Bishamon select their Wrestle Kingdom opponents.
The finals of the 2023 NJPW World Tag League tournament took place on December 10th. IWGP Tag Team Champions Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) clashed with NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Champions Hikuleo and El Phantasmo.
It was Goto and YOSHI-HASHI emerging victorious to win World Tag League for the third year in a row. With Bishamon being the IWGP Tag Team Champions, they were able to throw out their own challenge for Wrestle Kingdom 18 on January 4th.
They chose to give Hikuleo and Phantasmo a rematch. When the two teams meet at Wrestle Kingdom, both the IWGP and STRONG Tag Titles will be on the line. With that challenge being issued and accepted, here’s the updated lineup for Wrestle Kingdom:
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
- Bryan Danielson vs. Kazuchika Okada
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) (c) vs. Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP)
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs. El Desperado
- Three-Way for new NJPW Championship Belt: Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay (w/ Gedo)
- NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Tama Tonga
- IWGP & NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championships: Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (c) vs. Hikuleo & El Phantasmo (c)
- NJPW World Television Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
