Karl Anderson’s Wrestle Kingdom Opponent Confirmed

Karl Anderson now knows who he will face at Wrestle Kingdom after the WWE star retained his NEVER Openweight Championship.

Eyebrows were raised when Karl Anderson and Luke Gallows returned to WWE despite Anderson still holding one of New Japan Pro Wrestling’s singles titles. It emerged that as part of the deal for Anderson to return to WWE, he would still be able to complete some dates for the Japanese company.

The first of those came on December 14th when Karl Anderson defended his title against Hikuleo. Many may have been expecting the former Bullet Club man to put Anderson away but reports had suggested that The Machine Gun was also scheduled for Wrestle Kingdom on January 4th and that now has been confirmed.

After Anderson defeated Hikuleo he was confronted by the man he defeated for the title back in June at Dominion, Tama Tonga. Tonga ended up on the wrong end of a Gun Stun before Anderson told him he’d see him at Wrestle Kingdom.

The full match card for Wrestle Kingdom 17 can be found below:

• Jay White (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada – IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
• KAIRI (c) vs. Tam Nakano – IWGP Women’s Championship
• Will Ospreay (c) vs. Kenny Omega – IWGP US Championship
• Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. El Desperado vs. Hiromu Takahashi vs. Master Wato – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
• Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ren Narita – Tournament Final for NJPW World Television Championship
• Catch 2/2 (TJP and Francesco Akira) (c) vs. Chaos (Yoh and Lio Rush) – IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
• FTR (c) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) – IWGP Tag Team Championship
• Karl Anderson (c) vs. Tama Tonga – NEVER Openweight Championship