Yota Tsuji on He Wants To Work On NJPW Establishing Equal Relationship With AEW

As noted before, current IWGP Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji had stated in an interview with Tokyo Sports this past June about him not being interested in defending his title at AEW and NJPW’s co-promoted Forbidden Door 2026 event and had gone as far as suggesting boycotting the event due to his lingering issues with NJPW’s partnership with AEW. Tsuji has been vocal about his dissatisfaction with the AEW and NJPW relationship in recent years over his issues with NJPW not benefiting or as much from it compared to AEW.

NJPW’s Road to Destruction 2026 event in Sendai, Japan featured Unbound Co. (Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, & Yota Tsuji) defeating Goto Revolutionary Army (Hirooki Goto, YOH, & YOSHI-HASHI) in a Six-Man Tag Team match.

Following the match, Tsuji gave comments backstage to the press about his upcoming IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against Goto and his goal of him wanting to work on NJPW having an equal relationship with AEW.

“Mr. (Hirooki) Goto, the match in Kobe is getting more and more exciting. Of course, winning the IWGP in Kobe is the most important thing. I went to Vietnam the other day. Did you watch ‘Blast of ASIA’ (on the NJPW YouTube channel)? I’m going to keep holding the IWGP Title, and I’m going to spread New Japan Pro-Wrestling—no, pro-wrestling itself—even further across Asia, and one more thing: I need to work on establishing an equal relationship with AEW.”