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.
Honor Takes Center Stage
The second featured championship match saw Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team (Shelton Benjamin and Charlie Haas) finally have a match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship having entered Ring of Honor the previous September. Their Glory By Honor IX debut against reigning champions The Kings of Wrestling (Chris Hero and Claudio Castagnoli) and lose in a non-title match. They returned to ROH as regulars from December onwards and defeated the Kings of Wrestling in another non-title match at "SoCal Showdown II", then went on to win a contendership match against the Briscoe Brothers at 9th Anniversary Show earning them a rubber match with the Kings, this time for the ROH World Tag Team Championship. On 7 March, Wrestling's Greatest Tag Team issued a video challenge to the only major tag team in ROH they had not yet faced, the American Wolves (Davey Richards and Eddie Edwards), for a match on the second day of the event, which they soon accepted.