Hiroshi Tanahashi Recalls The Origins Of Wrestle Kingdom

The first-ever Wrestle Kingdom event took place on January 4, 2007, and was a joint show with New Japan and All Japan. 

Since then, Wrestle Kingdom has been held annually on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome. 

Hiroshi Tanahashi has been part of every Wrestle Kingdom and speaking to NJPW, he reflected on the inaugural event. 

“There was definitely talk of ‘OK, how do we handle the Dome?’. We had been running there multiple times a year, but for a couple of years there we were selling maybe 10,000 tickets, if that- long before COVID restrictions or anything of that nature. When you think in 2020 we had 70,000 plus over two nights there, it’s crazy to think about,” he said. “I think at that point if the decision had been made to skip a year, that might have been it for us as far as the Tokyo Dome went. So looking back, I’m definitely happy we went ahead. And that was the first Wrestle Kingdom, too.”

Tanahashi was victorious over Great-O-Khan at Wrestle Kingdom 15. He is 11-4 in his Wrestle Kingdom career.