Wrestling Dontaku 2022

Promotional poster for the event, featuring caricatures of several NJPW wrestlers

## Information

### City

Fukuoka, Japan

**Wrestling Dontaku 2022** was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on May 1, 2022, in Fukuoka, Fukuoka at Fukuoka PayPay Dome. The event was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito. This was the eighteenth event under the Wrestling Dontaku name.

## Production

### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of February, following recommendations by the Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the coronavirus outbreak, NJPW canceled the events between March 1 and March 15 including the promotion's Anniversary Event and the first and the second round of New Japan Cup. On March 23, NJPW also canceled the 2020 Sakura Genesis event, which was originally scheduled to take place on March 31. On April 8, NJPW canceled more events from April 11 through May 4, leading to the cancelation of both nights of 2020 Wrestling Dontaku and would also cancel the whole Best of the Super Juniors tournament as a result of the pandemic. Various wrestlers such as David Finlay, El Phantasmo, KENTA, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Jay White, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, and Robbie Eagles were unable to work on NJPW events due to pandemic travel restrictions. During this time, NJPW wrestlers and staff created the *NJPW Together* project in order to do bring content to NJPW World with interviews and old archived matches. On May 6, NJPW announced that their Wrestle Dynasty event would be postponed to 2021. On June 8, during an online press conference, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that the promotion would start to hold shows on June 15, starting with the *Together Project Special* and the return of the 2020 New Japan Cup between June 16 and July 11, with all shows being held behind closed doors. It was also stated that the finals of the New Japan Cup and the Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall would be the first shows to allow fans into the arena, but only a third of the venue's normal capacity, after the Japanese Government lifted some restrictions on many regions in Japan. Limited live attendance at NJPW shows continued into 2021, with fans being allowed only to applaud or use noisemakers but not cheer or chant for the wrestlers.

On April 28, it was announced that Tatsumi Fujinami and Will Ospreay had both positive for COVID-19, leading them to be pulled out from the event, with Fujinami's match and the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match being changed.

### Storylines

Wrestling Dontaku 2022 featured professional wrestling matches that involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.

Wrestling Dontaku 2022 was headlined by Kazuchika Okada making his fourth title defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito. On April 9 at Hyper Battle, after successfully defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Zack Sabre Jr., Okada called out Tetsuya Naito, nominating him as his next challenger for his title vowing to avenge his loss to him in the semifinals of the 2022 New Japan Cup. This will be their third singles match of the year, after Okada had successfully defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Naito on February 20 and Naito had defeated Okada in the semifinals of the 2022 New Japan Cup on March 26. Leading to their match, their match record counted for 12 wins for Okada and 6 for Naito. On April 25, after a pre-match between Okada and Naito, Naito mockingly held his fist up for Okada to touch. Okada reluctantly would give his challenger the first bump, before attempting a *Rainmaker*, only for Naito to lay out Okada with the *Destino*, with Naito promising that this would be the same end in their title match.

The Okada and Naito angle, also led to a match between Yoh and Hiromu Takahashi. On April 18, after scoring a pinfall win over Yoh, Takahashi questioned Yoh's motivation, stating that this version of Yoh was different from the one who loss to him in the finals of the 2021 Best of the Super Juniors. The following day, Yoh, who personally took Takahashi's criticism, scored a victory over Takahashi's Los Ingobernables de Japón stablemate BUSHI. Afterwards, Yoh stated that he was not satisfied with his recent lossed against Takahashi notably the final of the 2021 Best of the Super Juniors and challenged him to a match. On April 20, after scoring a direct victory over Takahashi, Yoh challenged him to a match. During that day, NJPW made their match official.

In the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match, Hiroshi Tanahashi faced Tomohiro Ishii for the vacant title. Also at Hyper Battle, after SANADA vacated the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship, due to an injury, he tried pass the title to the former champion, Hiroshi Tanahashi, but the request that drew the ire of Will Ospreay, who demanded SANADA to give him the title, since he was the one that injured him. This led to a match between Ospreay and Tanahashi for the vacant title. On April 28, it was announced that Ospreay had tested positive for COVID-19 amid its pandemic in Japan, leading him to be pulled from the event and replaced by Tomohiro Ishii.

At Hyper Battle, El Desperado successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Sho. Afterwards, Desperado was confronted by Sho's Bullet Club stablemate Taiji Ishimori, who challenged him to a title match and Francesco Akira, who revealed himself as the United Empire newest member. During Desperado's first reign as IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, he succesfully defended the title against Ishimori on July 10, 2021 during the Summer Struggle tour. Afterwards, Ishimori gained the reputation as a fast and dangerous submission wrestler, defeating him, during the 2021 Best of the Super Juniors with one of his submissions the *Bone Lock*, leading Desperado to later credit Ishimori to be more skillful than him and Hiromu Takahashi.

On February 19 at Impact Wrestling's No Surrender, the Guerrillas of Destiny unsucessfully challenged The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson) for the Impact World Tag Team Championship, after they were betrayed by Jay White. Subsequently, the Guerillas of Destiny were kicked out of Bullet Club and, White sent a message through Gedo, warning the rest of stable to chose between him or the Guerrillas of Destiny. On March 13, Tama Tonga returned to NJPW to face EVIL in the second round of the 2022 New Japan Cup. EVIL won the match, when the rest of the group turning on Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Jado, kicking them out of Bullet Club. Afterwards, Tonga, Loa and Jado continued feuding with Bullet Club and aligned themselves with NJPW's home unit, with Tonga not forgotting their betrayal. At Hyper Battle, Tonga confronted EVIL, before being attacked by Yujiro Takahashi, before Loa made the save. After Tonga lay out EVIL, not forgetting his betrayal, Tonga vowed to get his revenge, leading NJPW to book a match for the NEVER Openweight Championship between them.

At Hyper Battle, United Empire's Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb defeated Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Afterwards, in a post-match interview, Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens) challenged Cobb and O-Khan to a title match, before being confronted by Goto, who also challenged Cobb and O-Khan to a rematch, leading to a three-way match at Wrestling Dontaku. The event will also include a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, between Six or Nine (Master Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi) and Suzuki-gun (DOUKI and Yoshinobu Kanemaru), after DOUKI and Kanemaru attacked Wato and Taguchi during a backstage interview at Hyper Battle.