Wrestle Dynasty was a professional wrestling supershow pay-per-view (PPV) event co-produced by the Japanese promotions New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) and World Wonder Ring Stardom, the American promotions All Elite Wrestling (AEW) and Ring of Honor (ROH), and the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL). It took place on January 5, 2025, at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan, the night after NJPW's Wrestle Kingdom 19.
The show was headlined by Zack Sabre Jr. defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against the returning Ricochet. Wrestle Kingdom also feature four high-profile matches with Kenny Omega facing Gabe Kidd, Shota Umino taking on Death Riders' Claudio Castagnoli and David Finlay facing Brody King, and Yota Tsuji defending his newly won IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship against "Scapegoat" Jack Perry.
Four other title matches also announced for the show with Konosuke Takeshita defending his recently won NEVER Openweight and his AEW International Championships in a "double title match" against Tomohiro Ishii, Strong Women's Champion Mercedes Moné facing British Women's Champion Mina Shirakawa in a "Winner Takes All", The Young Bucks (Matthew and Nicholas Jackson) facing United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) and Los Ingobernables de Japón (Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi) in a three-way match for the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championships and The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) facing House of Torture (Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) for the ROH World Tag Team Championships.
The event also featured a tournament named the "International Women's Cup", where participants from AEW, CMLL, ROH and Stardom face other in the finals of the tournament for a women's championship match from the promotion of their choosing with AEW's Willow Nightingale facing CMLL's Persephone, ROH's Athena and Stardom's Momo Watanabe, as well as two other matches, with an eight-man lucha gauntlet match involving wrestlers from both NJPW and CMLL, as well as NJPW's President Hiroshi Tanahashi facing fromer rival AEW's Katsuyori Shibata in a grappling rules exhibition match match.
The event aired live on NJPW's streaming service NJPW World and on Triller TV as a pay-per-view (PPV) in both English and Japanese commentaries.
Production[]
Background[]
Since 1992, the Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW) has held an annual show on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome, a professional baseball stadium in Tokyo, Japan; since 2007, the event has been known as Wrestle Kingdom, and has since become the largest professional wrestling event in Japan.[1] Between 2019 and 2022, NJPW also held a second Wrestle Kingdom show at the Tokyo Dome on January 5. In 2025, the January 5 Tokyo Dome show will be branded as "Wrestle Dynasty". NJPW also holds the New Year Dash!! event in Tokyo on the day after Wrestle Kingdom; in 2025, New Year Dash!! will be held on January 6, the day after Wrestle Dynasty.[2]
In February 2021, the American professional wrestling promotion All Elite Wrestling (AEW) started a partnership with NJPW.[3] Since then, both AEW and NJPW have had their wrestlers appear at each other's events.[4] The working relationship resulted in the creation of AEW x NJPW: Forbidden Door, an annual co-promoted pay-per-view (PPV) event held in North America.[5] AEW and NJPW also have working partnerships with the Mexican promotion Consejo Mundial de Lucha Libre (CMLL): CMLL and NJPW have had a working relationship since 2009 and have co-produced the Fantastica Mania series of events since 2011;[6] and CMLL and AEW entered into a working relationship in October 2023.[7]
In 2019, NJPW's parent company Bushiroad acquired the joshi promotion World Wonder Ring Stardom (Stardom);[8] Stardom would later become a fully-fledged subsidiary of NJPW in 2024.[9] In 2022, AEW owner Tony Khan acquired Ring of Honor (ROH) from their previous owner, Sinclair Broadcast Group;[10] prior to the acquisition, ROH also had a long working relationship with NJPW, including co-producing the War of the Worlds and Global Wars events in North America and Honor Rising events in Japan.
Promotional logo for the event
On August 22, 2020, NJPW planned to hold an event under the name of Wrestle Dynasty at Madison Square Garden in New York City; due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the event was postponed to 2021, and later cancelled.[11] After the 2022 Forbidden Door event, then NJPW President Takami Obari expressed interest in the next event being held in Japan; Tony Khan said that he was open to the idea of AEW wrestlers performing in Japan, but said that such an event would not be titled "Forbidden Door".[12] Prior to the 2024 Forbidden Door event, Khan expressed interest in a co-promoted show in Japan, but was non-committal over whether the event would be an iteration of Forbidden Door or a new event entirely.[13]
On June 30, 2024, during Forbidden Door, Wrestle Dynasty was announced for January 5, 2025, in the Tokyo Dome, to be co-produced by AEW, NJPW, CMLL, ROH, and Stardom.[14][15] Wrestle Dynasty will mark the first AEW PPV event to be held in Japan, the third AEW PPV event held outside North America (following the 2023 and 2024 All In events, which were both held at Wembley Stadium in London, England), and AEW's first event to be held in a professional baseball stadium.
Storylines[]
Wrestle Dynasty featured professional wrestling matches that are the result of pre-existing feuds and storylines, with results being predetermined by the bookers of the co-producing promotions.[16] Storylines are produced on the weekly television programs, Dynamite, Collision, Rampage, Honor Club TV, and Super Viernes; as well as at other AEW, CMLL, NJPW, ROH, and Stardom events.
Zack Sabre Jr., the winner of the 2024 G1 Climax, who defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
In the main event, Zack Sabre Jr. defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against the returning Ricochet. On November 4, 2024, at Power Struggle, following the main event of the show, where Zack Sabre Jr. successfully defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Shingo Takagi, Ricochet made his return to NJPW for the first time since 2017, where he attacked IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and challenged him for the title at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5, 2025, which he accepted.
Kenny Omega, who made his return match
In the semi-main event, Kenny Omega faced Gabe Kidd in a special singles match. Also at Power Struggle, Kenny Omega returned to NJPW, and announced his intentions to a make his in-ring return at Wrestle Dynasty. He would be then be confronted backstage by Gabe Kidd, which led to a brawl between the two. On November 20, in an interview with NJPW, Omega challenged Kidd to a match at Wrestle Dynasty.
The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson), who made their return to NJPW
On October 14, The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) announced they would return to NJPW at Wrestle Dynasty, marking their return to NJPW for the first time since 2019. On November 26, in a video package, The Young Bucks challenged United Empire (Great-O-Khan and HENARE) to a title match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Dynasty. Angry at the disrespectful timing, O-Khan and HENARE accepted the challenge. On December 6, it was announced that the IWGP Tag Team Championship would be vacated, due to HENARE suffering a right knee injury, leading NJPW to reschedule the match for the vacant titles. On January 4, 2024 at Wrestle Kingdom 19 in Tokyo Dome, O-Khan confronted Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi, after their match, proposing to add them to title match as the winners of the 2024 World Tag League, with Jeff Cobb being his partner. Naito and Takahashi accepted, setting up a three-way match.
At Wrestle Kingdom 19, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated EVIL. Afterwards, he was attacked by House of Torture, only to saved by his former rival Katsuyori Shibata at Wrestle Dynasty, the following day.
Konosuke Takeshita, who defended the NEVER Openweight and AEW International Championships
The event saw double title match with NEVER Openweight and AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita facing Tomohiro Ishii for both titles. On November 8 at Fighting Spirit Unleashed, Konosuke Takeshita successfully defended the AEW International Championship against TJP. Afterwards, Takeshita took to the microphone to throw out an open challenge to the NJPW locker room, which NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi to answered, suggesting they find out which champion would be stronger. However, Tomohiro Ishii also appeared challenging the winner between them on January 4 at Wrestle Kingdom 19 to a title match for the NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Dynasty. At Wrestle Kingdom, Takeshita defeated Takagi to win the NEVER Openweight Championship in a Winner Takes All match that also involved Takeshita's AEW International Championship, setting up his match with Ishii.
Shota Umino, who faced Claudio Castagnoli
The event saw another singles match between Shota Umino and Death Riders' Claudio Castagnoli, On November 3, in a interview with Tokyo Sports, Shota Umino, who was not happy with Jon Moxley’s recent actions in All Elite Wresting, issued a challenge to him to a match. Moxley served as a mentor to Umino in NJPW back when arrived to the promotion in 2019. At Fighting Spirit Unleashed, Moxley return to NJPW, in a pre-tapped video, expressing his ‘disappointment’ in Umino’s comments, saying that his "education needed to continue", leading him to declare that he was sending an emissary to face Umino at Wrestle Dynasty. On November 24, in a pre-tapped video, Moxley's Death Rider stablemate Claudio Castagnoli challenged Umino to a match at the event.
David Finlay, who faced Brody King
Also at at Fighting Spirit Unleashed, a video message on the screen showed a mysterious figure making a target of Yota Tsuji. Afterwrds, Jack Perry made his return to NJPW attacking Tsuji, before challenging to a match at Wrestle Dynasty. Early in March 2024, Tsuji won the 2024 New Japan Cup, a moment that Perry had not forgotten, after he defeated his, at the time, House of Torture stablemates EVIL and Ren Narita.
The event saw a singles match between David Finlay and Brody King. At Fighting Spirit Unleashed, David Finlay issued an open challenge to anybody that wanted to face him at Wrestle Dynasty. Already defending his IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 19, Finlay wanted smore competition, leading Brody King to answer his challenge on December 5, in a video message.
Mercedes Moné, who defended the Strong Women's Championship
The event featured a "Winner Takes All" match between Strong Women's Champion Mercedes Moné and the British Women's Champion Mina Shirakawa.On December 16, at Strong Style Evolved, Mercedes Moné announced that she wanted to defend the Strong Women's Championship at Wrestle Dynasty, laying out an open challenge, which was answered by Mina Shirakawa. She challenged Moné to a title match at Wrestle Dynasty, leading Moné to challenge Shirakawa also for her British Women's Championship, setting up their title match.
On December 20, at ROH's Final Battle, House of Torture (Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) appeared in a pre-tapped video, challenging The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) to a title match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Dynasty. The title match was announced the following day.
On November 20, NJPW announced the International Women’s Cup, a tournament featuring wrestlers from Stardom, AEW, CMLL, and ROH, that would culminate in a four-way match, where the winner would earn a championship opportunity in any participating promotion. Each promotion hosted qualifying four-way matches in the weeks leading up to the event to determine their representative in the competition. Willow Nightingale won the AEW qualifier by defeating Serena Deeb and later Jamie Hayter at the finals of the qualifying round; meanwhile in the ROH qualifier, Athena qualified by defeating Billie Starkz, Leyla Hirsch and Red Velvet, at the CMLL's qualifier, Persephone defeated Sanley, Zeuxis and Reyna Isis while at the Stardom qualifier, Momo Watanabe first defeated Saki Kashima, Hanan and Yuna Mizumori at the preliminary qualifiers and later Syuri, Tomoka Inaba and Suzu Suzuki to become the last wrestler to qualify for the finals, thus winning the qualifying round for Stardom.
Event[]
Pre-show[]
Undercard[]
Main event[]
Reception[]
Aftermath[]
During the event, English language comentator, Chris Charlton was suspended for two-months. At first, it was reported that he was taking an indefinite hiatus; however, it was reported that Charlton was suspended due to anti-AEW remarks during the commentary of the match between Kenny Omega and Gabe Kidd, with Charlton being highly critical of AEW’s use of Jay White, Will Ospreay, and Kazuchika Okada, as well as making disparaging remarks about AEW’s Continental Classic Tournament, with Charlton also insulting Tony Khan by calling him a "money mark". People backstage in AEW were upset, with NJPW deciding to suspend Charlton while AEW and Khan did not have any input into the decision. However, some reports also state that Khan had some input on NJPW's decision.
At New Year Dash, Hirooki Goto's CHAOS faced Zack Sabre's TMDK stable, which CHAOS won. Afterwards, Goto announced that his title challenge, won at Wrestle Kingdom at the previous night, would take place at The New Beginning in Osaka. In the month ahead, Goto teased that it would be his final chance at the title, considering it was his tenth overall challenge for the main singles title (after the IWGP Heavyweight Championship) in over 17 years. This angle resulted in another match, where Ichiban Street Boys (Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita) defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Roppongi ReVice's Rocky Romero and Yoh.
Meanwhile, the War Dogs faced Los Ingobernables de Jápon in a winning effort. Following the match, Drilla Moloney challenged Shingo Takagi, which he accepted, thus marking Moloney's transition into the heavyweight division.Shortly after, Yota Tsuji, who had recently win the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship, nominated Gabe Kidd to the next challenger for his title. Also, Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi challenged The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) into a title match, which was made official, in the mean turn, tensions between the SANADA and Taichi got worse, leading to a match at the event.
Also at the January 6 event, Shota Umino and Great-O-Khan faced off in a ten-man tag team match, where O-Khan secured the win for his team. Afterwards, O-Khan attacked Umino, before on Umino’s hand tore the mini replicas of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship that the fans had made to Umino, after he failed to win the title at Wrestle Kingdom 19. Over the following weeks, O-Khan began shaving part of Umino's hair, leading both to agree to a Hair vs. Hair match, while Taiji Ishimori challenged for El Desperado’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, setting up a match for Battle In The Valley. In turn, El Phantasmo and Jeff Cobb faced each other in a eight-man tag team match, which Phantasmo's team won. Afterwards, he and Cobb were involved in a confrontation after Phantasmo held his recently won NJPW World Television Championship over Cobb's face, leading to a match at Battle in the Valley. It was also announced that NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi would face longtime partner and rival Togi Makabe in his second match of his retirement tour at The New Beginning in Osaka.
At Battle in the Valley, Phantasmo and Cobb faced each other in a double countount, leading to rematch which saw Phantasmo winning and retaining the title, Konosuke Takeshita defeating KUSHIDA to confirm his title match against Boltin Oleg at The New Beginning in Osaka, while Desperado defeated Ishimori to retain the title, with Francesco Akira challenging Desperado afterwards. Meanwhile, at The New Beginning in Osaka, Moloney defeated Takagi in his heavyweight singles debut, O-Khan defeated Umino, with an humiliated Umino promptly self-shaving his head with a delightful O-Khan watching nearby, SANADA defeating Taichi, with a returning Yuya Uemura saving Taichi from a post match attack, Ichiban Sweet Boys (Robbie Eagles and Kosei Fujita) defeating Roppongi ReVice (Rocky Romero and Yoh) to retain the titles, Takeshita retaining against Oleg, Naito and Hiromu defeating The Young Bucks to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships, while in the semi-main event, Tsuji and Kidd fought to a double knockout, which led to EVIL and the House of Torture to attack Kidd to "expell him" from Bullet Club, clashing into another civil war. In the main-event, Goto defeated Sabre in his tenth attempt to win the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship after 17 years of attemps.
On March 6 at NJPW's 53rd Anniversary show, Desperado retained the title against Akira while after Goto successfully defended his title against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event, he was asked by Tanahashi to "lead NJPW to even greater heights". This led Goto to decide to merge CHAOS and G.B.H with the NJPW Seikigun, after a cooperative relationship between them since 2018, ending both's stable's decade long run.
Meanwhile, on February 15, at AEW's Grand Slam Australia, after Mercedes Mone defended the TBS Championship against Harley Cameron, International Women's Cup Winner, Momo Watanabe confronted Mercedes with Mercedes shoving her TBS Championship onto her face. Two weeks later, as Mercedes was leaving the backstage area, she was confronted by Billie Starkz, with Mercedes provoking Starkz before being scared away by Watanabe. Watanabe held her TBS Championship while choosing to challenge her at the event. The following week, at AEW Collision, Watanabe defeated Serena Deeb; after the match, Momo got into a heated confrontation with Mercedes, with Momo getting the upper hand. At AEW Revolution, Momo unsucessfully challenged Mercedes for the TBS Championship.
Results[]
| # | Results | Stipulations | Times |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1P | Momo Watanabe (Stardom) (with Thekla) defeated Athena (ROH), Willow Nightingale (AEW), and Persephone (CMLL) | International Women’s Cup final four-way match Winner receives a women's championship match from the participating promotion of their choosing. |
11:13 |
| 2P | The Sons of Texas (Dustin Rhodes and Sammy Guevara) (c) defeated House of Torture (Sho and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) | Tag team match for the ROH World Tag Team Championship | 9:27 |
| 3 | Taiji Ishimori won by last defeating El Desperado[a] | Eight-man Lucha Gauntlet match | 16:23 |
| 4 | Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata ended in a time limit draw | Grappling rules exhibition match | 5:00 |
| 5 | Mercedes Moné (c; Strong) defeated Mina Shirakawa (c; British) | Winner Takes All Match for the Strong Women's Championship and British Women's Championship | 14:06 |
| 6 | David Finlay (with Gedo) defeated Brody King | Singles match | 12:53 |
| 7 | Shota Umino defeated Claudio Castagnoli | Singles match | 14:31 |
| 8 | Konosuke Takeshita (c) (with Don Callis) defeated Tomohiro Ishii | Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship and the AEW International Championship | 13:30 |
| 9 | The Young Bucks (Matthew Jackson and Nicholas Jackson) defeated United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) and Los Ingobernables de Japón (Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi) | Three-way tag team match for the vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship | 13:46 |
| 10 | Yota Tsuji (c) defeated "Scapegoat" Jack Perry | Singles match for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship | 13:12 |
| 11 | Kenny Omega defeated Gabe Kidd (with Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) | Singles match | 31:55 |
| 12 | Zack Sabre Jr. (c) (with Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles, and Ryohei Oiwa) defeated Ricochet by technical submission | Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship | 20:57 |
| |||
International Women's Cup[]
| Preliminary qualifiers AEW Dynamite: Thanksgiving Eve (November 27) AEW Collision (December 7) Stardom (December 20 and 21) | Qualifiers AEW Collision: Winter Is Coming (December 14) ROH on Honor Club (December 12) CMLL Super Viernes (December 13) Stardom (December 22) | Final Wrestle Dynasty (January 5) | ||||||||||||
| Jamie Hayter | Pin | |||||||||||||
| AEW | ||||||||||||||
| Queen Aminata | 9:18 | |||||||||||||
| Jamie Hayter | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | 12:04 | |||||||||||||
| Serena Deeb | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Willow Nightingale | 9:55 | |||||||||||||
| CMLL | ||||||||||||||
| Hanan | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Persephone[b] | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Saki Kashima | ||||||||||||||
| Reyna Isis | ||||||||||||||
| Yuna Mizumori | ||||||||||||||
| Sanely | ||||||||||||||
| Momo Watanabe | Willow Nightingale | Pin | ||||||||||||
| Zeuxis | ||||||||||||||
| Persephone | ||||||||||||||
| ROH | ||||||||||||||
| Fukigen Death | Pin | Athena | ||||||||||||
| Athena | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Saya Iida | Momo Watanabe | |||||||||||||
| Billie Starkz | ||||||||||||||
| Syuri | ||||||||||||||
| Leyla Hirsch | ||||||||||||||
| Ranna Yagami | ||||||||||||||
| Red Velvet | ||||||||||||||
| Stardom | ||||||||||||||
| Tomoka Inaba | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Momo Watanabe | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Koguma | ||||||||||||||
| Syuri | ||||||||||||||
| Rina | ||||||||||||||
| Tomoka Inaba | ||||||||||||||
| Waka Tsukiyama | ||||||||||||||
| Suzu Suzuki | ||||||||||||||
| Hina | Pin | |||||||||||||
| Konami | ||||||||||||||
| Aya Sakura | ||||||||||||||
| Suzu Suzuki | ||||||||||||||
Notes[]
- ↑ The other participants were Hechicero (CMLL), Kosei Fujita, Soberano Jr. (CMLL), Master Wato, Máscara Dorada (CMLL), Titán, and El Desperado.
- ↑ Order of eliminations: Sanley, Zeuxis and Reyna Isis.
References[]
- ↑ Martin, Garrett 2015-01-16. Japanese Wrestling's Golden Age Comes to America . Paste. Retrieved on 2017-08-25.
- ↑ NJPW & Stardom reveal Wrestle Kingdom Week schedule for January 2025 . F4W/WON (2024-07-03).
- ↑ AEW, New Japan Pro Wrestling Established Working Relationship . Wrestling Observer Newsletter (2021-02-04).
- ↑ Update on joint AEW/NJPW show rumor . Wrestling Observer Newsletter (2022-04-18).
- ↑ Barrasso, Justin (April 20, 2022). "Tony Khan Announces First-Ever AEW, NJPW Joint Pay-Per View Event". Sports Illustrated. Retrieved April 22, 2022.
- ↑ NJPW and CMLL issue statement reaffirming working relationship . F4W/WON (2021-02-26).
- ↑ AEW, CMLL excited for future opportunities to work together . F4W/WON (2023-10-14).
- ↑ reserved, Copyright (c) 2014株式会社スターダム, All rights. スターダムがブシロードグループ「キックスロード」と事業譲渡契約記者会見 .
- ↑ Jordan 2024-04-23. Stardom Now A Subsidiary Of New Japan Pro Wrestling . PWInsider.
- ↑ AEW’s Tony Khan purchases Ring of Honor from Sinclair Broadcast Group . F4W/WON (2022-03-03).
- ↑ Wrestle Dynasty postponed to 2021 【NJoA】【WD1】 . New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2020-05-07).
- ↑ Lambert, Jeremy. Tony Khan: Doing An Event With AEW Stars In Japan Is Interesting, But It Won't Be 'Forbidden Door' . Fightful.
- ↑ Tony Khan: We Could Do Forbidden Door Internationally, You Never Know . Fightful.
- ↑ Powell, Jason 2024-06-30. AEW Forbidden Door results: Powell’s live review of Swerve Strickland vs. Will Ospreay for the AEW World Championship, Jon Moxley vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title . Pro Wrestling Dot Net.
- ↑ NJPW announces Forbidden Door-esque Wrestle Dynasty event with AEW, CMLL & ROH . Wrestling Observer Newsletter (2024-06-30).
- ↑ Grabianowski, Ed 2006-01-13. How Pro Wrestling Works . HowStuffWorks, Inc.. Discovery Communications.