Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on January 4, 2018, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. It was the 27th January 4 Tokyo Dome Show, which is NJPW's biggest annual event and has been called "the largest wrestling show in the world outside of the United States" and the "Japanese equivalent to the Super Bowl".
The show was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the 2017 G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito, in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014. The second match of the show's "double main event" saw Kenny Omega defend the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Chris Jericho in a no disqualification match, the latter of whom returned to the NJPW ring after nearly 20 years away from the promotion.
Six other title matches also took place on the show with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Jay White, Marty Scurll defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in a four-way match against Hiromu Takahashi, Kushida and Will Ospreay, Minoru Suzuki defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Hirooki Goto in a hair vs. hair match, Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer) defending the IWGP Tag Team Championship against the 2017 World Tag League winners Los Ingobernables de Japón (Evil and Sanada), Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) defending the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship in a five-team gauntlet match and Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson). All in all, the event featured ten matches (including one on the pre-show).
Production
Background
Wrestle Kingdom 12 was officially announced on August 13, 2017, during the final of the 2017 G1 Climax. Jurina Matsui of SKE48 was appointed the special ambassador of the event. The event would air live through NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World, with English commentary provided by Kevin Kelly and Don Callis.
Takaaki Kidani announced that NJPW looked to get 30,000 fans in attendance for the show. Tickets for the event went on sale on October 25, 2017. NJPW was said to have been shocked at the large number of tickets sold outside of Japan with the situation being described as "like nothing before for any Japanese pro wrestling show in history". On November 27, NJPW announced that ticket sales were up 80% from the previous year with 20,000 tickets having already been sold. On December 25, the promotion announced that 30,000 tickets had been sold. Three days later, NJPW announced it would be making more seats available on the day on the show.
The event would feature a special appearance by Chris Jericho, wrestling his first NJPW match in nearly two decades against Kenny Omega. Billed as "Alpha vs. Omega", the match marked Jericho's first match outside of WWE since 1999. Jericho previously worked for NJPW in 1997, originally as the masked Super Liger, before returning to the Chris Jericho name. Jericho's last NJPW match before Wrestle Kingdom 12 took place on September 23, 1998, teaming with the late Black Tiger II in a loss to Shinjiro Otani and Tatsuhito Takaiwa for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. He most recently worked for WWE in July 2017, but was now a free agent. NJPW color commentator Don Callis, a mutual friend of Jericho and Omega, came up with the idea for the match between his fellow Winnipeggers. He pitched the idea to Jericho, expecting him to laugh it off, but Jericho instead was interested in the match, seeing parallels between it and the August 2017 fight between Conor McGregor and Floyd Mayweather Jr. Jericho finally realized that NJPW was serious about putting the match together, when four of the promotion's officials, including booker Gedo, flew to New York City for the first meeting between the two parties. After several weeks of negotiating, a deal for the match was reached, at which point Jericho, despite not being under a WWE contract, talked to the company's chairman Vince McMahon, who was said to have been "fine" with the idea of Jericho working a NJPW event. At that time, Jericho's appearance at Wrestle Kingdom 12 was scheduled to be a one-time deal. Jericho called the match a throwback to the 1980s, where wrestlers would travel overseas for matches and stated that the match would push promotions to think more and be more creative.