Update On NJPW Working Out A Deal For Hiroshi Tanahashi's Final Opponent
As 2025 slowly draws to a close, the final wrestling match of Hiroshi Tanahashi's career draws ever closer. The President of New Japan Pro Wrestling has been on a retirement tour for over a year at the time of writing, and that tour will conclude on January 4, 2026 at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 at the Tokyo Dome. Tanahashi has faced off with some of the biggest names of all time, making the choice of who his final opponent will be even tougher, but in the latest edition of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter, Dave Meltzer broke down the possibility of having Tanahashi face someone who knows Tanahashi very well, current WWE Superstar Shinsuke Nakamura.
Nakamura got the world talking during the recent tour of Japan that WWE embarked on as he did a lot of Tanahashi's mannerisms in his matches, as well as shouting Tanahashi out in a post-match promo. Meltzer reiterated a point he had made a few days earlier by saying that Nakamura does have a clause in his WWE contract that allows him to work dates in Japan, but that him being Tanahashi's final opponent is far from a done deal. Of course, WWE would have to approve any Japanese booking Nakamura takes, but that isn't the part that complicates things, it's the fact that NJPW currently has a working relationship with AEW, the largest competition to WWE.
Meltzer doesn't believe that NJPW would book someone from WWE due to the AEW relationship, especially if there are any AEW wrestlers on the Wrestle Kingdom 20 card, which is very possible considering the current IWGP World Heavyweight Champion is AEW star Konosuke Takeshita. However, Meltzer believes that even though AEW wouldn't be happy about a WWE Superstar being involved with a NJPW show, the importance of Tanahashi's retirement to the fans and the man himself could make this match an exception to the rule. Meltzer rounded off by saying that the opponent should be revealed either at the "Final Homecoming" event in Tanahashi's hometown of Gifu on November 2, or in the days following that event.