Jon Moxley defends the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in the man event of night two of NJPW Wrestling Dontaku.
Moxley will put the title on the line against Ren Narita in the main event of today’s show. Moxley defeated Tetsuya Naito for the belt at last month’s Windy City Riot event. The winner of this match will defend against Shota Umino on next Saturday’s Resurgence pay-per-view in California.
Three more title bouts are also set for today’s show.
Nic Nemeth will make his second IWGP Global title defense in as many days as he faces David Finlay. Nemeth defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in yesterday’s main event.
Shingo Takagi will defend the NEVER Openweight title against Gabe Kidd.
Bishamon’s Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defend the IWGP Tag Team titles against KENTA & Chase Owens.
A series of tag team matches fill out today’s undercard, including two tag bouts on the pre-show beginning at 1:20 a.m. Eastern time.
TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) defeated Tiger Mask & Shoma Kato
TMDK spent a lot of time in this match picking apart their opponents. Kato tried challenging the veteran pair but couldn’t keep up for most of the runtime. Towards the end, Kato did gain a bit of footing, but it wasn’t enough. TMDK hit Kato with the power bottom to win the match.
Francesco Akira & Great-O-Khan (United Empire) defeated DOUKI & Yuya Uemura (Just 5 Guys)
This match opened with an athletic exchange between DOUKI and Akira. Once Uemura tagged in, the pace slowed slightly, leading into a striking segment as O-Khan joined the action.
Akira and DOUKI tagged back in after a long time on the apron. Another athletic exchange followed, ending with a quick pin from Akira.
Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. (TMDK) defeated Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb (United Empire)
This was solid. I loved the rib-work here and Fujita also added quite a bit. Good stuff.
The match kicked off with UE gaining a lead over Fujita. Once ZSJ tagged in, the match began to turn around for TMDK. To keep ahead, UE turned their attention to ZSJ’s ribs, which were worked over in yesterday’s TV title match.
With ZSJ on the defensive, Fujita was forced to tag back in. This time, Fujita held his own against UE, gaining enough of an upper hand for ZSJ to recover.
When ZSJ tagged back in, he took the fight to Newman. Newman tried targeting the ribs but wasn’t able to keep ZSJ down. ZSJ hit the Zack Driver and pinned Newman for a TMDK victory.
Guerrillas Of Destiny (El Phantasmo & Hikuleo), El Desperado & Shota Umino defeated House Of Torture (EVIL, SHO, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi)
Ugh.
HoT kicked off this match with a beatdown in their typical faction. This led into extended periods of babyface isolation.
GoD were able to work together to overcome HoT’s isolation, at least for a while. This ended once HoT cleared the ring of GoD and turned their attention to Shota.
Eventually, the babyfaces managed to clear the ring of HoT. This left Shota free to focus on Yujiro. After a short offensive sequence, Shota hit Yujiro with Death Rider and won the match.
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Oleg Boltin defeated Just 5 Guys (Taichi & TAKA Michinoku)
This was fine. Oleg looked good as always.
Oleg started the match by establishing a strong lead over TAKA. Taichi stepped into the ring to challenge Oleg but also struggled to challenge Oleg. Only after being tossed around, Taichi landed a kick, opening the door for a J5G comeback.
J5G established a strong lead over Oleg that eventually set up the hot tag to Tanahashi. Tanahashi tried for all of his signature offenses but was overwhelmed by the J5G double team. TAKA secured a facelock that forced Oleg to make the save. Once Oleg hit the ring, Tanahashi was able to hit Taka with a sling blade and High Fly Flow to win the match.
After the match, Taichi and Oleg came to blows outside the ring.
Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji) defeated BULLET CLUB (Clark Connors, Taiji Ishimori, Drilla Moloney & Gedo)
This was one of the most lifeless War Dog matches I’ve seen.
The match opened with a short stint of LIJ control that ended once the War Dogs pulled Tsuji to the floor. From there, they wrestled a HoT-style match using weapons and underhanded tactics to take the lead.
Tsuji eventually secured the tag to the Hiromu, who tried turning the match around. Naito entered the match next and, with help from the rest of LIJ, gained a significant lead. Naito then hit Moloney with Destino, winning the match.
IWGP Tag Team Championship: BULLET CLUB (Chase Owens & KENTA) defeated Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) (c)
This was bad.
The BC pair started the match by rushing Goto, establishing a lead that led to an extended isolation period. Once YH tagged in, he reversed momentum momentarily, but a lariat forced a match reset around the five-minute mark.
After the reset, Owens and Goto began trading moves. A short distraction allowed Owens to hit Goto with one of the tag belts, leaving Owens back in the driver’s seat. Owens landed a ton of heavy offense but failed to put Goto away.
YH hit the ring to help Goto, but another distracted referee allowed KENTA to land a chair shot. Goto was able to recover in this time, landing a double lariat to regain the lead. A GTW to Ownes scored a nearfall.
With Owens on the back foot, KENTA distracted the referee again. This allowed Owens to hit Goto with a low blow. KENTA followed up with a running knee. Owens then pinned Goto to win the match and the belts.
Owens and KENTA are once again tag champions.
After KENTA and Owens collected their belts, GoD and TMDK came to the ring to challenge the new champions.
NEVER Openweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) defeated Gabe Kidd
This match was wild—an absolute brawl for the ages.
Kidd kicked off the match with an intense staredown in the middle of the ring. Once the bell rang, both men ran at each other in an intense opening sequence. Both men traded heavy strikes until Kidd landed a suplex, gaining the first advantage of the match.
On the outside, Kidd connected with chops, whips, and headbutts to further his lead. Kidd whipped Shingo into the barricade so hard that the feed went out. To follow up, Kidd dropped Shingo with a chair shot and a suplex on the floor, nearly ending the match with a countout.
Back in the ring, a brainbuster hit Shingo, causing him to collapse. With a downed Shingo, Kidd turned his attention to Desperado. After spitting on Desperado, Kidd ran around the ring, giving Shingo time to recover. Shingo was able answer Kidd’s control with a barrage of strikes.
Shingo’s lead was cut short after Kidd landed a big suplex for a match reset at the ten-minute mark. Shingo was able to land a suplex of his own to take the lead back.
Shingo placed Kidd on the top rope. On the top, Kidd locked in a choke that forced the referee to break it up. Kidd then hit a brainbuster for a two-count. Kidd followed up with a superplex, but Shingo powered up and hit Made in Japan.
Another strike battle took place after Kidd reversed Shingo’s attempt to finish. After trading lariats, slaps, and headbutts, Shingo took Kidd’s head off with a pumping bomber. The follow-up Made in Japan was reversed into a piledriver. Before Kidd could follow up, Shingo landed a sliding lariat, grounding both men.
Another major strike-off ended with Shingo flooring Kidd. Shingo then tried for Last of the Dragon again, but again, Kidd hit another piledriver. The follow-up headbutt knocked Kidd loopy, making him unable to pin Shingo.
When Kidd tried for another piledriver, Shingo reversed. A quick sequence ended with a pumping bomber and driver of his own for a convincing nearfall. Finally, Shingo landed Last of the Dragon to win the match and retain his belt.
IWGP Global Championship: David Finlay defeated Nic Nemeth (c)
Finlay met Nemeth on the entrance ramp, kicking this match off with a brawl. Both men traded momentum on the outside before working their way to the ring.
In the ring, Finlay utilized basic strikes to take control. He then threw Nemeth back to the floor, where he drove him into the barricade. Once Finlay returned to the ring, he maintained this lead with more simplistic offense. Nemeth eventually fired back with some strikes and typical moves of his own.
After a reset, both men rolled to the floor. Finlay followed up by darting Nemeth into the turnbuckle post. Finlay then ran a lap around the ring for a running strike of sorts, but Nemeth sidestepped him, sending him crashing into the barricades.
Back in the ring, Finlay hit Oblivion for a nearfall. Finlay was able to maintain his momentum until Nemeth landed a Famouser from out of nowhere. Finlay held on, answering with a pair of powerbombs and an overkill. Finlay then pinned Nemeth, winning the match and the Global title.
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Jon Moxley (c) defeated Ren Narita
House of Torture jumped Moxley on his way to the ring. Narita then attacked Moxley with a chair to further his opening lead. To keep Moxley behind, HoT handcuffed Shota Umino and left him on the ramp after dropping him with a chair.
In the ring, HoT beat down Moxley, but Moxley rallied, clearing the ring without help. Moxley then hit Narita with a chair and whipped him in and out of the ring.
Narita answered Moxley with a knee before beating him down with a barricade. Narita continued the assault in the ring, landing whips, knees, and suplexes to establish a lead.
Moxley cut off Narita’s lead with a curb stomp and a tope, completely reversing momentum. Moxley then set up a pair of tables. HoT tried distracting Moxley, but he responded by throwing Narita through the hardware.
Moxley continued to drop, strike, and slam Narita with ease for quite a while. Moxley locked in the sleeper, but a ref bump allowed HoT to rush the ring. El Desperado left the cometary booth to help Moxley.
Narita tried for the double cross, but Moxley avoided the finish; this led to a strike exchange where Narita held his own. Narita hit a suplex before climbing to the top rope, where Moxley met him for a superplex.
After Moxley hammered Narita with elbows and locked in a choke, the lights turned off. Once the lights returned, EVIL and Dick Togo were in the ring beating down Moxley. They hit the Magic Killer, choked him with a wire, and dropped him with the frame of a chair.
Somehow, Umino freed himself from the handcuffs and was able to make the save. After clearing the ring of HoT, Umino threw Narita to Moxley. Moxley landed a pair of Death Ridders and pinned Narita to retain the IWGP title.
