NJPW sets up tag team match with IWGP title implications
A high-stakes tag team match looks set to take place on the road to NJPW Dominion.
Night two of Wrestling Dontaku ended with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Callum Newman issuing a challenge to Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi. At Ignition to Dominion this Wednesday (May 6), Newman & Jake Lee will team up against the Unbound Co. duo. If United Empire win, neither Tsuji nor Takagi can challenge Newman for the IWGP Heavyweight title again. But if either Tsuji or Takagi manage to score a pinfall over Newman, that competitor earns the right to challenge for his belt in the main event of Dominion on June 14.
NJPW has not officially announced the tag match or revealed the full card for Ignition to Dominion. The show is airing live on New Japan World on Wednesday with a start time of 4 a.m. Eastern/1 a.m. Pacific.
At Dontaku today, Newman used a low blow to retain his IWGP Heavyweight Championship over Takagi. It was Newman’s first defense since winning the title from Tsuji at Sakura Genesis 2026.
Newman’s immediate focus remains on the United Empire/Unbound Co. feud, but a match against his former mentor Will Ospreay appears to be the ultimate direction. Issues between Newman and Ospreay continued to build at Dontaku, where Ospreay did not approve of Newman cheating to win. Ospreay was then initially reluctant to help United Empire with their post-match attack on Takagi and Tsuji. Backstage, Ospreay reaffirmed his commitment to United Empire and said he’s trying his best to be the kind of competitor Newman wants him to be.
.@WillOspreay “😠😠😠”
— NJPW WORLD (@njpwworld) May 4, 2026
From the profile URL#njpwworld #njDONTAKU pic.twitter.com/ZFkNt4FpGW
Night two of Dontaku saw United Empire capture more gold with Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & HENARE defeating Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Oleg Boltin for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles.
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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