14 Things We Learned From NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 11

4. NJPW Loves Title Changes At Big Shows

Wrestle Kingdom Toru Yano
njpwworld.com

Throughout the show, Steve Corino and Kevin Kelly on commentary frequently mentioned the history of title changes at January 4 Tokyo Dome shows. As the show began, Corino informed viewers that 44% of title matches at the annual show had ended with a new champion, which suggested that Wrestle Kingdom 11 may feature one or two title changes.

Many expected this, but not many would have expected the first six title matches to result in new champions walking out with belts around their waists. Roppongi Vice, Los Ingobernables de Japon, Adam Cole, Ishii & Yano, Hiromu Takahashi and Hirooki Goto defeated their foes and walked out with new belts.

Naito became the first champion to successfully defend his title on the show, in the seventh championship bout. Okada followed suit in the main event, but 6 out of 8 is a pretty good ratio for change. New Japan Pro Wrestling loves to change championships at the biggest show of the year, representing a hard reset for the company ahead of 2017.

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.