New Japan announces line-ups for next two big shows
New Japan just announced lineups for its next two major shows, coming off angles earlier today at the Invasion Attack show.
The first show will be on 4/29 in Kumamoto which will be a 4 a.m. Eastern and 1 a.m Pacific show on a late Thursday night/early Friday morning from Kumamoto Grand Messe.
Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin for the IWGP IC title will headline, plus a grudge match with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Bad Luck Fale, Katsuyori Shibata vs. Yuji Nagata for the Never Open wight title and Rocky Romero & Trent Baretta defend the IWGP jr. tag title against Ricochet & Matt Sydal.
New IWGP heavyweight champion Tetsuya Naito and former champion Kazuchika Okada are in an eight-man with Los Ingobernables de Japon of Naito & Evil & Bushi & Seiya Sanada vs. Chaos of Okada & Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto & Will Ospreay.
The annual Wrestling Dontaku show is 5/3 at the Fukuoka Convention Center, which is a downsize for the usual International Center that they drew poorly in for G-1. Matches announced so far are Kushida vs. Jushin Liger for the IWGP jr. title, Tama Tonga & Tanga Roa defend the IWGP tag titles against former champions Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma, Goto vs Evil, Okada vs. Sanada and Naito vs. Ishii for the IWGP heavyweight title.
Dave Meltzer is the founder and lead writer on the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, the weekly constant when it comes to news and reviews in pro wrestling and mixed martial arts for more than 40 years. Dave also co-hosts Wrestling Observer Radio with Bryan Alvarez and had had bylines for The National, Yahoo Sports, MMA Fighting and others.