As expected, AEW will have a presence at the upcoming NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 17 event in early January 2023. The two promotions have had a working relationship over the last few years and recently held their first official crossover event, Forbidden Door, in June.
It was previously reported that AEW stars would work the show and the first two names confirmed for the event are Dax Harwood and Dash Wilder.
While speaking on today’s Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer confirmed that AEW’s FTR, the current IWGP Tag Team Champions, will be working the show. NJPW recently announced the NJPW World Tag League tournament with the stipulation that the tournament winner will get an IWGP Tag Team Title shot at Wrestle Kingdom 17.
“FTR is going to be at the Tokyo Dome. I got that confirmed. Defending the Championships.“
FTR recently defended the belts against Jeff Cobb & Great O Khan on NJPW’s Battle Autumn show this past Saturday. Here are the teams confirmed for the tournament:
Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI)
HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi)
Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA)
United Empire (Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan)
Be-Bop Tag Team (Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi)
Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher)
Suzuki-Gun (Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki)
BULLET CLUB (Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens)
TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin
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