NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 12: Full card, start time, more

New Japan Pro Wrestling’s biggest show of the year takes place overnight as the Tokyo Dome hosts Wrestle Kingdom 12.

The annual January 4th event will air live on New Japan World and will have options for English (with Kevin Kelly and Don Callis) and Japanese commentary. The pre-show begins at 2 a.m. Eastern time with the New Japan Rumble, which is a Royal Rumble-style battle royal featuring surprise entrants from the past and members of the NJPW roster who aren’t otherwise booked, before the main card kicks off at 3 a.m. Eastern time.

Mr. Lariato on Twitter has some time zone conversions:

https://twitter.com/MrLARIATO/status/948634569070215169

For those not watching live, Wrestle Kingdom will be available on New Japan World shortly after it ends. AXS TV will also be showing a three-hour special of the top matches on Saturday at 8 p.m. Eastern.

At their fan festival last night, Yuji Nagata announced that there had been 32,600 tickets sold for the event in the pre-sale before walk-ups are accounted for. The fan festival also included the final promos hyping up the card as the wrestlers met face-to-face with their opponents. Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho didn’t appear ahead of their match, seemingly to have their previous two angles as the final build going into tonight.

Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito will go on last after Omega vs. Jericho takes place second from the top. Here’s the full lineup for Wrestle Kingdom 12:

  • IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Tetsuya Naito
  • IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega defending against Chris Jericho in a no DQ match
  • IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Jay White
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Marty Scurll defending against Will Ospreay, KUSHIDA, and Hiromu Takahashi in a four-way match
  • NEVER Openweight Champion Minoru Suzuki defending against Hirooki Goto in a hair vs. hair match where Suzuki-gun and Chaos are barred from ringside
  • IWGP Tag Team Champions Killer Elite Squad defending against SANADA & EVIL
  • Kota Ibushi vs. Cody (w/ Brandi Rhodes)
  • NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions Bad Luck Fale & Guerrillas of Destiny defending against Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Beretta, Togi Makabe, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi, Michael Elgin & War Machine, and Zack Sabre Jr., Takashi Iizuka & Taichi in a gauntlet match
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Sho & Yoh defending against The Young Bucks
  • The New Japan Rumble (pre-show)

For more Wrestle Kingdom coverage, check out Ethan Renner and Brian Denny’s preview of the card.