New Japan Pro Wrestling/AEW/CMLL/STARDOM/ROH
Wrestle Dynasty 2025
January 5, 2025
Tokyo Dome
Tokyo, Japan
Watch: NJPW WORLD
Meet our previewers
John Carroll: John is nowhere near as excited for this show as they are for Wrestle Kingdom the night before, but I mean….they’re gonna watch it, so they may as well preview it too. Follow them on Bluesky @justoneenby, which they might have to rebrand soon if Just 4 Guys leaves us in 2025…..
J. Michael: Usually, J. Michael’s intros are completely arbitrary nonsense, but three things prevented that here:
- He dropped about 4500 words in the Wrestle Kingdom preview
- He dropped 24000 words in the New Japan Primer
- He doesn’t know if anybody is reading those things and he doesn’t want to go back to work tomorrow and he’s feeling ill and had to cancel a podcast, so he’s depressed
- He has no fucking clue about anything going on in AEW.
Harold was right to be wary of this company and avoid doing business with them. We’ve seen the results once the guys who got run out of town last year took over and opened the door. January 5th should be Dash and only Dash. It’s always been a problem trying to do something else, besides that one time. This show sucks, and this preview is going to make him look like an ignorant fool, and that’s what J. Michael deserves. It’s @ryugu_jo.
Wrestle Dynasty 2025 Pre-Show Match 1: International Women’s Cup
Momo Watanabe vs. Persephone vs. Athena vs. Willow Nightingale
John: I really don’t understand the decision to put this on the pre-show, as it feels like a bigger match than at least one or two of the main card matches. You couldn’t fit this on a main card that’s mostly filled with singles matches anyway? Kind of bizarre. But anyway, you’ve got four wrestlers from four different organizations here, with a vague promise that the winner can challenge for any title of their choosing in any of the four organizations (as in CMLL, STARDOM, AEW or ROH, which we’re supposed to pretend is actually a separate promotion for these purposes). I don’t really know why three of the four competitors would choose a title shot outside of their home promotion, but I guess you had to word it this way given that Athena has been ROH Women’s World Champion for two full years now. I’m also not sure how that doesn’t qualify her to challenge for either of AEW’s women’s titles without having to win this four-way match, but that’s one of those things you’re not supposed to think about too hard, I suppose.
Anyway, what this all means for our purposes here is that it feels virtually impossible to pick a winner here. Anyone could be winning this thing to set up a title shot in literally any one of the four promotions. Given how great Athena has been on the incredibly small stage of ROH for years now, it would be awful nice to see her win this and either finally get a shot at one of AEW’s titles or, even better, stick around in Japan a little longer and get a shot at a title in STARDOM. So let’s go with that. Prediction: Athena
J. Michael: Hoo boy, we’re off to a great start; the only one here I know much about is Watanabe, and I think she’s one of the most compelling wrestlers. I’m tired of seeing her lose lately. Prediction: Momo Watanabe
Wrestle Dynasty 2025 Pre-Show Match 2: ROH World Tag Team Championship
Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara © vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
John: With apologies to Dustin Rhodes and the House, I’m not sure it’s possible for me to give a fuck about a match less than one for the fucking ROH tag titles with Sammy Guevara in it. Hey, did you know that Dustin is also one-third of the ROH six-man tag team champions with the Von Erich brothers (I swear to god I’m not making this up), which he hasn’t defended since July 28th? I think one of them is injured or something, and much like when Wheeler Yuta held the ROH Pure Title for six months while out with an injury, no one actually gives enough of a shit about any ROH titles to vacate them. They really are the most meaningless belts in all of wrestling, the championships for a developmental brand that isn’t really a developmental brand and only airs behind a paywall that even most of your hardcore AEW freakazoids don’t bother to subscribe to, but when they randomly show up on AEW TV we’re supposed to treat them as important anyway. Or on the preshow of this sorry excuse for a Tokyo Dome card, I guess. Prediction: Literally who cares
J. Michael: Answer: I sure as fuck don’t! On the plus side, DOUKI didn’t talk his way into a match with Guevara. John’s explanation is hilarious to me. Isn’t this all supposed to be run by a fastidious obsessive compulsive data analytics bro. Last time I was checking, he was vacating titles to the detriment of everyone. Anyway, I laid out the reasons why the House is good now in the Wrestle Kingdom preview, and SHO is a big reason why. Prediction: ROH
Lucha Gauntlet Match
Competitors TBD- “up to 8 competitors from NJPW & CMLL will enter in 1 minute intervals. First pinfall or submission wins”
John: Hey, did you know that CMLL was a part of this show? Yes, they get co-billing with ROH (a fake promotion that’s providing one pre-show match and one wrestler for the other pre-show match), STARDOM (a real promotion that’s providing one main card match), and AEW (NJPW’s most important partner when they’re not signing everyone off their roster, who generously provided a crew of midcarders and also Kenny Omega to fill out the rest of this show). So here’s CMLL’s one and only contribution to this deeply strange show, a “lucha gauntlet” match with weird rules that are basically a copy of AEW’s “Casino Gauntlet” match type. If you don’t know how that works, it’s somewhat different from a typical timed entry match like a Royal Rumble in that entering later (and especially last) is actually a bit of a disadvantage since the match can end at any time with a single pinfall. Yes, theoretically one of the first two guys can pin the other and the match will then end with six sad wrestlers in the back who never actually got to compete. But when it’s only one minute intervals anyway, I’m not sure this even actually matters- presumably there’s no chance we don’t get all eight guys in there before the match ends (as actually happened at least once in a Casino Gauntlet in AEW!).
Other than the rules, we know absolutely nothing else. We certainly don’t know the participants, other than there will be eight of them. A bunch of the top CMLL names who have appeared in NJPW before seem to be booked for some free show in Mexico, including Atlantis Jr, Mistico, and most bizarrely even Templario, who you might recall just joined UNITED EMPIRE a few weeks back in Long Beach. So that seems to take him out of the running for both a spot in this match AND as Great-O-Khan’s mystery partner later in the night against the Bucks.
So who the hell is actually gonna be in this thing? Your guess is as good as mine, fair reader. All three of the guys I just mentioned will be part of Fantasticamania- here’s the full talent list if you’re curious- which of course kicks off the following month, running from 2/19 to 2/28. So it’s pretty clear that fans of seeing NJPW and CMLL wrestlers interact will get plenty of opportunities via that full tour, as usual. The complete lack of effort here in integrating CMLL into this show meanwhile makes you wonder why they even bothered putting them on the marquee. Prediction: One of the up to eight wrestlers wins this very prestigious and extremely important match
J. Michael: Hi John! I did know that CMLL was part of this show. I wonder if New Japan contracted Titan will be here (last seen July 5th)! Or maybe New Japan contracted talent Soberano Jr (last seen February 19th)! Prediction: KAMAITACHI
NJPW STRONG Women’s & Revolution Pro Women’s Double Title Match
Mercedes Mone (STRONG ©) vs. Mina Shirakawa (RPW ©)
John: I could forgive you for thinking that Mercedes’ 2024 wasn’t great before the last month or so, as she seemed to take a great deal of time getting comfortable in her new role in AEW. Some of her matches were kind of duds, and even when she had better matches (like with Stephanie Vaquer back at Forbidden Door, right before Steph jumped to WWE) she still looked a little off at times. Her bizarre partnership with ex-NWA wrestler Kamille didn’t help either, as they never seemed to have any chemistry together and (perhaps at least in part because of that, tweets aside) went into dissension mode far quicker than anyone would have guessed, eventually leading to a hasty breakup. Her promos and backstage segments in AEW also seem to have gotten some justified criticism.
Mercedes may have in fact heard some of that outside criticism, because she then turned around and spent the last month+ looking like a woman possessed. She had her best match in AEW by a wide margin with Kris Statlander at Full Gear for her TBS Title, then followed that up with an even better match against Hazuki for the STRONG Women’s Title in Long Beach (a match that seems to be getting legitimate Match of the Year buzz). She then went out only a few days after going over twenty-six minutes with Hazuki and had another damn good match with Anna Jay on Dynamite, possibly the best match of Anna’s entire career. Finally, she wrapped up a wild month with another great match with Statlander at Worlds End on 12/28, barely more than a week before she’ll fly all the way to Tokyo for a chance to become a triple crown champion. Perhaps people were just a little too hard on her for not being able to get top level matches out of the likes of Britt Baker, a wrestler I’m not sure anyone on earth is carrying to a great match at this stage, because Mone sure looks like she’s back to being one of the best wrestlers on earth now.
Anyway, this does feel like it might be the end of the line for her STRONG title reign. I can’t really see Mone making appearances for the relatively small British indie Revolution Pro, and with Mina already booked for Battle in the Valley on January 11th and Mone not, perhaps that’s the spoiler right there. Prediction: Mina Shirakawa
J. Michael: I refuse to watch the American shows, besides the one in Lowell that I attended. Unfortunately, the Lowell show was not one of those events where a few people show up, but 100x as many people claim to have gone. That usually happens when something interesting or relevant happens, and while I enjoyed the show a lot, nothing happened there to compel anyone to lie about attending.
That is to say, Mone has apparently had two amazing matches in the last month or so, one for the brand I ignore and one for the company I avoid. Apparently there were even more, based on what John wrote above. It’s good to see her reestablish herself; with her frame, you never know how these kinds of injuries can linger. I actually can see her going to Rev Pro. Prediction: MUH-NAY
IWGP Tag Team Championship Decision Match
Great-O-Khan & ??? vs. Young Bucks
John: This was originally scheduled to be Great-O-Khan & HENARE defending their IWGP Tag Team Titles that they won back at Power Struggle in November (where they defeated TMDK’s Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls) against the Bucks, but unfortunately HENARE suffered a serious knee injury on December 5th during the World Tag League tour. As a result, the tag team titles were vacated, and it was decided that O-Khan and a partner of his choosing would instead face those same Young Bucks to determine the 106th champions. But because this match is apparently completely cursed, Great-O-Khan also suffered an injury during the final ever KOPW title match on 12/22 at Korakuen Hall. O-Khan ended up being pulled from a planned spot at DDT’s Ultimate Party Sumo Hall show against Danshoku Dieno on 12/28 (he was replaced in that match by The Invisible Man, because DDT); as I’m currently writing this on 12/29, there’s not yet any indication he’s being pulled from this show as well, but I figured it’s worth mentioning as at least a possibility. God only knows who the Bucks would face here to determine the new champions at that point.
So assuming O-Khan actually will be able to make this match, we’re still waiting for him to name his partner at press time; presumably it could be anyone in the UNITED EMPIRE, as exactly none of them are booked for Dynasty. The only person who we can probably safely eliminate is the newest UE member Templario, who as I mentioned back in the Lucha Gauntlet match preview seems to be booked elsewhere in Mexico already. There’s also always the chance this is either a way to introduce an entirely new member of UE and/or just a guest spot for someone else who isn’t joining the group (whether an NJPW wrestler or from an outside promotion), but that seems less likely.
No matter who the Bucks ultimately end up facing here, I do expect them to walk out of the Tokyo Dome with the IWGP Tag Team Titles. They’ve been pushing the idea that they want to win the IWGP heavyweight belts one last time before their eventual retirement (since they spent much of their NJPW career as juniors, they’ve only actually held these titles once, for just under four months back in 2018), and it’s a good diversion for them after their most recent AEW run was kind of a downer. They can then build to an eventual Bucks vs. Naito & Hiromu match since the LIJ team is still owed a title shot for winning World Tag League, which seems like it could be a good headlining match for a major US show in the first or second quarter of the year. That all seems logical enough. It will also just be kind of funny to see the Bucks go from finally dropping the AEW tag titles to Private Party to immediately moving over to NJPW and winning the IWGP belts- they don’t call themselves master politicians for nothing, I guess! Prediction: Young Bucks
J. Michael: HENARE is definitely cursed. Those barrel-chested wrestlers do seem to get tweaked a lot, and when you add that HENARE’s body is bursting at the seams with cum, with CUM, it only adds to the precariousness. I thought he was finding his voice as NEVER champion when they took the belt off of him, and the tag with GOK was going well, they were performing admirably as champions when HENARE succumbed to a non-contact knee injury during an undercard tag.
I’d love if GOK’s partner was Francesco Akira or Jakob Austin Young, just so rib the Bucks by having a junior in the match and subtly hint that GOK is the only heavyweight in the contest, but I guess maybe they reunite him with Jeff Cobb? Cobb, who has trashed AEW relentlessly over the last two years, calling them New Japan’s “sister company,” isn’t even booked on this show.
I’ll take John at their word about the Bucks wanting another crack at the IWGP titles. And let’s look at how 2018 will repeat itself:
- Win titles in Japan
- Never defend them in Japan
- Never get a decent reaction in Japan
- Lose titles in first defense, in America
Hopefully, at the very least, Matt will spend this entire match selling his back. Or, even better, they treat this match as an anything-goes affair, and book GOK’s partner as YOH, and the instant Matt sees YOH he starts hobbling like he needs a walker, the memories of Wrestle Kingdom 12 unlocking the muscle trauma.
I’m guessing that the Bucks are still good? I’d imagine the best case scenario is the Bucks fly around and GOK/Cobb catch them. I’m more fascinated by how this will come across in the Dome. In their last Dome match against R3K, the Bucks were able to foment intense crowd reactions with their selling. It might be, if anything, a test to see if GOK’s recent crowd responses can translate to this big giant heat suck venue. Prediction: Young Bucks
NEVER Openweight & AEW International Double Title Match
Winner of Takeshita/Shingo on 1/4 © vs. Tomohiro Ishii
John: I already wrote about this on the Wrestle Kingdom preview, but I need to stress again just how both funny and weird it is that the best and most intriguing on paper NJPW vs. AEW match is happening at Wrestle Kingdom and not on the literal NJPW vs. AEW crossover show here. Again, with apologies to Gabe vs. Kenny, there’s nothing on this card I want to see as much as Shingo vs. Takeshita, and that’s happening the night before. A very strange decision! But hey, the winner of that match against Tomohiro Ishii isn’t a bad consolation prize for Wrestle Dynasty, I guess.
The only issue really is that, assuming the winner from 1/4 is Konosuke Takeshita (which seems very likely to me), Ishii spent so much time as an AEW B- and C-show job guy in the latter half of 2024 that Takeshita vs. Ishii now feels like a match we could have gotten on any random episode of Collision or (RIP) Rampage. That isn’t to say this match won’t probably still be great, because I’m sure it will be. It just sort of makes it feel a little less shiny and special, y’know? “Two guys who have both been on AEW TV a lot in recent months” doesn’t really feel like any kind of interpromotional dream match, even if (and I can’t stress this enough) it will probably still be great. Prediction: Konosuke Takeshita
J. Michael: John is correct, and I’m hopeful that running Shingo vs. Takeshita is some kind of overt sign that Takeshita is truly making his way in. Or doing the actual hybrid deal, because I really don’t want to miss Takeshita’s cameo spots in DDT. DramaticDDT just posted an excellent Questions for 2025 article that tackles that notion, and they reached the same position that I have:
If anything, ever since the G1 happened Takeshita became more valuable to New Japan than to AEW or DDT. He will always be a good addition to any Korakuen or big arena show DDT puts on but what can DDT do with him at this point? His status means they won’t make him put over one of their own so he’s kind of in his own bubble whenever he shows up. But the special one-off matches he got against outsiders in 2024 were all really good so I won’t complain if DDT continues to book him that way.
If Takeshita loses on 1/4, it is literally only the Omega-Kidd match that will compel me to watch this show. As John highlighted before, a number of these matches seem to hint at American show booking. In this case, Takeshita could lose the NEVER title in America, where a loss would be less impactful, since only a fraction care about American results. Seriously, thanks for Lowell, but stop coming here for a while. It has cluttered the New Japan calendar, which used to be charmingly sympathetic to the fans and wrestlers. Now if feels like every single gap in the schedule is being stuffed. Prediction: Konosuke Takeshita
Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry
(if Tsuji defeats Finlay on 1/4 this will be for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title)
John: It’s probably worth noting here that as I write this preview exactly one week out from the show, we still don’t have a finalized match order for Wrestle Dynasty. This is very strange for a major NJPW show, but I imagine it’s because of the four matches I’m about to cover here- depending on the outcomes of Finlay vs. Tsuji and ZSJ vs. Umino from the night before, two of them will be for NJPW’s top two championships, and the other two will just be normal singles matches. So I imagine whichever two aren’t for titles will be much lower on the card than the other two, and they can’t exactly tell us which ones they will be of course.
With that little note out of the way, I do think the winner of the Global title match is far more predictable than the World title match, so I fully expect Tsuji vs. Perry to be for the gold here. And Perry is a bizarre choice of challenger for Tsuji to say the least- he’s coming off a TNT title run that even many of the most ardent AEW fans would tell you was kind of a flop, featuring by far the worst major Bryan Danielson match of his recent retirement run to boot. But Perry does have recent history in NJPW, having gone at that whole mini-excursion run in House of Torture early in 2024 before he finally made his AEW return, so it kind of always made sense that he was going to feature into this show somehow. And perhaps the best part of Perry being featured was it allowed Yota Tsuji to tie him back into Kazuchika Okada (based on their partnership in the much-maligned “New Elite” earlier in 2024), leading to him committing a murder in his Youtube promo leading up to this show. So hey, that was cool!
As far as this match goes, I did enjoy Tsuji & Perry’s interactions in the preview tag back in Long Beach more than I expected to. So maybe this will end up being the big surprise of the night, who knows. Tsuji winning does seem like pretty much a lock here- somebody needs to investigate Gedo for secret payoffs from Jacksonville if he actually puts Jack Perry over Yota Tsuji. Prediction: Yota Tsuji
J. Michael: The funniest part of Tsuji’s possibly unexpected public dressing down of Okada on 2/24 is Okada’s face. As Tsuji admonished Okada for his manner of leaving, in Tsuji’s manner (grimaced, measured, the words seemingly escaping from his mouth in anguish), Okada’s expression was amazing. Not as dismissively cavalier as it was with GOK, but the opposite: he is patronizingly attentive:
I was there when Jack Perry emerged in Lowell, and it was a legitimate surprise. I have no clue how he’s been doing since his New Japan Cup run, but from what John wrote it hasn’t been great. And, when you make the very sagacious decision to air that dumb surveillance video in support of this guy, he kinda has to be great. I mean sure, the guy that sucker-punched/palmed Perry looked like a strip mall MMA psychopath. But he’s also delusional, undereducated, and self-impressed, so of course he would believe the video aligns with his recollections (which it didn’t, but it doesn’t hurt to have sycophantic house-propagandists masquerading as independent media to back him up). He went his direction, though, which has apparently been infinitely more successful.
Perry, on the other hand, feels like someone being tossed out here for NJPW to get a win on these co-promoted cards, again. It would be hilarious, a pure representation of the way these shows have always fuck up New Japan booking, for Tsuji to win the Global championship the night before, and then lose it the next night, but I’d bet we see the other aspect of these shows play out: AEW takes the saftest losses. Prediction: Prediction: Yota Tsuji
David Finlay vs. Brody King
(if Finlay defeats Tsuji on 1/4 this will be for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title)
John: Here’s the match that likely ends up going earlier on the card after Finlay loses the Global title to Tsuji the night before. Finlay vs. Brody has definite mean guy match potential, but may be limited somewhat if it does indeed go on earlier in the night and ends up being around 10-12 minutes as a result. Assuming they do get some actual time to work with though, I’m excited to see what these two bruisers can do against each other here. Brody has been talking like he’s quite fired up to be working the Tokyo Dome, as you can certainly see the influence with him in many big mean white guys who had long careers as gaijin in Japan.
As far as predicting a winner here, I’m kind of thinking that the AEW guys must be getting a couple wins somewhere on this card. Perhaps they run with a story where Finlay has a disastrous weekend, losing his title to Tsuji the night before and then going down to Brody here too, setting him off on a little bit of a slump that he has to then recover from. Prediction: Brody King
J. Michael: One of the funniest, but effective, builds to this show was Brody King’s cool video. Finlay’s response: talking to Gedo on the phone:
Finlay’s brawling style was transformative in 2024. He’d be my wrestler of the year if Naito didn’t put up the attendance numbers he did (or, if I watched anything besides New Japan and DDT, I guess). That said, he’s performing beyond his frame. That makes his work even more impressive, but it will be interesting to see how this fares against a guy with the actual bruising brawler bodytype.
We got a glimpse of that in the G1 Climax, when Finlay faced Jeff Cobb and Oleg Boltin. In those matches, he didn’t play the coward, even though he was overpowered in each bout (except for one spot where he outsmarted Boltin). He stretched the rules, took advantage on the outside, and capitalized instantly when opportunities arose. Like against Cobb, he rolled through a backslide and then immediately hit two powerbombs (on Cobb!) and his finisher. I just can’t see Finlay losing here, but the way John explained it makes sense. Prediction: David Finlay
Shota Umino vs. Claudio Castagnoli
(if Umino defeats ZSJ on 1/4 this will be for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title)
John: Now we’re talking about the two matches where either one could be for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title, and thus either one could ultimately end up main eventing the show as well (though I think there’s also a chance they put Kenny Omega’s return match as the main event instead, but we’ll have to wait and see there). Shota Umino has made clear that he doesn’t support Jon Moxley’s quixotic quest to remake AEW in, uh, I guess his own image (an image that’s looking a lot like “House of Torture but without Dick Togo or SHO to make it any fun at all”, strangely enough), as we seem to be building to an eventual mentor vs. protege showdown between the two of them again. Presumably that one will be far less friendly than their battle at Resurgence last year when Mox was in the middle of his deeply underwhelming IWGP title run, but we’ll have to wait and see when and where it ultimately ends up happening.
In any event, it wasn’t going to happen at the Tokyo Dome, as there’s no way NJPW wants Umino losing here (either if he wins the IWGP World Title the night before obviously or even if he loses, as they’ll want him to get a rebound win rather than losing two nights in a row) and AEW obviously couldn’t send their World Champion over to lose either. So we get the logical if slightly boring choice of Claudio Castagnoli as Mox’s assassin. It’s certainly not adding any star power from the AEW side even if it makes sense. But there’s really no reason why this can’t be a good match at minimum, with at least a chance to be great. Prediction: Shota Umino
J. Michael: Claudio wrestled a lot of matches for NOAH between 2008-2011, but never made it to the Dome. He was in an awesome match at Dominion last year, challenging the Okada/Tanahashi/Ishii team for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team championship, alongside Moxley and Umino. I disagree with John, Claudio is a star to me, and I’m excited to see him in a singles match in Japan. His last singles match in Japan was against… Ricochet. For a Japanese company, he wrestled Kotaro Suzuki in NOAH.
Umino, coming off a hot stretch in World Tag League and the Christmas Week Korakuens, will almost certainly be coming off a major triumph in the main event of January 4th. A major triumph being:
- Holding his own against Zack Sabre Jr.
- Appearing to be a natural fit in the Wrestle Kingdom main event
- Asserting himself to the top of the youth movement
But, of course, losing to Sabre in his quest for the World Championship. I’ll go contrary to John. I think this will be a program to tie up Shota for a long while, and the beginning stages should start with a loss. As John noted, if Moxley’s faction is some kind of interference unit, that might be the reason Shota loses. Prediction: Claudio Castagnoli
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet
(if ZSJ defeats Umino on 1/4 this will be for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title)
John: Okay, it’s time to really cook AEW here. The rest of their decisions on who to send over, while not exactly inspiring (outside of Kenny obviously, and the Bucks while not huge stars in Japan are a perfectly fine pick for a tag title match too), are mostly defensible and/or understandable. But Ricochet in this spot is a complete fucking joke on every single level. This is, in all likelihood, probably going to be the IWGP World Heavyweight Title match- I don’t think it’s a total lock that Zack is winning on 1/4, but it feels more likely to me than not. There’s really almost no one on the entire AEW roster who should be above losing to Zack, one of (if not THE!) best wrestlers in the world right now, in an IWGP World title match in the goddamn Tokyo Dome, except I guess their current champion Jon Moxley. Any of the actual main eventers in AEW should have been in this spot, whether you’re talking about a guy with a ton of NJPW history like Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay, Jay White or Hangman Page (and boy, all those people who endlessly shamed anyone who was upset about Okada & Ospreay simultaneously jumping to AEW and said New Japan fans should be grateful they didn’t go to WWE instead since “they’ll be able to work NJPW whenever” hopefully have handwritten notes of apology ready!) or a top star making their debut in Japan, like Swerve or MJF. Any of those six names would have made sense and felt appropriate for this role.
Instead, we get Ricochet- a junior heavyweight in New Japan who never even won the IWGP Junior Title when he was a roster member (as was pointed out over and over again by Japanese fans after his attack on ZSJ at Power Struggle), who is little more than an upper midcarder at best in AEW. His big accomplishments so far include getting to the semifinals of the Continental Classic (which I guess is something at least), repeatedly getting toilet paper thrown at him, getting beat up by a stable of heels he was looking to join like an absolute geek, and saying “a-ha!” a lot. That’s what AEW has sent to the fucking Tokyo Dome as an IWGP World Heavyweight Title challenger, to possibly main event the show. Again, to say this is a complete joke would be an understatement.
Now, all this doesn’t mean they can’t have a great match here- it’s pretty difficult to NOT have a great match with Zack Sabre Jr. these days, and I say that even as someone who’s been more thoroughly underwhelmed by Ricochet’s AEW work than most so far. But great match or not, it never should have been a Tokyo Dome IWGP World Title match, and that’s what it will likely end up being. There’s simply way less negativity about this show and the lineup of AEW talent sent over if you replace Ricochet here with an actual main eventer- imagine the hype level for Dynasty right now if we were getting Zack vs. Ospreay for the first time in almost fourteen months, on top of Kenny vs. Gabe. Instead Kenny/Gabe is tasked to carry an entire Tokyo Dome show on its own, which is simply not fair to either guy. Oh well. Prediction: Zack Sabre Jr.
J. Michael: I remember Kevin Steen, either on his Highspots show or on Colt Cabana’s podcast, noting that Ricochet’s twitter account was awful. Here we are, over a decade later, and Ricochet is still terrible at social media. I haven’t been paying any attention, but is he doing some kind of male chauvinist sexist persona or something? I just can’t bring myself to check any further. He’s been so bad at this for so long. Sure, there were moments of greatness, like when he got the Played By Julian guy in a lather and very mad, but even then, it was inadvertently interesting. It wasn’t what he intended. Add to this, his wife is excellent at what she does on social media, riling people up, but not actually captivating beyond that. I am extremely nervous that she is coming with him. Her impression of the Pride FC Screaming Lady was bad enough in WWE, I can only imagine what it would be like in Japan.
Ricochet was very good on those Highspot shows. I remember one, I think it was the Best Friends show, where he remembered a story where he went out with Zack Sabre Jr., and Zack was on the dance floor for 6 straight hours or something. I’d like to think Ricochet is still one of the best in the world. I’m not really bothered by him challenging for the World Championship here; if he stayed in New Japan, that’s where he would have landed, probably not long after he left. I can’t really blame him for leaving; even with the inconsistencies of the way they used him, he had a good run in the Stamford Anti-Ligament Consortium. The crowd responded well to his return; they remember him and are glad he’s back, and I think I am, too. But then, I don’t know anything. Prediction: Zack Sabre Jr.
Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd
John: As I’ve stressed throughout, this is the one match on the card that no one should have a problem with. It’s been built super well dating back to their wild backstage brawl at Power Struggle, and you’re getting Kenny’s first match in exactly thirteen months after his long illness absence (quick pop quiz: can you remember who Kenny’s previous match was against, on the 12/5/23 Collision taping from Montreal? If you said ‘All Ego’ Ethan Page, congrats, please pick up your nothing from our prize window!). And if you haven’t watched the brutally effective Youtube promos from Kenny and Gabe, make sure you change that as they were both fantastic. Kenny somehow cut a better promo in his second language of Japanese than you typically get in English on your average episode of AEW TV these days, and Gabe got a chance to show that he can still be a very compelling promo even when he tones down his signature yelling and screaming.
If you haven’t been paying attention to NJPW in 2024, Gabe Kidd was simply one of the very best wrestlers in the world this past year. He was one of the few bright spots during a rough early portion of the year for the promotion, first putting on a super violent encounter with HENARE in Korakuen Hall in February, then absolutely killing it with Shingo Takagi at Wrestling Dontaku over the NEVER title. Some of the selling Gabe did in that match was simply next level stuff, the kind of performance that has to be seen to be believed- nobody quite gets across “out on his feet but refusing to go down” like Gabe does these days. His G1 featured an emotional match with generational rival Shota Umino that may have had more than a hint of backstage drama behind it, another awesome match with Shingo, and a physical war with Zack Sabre Jr, among other highlights. He then moved into a tag team with new BULLET CLUB War Dog Jake Lee that featured a strangely endearing instant chemistry, but was sadly cut short by a serious injury to Jake. His replacement team with SANADA in World Tag League was sadly nowhere near as fun or interesting, but they did end up going all the way to the finals of that tournament anyway. And somehow while doing all that, Gabe still found time to end Eddie Kingston’s endless STRONG Openweight Title reign (putting him on the shelf in the process) and defend the belt all the way to the end of the year in the US, to boot.
It makes perfect sense that the end result of a year like that, a classic “breakout gaijin” year, would be a match with the gajin who broke out in NJPW so hard that it ended up starting an entire new wrestling company. Once again Kenny finds himself filling the role of returning ex-gaijin ace here to see what all the fuss is about. But whereas Kenny was entering the first match with Will Ospreay in the Tokyo Dome still feeling like he was near the top of the wrestling business, this time around he’ll be out to prove he still has what it takes after a long absence. It gives this match an entirely different dynamic than Kenny vs. Ospreay had, only adding to the sense of intrigue. It also feels like the winner could go either way here as a result- while Kenny winning would obviously be no surprise, being that he’s a huge star and all, his long injury absence does give a convenient out if they decide to go with a Gabe victory. Ultimately, given that would be better both for Gabe and NJPW (and I think Kenny himself wouldn’t be hurt by a loss at all given again he has that excuse), I’m choosing to believe that’s what we’re going with here. But either way, I can’t wait for this match, and it’s very easily the reason why I even plan to watch this show live at all. It really is too bad they gave it so little support- if this show does indeed bomb at the gate (as looks very likely at the moment), I don’t think either guy will deserve the blame here. Prediction: Gabe Kidd
J. Michael: I am literally just a carpetbagger jumping into this preview at the last minute. Turnabout is fair play; after years of getting the jump of John, they got one on me, real good. If you want to know why it hits differently in Japan, watch those videos linked above, with a beautiful supercilious Kenny Omega, basically playing the same “what have you done to my company” persona he’s thrown out there for a couple of years, and Gabe Kidd sitting criss-cross applesauce on a… hallway floor? Like right outside the elevator?
Kidd is polarizing, for sure. As someone who has never been to England, and thus never had to endure the types of gregariously vulgar dickheads like Gabe Kidd or Drilla Moloney, I find it hilarious and compelling. I don’t think he shouts about being a madman enough, honestly. His earnest frenzy and perpetual indignation are endearing, a natural counterpoint to Omega’s posturing. Which is funny, because the wrestling landscape right now is, I believe, largely shaped by the earnest sincerity of Omega’s 2016-2019 run with New Japan.
Gabe Kidd should win this, for sure. Traditionally, the wrestler returning from injury should lose, and Omega knows this. But I think everyone involved wants Kenny Omega to stay untouchable in Japan, for now. This will probably go the route of the Ospreay series, though I hope they do the opposite and have Gabe win in Japan then Kenny win in America (where I won’t be watching). And I hope it goes a different route with Gabe Kidd staying in New Japan. I don’t know if you heard, but GABE KIDD’S NJPW CONTRACT IS UP. SOON! AS HAS BEEN HEARD! Goodness, I hope these negotiations don’t affect Kidd’s performance in this contest! T_T Prediction: Kenny Omega
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