NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 15 has been rocked by the latest global health crisis setback in Japan, with country officials today placing a ban on any attendances of over 5,000 for large scale events until January 11th.
The news was confirmed today and helpfully translated by the Super J-Cast Twitter account. This obviously goes through both days of the company's biggest show of the year, with the company permitted to honour all tickets sold so far but offer no more from this point. It wasn't made public how many socially distanced seats for the show had yet been shifted, but a figure even close to the regulation will leave the venue looking less-than-ideal on the nights.
The event will still be split over two nights as it was last year. January 4th's main event will feature IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental Champion defending both belts against Kota Ibushi. The winner of that match will take on Jay White the following evening for the same two straps. Kazuchika Okada Vs Will Ospreay is the best of the rest on Night One, with former Los Ingobernables de Japon partners SANADA and EVIL doing battle in one of the semi-main events on Night Two.
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NJPW Quiz: How Well Do You Know Wrestle Kingdom?
By Lukas (originally posted to Flickr as [1]) [CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons
1. In Which Historic Venue Is Wrestle Kingdom Annually Held?
Michael is a writer, editor, podcaster and presenter for WhatCulture Wrestling, and has been with the organisation for nearly 10 years. He primarily produces written, audio and video content on WWE and AEW, but also provides knowledge and insights on all aspects of the wrestling industry thanks to a passion for it dating back over 35 years.
As one third of "The Dadley Boyz" Michael has contributed to the huge rise in popularity of the WhatCulture Wrestling Podcast and its accompanying YouTube channel, earning it top spot in the UK's wrestling podcast charts with well over 65,000,000 total downloads. Within the podcasting space, he also co-hosts Benno & Hamflett, In Your House! and Podcast Horseman: The BoJack Horseman Podcast.
He has been featured as a wrestling analyst for the Tampa Bay Times, Fightful, POST Wrestling, GRAPPL, GCP, Poisonrana and Sports Guys Talking Wrestling, and has provided in-person coverage of some of the biggest pay-per-views and Premium Live Events in wrestling history, including WrestleMania, Survivor Series, All In & Double Or Nothing in destinations such as New York, New Jersey, Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, London and Cardiff. Michael's background in media stretches beyond wrestling coverage, with a degree in Journalism from the University Of Sunderland (2:1) and a series of published articles in sports, music and culture magazines The Crack, A Love Supreme and Pilot. When not offering his voice up for daily wrestling podcasts, he can be found losing it singing far too loud watching his favourite bands play live.
