{"id":223571,"date":"2026-10-12T15:03:51","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:03:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/?p=223571"},"modified":"2026-10-12T15:03:51","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T20:03:51","slug":"new-japan-looks-to-aew-to-help-sell-tickets-for-wrestle-kingdom-21-a-list-of-six-key-aew-vs-njpw-matches-that-could-take-place","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/10\/12\/new-japan-looks-to-aew-to-help-sell-tickets-for-wrestle-kingdom-21-a-list-of-six-key-aew-vs-njpw-matches-that-could-take-place\/","title":{"rendered":"New Japan looks to AEW to help sell tickets for Wrestle Kingdom 21, a list of six key AEW vs. NJPW matches that could take place"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"pwtor-3788674237\" class=\"pwtor-before-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><hr \/><b>SPOTLIGHTED PODCAST ALERT (YOUR ARTICLE BEGINS A FEW INCHES DOWN)... <\/b>\r\n\r\n<iframe src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?show_id=3076978&theme=light&playlist=false&playlist-continuous=false&autoplay=false&live-autoplay=false&chapters-image=true&episode_image_position=right&hide-logo=false&hide-likes=false&hide-comments=false&hide-sharing=false&hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"140px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe>\r\n<hr \/><\/div><p>After drawing a super full, no vacancy sellout of the Tokyo Dome at the start of the year for Hiroshi Tanahashi\u2019s retirement match, New Japan Pro Wrestling faced a dilemma: How do we do it again for Wrestle Kingdom 21 in January 2027?<\/p>\n<p>Following Monday\u2019s King of Pro Wrestling show, the answer is coming into focus: They\u2019ll rely on featuring top AEW stars on a card that looks like it will resemble what Forbidden Door was intended to be.<\/p>\n<p>The partner promotions have now shot angles for several potential WK21 matches with a couple more in sight. We&#8217;ll break down those matches below, but first, let&#8217;s look at why New Japan finds itself in a position to turn to AEW for help.<\/p>\n<p>Back on Jan. 4, New Japan drew nearly 47,000 to the Tokyo Dome for Tanahashi looking up at the lights for AEW&#8217;s Kazuchika Okada in the NJPW president&#8217;s retirement match. After Okada was announced, a lot of tickets moved, disappointing some New Japan diehards who blame AEW&#8217;s Tony Khan for stealing their talent. But it proved to be the right move when the show sold out weeks in advance.<\/p>\n<p>What to do for an encore? New Japan finally pushed new stars this year, but it takes time for them to connect and catch fire. (In fairness, they did draw about 1,000 more fans to King of Pro Wrestling this year than they did last year.) G1 was well received, and the final generated brief buzz due to the retro match style, but the promotion has felt cold since. Not what you want headed into the months of WK build.<\/p>\n<p>So, they appear to have struck a deal with Khan to pit New Japan stars against AEW stars at WK21. Will it work? Inter-promotional shows have a history of drawing in Japan. There is some question about how over AEW is in Japan. They no longer air shows on New Japan World and won&#8217;t start their Hulu Japan deal until November, and that service has only an estimated 3 million subscribers in a country with 57 million households. Counterpoint: The top AEW talent in the important matches are former top New Japan stars in Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley, who did a G1 and was their champ for a short while.<\/p>\n<p>Let\u2019s take an early look at what matches look like they&#8217;ll be on the WK21 card and how they might go.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>*Omega vs. Yota Tsuji<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> After Tsujii retained the NJPW IWGP Heavyweight Title over G1 winner Ryohei Oiwa today, Oleg Boltin came to the ring to presumably challenge Tsuji by virtue of his G1 win. He didn&#8217;t get to speak. An Omega video aired where he challenged Tsuji, who blew him off. Omega hit the ring and laid out both Tsuji and Boltin. In the post-match, Omega challenged Tsuji and Boltin to a three-way, non-title match at Power Struggle on Nov. 3.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-41184089\" class=\"pwtor-content pwtor-entity-placement\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x250\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Where it&#8217;s headed:<\/strong> This one seems fairly obvious. Omega pins Boltin on Nov. 3 and gets the title match at the Tokyo Dome. New Japan needed a big-time headliner, and Omega is proven at that level. New Japan wouldn&#8217;t want their homegrown champ that they&#8217;re trying to get over at a higher-drawing level to lose, so Tsuji likely wins and flashes his cocky grin at the end of a grueling match laid out by Omega, one of the greatest ever at putting matches together. His time in the AEW title picture is likely done for a while, and Khan is unlikely to even mention the loss on AEW TV.<\/p>\n<h3>*Ospreay vs. Callum Newman<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> They&#8217;ve been building an Ospreay and Newman match for months in both promotions. Ospreay calls out Newman for his heel tactics time and again, and Newman is irked by it, and he&#8217;s mad that Ospreay started a United Empire faction in AEW. After Ospreay&#8217;s team lost the trios titles to the Knockout Brothers and Jeff Cobb today, Newman led a UE attack on the new champs. Ospreay tried to stop it and Newman turned around and swung a sword at him. Newman bailed, and Yuto Ice challenged Ospreay to a tag title match on Nov. 3 if he got to pick his partner. If you&#8217;ve ever watched pro wrestling, you can guess who he picked: Newman.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where it&#8217;s headed:<\/strong> We&#8217;ll find out if Ospreay and Newman can co-exist at Power Struggle. Odds are this is where Newman finally turns on Ospreay and attacks him to set up a WK match. That&#8217;s a tough one to book at this point. I bet Ospreay, known for his generosity, would like nothing more than to put over Newman, his fellow countryman and protege. But Ospreay is AEW champ, and Khan almost surely won&#8217;t want him losing here. That&#8217;s okay. There are rumors about AEW booking an NBA-arena sized building for June, which is when Forbidden Door takes place. If Ospreay has lost the AEW World Title by then (Khan doesn&#8217;t tend to book long reigns), he can put over Newman then. Ideally, you&#8217;d want to go the opposite way and have them get the wins in their home promotions, but the timing is what it is.<\/p>\n<h3>*MJF vs. Oiwa<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> This match was set up by MJF on social media and then a video that aired last week after an Oiwa tag at Korakuen Hall. MJF billed it as a battle of the masters of the headlock. Oiwa won the G1 with a headlock-type submission move, and MJF is known for knocking out babyfaces with his ring and then using a side headlock takeover for the win to add insult to injury.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where it&#8217;s headed:<\/strong> MJF has been off AEW TV since failing to win the gauntlet at All In London on Aug. 30. MJF has proven he can get over as an obnoxious American heel at Arena Mexico with CMLL, so he might be able to in Japan, though it&#8217;s not guaranteed. He could take a loss here to help New Japan get Oiwa to the next level and then get his win back (always an important consideration to MJF) at Forbidden Door in June.<\/p>\n<p><em>ARTICLE CONTINUED BELOW&#8230;<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>Check out the latest episode of the &#8220;All Elite Conversation Club&#8221; with Joel Dehnel and Gregg Kanner, part of the PWTorch Dailycast line-up: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.spreaker.com\/episode\/all-elite-conversation-club-with-dehnel-kanner-review-of-grand-slam-france-including-ospreay-vs-okada-discussion-of-wrestledream-card--75672661\">CLICK HERE<\/a> to stream (or search \u201cpwtorch\u201d on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or any other iOS or Android app to subscribe free)<\/h3>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"All Elite Conversation Club with Dehnel &amp; Kanner - Review of Grand Slam France including Ospreay vs. Okada, discussion of WrestleDream card\" src=\"https:\/\/widget.spreaker.com\/player?episode_id=75672661&amp;theme=light&amp;playlist=false&amp;playlist-continuous=false&amp;chapters-image=true&amp;episode_image_position=right&amp;hide-logo=false&amp;hide-likes=false&amp;hide-comments=false&amp;hide-sharing=false&amp;hide-download=true\" width=\"100%\" height=\"200px\" frameborder=\"0\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<h3>*Moxley vs. Shota Umino<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> This one is less obvious on the surface. Shingo, who recently defeated Death Riders&#8217; gatekeeper Claudio Castagnoli, has challenged Mox a few times, and Mox sent in a video on Monday saying he\u2019s headed east without confirming a match or date. Best guess is they&#8217;ll add Moxley vs. Shingo to the Power Struggle show in early November and shoot an angle for a match they&#8217;ve been teasing for a while: Mox vs. Umino. Shooter is Mox&#8217;s former protege from the 2019 G1. Mox holds a win over Umino from a 2024 New Japan Strong show in California back when Mox was New Japan champ for a brief spell. Umino likely gets his win back at WK as the promotion tries yet again to get him over as a top act.<\/p>\n<h3>*Tag title match<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> This one is more of an educated guess. Yuto Ice and Oskar, known as the Knockout Brothers, recently won the tag titles back. After the match, Ice trash talked AEW and wondered if a team from there would step up against them.<\/p><div id=\"pwtor-26924986\" class=\"pwtor-content-1 pwtor-entity-placement\"><!-- Tag ID: pwtorchcom_test_300x600 -->\r\n<div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280 __300x600\" id=\"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_test_300x600\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div><\/div>\n<p><strong>Where it&#8217;s headed:<\/strong> Over the summer, Adam Copeland said he wants to wrestle in four arenas before retiring. He has checked off his list Arena Mexico, Wembley Stadium, and the former Maple Leaf Gardens. All that remains is the Tokyo Dome. I could see Copeland and Christian as the WK challengers against the KO Bros. They could send in a video or shoot an angle at Power Struggle or during World Tag League. I would think the AEW wrestlers could do the honors here and put over the NJPW guys.<\/p>\n<h3>*Gabe Kidd v ???<\/h3>\n<p><strong>The angle:<\/strong> Kidd retained the Global Title against Umino today in a surprising result. Taichi, who hasn\u2019t been pushed much, stepped up to challenge Kidd, who left NJPW for AEW and routinely trash talks his old promotion. That match will take place at Power Struggle early next month.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Where it&#8217;s headed:<\/strong> The older Taichi is unlikely to dethrone Kidd, leaving room for someone else from New Japan at WK. Process of elimination points to Yuya Uemura. He lost in the finals of the New Japan Cup and G1 this year. He&#8217;s stuck in the mud with a feud with the washed-up Sanada, and a WK title win could help point him in the right direction.<\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>So, all told, that&#8217;s six potential matches. You could add a smaller AEW wrestler to challenge Yoh for the junior title, but I&#8217;d bet one is more likely to emerge from the Super Junior Tag League this month. Never champ Aaron Wolf, the judo Olympic gold medalist rookie New Japan is trying to bring along, also could beat an AEW mid-carder if they wanted. Okada also is unaccounted for in this potential lineup. He didn&#8217;t put anyone over before leaving for AEW. Many New Japan fans would love for him to finally do so. Everyone else on the New Japan roster, you might be headed for the ranbo (Royal Rumble-style battle royal).<\/p>\n<p>At this point, I&#8217;ve got AEW going 1-5 in potential WK21 matches. That strikes me as a bit lopsided based on Khan having the upper hand as the larger promotion who is helping out a partner. But AEW could just as easily go 5-1 at Forbidden Door in June 2027 to return the favor.<\/p>\n<p>The New Japan vs. AEW theme that is emerging will probably be polarizing to some. It&#8217;s not likely to sell as many tickets as Tanahashi&#8217;s retirement match did. But the uniqueness of some matches and long buildup of others could be enough to get them to 30,000 tickets. As a fan of both promotions, I&#8217;m excited for it. I may even stay up all night to catch it live.<\/p>\n<div class=\"pwtor-end-article-groups pwtor-entity-placement\" id=\"pwtor-1081597646\"><div id=\"pwtor-3543664531\"><div align=\"center\" data-freestar-ad=\"__336x280\" id=\"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\">\r\n  <script data-cfasync=\"false\" type=\"text\/javascript\">\r\n    freestar.config.enabled_slots.push({ placementName: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\", slotId: \"pwtorchcom_medrec_3\" });\r\n  <\/script>\r\n<\/div>\r\n\r\nTHANK YOU FOR VISITING<\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"mh-excerpt\"><p>After drawing a super full, no vacancy sellout of the Tokyo Dome at the start of the year for Hiroshi Tanahashi\u2019s retirement match, New Japan Pro Wrestling faced a dilemma: How do we do it <a class=\"mh-excerpt-more\" href=\"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/2026\/10\/12\/new-japan-looks-to-aew-to-help-sell-tickets-for-wrestle-kingdom-21-a-list-of-six-key-aew-vs-njpw-matches-that-could-take-place\/\" title=\"New Japan looks to AEW to help sell tickets for Wrestle Kingdom 21, a list of six key AEW vs. NJPW matches that could take place\">[&#8230;]<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":215559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","itunes_episode_number":"","itunes_title":"","itunes_season_number":"","itunes_episode_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6163,2,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223571","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-aew-news","category-prowrestlingnews","category-news_japan"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-content\/uploads\/post\/2026\/04\/Screenshot-2026-04-27-at-2.55.40-PM.png","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223571","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223571"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223571\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":223572,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223571\/revisions\/223572"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/215559"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223571"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223571"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pwtorch.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223571"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}