New Japan is back in the US today for this year’s Windy City Riot event, billed as the promotion’s biggest US event this decade, and possibly ever. From a box office standpoint it will be their biggest US event ever based on ticket sales. It’s a loaded event on paper with 4 title matches among 11 total, getting bigger after SAKURA GENESIS last weekend-with Tetsuya Naito vs. Jon Moxley already set for today, after Naito retained the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Sunday Moxley made the challenge and this match became for the title. Also on tap is a NJPW WORLD TV Championship match as Zack Sabre Jr. tries to become a 2-time champion against Matt Riddle, STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo defend in a 4-way, and NEW STRONG Women’s CHampion Stephanie Vaquer defends for the first time against AZM, who will try to bring the belt back to Stardom.
Today’s event will be held at Wintrust Arena in Chicago and can be watched LIVE ONLY ON NEW JAPAN WORLD OUTSIDE JAPAN as a PPV in English for $19.99. A paid monthly NJPW WORLD subscription is not required to buy the PPV. No Triller/FITE or any other option. Purchase includes the live stream and unlimited on demand replays until 6/30, but that date is subject to change (after that it should be available for all paying subscribers with no paywall). In Japan the event will be a live broadcast only on TV Asahi. There will be a FREE 30 minute pre-show on New Japan World and YouTube before the event with 2 matches scheduled. There’s one match with what appears to be no time limit but based on the number of matches, including the pre-show I anticipate the event will have a total running time of at least 3 1/2 hours, close to 4 hours.
Today’s lineup (in order):
Pre-show:
Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay
Viva Van & Mina Shirakawa vs. Trish Adora & Alex Windsor
PPV:
Minoru Suzuki vs. Ren Narita
STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer vs. AZM for the title
STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs and Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor in a 4-way for the titles
Shota Umino vs. Jack Perry
Mustafa Ali vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Eddie Kingston, TBA, TBA & TBA vs. Gabriel Kidd, TBA, TBA & TBA in a Riot Rules Tornado Tag Match. No DQs. Members revealed at entrance time
NJPW WORLD TV Champion Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the title
Nic Nemeth vs. Tomohiro Ishii
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Jon Moxley for the title
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET. PPV begins at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET.
4 PM PT UPDATE: If you purchased the PPV on New Japan World, the stream is now live in pre-show mode and will begin with the pre-show. If you want to buy the PPV, you must do so on a web browser-you cannot buy the PPV on the mobile/TV app.
4:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL. Your hosts are Walker Stewart, Veda Scott & Chris Charlton.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Based on the last fan estimate via Ticketmaster that I saw yesterday, it should be in the 6200-6500 range. A sellout at the current capacity would be about 6700. Regardless, it’s going to be a new record for NJPW in the US and then some. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 6028. That’s actually a little less than what was expected)
Pre-show:
Match 1: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay. 20 minute time limit
Result: Matt Vandagriff beat Zane Jay
Match 2: Viva Van & Mina Shirakawa vs. Trish Adora & Alex Windsor (Mrs. Will Ospreay btw). 20 minute time limit
Result: Trish Adora & Alex Windsor beat Viva Van & Mina Shirakawa. Windsor pinned Van.
Updates will resume when the PPV begins. Pre-show ends at 4:54 PM PT/7:54 PM ET.
PPV:
This event is airing live in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2024 on TV Asahi. Clearly we’re getting their feed because they open with said graphic, we just have the English commentary being outside Japan.
Match 1: Minoru Suzuki vs. Ren Narita. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ren Narita beat Minoru Suzuki
Match 2: STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer vs. AZM for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Women’s Champion Stephanie Vaquer beat AZM to retain the title. V1 for Vaquer. Next up: Possibly Alex Windsor. With microphone. Challenge issued for 5/11 in Ontario, CA at Resurgence. Accepted by Vaquer.
Match 3: STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs and Fred Rosser & Tom Lawlor in a 4-way for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo, Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs and Fred Rosser & Ton Lawlor in a 4-way, when Haste pinned Nelson, to win the titles. Haste & Nicholls become the 7th STRONG Tag Team Champions.
Match 4: Shota Umino vs. Jack Perry. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shota Umino beat Jack Perry
Match 5: Mustafa Ali vs. Hiromu Takahashi. 30 minute time limit
Result: Mustafa Ali beat Hiromu Takahashi
Match 6: Eddie Kingston, TBA, TBA & TBA vs. Gabriel Kidd, TBA, TBA & TBA in a Riot Rules Tornado Tag Match. No DQs. Members revealed at entrance time. Kidd’s 3 TBAs are Clark Connors, David Finlay and KENTA. Kingston’s TBAs are TJP, Jeff Cobb and Homicide. No time limit
Result: Gabriel Kidd, Clark Connors, David Finlay & KENTA beat Eddie Kingston, Jeff Cobb, TJP & Homicide. Kidd pinned Homicide after a piledriver. Both sides kept fighting after the match until refs finally separated them all. Once things settled down, Kingston with microphone. With some choice English, he challenged Kidd to a No Rope Last Standing Match at Resurgence. And commentary notes it will also be for the STRONG Openweight Championship held by Kingston.
Quick break for ring clearning/repairs.
Match 7: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Matt Riddle vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the title. 15 minute time limit
Result: Zack Sabre Jr. beat NJPW WORLD TV Champion Matt Riddle to win the title. Sabre becomes the 4th NJPW WORLD TV Champion. And first 2-time champion as he was the inaugural champion. Can he make it to V17 and break his own record this time? Sabre with microphone post-match for some brief comments, including saying he’ll defend the title very soon in the US. But before he can leave, Jeff Cobb comes out. Challenge issued and accepted, but Cobb goes for the cheap shot out of the handshake. They trade counters and Sabre bails. Sabre with microphone asking for the belt back in exchange for the title shot.
Upcoming live US PPV announcement-Capital Collision on 8/30 at Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washingon, DC.
Match 8: IWGP Global Champion Nic Nemeth vs. Tomohiro Ishii in a NON-TITLE match. 30 minute time limit
Result: Nic Memeth beat Tomohiro Ishii
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito vs. Jon Moxley for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Jon Moxley beat IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito to win the title. Moxley becomes the 9th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. HOLY S**T! HOLY S**T! UPSET ALERT!!! I never thought this is how Naito’s first title reign (and perhaps last) would end! After only 3 months. Next/first up: TBA but it’s all but guaranteed to be at Resurgence. Afterwards, Moxley with microphone. He basically threw down the gauntlet for any and all challengers in New Japan and announced up first is…Shota Umino. But instead, Ren Narita came out and ambushed Moxley from behind. Narita with microphone. While choking out Moxley, Narita said he’s next and continued the beatdown until Umino made the save. As Narita walked off, Moxley grabbed the microphone and delivered the death threat.
To put it simply, this event absolutely lived up to the hype from beginning to end. And after the disaster that was the stream last year, this year’s broadcast was perfect, maybe helped by it being on TV in Japan (I watched on a Roku device and had zero issues). If you missed it live it’s definitely a must-buy replay.
End Show.
The next event is WRESTLING WORLD 2024 IN TAIWAN Sunday at New Zepp Taaipei in Taipei, Taiwan. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET. This will be a TV Asahi live broadcast in Japan.
