New Japan Pro Wrestling returned to Budokan Hall for its 49th Anniversary card Thursday featuring the final defense of the Double Championship before the belts merged.
In front of an announced attendance of 3,206, Kota Ibushi retained the championship defeating newly crowned IWGP junior heavyweight champion El Desperado. Ibushi repeated his intentions of merging the IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles to form the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
The two had a strong performance, particularly, the closing stretch that saw Desperado threaten Ibushi after a match-long attack of the knee and utilizing Numero Dos. After breaking free of the submission, Ibushi landed a short Kamigoye for the biggest near-fall of the contest before a clean and flush version ended the match after 20 minutes and 36 seconds.
In his closing remarks, Ibushi thanked Desperado and singled out NEVER Openweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi as someone he wants to face due to Tanahashi’s disagreement over the decision to merge the titles.
Tanahashi is part of the 30-man New Japan Cup tournament and has received a bye in the opening round.
The tournament began on Thursday’s show with Jeff Cobb defeating Satoshi Kojima, and The Great O’Khan submitting Tetsuya Naito.
O’Khan attacked the legitimately injured knee of Naito throughout their twenty-minute match including applying a claw to the knee. Naito made a furious comeback hitting the Diamond Dust and a Destino but could not capitalize and go for the cover. The pace quickened after a second Destino was blocked and O’Khan shifted to a kneebar variation, and then an inverted figure-four while wrenching the ankle. After a prolonged struggle, Naito submitted and provided O’Khan a significant upset victory.
O’Khan will advance to face the winner of Friday’s match between Bad Luck Fale and Toru Yano.
The other tournament match saw Jeff Cobb pin Satoshi Kojima after the 50-year old pinned the Olympian in a tag match this past weekend at Castle Attack.
Kojima showcased his usual fire and playing the role of the aging star that can still be competitive against the current crop. Kojima’s lariat was stopped by a superkick, Cobb bounced off the ropes into a lariat, and a follow-up attempt at the Cozy Lariat was countered with the Tour of the Islands for the win.
Cobb will meet EVIL in the second round on March 11th.
There was significant news on the show with New Japan set to host two big shows billed as “Wrestle Grand Slam” this spring. The company will run the first show at Yokohama Stadium on May 15th, and then the second leg of the event at the Tokyo Dome on May 29th.
Here are the results from Thursday’s card:
*Hirooki Goto, Tomoaki Honma, Master Wato & Gabriel Kidd over Minoru Suzuki, Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & DOUKI in 10:39
*Jay White, EVIL, KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & Chase Owens over Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Toa Henare & Ryusuke Taguchi in 7:39
*Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Tomohiro Ishii over Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI in 9:13
*New Japan Cup Opening Round: Jeff Cobb over Satoshi Kojima in 11:50
*New Japan Cup Opening Round: The Great O-Khan over Tetsuya Naito in 20:20
*Double Championship Match: Kota Ibushi (champion) over El Desperado in 20:36
