New Japan’s biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, went down in the Tokyo Dome on Jan. 4. As part of their efforts to ramp up coverage of the promotion, AXS TV, will be bringing the show to viewers in the United States much quicker than they have in the past.
And to get you ready for the premiere of their three hour special covering Wrestle Kingdom 12 tonight (Jan. 6) at 8PM Eastern, they’ve released a couple of slick trailers for the main events - Chris Jericho challenging Kenny Omega for the IWGP United States championship and Tetsuya Naito’s quest to get the IWGP Heavyweight belt off of company Ace, Kazuchika Okada.
If you follow New Japan regularly or are passionate enough about wrestling to keep up with the business online, you’re probably already excited for these matches and/or have already seen them on NJPWWorld. But for more casual viewers, these videos recapping the program leading into the Dome showdowns are a great idea.
If anything, the Naito/Okada one doesn’t do their epic, years long program justice, but it’s still well put together. For the audience these are intended to reach, the Jericho/Omega match is the one which probably closes the deal though, so it’s good that one is killer.
AXS has a day of New Japan coverage planned leading up to tonight’s premiere, so tune in (or head here to find out how to get the channel) for a Jim Ross-called puroresu marathon!