The show was headlined by Kazuchika Okada defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against the winner of the 2017 G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito, in a rematch from Wrestle Kingdom 8 in 2014.

[9] NJPW was said to have been shocked at the large number of tickets sold outside of Japan with the situation being described as "like nothing before for any Japanese pro wrestling show in history".

[22] Behind the scenes, Jericho became part of a group of people that started pushing for the show to air on American pay-per-view (PPV) for the first time since Wrestle Kingdom 9 in 2015.

The storyline behind the match dates back to 2013, when Naito won the G1 Climax tournament to earn a shot at Okada and the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 8 on January 4, 2014.

[29][30] In the summer of 2015, Naito traveled to Mexico to work for the Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL) promotion, where he joined the villainous Los Ingobernables stable.

[38][39] As part of the build-up to the title match, Okada introduced a new submission hold, a cobra clutch, as a counter to Naito's finishing maneuver, Destino.

[40] However, on December 18, in their final confrontation before Wrestle Kingdom 12, Naito managed to counter himself out of the hold and hit Okada with the Destino, leaving him laid out.

[39][44] On November 5, 2017, at Power Struggle, Chris Jericho made a surprise return to NJPW, appearing in a video, where he challenged Kenny Omega to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 12 in Tokyo Dome.

[46] Jericho made his in person return at the December 11 show, attacking and bloodying Omega following his match, while also laying out a referee, a young lion and Don Callis.

[18] During the 2017 G1 Climax, NJPW started airing vignettes for an individual dubbed "Switchblade", who was announced as making his debut on November 5 at Power Struggle.

[57] Tanahashi appeared at NJPW's December 18 show, assuring that he would be defending his title at Wrestle Kingdom 12, before being attacked by White, who targeted his injured knee.

[58] Wrestle Kingdom 12 also featured the first-ever four-way match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, where Marty Scurll defended the title against Hiromu Takahashi, Kushida and Will Ospreay.

[18] On October 9 at King of Pro-Wrestling, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu made their return to NJPW from their overseas learning excursion, when they were revealed as Rocky Romero's new mystery team Roppongi 3K.

Working under the names "Sho" and "Yoh", the two defeated Ricochet and Ryusuke Taguchi to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions in their first match back.

[18] Also at Power Struggle, Cody confronted Kota Ibushi after he had been defeated by Tanahashi in the main event, offering to defend the ROH World Championship against him at Wrestle Kingdom 12.

[40] On December 11, Los Ingobernables de Japón members Evil and Sanada defeated Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) to win the 2017 World Tag League.

Traditionally, the winners of the tournament have earned a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship at the January 4 Tokyo Dome Show and following the win, Evil and Sanada called out reigning champions, Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer), and challenged them to a title match, which they accepted.

[70] On December 17, Guerrillas of Destiny and Fale defeated the Los Ingobernables de Japón trio to become the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions.

[72] At Power Struggle, after Minoru Suzuki had defeated Toru Yano to retain the NEVER Openweight Championship, he was challenged by Hirooki Goto.

[73] On November 18, Goto pinned Suzuki in their opening match in the 2017 World Tag League and afterwards made another challenge for the NEVER Openweight Championship.

[74] On December 17, Suzuki tried to cut Goto's hair with clippers, but was thwarted, which led to him shaving young lion Tetsuhiro Yagi instead.