Working from home today. Watched most recent NXT. Pop for Johnny Wrestling was one of the biggest I've heard at Full Sail.
Me thinks Killian Dain is going to get called up sometime soon. Eric Young is the leader of Sanity, but Dain strikes me as the star from it. I don't really see how they can have Dain and War Machine on the same roster and them not be together. If I were WWE, I'd put them together and just debut them all on main roster. Let Hanson and Rowe go after tag titles and Dain go after the IC.
Now watching WK11 all the way through. Takahashi vs Koosheeda was really good. This dude Ciabatta can go. On his match with Goto now.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 will feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 will be 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 arch 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 Naito's Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate 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. Okada has held the IWGP Heavyweight Championship ever since defeating Naito at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall and enters the match as the longest-reigning champion in the title's history. This match marks Okada's fourth consecutive and overall fifth Wrestle Kingdom main event, while Naito has 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 Omega following his match, while also laying out 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.
In the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match, Hiroshi Tanahashi will defend the title against Jay White. White joined NJPW in January 2015 and worked for the promotion as a young lion until June 2016, when he left for an indefinite learning excursion to the United States, where he worked for Ring of Honor (ROH). During the 2017 G1 Climax, NJPW started airing vignettes for an individual dubbed "Switchblade", who was announced as making his debut on November 5 at Power Struggle. Following the main event of the show, where Tanahashi successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Kota Ibushi, Switchblade was revealed as the returning Jay White, who confronted Tanahashi and challenged him to a title match at Wrestle Kingdom 12, before laying him out with the Shellshock. The following day, NJPW officially announced the match between Tanahashi and White for Wrestle Kingdom 12. In December, Tanahashi was sidelined with a knee injury when an MRI discovered arthritis and water in his knee. However, as he had a long history of working hurt and not missing major shows, it was noted that the injury would have to be "unbearably bad" for him to miss Wrestle Kingdom 12. Tanahashi appeared at NJPW's December 18 show, that he would be at Wrestle Kingdom 12, before being attacked by White.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 will also feature the first-ever four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, where Marty Scurll defends the title against Hiromu Takahashi, KUSHIDA and Will Ospreay. The match was set up through a series of title challenges in the second half of 2017. After KUSHIDA had successfully defended the title against El Desperado on September 16 at Destruction in Hiroshima, he was confronted by Takahashi, who was ready to challenge him to a title match. However, before Takahashi could complete his challenge, he was knocked out by Ospreay, who took the title match for himself and went on to defeat KUSHIDA to become the new champion on October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling. Following the match, Takahashi again came out to issue a title challenge, but was again interrupted, this time by Scurll, who snapped his fingers and made his own challenge to Ospreay. This led to a match on November 5 at Power Struggle, where Scurll defeated Ospreay to become the new champion. Following the match, Scurll and Ospreay continued arguing, while Kushida came out to challenge Scurll to a title match at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Finally, Takahashi also came out, this time wearing a helmet and gloves to prevent the other challengers from knocking him out or breaking his fingers, and made his own title challenge. Scurll then declared that he would take on all three challengers. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship has previously been defended in a three-way match, with Prince Devitt defending the title against Kota Ibushi and Low Ki at Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome, but this marks the first four-way for the title.
On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu made their return to NJPW from their overseas learning excursion, when they were revealed as Rocky Romero's new mystery team Roppongi 3K. Working under the names "Sho" and "Yoh", the two defeated Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in their first match back. The following month at Power Struggle, Roppongi 3K also won the Super Jr. Tag Tournament 2017 by defeating Taguchi and ACH in the finals, becoming the first team to win the annual tournament as the reigning champions. Following the win, the two were challenged by The Young Bucks, which was accepted by Romero, who had significant history with the two involving the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship and his previous team Roppongi Vice. Ever since their NJPW debut in October 2013, The Young Bucks had become synonymous with the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship with their six title reigns. Though the two teams had faced off in ROH during Sho and Yoh's excursion, this marks the first match between the teams since Sho and Yoh's "rebirth" as Roppongi 3K.
Also at Power Struggle, Cody confronted Kota Ibushi after he had been defeated by Tanahashi in the main event, offering to defend the ROH World Championship against him at Wrestle Kingdom 12. Initially announced the following day as a potential title match, the match instead became a non-title "special singles match", when Cody lost the ROH World Championship to Dalton Castle at ROH's Final Battle on December 15. Prior to the Chris Jericho announcement, Ibushi had been seen as a possible opponent for Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 12, with the two former tag team partners having teased a match against each other since Ibushi's June 2017 return to NJPW. In the build-up to the match, Cody, Omega's Bullet Clubstablemate, compared Ibushi to Brutus Beefcake and Omega to Hulk Hogan, claiming that Ibushi was nothing more than a sidekick in their team.
On December 11, Los Ingobernables de Japon members EVIL and SANADA defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) to win the 2017 World Tag League. Traditionally, the winners of the tournament have earned a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship at the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and following the win, EVIL and SANADA called out the reigning champions, Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer), and challenged them to a title match, which was accepted. The match was officially announced the following day. EVIL and SANADA entered the World Tag League as two thirds of the reigning NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions with stablemate BUSHI, but decided to put that title on hold in order to challenge for the tag team title at the biggest event of the year. The three were looking to defend the title the day after Wrestle Kingdom 12, but NJPW instead announced that they would defend it against the Guerrillas of Destiny and Bad Luck Fale on December 17. BUSHI suggested that NJPW did this in order to get the title off him, EVIL and SANADA, making a title match possible at the Tokyo Dome. On December 17, Guerrillas of Destiny and Fale defeated the Los Ingobernables de Japon trio to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Two days later, it was announced that the new champions would defend the title in a five-team gauntlet match at Wrestle Kingdom 12.
At Power Struggle, after Minoru Suzuki had defeated Toru Yano to retain the NEVER Openweight Championship, he was challenged by Hirooki Goto. Suzuki, however, turned down the challenge, stating that he was done with Goto, having first defeated him to win the title in April and again to retain the title in June. On November 18, Goto pinned Suzuki in their opening match in the 2017 World Tag League and afterwards made another challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship. On December 11, when Suzuki again turned down Goto's challenge, stating he had nothing to offer in return for another title match, Goto offered to put his hair on the line in the match. On December 17, Suzuki tried to cut Goto's hair with clippers, but was thwarted, which led to him shaving young lionTetsuhiro Yagi instead. After being pinned by Goto again the following day, Suzuki accepted his challenge for a title match, stating that the match would be one-on-one with no seconds with the loser getting his head shaved. The match was officially announced the following day.
Meangene45
I think it's time we start a new thread Jan 1 with the Wrestle Kingdom prediction contest linked and the article I just posted above so everyone can get caught up on that and do the prediction contest as well.
Meangene45
I think you should start a new thread Jan 1 with the Wrestle Kingdom prediction contest linked and the article I just posted above so everyone can get caught up on that and do the prediction contest as well.