12 Biggest Stories From NJPW's Year-End Events And How They Affect Wrestle Kingdom
9. Zack Sabre Jr. Readies For British Championship Bout
On January 4th, the Revolution Pro British Championship will be defended at Wrestle Kingdom for the first time. New Japan's own Tomohiro Ishii is currently in the midst of his second reign having won the belt from Minoru Suzuki. However, his first reign was kicked off after defeating Zack Sabre Jr, who will finally get a rematch for the gold.
Sabre's 2018 has been exceedingly impressive with a recent victory in his Ring of Honor debut, as well as previously winning the prestigious New Japan Cup after forcing Hiroshi Tanahashi to tap in the final. Meanwhile, Ishii had a standout G1 performance earlier in the year, beating every singles champion in NJPW -- including current world champion Kenny Omega.
Ishii and Sabre met during World Tag League competition and on the tournament's final night faced off as part of six-man action. While Ishii holds an obvious advantage in power, Sabre's submission mastery is far superior to the current RevPro Champion. However, the Stone Pitbull surprised many by countering nearly all of ZSJ's submission attempts on 9 December. Ishii could retain his title if he manages to do the same on 4 January, but Sabre always seems to have another hold in his arsenal.