AEW, NJPW, and CMLL band collectively for the first-ever Wrestle Dynasty on Saturday night time, presenting a card of motion that includes stars from every promotion, in addition to AEW’s sister promotion, ROH. It will likely be the primary time AEW holds an occasion from Japan, one night time faraway from NJPW’s marquee Wrestle Kingdom occasion and simply over per week after AEW’s Worlds Finish occasion in December.
In one of many extra anticipated matches on the cardboard, Kenny Omega might be returning to the ring for the primary time since December 2023, going through Gabe Kidd in a grudge match introduced after their altercation at November’s NJPW Energy Wrestle. Omega is stepping again into motion after over a yr having needed to have surgical procedure to deal with a bout with diverticulitis, however made an look at Worlds Finish to confront Kazuchika Okada and tease an eventual rematch between them additional down the road. Kidd was final in motion defending his NJPW Sturdy Openweight Championship towards Ryohei Oiwa on December 15 at NJPW Sturdy Model Advanced.
Elsewhere, the Younger Bucks will even be returning to motion for the primary time since October, competing in a three-way tag group ladder match for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Workforce Championship. The Bucks might be seeking to seize their second reign with the titles within the first bout since shedding their AEW World Tag titles to Non-public Get together, however have one-half of the previous champions, Nice-O-Khan, teaming with Jeff Cobb in addition to Hiromu Takahashi and Tetsuya Naito to take care of. Takahashi and Naito had been added to the bout following their singles conflict at Wrestle Kingdom.
The ROH Tag Workforce Championship will even be on the road, with Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara defending towards Home of Torture’s YOH and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. That might be their third protection of the titles received 141 days in the past.
Mercedes Mone and Zack Sabre Jr. defend their titles
Mercedes Mone and Zack Sabre Jr. will each respectively be seeking to carry their momentum on from wins at Worlds Finish and Wrestle Kingdom; Mone defends her NJPW Sturdy Girls’s Championship in a Title vs. Title match towards RevPro Undisputed British Girls’s Champion Mina Shirakawa, whereas Sabre Jr. defends his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship towards Ricochet. A win for Mone would make her a triple-champion as she additionally holds the AEW TBS Championship and is recent off a Worlds Finish rematch with Kris Statlander, whereas Sabre Jr. is himself defending his title after 43 minutes of motion on Friday towards Shota Umino.
Umino will even be in motion once more in Tokyo, with Jon Moxley’s former protege taking up his stablemate, Claudio Castagnoli. Katsuyori Shibata additionally returned to NJPW on Friday to set his Japan comeback towards Hiroshi Tanahashi, David Finlay might be going through Brody King recent off shedding the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship to Yota Tsuji, which Tsuji will even now be defending towards Jack Perry, and Konosuke Takeshita might be defending his AEW Worldwide and newly received NEVER Openweight titles towards Tomohiro Ishii.
There stays an aura surrounding the Lucha Gauntlet match, with 4 to-be-determined luchadors every from NJPW and CMLL as a result of enter. Whereas the Worldwide Girls’s Cup will culminate with a four-way between AEW’s Willow Nightingale, ROH’s Athena, CMLL’s Persephone, and Stardom/NJPW’s Momo Watanabe, with the winner receiving a title shot of their respective promotion.
