New Japan kicked off the New Japan Road tour today, which in recent years was known as KIZUNA ROAD, a reference to one of the many card games that owner Bushiroad Corporation has published in Japan. The name change is a likely return to original names as part of the ongoing 50th Anniversary Celebration. SANADA continues his return from injury after coming back at DOMINION this past weekend.
Today’s event was held at Tochigi Cultural Center in Tochigi and was a non-televised event. The event will not be available on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 421.
Match 1: TAKA Michinoku beat Ryohei Oiwa by submission.
Match 2: Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma beat Kosei Fujita & Clark Connors. Honma pinned Fujita after Kokeshi.
Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Yuto Nakashima & Tomohiro Ishii. Suzuki pinned Nakashima after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 4: Yoh, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Yoh pinned Togo after Direct Drive.
Match 5: Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP beat Jado, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato. Henare pinned Jado after Ultima.
Match 6: BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi beat Gedo & Taiji Ishimori. Takahashi pinned Gedo after D.
Main Event: SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada. SANADA pinned Tenzan with O’Connor Bridge.
For those wondering about notable names missing, many of them appeared in All Elite Wrestling in the US last night to help promote the Forbidden Door PPV on 6/26.
The next event is Saturday at Esforta Arena Hachioji in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.
In other news, the September tour, “Burning Spirit”, has been announced. The current schedule is as follows:
9/2-Yokohama Budokan, Yokohama
9/3-Nagoya Congress Center, Nagoya
9/5-Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
9/6-Korakuen Hall
9/7-Lily Arena MITO, Ibaraki
9/9-Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka
9/10-G Messe Gunma, Gunma
9/11-Togane Arena, Chiba
9/13-Towa Pharmaceutical Dome Sub-Arena, Osaka
9/15-Kirin Beverage Shunan Sports Center, Yamaguchi
9/17-Ichiki Kushikino City General Gym, Kagoshima
9/18-Beppu Beacon Plaza, Oita
9/20-Acros Fukuoka, Fukuoka
9/21-Grand Messe Kumamoto, Kumamoto
9/23-Takamatsu City General Gymnasium Stadium 1, Kagawa
9/25-Kobe World Hall, Kobe (likely a major event)
