The Wrestling World is an annual show, formerly a major show, currently held by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW), formerly held annually on January 4 in the Tokyo Dome where often invites other promotions, Japanese and international, to participate in their January 4 Tokyo Dome Shows as well including several companies that have been involved in scripted inter-promotional rivalries such as UWF International (UWFi), Big Japan Pro Wrestling (BJW), All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW), and Pro Wrestling NOAH.
Since its inception in 1996 it became an annual event that was mainly with start of the new year in NJPW after being associated with January 4 Tokyo Dome Show. NJPW have held shows at the Tokyo Dome as far back as April 24, 1989, but Wrestling World would become the most anticipated show and the biggest wrestling event and NJPW's premier show, similar to what the WrestleMania is for the WWE. The first was held in 1996 after event didn't took place in 1998, the event would return in 1999. The event would be later inactive following Yuke's acquisiton of NJPW in 2005 with the event being replaced by Wrestlle Kingdom, the Dome shows were broadcast on TV Asahi with rest of the show being broadcasted on NJPW World.
In 2014 Wrestling World would return after its nine year hiatus as part of NJPW's international expansion being disassociated from January 4 Tokyo Dome Shows until 2016 with events being held outside of Japan mainly in Taiwan and Singapore. NJPW returned with the show in 2024, as part of their expansion in the Indo-Pacific region, with show taking place in Taiwan in collaboration with its local development partner PUZZLE.
Events[]
| # | Event | Date | City | Venue | Attendance | Main Event |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Wrestling World 1996 | January 4, 1996 | Tokyo, Japan | Tokyo Dome | 54,000 | Keiji Mutoh (c) vs. Nobuhiko Takada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship |
| 2 | Wrestling World 1997 | January 4, 1997 | 62,500 (official) 52,500 (claimed) |
Shinya Hashimoto (c) vs. Riki Choshu for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship | ||
| 3 | Wrestling World 1999 | January 4, 1999 | 52,500 | Scott Norton (c) vs. Keiji Mutoh for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship | ||
| 4 | Wrestling World 2000 | January 4, 2000 | 53,500 | Genichiro Tenryu (c) vs. Kensuke Sasaki for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship | ||
| 5 | Wrestling World 2001 | January 4, 2001 | 52,000 | Kensuke Sasaki vs. Toshiaki Kawada in the IWGP Heavyweight Championship tournament final | ||
| 6 | Wrestling World 2002 | January 4, 2002 | Jun Akiyama (c) vs. Yuji Nagata for the GHC Heavyweight Championship | |||
| 7 | Wrestling World 2003 | January 4, 2003 | 30,000 | Yuji Nagata (c) vs. Josh Barnett for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship | ||
| 8 | Wrestling World 2004 | January 4, 2004 | 40,000 | Shinsuke Nakamura (c) vs. Yoshihiro Takayama (c) for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and NWF Heavyweight Championship | ||
| 9 | Toukon Festival: Wrestling World 2005 | January 4, 2005 | 46,000 (official) 36,000 (claimed) |
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP U-30 Openweight Championship | ||
| 10 | Wrestling World 2014 | April 12, 2014 | Taipei, Taiwan | National Taiwan University Gymnasium | 2,000 | Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito and Togi Makabe vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and Yujiro Takahashi) |
| April 13, 2014 | 1,600 | Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tetsuya Naito and KUSHIDA vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura and Tomohiro Ishii) | ||||
| 11 | Wrestling World 2015 | June 20, 2015 | Tampines, Singapore | Singapore Expo Hall #7 | N/A | Hiroshi Tanahashi and Captain New Japan vs. CHAOS (Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii) |
| June 21, 2015 | Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jushin Thunder Liger vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada and Gedo) | |||||
| October 18, 2015 | Taipei, Taiwan | National Taiwan University Gymnasium 1F | 1,200 | Hiroshi Tanahashi and Kota Ibushi vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi) | ||
| 12 | Wrestling World 2016 | October 15, 2016 | N/A | Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima vs. Los Ingobernables de Japón (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL and SANADA) | ||
| November 15, 2016 | Downtown Core, Singapore | Marina Bay Sands Expo & Convention Center Hall B | EVIL (c) vs. Katsuyori Shibata for the NEVER Openweight Championship | |||
| 13 | Wrestling World 2024 | April 14, 2024 | New Taipei City, Taiwan | Zepp New Taipei | 800 | Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano and Boltin Oleg vs. House of Torture (EVIL, Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) in a tournament final for the vacant NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championships |
(c) - refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
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