NJPW officials held a press conference on Wednesday night to reveal details on upcoming Road to Tokyo Dome events, New Year Dash, and more.
NJPW President Takami Ohbari opened the presser by announcing new guidelines that will allow crowds to have “in principle vocal support” beginning with Wrestle Kingdom 17 on Wednesday, January 4.
“An important distinction is that rules concerning ‘no loud voice cheering’ have not changed at events,” Ohbari said. “However, the definition of cheering has been allowed to change after our consultations to allow an in principle, and effective return to cheering. Current government rulings state that long singing, rally songs etc are not allowed. However, counting with a referee, cheering with a catchphrase like 1,2,3 daa, or chanting for wrestlers is allowed under our guidelines.”
Ohbari added, “As rally songs are disallowed, so are chants that might be longer than, for example, the chorus of a song. Singing to the length of a wrestler’s entrance would be disallowed. But with chants pre-pandemic lasting an average of 10-20 seconds, this is not a significant issue.”
It was noted that some venues will not recognize the new NJPW guidelines.
It was also announced that the NJPW New Year Dash event will have a mystery format. Matches will not be announced until the wrestlers make their entrances. The only match announced as of now is a Four-Way with the participants from the Wrestle Kingdom 17 Ranbo. The winner will be crowned the first KOPW 2023 Provisional Champion.
It was announced that Night 1 of the Road to Tokyo Dome tour, from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, will be headlined by Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, and DOUKI vs. Kazuchika Okada, YOH, and Hiroshi Tanahashi. It was also announced that Suzuki-gun will have their final match together on Night 2 of the Road to Tokyo Dome tour, also from Korakuen Hall. Suzuki, Archer, El Desperado, and Taka Michinoku will face Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, DOUKI, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
Below are the announced cards for the Road to Tokyo Dome shows:
Night One – Thursday, December 22:
* IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Francesco Akira vs. Kosei Fujita
* Yuto Nakashima vs. Aaron Henare
* Great-O-Khan vs. Ryohei Oiwa
* Jeff Cobb vs. Oskar Leube
* Ren Narita and Tomoaki Honma vs. Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi
* Shota Umino, Satoshi Kojima, and Togi Makabe vs. SANADA, Shingo Takagi, and Tetsuya Naito
* The Bullet Club (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, Gedo) vs. Six or Nine (Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi) vs. Los Ingobernables De Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
* Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kazuchika Okada, and YOH vs. Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, and DOUKI
Night Two – Friday, December 23:
* Yuto Nakashima and Oskar Leube vs. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions Yujiro Takahashi and SHO
* Ryohei Oiwa and Kosei Fujita vs. Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano
* Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Tiger Mask, and Ren Narita vs. Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan, Aaron Henare, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion Francesco Akira
* Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs. YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto vs. Hiromu Takahashi and Shingo Takagi vs. EVIL and Dick Togo
* Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi, and Shota Umino vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, and BUSHI
* Kazuchika Okada, YOH, and Master Wato vs. El Phantasmo, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, and Gedo
* Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer, El Desperado, and Taka Michinoku vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and DOUKI
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