page_title: Wrestle Kingdom 11
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Wrestle Kingdom 11 / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: 日本語: 2016年11月5日 大阪府立体育会館「POWER STRUGGLE」 高橋広夢
context_page_description: Wrestle Kingdom 11 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The event took place on January 4, 2017, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 26th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, which is NJPW's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl".
  The show was main evented by Kazuchika Okada successfully defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the 2016 G1 Climax winner Kenny Omega. The match went into history as the longest ever held as part of the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show. Other featured matches saw Tetsuya Naito successfully defend the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hirooki Goto defeat Katsuyori Shibata to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion and Hiromu Takahashi defeat Kushida to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. As part of a partnership between NJPW and the American Ring of Honor promotion, the ROH World Championship was also defended at the event with Adam Cole defeating Kyle O'Reilly to become the new champion.
context_section_description: Wrestle Kingdom 11 featured eleven professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.
  Wrestle Kingdom 11 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kenny Omega. Okada won the title on June 19, 2016, by defeating Tetsuya Naito at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall. Meanwhile, Omega became the number one contender at the Tokyo Dome by winning the 2016 G1 Climax the following August, defeating Hirooki Goto in the finals to become the first foreign winner of NJPW's premier tournament. Afterwards, Okada retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji, avenging a loss suffered during the 2016 G1 Climax, while Omega defended his status as the number one contender against Yoshi-Hashi and Hirooki Goto, leading to the match between Okada and Omega being made official for the Tokyo Dome in a press conference on October 11. Omega stated that his goal as champion was to take the IWGP Heavyweight Championship abroad and defend it in countries like the United States, United Kingdom and New Zealand in direct opposition to WWE and their global strategy. Okada and Omega were the heads of the Chaos and Bullet Club stables, respectively, and the match at Wrestle Kingdom 11 marked the first singles match between the two. The match also marked Omega's first ever shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.
  Wrestle Kingdom 11 would also feature Tetsuya Naito defending he IWGP Intercontinental Championship, against Hiroshi Tanahashi. In January 2016, Shinsuke Nakamura was stripped of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship after he announced that he was leaving NJPW for WWE, which led to Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kenny Omega being put up in a match to determine the new champion. Omega went on to win the match on February 14 at The New Beginning in Niigata, which led to a rematch being booked in ladder match on June 19 at Dominion 6.19 in Osaka-jo Hall. However, before the match, Tanahashi suffered a legitimate shoulder injury and was forced to pull out, being replaced by Michael Elgin, who went on to defeat Omega to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion. Elgin then entered a storyline rivalry with Tetsuya Naito, during which Naito was backed by his Los Ingobernables de Japon (L.I.J.) stable, while Elgin had the backing of Hiroshi Tanahashi, who had started his own rivalry with L.I.J. member Sanada, after losing to him during the 2016 G1 Climax. On September 25 at Destruction in Kobe, Naito defeated Elgin for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in a match that featured outside interference from the entire L.I.J. as well as Tanahashi. A rematch was booked between the two for the November 5 Power Struggle event, but Elgin was forced to pull out of the match after suffering an eye injury. Naito instead went on to defeat Ring of Honor (ROH) wrestler Jay Lethal to retain the title. Following the match, Tanahashi, who had defeated Sanada earlier in the event, confronted Naito, challenging him to a title match at the Tokyo Dome, which Naito accepted. The match broke Tanahashi's seven-year streak of Tokyo Dome main events, although Tanahashi did bring up the possibility of NJPW setting up a fan vote to decide whether the Intercontinental or Heavyweight Championship match would main event the show. This harked back to the 2014 Wrestle Kingdom 8 event, where Naito and Kazuchika Okada's IWGP Heavyweight Championship match lost the main event spot to Tanahashi and Shinsuke Nakamura's IWGP Intercontinental Championship match, following a fan vote. Naito, however, claimed that he was against a fan vote, stating that he had always felt that the Heavyweight Championship should main event the Tokyo Dome and him being the Intercontinental Champion had not changed his mind. Naito had yet to win a singles match in the Tokyo Dome, havin
caption: Hiromu Takahashi, who challenged for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 11
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