Main event official for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 will feature two wrestlers who have a long history with one another. 

SANADA successfully defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against EVIL at Destruction in Ryogoku on Monday. After the match, he was joined in the ring by the winner of the G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito. NJPW later announced that a match between the two has been officially confirmed as the Wrestle Kingdom 18 main event. 

“The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 will see Tetsuya Naito challenge SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, in news made official after Destruction in Ryogoku,” reads NJPW1972.com. 

SANADA mentioned in his post-match promo that both he and Naito took part in the same NJPW tryout many years ago. NJPW brought Naito in but didn’t select SANADA. 

“18 years ago I took the NJPW tryout test and failed. Naito was the only one to pass. Now the ‘failure’ SANADA is the World Heavyweight Champion and Naito is his challenger,’ SANADA stated. ‘Dreams do come true, right?” SANADA said. 

SANADA joined All Japan in 2007. He’d later wrestle with Wrestle-1 and Impact Wrestling before joining NJPW in 2016. SANADA debuted in the promotion at Invasion Attack, interfering in Naito’s match with Kazuchika Okada, joining LIJ, and helping Natio retain the title. 

After many successful years with the group, SANADA left LIJ and turned on Naito during the quarterfinals of the New Japan Cup in March. He joined the newly formed Just Five Guys, who were actually Just Four Guys at the time. SANADA went on to win the New Japan Cup and then defeated Okada for the title at Sakura Genesis.