New Japan Pro Wrestling is gearing up for its biggest shows of the year as Wrestle Kingdom 17 takes place on January 4th, 2023. While the show has been held over two nights in recent years, it is back to a one night format in 2023, and the full card has now taken shape.
AEW stars FTR (Dax Harwood and Cash Wheeler) will be defending their IWGP Tag TEam Championships against Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) after Bishamon were able to defeat Aussie Open.
Meanwhile, it has been announced that the legendary Keiji Muto will be taking part in his final New Japan match at Wrestle Kingdom 17, teaming with Hiroshi Tanahashi and Shota Umino to take on Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI).
After defeating Hikuleo to retain his NEVER Openweight Championship on December 14th, Karl Anderson is set to go one on one with Tama Tonga inside the Tokyo Dome. Anderson is currently signed to WWE, and had to postpone his originally scheduled match with Hikuleo due to making an appearance at WWE Crown Jewel.
The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 17 will see AEW star Kenny Omega attempt to dethrone Will Ospreay in a battle for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Animosity between the two wrestlers is well documented, and though he’s now All Elite, Omega would love nothing more than to add onto his incredible legacy in New Japan with a victory over Ospreay. Omega’s challenge came in the form of a video promo at NJPW x STARDOM Historic X-Over after Ospreay defeated Shota Umino in the main event.
It has also been announced that Sasha Banks will be in attendance at the event, though the nature of her appearance is unknown at this time.
The full match card for Wrestle Kingdom 17 can be found below, courtesy of njpw1972.com.
Full Match Card For Wrestle Kingdom 17th On January 4th, 2023
- Will Ospreay (c) vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
- Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. El Desperado vs. Master Wato for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
- Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs. Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI)
- Karl Anderson (c) vs. Tama Tonga for the NEVER Openweight Championship
- Ren Narita vs. Zack Sabre, Jr. for the new NJPW World TV Championship
- FTR (Dax Harwood & Cash Wheeler) (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) for the IWGP Tag Team Championships
- KAIRI (c) vs. Tam Nakano for the IWGP Women’s Championship
- Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP) (c) vs. CHAOS (Lio Rush & YOH) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
- Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Togi Makabe vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, Tiger Mask & Minoru Suzuki in an Antonio Inoki Memorial Match
- KOPW 2023 Qualifier New Japan Ranbo
- Ryohei Oiwa vs. Boltin Oleg in a three minute exhibition