Top international star Kota Ibushi is expected to finally make his AEW debut this month.
A new report from Fightful Select notes that the inaugural IWGP World Heavyweight Champion has had recent talks with AEW, and some of the wrestlers are under the impression that Ibushi will make his debut at the Blood & Guts edition of AEW Dynamite on July 19 from the TD Garden in Boston.
We noted earlier at this link how Kenny Omega cut a post-tapings promo last night in Edmonton, and teased The Elite’s mystery partner for the upcoming Blood & Guts match. Omega said he recently had a week off, so he took the time to recruit an old friend, one who is very near and dear to his heart, and one who really cares about AEW, pro wrestlers and changing the face of the industry. Omega added that there’s no way The Elite will lose Blood & Guts.
It seems likely that Ibushi is the mystery partner teased by Omega as the two have a long history together. The current Blood & Guts 2023 match line-up has Team Elite (Omega, The Young Bucks, Adam Page, mystery partner TBA) vs. Team Blackpool Combat Club (ROH World Champion Claudio Castagnoli, Jon Moxley, Wheeler Yuta, Konosuke Takeshita, mystery partner TBA). It’s rumored that the fifth man for each team will be revealed before the Blood & Guts Dynamite, but that would have to be on next week’s go-home episode from Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
It was noted that Ibushi has not been nearly as public as of late, and that his management has reduced his media obligations, citing that his schedule will be picking up in the near future. A source close to Ibushi in Japan adds that he’s planning to work Blood & Guts.
Ibushi and NJPW had a series of issues that led to his departure when his contract expired on February 1, but he has claimed that those issues have since been resolved, and NJPW offered him a new contract. It was noted that some wrestlers who have worked for both AEW and NJPW have wondered in the past if Ibushi being involved with AEW would strain the company’s relationship with NJPW, but that remains to be seen and seems unlikely at this point.
Ibushi worked two GCW matches during WrestleMania 39 Weekend in late March, picking up wins over Mike Bailey and Joey Janela, but he has been out of action for the most part since a NJPW event in late October 2021, for various reasons, including an arm injury suffered in that last match against current NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Kazuchika Okada. It was recently announced that Ibushi will wrestle at the August 4 GLEAT event in Japan, which will be his first match in Japan since the 2021 loss to Okada.
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