{"id":208854,"date":"2025-12-15T22:54:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-16T04:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=208854"},"modified":"2025-12-15T22:55:26","modified_gmt":"2025-12-16T04:55:26","slug":"njpw-announces-match-order-for-wrestle-kingdom-20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/12\/15\/njpw-announces-match-order-for-wrestle-kingdom-20\/","title":{"rendered":"NJPW announces match order for Wrestle Kingdom 20"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-966402173\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>NJPW has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.njpw1972.com\/618058\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">announced<\/a> the match order for Wrestle Kingdom 20 on Jan. 4, 2026.<\/p>\n<p>Hiroshi Tanahashi&#8217;s retirement match against Kazuchika Okada will main event the show. Okada mentioned in an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.njpw1972.com\/615079\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">interview with NJPW<\/a> on Dec. 4 that he wanted his match with Tanahashi to break tradition and go on last. \u201cI\u2019ve always thought that the IWGP title should absolutely go on last, but in a situation like this, Tanahashi\u2019s last match should absolutely go on last,&#8221; said Okada. &#8220;That\u2019s what people are coming to see. Maybe this is pushing it a bit, but it\u2019s kind of like eating your meal, having dessert, and then in comes a second entree. People might be stuffed, but even then, maybe because of that, I like the main event better.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The semi-main event will see IWGP World Hvt. Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Hvt. Champion Yota Tsuji in a Double Championship match.\u00a0Olympic judo gold medalist Aaron Wolf will make his highly-anticipated debut on the card as well against NEVER Openweight Champion Evil.<\/p>\n<p>The entire lineup for Wrestle Kingdom 20 can be seen below. The show can be watching with a subscription to<a href=\"https:\/\/www.njpwworld.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"> NJPW World.<\/a><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada &#8211; Hiroshi Tanahashi retirement match<\/li>\n<li>IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji &#8211; Winner Takes All match<\/li>\n<li>NEVER Openweight Champion Evil vs.\u00a0 Aaron Wolf<\/li>\n<li>El Desperado vs. Sho vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishiimori &#8211; IWGP Junior Heavyweight title #1 Contender&#8217;s match<\/li>\n<li>David Finlay &amp; Shingo Takagi &amp; Gabe Kidd &amp; Drilla Moloney &amp; Hiromu Takahashi vs. The United Kingdom (Great-O-Khan &amp; Callum Newman &amp; Henare &amp; mystery partner #1 &amp; myster partner #2)<\/li>\n<li>IWGP Women\u2019s Champion Syuri vs. NJPW Strong Women\u2019s Champion Saya Kamitani &#8211; Winner Takes All match<\/li>\n<li>NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Yoh &amp; Master Wato &amp; Toru Yano defend in a Multi-Team Ranbo matcho<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-3997121820\"><div id=\"pwtor-1934262089\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>NJPW has announced the match order for Wrestle Kingdom 20 on Jan. 4, 2026. Hiroshi Tanahashi&#8217;s retirement match against Kazuchika Okada will main event the show. Okada mentioned in an interview with NJPW on Dec. <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2025\/12\/15\/njpw-announces-match-order-for-wrestle-kingdom-20\/\" title=\"NJPW announces match order for Wrestle Kingdom 20\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":160837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-208854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_japan"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2023\/06\/Okada-on-Dynamite.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208854","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=208854"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208854\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":208857,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/208854\/revisions\/208857"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/160837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=208854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=208854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=208854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}