NJPW News: Cody Rhodes Wrestle Kingdom 12 opponent revealed

What’s the story?

Earlier today, New Japan Pro Wrestling announced the rest of the matches for the Wrestle Kingdom 12 card.

It was announced by NJPW that current Ring of Honor World Champion, Cody Rhodes will defend his World Title come January 4, 2018, against Kota Ibushi.

and it's official... https://t.co/B2Q4Edgrd7

— Cody Rhodes (@CodyRhodes) November 6, 2017

In case you didn’t know…

On November 5th, 2017, NJPW put up a great Power Struggle event at Osaka that saw the return of Chris Jericho to the company, the return of Jay White as well, who was revealed as the ‘Switchblade’ character and challenged Hiroshi Tanahashi.

During the show, both Kota Ibushi and Cody Rhodes featured on the card, as Rhodes teamed up with his Bullet Club members—Chase Owens and Yujiro Takahashi in a tag team match.

On the other hand, Kota Ibushi faced Tanahashi in the main event of the evening, with the IWGP Intercontinental Championship on the line in a match he would eventually go on to lose.

After the show, Cody confronted Ibushi backstage and mocked him as well.

The heart of the matter

NJPW earlier today confirmed the rest of the match card for their biggest event of 2018, Wrestle Kingdom.

Cody Rhodes confronting Kota Ibushi backstage at the Power Struggle event

It was confirmed on the company’s official website that the Ring of Honor Championship will once again be defended at the show, as Cody is set to face off against former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, Kota Ibushi.

“The American Nightmare” then took to Twitter and said that the match is now official and he will go toe-to-toe with Ibushi on January 4, 2018.

What’s next?

As for Cody, there seems to be a huge uphill battle for him before he makes it to the Tokyo Dome in 2018. The Bullet Club member will defend his World title twice before the end of 2017, his first title defence will be against Roppongi 3K member Rocky Romero later this month.

Cody would also have to defend the ROH World Title at the Final Battle event in December, which is also one of ROH’s biggest shows of the year.

However, Cody’s opponent for Final Battle has still not been confirmed but speculation has suggested that “The American Nightmare” might face off against Dalton Castle at the Hammerstein Ballroom, come December 15th.

Author’s Take

Personally, I think the match between Cody and Ibushi will be great, and as much as I would like to see Kota win the ROH World Title, I think there is very little chance of it actually happening.

Takeshi Morishima was the last Japanese wrestler to hold the ROH World Title and it was almost a decade ago.