These matches were all-but-official coming out of Monday’s Power Struggle show, but New Japan Pro-Wrestling loves a press conference. And we’re talking about its card for Wrestle Kingdom, the annual event in the Tokyo Dome that’s the promotion’s version of WrestleMania. So you bet we got a presser.
The seven confirmed matches for Wrestle Kingdom 21 on Jan. 4 are:
- IWGP Heavyweight Championship: Yota Tsuji (c) vs. Kenny Omega
- Unbound Death Match: Shingo Takagi vs. Jon Moxley
- Will Ospreay vs. Callum Newman
- MJF vs. Ryohei Oiwa
- IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: Gabe Kidd (c) vs. Yuya Uemura ()
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (Vacant): Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles vs. Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori vs. Mistico & a partner of his choosing)
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: YOH (c) vs. SHO (if SHO loses, he has to quit House of Torture and re-team with YOH as RPG3K)
I’m probably most intrigued by the Ospreay/Newman clash (if the United Empire split were strictly a New Japan angle, this feels like the point
where the Prince of Pace would win… but would Tony Khan or Ospreay sign off on a high-profile loss for AEW’s World champion? Could we get a draw at the Tokyo Dome?), but the match referred to in the headline is the main event. It was the IWGP Heavyweight titleholder who said it, and ever since attaining his main event spot last year, Yota Tsuji has been the foremost critic of the New Japan/AEW relationship.
Here’s Tsuji’s quote from today’s press conference about his match with Kenny Omega in the context of New Japan and AEW:
“I’ve said before that if things stay the way they are, we would be better of ending this relationship, but the point is, that’s if things stay the way they are. This match could change the relationship between NJPW and AEW entirely. If all the other NJPW wrestlers win their matches, but I lose, then that’s a loss for New Japan overall.”
Feels like there’s some reality and some storyline in that statement, as there has been with most of the champ’s AEW criticisms. Wrestle Kingdom 21 does seem like an opportunity to level the playing field, and it certainly looks like Omega doing the honors for New Japan’s new star is part of the plan.
Share your thoughts on the card for the upcoming Tokyo Dome show, and/or the AEW’s partnership with New Japan, in the comments below.
