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Hiroshi Tanahashi Issued Shock Challenge By AEW Star

By John Canton • Published 4th January 2025
Hiroshi Tanahashi NJPW

Hiroshi Tanahashi got an assist after a big match and it also led to a challenge by an AEW wrestler.

John Cena is a wrestling legend in WWE who plans to retire in 2025 after 23 years in WWE, but he’s not the only legendary wrestler from this era set to retire soon.

The NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi plans to make 2025 his last full year as a wrestler with retirement coming at Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4th, 2026.

During his legendary career in NJPW, Tanahashi won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the first time in 2006 and has gone on to win NJPW’s biggest prize a total of eight times.

At NJPW Wrestle Kingdom, Tanahashi beat EVIL in a Lumberjack Match. If Tanahashi lost, he would have been forced to retire. After the match, the House of Torture group attacked Tanahashi until AEW’s Katsuyori Shibata made the save.

Hiroshi Tanahashi To Face Katsuyori Shibata In Special Match At NJPW Wrestle Dynasty

After saving the legendary Tanahashi, Shibata challenged the NJPW legend to a match at the Wrestle Dynasty event at the Tokyo Dome on January 5th. Tanahashi accepted, but it will only be a five-minute exhibition match.

Shibata’s last NJPW match was three years ago at Wrestle Kingdom 16 when he beat Ren Narita. He went on to sign with AEW after that. Since being a part of AEW, Shibata has wrestled in plenty of big matches and also had a reign as the ROH Pure Champion.

The lineup for NJPW Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th in the Tokyo Dome features several big names from AEW:

  • IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Ricochet
  • Kenny Omega vs. Gabe Kidd
  • NEVER Openweight Championship And AEW International Championship: Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Tomohiro Ishii
  • NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship & RPW Undisputed British Women’s Championship: Mercedes Moné (c) vs. Mina Shirakawa (c)
  • IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: Yota Tsuji (c) vs. Jack Perry
  • IWGP Tag Team Championships: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. The Young Bucks (Matthew & Nicholas Jackson) vs. Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito
  • Shota Umino vs. Claudio Castagnoli
  • David Finlay vs. Brody King
  • Exhibition match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata
  • Lucha Gauntlet Match
  • Kickoff Match 2: ROH Tag Team Championships: Sammy Guevara & Dustin Rhodes (c) vs. HOUSE OF TORTURE (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SHO)
  • Kickoff Match 1: International Women’s Cup: Persephone vs. Athena vs. Willow Nightingale vs. Momo Watanabe