Night Two of NJPW’s biggest show of the year, WrestleKingdom 16 concluded earlier this morning. The event saw Kazuchika Okada retain the IWGP World Heavyweight championship over Will Ospreay in the show’s main event, as well as a number of other marquee title matchups.
During the half-way point of the show NJPW would be invaded by the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster, led by Japanese legend and former GHC heavyweight champion, Keiji Muto. This was to hype up night three of WrestleKingdom 16 from the Yokohama Arena on January 8th, which will pit NJPW talent against NOAH talent.
NJPW has since issued a press release regarding the invasion. You can see that, as well as full video of the incident, below.
A shock moment in the middle of night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 saw Keiji Muto’s music welcome the legend to a ring in the Tokyo Dome for the first time in eight years, accompanied by the entire contingent of Pro-Wrestling NOAH that will compete Saturday in Yokohama Arena.
Muto led the NOAH roster, the separate factions all heading to the ring together to present a rare united front, and as bodies filled the ring, it was Kaito Kiyomiya who took to the mic. Kiyomiya promised that NOAH would take up arms against new Japan Pro-Wrestling in Yokohama Arena.
The arrogant Kenoh would question NJPW’s status as the top promotion in Japan, suggesting that they are enlisting NOAH to assist them in drawing the sold out house in Yokohama. Hearing the inflammatory words, former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi would head to ringside, along with BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi ahead of the star studded LIJ vs Kongo 5 vs 5 match Saturday.
Takagi wondered whether Kongo and the NOAH crew had anything better to do with their time before declaring that NJPW would show why there is a clear gap between the two organizations. As Kenoh invited Shingo inside the ring, Takagi did a head count before deciding to back away; with an entire company roster behind him, Kenoh taunted that Takagi was ‘running away like a coward’.
Kenoh finished his speech by declaring that NOAH was the true top promotion in quality and that the results would be made perfectly clear in Yokohama.