Tag: Iwgp Tag Team Championship

NJPW Destruction in Kobe notes: New champions crowned, NOAH, King of Pro Wrestling

Posted on by Bryan Rose

News and notes stemming from Sunday morning’s NJPW Destruction in Kobe.

New IWGP Tag Team Champions were crowned at Destruction, with The Knockout Brothers (Yuto-Ice & OSKAR) defeating Tomohiro Ishii and Taichi to win the titles for the first time. They pinned Ishii after they hit their finish, the KOB. After the match, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura came out and confronted the new champions, setting up a potential title match down the road.

Other matches were also set up during the show. After Boltin Oleg defeated Don Fale to retain the NEVER Openweight title, EVIL attacked him and made his claim for the title by laying out Oleg with the Everything is Evil. After the opening bout, DOUKI made it clear he wanted the next shot at Desperado’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. The two had a match earlier this year at Wrestle Kingdom, but it ended early after DOUKI suffered an elbow injury early into the match.

In the co-main event, Gabe Kidd defeated Shingo Takagi to retain the IWGP Global Championship. After the match, Yota Tsuji, who was successful against David Finlay in the previous match, came out and challenged Kidd for the title at King of Pro Wrestling on October 13.

Pro Wrestling NOAH stars also appeared to promote the group’s upcoming Wrestle Odyssey event on October 11 at Sumo Hall. After Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Great-O-Khan, Kaito Kiyomiya came out and asked to team with him at the upcoming show, which Tanahashi accepted. Later in the night, NOAH’s Eita superkicked Hiromu Takahashi after he successfully retained the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori. The two are planned to square off for the title at Sumo Hall.

The main event saw Zack Sabre Jr. successfully defend the title against House of Torture’s Ren Narita. Despite the usual interference from the group, Sabre pinned Narita with the Zack Driver for the win. That makes his upcoming title match against Konosuke Takeshita official for King of Pro Wrestling.

Double Tag Team title match added to NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18

Posted on by Ethan Renner

A double Tag Team title match has been added to the lineup for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18. 

IWGP Tag Team Champions and World Tag League 2023 winners Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI will face Tag League runners-up and NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo at Wrestle Kingdom. The company made the official announcement at a Monday press conference. 

Hikuleo & ELP own a victory over Goto & YH after defeating them in the block portion of the Tag League, before dropping the tournament final to them on Sunday.

Wrestle Kingdom 18 takes place Thursday, January 4 at the Tokyo Dome and streams live on NJPW World beginning at 2:30 a.m. Eastern time. The card for the show: 

  • IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA defends against Tetsuya Naito
  • Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson
  • Inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship match: Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley vs. David Finlay
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi defends against El Desperado
  • IWGP Tag Team Champions Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo for both titles
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney defend against TJP & Francesco Akira
  • NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr. defends against Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi defends against Tama Tonga

Aussie Open forced to vacate IWGP Tag & NJPW Strong Tag titles

Posted on by Ethan Renner

Aussie Open have been forced to relinquish their IWGP Tag Team and NJPW Strong Openweight Tag Team titles due to an injury to Mark Davis. 

Kyle Fletcher appeared at Sunday’s Resurgence event in Long Beach, California and revealed that his tag partner Davis had suffered an injury that has forced the duo to vacate both sets of their Tag Team titles. 

New Champions will be crowned at NJPW Dominion on June 4 in Osaka. A previously scheduled three-way tag team bout between Aussie Open, House of Torture, and Bishamon will now be House of Torture (EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) in a tag bout for both the IWGP Tag and NJPW Strong Tag titles. 

Aussie Open had held the IWGP Tag titles since defeating Goto and YOSHI-HASHI for the belts at Sakura Genesis on April 8. They then defeated Motor City Machine Guns a week later at Capital Collision in Washington D.C. to capture the Strong titles. 

New champions crowned at NJPW Wrestling Dontaku

Posted on by Ian Carey

Several titles changed hands at Wrestling Dontaku on Wednesday. 

The show took place from the Fukuoka Convention Center and was headlined by SANADA defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi. 

Hikuleo won the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the first title match of the night, defeating Bullet Club’s KENTA. The finish of the match saw KENTA hit a low blow followed by a Busaiku knee but Hikuleo countered a second knee attempt into a powerslam and then followed that up with a chokeslam for the win. 

In the second title match of the night, NJPW TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Jeff Cobb went to a 15-minute time-limit draw. ZSJ retains as a result. Chris Charlton mentioned on commentary that ZSJ will not be happy with this result and his program with Cobb will likely continue. 

New NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions were crowned at Wrestling Dontaku. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita. The finish saw Okada pin Narita after a Rainmaker. After the match, the new champions were confronted by Shota Umino, who revealed that his former mentor, Jon Moxley, will return to Japan next month. It was teased on commentary that Mox, Umino, and a partner could challenge for the titles at Dominion on June 4. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2023 also marked the 10-year anniversary of Bullet Club. At Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Karl Anderson turned on Hiroshi Tanahashi and aligned with Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga, and Bad Luck Fale to form the faction. On today’s show, the group’s new leader David Finlay defeated Tonga for the NEVER Openweight Championship. 

After hitting a powerbomb on the ring apron and tossing Tonga into the post on the outside, Finlay had a clear advantage. He hit several power bombs on Tonga in the ring but refused to pin him in an attempt to get Jado to throw in the towel. After hitting his finisher a third time he finally pinned his opponent and won the title. Tonga had to be taken to the back on a stretcher. 

After the match, Finlay was attacked by El Phantasmo, who was recently thrown out of Bullet Club at Sakura Genesis. Phantasmo tossed Gedo out of the ring and then delivered a superkick to the new champion. Finlay tried to escape by Phantasmo dove out of the ring on top of him and continued his attack. He was eventually pulled off of Finlay by the young lions at ringside. 

In the night’s main event, SANADA successfully retained his title against Hiromu Takahashi. The finish of the match saw SANADA hit a shining wizard after several near falls and follow it up with his Deadfall DDT for the win. 

After SANADA made his post-match comments, a video similar to the ones that have been airing all tour was played. Yota Tsuji then returned to NJPW and attacked SANADA and the rest of the Just Five Guys stable. Tsuji held up the IWGP title over SANADA as the show came to a close. 

Elsewhere on the card, Aussie Open reclaimed their IWGP Tag Team title belts that had been physically stolen earlier on the tour by House of Torture’s EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi. They then challenged Bishamon and EVIL & Takahashi to a triple-threat match for the titles. 

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku on 5/3 results:

  • CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)
  • United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste)
  • Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) & Shota Umino defeated United Empire (Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP)
  • Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)
  • NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Hikuleo defeated KENTA (c)
  • NJPW World Television Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb (Time Limit Draw)
  • NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita) (c)
  • NEVER Openweight Championship: David Finlay defeated Tama Tonga (c)

  • IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA (c) defeated Hiromu Takahashi