While this was never a title match, they had been actively talking about Gabe being the STRONG Openweight Champ in advertising but he comes out without the belt. They used his regular tron/theme with the NJPW logo middle tron, and weirdly he did come out of what is traditionally the “babyface tunnel” (warning that’s a Twitter link).
At one point, Don Callis is shown watching the match. The commentary does hint that Callis is watching for Kidd, not Butcher. The Callis Family is currently still dealing with Will Ospreay, and TAKESHITA will most likely be defending his International title against Kenny Omega at Revolution.
Gabe pins Butcher clean in pretty much the match you’d expect, and gets in a couple more cheap punches after the bell.
by EffingKENTA