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NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 Notes: NOAH Invades Show, Hiroshi Tanahashi Regains Title

January 5, 2022 | Posted by Jeffrey Harris
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 - Night 2, IWGP World Heavyweight Title

– During today’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 16 event at the Tokyo Dome, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated KENTA to recapture the IWGP US Heavyweight Championship. The match was held under No DQ rules, and Tanahashi won the match after hitting KENTA with a High Fly Flow through a table off of a ladder.

This gives Tanahashi his second reign with the IWGP US title and ends KENTA’s reign at 60 days. KENTA had won the title from Tanahashi last November at Power Struggle in Osaka, Japan.

In the main event, newly crowned IWGP World Heavyweight champion Kazuchika Okada pinned former champion Will Ospreay to retain the title. The match went nearly 33 minutes. Okada had won the belt from Shingo Takagi the night before, so he had to defend the title in another grueling contest the following night.

Elsewhere during the show, Keiji Mutoh and the Pro Wrestling NOAH roster invaded the show. The NJPW and NOAH rosters are set to face each other for Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 3 on January 8 on Saturday in Yokohama. Shingo Takagi and members of the LIJ then came out to confront the NOAH wrestlers. Kenoh vowed that they would change the pecking order of the Japanese pro wrestling industry, and NOAH will become the new top promotion.

You can view some additional highlights and clips from Wrestle Kingdom 16 below: