Wrestle Dynasty (January 5) full card, preview
Kenny Omega vs Gabe Kidd
Kenny Omega’s first professional wrestling match in over a year sees him face Gabe Kidd in a heated grudge match.
It was at Power Struggle this year that Omega made his first public appearance in front of fans since a life threatening illness, and made it known that he wanted to return to in ring action with NJPW and at Wrestle Dynasty. It was a touching and emotionally charged moment that saw Omega’s loyal Japanese fans united in support, but what happened afterwards would muddy the waters between Omega and NJPW at large.
Affronted at an interview that saw Omega flub his name, Gabe Kidd confronted Kenny backstage and the two came to blows. Since then, Kidd claims that Omega deliberately made a private situation public, while Omega criticised Kidd’s ‘unprofessional’ nature. To Kidd, Omega betrayed the essence of professional wrestling that resides in the cerulean blue and that now the Mad Man claims to represent. To Kenny, Kidd is a dangerous liability to wrestling at large that needs to be shut down. What will happen in this first match back for Omega, and who will have the last word in the Tokyo Dome?
Zack Sabre Jr. vs Ricochet
Singles record: 4–3 Sabre
Should Sabre be victorious January 4, this will be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match.
Ricochet and Zack Sabre Jr. will do battle with one another for the first time in over seven years on January 5. From their first meeting in the UK in 2013, to their most recent in 2017 in Australia, Ricochet and ZSJ have travelled the world opposite one another, but this will be their first ever match together on Japanese soil.
Much has changed for both men since 2017. After his own successful NJPW run that saw him to the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag team Championships and Best of the Super Jr. itself in 2014, Ricochet went first to WWE and now to AEW. In the meantime, Sabre flourished in New Japan over a seven year period, culminating in his MVP winning 2024, the G1 Climax trophy and the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
Should Sabre retain his title on January 4, then he will still have that mark of best in the world, a mark a relatively fresh Ricochet seeks to attain for himself. It’s a hard weekend for ZSJ, but a challenge he relishes; after losing his last three decisions to Ricochet though, will this superhuman high flier be too much even for Sabre’s submission mastery?
Shota Umino vs Claudio Castagnoli
Should Umino be victorious January 4, this will be an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match.
On the other side of the potential IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match scenario, Shota Umino could be defending freshly won gold against Claudio Castagnoli.
Claudio wasn’t the initial target for Umino going into January 5. After seeing the way in which he captured the AEW World Championship, an angry Umino had called out his mentor Jon Moxley. Umino has no faith in the vicious aggression Moxley and his Death Riders bring, but in the words of Claudio, Umino was the very first ‘Death Rider’ when Moxley took a Young Lion Roughneck under his wing back in 2019, and has been trying to run from his true self ever since.
Umino reacted with fury at Moxley sending an ‘emissary’ to the Tokyo Dome, and for that emissary to be Castagnoli. Umino responded to Mox with an enraged ‘f**k you Jon Moxley’ and will carry a chip on one shoulder into January 5, with or without the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on the other side. Will Umino’s vision of wrestling and himself as his own man outshine that of the Death Riders?
David Finlay vs Brody King
Should Finlay be victorious January 4, this will be an IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match.
One time allies become Tokyo Dome opposition when David Finlay takes on Brody King. Safe in his assumption hat he’ll retain the IWGP Global Championship at Wrestle Kingdom, Finlay issued an open challenge for January 5, and King answered.
Brody is familiar with Finlay, and teamed with the yet-to-be Rebel King a handful of times, most recently at Windy City Riot in 2022. Finlay took a very different turn since, and has inarguably become the strongest and most violent version of himself at the head of the War Dogs. King meanwhile would join AEW’s House of Black, a faction that in King’s own words is intent on ‘bringing out the deepest darkest parts of everyone we deal with’. That only adds intrigue to what could be the most hard hitting match of the weekend, and one that could have Global gold on the line.
Yota Tsuji vs Jack Perry
Should Tsuji be victorious January 4, this will be an IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match.
Our other potential IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match of the night will see Yota Tsuji face the Scapegoat, Jack Perry.
For both Tsuji and Perry, March of 2024 will be a month that stays in the memory for their entire careers. It was that month that Yota Tsuji won the New Japan Cup, heralding in his own words the true birth of a new era in NJPW. That tournament victory somewhat overshadowed what was also a formative month for Perry though; after months away in an exit shrouded in controversy, Perry had emerged as the Scapegoat in Japan, and with the support of HOUSE OF TORTURE.
In embracing H.O.T, Perry embraced the worst and most hated part of himself, and in so doing became successful enough to hold the TNT Championship whern he re-appeared in AEW. While his attack to Tsuji at Fighting Spirit Unleashed in November seems to have been motivated by lingering jealousy in the spring, the Scapegoat tells it as Perry looking to bring Tsuji into the dark side to realise his full potential, and for Perry to potentially become champion again in the process.
NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii vs Konosuke Takeshita or Shingo Takagi
Ishii will wrestle the winner of Shingo Takagi vs Konosuke Takeshita January 4.
Should Takeshita remain AEW International Champion after year’s end, this will be a double title match
Konosuke Takeshita heads into the Tokyo Dome weekend with two potential first time opponents, while Shingo Takagi could go from his first singles match with the Alpha to his eighth with Tomohiro Ishii. All three are unified in being points in a triangle however, that is willing to fight the world. Takeshita, Ishii and Takagi each fight with a deep pride in their origins, and with a faith and conviction that Japanese wrestling is the best in the world. Whatever the final lineup for this match and the stakes at hand, this will be one to remember.
IWGP Tag Team Championships: Great-O-Khan & X vs Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson)
A match for the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championships sees arguably the most decorated tag team in NJPW history face an unknown United Empire pairing.
During World Tag League, then IWGP Champions Great-O-Khan and HENARE were met with a message from AEW EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson. Absent from the workplace in recent weeks, the Young Bucks stated that they wanted to make their in ring returns in the country where they won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships seven times, and where they are one of only two teams to win both junior and heavyweight tag team gold.
In itself a reasonable challenge, the ire of many in and outside of NJPW was drawn by the timing of the message coming during World Tag League. Young Bucks gaining number one contender status and undermining the tournament was something that the IWGP Champions found hard to forgive, but the situation was muddied further when HENARE injured his knee toward the end of WTL. With he and O-Khan having to vacate the IWGP Tag Team Championships, we now have a decision match with the Bucks, O-Khan and a partner of his choosing, while eventual winners Hiromu Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito perhaps looking on even as their future as a duo remains unclear.
NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship & RPW Undisputed British Women’s Championship: Mercedes Moné vs Mina Shirakawa
Mercedes Moné will seek her fourth defence of the NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship, and to add more gold to her collection when she faces RPW Undisputed Women’s Champion Mina Shirakawa. In an international breakout year for Shirakawa, the RPW title has been joined by an Artist of STARDOM reign in 2024, as well as global exposure that has seen her challenge for both the IWGP and AEW Women’s titles. Tonight, a chance to get her first NJPW gold, as the Tokyo Dome is sure to want Mina, but will the CEO shut her down just as she did the fierce fighting Wild Heart of STARDOM, Hazuki in Long Beach at Strong Style Evolved?
Lucha Gauntlet Match
A Lucha Gauntlet match is set to see up to eight competitors across NJPW and CMLL in action. Competitors will enter the ring at one minute intervals, with first pinfall or submission deciding the match- but who will be involved in this unpredictable bout?
Kickoff Match 2: ROH Tag Team Championships- Sammy Guevara & Dustin Rhodes vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SHO)
The second kickoff match of the night will see the ROH Tag Team Championships defended in Japan for the first time in six years, Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara putting the belts on the line against Yoshinobu Kanemaru and SHO.
Two of Texas’s favourtie sons, the youthful exuberance of Guevara and veteran instincts of Rhodes have made for a highly successful tandem, but now they have to contend with HOUSE OF TORTURE. Many have mused that H.O.T should be allowed through the Forbidden Door and someone should throw away the key, but Rhodes and Guevara will not be planning to give up their tag gold, and with Rhodes making a return to the Tokyo Dome after wrestling here way back in 1993, he’ll be looking to make this a successful if unexpected comeback to the Big Egg.
Kickoff Match 1: International Women’s Cup: Persephone vs Athena vs Willow Nightingale vs Momo Watanabe
Starting off the evening, the International Women’s Cup will see one of Persephone from CMLL, ROH World Women’s Champion Athena, Willow Nightingale of AEW and STARDOM’s Momo Watanabe facing off for a title shot of their choice. Who will gain this incredible global opportunity?
