Some more New Japan news:
The field for the upcoming World Tag League has been announced. This year it’s a 16-team field in 2 blocks of 8, the usual round-robin prelim format. The entered teams are as follows:
Block A: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI, Taichi & Satoshi Kojima, Toru Yano & Boltin Oleg, El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa (Independent/Freelancer), Yota Tsuji & Gabriel Kidd, Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney, EVIL & Don Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Block B: Hiroshi Tanahashi & El Phantasmo, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura, David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby), Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan, Ren Narita & SANADA, Lance Archer & Alex Zayne.
Last year’s tournament was won by Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito, sparing us from the despair of Bishamon 5-peat talks. Kojima is essentially an injury replacement for Tomohiro Ishii, who is out indefinitely due to a shoulder injury suffered a couple weeks ago in the US in All Elite Wrestling.
Elsewhere, the next Yuji Nagata Produced event has been announced. BLUE JUSTICE 17 will mark the promotion’s next visit to Chiba and will be held on 1/18 at Sakura Civic Gym. Advance tickets go on sale this weekend for fan club members and 11/23 for the public.