December 21, 2020 Observer Newsletter: Wrestle Kingdom 15 cards, TripleMania

New Japan Pro Wrestling has at least the top matches announced for its biggest shows of the year, WrestleKingdom 15, taking place on 1/4 and 1/5 at the Tokyo Dome.

No exact number of tickets released has been announced, but the latest word has the figure well under 20,000. The shows are not sold out which, like the 12/11 Budokan Hall show, highlights the difficulty in getting people to attend live events under these circumstances.

Both shows are scheduled for 2 a.m. Eastern time starts and the shows will likely be with fewer total matches and shorter time than in previous years when the usual five hour shows usually seemed too short.

Announced for the first night is a battle of junior heavyweight tournament winners as Hiromu Takahashi, who won the Best of the Super Juniors tournament on 12/11, faces El Phantasmo, who won the taped Super J Cup that aired on 12/12. The winner of that match gets a title shot at IWGP jr. champion Taiji Ishimori on the second night.

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