NJPW’s Summer Struggle tour landed in Nagoya on Saturday with an event headlined by Hiroshi Tanahashi victorious in the main event and addressing the Tokyo Dome situation.
Tanahashi headlined the event at Dolphin’s Arena with KENTA that featured involvement from Katsuyori Shibata, who was ringside, nailing KENTA with a boot and assisting Tanahashi. After stopping a GTS attempt, Tanahashi hit a Dragon Suplex, sling blade, and match-ending High Fly Flow for the win.
Tanahashi addressed the audience in Nagoya, stating the main event of Sunday’s Wrestle Grand Slam is uncertain but he was willing to step in, if necessary.
The main event for the Tokyo Dome is still listed as Shingo Takagi vs. Kota Ibushi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, although the NJPW site states an update is forthcoming regarding Ibushi’s status
Ibushi has missed recent shows due to aspiration pneumonia that he was diagnosed with and has not wrestled since July 2nd.
The card in Nagoya also saw EVIL defeat Tomohiro Ishii after multiple run-ins from Dick Togo and Yujiro. It was the latter’s involvement that led to Ishii being hit with Pimp Juice and EVIL hitting Everything is EVIL for the win after twenty-eight minutes.
The undercard featured Robbie Eagles pinning IWGP junior heavyweight champion El Desperado with a roll-up in their six-man tag as a prelude to their championship match on Sunday.
The attendance in Nagoya was reported at 1,786.
Wrestle Grand Slam is a six-match show scheduled for Sunday morning at 3 a.m. ET on New Japan World.
Here are the results:
*Hiroshi Tanahashi over KENTA in 24:51
*EVIL over Tomohiro Ishii in 28:07
*Shingo Takagi & BUSHI over Master Wato & Tomoaki Honma (replacing Kota Ibushi) in 11:44
*Kazuchika Okada & Toru Yano over Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan by count-out in 10:52
*Hirooki Goto, Ryusuke Taguchi, Rocky Romero & YOSHI-HASHI over El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori, Yujiro & Jado in 9:34
*Robbie Eagles, YOH & SHO over El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI in 9:19
