Taichi regained the KOPW Championship on Friday’s New Japan card in Yamagata.
In a match with stipulations that included the banning of Taichi’s signature offense and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as the special referee, Taichi overcame the House of Torture’s interference to win the match.
The end came when Kanemaru was taken out of the match and Red Shoes replaced him as referee to make the count after a Last Ride Powerbomb as Taichi becomes a three-time KOPW Championship.
Another stipulation was that the loser would no longer be allowed to wrestle in Yamagata.
SHO won the KOPW Championship at Destruction in Kobe in September by defeating Taichi in a match where the seconds were handcuffed to the post.
Here are the results from Friday’s card:
*KOPW Championship: Taichi over SHO © in 20:47
*NEVER Six-Man Tag Championship: Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii © over Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita & Tomoaki Honma in 25:37
*SANADA, Yuya Uemura, DOUKI & Taka Michinoku over EVIL, Yujiro, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dick Togo in 9:31
*Minoru Suzuki, Yuji Nagata, Shota Umino & Tiger Mask over Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji & BUSHI in 9:05
*Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH over Great O-Khan, HENARE & Callum Newman in 10:28
*Toru Yano & Master Wato over Taiji Ishimori & Gedo by DQ in 7:09
*Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Togi Makabe over Yuto Nakashima, Oleg Boltin & Oskar Leube in 6:20
