Various: Hiroshi Tanahashi on Him & Shinsuke Nakamura Had Talked About Having One Last Match, Matt Cardona Vacates ACW World Title Due To Recent WWE Return, Mayu Iwatani Wins GHC Women’s Title at Marigold First Dream 2026

Hiroshi Tanahashi Comments on Him & Shinsuke Nakamura Had Talked About Having One Last Match

New Japan Pro Wrestling held a press conference ahead of Sunday’s Wrestle Kingdom 20 event in Tokyo, Japan. One of the topics discussed included NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi’s thoughts about him not facing Tetsuya Naito nor Shinsuke Nakamura during his retirement tour in 2025.

“I feel like Naito will be at the Tokyo Dome. When Nakamura came to Japan I was talking about various things and we were saying that we wanted to do it one last time, but well, there are a lot of things going on… Nakamura was always my rival, and Naito joined New Japan because he liked Tanahashi. I want them to think, ‘I wasn’t wrong.’ I want them to think, ‘I’m glad I was Tanahashi’s rival,’ and ‘I’m glad I admired Tanahashi,’ and I want all the fans to think, ‘I’m glad I supported Tanahashi,’ and I want it all to have a happy ending.”

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Matt Cardona Vacates ACW World Title Due To Recent WWE Return Issues

As noted before, this past Friday’s WWE SmackDown show in Buffalo, New York featured TNA and indies talent Matt Cardona making his official return to WWE.

During Saturday’s Poughkeepsie Rumble 2026 event for Awesome Championship Wrestling, Cardona made a video appearance on the big screen announcing that he would not be able to attend the show and was vacating his ACW World Heavyweight Championship due to his recent signing with WWE. Cardona had been scheduled to defend his title against Mike Santana on the show.

“I’m sure you guys saw last night, I made my return to SmackDown. I am back in WWE. That means I can no longer compete tonight. That means I can no longer be the ACW champion. I am very proud to have been the ACW Champion.

I love ACW, one of the greatest independent promotions out there with such a great roster. And I know that somebody is going to step up to give you great fans a new ACW Champion. See you guys down the road.”

Matt Cardona just announced he is no longer able to compete at ACW tonight and has relinquished the ACW World Championship.

A new champion will be crowned tonight. pic.twitter.com/tC8Fa3ZZyn

— 𝐃𝐫𝐚𝐕𝐞𝐧 (@WrestlingCovers) January 3, 2026

Later in the show, Santana defeated Nic Nemeth in a #1 Contender’s match while Richard Holliday defeated Dante Cassanova for the vacant title to become the new champion.

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Mayu Iwatani Wins GHC Women’s Title at Marigold First Dream 2026

Saturday’s First Dream 2026 event for Marigold in Tokyo, Japan featured Mayu Iwatani defeating Takumi Iroha to become the new GHC Women’s Champion.

An epic new battle between Mayu Iwatani and Takumi Iroha with the GHC Women's Title on the line this time, a brutal back and forth where each wrestler showed their in-ring experience, a war of techniques connected to each other, Iwatani dethrone to become the new champion #pw_mg pic.twitter.com/GPs2LAwSUG

— ERD Wrestling (@ERD_Wrestling) January 3, 2026

This was Iwatani’s first ever GHC Women’s Championship in her Marigold and Pro Wrestling NOAH career.