On October 10th earlier this year, Luke Gallows and Karl Anderson made their unannounced returns to WWE, reuniting with AJ Styles. Despite this, Anderson currently reigns as NJPW’s NEVER Openweight Champion, with their believed to be a working agreement in place allowing the Bullet Club member to appear for both companies.
It was reported by Fightful back in October that Karl Anderson would work multiple dates with NJPW beyond his upcoming NEVER Openweight title defence and that it was always in place even before the Good Brothers left IMPACT.
Anderson is currently set to defend the NEVER Openweight Championship this Wednesday against Hikuleo, also PWInsider are now reporting that he’s set to feature on NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 event on January 4th.
“PWInsider.com has learned from multiple sources that WWE and New Japan have come to terms on an agreement for Anderson to wrestle on the 1/4/23 Wrestle Kingdom event at the Tokyo Dome, making him the first-ever contracted WWE talent to work NJPW’s biggest event of the year.”
-PWInsider
The report notes that Anderson has long been factored into NJPW’s plans for the event, long before The Good Brothers made their return to WWE. The two sides are believed to have come to an agreement to keep NJPW’s creative plans in place, and thus he’s still expected to feature on Rhea show.
Anderson is currently expected to have a “strong roll” at the Tokyo Dome, with a big-time singles bout reportedly lined up for the company’s biggest show of the year.
