In the world of professional wrestling there are two major events: WWE’s Wrestlemania, an annual extravaganza celebrating the biggest ‘sports entertainment’ brand on the planet and then there’s Wrestle Kingdom 12. The crowning achievement of New Japan Pro Wrestling, Wrestle Kingdom is an annual event that takes place in early January and features some of the world’s best wrestling talent. Wrestle Kingdom has come to be known as the pre-eminent display of wrestling prowess in the world, without the pomp and sass of the WWE, and has seen viewership skyrocket in recent years.
Here’s how to watch one of the world’s best wrestling events for the year.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 has concluded! It was an incredible event, with some stand out matches. No spoilers here. If you want to watch a replay you can still use the methods outlined below.
What Is Wrestle Kingdom?
Wrestle Kingdom is the name given to the New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) event that takes place in Tokyo Dome, every year. The event first took place on January 4, 1992 and has been a fixture of NJPWs calendar since. Until 2007, the event was known by several different names
The events feature the biggest names from NJPW, but also from a number of other wrestling promotions that run in Japan and even some in the USA, such as Ring of Honor and Impact Wrestling. Over its storied history, it has garnered a reputation for producing some of the best matches of all-time and the talent in NJPW – names like Kazuchika Okada, Tetsuya Naito, Kenny Omega and Hiroshi Tanahashi – have put on incredible displays at Wrestle Kingdom.
Wrestle Kingdom 12 will also feature WWE superstar Chris Jericho and alumni Cody Rhodes, so there will be extra interest from WWE fans the world over this year.
When Is Wrestle Kingdom 12?
In keeping with tradition, Wrestle Kingdom 12 will take place on January 4, 2018. It kicks off at 5pm local time, which means most of the avid wrestling fans in Australia will get to watch it in primetime. Move over, My Kitchen Rules.
Here’s the times in Australian capital cities:
- Perth, WA: 4pm
- Darwin, NT: 5:30pm
- Brisbane, QLD: 6pm
- Adelaide, SA: 6:30pm
- Sydney, NSW: 7pm
- Canberra, ACT: 7pm
- Melbourne, VIC: 7pm
- Hobart, TAS: 7pm
The event has a time limit of around nine hours and although it rarely goes for quite that long, be prepared for a long night if you’re going to settle in and watch live.
How To Watch Wrestle Kingdom 12 In Australia
Australian wrestling fans don’t have much choice when it comes to Wrestle Kingdom 12 – they’re going to have to find a stream online if they want to see the event live.
The easiest way to watch is to sign up for a NJPW World subscription – however, this will set you back just under $12 a month depending on the current YEN to AUD exchange rate. However, this is the most reliable way to catch Wrestle Kingdom 12 and will have English commentary. You can pay with PayPal or a credit card, but take note: The subscription service ends on the last day of the month, regardless of when you signed up, and payments for the following month are automatic unless you cancel your service. For Wrestle Kingdom 12, both English and Japanese commentary options will be available.
If you’re mad about wrestling, I wouldn’t go any other way except the NJPW World subscription. There are tons of huge events coming up in the next few months and, as a rival to WWE, you get some of the most simple, pure wrestling storylines you can find.
If you’re looking to catch Wrestle Kingdom somewhere else, your options will be limited. The best place for wrestling discussion online is at Reddit’s r/squaredcircle. Though they don’t generally provide direct links to streams, you may find some help in the threads within the subreddit and they have a great guide by u/Jacob_Bawks to sign up for NJPW World. Same goes for r/NJPW.
There are certain websites that provide streams to the show and come with little risk of endless pop-ups and dropouts. A popular one is Taima TV, which play replays and live video of wrestling events from around the world. Generally, you can find links to specific shows via Reddit, but these streams are not condoned by NJPW. This also means you may have to watch the stream in Japanese.
If the ‘LIVE’ factor doesn’t bother you too much, the Watch Wrestling website usually provides links to the show after it airs. Besides being pirated, it’s a little inconvenient because it seems that they chop the broadcast up into various segments before uploading to Dailymotion. So you’ll need to manually switch from video to video.
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