page_title: Wrestle Kingdom 10
section_title: Storylines
hierarchical_section_title: Wrestle Kingdom 10 / Production / Storylines
caption_attribution_description: English: Jay Lethal holding the ROH World Championship at an ROH taping on February 27, 2016.
context_page_description: Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling pay-per-view event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling. The event took place on January 4, 2016, in Tokyo, Japan, at the Tokyo Dome. It was the 25th 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 event featured ten matches and was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi.
  As part of the talent exchange partnership between NJPW and the American Ring of Honor promotion, the event featured a match for the ROH World Championship as well as the NJPW debuts of ROH wrestlers Cheeseburger, Jay Lethal, Jay Briscoe and Mark Briscoe.
context_section_description: Wrestle Kingdom 10 featured ten 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 10 was main evented by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. Okada won the title on July 5, 2015, by defeating A.J. Styles at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, while Tanahashi became the number one contender at the Tokyo Dome by winning the 2015 G1 Climax, defeating Shinsuke Nakamura in the finals on August 16. On the road to the Tokyo Dome, Okada retained his title in a rematch with A.J. Styles, while Tanahashi defended his title match contract against Bad Luck Fale and Tetsuya Naito, the two wrestlers who had defeated him during the G1 Climax, leading to the Tokyo Dome match being made official on October 12. This would mark the seventh IWGP Heavyweight Championship match between Okada and Tanahashi with both wrestlers having won three of the previous matches. This also marked Tanahashi's sixth Wrestle Kingdom in a row main event with him having won all five previous main events, two of which were against Okada.
  The second match for Wrestle Kingdom 10 was set up on November 7, 2015, after Shinsuke Nakamura had retained the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Karl Anderson at Power Struggle. Before the match, Nakamura had announced he would defend his title at the Tokyo Dome in an open challenge and asked for his challenger to come forward at Power Struggle. Following the match, Anderson's Bullet Club stablemate A.J. Styles entered the ring and made a challenge for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship, which was promptly accepted by Nakamura. The title match was officially announced in a press conference two days later. Styles was pulled from NJPW's end-of-the-year World Tag League due to a back injury, but it was announced that he would be returning at Wrestle Kingdom 10. This would mark the first singles match between Nakamura and Styles with the two having previously only met in tag team matches in August 2008 and November 2015.
  Both of NJPW's junior heavyweight titles were also be defended at Wrestle Kingdom 10. In the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match, Kenny Omega was set to defend against Kushida in the third title match between the two. The first took place on July 5, 2015, at Dominion 7.5 in Osaka-jo Hall, where Kushida, the winner of the 2015 Best of the Super Juniors tournament, defeated Omega to win the title. A rematch took place on September 23 at Destruction in Okayama, where Omega regained the title with help from his Bullet Club stablemates. On November 1, Kushida challenged Omega to a "one more match", which was made official for Wrestle Kingdom 10 on November 9. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship would be defended in a four-way match, where the reigning champions reDRagon (Bobby Fish and Kyle O'Reilly) were set to take on Matt Sydal and Ricochet, Roppongi Vice (Baretta and Rocky Romero) and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). Sydal and Ricochet earned their title shot on November 7 by defeating Roppongi Vice to win the 2015 Super Jr. Tag Tournament. However, after the match both Roppongi Vice and The Young Bucks also laid their own claims on a title match with reDRagon. Roppongi Vice had eliminated the reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions from the tournament, while The Young Bucks felt they deserved a rematch with reDRagon, having lost the title to them on August 16. This led to NJPW announcing a title match with all four teams on November 9.
  Wrestle Kingdom 10 also featured a match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship with Bullet Club's Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson defending against G.B.H. (Togi Makabe and Tomoaki Honma). Makabe and Honma earned their title shot on December 9 by defeating Los Ingobernables de Japon (Evil and Tetsuya Naito) to win the 2015 World Tag Lea
caption: Ring of Honor (ROH) World Champion Jay Lethal, who made his NJPW debut at Wrestle Kingdom 10
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