Dragon Gate Superstar Madoka Kikuta Threatens AJPW After Being Announced For Champion Carnival 2026

By: Lewis Carlan

On Feb. 15th, AJPW revealed all of the sixteen competitors who will be participating in the prestigious Champion Carnival 2026 tournament.

One of the names announced was Dragon Gate superstar and current Open The Dream Gate Champion Madoka Kikuta. Kikuta competed in last years Champion Carnival tournament and finished with eight points. This time he will be participating in the tournament as the top champion in Dragon Gate and will be looking to improve upon his eight point total from last year.

After he was announced for Champion Carnival 2026, Kikuta took to X and released a short threatening sentence aimed at AJPW.

From Madoka Kikuta:

“Let’s destroy All Japan Pro-Wrestling.” (Translated via Google Translate)

Kikuta has had numerous matches within AJPW in 2025. On June 18th 2025, he teamed with KAI as they unsuccessfully challenged Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi for the AJPW World Tag Team Championship.

Kikuta has had issues in the past with AJPW superstar Yuma Anzai and it will be interesting to see if their animosity towards each other carries over into the upcoming Champion Carnival 2026.

As the winner of the Champion Carnival will earn the right to challenge for the AJPW Triple Crown Title, the prospect of becoming a double champion for two organizations could very well motivate Kikuta to do what he needs to do and win the the 2026 version of the annual AJPW Champion Carnival tournament.

On the flip side, you can bet there are AJPW stars including Anzai as well as Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Cyrus etc. would love to score a pinfall win over Kikuta which would give them the right to campaign for an Open the Dream Gate Championship title shot.

While Open The Dream Gate Champion Kikuta has stated that he will destroy AJPW, you can bet the likes of Kento Miyahara, Jun Saito, Rei Saito & Go Shiozaki to name a few, aren’t about to let that happen.