Rumor Killer On Possible Kenny Omega-Hiroshi Tanahashi Match

During Kenny Omega's road to recovery in 2024, the former AEW World Champion made a surprise appearance in New Japan Pro Wrestling, which eventually led to his comeback match against Gabe Kidd at Wrestle Dynasty. At one point in time, Omega had a sit down meeting with NJPW President Hiroshi Tanahashi, where Omega asked the Japanese legend if he would be willing to team up with him in the near future as Tanahashi is set to officially retire from wrestling at the beginning of 2026.

Rumors of a match against The Young Bucks circulated, but according to a new report from Fightful Select, this match was never going to happen. According to sources within AEW, their creative team had not been broached on the idea of having Omega and Tanahashi team up for the Wrestle Dynasty event, or any event for that matter. Sources in NJPW also confirmed this as they claimed to have never pitched the idea of Omega and Tanahashi teaming together, and that their sit down discussion that went viral was simply edited in a way that led people to believe a match would be happening.

One of the reasons why Omega said that he would like to team up with Tanahashi is because he has come a long way since being "The Ace's" rival in Japan. Omega's final match for the company before becoming an Executive Vice President in AEW was against Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 13 in 2019, where Tanahashi walked away with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. Despite crossing paths in multiple tag team matches prior to Wrestle Kingdom 13, the only other singles match the two men had was back in 2016 where Omega defeated Tanahashi to win the IWGP Intercontinental Championship in Omega's first singles match since becoming the leader of the Bullet Club.