Shota Umino Issues Challenge to Andrade El Idolo for IWGP Global Title Match in AEW & His Goal To Bring Title Back to NJPW

As noted before, this past Sunday’s NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2026 Night 1 event in Fukuoka, Japan featured Andrade El Idolo defeating Yota Tsuji to become the new IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion. Following the match, Andrade proposed the idea of defending his title in a Triple Threat match after both Shota Umino and Drilla Moloney came out to accept being the first challenger for his title.

Wednesday’s New Japan Road in Karatsu – Ignition to Dominion event in Karatsu featured El Desperado & Taichi defeating Shota Umino & Tomoaki Honma in a tag team match. Following the match, Umino issued a challenge to Andrade in post-match backstage press conference telling him to set up a match for him AEW for his title. Umino also stated that his goal was to bring back the IWGP Global title back to New Japan.

“Andrade of AEW, you’ve become the IWGP GLOBAL Champion of New Japan Pro-Wrestling, haven’t you? In other words, you’ve become the champion of this organization. I’m in the position of challenging you. Set up a match for me in AEW anytime, anywhere. That belt of yours—I have to bring it back to New Japan Pro-Wrestling.”

海野「AEWのアンドラデ、お前は新日本プロレスのIWGP GLOBAL王者になったな。すなわち、この団体の王者になったわけだ。お前に挑戦する立場だ、俺は。いつでもどこでもAEWで試合組んでくれよ。お前のそのベルト、俺は新日本プロレスに取り戻さなきゃいけないんだ」

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— 新日本プロレスリング株式会社 (@njpw1972) May 6, 2026