The finals of New Japan’s World Tag League are set following Friday’s semi-final matches.
The IWGP Tag Team Champions will meet the STRONG Openweight Tag Champions in Sunday’s final with both teams prevailing in Kagoshima.
RESULTS:
*World Tag League – Semi-Final: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI over Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd in 20:47
*World Tag League – Semi-Final: El Phantasmo & Hikuleo over Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste in 16:44
*SANADA, Taichi, Yuya Uemura & DOUKI over Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Zandokan Jr. & BUSHI in 10:05
*Gates of Agony, Atlantis Jr. & Soberano Jr. over Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii & Toru Yano in 10:03
*Ren Narita & Yujiro over Shota Umino & Tomoaki Honma in 0:43
*EVIL, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru over Kaito Kiyomiya, Ryohei Oiwa & Ryusuke Taguchi in 9:23
*Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Alex Zayne over Great O-Khan, HENARE & Callum Newman in 10:01
*Bad Luck Fale, Jack Bonza & Taiji Ishimori over Master Wato, Yuto Nakashima & Oskar Leube in 8:44
In the main event, IWGP tag champions Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI defeated Alex Coughlin & Gabe Kidd and sending Bishamon to the finals.
Goto & YOSHI-HASHI will be attempting to win their third Tag League in a row following tournament victories in 2021 & 2022.
Their opponents will be El Phantasmo & Hikuelo, who defeated Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls after Hikuelo used the Godsend and pinned Haste.
The Tag League goes back to 1980 when it was promoted as the MSG Tag League with the inaugural tournament won by Antonio Inoki & Bob Backlund. It evolved into various names including the G1 Tag League before taking its current branding in 2012.
Goto has won the tournament four times with partners YOSHI-HASHI, Katsuyori Shibata, and Karl Anderson.
Sunday’s final takes place in Kumamoto with the full card to be released shortly.
