Update on Karl Anderson’s Wrestle Kingdom 17 Booking, WWE and New Japan’s Potential Partnership

Karl Anderson will defend his NEVER Openweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdon 17 on Jan. 4 while still under contract with WWE. Reports emerged on Monday that the deal for Anderson to compete at the show was signed, but then Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful Select reported that WWE, New Japan and Anderson knew about the Wrestle Kingdom booking since August. Anderson and Doc Gallows left Impact Wrestling in late August and were still involved with New Japan when WWE contacted them about a deal, eventually leading to the pair returning on an episode of Raw in early October.

The only hiccup in the deal was Anderson getting doubled-booked for WWE’s Crown Jewel pay-per-view and a scheduled title defense against Hikuleo at the Battle Autumn event in Japan on the same day. The Good Brothers addressed that issue in-storyline by having Anderson back out of the match and claim it was never approved by him or Gallows, freeing him up to wrestle a six-man match for WWE in Saudi Arabia. 

“New Japan Pro-Wrestling, I love what you’ve done for the Good Brothers through these years. I am the greatest NEVER Openweight Champion of all time,” Anderson said in an announcement video at the time. “I only work when the lights are bright. November 5, we’re not coming. We’ll come on our time. The Machine Gun will tell you when I’m coming to defend my championship.”

“As far as Anderson was concerned, he was always set to work the Wrestle Kingdom show and had planned from that from the point he was signed with WWE,” Sapp wrote. “To reiterate, Karl Anderson was always under the impression he was working Wrestle Kingdom throughout the entire process, and had been planning for it.”

The Anderson deal quickly got wrestling fans excited about a potential partnership between WWE and the top Japanese promotion. Sapp noted at the end of the report, “everything we’ve heard so far is a ‘wait and see’ approach.” Wrestle Kingdom is shaping up to be a major crossover event for the wrestling industry, as talent from AEW (Kenny Omega, FTR) and Stardom are already booked for the show. It was also reported this past week that Sasha Banks, who is reportedly “done” with WWE as of right now, will be present at the event as well.