NJPW: Long Beach 2018, Wrestle Kingdom 12 Attendance, Shibata Update

Next NJPW US Event to Occur on March 25th

During Thursday’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 event, New Japan Pro Wrestling revealed they will be returning to the United States on March 25th for their Strong Style Evolved event in Long Beach, California. This year’s event will occur at the Walter Pyramid and tickets will officially go on sale on January 29th at 10AM PST. At the moment, no matches have been announced for the card but several of last year’s event major stars such as Kenny Omega, Kazuchika Okada, and Tetsuya Naito are expected to make appearances.

This will be the second time NJPW will host an event in Long Beach following last year’s G1 Special event featuring the crowning of the first ever IWGP United States champion.

Wrestle Kingdom 12’s Attendance Highest in 15 Years for Japanese Wrestling

The Wrestling Observer’s Dave Meltzer reported this year’s Wrestle Kingdom 12 managed to generate the largest crowd for a wrestling event in Japan during the past 15 years. The official paid ticket sales prior to the event was revealed to be 34,995. When adding in walk-in and reserved tickets, NJPW managed to sell over 43,000 tickets for this year’s Wrestle Kingdom event.

In regards to paid ticket sales, last year’s Wrestle Kingdom 11 event had over 26,000 for paid tickets and Wrestle Kingdom 10 had over 25,000 for paid tickets prior to each event.

Source: Wrestling Observer

Shibata Revealed He had an 18% Survival Rate Following His Head Injury

Katsuyori Shibata’s in-ring career has been put on indefinite hold possibly for forever due to a near fatal head injury he suffered during last April’s NJPW Sakura Genesis event. During the IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against champion Kazuchika Okada, Shibata suffered a severe head trauma after a stiff head butt spot which left him in a very dazed condition.

Since the injury, Shibata has been providing health updates on his official blog. A recent posting by Shibata revealed doctors told him he only had an 18% chance at best of surviving following his emergency surgery due to the damages his brain sustained.

In his last blog update of 2017, Katsuyori Shibata looked back at the year with appreciation for the fans. He said that several things have been lost due to injury, damage and aftereffects, but because of this situation there are a some things he realised. After his initial surgery following the match with Okada in April he was told that the probability of survival was 18% or less. So he thinks he was saved and it was life that he picked up along the way. He thinks there is a meaning in having survived. There seems to be something that should not die. With that spirit he’s continuing his rehabilitation and he knows that persistence and a lot of time is needed. If there is no precedent of his rehabilitation program he’s ready and willing to create his own even though it’s difficult to maintain motivation.

On 12/27 Katsuyori Shibata updated his blog and talked about his probability of survival back in April. pic.twitter.com/PtyEKFteaF

— STRIGGA (@STRIGGA) January 1, 2018