NJPW Star Invites AJ Styles To Wrestle Kingdom 17

While AJ Styles is not directly involved with New Japan Pro-Wrestling's Wrestle Kingdom 17, his OC stablemate Karl Anderson is. Anderson will be wrestling at Wrestle Kingdom for the ninth time in history, with his match at Wrestle Kingdom 17 being his first appearance at NJPW's biggest show of the year since Wrestle Kingdom 10 in 2016. Anderson will take on Tama Tonga in both men's first-ever singles match at Wrestle Kingdom, as Anderson will put his NEVER Openweight Championship on the line.

Ahead of his match against Anderson at Wrestle Kingdom 17, Tonga tweeted out: "AJ can come too. He can watch me smash his boy. ( still got love for you #PhenomenalOne ) #Wrestlekingdom17 – January 4, 2023 #AndNew #NeverOpenWeightChampion." This will be the second time the two men face off for the NEVER Openweight Championship, as Anderson originally defeated Tonga for his first singles title in NJPW at Dominion.

When Anderson originally won the title at Dominion, he was only working with NJPW and Impact Wrestling, with the two companies having a working relationship. However, in October, following Triple H coming to power as Chief Content Officer in July, Anderson — along with tag team partner Luke Gallows — returned to WWE. Since his return, there has been a booking issue, as Anderson was once booked for both a WWE and NJPW show on the same day. Anderson wound up wrestling at WWE's Crown Jewel, however, that did not affect his future appearances with NJPW, as he recently defended his title on December 14 in Japan. If Styles does indeed "come too," it would also be his first Wrestle Kingdom appearance since 2016.