Gabe Kidd Was Reportedly Planned To Win IWGP Global Heavyweight Title Months Ago
Gabe Kidd’s recent NJPW title win has been planned for a number of months.
Following his attack at NJPW’s Dominion in Osaka-jō Hall on behalf of the Death Riders, Gabe Kidd defeated Shota Umino to capture the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship on July 6 during Road to G1 Climax 36 at Korakuen Hall. However, the victory was seemingly originally planned to come much earlier.
According to Fightful Select, New Japan Pro-Wrestling had planned for Gabe Kidd to become the IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion months ago before an injury forced him to spend time on the sidelines.
“Gabe Kidd won the IWGP Global Title earlier this week. He was actually planned to win the title months ago before his injury.”
-Fightful Select
The injury in question was a dislocated shoulder that Kidd suffered during The Young Bucks’ unsuccessful defence of the AEW World Trios Championship against The Conglomeration at AEW Dynasty on April 12 in Vancouver.
Prior to the injury, Gabe Kidd was seemingly set to challenge Yota Tsuji for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship at NJPW’s Wrestling Dontaku Night One on May 3.
Andrade El Idolo would instead take on Tsuji in his place, with the ‘Real Latino Man’ capturing the title before dropping it to Shota Umino at Dominion in Osaka-jō Hall on June 14.
Umino would successfully defend the title against PAC at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on June 28, whilst Gabe Kidd was prevented from appearing on the show due to ongoing visa issues.
Looking ahead, Gabe Kidd is set to compete in NJPW’s G1 Climax 36 as part of the B Block. The aforementioned visa issues meant he was unavailable for the tournament’s opening night in Chicago on Saturday, July 11, meaning Kidd will instead begin his campaign against fellow former Bullet Club War Dogs member Drilla Moloney in Hokkaido on Saturday, July 18.
The opening night of G1 Climax 36 at the NOW Arena in Chicago saw Aaron Wolf, Yuto-Ice, and OSKAR all pick up victories to kick off their debut G1 campaigns, following Tony Khan’s revelation that he wanted all three men to appear at Forbidden Door last month. You can read more about that here
As always, we’ll aim to provide any further updates on future plans for Gabe Kidd across both All Elite Wrestling and New Japan Pro-Wrestling as soon as we hear more.
