New Japan wrapped up the World Tag League today with the Finals. This will almost certainly set up an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match for Tokyo Dome on 1/4.
Today’s event was held at Grand Messe Kumamoto in Kumamoto and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese. They planned for English as well but due to ongoing technical issues with the relaunched service it will be on demand at a later date. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 2658.
Pre-show Match: Boltin Oleg & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Asosan & Kodai Nozaki. Taguchi pinned Asosan with Kid Clutch. The losers were local wrestlers from regional independent promotions and this was billed as a Frontier Zone match.
Hiromu Takahashi made a special appearance to open the event.
Match 1: Master Wato, Soberano Jr. & Atlantis Jr. beat Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. Wato pinned Fujita with a Tsutenkaku German suplex hold.
Match 2: Alex Zayne, Lance Archer, Minoru Suzuki & Yuji Nagata beat Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Jack Bonza & bad Luck Fale. Zayne pinned Bonza after Blackout Sauce.
Match 3: Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Oakar Leube, Yuto Nakashima, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii. Cobb pinned Leube after Tour of the Islands.
Match 4: Sho & Ren Narita beat Tiger Mask & Shota Umino. Sho pinned TM 4.
Match 5: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Tomoaki Honma, Ryohei Oiwa & Kaito Kiyomiya (Pro Wrestling NOAH). EVIL pinned Honma after EVIL.
Match 6; Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Toa Liona & Bishop Kaun. Okada pinned Liona after Rainmaker.
Matchb7: BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Zandokan Jr., Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Kaito beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA. BUSHI pinned TAKA after MX. Afterwards, Kanemaru attacked Taichi and made a KOPW 2023 Title challenge.
Main Event: World Tag League Finals: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI beat El Phantasmo & Hikuleo to win the tournament. Goto pinned Phantasmo after Naraku. They went 40 1/2 minutes. Bishamon 3-peat after it seemed dead earlier on. Based on post-match happenings, this likely means a Double Title rematch at Tokyo Done for the IWGP Heavyweight and STRONG Tag Team Championships.
The next event is Road To TOKYO DOME, which this year will be a year-ending doubleheader on 12/21 & 12/22 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET both days. This will end their 2023 schedule.
