NJPW crowns the winners of the 2025 World Tag League tournament today in Kumamoto.
Yota Tsuji and Gabe Kidd face TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. and Ryohei Oiwa in today’s finals, with the winners in line for a shot at the IWGP Tag Team Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 20 next month. OSKAR and Yuto-Ice currently hold those titles.
The NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship is on the line in today’s semi-main event, with Toru Yano, YOH, and Master Wato defending their belts against EVIL, SANADA, and Ren Narita.
The other title match on the show is in the opener, with NJPW World TV Champion El Phantasmo defending in an open challenge against a mystery opponent.
A series of tag team bouts fill out today’s undercard, with angles setting up the Road to Tokyo Dome tour likely to take place on today’s show. Road to Tokyo Dome shows take place on December 19, 21, and 22, the final stops before Wrestle Kingdom 20 on January 4, 2026.
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Main Show
El Phantasmo defeated Hartly Jackson for the NJPW World Television Championship
Phantasmo struggled to attain any momentum against the girthy Jackson. The thick Aussie dragged his Canadian opponent onto the entrance, but the champion rebounded by catapulting him into the barricade. Jackson recovered with a Jagged Edge onto the hard floor.
Hoping to leverage his larger opponent for a vertical suplex, Phantasmo instead gasped for breath after being flipped onto the unforgiving cerulean mat. A Flying Crossbody and a Moonsault teetered Phantasmo closer to control, punctuated by a bottom rope elbow drop.
Jackson charged into Phantasmo’s corner, only to meet a Tornado-DDT that staggered the giant to the mat. A senton from the gargantuan challenger faded into the champion’s crucifix pin for a nearfall. Another Jagged Edge failed to seal the deal. With a CR2 and a Thunderkiss ’86, Phantasmo defeated Jackson to retain the Television Championship.
(Neat sprint to start the show. Ultimately, a friendly David vs Goliath bout with some close calls.)
Monster Sauce (Alex Zayne & Lance Archer), Team 100 (Satoshi Kojima & Taichi), & Masatora Yasuda defeated Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI), Katsuya Murashima, Oleg Boltin, & Tatsuya Matsumoto
Young Lions Murashima and Yasuda began the match, seeing the former overbear the latter with tenacious strength. Zayne tagged in, biting Murashima’s fingers. Goto momentarily gave young Murashima a moment of respite, but Taichi inflicted further pain. Goto and YOSHI-HASHI coordinated to fell Archer onto Taichi’s carcass.
Joined by Boltin and Matsumoto, Bishamon delivered a flurry of fists on Kojima’s back. Boltin impressed the Kumamoto crowd by twisting Archer around in a Boltin Shake. Kojima unleashed a torrent of chest shots to tenderize the Kazakh powerhouse. Matsumoto, Murashima, and Bishamon united against Kojima. Boltin, Bishamon, Matsumoto, and Murashima dogpiled Kojima. This was broken by Archer slamming Zayne onto the mountain of bodies.
Kojima survived Matsumoto’s elbow drop and dropkick to whip out a lariat to finish the ten-man tag.
(This match set up Matsumoto nicely as someone to keep an eye on in the Young Lions’ division. Kojima suffering during the dogpile spot was hilarious.)
House Of Torture (Don Fale, SHO, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated El Desperado, Shoma Kato, & Shuji Ishikawa
SHO denigrated Kumamoto and his opponents to lull them into a false sense of security for an ambush. Ishikawa handled Fale enough to ensure a stalemate. Desperado sped onto the scene, dancing in and out of SHO’s wrist holds. Kanemaru exposed a turnbuckle and held Kato down as SHO dismembered Desperado.
Kato surprised Kanemaru with a headscissors takedown following Desperado’s vertical suplex. Kato pulled full throttle on a Boston Crab to SHO’s prone body. Fale slammed Kato, offering him up for SHO to successfully pin.
(Aside from the occasional interferences from Fale and Kanemaru, this was a fine trios match.)
War Dragons (Drilla Moloney & Shingo Takagi) & Taiji Ishimori defeated House Of Torture (Chase Owens, DOUKI, & Yujiro Takahashi)
Ishimori and DOUKI circled each other, the latter clearly alerting the former to House of Torture’s looming dirty tactics. Though DOUKI gained control of Ishimori, he couldn’t evade the quick wit of the Bone Soldier. Owens brawled with Takagi into the crowd. He joined Takahashi, who incapacitated Moloney, to assist DOUKI’s torture of Ishimori.
Moloney speared and vertically suplexed Owens. Takagi joined Moloney to break Owens. He then used his power to withstand Owens. Moloney and Takagi combined their efforts to punish Owens with a War Dragon to finish the bout.
(This match largely focused on the Junior Heavyweight rivalry between Ishimori and DOUKI more than anything. However, this continued to expand on the month-plus build of the War Dogs working in tandem with the former Los Ingobrenable de Japon.)
Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shota Umino, & Yuya Uemura defeated Knockout Brothers (OSKAR & Yuto-Ice) & Daiki Nagai
Umino handled Yuto-Ice and OSKAR before ultimately being slammed down by the towering latter. Yuto-Ice punched Uminio in the gut as OSKAR held his arms back. The Knockout Brothers continued their nonexistent faith in Nagai, refusing to tag him in. They teased him, tagging him in just to tag him back out; Umino took advantage of this by charging both men.
Uemura sprinted in, slamming into the brick wall that was Yuto-Ice, who had elbows waiting for him. An arm drag lent Uemura some momentum for his team, wrecking Yuto-Ice. The Ace finally tagged in, swinging a comeback for his team with a series of moves, concluding with a senton.
With his oppressive teammates disposed of, Nagai tagged in, suplexing Tanahashi. Proceeding with a Spinebuster, Nagai earned enough time for Yuto-Ice and then OSKAR to halt the trajectory of the opposing team. Uemura, Uminio, and Tanahashi equalized their opponents. Nagai’s spirit burned with passion, but Tanahashi extinguished it with a Sling Blade and a High-Fly Flow.
(Nagai’s bitterness toward his new teammates drove the match in an interesting direction, which can lead to an exciting shift once Knockout Brothers take note of his contributions. That was the real meat to this match, that and Tanahashi’s impending retirement.)
David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi versus United Empire (Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan) ended in disqualification
Before the match could start, Takahashi and Finlay ambushed United Empire en route to the ring. Khan recovered in time to propel Finlay into the steel blue barricade. Newman did the same to Takahashi. Hurling Finlay into rows of chairs, Khan’s actions were replicated by Takahashi to Newman. Fans parted from their seats as Finlay drove Khan near a wall. Newman usurped Takahashi, battering him against the ring apron and the barricade.
At last in the ring, Newman rained elbows into Takahashi’s jaw. Dispatching Takahashi and Finlay, Newman tagged in Khan. Takahashi tried to give chase, but Khan sent him down with strikes that echoed Newman’s earlier ones. Withstanding a Mongolian Chop, Takahashi used Khan’s momentum for a roll-up pin that failed. Finlay leapt into action, clobbering Khan in the corner with forearm strikes. Finlay’s powerbomb bolstered the damage sustained by Khan. Newman tossed a steel chair at Finlay’s skull, disqualifying him and Khan.
Post-match: Newman then assaulted Takahashi with his own GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Continuing his berserk siege, Newman took Gedo’s body (unconscious thanks to Jakob Austin Young) and placed his head in a steel chair. Finlay chased him off as the crowd booed him away. They left Young to be picked apart by the War Dogs and Shingo Takagi. Finlay delivered an impassioned speech about remembering who he is. He challenged the United Empire to a match at Wrestle Kingdom 20.
Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH (c) defeated House Of Torture (EVIL, Ren Narita & SANADA) for the NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Championship
Unsurprisingly, House of Torture waylaid the champions from behind on the way to the ring. When the match started, YOH overcame the team before twisting SANADA like a pretzel, who returned the favor. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, wearing a referee shirt, allowed SANADA to pin YOH and called for the bell.
SHO issued a challenge for the House of Torture and the now-former champions at Wrestle Kingdom to settle the rivalry once and for all. YOH instead demanded they return to the ring. Referee Marty Asami and Aaron Wolfe corralled the House of Torture back to the ringside. SANADA and Narita continued clobbering SHO in the ring. The stable resumed beating down on Yano and Wato. When Wolfe tried to pull them off, he was sent away.
The match resumed, as Yano was sent into an exposed turnbuckle by SANADA. EVIL suffocated Yano with a choker. Asami prevented Wato and YOH from rescuing him. Yano briefly flashed some fighting spirit, but Narita grounded him again with a nasty leg hold. Wato swung a comeback with tijeras takedowns on all three House of Torture opponents, punctuated with a tope con hilo. EVIL tripped Wato before he could take advantage of Narita’s weakened state. House of Torture used a Dick-to-Dick Contact on Wato. Mirroring the start of the match, YOH tied up SANADA in the Paradise Lock before hitting him with a dropkick. SANADA snuck in a low blow. Distracting Asami with a teased guitar shot, SHO choked YOH. Narita took his turn to distract Asami with a pipe. Finally swinging his guitar, SANADA missed and received karmic justice in a low blow. Wolfe returned to fire back against the House of Torture. YOH pinned SANADA to retain the championship.
(What a mess. I’m sure there could have been a better way to build heat between Wolfe and EVIL. This just felt like a waste of time that only made YOH look stronger.)
Main Event: World Tag League 2025 Final
TMDK (Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.) defeated Gabe Kidd & Yota Tsuji
Oiwa gained an early advantage with a side headlock. Tsuji fired back as he gained momentum running the ropes, eventually grounding Oiwa. Sabre entrapped Kidd, dancing around in every grapple reversal. OIwa enforced control over Kidd’s shoulder, twisting around to wear him down. Kidd powered out of Oiwa’s wrist control from a preceding arm drag, only to wind up there again. Sabre manipulated Kidd’s fingers, tying his arms behind his back.
TMDK combined their efforts to tweak Kidd’s arms. Tsuji rescued him at the expense of his own arms. Sabre bent Kidd’s left arm into uncomfortable angles in a Hammerlock. Resorting to chops, Kidd pulverized Sabre’s flesh on the chest. Sabre made it back to the ring at the 17-count following Kidd’s thrashing at the barricade. Tsuji and Kidd pelted Sabre’s chest until it was raw and pink. Oiwa barreled in with a double clothesline to his opponents. Kidd supplanted Oiwa from the top rope with an avalanche suplex. Oiwa bounced back with a Tenzan Suplex. Flatline by Tsuji set Sabre up for Kidd’s arduous chest slaps. Sabre set Oiwa up for a lariat + roll-up, which Kidd countered. Tsuji rescued Kidd from Sabre’s jackknife. Kidd and Sabre exchanged kicks, rendering both men flat.
Sabre dodged a Marlowe Crash for a Guillotine Clutch. Tsuji responded in kind with a Boston Crab. TMDK pulled their opponent’s arms back so far, forcing their opponents to watch each other. Kidd soon found the strength to launch Oiwa into Sabre. After a Marlowe Crash, Tsuji set his sights on a Gene Blaster, only for Sabre to counter with a Zack Driver. Kidd suffered after a Doctor Bomb, but fired back after a powerbomb of his own. Tsuji and Kidd nearly finished TMDK with a Kidd Blaster to Oiwa, but Sabre thwarted them. Sabre held Tsuji at bay on the apron whilst Oiwa trounced Kidd with The Grip to win the 2025 World Tag League.
(I thoroughly enjoyed this match, but it was a bit too long. That said, turning the match into a quiet singles outing in the second half between Kidd and Oiwa added to the drama. Moreover, this match gave credence to Oiwa for winning a major NJPW tournament. Here’s to many more.)
Final Thoughts
Perhaps the best match on this show is the Final itself. It had the tension, the drama, the frenetic and brutal pace to conclude the night on a high note. Especially for the feel-good moment for Ryohei Oiwa. The House of Torture trios match, I can’t say the same. The trios and ten-man tag matches were standard fare. But Hartley Jackson and El Phantasmo’s battle was entertaining.
