Tomohiro Ishii returning for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20
An injury has kept him sidelined for a couple of months now, but Tomohiro Ishii will be back in time for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20.
It’s been revealed that Ishii will have a spot on the Tokyo Dome card in the multi-team ranbo match for the NEVER Openweight Tag Team titles. He’ll be teaming up with Taichi & Satoshi Kojima. There was dissension between those two at Friday’s Road to Tokyo Dome event, but Kojima still volunteered himself to team with Taichi & Ishii in the ranbo.
This will be Ishii’s first match back since suffering a dislocated right shoulder while competing for AEW in October.
YOH, Master Wato & Toru Yano are defending their NEVER Six-Man Tag Team titles in the ranbo. It’s a tornado match where eliminations can occur via pinfall, submission, or being thrown over the top rope. Once one member from a team is out, the whole team is eliminated.
Among the other teams set for the match are Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Oleg Boltin; SANADA, Ren Narito & Yoshinobu Kanemaru; and Tiger Mask IV, Togi Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi.
Kaisei Takechi — who competes for DDT Pro Wrestling and is a member of pop group The Rampage — will be part of the ranbo as well. His partners have not been announced yet.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 (Sunday, January 4, 2026 on NJPW World) —
- 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
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight title number one contender’s match: El Desperado vs. SHO vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishiimori
- David Finlay, Shingo Takagi, Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman, Henare, and two mystery partners
- Winner-take-all match: IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri vs. NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani
- NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champions YOH, Master Wato & Toru Yano defend in a multi-team ranbo
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.