New Japan announced the field for the 2023 World Tag League today. The annual year-end Heavyweight tag team tournament will have 16 teams split into 2 blocks for the round-robin format event with the top 2 teams in each block advancing to the Semifinals.
The full field:
Block A: Shota Umino & Ren Narita, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano, Great-O-Khan & HENARE, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls, Alex Coughlin & Gabriel Kidd, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL, Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa, Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona
Block B: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (2-time defending winners), Hikuleo & El Phantasmo, Yuji Nagata & Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji & TBA, Soberano Jr. & Atlantis Jr., Lance Archer & Alex Zayne, Bad Luck Fale & Jack Bonza
TBA for Tsuji’s partner, “a friend he met on excursion who isn’t an X but a Z”, will be revealed at Sunday’s non-televised event. The tournament begins on 11/20 and will end on 12/8.
In other news, 2 more title matches have been added to Tokyo Dome on 1/4: NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi vs. Tama Tonga for the title is now official following Lonestar Shootout, as is NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the title.
The World Tag League will also see the debuts of 2 new Young Lions (rookies making their in-ring debuts in NJPW): Shoka Kato & Katsuya Murashima. Kato, 20, from Osaka is 5’8″, about 180 pounds, He has backgrounds in basketball, MMA and grappling and gained attention through “The Spirit”, a reality show produced by Kazuchika Okada that followed trainees in the New Japan Dojo. He will face Oskar Leube in his debut match on 11/20. Murashima, 23, is from Ibaraki and has been an amateur wrestler for 9 years with 2 regional college championships at 86 kg & 92 kg. He will face Yuto Nakashima in his debut match on 11/21.
UPDATE: In a sometimes-rumored move, lead New Japan World English commentator Kevin Kelly has left the promotion. Kelly hinted at such a move earlier this year but still planned to do some events, the plan was to do Tokyo Dome on 1/4 but now can’t make it due to personal reasons. Kelly joined All Elite Wrestling this year as the lead commentator on AEW Collision when the NJPW schedule was announced. Walker Stephens, who debuted recently on live events in the US, is the likely replacement.
