NJPW books next Global title match following Forbidden Door
Coming off a successful defense at Forbidden Door, Shota Umino already knows when his next IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match will be.
NJPW has announced that Umino vs. Gabe Kidd for the Global title will take place at the promotion’s Road to G1 Climax show on July 6. The event is being held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and will air live on NJPW World with English commentary available.
Umino won the Global title from Andrade El Idolo in a three-way match at Dominion earlier this month, and NJPW immediately began building toward Kidd challenging Umino for the belt. Visa issues made it so Kidd was unable to be in the United States for Forbidden Door, so Umino faced off against another Death Riders member in PAC.
After defeating PAC, Umino went face-to-face with his former mentor Jon Moxley before NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi made his way out to diffuse things.
Both Umino and Kidd are set to compete in the B Block of NJPW’s G1 Climax this summer, meaning that we’ll get another match between them during the round-robin tournament on August 8. The G1 kicks off on July 11 and runs through August 16. Kidd does not have a match on opening night in Chicago due to his visa issues.
Here is the full card for the July 6 Road to G1 event:
NJPW Road to G1 Climax (Monday, July 6) —
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion YOH defends against Francesco Akira
- IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Shota Umino defends against Gabe Kidd
- G1 Climax A Block play-in match: El Phantasmo vs. Ryohei Oiwa
- G1 Climax B Block play-in match: OSKAR vs. Yujiro Takahashi
- Three-way tornado tag match: Tiger Mask & Jado vs. Taiji Ishimori & Gedo vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dick Togo
- Oleg Boltin, Aaron Wolf, Hirooki Goto & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, Yuto-Ice & Daiki Nagai
- Yuya Uemura, Taichi, El Desperado & Masatora Yasuda vs. Ren Narita, SANADA, DOUKI & SHO
Joseph Currier is the lead editor of F4WOnline.com, directing daily news coverage and writing articles on professional wrestling. He is a graduate of the University of Massachusetts, obtaining a journalism degree in 2016. Joseph joined F4W during his time at UMass and has now been writing about the industry for nearly a decade.
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