10 Things Wrestling Fans Fully Expected To Happen In 2020 (That Still Haven't)

9. AEW & NJPW Join Forces

Chris Jericho Hiroshi Tanahashi
NJPW

2020 began with great optimism on the AEW and NJPW front. Chris Jericho and Hiroshi Tanahashi were scheduled to do battle at the Tokyo Dome, with Tanahashi in line for a shot at the AEW World Championship if he was able to defeat The Painmaker. Hiroshi and his hair came up short on that night, but the possibility of cooperation between AEW and NJPW felt like a very real possibility.

Before fans could fantasy book themselves into a frenzy, the whole thing went a bit quiet. The pandemic put the world on hold and New Japan took it more seriously than most, shutting up shop entirely for months. Any potential partnership between the two promotions was paused as well, with talent stuck on opposite sides of the world's biggest ocean.

NJPW's announcement that it was going to hold a special one-day Super J Cup got those tongues waggling again, but the partnership remains out of reach. If anything, the presence of Impact, Ring Of Honor and GCW talent on the show gives the impression that we won't be seeing Ibushi vs. Omega any time soon.

Saying that, AEW World Champion Jon Moxley remains the IWGP United States Champion and he can't hold that title forever, so something has to give eventually. Maybe in 2021...

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Born in the middle of Wales in the middle of the 1980's, John can't quite remember when he started watching wrestling but he has a terrible feeling that Dino Bravo was involved. Now living in Prague, John spends most of his time trying to work out how Tomohiro Ishii still stands upright. His favourite wrestler of all time is Dean Malenko, but really it is Repo Man. He is the author of 'An Illustrated History of Slavic Misery', the best book about the Slavic people that you haven't yet read. You can get that and others from www.poshlostbooks.com.