Wrestle Kingdom VI

Promotional poster for the event, featuring various NJPW wrestlers

**Wrestle Kingdom VI in Tokyo Dome** was a professional wrestling pay-per-view (PPV) event produced by the New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) promotion, which took place at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan on January 4, 2012. It was the 21st January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and the sixth held under the "Wrestle Kingdom" name. This was the final Wrestle Kingdom where a Roman numeral was used as part of the event's name. The event featured twelve matches (including one dark match), three of which were contested for championships. Wrestle Kingdom is traditionally NJPW's biggest event of the year and has been described as their equivalent to WWE's WrestleMania.

Outside participants from the All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) and Pro Wrestling Noah promotions also took part in the show. Following the conclusion of a working relationship between NJPW and the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA), the show, for the first time in five years, did not feature wrestlers from TNA.

## Production

### Storylines

Wrestle Kingdom VI featured twelve 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.

## Event

The main event of the show saw Hiroshi Tanahashi defeat Minoru Suzuki to make his 11th successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, setting a new record for most title defenses in the process. The semi-main event saw All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) representative Keiji Mutoh defeat Tetsuya Naito in a battle between two wrestlers dubbed "geniuses". The show also featured two matches, where NJPW wrestlers took on Pro Wrestling Noah wrestlers. In the first, NJPW's Hirooki Goto defeated Noah's Takashi Sugiura, while in the second Noah's Go Shiozaki and Naomichi Marufuji defeated NJPW's Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano. There were also two other title matches at the show, which saw Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima) defeating Bad Intentions (Giant Bernard and Karl Anderson) to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions and Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) defeat No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

The show is also notable for featuring the NJPW return match of future IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, who defeated Yoshi-Hashi, also making his NJPW return. Okada was making his return from an overseas learning excursion in the American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) promotion, while Yoshi-Hashi returned from the Mexican Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion. TNA's poor handling of Okada was one of the key factors in NJPW ceasing their relationship with the American promotion, which made Wrestle Kingdom VI the first Tokyo Dome show in five years to not feature any TNA wrestlers. Following the main event of the show, Okada confronted Tanahashi and challenged him to a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

The event also featured a match that saw NJPW's Wataru Inoue and Yuji Nagata take on AJPW's mixed martial arts duo of Masakatsu Funaki and Masayuki Kono in what marked Funaki's first NJPW match in 20 years. Intended as a starting point in a rivalry between Nagata and Funaki, the match ended in a "disaster", when Nagata crushed Funaki's face with a knee strike, legitimately breaking his nose and left orbital bone. The injury required surgery and sidelined Funaki for six months.

## Reception

Dave Meltzer of the *Wrestling Observer Newsletter* was positive in his review of the show, offering particular praise to Hiroshi Tanahashi, whom he credited with bringing a new audience to NJPW, comparing him to Bret Hart and John Cena as someone who has the "aura of a top guy". Meltzer wrote that "[w]hile most sports are declining in popularity in Japan, New Japan Pro Wrestling has started making small steps in growing over the past three years". Meltzer highlighted Kazuchika Okada as part of the show that did not work, writing that he did not look impressive and was "completely unconvincing" in his new role as a "cocky playboy".

## Aftermath

A month after Wrestle Kingdom VI, Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at The New Beginning to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion in what NJPW called the "upset of the century". The general reaction in Japan to the title change was negative. Dave Meltzer was also negative on the title change, writing that Okada looked "green" and was hard to take seriously as either a main eventer or a title threat. By the time Okada lost the title the following June, Meltzer wrote that he had silenced his critics, writing that his reign "[had] to be considered, in hindsight, a success far beyond what anyone could have reasonably hoped for".

## References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 Charlton, Chris 2012-01-04. 1/4 NJPW Tokyo Dome results: MVP & Benjamin, Tanahashi remains IWGP Hvt. champion, Mutoh, NJPW vs. Noah matches . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 2.7 Cite error: Invalid `<ref>` tag; no text was provided for refs named `WKVI`
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 Meltzer, Dave (January 16, 2012). "Jan 16 Observer Newsletter: Cyborg busted for steroids, all the details, Edge and Horsemen going into WWE Hall, New Japan Dome Show review, 30 year Muchnick retrospective, TNA and Strikeforce shows, more". *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Campbell, California: 10–12. ISSN 1083-9593.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Meltzer, Dave 2012-01-04. New Japan Tokyo Dome results 1–4 . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Archived from the original on 2012-01-08. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Johnson, Mike 2012-01-04. New Japan Pro Wrestling Tokyo Dome results: ROH stars appear and more . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Nemer, Paul 2012-01-07. Viva La Raza! Lucha Weekly . *Wrestleview*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
7. ↑ Martin, Garrett 2015-01-16. Japanese Wrestling's Golden Age Comes to America . *Paste*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
8. ↑ Grabianowski, Ed. How Pro Wrestling Works . *HowStuffWorks, Inc.*. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on 2013-11-18. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
9. ↑ Johnson, Mike 2015-07-06. TNA news and notes . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
10. ↑ How TNA factors into the WWE-NJPW story . *Pro Wrestling Torch* (2016-01-07). Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
11. ↑ The New Beginning  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro-Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
12. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (February 20, 2012). "Feb 20 Observer Newsletter: Diaz saga continues, drug test failure, Russo leaves TNA, new IWGP Champion, Against All Odds and Sorensen, tons more". *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Campbell, California: 7. ISSN 1083-9593.
13. ↑ Meltzer, Dave (June 25, 2012). "June 25 Observer Newsletter: No Way Out and the supposed end of John Lauranitis, Brock's next opponent, Tanahashi on way to making history, tons more news from around the world". *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Campbell, California: 6–7. ISSN 1083-9593.