Tony Khan Announces Katsuyori Shibata's Next ROH Pure Title Defense

AEW President and Ring of Honor owner Tony Khan announced via Twitter that New Japan Pro-Wrestling star Katsuyori Shibata's next ROH Pure Championship defense. Shibata will be defending the title against NJPW Strong star, Alex Coughlin on the June 1 episode of "ROH On HonorClub." The episode has yet to be filmed, but according to Fightful, there will be an ROH taping while AEW is in Las Vegas, Nevada for a live broadcast of "Dynamite" on May 24 and the Double Or Nothing pay-per-view on May 28.

It was after Coughlin and Shibata teamed together on the April 13 edition of "ROH on HonorClub" and defeated The WorkHorsemen (J.D. Drake and Anthony Henry), when Coughlin challenged Shibata to a title match. Coughlin was last in the ring at the GCW Fight Night: Brooklyn event on May 11 in a match against 1 Called Manders. Coughlin was one of the first to be part of NJPW's L.A. Dojo where he was trained by Shibata. The dojo opened in 2018 and along with Coughlin, past trainees include Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd, and former NJPW star and current "WWE NXT" prospect Eddy Thrope (formerly known as Karl Fredericks).

Shibata's last title defense was against Christopher Daniels on the April 6 episode of "ROH on HonorClub." Shibata has been champion since defeating Blackpool Combat Club's Wheeler Yuta at Supercard of Honor. It's his first reign as the champion. Before losing the title in March, it was Yuta's second reign as champion. Yuta became the champion after defeating Daniel Garcia at ROH Final Battle on December 10, 2022.