The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show is a
professional wrestling event produced annually on January 4 in the
Tokyo Dome
is an indoor stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan. It was designed as a baseball stadium following its predecessor, Korakuen Stadium. Construction on the stadium began on May 16, 1985, and it opened on March 17, 1988. It was built on the site of t ...
by
New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW), a Japan-based
professional wrestling promotion. NJPW has promoted events in the venue every January 4 since
Super Warriors in Tokyo Dome
Super may refer to:
Computing
* SUPER (computer program), or Simplified Universal Player Encoder & Renderer, a video converter / player
* Super (computer science), a keyword in object-oriented programming languages
* Super key (keyboard butt ...
in 1992.
The January 4 Tokyo Dome Show became NJPW's premier annual event and the biggest event in
Japanese wrestling, similar to what
WrestleMania is for
WWE
World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc., d/b/a as WWE, is an American professional wrestling promotion. A global integrated media and entertainment company, WWE has also branched out into other fields, including film, American football, and vario ...
and
American professional wrestling. It has been described as "the largest professional wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the
Super Bowl".
The show expanded to two nights, with the
2020 edition being the first one to include matches on January 5, and further expanded to include a third night (January 8) in 2022. The event would go back to one night in 2023.
The first two January 4 Tokyo Dome Shows were also the last two
WCW/New Japan Supershow
WCW/New Japan Supershow was an annual professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event jointly produced by World Championship Wrestling (WCW) and New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). It was held in 1991, 1992 and 1993, and was promoted as "Starrcade" ...
s. Since
2007
File:2007 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Steve Jobs unveils Apple's first iPhone; TAM Airlines Flight 3054 overruns a runway and crashes into a gas station, killing almost 200 people; Former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto ...
, when the event was renamed Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome, the Dome shows have been broadcast on
pay-per-view (PPV). All the Dome shows have featured championship matches, including several titles not owned by NJPW. On three occasions (
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
,
2006
File:2006 Events Collage V1.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2006 Winter Olympics open in Turin; Twitter is founded and launched by Jack Dorsey; The Nintendo Wii is released; Montenegro votes to declare independence from Serbia; The 2006 FIFA ...
and
2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
), no titles changed hands during the show. The
2019
File:2019 collage v1.png, From top left, clockwise: Hong Kong protests turn to widespread riots and civil disobedience; House of Representatives votes to adopt articles of impeachment against Donald Trump; CRISPR gene editing first used to experim ...
show, which featured eight title matches, was the first in which all contested titles changed hands.
Some of the earlier January 4 show attendance numbers have been disputed. Officially, the
1993 Tokyo Dome show set the attendance record with 63,500 fans packing the Tokyo Dome, while according to
Dave Meltzer, the 1998 show holds the record with an attendance of 55,000.
The lowest attendances for any Dome Shows were for the
2021 event, held under attendance restrictions due to
COVID-19; NJPW announced an attendance of 12,689 for the first night and 7,801 for the second.
Prior to COVID-19, the 2007 and
2011
File:2011 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: a protester partaking in Occupy Wall Street heralds the beginning of the Occupy movement; protests against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi, who was killed that October; a young man celebrates ...
Dome shows drew the lowest unofficial gates, with only 18,000 in attendance.
[
As of 2021, the January 4 shows (including matches held on January 5 as part of two-night events) have hosted 328 matches (not including ]dark
Darkness, the direct opposite of lightness, is defined as a lack of illumination, an absence of visible light, or a surface that absorbs light, such as black or brown.
Human vision is unable to distinguish colors in conditions of very low lum ...
or pre-show
A pre-game, pregame, or pre-match show is a television or radio presentation that occurs immediately before the live broadcast of a major sporting event. They typically feature previews and analysis relating to upcoming games (either a larger fixt ...
matches), 126 of which were title matches leading to 69 title changes in total. The 2005 Tokyo Dome show had a 16-match card, the largest of any single-night show, while 2001
The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...
, 2002
File:2002 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The 2002 Winter Olympics are held in Salt Lake City; Queen Elizabeth The Queen Mother and her daughter Princess Margaret, Countess of Snowdon die; East Timor gains East Timor independence, indepe ...
, 2007, 2013
File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fa ...
, 2016
File:2016 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Bombed-out buildings in Ankara following the 2016 Turkish coup d'état attempt; the impeachment trial of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff; Damaged houses during the 2016 Nagorno-Karabakh c ...
, 2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
and 2019 featured 9 matches, the lowest number of matches on a single-night show (again, not counting dark or pre-show matches). The first two-night show in 2020 featured a total of 16 matches, tying the 2005 show for the most in a single event, but each night featured only eight matches, fewer than any previous Dome Show card. The second two-night show in 2021, affected by COVID-19, had only 6 matches scheduled for each night.
Events
See also
*List of New Japan Pro-Wrestling pay-per-view events
This is a list of major NJPW events, detailing all notable professional wrestling cards promoted on pay-per-view (PPV), live TV broadcast by TV Asahi & New Japan Pro-Wrestling World by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).
Past events 2007
2008
2009 ...
*Professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome
This is a list chronicling the history of professional wrestling at the Tokyo Dome. The Tokyo Dome stadium in Bunkyo, Tokyo, Japan has hosted a number of professional wrestling supercard events over the years. These events often air on pay-pe ...
Footnotes
References
External links
The official New Japan website
{{New Japan Pro Wrestling events, January 4 Tokyo Dome Show
Recurring events established in 1992
1992 establishments in Japan