NJPW’s IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji is not mincing his words when it comes to the promotion’s ties to AEW.
Yota Tsuji will be putting up his title in a Winner Takes All match at Wrestle Kingdom against Konosuke Takeshita who will be putting up his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
In an interview on NJPW 1972, Tsuji said: “Well, I don’t want to lose to AEW. I don’t like AEW. In all honesty, with the relationship between us the way it is, I’d like us to cut ties with them.”
Tsuji questioned what AEW involvement has done for NJPW.
“If it was an even handed relationship that’s one thing but it’s not. There’s certainly a difference in terms of the money behind each company but I don’t see that as a reason to be so weak-willed. This is NJPW, dammit! Now on the other hand, Kazuchika Okada has played a part in selling the Tokyo Dome out. I have to admit to that. I’m sore that it isn’t an NJPW wrestler facing Tanahashi in his last match, but there isn’t anybody on the roster that has the connections to Tanahashi that Okada has and I have to acknowledge that,” he said.
Tsuji also took issue with Takeshita complaining about not being booked by AEW a short time ago.
“That isn’t how a major player talks but you look at the good, it makes Takeshita special. You see a guy every night and those moves and what a guy does gets to be routine. There is merit to him being a special attraction. I think there is the risk of fans thinking, ‘Oh Tsuji and Gabe will play out this way, Tsuji and Uemura will be that kind of match’. You don’t get that with Takeshita…Straight up, the fans want to see the champion. Takeshita got booed when he won the belt and I don’t think those boos came because people don’t like him. They booed because they wanted to see him more and they knew he wouldn’t be around,” he said.
Tsuji is going to lay it all on the line at Wrestle Kingdom.
“The easy answer is I want to be IWGP Heavyweight Champion. That’s what I’ve wanted from my very first squat,” he said about his wrestling training as a Young Lion.
The Wrestle Kingdom card for January 4, 2026 at the Tokyo Dome, in Tokyo, Japan is:
Ranbo for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship
El Phantasmo (c) vs. Chris Brookes – NJPW World Television Championship Match
Saya Kamitani (Strong) vs. Syuri (IWGP) – Winner Takes All match for the IWGP Women’s Championship and Strong Women’s Championship.
Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd and Drilla Moloney) and Unaffiliated (Shingo Takagi and Hiromu Takahashi) vs. United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, and Henare), Andrade El Ídolo and TBA
El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. Sho – Four-way match to determine the #1 contender for IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Evil (c) (with Dick Togo and Don Fale) vs. Aaron Wolf – NEVER Openweight Championship Match
Konosuke Takeshita (World) vs. Yota Tsuji (Global) – Winner Takes All match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada – Tanahashi’s Retirement Match
Wrestle Kingdom is available live on the NJPW World streaming service.
