Wrestling Dontaku

Wrestling Dontaku (レスリングどんたく, Resuringu Dontaku) is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW).

Wrestling Dontaku
PromotionsNew Japan Pro-Wrestling
First eventWrestling Dontaku 1993

It was originally held from 1993 to 1995 and again from 2000 to 2001 in Fukuoka at the Fukuoka Dome. The event was revived in 2009 and has since been held at the Fukuoka Kokusai Center on Constitution Memorial Day, a national holiday in Japan on May 3, and aired as a pay-per-view (PPV). From 2013 to 2014, the event also aired outside Japan as an internet pay-per-view (iPPV). Since 2015, the event has aired worldwide on NJPW's internet streaming site, NJPW World. In 2018 and 2019, Wrestling Dontaku took place over two back-to-back shows.[1] The event was originally scheduled to take place in 2020 on May 3 and May 4, but was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.[2] "Dontaku" is an obsolete Japanese word for holiday, derived from the Dutch word for Sunday, "Zondag",[3] used in reference to Hakata Dontaku, a Fukuoka-based festival held in early May, the same time as the event. In 2022, the event took place on May 1 at Fukuoka PayPay Dome, formerly known as the Fukuoka Dome. This was the first time that Wrestling Dontaku was held in the domed venue since 2001.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference WrestlingDontaku2018 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ "NJPW events cancelled until May 4". New Japan Pro-Wrestling. April 8, 2020. Retrieved April 9, 2020.
  3. ^ "Hakata Dontaku Minato Matsuri". Asianbeat. Archived from the original on May 12, 2015. Retrieved August 25, 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)