New Japan Pro Wrestling held its biggest event since Wrestle Kingdom, returning to Jingu Stadium on Saturday for the first time in 21 years where several championships changed hands.
In the main event, Tetsuya Naito regained the Double Championship defeating EVIL after more than 26 minutes of action and lots of involvement from LIJ and The Bullet Club. After the members of each unit left the ringside area, Naito finished EVIL with Valiente and the Destino for the victory. This ends EVIL’s 48-day title reign after beating Naito for the Double Championship last month at Dominion.
In a rematch from the 2018 Best of the Super Juniors final, Taiji Ishimori defeated Hiromu Takahashi to regain the IWGP junior heavyweight title and launching his second reigns with the championship. The match focused on the injured shoulder of Takahashi, which Ishimori attacked and focused on throughout the match. Ishimori kicked out of the Time Bomb, avoided Time Bomb II, and proceeded to hit a reverse Bloody Cross and apply the LeBell/Yes Lock for the submission win.
In the NEVER Openweight Championship match, Minoru Suzuki defeated Shingo Takagi after 15 minutes with the Gotch Piledriver after pointing to the sky and pinning Takagi clean. This marks Suzuki’s second reign with the title after holding it from April 2017 until January 2018.
The other championship decided was the KOPW crown which went to Toru Yano after he hit a low blow and roll-up to pin Kazuchika Okada. The four-way match also featured El Desperado and SANADA.
Mike Murray will have a full report on the show later today, and we will have our NJPW Summer Struggle POST Show for members of the POST Wrestling Café later today with Wai Ting and I reviewing the show and the news from the card.
Here is the full list of results with the announced attendance of 4,710:
*Yoshinobu Kanemaru over Master Wato in 7:32
*Toru Yano over Kazuchika Okada, SANADA & El Desperado in 7:03 for the KOPW crown
*Minoru Suzuki over Shingo Takagi in 14:57 to win the NEVER Openweight title
*Taiji Ishimori over Hiromu Takahashi to win the IWGP junior heavyweight title in 13:31
*Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi over Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kota Ibushi to retain the IWGP tag titles in 16:00
*Tetsuya Naito over EVIL to win the Double Championship in 26:21
