Hiroshi Tanahashi Recalls The First Wrestle Kingdom, Figuring Out How to Handle Tokyo Dome

Hiroshi Tanahashi looked back at the origins of the Wrestle Kingdom event in his latest conversation with NJPW’s website. The first Wrestle Kingdom was a joint event between NJPW and AJPW and toik place on January 4th, 2007. It has since become an annual event for New Japan, and Tanahashi discussed the first event in his latest Aces High piece. Highlights are below:

On the logistics of figuring out how to use the Tokyo Dome: “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.”

On if the January 4th date had been set in stone: “I think at that point if the decision had been made to ski 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. So that was a real turning point for NJPW as a whole.”