New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that the NEVER Six-Man tag titles have been vacated and a tournament spread out over four nights will determine the new champions.
The previous champions of EVIL, Bushi & Shingo Takagi have vacated the titles following EVIL’s defection from LIJ to The Bullet Club as the storyline reason.
The tournament will be spread over four consecutive nights at Korakuen Hall as part of the Summer Struggle tour from August 6-9.
The opening round matches are as follows:
*Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Toru Yano vs. Yujiro, Jado & Gedo (August 6)
*Shingo Takagi, Sanada & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Douki (August 6)
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & Master Wato vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (August 7)
*Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Ryusuke Taguchi (August 7)
The two semi-final matches will take place on Saturday, August 8th, and the finals on August 9th with all the shows streaming on New Japan World.
The team of EVIL, Takagi & Bushi won the NEVER Six-Man tag titles on the second night of Wrestle Kingdom 14 this past January defeating Togi Makabe, Ryusuke Taguchi & Toru Yano, who were part of a multi-team Gauntlet Match for the titles.
Below is the full card for Thursday’s first of four straight nights at Korakuen Hall:
Thursday, August 6th at 4:30 am Eastern:
*Shingo Takagi, Sanada & Bushi vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Douki in the opening round of the tournament
*Kazuchika Okada, SHO & Toru Yano vs. Yujiro, Jado & Gedo in the opening round of the tournament
*Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Kota Ibushi & Yuya Uemura
*Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Satoshi Kojima
*Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato vs. Ryusuke Taguchi & Yota Tsuji
*Yuji Nagata vs. Gabriel Kidd