Ospreay vs. Newman Set For Wrestle Kingdom 21 As United Empire Rift Deepens

The slow-burning split inside United Empire has finally produced a marquee singles match: Will Ospreay will face Callum Newman at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 21 on January 4 at the Tokyo Dome. The bout was set in motion at NJPW Power Struggle 2026, where Knockout Brothers beat Ospreay and Newman via disqualification after Newman swung a chair at Ospreay, only to strike OSKAR instead. What followed was a legitimate post-match brawl between the two stablemates, capping off roughly a year of simmering tension between Ospreay’s AEW-based wing of United Empire and Newman’s NJPW contingent. Newman challenged Ospreay to the one-on-one match immediately after, and NJPW has now made it official for the Tokyo Dome show.

The Ospreay-Newman match is the clearest sign yet that United Empire, once a dominant, unified faction spanning both AEW and NJPW rosters, is fracturing along company lines. Ospreay took the group global when he brought it into AEW and installed himself at the top of the American contingent, eventually adding names like Speedball Mike Bailey and, more controversially, Andrade El Idolo to the fold. Back in Japan, Newman has positioned himself as the standard-bearer for the NJPW side, and the Power Struggle brawl made it obvious that loyalties inside the stable are no longer so simple.

That tension extends well beyond Ospreay and Newman themselves. Francesco Akira and Jakob Austin Young, teammates for United Empire in this year’s NJPW Super Junior Tag League, showed visible friction throughout that tournament, and Newman striking Akira during the post-match chaos at Power Struggle only adds fuel to a potential Akira-Young confrontation. Meanwhile, HENARE and Great O Khan, former IWGP Tag Team Champions, have their own unresolved issue after O Khan walked away from the group following their NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Title loss at NJPW King of Pro Wrestling, despite HENARE’s attempts to smooth things over. Neither man has been seen in NJPW in recent weeks, leaving that storyline on pause for now.

On the AEW side, Andrade El Idolo’s standing is its own wrinkle. After winning the Casino Gauntlet Match at AEW All In London to secure an open AEW World Title opportunity, Andrade aligned himself with Ospreay’s American branch of United Empire — the same month Ospreay beat Kenny Omega for the AEW World Championship. That puts Andrade in position to eventually cash in his title shot against his own stablemate, a scenario that could test exactly how unified the U.S. side of the group really is. There’s also lingering heat between Newman and Mike Bailey, since Newman has said publicly that he wasn’t consulted before Bailey was brought into United Empire when Ospreay launched the faction in AEW.

None of these other pairings are official, but Wrestle Kingdom 21 now gives NJPW a concrete flashpoint for the larger story. If Ospreay and Newman’s one-on-one match delivers the kind of emotional payoff their Power Struggle brawl promised, it wouldn’t be surprising to see NJPW and AEW lean further into a United Empire split — one that could eventually spill across both companies’ rosters well beyond the Tokyo Dome in January.