El Desperado has won the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title at New Japan Soul.
He defeated SHO in the first NJPW singles match to be held in a steel cage in decades, and the first-ever such match for the Junior Heavyweight Championship.
As referee Red Shoes took a bump, SHO’s House of Torture stablemates appeared and threw chairs over the cage and into the ring. However, El Desperado used the chairs to his advantage.
He then got the win with a pair of Pinche Locos. After the match, he named DOUKI as his first challenger.
Desperado: That hurt. Thank you. It’s the diversity of wrestlers that make wrestling great. But man, (SHO) was just evil.
I don’t want to say that was fun, but I can’t lie.
Anyway there’s someone I want. DOUKI!#njpw #njsoul
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) June 16, 2024
Earlier in the event, the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Title changed hands, and HENARE won his first title in the promotion.
The show was also notable for revealing 18 of the 20 competitors for the 2024 G1 Climax tournament.
The action took place earlier on Sunday at the Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center in Sapporo.
NJPW Soul results, June 16th 2024
- United Empire (Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & TJP) def. Katsuya Murashima, Satoshi Kojima, Shoma Kato, Tomoaki Honma & Tomohiro Ishii
- Just 5 Guys (DOUKI & Taichi) def. House of Torture (Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
- Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) def. House of Torture (Dick Togo & EVIL)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Titan) def. Just 5 Guys (TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uemura)
- NEVER Openweight Six-Man Championships: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano & Oleg Boltin def. Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI (c)
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney (c) def. Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita
- NEVER Openweight Championship: HENARE def. Shingo Takagi (c)
- IWGP Global Championship: David Finlay (c) def. SANADA
- IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship – Steel Cage Match: El Desperado def. SHO (c)
Bruce Lord will host a full review of New Japan Soul later on Sunday for POST Wrestling Café members.
