As noted before, NJPW’s New Japan Road in Anjo event in Anjo, Japan featured Kazuchika Okada making a surprise return appearance and being revealed as the mystery opponent for Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement match at Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4, 2026 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo.
Fightful Select reported that their sourced denied recent reports and rumors of AEW and AEW CEO Tony Khan had blocked NJPW officials from choosing WWE talent Shinsuke Nakamura to be Tanahashi’s final opponent for his wrestling career. This rumor originated from a recent report from Super J-Cast who claimed that their sources in Japan stated that Khan had specifically blocked Nakamura from being chosen due to him not wanting NJPW to work with WWE.
It was reported that those spoken to within NJPW confirmed that AEW did not shut down such a match from being possible.
It was also reported that none of those spoken to within WWE had heard of such a thing being broached to the company.
NJPW officials reportedly always knew that getting Nakamura for Tanahashi’s retirement match would be a “pipe dream” and something that was not seriously considered for an idea. A rep spoken to reportedly explicitly stated that no such situation of AEW blocking Nakamura from being chosen had ever happened.
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