Jack Perry successfully defended the AEW TNT Championship against Minoru Suzuki on the “Grand Slam” edition of “AEW Collision.” After the match, Perry looked to take liberties with Suzuki, but in the same way that he came to his rescue after losing to Chris Jericho earlier this year, Katsuyori Shibata ran down to fend off the TNT Champion.

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Speaking on “Wrestling Observer Radio,” Dave Meltzer speculated that Shibata and Suzuki could perform as a tag team in AEW, before claiming that the former will have an immediate plan set up for him at WrestleDream. “I think they are doing Shibata and Jack Perry at the pay-per-view.” 

Shibata recently shared the ring with Suzuki at the special TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE 3 event in Tokyo, a charity show to raise money for the legendary Yoshihiro Takayama, who was paralyzed in 2017. However, Shibata has not competed in AEW since the Zero-Hour portion of All In 2024, where teamed up with the Von Erichs, Dustin Rhodes, and Sammy Guevara to defeat The Cage of Agony and The Undisputed Kingdom. 

If Shibata challenges Perry for the TNT Championship, it would mark his first time fighting for the title since signing with AEW. He previously challenged for the AEW International Championship twice before officially joining the company. Elsewhere, he unsuccessfully competed for the FTW Championship, which is unrecognised, and the ROH World Championship, the latter of which he fought for at last year’s WrestleDream event. Shibata won the ROH Pure Championship at Supercard of Honor 2023, though it remains to be seen if he can win one of AEW’s main roster titles.

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Please credit “Wrestling Observer Radio” when using quotes from this article, and give a H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.