Finalists set for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 KOPW 2022 match
The four participants for the KOPW 2022 match at night two of Wrestle Kingdom 16 were decided today in a pre-show New Japan Ranbo on night one of the event.
Surprise entrant CIMA, KOPW 2021 winner Toru Yano, Minoru Suzuki and Chase Owens were the final four of the Ranbo, advancing to tomorrow’s four-way to determine the first provisional KOPW 2022.
CIMA and 68 year-old Tatsumi Fujinami were the two surprise entrants in the 19-man Ranbo. CIMA entered eleventh, while Fujinami entered eighteenth.
Fujinami maintains a semi-active schedule in various Japanese promotions, but this was his first NJPW match since night one of Wrestle Kingdom 14 in 2020.
Here is the full list of entrants from the Ranbo:
- Aaron Henare
- Chase Owens
- Kosei Fujita
- Yuto Nakashima
- Ryohei Oiwa
- Master Wato
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan
- Minoru Suzuki
- Satoshi Kojima
- TAKA Michinoku
- CIMA
- Tomoaki Honma
- DOUKI
- Yuji Nagata
- Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- Togi Makabe
- Bad Luck Fale
- Tatsumi Fujinami
- Toru Yano