Summary

NJPW has announced several matches for its Road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, including a number one contender bout that will decide the next challengers for the IWGP Tag Team Championship. On April 20 at Korakuen Hall, Bishamon, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI, will face United Empire's HENARE and Great-O-Khan with a future shot at the Knock Out Brothers' titles on the line.

The tour also includes two tag matches on April 19 at Korakuen Hall and a pair of singles bouts on April 20. That gives NJPW a clearer path into the later Wrestling Dontaku schedule as the promotion fills out the cards around its tag title picture.

Matches announced for Korakuen Hall

The April 19 card will feature Yuto-Ice and Taiji Ishimori against T.M.D.K.'s Ryohei Oiwa and Robbie Eagles. OSKAR and Robbie X are also set to meet T.M.D.K.'s Hartley Jackson and Kosei Fujita.

On April 20, the headline match is Bishamon vs. United Empire with the winner earning an IWGP Tag Team Championship opportunity. The same show will also feature Daiki Nagai vs. Callum Newman and Shingo Takagi vs. Zane Jay. That Shingo-Newman thread comes after NJPW previously set Callum Newman vs. Shingo Takagi for Wrestling Dontaku.

What Bishamon vs. United Empire changes on this tour

Bishamon and United Empire are not just filling space on a house-show run, they are wrestling for direct entry into the IWGP Tag Team title picture. That gives the April 20 Korakuen card real stakes and ties the Road to dates more tightly to the championship direction already forming before Wrestling Dontaku.

It also means the Knock Out Brothers can now be framed against a defined next challenger instead of a vague future defense. For fans following the tag scene, that makes this stretch of the tour more than undercard setup, especially with Shingo Takagi and Callum Newman also staying in focus on the same night.

Sources

As reported by Fightful.