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NJPW has announced that tickets for Wrestle Kingdom 20 on Jan. 4, 2026 are completely sold out.
The event origianlly sold out after NJPW announced that Hiroshi Tanahashi would be facing his greatest rival, Kazuchika Okada, at Wrestlet Kingdom 20 in his retirment match. The normal seating plan for The Tokyo Dome for wrestling is usually around 40,000 people. The company then announced it was adding additional tickets and they have sold out of those as well as of earlier today. Wrestle Kingdom 20 is expected to draw over 50,000 people and be the largest attended pro wrestling event at the venue since Antonio Inoki’s retirement match in April 1998.
No main event for either show has been announced yet. The top two matches announced for the card are Tanahashi vs. Okada and IWGP World Hvt. Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Hvt. Champion Yota Tsuji in a Winner Takes All match.
Hiroshi Tanahashi is known as one of the all-time great wrestlers in NJPW and has been wrestling a close to full time schedule during his retirement tour this year. Tanahashi’s opponent, Kazuchika Okada, was his greatest rival and they had a series of matches at Wrestle Kingdom 7 on Jan. 4, 2013, Wrestle Kingdom 9 on Jan. 4, 2015, and Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 2016. Tanahashi won the first two meetings and left Okada in tears after beating him for a second. straight time on NJPW’s biggest stage. Okada managed to come back the next year and beat Tanhashi to capture the IWGP World Hvt. Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 10.
Okada has said that his match against Tanahashi shoud headline Wrestle Kingdom 20. “I’ve always said the IWGP should be the main event, but this is different,” Okada said during a Nov. 10 interview with Tokyo Sports. “If it’s me, it’s gotta be the main event, right? Mr. Tanahashi is also a veteran of New Japan and I feel it would be unfair for other wrestlers to compete after him.”
The entire card announced for Wrestle Kingdom 20 is as follows:
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada – Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Retirement match
- IWGP World Hvt. Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Hvt. Champion Yota Tsuji in a Winner Takes All match
- NEVER Openweight Champion Evil vs. Aaron Wolf
- IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani in a Winner Takes All match
- El Desperado vs. Sho vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishiimori in a IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title #1 Contender’s match
- NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Yoh & Master Wato & Toru Yano defend in a multi-team ranbo
- Kaisei Takechi has been announced to wrestle on the show.
You can watch this show with a subscription to NJPW World.
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