NJPW holds one of its tentpole events today in Ryogoku at Sumo Hall with King of Pro Wrestling.
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. puts his title on the line in the main event against G1 Climax 35 winner Konosuke Takeshita. The winner will likely end up defending the title at Wrestle Kingdom 20 in Tokyo Dome come January 4, 2026.
Five more title matches are on tap for the show today.
IWGP Global Champion Gabe Kidd defends against Yota Tsuji in the co-main event. These two have met 23 times in their career in singles bouts dating back to their days as Young Lions. Tsuji holds an 11-10 lead, with two draws between them.
The Knockout Brothers OSKAR and Yuto-Ice defend the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino. Boltin Oleg defends the NEVER Openweight title against EVIL in another championship encounter.
El Phantasmo defends the NJPW World TV title against Hiroshi Tanahashi, plus Sareee puts the IWGP Women’s Championship up in today’s opener against Syuri.
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NJPW holds one of its tentpole events today in Ryogoku at Sumo Hall with King of Pro Wrestling.
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. puts his title on the line in the main event against G1 Climax 35 winner Konosuke Takeshita. The winner will likely end up defending the title at Wrestle Kingdom 20 in Tokyo Dome come January 4, 2026.
Five more title matches are on tap for the show today.
IWGP Global Champion Gabe Kidd defends against Yota Tsuji in the co-main event. These two have met 23 times in their career in singles bouts dating back to their days as Young Lions. Tsuji holds an 11-10 lead, with two draws between them.
The Knockout Brothers OSKAR and Yuto-Ice defend the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino. Boltin Oleg defends the NEVER Openweight title against EVIL in another championship encounter.
El Phantasmo defends the NJPW World TV title against Hiroshi Tanahashi, plus Sareee puts the IWGP Women’s Championship up in today’s opener against Syuri.
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Quick results —
- Syuri defeated Saree for the IWGP Women’s Championship – Title Change
- War Dogs defeated Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, & Titan
- Drilla Moloney defeated Sanada
- Bishamon & Yoh defeated TMDK
- El Phantasmo versus Hiroshi Tanahashi for the NJPW World Television Championship – Time Limit Draw
- Evil defeated Oleg Boltin for the NEVER Openweight Championship – Title Change
- Knockout Brothers defeated Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
- Yota Tsuji defeated Gabe Kidd for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship – Title Change
- Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Junior for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship – Title Change
Main Card
Syuri defeated Sareee (c) for the IWGP Women’s Championship
(The exact brutal offense one would expect from joshi wrestling with some nasty, nasty headbutts. Close near calls with Sareee, but undoubtedly a big moment for the championship and Stardom. Perfect choice to rile up the crowd and start the show. History was made here, as Syuri became the first two-time winner of the IWGP Women’s Championship.)
Syuri held control in the beginning lock-ups, one of which resulted in a rope break. Sareee broke out, pulling Syuri’s hair as she pushed her back. Sareee invited some kicks, to which she responded to Syuri with a dropkick. A strike exchange grew vicious as both women drilled in some stiff forearms. Syuri’s body slumped meekly between the bottom two ropes following a dropkick by the champion.
The clash of skull-on-skull echoed through Ryogoku Kokugikan as Syuri headbutted Sareee. Sareee quelled a series of kicks from the challenger, countering it into a Dragon Screw Legwhip to momentarily regain control. Locking Sareee’s arm deep, Syuri flung her opponent in a suplex and transitioned it into a near armbar. She followed with a DDT from the ropes.
Sareee’s double-stomp from the heavens punctured the air from Syuri’s lungs, but that and a series of suplexes couldn’t put away the challenger. The challenger caught her opponent full-momentum into a Uranage. Fully in her comeback phase, Syuri finished Sareee off with a Buzzsaw Roundhouse Kick, a headbutt to the back of the head, and a Syu-sekai to become the new IWGP Women’s Champion.
War Dogs (Clark Connors, David Finlay & Taiji Ishimori) defeated Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Titan
(I’m a sucker for those chaotic trios and multi-man tags when everyone goes all-out with finishers. That Overkill on Titan was particularly nice.)
Takagi wrangled Finlay by his hair, flinging him around and tossing him overhead. Connors made the tag and shoulder-tackled the Dragon with a Finlay assist. Takahashi spropelled Connors to the corner, hoping to run a train on him alongside Titan and Takagi, but Finlay and Ishimori dashed those attempts with a ringside brawl. Takahashi used Connors and Ishimori’s momentum against each other, sending one into the other. Titan briefly got stuck on the ropes, but dropkicked Ishimori. He sent him to Takagi who then blasted Ishimori and Finlay to the barricade outside.
Ishimori swung a comeback with a back handspring to Titan. Northern Irish Curse by Finlay haunted both Takahashi and Titan. Everyone took turns unleashing their finishers, punctuated by Takagi’s Pumping Bomber that even incapacitated himself. Another sequence of finishers and signature moves, this time ending in an Overkill courtesy of a jubilant Finlay. Titan ate the pinfall, giving the War Dogs a victory they could chew on.
Drilla Moloney defeated Sanada in a No Disqualification No Count-Out Match
(A plunder match to satisfy bloodthirsty fans, this personal yet comedic feud culminated in a fun and cruel bit of action with a great payoff.)
Sanada came out dressed as a human disco ball. The arena went dark, and the real Sanada, adorened with his cartoonish speakers protruding from his shoulders.
Moloney sent Sanada outside as the bell rang. Sanada attempted to subdue him with a fork, but unfotunately for him it wound up in the hands of the War Dog who penetrated his head with its three prongs. Unsatisfied, Moloney drove a steel chair on the trickling crimson that was Sanada’s forehead. Moloney instructed the Tokyo crowd to part from their seats as he left the seats asunder in a heap of rubble. Grabbing two unforgiving wooden folding tables, Moloney set them side-by-side. Sanada tried to escape, eating a flying chair to the face for his efforts.
Seemingly walking away pathetically, Sanada baited Moloney to charge like a bull full-speed so he could flip the War Dog onto the tables. Sanada himself crashed the War Dog through one of those tables. A low-blow kick from Sanada left Moloney in excruciating pain, but he persevered as he picked at Sanada at ringside and sent him back in the squared circle. Luring Moleney with a cat-and-mouse chase, Sanada struck him with his infamous acoustic guitar and pierced Moloney’s skin with his fork. Spitting defiantly in Sanada’s face, Moloney suffered more fork-inflicted damage like he was a piece of rare steak.
Adrenaline pumped through Moloney’s veins as he drove down Sanada, who in the rampage involved the referee, leading to the official’s incapacitation. Dick Togo and Yoshinobu Kanemaru assisted Sanada. Connors charged in, laying out the House of Torture members and grabbed a tire, which naturally came from under the ring, to cause further damage. Moloney waited with bated breath to blast Sanada’s skull with a guitar shot. He then followed up with a Drilla Killa on Sanada to finish the match.
Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi) & Yoh defeated TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa)
(Not only a feel-good moment for the returning Goto, but a charming match sprinkled in with Street Fighter references. With Goto starring in the upcoming film based on the game of the same name, I hope they go all in with references and cross-promotion.)
Goto eagerly greeted Oiwa, as they collided, the latter gaining advantage of the exchange. Yoshi-Hashi aided him in toppling both Oiwa and an impending Jackson. Oiwa tagged in Jackson after a dropkick to Yoshi-Hahsi. The stocky Aussie easily crushed Yoshi-Hashi and made a cheeky pose in reference to the Street Fighter character, Zangief.
Following a failed tag from Fujita, Yoh laid TMDK flat, save for Jackson. Fujita finally got offense in, resulting in a flying kick. Jackson and Oiwa devastated Goto with Sentons. Yoshi-Hashi came to his rescue, chopping them down with forearms. Bishamon then united to drop the giant with a Shoto. Goto led a revolution, ending Jackson with a GTR for the pinfall.
NJPW New Beginning USA Announcement
A short vignette revealed that NJPW would return to the United States in New Jersey at the Cure Insurance Arena on February 27, 2026.
El Phantasmo (c) versus Hiroshi Tanahashi for the NJPW World Television Championship ended in a Time-Limit Draw
(As though repaying Phantasmo’s loyalty, he remains strong as does Tanahashi ahead of January’s Wrestle Kingdom. The movement was a bit slow and clunky, but the story beats landed their notes.)
Champion and challenger grappled with holds, leading to a stalemate. Flying Crossbody by Tanahashi rocked Phantasmo, so naturally he played the electric guitar. Phantasmo asked for him to pass the torch and hand him the fictional guitar, but the Ace tossed it somewhere in the crowd. Moonsault by Phantasmo halted Tanahashi briefly, but a kick on the top rope left the NJPW President hunched over.
Draping Tanahashi’s corpse on the top rope, Phantasmo postured to the crowd as his shoe pushed on the sensitive region of his opponent’s pelvis. Cannonballing himself from the ring apron, Tanahashi struck Phantasmo like a bowling ball. Leaving Tanahashi prone near the crowd chairs outside the barricade, Phantasmo plunged to its depths, inevitably leapong to no one as he lied on the cold hard ground. He narrowly broke the 20-count.
Phantasmo frantically eluded submission to Tanahashi’s Texas Cloverleaf. Weakened, Phantasmo survived a Slingblade to abduct him in a UFO. Tanahashi clenched full grip on the top rope, ruining Phantasmo’s hurricanrana attempt. Dropping a High Fly Flow and attempting another one, the Ace’s hopes were dashed by Phantasmo’s prepared yet tender knees. Roll-ups and Backslides resulted in Phantasmo’s Canadian Revolution and Thunderkiss ’86, as the sands of time were nearly running thin. The match ended in a time-limit draw, leaving Phantasmo as the champion, still.
Evil defeated Oleg Boltin (c) for the NEVER Openweight Championship
(All good things must come to an end, I suppose. In true House of Torture fashion, the match was kind of enjoyable before the typical shenanigans.)
Boltin greeted Evil mid-entrance with forearms and punches. Evil lured him outside where he pinned him against the barricade, knocking over a table of Japanese commenters. Grounding the Kazakhstan native to the ground, Evil shoved a microphone in his face and demanded he cede the match and his title. He left the champion at ringside and distracted the referee. Don Fale, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, and Dick Togo of the House of Torture picked at him like a committee of vultures.
Raking Boltin’s eyes, Evil persisted in successive pin attempts before being bounced off by Boltin’s sheer strength. The champion swayed a comeback with a Boltin Shake to disorientate his nefarious challenger. Togo and Kanemaru aimed a powder throw and whiskey mist, to which Boltin escaped for both intruders to suffer accidentally instead. The champion proceeded to dismantle the intercepting foes, demanding the Young Lions forcibly escort them to the back after. Evil unsheathed a stiff lariat, capitalizing with a Darkness Scorpion to weaken the leg of Boltin.
The ever-resilient Boltin recovered with a powerbomb. Preparing the challenger over his shoulder for another devastating move, Boltin’s attention shifted to an interjecting wrench-wielding Sho. A weak Kamikaze to Evil left Boltin unsatisfied. As he tried for another, Douki struck his leg with a pipe from behind. Evil took that opportunity with an Everything is Evil to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.
Post-match: Plucking at the remains of the now former champion, the celebratory House of Torture were interrupted by Aaron Wolf.
Knockout Brothers (Oskar & Yuto-Ice) (c) defeated Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
(Throughout the Road To shows to tonight’s King of Pro Wrestling proceedings, this rivalry was intense. Knockout Brothers are the hot new team taking over the NJPW heavyweight roster and they’re enjoying every bit of their success. It’s clear they’re having a bit of fun, too. Uemura’s character has developed interestingly, showing wrinkles to contrast the normally clean cloth of altruism and hope.)
Uemura and Umino took on Yuto-Ice and Oskar, respectively. Umino took his eyes off of Oskar outside in a failed attempt to aid Uemura. Yuto-Ice kicks and Bomboclat Knee crushed Uemura against the corner. Uemura dove from the top rope, caught by Oskar for a slam. Coming in with a hot tag, Umino dropkicked Yuto-Ice out of the equation. Oskar slammed Umino around, even landing an elbow drop on him.
Uemura held Yuto-Ice’s arm in a Fujiwara Armbar tenderized the champion, yet he thwarted it with a rope break. Umino and Uemura ducked a double-lariat from Oskar, with both dropping the giant German in a combined DDT. Oskar again attempted entry, and once again he was toppled, this time by a double dropkick. Uemura tore off the tape covering Yuto-Ice’s elbow as the Tokyo crowd booed at his sudden unsportsmanship. Stubbornly tormenting Yuto-Ice’s arm, Uemura refused the champion’s leg-biting. Uemura battered Yuto-Ice into semi-unconsciousness when Oskar rent him dazed with a Sleeper Hold. Hurricanrana via Uemura and a straight arm. Knockout Brothers retained their gold by destroying Uemura with a K.O.B.
Yota Tsuji defeated Gabe Kidd (c) for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship
(Delightfully brutal without a drop of blood. There’s been sensational chemistry between Tsuji and Kidd; even at their best and worst recent matches show they have a compelling story.)
The pair locked up to a standstill. Tsuji gained the upper hand in a second lock-up exchange, grounding Kidd with a headlock. Kidd yelled a profanity as he dropkicked his challenger. Kidd hurled Tsuji into the barricade. Dragging his opponent back to the ring, Kidd propped Tsuji on the top rope, dangling, slapping him into a flipped powerbomb. Tsuji leapt to a comeback, propelling Kidd into the blue steel guardrail via a tope suicida.
Tsuji lowered his intensity, sensing Kidd has sustained enough damage. Fueled by anger and adrenaline, Kidd fired back with a lariat despite Tsuji’s best efforts to keep him down. Adding weight and pressure to his Boston Crab, Kidd dragged Tsuji to the lion crested ensignia in the ring’s center. Unable to drag him back again, he dropped his full weight to no avail.
Kidd may have stalled it momentarily, but Tsuji tortured him with a Quebradora con Giro. Canadian Destroyer from Tsuji quickly usurped another comeback attempt from the champion. A mad exchange of offense ended in Kidd’s lariat and powerbomb countering Tsuji’s own lariat. Tsuji hit Kidd with a Gene Blaster, prepping him for the Guerrero Special from the top rope. Kidd rebutted another Gene Blaster with a piledriver. A headbutt exchange left them down for a 5-count, and they returned with a fire for a chop exchange. Tsuji received a 1-count pin following a Gene Blaster. He released another one and sank in a Boston Crab. Even as Kidd crawled meekly to the rope, Tsuji increased tremendous pressure, soon tapping out the profane British wrestler. Yota Tsuji is the new IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.
Post-match: Kidd and Tsuji bowed in a show of respect and shook hands. The War Dogs joined Kidd. Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, Daiki Nagai, and Titan did the same for Tsuji. Everyone shook hands.
Wrestle Kingdom 20 Match Announcement
Chris Charlton on commentary broke the news that Young Lion and Olympic Gold Medalist Aaron Wolf would face the new NEVER Openweight Champion and House of Torture leader Evil at Wrestle Kingdom 20 in the Tokyo Dome on January 4, 2026.
Main Event
Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Jr (c) for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship
(Insane match. Unreal. My hands are still shaking as I type this and I have goosebumps. Sabre doesn’t get enough credit for his title defenses on both of his reigns, but especially this one. Takeshita, however, is in a rare class where he can excel in both NJPW and AEW as Kenny Omega and Will Ospreay have done before. Takeshita’s run in NJPW this year is exactly how a wrestler should be positioned.)
In a mad rush of energy, the competitors reached a standoff. Echoing their G1 Climax bout, Sabre swiftly gained hold of his challenger, and just the same, Takeshita remained stoic and calm throughout Sabre’s control. Soon, Takeshita broke this, overwhelming and hurtling himself into the champion. Sabre worked Takeshita’s arm, particularly in his stomping of it, even the fingers.
Takeshita reached a comeback hurling Sabre in an Exploder Suplex. He continued his offense with a tope suicida. Sabre stomped on Takeshita’s bent right arm, specifically the bicep, knowing it’s where Takeshita’s strongest elbow strikes resided. Sabre transitioned Takeshita’s Blue Thunderbomb into an arm hold. The challenger slowly regained momentum, culminating in a resounding lariat that echoed shock among the Tokyo crowd. Takeshita flung Sabre in a German suplex that ravaged the Brit. His Hitodenashi Driver was met in response to a Zack Driver. Another elbow exchange saw Sabre brazenly challenge Takeshita who obliged with a ruinous strike.
Sabre trapped Takeshita’s arms, torturing the shoulders as Rocky Romero urged Takeshita to survive and escape. Wearily, Takeshita staggered about as he bore the brunt of successive Penalty Kicks in steady rhythm. The Last Ride and a Powerdrive laid waste to the champion, but couldn’t secure the win. Takeshita wrested Sabre’s Tornado-DDT with a Raging Fire. Zack Driver almost spelled doom for the G1 Climax winner, but failed to deliver a pinfall. Despite all the lingering pains in his right arm, Takeshita gritted through blood-soaked teeth to ransack Sabre with an elbow. One Powerdrive Knee impelled Sabre flat, but an exposed Powerdrive Knee sealed the deal. A hard-fought victory left Takeshita the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
Post-match: Hirooki Goto challenged Konosuke Takeshita
Final Thoughts
I’m still giddy over that main event. The build to Takeshita versus Sabre had been a well-built one, engrained in the finest little details, down to the body language. 2026 is in for quite the year for the Alpha of the Don Callis Family. As for the War Dogs and Unaffiliated’s handshakes, I’m curious as to the follow-up from that. Either an alliance or a merger or simply a show of respect, it’s worth keeping an eye on. Drilla Moloney giving Sanada his due comeuppance was particularly satisfying. And Syuri’s victory over Saree was the perfect foil to this main event, as both matches set the stage, the mood, and the tone for King of Pro Wrestling.
Every match is worth your time, even unfortunately the NEVER Openweight Championship, based on title lineage and story progression. The puzzling booking choices were very minimal in this event, standing toe-to-toe with WWE and AEW events, even NJPW’s own big events. While Gedo stresses the American fanbase out, there are nights like these where he and the wrestlers come together to deliver something special.
