In a stunning announcement live on YouTube, NJPW and Pro Wrestling NOAH have announced a partnership that extends the annual extravaganza, Wrestle Kingdom, to three nights in 2022 for its sixteenth anniversary. The extension to three nights was announced in September during NJPW’s Wrestle Grand Slam.
In addition to the originally announced two nights on January 4th and 5th, the traditional dates for Wrestle Kingdom, January 8th will feature night three. On that Saturday, it will be NJPW head-to-head with NOAH emanating from Yokohama Arena, a venue modeled after Madison Square Garden.
Superstars such as Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kaito Kiyomiya appeared at the Press Conference with Kiyomiya saying “if I’m a part of this, this should be a war. People only think of NJPW, as it is the business leader. I think that’s messed up. NOAH is the best in ring and I want to flip the script.”
The card for the head-to-head show on January 8th is currently unknown but the show will air on NJPW World, New Japan’s streaming service which is available for $9.16 on a per-month subscription basis. Night one of the regularly-scheduled Wrestle Kingdom event from the Tokyo Dome will feature Shingo Takagi defending his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against challenger Kazuchika Okada. The winner of that match will defend the championship against Will Ospreay in the main event of night two. No other matches have been announced for any of the three nights.
You can watch the remainder of the on-going press conference on NJPW’s YouTube account here.
