazushi Sakuraba as his new tag team partner to continue the feud. The rivalry lasted for the rest of the year, resulting in two Wrestle Kingdom 9 matches: one between former mixed martial artists Sakuraba and Suzuki-gun leader Minoru Suzuki, and a tag team match pitting Yano and a "mystery partner" against a Suzuki-gun team. The latter became an eight-man tag team match, with Suzuki-gun represented by Iizuka, Shelton X Benjamin, and the Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer). Yano recruited three partners from the Pro Wrestling Noah promotion: Naomichi Marufuji and TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste).
King of Pro-Wrestling (2015)
In the semi-main event of the show, Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully defended his Tokyo Dome contract against Tetsuya Naito. Naito was accompanied to the match by his "pareja", a man in a mask. After Naito threw Tanahashi into referee Red Shoes Unno, the man entered the ring, unmasked himself as Takaaki Watanabe and attacked Tanahashi. This marked Watanabe's return to NJPW following a two-year overseas learning excursion. Eventually Naito's rival Katsuyori Shibata and his tag team partner Hirooki Goto ran out to put a stop to Watanabe's outside interference, which led to Tanahashi pinning Naito for the win. Following the match, Watanabe laid out Goto, before exiting the arena with Naito. The main event saw Kazuchika Okada make his first successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against A.J. Styles, setting up Okada and Tanahashi as the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome.
Final Power Hall in Tokyo Dome
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".
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Another rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 9 was scheduled for February 14 at NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai between Togi Makabe and Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight Championship. When Makabe was sidelined with influenza, NJPW stripped him of the title and scheduled another match, in which Ishii defeated Tomoaki Honma for the now-vacant title. Ishii and Makabe had their title rematch on April 29, when Makabe regained the NEVER Openweight Championship.
Tokyo Dome
In 2016, a group called μ's, which belongs to Japanese multimedia project LoveLive! performed for approximately 250,000 fans at Tokyo Dome and live viewing from 31 March to 1 April 2016 for their final live show titled "μ's Final LoveLive!μ'sic Forever". Live viewing of the event was made throughout Japan and 10 other Asia and Oceanic countries, with 221 from Japan and 30 from 10 other Asia and Oceanic countries.
Wrestle-1
was Wrestle-1's inaugural event, which took place on September 8, 2013, at Tokyo Dome City Hall. On August 9, Wrestle-1 released the first partial card for the event, which revealed only the Wrestle-1 signed workers taking part in the event, but none of their partners or opponents. The event featured a women's match and the Japanese in-ring debut of Daiki Inaba. None of the other workers were revealed before the event, though Mutoh stated that TNA wrestlers would not be taking part in the event. The event aired in Japan on Gaora and internationally on internet pay-per-view (iPPV) through Niconico and Ustream. Tickets to the 2,500 seat arena were sold out the day they went on sale. Sports journalist Dave Meltzer wrote that this, coupled with AJPW's recent decline in attendance numbers, showed that "fans are taking group as the real future of All Japan rather than All Japan". The event featured outside participation from several freelancers as well as wrestlers from Big Japan Pro Wrestling, Dragon Gate, Michinoku Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling Zero1 and World Wonder Ring Stardom. Koji Kanemoto, René Duprée, Seiya Sanada and Zodiac, who were with AJPW prior to Mutoh's departure, but had not announced their affiliation with Wrestle-1, made surprise appearances during the event. In fact, Duprée, who took part in the main event, was still officially AJPW's reigning Gaora TV Champion at the time of the event. Duprée returned the title belt to AJPW three days after the event. Bob Sapp, who had appeared in several of the old Wrestle-1 events, made an appearance in a tag team main event with Mutoh. Kenta Kobashi, who had the previous March announced that he would be joining AJPW following his retirement in May, worked the event as a color commentator.
Wrestle-1 began running regular tours right after Hataage Sen; the first tour ran until September 22 and the second from October 6 to 14. Many of the outsiders taking part in the inaugural event became regular members of the Wrestle-1 roster with the exception of Bob Sapp, Fujita Hayato, Katsuyori Shibata, Kazushi Sakuraba and Masaaki Mochizuki. Though Wrestle-1 also did not have regular female wrestlers on its roster, each event included a women's match, featuring wrestlers such as Ryo Mizunami and Shuu Shibutani from Pro Wrestling Wave, Koharu Hinata, Makoto and Syuri from Wrestling New Classic, Hikaru Shida, Maki Narumiya, Risa Sera and Tsukasa Fujimoto from Ice Ribbon, and freelancers Akino and Hiroyo Matsumoto. Wrestle-1 sought to introduce an "openweight division", where its wrestlers would not be typecast as heavyweights or junior heavyweights, like in most Japanese promotions, but would be able to interact with each other across weight limits. On September 24, Wrestle-1 announced that Seiya Sanada had signed a contract to officially become part of the promotion's roster effective October 1. On October 6, Wrestle-1 held its first event in Korakuen Hall in front of a sold out crowd of 1,750. On October 18, Mutoh announced his semi-retirement from in-ring action, saying that in the future he would be concentrating on running Wrestle-1.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
According to Garrett Martin of the magazine "Paste", Wrestle Kingdom 9 "easily could wind up being the best [wrestling show of the year] when the year is done". He praised Jim Ross, whose "timeless voice cut through the language barrier" for American wrestling fans, and likened his commentary to "reading the first English translation of Homer." Martin commented on the ending of the show, stating that a "broken Kazuchika Okada shambling tearfully back towards the locker room ... made the moment feel real" which displayed that "Okada isn't just a great athlete but a better actor than most who step into the ring, and elevating the entire scripted, choreographed display into something beyond a sport." Martin wrote that New Japan had transcended puroresu and has produced "some of the most passionate and poignant performance art today."
Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005
Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005 was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. It took place on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome. Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005 was the fourteenth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show held by NJPW. Officially, the show drew 46,000 spectators. The undercard of the show featured an eight-man "submissions only" tournament which Ron Waterman won when he forced Yuji Nagata to submit in the finals. The show also saw Tiger Mask defeat Heat to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and in the main event Shinsuke Nakamura defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship. The show also featured a unique "Dog Fight" match between Masahiro Chono, Riki Choshu and Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Chono defeated Chosu in the first match and as a result had to wrestle Tenzan in the next match.
Shelton Benjamin
Benjamin returned to New Japan on January 4, 2015, at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, where he, Davey Boy Smith, Jr., Lance Archer and Takashi Iizuka were defeated by Naomichi Marufuji, Toru Yano and TMDK (Mikey Nicholls and Shane Haste) in an eight-man tag team match. Benjamin's profile has since been removed from NJPW's website.
TVXQ
TVXQ started 2012 with their comeback Japanese solo tour, the , in January 2012. Tickets were sold out in a few minutes. Spanning a total of twenty-six shows in nine cities, the Tone Tour reached to an audience of 550,000, more than twice the audience count of their 2009 Japanese tour, The Secret Code. TVXQ also became the third foreign artist, after Michael Jackson and the Backstreet Boys, to perform at the Tokyo Dome for three consecutive days, attracting crowds of over 165,000. The Tone tour's 550,000 audience was also the largest mobilization for any Korean artist in Japan at the time, until TVXQ broke their own record with their 2013 Japan tour .
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2015. It was the 24th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the first event on the 2015 NJPW schedule. The event featured ten professional wrestling matches and one pre-show match, six of which were for championships.
RISE (professional wrestling)
In 2009, at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome, Milano, Minoru, and Taichi defeated Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Kazuchika Okada, and Nobuo Yoshihashi in the pre-show match, Devitt teamed Ryusuke Taguchi and Mistico to defeat Averno, Jado, and Gedo, and finally Nakamura and Goto defeated Mitsuharu Misawa and Takashi Sugiura. In late January, Minoru left New Japan and RISE to become a freelancer. On February 15, Nakamura challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship but lost. In March, Nakamura, Goto, and Milano entered the 2009 New Japan Cup. Milano and Nakamura both made it to round two while Goto was able to win the tournament defeating Giant Bernard in the finals. On April 5, at RESOLUTION '09, Nakamura turned Heel during his match with Togi Makabe when Toru Yano betrayed Makabe and assisted Nakamura during the match. Following the event, Nakamura left RISE and created a new stable: CHAOS. After Nakamura defected, RISE began to decline and despite the fact RISE would continue, the group largely went dormant as Goto returning to the New Japan Seikigun while Milano and Devitt would form teams and began feuding with each other.
Low Ki
On January 4, 2013, at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, Low Ki unsuccessfully challenged Devitt for the title in a three-way match, which also included Kota Ibushi. Low Ki wrestled the entire match in a suit, inspired by Agent 47 from the "Hitman" video game series. The following month, New Japan removed Low Ki's profile from its official website, signaling the end of his run with the promotion. Low Ki had told New Japan office that he did not want to wrestle at an upcoming event in Fukushima because of health and safety reasons stemming from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster, which led to the promotion ending their relationship with him. Low Ki wrestled his final match in a suit as a protest. NJPW was reportedly "furious" over Low Ki wrestling a title match in a suit without clearing it with them first to the point that even years later, the company was said to be open to bringing anyone back "with the exception of Low Ki".
Wrestle Kingdom 10
James Caldwell of "Pro Wrestling Torch" stated that Wrestle Kingdom 10 was a "perfect example of how to build a card, especially leading to the final three matches with Shibata vs. Ishii hitting four-stars-plus, Nakamura vs. Styles going a little higher, and Tanahashi vs. Okada closing in epic fashion". He gave the main event a perfect five-star rating. Sean Radican of the same site gave the show an overall score of 10.0, stating that "the quality of the big matches on the card more than delivered", while acknowledging that it was a "flawed show in some ways". Mike Johnson of "Pro Wrestling Insider" stated that Wrestle Kingdom 10 was "far superior" to the previous year's Wrestle Kingdom 9. Larry Csonka of "411Mania" gave the event a rating of 9.25, calling it "excellent", stating that the final three matches "brought the show to another level". He, however, also criticized the first part of the show for its "lazy booking", noting how the first six matches all featured outside interference or weapon attacks with several also kicking off with pre-match attacks.
King of Pro-Wrestling (2012)
King of Pro-Wrestling (2012) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on October 8, 2012, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event featured nine matches, five of which were contested for championships. This event marked the first time a NJPW PPV could be bought outside Japan, through Ustream. It was the first event under the King of Pro-Wrestling name.
Rogers Centre
The World Wrestling Federation (now WWE) staged WrestleMania VI and WrestleMania X8 at Rogers Centre in 1990 and 2002. As well, the WWF/WWE held its largest crowd for "Monday Night Raw" on February 13, 1999, when 41,432 attended a special edition of Raw called "Raw Saturday Night". Wrestlemania VI held on April 1, 1990, with the main event being a title vs title match which saw the WWF Intercontinental Champion The Ultimate Warrior defeat the WWF World Heavyweight Champion Hulk Hogan, set the SkyDome attendance record of 67,678. The attendance record was broken when 68,237 attended Wrestlemania X8 on March 17, 2002.
The Mighty (professional wrestling)
On 20 December 2014, Haste and Nicholls made their debut for New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), when they, along with Naomichi Marufuji, were revealed as Toru Yano's tag team partners at Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome on 4 January 2015. They would go on to win the match, defeating Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, Shelton X Benjamin and Takashi Iizuka).
Wrestle Kingdom 9
In the sixth match, Ryusuke Taguchi defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega of the Bullet Club. Distractions by the Bullet Club's Young Bucks allowed Omega to spray Taguchi in the eyes with an aerosol can and broke Taguchi's ankle lock on Omega later in the match. Omega captured the championship after a snap dragon suplex, a bicycle knee strike, and the "One Winged Angel" (electric chair dropped into a one-handed driver), pinning the champion at 13 minutes and 20 seconds.
King of Pro-Wrestling (2016)
King of Pro-Wrestling (2016) was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), which took place on October 10, 2016, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. It was NJPW's biggest show between August's G1 Climax and January's Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome and featured nine matches with four of them contested for championships, main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji. This was the fifth event under the King of Pro-Wrestling name.
WrestleMania XXVII
The attendance record for WrestleMania XXVII was announced as 71,617. WWE's number was later confirmed by officials at the Georgia Dome.
Wrestle Kingdom 13
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". The show has been promoted under the Wrestle Kingdom name since 2007.
Wrestle Kingdom I
When New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) held the 2006 January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, Toukon Shidou Chapter 1, some saw it as a possible "end of an era". In recent years, the January 4 show, held annually since 1992, had been suffering from a drop in both interest and attendance and while the 2006 show drew 31,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, only around 10,000 of them paid for their ticket. The show, however, was still considered a success due to high merchandise sales, allowing NJPW to keep the tradition alive for another year. NJPW had previously had success promoting interpromotional shows with All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and decided to partner with them again for the 2007 Tokyo Dome show in an effort to boost attendance numbers. The partnership was officially announced in a press conference on November 15, 2006. AJPW had recently partnered with Yuke's, the owners of NJPW, for the video game "Wrestle Kingdom". As a result, the 2007 January 4 Tokyo Dome show was dubbed "Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome". The name stuck and the annual January 4 Tokyo Dome show has been known as Wrestle Kingdom ever since.
The main event of the show was booked as a tribute to Shinya Hashimoto, who had died from cerebral hemorrhage on July 11, 2005. In the match, Hashimoto's Three Musketeers partners Keiji Mutoh and Masahiro Chono would take on Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima. Both teams had actually disbanded years earlier due to Mutoh and Kojima having jumped from NJPW to AJPW at the start of 2002, but Kojima and Tenzan had recently reunited for AJPW's 2006 Real World Tag League. Mutoh was said to have been negative towards the idea of turning the match into a Hashimoto tribute, but was convinced to go along with it on the day of the show.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Jason Powell of "Pro Wrestling Dot Net" predicted that even first-time viewers of New Japan would be "thrilled" watching this event. Although the "first half of the night felt rushed and had too many tag matches", the show still held his "interest from start to finish" and its final three matches were "amazing". Powell described several matches as overtaking each other as the night's best as the event progressed: the "very physical" Ishii–Makabe, then Naito–Styles, then Ibushi–Nakamura. English-language commentators Ross and Striker were endorsed as an overall positive. Lastly, Powell thought the "pay-per-view broadcast is fantastic", but he also said some "Pro Wrestling Dot Net" readers "reported issues with the Flipps app [broadcast] feed for the show.
Wrestle Kingdom 12
Behind the scenes, Jericho became part of a group of people that started pushing for the show to air on American pay-per-view (PPV) for the first time since Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015. Some in NJPW felt that airing the show through NJPW World would be enough, hoping that the Jericho signing would increase subscriber numbers. While NJPW was now considered more popular than in 2015, when Wrestle Kingdom 9 did 14,000 buys on American PPV, it was noted that the 2018 show would take place early Thursday morning in the United States as opposed to a weekend like it did in 2015, which was seen as a major negative in terms of getting buys from the country. In late November, it was reported that NJPW had turned down Fite TV's offer for PPV rights outside of Japan and would not be allowing the event to air on American PPV, wanting their streaming service to be the only way to see the event live. On December 3, it was announced that the top matches from the show would air on AXS TV on January 6, 2018, as part of an 11-hour block of NJPW programming with additional matches airing between January 12 and February 9. Five matches, including the top three matches, will air on TV Asahi as part of a special episode of "World Pro Wrestling" on the night of January 4.
TNA Global Impact!
On December 14, 2008, TNA Wrestling.com officially announced Global Impact 2: Japan. The show aired on Spike TV on October 8, 2009. It featured taped matches involving TNA wrestlers competing at the Wrestle Kingdom III New Japan Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome show on January 4. The Motor City Machine Guns (Alex Shelley and Chris Sabin) defeating No Limit (Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, Kurt Angle, Kevin Nash, Masahiro Chono, and Riki Choshu defeating Giant Bernard, Takashi Iizuka, Tomohiro Ishii, and Karl Anderson, and Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray) defeating The Most Violent Players (Togi Makabe and Toru Yano) in a Hardcore match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
Wrestling World 2001
Wrestling World 2001 was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took plave on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome. Wrestling World 2001 was the tenth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show held by NJPW. The show drew 52,000 spectators. The focal point of Wrestling World 2001 was a tournament to crown a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion, which accounted for five of the nine matches on the show. No other championships were defended in 2001, marking the first year that only one title was on the line. The show saw Toshiaki Kawada wrestle twice; Kawada had previously been one of the main event wrestlers of NJPW's biggest rival All Japan Pro Wrestling.
Wrestling World 2002
Wrestling World 2002 was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome. Wrestling World 2002 was the eleventh January 4 Tokyo Dome Show held by NJPW. The show drew 52,000 spectators. The show was the first January 4 Tokyo Dome Show to feature wrestlers from Pro Wrestling Noah, with the main event of the nine match show being a successful defense of the GHC Heavyweight Championship as champion Jun Akiyama defeated NJPW representative Yuji Nagata. The show also featured a successful IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship defense by Kendo Kashin.
The New Beginning in Hiroshima
Several matches during the event built to matches taking place at The New Beginning in Osaka two days later. The event also featured the NJPW debuts of National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) representatives Michael Tarver and Big Daddy Yum-Yum, who unsuccessfully challenged Satoshi Kojima for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in the first title match of the event. The two other title matches were rematches from January 4's Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome event; in the first Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson made their first successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against K.E.S. (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) and in the main event Hiroshi Tanahashi made his first successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Shinsuke Nakamura.
Wrestle Kingdom 7
Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2013. It was the 22nd January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the seventh held under the "Wrestle Kingdom" name. The event featured eleven matches (including two dark matches), five of which were contested for championships. Wrestle Kingdom is traditionally NJPW's biggest event of the year and has been described as their equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania.
WrestleMania 23
Tickets for the event went on sale on November 11, 2006. The event set the all-time Ford Field attendance record of 80,103 people; people from all fifty U.S. states, twenty-four countries, and nine Canadian provinces attended the event. WrestleMania 23 grossed $5.38 million in ticket sales, breaking the previous record of $3.9 million held by WrestleMania X8. WWE estimated that $25 million was pumped into the Detroit economy. With about 1.2 million buys, the event, at the time, was the most bought WWE pay-per-view in history. 2012's WrestleMania XXVIII surpassed the event as the most bought WWE pay-per-view, receiving 1.21 million buys. WrestleMania 23 was also has the fourth highest attended WrestleMania in history behind only WrestleMania III (which drew 93,173 fans), WrestleMania 29 (which drew 80,676 fans), and WrestleMania 32 (which drew 101,763 fans).
Wrestle Kingdom VI
Wrestle Kingdom VI featured the NJPW return of Kazuchika Okada. Okada was a rookie in 2010, when NJPW, through their international connections, sent him to the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion to gain experience and grow as a wrestler. During his one and a half years in TNA, Okada did little of note; he was dressed up like Kato from "The Green Hornet", dubbed "Okato" and made Samoa Joe's sidekick in an angle with D'Angelo Dinero, wrestling only a handful of actual matches. TNA's poor handling of Okada was one of the key factors in NJPW ceasing their relationship with the American promotion, which made Wrestle Kingdom VI the first Tokyo Dome show in five years to not feature any wrestlers from the company. On December 9, 2011, NJPW announced that Okada would return to the promotion at Wrestle Kingdom VI, facing Yoshi-Hashi, who was making his own return from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, with whom NJPW also had a working relationship, where, unlike Okada, he had been wrestling a full schedule and improving. Upon his return to NJPW, Okada created himself a new villainous persona named "Rainmaker".
Tokyo Dome
Kylie Minogue performed on 6 October 1989 in front of 38,000 during her Disco in Dream Tour.
Heavy metal band X Japan has performed at Tokyo Dome many times, including their last concert with former bassist Taiji on January 7, 1992 ("On the Verge of Destruction 1992.1.7 Tokyo Dome Live") and their last concert before disbanding on December 31, 1997 ("The Last Live Video"). The arena also hosted their first concerts after reuniting in 2007; March 28–30, 2008.
Wrestle Kingdom 11
The semi-main event featured Tetsuya Naito defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. In the end, Naito blocked Tanahashi's "High Fly Flow" with his knees and then hit him with his finishing maneuver, "Destino", first swinging from the ring ropes and then normally in the ring to win the match and retain the title. Following the match, Naito showed respect to Tanahashi by bowing to him. The win marked a clean sweep for L.I.J., who left Wrestle Kingdom 11 holding three championships with all five members being champions. Backstage, Naito was confronted by Michael Elgin, who challenged him to a title match.
The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome saw Kazuchika Okada defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against 2016 G1 Climax winner Kenny Omega. The match lasted 46 minutes and 45 seconds, making it the longest in the history of the January 4 Dome Show. The match featured dives from the ring over the safety barricade as well as table spots, with Omega first double stomping a table that was laid on top of Okada, before being back body dropped by Okada out of the ring through the table. At the end of the match, Omega hit Okada with the "V-Trigger", before setting up his finishing maneuver, "Katayoku no Tenshi". Okada, however, got out of the hold and dropped Omega with a spinning jumping tombstone piledriver. Okada then hit Omega with his finishing maneuver, the "Rainmaker", to win the match and retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
Kyosuke Himuro
Himuro held two consecutive sold-out charity concerts at the Tokyo Dome in June 20 2011, attracting over 104,000 people making them the biggest charity live event ever held in Japan. The raised sum of 669,220,940 yen (around 8.7 million USD) was donated to Fukushima, Miyagi, and Iwate prefectures, for recovery after the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami.
WWE
The WWF business expanded significantly on the shoulders of McMahon and his babyface hero Hulk Hogan for the next several years. The introduction of "Saturday Night's Main Event" on NBC in 1985 marked the first time that professional wrestling had been broadcast on network television since the 1950s, when the now-defunct DuMont Television Network broadcast matches of Vince McMahon Sr.'s Capitol Wrestling Corporation. The 1980s "Wrestling Boom" peaked with the WrestleMania III pay-per-view at the Pontiac Silverdome in 1987, which set an attendance record of 93,173, a record that stood for 29 years until WrestleMania 32. A rematch of the WrestleMania III main event between WWF champion Hulk Hogan and André the Giant took place on "The Main Event" in 1988 and was seen by 33 million people, the most-watched wrestling match in North American television history.
Wrestle Kingdom 12
Wrestle Kingdom 12 was officially announced on August 13, 2017, during the finals of the 2017 G1 Climax. Jurina Matsui of SKE48 was appointed the special ambassador of the event. The event would air live through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World, with English commentary provided by Kevin Kelly and Don Callis.
Takaaki Kidani announced that NJPW looked to get 30,000 fans in attendance for the show. Tickets for the event went on sale on October 25, 2017. NJPW was said to have been shocked at the large number of tickets sold outside of Japan with the situation being described as "like nothing before for any Japanese pro wrestling show in history". On November 27, NJPW announced that ticket sales were up 80% from the previous year with 20,000 tickets having already been sold. On December 25, the promotion announced that 30,000 tickets had been sold. Three days later, NJPW announced it would be making more seats available on the day on the show.
The New Beginning in Osaka (2015)
Reviewing the event for his "Wrestling Observer Newsletter", Dave Meltzer wrote that most of the matches at The New Beginning in Osaka were "good", but that none were "off the charts", while also noting that the crowd felt cold in what is traditionally NJPW's hottest arena. According to Meltzer, the event showed that NJPW had begun suffering from a "feeling of sameness" following Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome. He gave the highest match rating of four out of five stars to the main event, though stating that the match did not have the spark that the previous two matches between Styles and Tanahashi had had.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
In his review, Vaughn Johnson of the Philadelphia Media Network through "Philly.com" wrote: "Everything that was presented to the worldwide audience was simple and didn't require anyone to know the Japanese language. Good, quality wrestling is a universal language, and I got the message New Japan sent Sunday loud and clear." According to Johnson, some viewers were "exposed to a product for the first time where the outcomes of the matches are still important, as Okada showed by openly crying after his loss to Tanahashi" in a main event, which was "just as much a spectacle as it was a fantastic match athletic exhibition." He wrote that to call the Nakamura–Ibushi match "physical would be a gross understatement ... It was brutal to watch at times" but "one of the best" he had ever seen. Johnson praised the event as "devoid of popcorn matches and silly gimmicks that insult your intelligence", and commentators Ross and Striker for focusing "on the action in the ring and the significance of it instead of cracking jokes and making a million plugs."
IWA Kawasaki Dream
Kawasaki Dream was a professional wrestling supercard produced by the Japanese professional wrestling promotion International Wrestling Association (IWA). The event took place on August 20, 1995 at the Kawasaki Stadium in Kawasaki, Kanagawa. The event was a huge success for the promotion drawing a crowd of 28,757 attendants, the largest crowd for an IWA Japan show and it was the most successful and biggest show of the promotion.
K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Final
K-1 World Grand Prix 2003 Final was a kickboxing event promoted by the K-1 organization. The event was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on Saturday,December 6, 2003 in front of 67,320 spectators. It was the eleventh K-1 World Grand Prix final involving ten of the world's best fighters (two being reservists). The eight finalists had almost all qualified via preliminary events, while two additional fighters were invited as reserve fighters (for more detail on this see bulleted list below), with all bouts being fought under K-1 Rules (100 kg/156-220 lbs). As well as tournament bouts there was also an 'Opening Fight' between Yusuke Fujimoto and Matthias Riccio and a 'Super Fight' between Martin Holm and Jan Nortje, both fought under K-1 Rules. In total there were fourteen fighters at the event, representing ten countries.
Armageddon (2008)
The HSBC Arena has a maximum capacity of 19,200, however Armageddon only had an attendance of 12,500. It received 193,000 buys, which was less than the 237,000 buys the previous year's event received. Armageddon helped World Wrestling Entertainment earn $15.9 million in revenue from pay-per-view events, but this was less than the $19.9 million earned the previous year; Linda McMahon, the CEO of WWE, confirmed this statement on February 24, 2009 in a quarterly financial report. Canadian Online Explorer's professional wrestling section rated the event a perfect ten out of ten. Wade Keller of the PWTorch rated the main event match for the WWE Championship 4 and a quarter stars out of 5. He went on to state that the match was a "really satisfying main event and it's the finish WWE dared not do for a long time." He rated the match for the World Heavyweight Championship 3 and a quarter stars out of 5 and proclaimed he thought it was a "good match".
Sony Music Entertainment released the event on DVD on January 13, 2009, and it reached second place on "Billboard's" DVD Sales Chart for recreation.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
One year later, at Wrestle Kingdom 11, Tetsuya Naito retained the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Katsuyori Shibata lost the NEVER Openweight Championship to Hirooki Goto and Hiromu Takahashi defeated Kushida for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. In the main event, Kazuchika Okada successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against 2016 G1 Climax winner Kenny Omega. At 46 minutes and 45 seconds, the main event was the longest match in January 4 Tokyo Dome Show history and was awarded a six-star rating by Dave Meltzer.
WCW/New Japan Supershow I
WCW/New Japan Supershow I, (known as Starrcade in Tokyo Dome in Japan) was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event that took place March 21, 1991 from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, co-promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), who hosted the event and the US-Based World Championship Wrestling (WCW) that supplied a number of the wrestlers on the show. The event was the inaugural WCW/New Japan Supershow.
Teiken Boxing Gym
Honda promoted two of Mike Tyson's fights for the world heavyweight title both at the Tokyo Dome. The number of spectators of the fight against Buster Douglas in 1990 was 51,600, while its audience rating was 38.3 percent. Jimmy Lennon Jr. handled the ring announcements. As for the fight against Tony Tubbs in 1988, the attendance was 51,000 and the rating was 28.8 percent. Those two fights hold the top two attendance records in Japan's boxing history. Realizing a first world title tripleheader in Japan in 1998, Honda continuously carried it out seven times until April 2013.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
The final tag team match of the event, the IWGP Tag Team Championship, pitted the Bullet Club's Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows against challengers Meiyu Tag (Hirooki Goto and Katsuyori Shibata). The champions controlled Goto early in the match, but after Goto tagged in Shibata, all four men battled in the ring. At the end of the match, Anderson was kicked off the ring apron by Shibata; this led to a pinfall on Gallows after a double-team GTS and Shibata's "Penalty Kick", giving Meiyu Tag the title after 9 minutes.
Wrestle Kingdom 10
The following month's New Beginning events featured several matches stemming from Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome. The New Beginning in Osaka on February 11 featured two rematches from the show, where Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Yujiro Takahashi defeated Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe and Toru Yano to capture the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship and Katsuyori Shibata successfully defended the NEVER Openweight Championship against Tomohiro Ishii. Also during the event, Matt Sydal and Ricochet won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship by defeating The Young Bucks and reDRagon in a three-way match, while the main event featured Kazuchika Okada successfully defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hirooki Goto. Three days later at The New Beginning in Niigata, the Briscoes and Yano defeated Fale, Tonga and Takahashi in the third title match between the two teams to regain the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The event also featured Kushida successfully defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Bushi and Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma successfully defending the IWGP Tag Team Championship in a Wrestle Kingdom 10 rematch against Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson. In the main event of the show, Kenny Omega defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to capture the vacant IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall
Dominion 6.9 in Osaka-jo Hall was officially announced on January 4, 2018, during Wrestle Kingdom 12. The event is NJPW's biggest between January's Wrestle Kingdom 12 and July–August's G1 Climax tournament. The event aired through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World, and featured English commentary.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
Wrestle Kingdom 9 broke Yuji Nagata's streak of consecutive January 4 Tokyo Dome Show appearances at 21 by being featured on the pre-show instead of the main card. In an interview, Nagata said that he felt slighted and thought about quitting when he was relegated to the pre-show. The day after the event, he was scheduled to challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, returning to the IWGP main-event picture for the first time in years. Although Nagata received his title shot at NJPW The New Beginning in Sendai, he was defeated by Nakamura. Nakamura's Wrestle Kingdom 9 opponent, Kota Ibushi, won the 2015 New Japan Cup tournament on March 15 by defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals, thus earning the right to choose a championship to challenge. Ibushi picked a match with A.J. Styles for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (leaving Goto to challenge Nakamura). Ibushi failed in his title challenge on April 5 at NJPW Invasion Attack 2015, and Goto defeated Nakamura on May 3 at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2015 to become IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
Mayhem (1999)
Mayhem drew a crowd of 13,839 people and a revenue of $313,847. The event received negative reviews from critics. Arnold Furious of 411mania gave the event a score of 4.5 out of 10, writing "A show was a lot of potential but both the good matches were riddled with needless interference. Vince Russo’s style of booking just couldn’t produce great matches. He didn’t have the attention span to book it and assumed the crowd didn’t have an interest in watching it. Despite all of the truly great matches in wrestling being given, more often than not, at least 20 minutes and little/zero interference. Especially when you’ve got two great wrestlers who are super over like Bret & Benoit and you still book a shitload of interference. You can’t have the crowd being hot and having something new happening every few seconds. You’ll burn out the audience and no one will remember half the shit that happens. It’s a lesson Vince Russo still hasn’t learnt to this very day. Wrestling fans DO have attention spans. Especially on PPV."
Wrestle Kingdom 9
In the second match, the Bullet Club's Bad Luck Fale, Jeff Jarrett, and Yujiro Takahashi faced New Japan's Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, and Tomoaki Honma. Takahashi received a Jarrett guitar shot meant for Honma, a 3D from Tencozy, and a "Kokeshi" diving headbutt from Honma before Honma pinned him for the victory at 5 minutes and 35 seconds.
Royal Rumble (2019)
During the event, WWE reported there was 48,193 people in attendance. However, pro wrestling journalist Dave Meltzer claimed WWE's figure was false and the total audience was above 40,000, with only 34,000 paid-attendance.
Wrestling World 2001
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".
Wrestle Kingdom II
Following Wrestle Kingdom II, Dave Meltzer of the "Wrestling Observer Newsletter" saw NJPW's annual January 4 Tokyo Dome show "hovering on extinction". While NJPW announced an attendance of 27,000, Meltzer claimed a real attendance of 20,000 with roughly half paid. According to Meltzer "nobody could reasonably expect much more than 10,000 paid for New Japan, so by modern standards getting the place packed and having a good show up-and-down is considered a success". According to Meltzer, NJPW was happy with "how things went with TNA" with the company's management feeling that the American promotion had "plenty of good workers". In addition to the bigger name wrestlers such as Kurt Angle, Team 3D and The Steiner Brothers, A.J. Styles and Petey Williams were said to have impressed Japanese fans.
Wrestling World 2003
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". 
Wrestling World 2003 featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestle Kingdom 8
In addition to airing on traditional pay-per-view (PPV) in Japan, the event also aired worldwide on internet pay-per-view (iPPV) through Niconico and Ustream.
WrestleMania IX
WrestleMania IX was the ninth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). The event took place at Caesars Palace in Paradise, Nevada, on April 4, 1993, and was the first WrestleMania event held outdoors.
Wrestling World 1997
The ninth match of the evening was originally supposed be for nine championships in total, but at the last minute WCW had not allowed Último Dragón to put the WCW World Cruiserweight Championship on the line in the match, Dragón still defended the J-Crown Championship, a championship consisting of eight unified titles. His opponent of the night was Jushin Thunder Liger, the driving force behind NJPW's very successful Light Heavyweight division and multiple time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship holder, a belt that at the time was part of the J-Crown. Liger and Dragón had previously wrestled at the 1993 January 4 Tokyo Dome show called "Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome". After over 18 minutes of high flying wrestling Liger pinned Dragón following a Steiner Screwdriver to become the fourth J-Crown holder.
WrestleMania 22
WrestleMania 22 was the third WrestleMania to take place in the Chicago metropolitan area (following WrestleMania 2, and WrestleMania 13). Tickets sold out in under two minutes, grossing US$2.5 million for the event, making it the highest grossing one-day event at the Allstate Arena. More than 17,155 people from 16 countries and 43 states attended, with millions more watching in more than 90 countries. WrestleMania 22 also marked the last WrestleMania to be held in a traditional arena, as every subsequent WrestleMania has been held in a NFL stadium or a major college football stadium.
Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome
Fantastic Story in Tokyo Dome featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Royal Rumble (2009)
Royal Rumble (2009) was the twenty-second annual Royal Rumble professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It was presented by Castrol GTX and took place on January 25, 2009, at the Joe Louis Arena in Detroit, Michigan and featured talent from the Raw, SmackDown, and ECW brands. As has been customary since 1993, the Royal Rumble match winner received a championship match at that year's WrestleMania, (in this instance: WrestleMania XXV) for his choice at either the WWE Championship, the World Heavyweight Championship or the ECW Championship.
WrestleMania X8
WrestleMania X8 was the eighteenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the World Wrestling Federation (WWF). It took place on March 17, 2002, at the SkyDome in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the second WrestleMania at that venue (following WrestleMania VI in 1990). The event marked the final WrestleMania event under the WWF name, as they re-branded to WWE later that year. The record-breaking attendance for the SkyDome of 68,237 grossed approximately $6.1 million CAD ($3.9 million USD). WrestleMania weekend also included WWF Fan Axxess at the Canadian National Exhibition's Automotive Building.
Power Struggle (2013)
The event also featured former rivals Kazushi Sakuraba and Yuji Nagata teaming up for the first time to defeat Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano en route to a match against Daniel and Rolles Gracie at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeating Tomohiro Ishii in a rematch from the 2013 G1 Climax and Shinsuke Nakamura making his third successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Minoru Suzuki in a match, which had the added stipulation that Nakamura would have had to join Suzuki-gun had he lost the title. Post-match, Nakamura nominated Tanahashi as his next challenger, setting up the first main event match for Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome. Two of the top matches of the event saw Tetsuya Naito successfully defend the NEVER Openweight Championship and his certificate for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against previous champion Masato Tanaka and Kazuchika Okada successfully defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Karl Anderson in a rematch of the finals of the 2012 G1 Climax, setting up the second of a double main event for Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome between Okada and Naito.
Wrestling World 2000
Wrestling World 2000 was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on January 4, 2000 in the Tokyo Dome. Wrestling World 2000 was the ninth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show held by NJPW. The show drew 53,500 spectators and $5,900,000 in ticket sales. The event saw the return of World Championship Wrestling's Chris Benoit under the ring name Wild Pegasus, reprising the character he played for NJPW in the early to mid-1990s. The show also featured Rick Steiner and Randy Savage, both working as freelancers brought in specifically for the show. The twelve match card saw a successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship as well as Kensuke Sasaki defeating Genichiro Tenryu to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The undercard featured a match between Masahiro Chono defeated Keiji Mutoh bearing a stipulation that the losing wrestler's faction would have to disband. Chono represented Team 2000, while Mutoh represented nWo Japan. Through Mutoh's loss nWo Japan ceased to be. It also featured the retirement match of Kazuo Yamazaki, as he wrestled his student, Yuji Nagata.
Wrestling World 2003
Wrestling World 2003 was a professional wrestling event held by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome. Wrestling World 2003 was the twelfth January 4 Tokyo Dome Show promoted by NJPW. The show drew 30,000 spectators. The show featured the semi-finals and the finals of the "Young Generation Cup", an NJPW tournament for relative newcomers who have yet to establish themselves as top level wrestlers, which saw Ryushi Yanagisawa defeat Yutaka Yoshie to win the cup. The show featured a total of eleven matches, including a match for the vacant NWF Heavyweight Championship that Yoshihiro Takayama won by defeating Tsuyoshi Kosaka in the finals of a four-man tournament. The main event was a successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship as champion Yuji Nagata defeated Josh Barnett.
Back to the Yokohama Arena
Back to the Yokohama Arena was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took take place on May 25, 2014, at the Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, Kanagawa and marked NJPW's first event at the arena in eleven years. The event, considered one of NJPW's biggest of the year, following Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome and the finals of the G1 Climax, featured four championship matches and was headlined by a match for the promotion's top title, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. The event aired domestically as a regular PPV and internationally as an internet PPV. While the show was praised for its match quality, it was considered a disappointment due to poor attendance numbers. NJPW has not returned to the Yokohama Arena since.
WrestleMania XIX
WrestleMania XIX was the nineteenth annual WrestleMania professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE). It took place on March 30, 2003, at Safeco Field in Seattle, Washington. The event was the first WrestleMania held in the state of Washington. A record-breaking 54,097 fans from all fifty states and numerous countries from around the world at Safeco Field resulted in a gate attendance grossing $2.76 million.
Wrestling World 1999
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".
Kingdom (professional wrestling)
Kingdom's popularity did not reach or surpass that of the UWF International, which saw most of its major events at the 2,000-seater Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Attempts to rectify this by using talent from other shoot-style promotions including Battlarts did little to help, and it seemed that in the eyes of the Japanese fans the era of shoot-style wrestling had ended. As a result, Kingdom would go out of business in March 1998.
Tetsuya Naito
On December 5, 2009, NJPW announced that Yujiro and Naito were returning to Japan as part of their annual January 4 Tokyo Dome show called Wrestle Kingdom IV in Tokyo Dome. At the event Yujiro and Naito defeated Team 3D (Brother Ray and Brother Devon) and Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) in a three-way hardcore match to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. No Limit had their first title defense on February 14, 2010, defeating El Texano, Jr. and El Terrible to retain the title. On April 4 at "New Dimension" No Limit joined New Japan's top heel stable Chaos, led by the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Shinsuke Nakamura. On May 3, 2010, at Wrestling Dontaku 2010 Naito and Takahashi lost the IWGP Tag Team Championship to Yuji Nagata and Wataru Inoue of Seigigun in a three-way match, which also included Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson).
Battlefield (professional wrestling)
Battlefield was a professional wrestling event produced by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It took place on January 4, 1994 in the Tokyo Dome. The show drew 48,000 spectators. Unlike the previous two years January 4 events the 1994 show was not a co-promotion with World Championship Wrestling (WCW) although it did feature former WCW wrestlers The Steiner Brothers (Rick and Scott), who were working for WCW's rival, the World Wrestling Federation (WWF), at the time. The show also featured Brutus Beefcake and Hulk Hogan before they began working with WCW, working freelance for NJPW for one night.
Nobuhiko Takada
In 1995, Takada returned to NJPW as the key figure in the landmark New Japan vs. UWFI program. On October 9, 1995, Takada's match against IWGP Champion, Keiji Mutoh, drew 67,000 fans to the Tokyo Dome, drawing the largest crowd and gate in Japanese wrestling history at the time. Three months later, Takada defeated Mutoh in a rematch, before 64,000 fans, to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, becoming the only wrestler to hold all three major New Japan titles. Takada dropped the title to Shinya Hashimoto on April 29, 1996, drawing a crowd of 65,000 and a gate of $5.7 million. When it was all said and done, the New Japan vs. UWFi was the biggest moneymaking feud in Japanese professional wrestling history.
Toru Yano
On January 4, 2008, at Wrestle Kingdom II in Tokyo Dome, Yano and Makabe were defeated by Team 3D (Brother Devon and Brother Ray), representing American promotion Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA). However, Yano and Makabe bounced back quickly and on February 17 they defeated Giant Bernard and Travis Tomko to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the first time. They would successfully defend the titles against the teams of Giant Bernard and Shinsuke Nakamura, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Takashi Iizuka, Giant Bernard and Rick Fuller, Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto and Manabu Nakanishi and Yutaka Yoshie, before entering the 2008 G1 Tag League in October. After four victories out of five in the round-robin stage, Yano and Makabe advanced to the semifinals, where they defeated the team of Shinsuke Nakamura and Hirooki Goto. However, on November 5, Yano and Makabe were defeated in the final match by Satoshi Kojima and Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Yano and Makabe's IWGP title reign of 322 days came to an end on January 4, 2009, when they were defeated by Team 3D for the second year in a row at Wrestle Kingdom III in Tokyo Dome.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
The Wrestle Kingdom 9 undercard featured several matches involving the Bullet Club, which was led by A.J. Styles. The group dominated NJPW for most of 2014, holding all four of its heavyweight championships during the summer. After the NJPW–GFW partnership was forged, GFW head Jeff Jarrett joined the Bullet Club on August 10. On December 7, during a Bullet Club post-match assault on Tomoaki Honma, NJPW veteran tag team Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) stormed into the ring to the aid of Honma, driving the Bullet Club away. They then joined Honma to challenge the stable to a six-man tag team match at Wrestle Kingdom 9. Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi and Jeff Jarrett—making his NJPW ring debut—were scheduled to represent the Bullet Club at the event.
Wellington Regional Stadium
On 4 March 2006 WWE's first ever New Zealand show, WWE SmackDown Road to WrestleMania 22 Tour was held at the stadium. 23,875 people were in attendance to witness the televised event. There were 9 matches including a triple threat match between Kurt Angle, The Undertaker and Mark Henry for the World Heavyweight Championship (WWE)
Robert Whiting
He was banned again, indefinitely, in 1990, after writing an investigative report for the magazine "Shukan Asahi", which showed the Giants were falsifying attendance figures. The Yomiuri front office had claimed that every Giants home game played in the Tokyo Dome drew a capacity crowd of 56,000. However, Whiting counted the seats, which totaled 42,761, and then the standing room at several Giants games, which averaged 3,500, demonstrating that the maximum audience for a baseball game could not have been much more than 46,000. Whiting returned to the Dome for the first time as a reporter in 2004 to cover an Opening Day match between the New York Yankees and the Tampa Bay Rays.
Wrestle Kingdom 12
Wrestle Kingdom 12 featured ten professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito. The storyline behind the match dates back to 2013, when Naito won the G1 Climax tournament to earn a shot at Okada and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 8 on January 4, 2014. However, at that time, Naito, despite being a clean cut babyface, was disliked by NJPW fans, which led to the company changing their course of action, announcing a fan vote to determine whether the match between Okada and Naito or an IWGP Intercontinental Championship match between Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi would main event Wrestle Kingdom 8. Nakamura and Tanahashi won the vote, resulting in Okada and Naito losing their main event spot. Okada went on to defeat Naito in the match to retain the title. In the summer of 2015, Naito traveled to Mexico to work for the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, where he joined the villainous "Los Ingobernables" stable. Upon his return to NJPW, Naito, using the NJPW fans' rejection of him as a catalyst, completely reinvented his character, eventually leading to him forming the "Los Ingobernables de Japon" stable. Despite now being a villain, fans eventually started getting behind Naito with "Los Ingobernables de Japon" merchandise becoming NJPW's top seller. When Naito defeated Okada at Invasion Attack 2016 on April 10 to win the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time, he had the crowd solidly behind him. Naito eventually went on to lose the title back to Okada on June 19, 2016, at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall.
On August 13, 2017, Naito defeated Kenny Omega in the finals to win the 2017 G1 Climax. With Naito now being fully embraced by NJPW fans, this was seen as the conclusion of a four-year arc that started at the 2013 G1 Climax, where he was rejected by the same fans. Following the win, Naito gained possession of the Tokyo Dome IWGP Heavyweight Championship challenge rights certificate, which granted him a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 12. On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Naito successfully defended the certificate against Tomohiro Ishii, while Kazuchika Okada successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Evil, setting up the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 12 between champion Okada and challenger Naito. The match was officially announced in a press conference the following day. As part of the build-up to the title match, Okada introduced a new submission hold, a cobra clutch, as a counter to Naito's finishing maneuver, "Destino". However, on December 18, in their final confrontation before Wrestle Kingdom 12, Naito managed to counter himself out of the hold and hit Okada with the "Destino", leaving him laid out. Okada has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship ever since defeating Naito at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall, having successfully defended the title eight times, and enters the match as the longest-reigning champion in the title's history. This match would mark Okada's fourth consecutive and overall fifth Wrestle Kingdom main event, while Naito had never main evented the show before.
On November 5, 2017, at Power Struggle, Chris Jericho made a surprise return to NJPW, appearing in a video, where he challenged Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome. The challenge was quickly accepted by Omega, who had been engaged in a "Twitter feud" with his fellow Winnipegger over the past weeks. The match, contested for Omega's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, was officially announced the following day. Due to the high-profile status of the match, Omega began petitioning for Wrestle Kingdom 12 to have a "double main event" much like the Wrestle Kingdom shows had had in 2013, 2014 and 2015. Omega stated that he agreed that Okada and Naito should have the final match of the show, but felt that he and Jericho should have the second to last match, claiming that just four months after the creation of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, he had already made it the number two title in NJPW over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Jericho made his in person return at the December 11 show, attacking and bloodying Omega following his match, while also laying out a referee, a young lion and Don Callis. At a press conference the following day, Omega stated that with the attack Jericho had turned their upcoming "gentleman's contest" into a fight, before attacking his Wrestle Kingdom 12 opponent. During the same conference, NJPW officially announced that Wrestle Kingdom 12 would feature a double main event with the IWGP Heavyweight and United States Heavyweight Championship matches. Naito stated that he was disappointed with the decision, adding that NJPW would never become the number one promotion in the world as long as they were humoring WWE. On December 18, NJPW announced that, as a result of both Omega and Jericho demanding it, the match had been turned into a no disqualification match.
Wrestle Kingdom 9
According to commentator Jim Ross, Japanese television producer TV Asahi did not contact the English-language team during the event; he and Striker announced "by our instincts and it seemed to work out pretty well". Ross also said, "Time will tell but if this was my last pro wrestling event, I picked a damn good one on which to go out on."