King of Pro-Wrestling

The official King of Pro-Wrestling logo.

King of Pro-Wrestling is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event has been held every October since 2012 and aired domestically as a regular pay-per-view (PPV) and internationally as an internet pay-per-view (iPPV). King of Pro-Wrestling was created by Bushiroad, a card game company, which had bought NJPW in January 2012.^[1] The event became NJPW's main show of October, a spot previously held by Destruction, which was instead moved back to September. The event takes place annually on the second Monday of October, which is known in Japan as the Health and Sports Day (体育の日, Taiiku no hi). King of Pro-Wrestling is also the name of a collectible card game, created by Bushiroad.^[2]

2012

The first King of Pro-Wrestling was held on October 8, 2012, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event featured nine matches, five of which were contested for championships.^[3][4][5] This event marked the first time a NJPW pay-per-view could be bought outside of Japan, through Ustream.^[6] The opening match saw Manabu Nakanishi return from a back injury and wrestle his first match since June 2011.^[7] The second match saw Forever Hooligans make their successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against the Time Splitters.^[3] The event featured two title switches; in the first Low Ki defeated Kota Ibushi to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the third time and end Ibushi's two-month long reign, while in the second, K.E.S. defeated Ten-Koji to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship for the first time.^[3] The event also featured a grudge match between former No Limit tag team partners Tetsuya Naito and Yujiro Takahashi,^[3] which was used as a way to write off Naito, who had suffered a knee injury and would have to undergo a reconstructive knee surgery.^[8] He would remain sidelined until Dominion 6.22 in June 2013.^[9] The event concluded with Shinsuke Nakamura making his second successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Hirooki Goto and Hiroshi Tanahashi his fourth successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Minoru Suzuki.^[3] The main event between Tanahashi and Suzuki was later given a five-star rating by sports journalist Dave Meltzer, making it the first NJPW match in over fifteen years to receive the rating.^[10] At the end of the year, readers of Meltzer's Wrestling Observer Newsletter voted the match the 2012 Match of the Year.^[11]

2013

The second King of Pro-Wrestling was held on October 14, 2013, in Tokyo at Ryōgoku Kokugikan. The event featured ten matches (including one dark match), four of which were contested for championships.^[12][13][14] Alex Shelley was scheduled to wrestle at the event, teaming with Kushida to challenge for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, however, he was forced to pull out after suffering a back injury. Shelley and Kushida were replaced in the title match by Taichi and Taka Michinoku,^[15] who would ultimately go on to defeat the Forever Hooligans and become the new champions.^[12] The third match on the pay-per-view, saw Hiroyoshi Tenzan wrestle his return match from a rib injury and rookie Takaaki Watanabe his final match before leaving for a learning excursion to the United States.^[12] The event featured Kota Ibushi's first match under a NJPW contract, Tetsuya Naito successfully defending the NEVER Openweight Championship and his status as the number one contender to the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against former partner Yujiro Takahashi as well as outside participation from Pro Wrestling Noah representative Naomichi Marufuji, who unsuccessfully challenged Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.^[12] The event also featured an appearance by Daniel Gracie and Rolles Gracie, who announced that they were going to be taking part in Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome in January 2014.^[12] In the main event Kazuchika Okada successfully defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi, who vowed to pull himself out of the Heavyweight title picture as a result.^[16] For the second year in a row, the main event of King of Pro-Wrestling received a five-star rating from sports journalist Dave Meltzer.^[17]

References

External links

• The official New Japan Pro Wrestling website