NJPW legend Katsuyori Shibata made a surprise appearance on AEW Dynamite last night.
The appearance came after the All-Atlantic triple threat match between champion Orange Cassidy, Luchasaurus & Rey Fenix. After the match was over and Orange Cassidy was victorious, he was attacked by PAC. The person who makes the save was none other that Katsuyori Shibata to a huge reaction.
The All Atlantic triple threat match was for the chance to have a dream match of their choice. Since Shibata made the save for Orange Cassidy, Orange offered Shibata the contract, which he signed. Katsuyori Shibata vs Orange Cassidy for the All Atlantic title on this Friday’s Rampage is official.
When discussing the show on Wrestling Observer Radio, Dave Meltzer noted that NJPW’s Shibata has told AEW that there is two matches that he wants.
“Shibata told AEW that he wanted… he had two matches that he wanted in AEW. Orange Cassidy and Bryan Danielson, so they are going to work on doing both of them”
– Dave Meltzer
Shibata has not wrestled an official match without restrictions since 2017 due to a serious head injury he sustained. However, he has recently started to compete in exhibition matches such as one vs Zack Sabre Jr & also at the start of this year vs Ren Narita. The Ren Narita match was certainly interesting as it was pretty much a proper match rather than the exhibition he had with ZSJ. Reports then came out after the Narita match saying that Shibata actually went into business for himself during the match and wrestled harder and took more bumps etc than what NJPW had planned.
Both the matches Shibata wants in AEW, Bryan Danielson & Orange Cassidy are both certainly dream matches that most fans never thought would be possible.
