It was announced on Thursday that the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship would be a triple threat match at the G1 Supercard at Madison Square Garden in New York City on Saturday, April 6 over WrestleMania weekend, on the Supercard produced by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) and Ring of Honor (ROH). Initially, it was expected to be a singles match between IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori of Bullet Club against CMLL’s Dragon Lee, after the Mexican star challenged Ishimori on Wednesday at the NJPW 47th Anniversary Show. But on Thursday, Ring of Honor made the official announcement that another luchador would be joining the fray, in new ROH star Bandido.
BREAKING: @LuchadorBandido will compete in a three-way match against @taiji_ishimori and @dragonlee95 for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at #G1Supercard @TheGarden!! #ROH vs #NJPW vs #CMLL
Sat Apr 6 – 730 ET – LIVE on PPV & FREE for #HonorClub! @njpwglobal pic.twitter.com/5KNFfGerfK
— ROH – Ring of Honor Wrestling (@ringofhonor) March 7, 2019
Taiji Ishimori is a former 3x GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion in Pro Wrestling NOAH, who surprised many when he jumped to NJPW last year to join Bullet Club as their new Bone Soldier. He continued his New Japan success, first pairing with Aussie indie star Robbie Eagles in Bullet Club’s Junior Heavyweight Tag Team representatives, before defeating KUSHIDA for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title this past January at Wrestle Kingdom 13. So far he’s successfully defended the title on two occasions, against Ryusuke Taguchi at New Beginning in Osaka in February, and then against legend Jushin Thunder Liger on Wednesday at the 47th Anniversary Show.
So far it’s only the third confirmed match for the G1 Supercard, as IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White (also of Bullet Club) will defend his title against the winner of the ongoing New Japan Cup, while another set of Bullet Club champions, the IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) will face ROH World Tag Team Champions The Briscoes (Jay & Mark Briscoe) in a title-for-title match.
