Katsuyori Shibata Has Exhibition Bout at NJPW G1 Climax Finals, Promises To Wrestle Again

The NJPW G1 Climax 31 finals happened this morning and the audience was surprised to see Katsuyori Shibata come out and wrestle an exhibition match with Zack Sabre Jr. ZSJ wasn’t booked for the night, but he came to the ring and warmed up anyway. Shibata’s music came on and he came out dressed to compete. He announced that the two of them would have a five-minute UWF rules exhibition bout.

They went back and forth with wrestling holds for five minutes, before the time limit expired as Shibata had ZSJ in an Octopus hold. The two shook hands when the match was over and Shibata said the next time will be an actual match.

Shibata hasn’t wrestled since April 2017 after he suffered a subdural hematoma. He was in an angle with KENTA back in 2019 but a match never happened.