The first Wrestle Kingdom 20 match has been made official.
At King of Pro Wrestling, EVIL won the NEVER Openweight Championship for the fourth time in his career thanks to his House of Torture buddies. However, following the title match, the faction got into it with Aaron Wolf, who destroyed the faction one by one. EVIL promised that he would crush Wolf in a match.
The NEVER Openweight Champion gets that opportunity on January 4th. New Japan Pro-Wrestling has officially confirmed that Wolf will make his in-ring professional debut against the NEVER Openweight Champion at Wrestle Kingdom 20.
New Japan put out the official press release for the upcoming match.
At King of Pro-Wrestling Monday in Ryogoku, EVIL became a four time NEVER Openweight Champion thanks to the efforts of his HOUSE OF TORTURE cohorts and a thoroughly stacked deck against Boltin Oleg.
In the aftermath of the bout, H.O.T looked to add further insult to injury with a post match attack, but were left furious after Aaron Wolf, who had been watching from ringside, could stand no more. The Olympic gold medalist judoka hit the ring and sent SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Dick Togo flying with take downs and a body slam before staring down the King of Darkness.
Backstage, Wolf said that he had acted on instinct in getting into the ring, and requested a match against EVIL for his debut on January 4 2026 in the Tokyo Dome. EVIL would retort backstage that if ‘you’re ready to die, I’m willing to crush you’.
While EVIL is not willing to put his NEVER Openweight title on the line, he is apparently eager to take on Aaron Wolf one on one! A special singles matchup is now official as the first entry to the Tokyo Dome card January 4!
Exactly who is Aaron Wolf?
For those who don’t watch the Olympics, the 29-year-old is the first U.S athlete to win the All-Japan Judo Championships. Wolf then competed at the 2020 Summer Olympics and won a gold medal in the 1000 kg competition.
He officially retired from Judo in June. However, he ended up signing with New Japan Pro Wrestling on June 23. Wrestle Kingdom 20 will be his first professional wrestling match ever. It’ll be interesting to see how well Wolf does in his wrestling debut. Could he turn out to be the Kurt Angle of New Japan? Only time will tell. The only other thing confirmed for Wrestle Kingdom 20 is Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement match, though an opponent has yet to be determined.