El Desperado, Kosei Fujita, Taiji Ishimori, and SHO will compete at Wrestle Kingdom 20 to determine the next challenger for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.
The match was set up during Saturday’s New Japan Road event in Anjo. Taiji Ishimori pinned IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion SHO with the Bloody Cross.
Following his victory, Ishimori challenged IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI for the singles title, referencing DOUKI’s “tainted” Super Jr. Tag League win.
El Desperado then interrupted the confrontation. He claimed DOUKI cheated to defeat him for the title and noted that Kosei Fujita also had unfinished business with the champion after a backstage encounter in Gifu. Fujita was absent from the Anjo show due to a health concern.
DOUKI refused to grant any of them a direct title shot. Instead, he demanded that all four men—Ishimori, Desperado, Fujita, and SHO—face each other in a number one contender’s match. On Sunday, the match was made official for Wrestle Kingdom.
The winner of the four-way match will earn a future title opportunity. DOUKI’s role at the Wrestle Kingdom 20 event has not yet been announced.
NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 (January 4, 2026)
- Winner Takes All (IWGP World & Global Titles): Konosuke Takeshita (c) vs. Yota Tsuji (c)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
- NEVER Openweight Title: EVIL (c) vs. Aaron Wolf
- Winner Takes All (IWGP Women’s & STRONG Women’s Titles): Saya Kamitani (c) vs. Syuri (c)
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: El Desperado vs. Kosei Fujita vs. Taiji Ishimori vs. SHO
