Tanahashi Returns, New Stipulation added to WK12 Matches

[cero2k]

Source: f4wonline.com

-- New Japan Pro Wrestling has added a stipulation to Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho's IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match at the Tokyo Dome.

At a press conference prior to this morning's Road to Tokyo Dome show, NJPW revealed that Omega vs. Jericho would now be a no disqualification match. The stipulation is the result of two angles that took place last week. Jericho first attacked and bloodied Omega at NJPW's World Tag League finals, then Omega tried to get retribution by attacking Jericho during a press conference the next day.

Both Omega and Jericho have hyped up their match as a fight and said it's not about star ratings. To further the build for it, Omega wrote on Twitter after the no DQ stipulation was announced: "No DQ isn’t what I wanted, but it’s what we both need in order to settle this... #AlphaVsOmega"

After Cody Rhodes lost the ROH World Championship to Dalton Castle at Final Battle, NJPW also made the official announcement that Cody vs. Kota Ibushi at Wrestle Kingdom 12 will be a non-title singles match.

The final build to Wrestle Kingdom took place at Korakuen Hall this morning ahead of the January 4th Tokyo Dome show. Hiroshi Tanahashi made his return and was laid out after a brawl with Jay White, Minoru Suzuki and Hirooki Goto continued to build up their hair vs. hair match for the NEVER Openweight title, and Tetsuya Naito got the better of Kazuchika Okada at the last stop before their IWGP Heavyweight Championship match.


-- The expected hair vs. hair match between Minoru Suzuki and Hirooki Goto for the NEVER Openweight Championship is now just about official for the January 4th Wrestle Kingdom show at the Tokyo Dome.

It is expected that the entire card will be announced within the next 48 hours since New Japan's final show of the year on Monday at Korakuen Hall just ended.

After Goto & YOSHI-HASHI beat Suzuki & Takashi Iizuka via DQ due to outside interference on today's show, Suzuki and Goto did post-match mic work. Suzuki accepted the challenge and said that he would finish Goto, not just humiliate him by taking his hair. He also indicated his own hair would be on the line as he said it was all or nothing, the winner gets the clippers (to cut their opponent's hair off) as well as the NEVER title belt.

Also at today's show, Hiroshi Tanahashi appeared and assured everyone that his knee is improving and he would be defending his IWGP Intercontinental title against Jay White at the Dome. White, who was not advertised for the show and didn't wrestle, then attacked Tanahashi and worked over his bad knee.

There was also an end-of-the-show brawl with Tetsuya Naito and Kazuchika Okada in their final confrontation before the Tokyo Dome. This time Naito was able to escape Okada's new Cobra Clutch and finish him with the Destino, to show that even with Okada's new counter developed, he's studied and can still win the title.

[cero2k]

Final card confirmed.

Pre-Show New Japan Rumble

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match
Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) (c) vs. The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson & Nick Jackson)

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship Gauntlet Match
Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) vs. Taguchi Japan (Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson & Togi Makabe) vs. Suzukigun (Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & Takashi Iizuka) vs. CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & Beretta) vs. Michael Elgin & War Machine (Hanson & Raymond Rowe)

Kota Ibushi vs. Cody

IWGP Tag Team Championship Match
Killer Elite Squad (Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.) (c) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA & EVIL)

NEVER Openweight Championship & Hair vs. Hair Match
Minoru Suzuki (c) vs. Hirooki Goto

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship 4-Way Match
Marty Scurll (c) vs. Will Ospreay vs. KUSHIDA vs. Hiromu Takahashi

IWGP Intercontinental Championship Match
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Jay White

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship Match - No Disqualification
Kenny Omega (c) vs. Chris Jericho

IWGP Heavyweight Championship Match
Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito



--------------
Also, per Meltzer, War Machine has given their 2 week notice and are apparently headed to wwe developmental, and this could be Elgin's last shows too if the rumors are real. The rest of the wrestlers should be in the rumble.