there is not much to be said here. elp’s njpw world title run thus far has included a few high-quality matches with great-o-khan where o-khan devised various mongolian traps to put elp in the ground. he won the title back from okhan at wrestling dontaku, and has had a solid second run with the title. obviously being tanahashi’s final ryogoku match is very important, and elp delivered an entertaining 15 minute draw. brookes has meandered his way through the worst j-indies and hijacked ddt main events for quite some time now. his most famous match is an avant-garde deconstruction of comedy wrestling against mao. elp wins.
this is essentially the yearly wrestle kingdom rambo with timed entrances, and when one member of a team is pinned the whole team is eliminated. im convinced that the hontai unit’s time is up with these titles. you can never count out the house of torture in a setting like this, as well as hirooki goto, but the best possible winner here is the unit of umino/takechi/uemura. takechi, who is all but an njpw wrestler at this point (half of the locker room came out to gas him up on the final kouraken of 2025), which makes the brookes booking read as a ‘thank you we are stealing him’ from njpw to ddt. on kaisei takechi if njpw does not bring him on they are fucking up. he has a star look, cool moves, and the casual appeal that will allow njpw to maintain steady business in the absence of tanahashi.
this will be about 10-12 minutes of good joshi puroresu (japanese womens wrestling) and i think tokyo sports mvp saya kamitani will become the double champion.
WHO IS X!!! Andrade el idolo is now mobbed up with the united empire and the bald henare with an apt return in the eggdome! potential X candidates - naito tetsuya, bushi, will ospreay, a vtuber hologram. this should be a good-great walk and brawl with the majority of the heat coming from david finlay - callum newman interactions. united empire wins
What!!! a number 1 contender match on wrestle kingdom? whats the deal!!! i think this is a definite tossup… but kosei fujita is primed for a HUGE BREAKOUT 2026 after being the final hiroshi tanahashi kouraken hall match, the co-sign from kushida in what many have called the technical wrestling match of 2025… sho winning would be a tragedy and a sign that the house of torture will not be going anywhere… you can also never count out the bone soldier in these, and njpw seems to be committed to desperado as a transitional jr. ace inbetween hiromu and kosei fujita.
this one is going to be interesting. EVIL is a slight favorite due to actually having wrestled a match, but a.wolf himself has stated that he has never lost to EVIL’s EVIL technique better known in judo as the O soto gari… O what a match it will be!
the reign of konosuke takeshita is over. the aewcels will no longer take our toukon… for better or worse, the savior is yota tsuji. while he was not spectacular in the g1, and tends to coast when not in a big match, i think he will bring something exciting to wrestle kingdom. we have heard for years about someone bringing back the 2010s iwgp championship design, and tsuji has promised the same. really, he is winning this because he offers much more interesting matchups for 2026 than takeshita as champion. the smiling man, who eats the pudding, will help start the era of economic revitalization and make himself a star by winning gold in a sold out tokyo dome.
hiroshi tanahashi’s wrestling career comes to a close. he faces against rainmaker, returning to once again main event a tokyo dome show and giving us everything we need; wrist control, dropkick etc. NOTE: for the purposes of presidential synergy, tanahashi’s high fly flow will be called AIR FORCE ONE and the twist and shout will be called DIPLOMACY! DO YOU REMEMBER THE RAINMAKER SHOCK DO YOU REMEMBER THE G1 CLIMAX… DO YOU REMEMBER THEY WERE NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6MAN TAG CHAMPIONS!!!
| match | favorite | underdog |
|---|---|---|
| elp vs brookes | elp -250 | brookes +180 |
| 6man rambo | uemura / umino takechi -160 | field +130 |
| syuri vs kamitani | kamitani -150 | syuri +120 |
| wardogs vs united empire | united empire -142 | wardogs +120 |
| EVIL vs wolf | EVIL -150 | wolf +120 |
| tsuji vs takeshita | tsuji -170 | takeshita +140 |
| tanahashi vs okada | tanahashi -250 | okada +180 |