NJPW announces huge ticket milestone for Wrestle Kingdom 20

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 has reached a huge ticket milestone.

It was announced overnight that tickets to the January 4 Tokyo Dome show have officially sold out. NJPW sent out a message thanking the fans for making this happen but did not provide an exact number of tickets sold. There are expected to be more than 50,000 fans attending the show.

Wrestle Kingdom 20 will feature the retirement of all-time great Hiroshi Tanahashi, who is facing off against his longtime rival Kazuchika Okada. The other top match on the card is Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji in a winner-take-all match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship.

In the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer noted that this will be the best-attended Wrestle Kingdom ever and the best NJPW crowd since the late 1990s.

“The 1/4 Tokyo Dome has now sold out every possible ticket they could sell. It already broke the attendance and gate record for a Wrestle Kingdom show,” Meltzer wrote. “From a legitimate attendance mark it would be the biggest since the Antonio Inoki retirement show in 1998. It was said to be one of the three most in-demand tickets (along with that show and the 1995 Keiji Muto vs. Nobuhiko Takada IWGP title match) in company history.”

The match order for Wrestle Kingdom 20 has not been revealed yet. The show is set to stream live on NJPW World and has the following matches booked so far:

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 (Sunday, January 4, 2026) —

  • Hiroshi Tanahash’s retirement match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
  • Winner-take-all match: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji
  • NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL defends against Aaron Wolf
  • Winner-take-all match: IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight title number one contender’s match: El Desperado vs. SHO vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishiimori
  • NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions YOH, Master Wato & Toru Yano defend in a multi-team ranbo
  • Kaisei Takechi in action
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Joseph Currier
Joseph Currier

Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.

In addition to his work with F4W, Joseph has previously contributed to Sports Illustrated's wrestling coverage. He lives in Massachusetts and is a diehard fan of the Boston sports teams and Liverpool Football Club.