The return of Yota Tsuji and several championship changes highlighted New Japan’s Wrestling Dontaku.
The company announced a sell-out crowd of 4,489 at the Fukuoka International Center featuring SANADA’s first defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
After defeating Kazuchika Okada at Sakura Genesis last month, the member of Just Five Guys defended the title successfully against Hiromu Takahashi after hitting the Dead Fall.
The crowd was heated throughout the match, which included a running missile dropkick by Takahashi on the floor where he leaped over the barricade to execute the move and landed back first onto the concrete. SANADA survived Time Bomb II and the Hiromu Roll before landing a Shining Wizard as a prelude to his finisher.
The post-match featured the return of Yota Tsuji, who left New Japan on an excursion in the summer of 2021. Tsuji was the subject of several “coming soon” vignettes that have aired over the past month to signal his return from Rev Pro and CMLL.
Tsuji laid out Just Five Guys, held up the IWGP World Heavyweight title, and indicated he would be challenging SANADA next. Tsuji also gave the LIJ fist pose and assisted Hiromu Takahashi backstage.
There were three title changes including David Finlay destroying Tama Tonga with multiple powerbombs and Into Oblivions (formerly the Trash Panda) and winning the first singles championship of his career.
Kazuchika Okada won the NEVER Openweight 6-Man tag titles for the first time in his career. Okada teamed with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii and unseated Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Ren Narita to secure the belts.
After the six-man title match, Shota Umino confronted the new champions and threw to a video announcing that Jon Moxley was returning at Dominion on June 4 and indicated they would go for the titles with a partner.
Hikuleo is the new STRONG Openweight Champion after defeating KENTA and becoming the fourth holder of the title.
The company kicks off its Best of the Super Juniors tournament on Friday, May 12 and its next major event is Dominion on Sunday, June 4 at Osaka-jo Hall.
Below are the results from Wrestling Dontaku:
*Kick-Off Match: Oskar Leube over Boltin Oleg, Yuto Nakashima & Ryohei Oiwa in 2:33 when Leube submitted Oiwa with the Boston Crab
*Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Toru Yano & YOH over EVIL, Yujiro, SHO & Dick Togo in 3:37
*Great O-Khan & Aussie Open over Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Kosei Fujita in 5:28
*KUSHIDA, Kevin Knight & Shota Umino over Aaron Henare, TJP & Francesco Akira in 6:28
*Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI over Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI in 7:17
*STRONG Openweight Championship: Hikuleo over KENTA (champion) in 9:45
*NJPW World TV Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (champion) vs. Jeff Cobb went to a 15:00 time limit draw
*NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Titles: Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii over Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Ren Narita (champions) in 19:36
*NEVER Openweight Championship: David Finlay over Tama Tonga (champion) in 25:00
*IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA (champion) over Hiromu Takahashi in 27:30
