It’s official! Akebono and Bob Sapp advance on the Tokyo Dome as part of the New Japan vs. CHAOS opening match with the 3 vs. 3 becoming a 4 vs. 4 featuring the two behemoths. And a final reminder that you can order and watch this show live on iPPV on 1/4 (US$35) anywhere in the world.

I’d like to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

UPDATE: Another late card change but this time forced as young Daichi Hashimoto has suffered a fracture to his left forearm which requires two months of healing. The son of New Japan legend Shinya Hashimoto was set to make his first New Japan appearance but will be replaced by Shinjiro Otani, making his first return to New Japan in quite a while.

NJPW “WRESTLE KINGDOM 7 ~EVOLUTION~ IN TOKYO DOME”, 1/4/13 (WPW/PPV/iPPV)
Tokyo Dome

0-1. Wataru Inoue, Tama Tonga & Captain New Japan vs. Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Jado
0-2. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, KUSHIDA & BUSHI
1. Special 8 Man Tag Match: Manabu Nakanishi, MVP, Strong Man & Akebono vs. Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka, Yujiro Takahashi & Bob Sapp
2. NEVER Openweight Title: Masato Tanaka (c) vs. Shelton Benjamin
3. IWGP Tag Team Title: Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr. (c) vs. Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson
4. Special Singles Match: Yuji Nagata vs. Minoru Suzuki
5. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title – 3WAY Match: Prince Devitt (c) vs. Low Ki vs. Kota Ibushi
6. Special Tag Match: Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani
7. Special Singles Match: Togi Makabe vs. Katsuyori Shibata
8. Double Main Event I – IWGP Intercontinental Title: Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Kazushi Sakuraba
9. Double Main Event II – IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada

–> “NJPW 40TH ANNIVERSARY TOUR ~ ROAD TO TOKYO DOME” <--

NJPW, 12/20/12 (Samurai! TV)
Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2
1,610 Fans – Super No Vacancy

1. Sho Tanaka vs. Yohei Komatsu went to a draw (10:00) when the time limit expired.
2. Tiger Mask & BUSHI beat Hiromu Takahashi & Takaaki Watanabe (8:41) when BUSHI used the Reed Road on Watanabe.
3. Yujiro Takahashi & Jado beat Wataru Inoue & Captain New Japan (8:00) when Takahashi used a Bukko Nuki German suplex hold on Captain.
4. Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Manabu Nakanishi beat Toru Yano, Takashi Iizuka & YOSHI-HASHI (10:39) when Iizuka was DQ’d.
5. Yuji Nagata, Hirooki Goto & Jushin Thunder Liger beat Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku & Taichi (11:17) when Liger used a shotei on TAKA.
6. Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii beat Togi Makabe & KUSHIDA (14:41) when Ishii used a brainbuster on KUSHIDA.
7. Kazuchika Okada & Gedo beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Ryusuke Taguchi (19:18) when Okada used the Rainmaker on Taguchi.

* Toru Yano is saying that he will bring former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, Bob Sapp, to the Tokyo Dome in January as a mystery partner which means he could replace a CHAOS member in the six man tag. Sapp once headlined a New Japan Tokyo Dome show when he was the biggest thing in Japanese pop culture, but his star has long since fallen and if he does appear it’ll be in the planned opening match. New Japan chairman Takaaki Kidani is considering bringing back MMA fighters to New Japan in 2013 to challenge top stars after publicly backing Sakuraba and Shibata and opposing President Sugabayashi who has done so much work to make New Japan an honest pro wrestling group again. This is all a storyline with no telling where it’ll lead, my only hope is if MMA fighters do appear next year the booking will be a lot less reckless than what happened in the 2000s which put New Japan’s whole existence in danger. Dave Meltzer says it could possibly see Kidani as a heel owner in an nWo style group with Antonio Inoki possibly used as a retired version of Hulk Hogan.