Major AEW Star Wins NJPW Gold
A current champion in AEW has added a major NJPW Title to his collection.
The NJPW Wrestle Kingdom event took place on Saturday at the Tokyo Dome. There is also the Wrestle Dynasty event taking place in the same historic venue on January 5th.
Several AEW wrestlers are competing at the two NJPW shows due to the close relationship between the two wrestling companies. One of the wrestlers competing on both shows is Konosuke Takeshita.
In a match that saw Konosuke Takeshita put up his AEW International Title against Shingo Takagi’s NEVER Openweight Championship, Takeshita emerged victorious. That means that Takeshita is the Never Open Champion in addition to holding AEW’s International Title.
Konosuke Takeshita has held that AEW International Title for over 80 days since winning it at WrestleDream 2024 in a three-way with former champion Will Ospreay and Ricochet.
AEW’s Konsuke Takeshita Defending Two Titles At NJPW Wrestle Dynasty
There won’t be much time to rest for Konsuke Takeshita since he will have to defend his two titles at Wrestle Dynasty against the legendary Tomohiro Ishii, who has competed in an AEW ring many times.
The lineup for NJPW Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th in the Tokyo Dome looks like this:
- 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
For Kenny Omega, it will be his first match in over one year since he was out for all of 2024 due to serious diverticulitis illness.
