NJPW x AEW Wrestle Dynasty Review - January 5, 2025

By Graham "GSM" Matthews

Pre-Show: Momo Watanabe def. Willow Nightingale, Persephone and ROH Women's World Champion Athena in the Four-Way Finals of the International Women's Cup (Non-Title)

The winner of the International Women's Cup would get a shot at a championship from one of the participating promotions. I like that AEW took the time to make this mini tournament feel important by holding their qualifying matches on Dynamite and Collision over the last month or so. All four of these women are talented and thus it was no surprise that this was a quality four-way. Personally, I didn't really care who won, but I'm curious if Watanabe will use her title shot on a championship from either AEW or Ring of Honor.

Pre-Show: ROH World Tag Team Champions The Sons of Texas def. The Sons of Texas def. House of Torture (SHO and Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

As I've said in past reviews of New Japan Pro-Wrestling events, I don't follow the product closely these days, but I'm familiar enough with House of Torture to know that almost anything involving the faction is hardly interesting. I didn't think for a second that they were winning the ROH tag titles here, but the match was perfectly fine for what it was and it got ROH some additional representation on the card.

Taiji Ishimori def. Hechicero, Kosei Fujita, Soberano Jr., Master Wato, Mascara Dorada, Titan and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado in a Lucha Gauntlet Match (Non-Title)

The commentators likened this to AEW's new Casino Gauntlet concept. It was super fun while it lasted with everyone involved getting some time to shine. Ishimori has impressed me dating back to his TNA days years ago, so I was glad he went over. To my knowledge, there was nothing on the line here. Rather, I assume this existed to get a lot of different guys from NJPW and CMLL on the card, but why not include other wrestlers from AEW and ROH as well?

Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata in a Grappling Rules Exhibition Match Ended in a Time-Limit Draw

Shibata coming out following Tanahashi's win over EVIL at Wrestle Kingdom and challenging him to a match on this show was cool, but what I didn't know was that it would be an exhibition and not an actual match. It's weird that NJPW is still having Shibata compete in exhibitions when he's having regular matches in AEW and ROH these days, but whatever. This was decent while it lasted but never really got going to being five minutes long.

AEW TBS Champion and NJPW Strong Women's Champion Mercedes Mone def. Mina Shirakawa in a Winner Takes All Match to Win the RevPro Undisputed British Women's Championship (AEW TBS Championship Was Not Defended)

This was good, but I expected more considering who was involved. Hell, Mone vs. Kris Statlander as well as Shirakawa vs. Mariah May last month were both better. The two titles being on the line gave it some more drama, even though I don't care about the RevPro title. Is Mone going to bother to defend that one? For those wondering, she's technically the holder of three titles but four belts because the fourth one was merged with the RevPro one at some point a while ago.

David Finlay def. Brody King

This would've been for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship had Finlay retained at Wrestle Kingdom, but he did not. That made me think King would win because Finlay had nothing to lose, but I was happy King won instead so he could bounce back from the loss to Yota Tsuji. This was quite the hard-hitting affair and they made the most of the time they had. They've both come a long way from where they were during their ROH days.

Shota Umino def. AEW World Trios Champion Claudio Castagnoli

Umino was coming off a pretty disappointing Wrestle Kingdom main event with Zack Sabre Jr. (and a loss at that), so this was an important outing for him. Thankfully, he had an awesome opponent in Castagnoli, so that helped. This told a fairly simple story with Umino having to fight from underneath and ultimately prevailing, which I appreciated because I honestly expected the opposite. It was a solid match.

AEW International Champion and NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita def. Tomohiro Ishii

Both of Takeshita's titles were on the line after he beat Shingo Takagi for the NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom. I didn't have high hopes for this because I haven't been enamored with most of the matches I've seen Ishii have in the past few years, but this was such a blast. They really brought the best out of each other and had terrific chemistry, so the predictability didn't bother me at all.

The Young Bucks def. United Empire (Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb) and Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi) in a Three-Way Tag Team Match to Win the Vacant IWGP Tag Team Championship

I know the Bucks have only been gone since late October, but I can't say I've missed them. They haven't missed a step in the ring, but their EVP shtick sucks and takes me out of their matches. This was enjoyable and had constant action, but I could've done without the Bucks winning the belts back since I doubt they'll defend them much (see: their most recent reign as AEW World Tag Team Champions). Does this mean they'll be back on AEW TV imminently? Ugh.

IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji def. Jack Perry

As previously mentioned, this turned into a title match after Tsuji captured the championship at Wrestle Kingdom. There was no way he was going to drop the belt a day later, but to his credit, Perry had a standout showing here in what I thought was one of the better bouts he's had since his heel turn. As for Tsuji, he continues to shine as a star on the rise. This was another strong effort.

Kenny Omega def. Gabe Kidd

I saw the heavy praise this match received online before I watched it and I can confirm it was every bit as excellent as many have made it out to be. Needless to say, Omega is in his peak form when in the Tokyo Dome. He's simply on another level, and Kidd hung in there with him every step of the way. This was stellar stuff and the blood added a lot to it with the feud they've had up to now. Unlike the Wrestle Kingdom main event, this didn't feel like a 30-minute matchup whatsoever. AEW needs this version of Omega back in the worst way.

IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr def. Ricochet

These guys were in a tough spot after Omega and Kidd stole the show, but that's to take nothing away from this entertaining main event. They worked a chaotic pace and I was never bored. Ricochet is in his element as a heel and his style complimented Sabre's wonderfully. The only thing working against the match was that Ricochet wasn't going to win, but otherwise, this closed the night on a high note.

Overall Show

As has been well documented, I don't follow the NJPW product beyond Wrestle Kingdom, Forbidden Door and what I see online, so I can't speak to the build this received going into it, but I do know AEW did nothing on their end to encourage their audience to tune in and buy the event. That's a shame because I liked this more than Wrestle Kingdom 19. The matches had less storyline significance, but they were better on the whole. The results were mixed in terms of NPJW vs. AEW, but it felt like more NJPW guys won than at Forbidden Door every year. They should definitely do more NJPW and AEW joint shows at the Tokyo Dome because this was a treat despite its excessive length.

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