5 Surprising Facts About Wrestle Kingdom

#5 Wrestle Kingdom was originally a video game

The Wrestle Kingdom game was only released in Japan

The video game company Yukes is best known for their long-running and highly successful WWE 2K series.

Flush with cash from their WWE games and not content with just virtual wrestling, Yukes bought a controlling interest in NJPW in 2005.

Despite being longtime partners with WWE, Yukes made no move in setting up a link between NJPW and WWE. All we got was a few New Japan signature wrestlers' moves and taunts in the Create A Move section of a WWE game.

In December 2005, Yukes released Wrestle Kingdom for the Xbox 360. A version of the PlayStation 2 was released later in June 2006. Along with NJPW stars, the Wrestle Kingdom game included wrestlers from All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW) and Pro Wrestling Noah.

NJPW has had on/off relationships with the other big promotions in Japan, but due to the collaboration for the video game, the companies were on speaking terms during that period.

When the 2007 edition of the annual Jan 4th show rolled around, the theme of the event was announced as NJPW vs AJPW. Yukes decided to name the event Wrestle Kingdom. Like the game, it featured inter-promotional showdowns, and it was also a way to promote the forthcoming sequel, Wrestle Kingdom 2.

There were no more Wrestle Kingdom games after the sequel, Yukes decided to keep their focus on their WWE games. Eventually, Yukes sold their stake to Bushiroad in 2012.

While the two Wrestle Kingdom games have drifted off into obscurity, the video game’s name (and theme song) lives on through the successful event.