Katsuhiko Nakajima Set To Participate In ZERO1’s Fire Festival 2026

By: Ian McCord

On April 3rd at ZERO1’s 25th Anniversary event, 11 participants were announced for this year’s Fire Festival tournament. Katsuhiko Nakajima would make a surprise appearance at the event to announce his participation in the promotions yearly round-robin competition.

Nakajima, who holds singles victories over the new World Heavyweight Champion Junya Matsunaga and Fire Festival 2025 winner Hayabusa, would take to social media following his appearance at ZERO1’s 25th Anniversary event. Nakajima would share a recap of the message he had for the live crowd at Shinjuku FACE posting:

“Has Pro Wrestling ZERO1, which used to be so passionate and exciting, lost its philosophy and its wrestling playbook? Wake up! This year, I’m going to take the historic Fire Festival for myself!”

(English Translation via DeepL)

The inaugural Fire Festival tournament in 2001 was won by the legendary Shinjiro Otani. Otani would go on to win the Fire Festival 4 times, 2nd most behind 5 time winner Masato Tanaka. Katsuhiko Nakajima, whose history with ZERO1 dates back to 2005, looks to add his name to the history books by attempting to win the legendary tournament.

Here are the participants currently announced for ZERO1’s Fire Festival 2026:

• Masato Tanaka
• Junya Matsunaga
• Hayabusa
• Chris Vice
• Katsuhiko Nakajima (Freelance)
• Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (Uptown Wrestling)
• Daichi Hashimoto (BJW)
• Koji Doi (Freelance)
• Kuma Arashi (Freelance)
• Tsugataka Sato (Yamanashi Pro-Wrestling Festival)
• Ryunosuke Nagai (Freelance)

Fire Festival 2026 action is set to kick off on June 13th at Shin-Kiba 1stRING with the winner being crowned August 7th in Korakuen Hall.