Swerve Strickland and Will Ospreay had a heavily-lauded match earlier this 12 months at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door, however the then-AEW World Champion had a unique challenger in line earlier than Ospreay was chosen.
In accordance with Fightful Choose, former NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Champion Yota Tsuji was alleged to problem the AEW World Champion on the cross-promotional PPV. Tsuji had been coming off an enormous spring, the place he gained the New Japan Cup after which challenged IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA, albeit unsuccessfully. Ospreay was finally chosen as a option to undercut criticism that Strickland was merely a “placeholder,” as Ospreay was a number one decide to win the world title at All In following his highly-touted signing by AEW. Strickland defeated Ospreay and went on to lose the title to Bryan Danielson on the Wembley Stadium occasion. Tsuji ended up wrestling alongside Titán and Hiromu Takahashi in a shedding effort in opposition to The Lucha Brothers and Mistico on the “Zero Hour” preshow as an alternative.
Ospreay went on to wrestle AEW Worldwide Champion MJF at All In, dethroning MJF in a highly-praised contest. e misplaced the title in October to Konosuke Takeshita and is now embroiled in a bitterly private feud with Kyle Fletcher amidst the continuing Continental Traditional event. Ospreay is presently one of many leaders of the Gold League, whereas Fletcher is within the lead within the Blue League, that means each males might find yourself dealing with off within the finals at Worlds Finish.
Tsuji is ready to problem IWGP International Heavyweight Champion David Finlay on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 19 within the Tokyo Dome.
