Tag: NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

NJPW Power Struggle notes: Ospreay, Moxley, Finlay, Wrestle Kingdom lineup

Posted on by Ethan Renner

NJPW is on the road to Wrestle Kingdom 18 following Saturday’s Power Struggle event in Osaka. 

Will Ospreay retained the IWGP United Kingdom/United States Championship in the show’s main event with a victory over Shota Umino and was confronted by Jon Moxley after the match in a tease for a Wrestle Kingdom bout. Ospreay and Moxley were then laid out by David Finlay who proceeded to destroy the US and UK title belts. In post-show comments, Ospreay stated that he wants Moxley and Finlay in a triple threat match at Wrestle Kingdom and hinted at the return of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for the bout. Moxley defeated Great-O-Khan earlier in today’s card.

In the show’s semi-main, Hiromu Takahashi retained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship over Taiji Ishimori. He then laid out a challenge to El Desperado for a title bout at Wrestle Kingdom. Desperado and Hiromu have become something of career rivals with five matches rated four stars or higher by Dave Meltzer since 2018. Hiromu will have held the Junior title for a full year in his current reign if he holds the title until Wrestle Kingdom on January 4.

Elsewhere on the show, Bryan Danielson issued a challenge to Kazuchika Okada for Wrestle Kingdom, which Okada quickly accepted. 

The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team title match for Wrestle Kingdom 18 is also set following Saturday’s show, with Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) set to defend against the winners of the Super Junior Tag League tournament finals at Power Struggle, United Empire’s Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira). 

NJPW will likely officially announce the Intercontinental/US/UK title match, the Junior Tag title match, Danielson vs. Okada, and the Junior Heavyweight title match in the coming days, but here is the tentative lineup for the card as it stands now: 

  • IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA defends against Tetsuya Naito
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi defends against El Desperado
  • IWGP UK/US or IWGP Intercontinental Championship: Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) defend against Super Junior Tag League 2023 winners Catch 2/2 (TJP & Francesco Akira)
  • IWGP Tag Team Championship: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defend against the winners of World Tag League 2023
  • Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada

Our full report from today’s Power Struggle event can be found here.

Bryan Danielson challenges Kazuchika Okada for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada rematch is set for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18. 

Danielson issued the challenge to Okada for a rematch of their Forbidden Door bout from this past June in a video promo played during Saturday’s NJPW Power Struggle event in Osaka, promising to break Okada’s right arm in the process. 

In the promo, Danielson said that the last two times he has wrestled Okada, Okada has broken his bones in reference to a broken arm Danielson suffered in their Forbidden Door bout on June 25, then a broken orbital bone that was attributed to Okada in storyline in a match on the October 25 AEW Dynamite episode. 

Danielson said that he was issuing the challenge for January 4, 2024 at Wrestle Kingdom, and said that once he broke Okada’s right arm, Okada would never be able to deliver his Rainmaker finisher again. 

Okada answered the challenge with a promo of his own, finishing with a simple “yes.”

Danielson’s video played following Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii successfully defended their NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles on the Power Struggle undercard. 

Billed as a dream match, the Forbidden Door bout on June 25 was the first career meeting for Okada & Danielson, with Danielson winning via submission. 

Okada and Danielson’s promos are embedded below. 

Main event official for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

Posted on by Ian Carey

The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 will feature two wrestlers who have a long history with one another. 

SANADA successfully defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against EVIL at Destruction in Ryogoku on Monday. After the match, he was joined in the ring by the winner of the G1 Climax, Tetsuya Naito. NJPW later announced that a match between the two has been officially confirmed as the Wrestle Kingdom 18 main event. 

“The main event of Wrestle Kingdom 18 will see Tetsuya Naito challenge SANADA for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, in news made official after Destruction in Ryogoku,” reads NJPW1972.com. 

SANADA mentioned in his post-match promo that both he and Naito took part in the same NJPW tryout many years ago. NJPW brought Naito in but didn’t select SANADA. 

“18 years ago I took the NJPW tryout test and failed. Naito was the only one to pass. Now the ‘failure’ SANADA is the World Heavyweight Champion and Naito is his challenger,’ SANADA stated. ‘Dreams do come true, right?” SANADA said. 

SANADA joined All Japan in 2007. He’d later wrestle with Wrestle-1 and Impact Wrestling before joining NJPW in 2016. SANADA debuted in the promotion at Invasion Attack, interfering in Naito’s match with Kazuchika Okada, joining LIJ, and helping Natio retain the title. 

After many successful years with the group, SANADA left LIJ and turned on Naito during the quarterfinals of the New Japan Cup in March. He joined the newly formed Just Five Guys, who were actually Just Four Guys at the time. SANADA went on to win the New Japan Cup and then defeated Okada for the title at Sakura Genesis.