New Japan Pro Wrestling's biggest show of the year, the 1/4/19 Wrestle Kingdom 13 at the Tokyo Dome, will stream live worldwide via Fite.TV, PWInsider.com has confirmed. The deal was completed this week and an official announcement is forthcoming, likely to be released tomorrow.
The plan is for the show to air live at 3 AM Eastern in its entirety in Japanese or English, priced at $34.99. The show will be available anywhere in the world through Fite.TV's different platforms (Roku, mobile devices, etc.) and the show will also be available for VOD replays.
Wrestle Kingdom 13 will feature the following announced matches:
*IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega vs. G1 Climax 28 tournament winner Hiroshi Tanahashi.
*IWGP Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito.
*IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori.
*Revolution Pro British Heavyweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
*Kazuchika Okada vs. Jay White.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI & Shingo.
As it has the last several years, Wrestle Kingdom will also air live for New Japan World subscribers with two hours of the event airing via tape delay on AXS TV later that evening. AXS will broadcast the remaining hours of the show in subsequent weeks, but for fans who want to watch the show live as it happens but find the New Japan World app to be difficult to decipher, this is the perfect alternative.
Fite.TV airing the show is something of a full circle for the streaming service as their parent company, Flipps Media, handled the technical aspect of the GFW syndicated Wrestle Kingdom PPV in 2009, the success of which spurred on the development and launch of Fite.TV as a combat sports streaming provider.
One would think that should the show prove to be successful on Fite, it opens the doors for additional New Japan events to be carried via that platform as well.
If you enjoy PWInsider.com you can check out the AD-FREE PWInsider Elite section, which features exclusive audio updates, news, our critically acclaimed podcasts, interviews and more by clicking here!