New Japan ran the first televised event of the New Japan Road tour today, a homecoming event for Hiromu Takahashi who hoped to put on a good show for a sellout crowd ahead of his IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship match next week, a reward for winning Best Of The Super Junior.
Today’s event was held at Esforta Arena Hachioji in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese.
The announced paid attendance was 1955. Based on event photos from New Japan’s Japanese website, not quite the legit sellout Takahashi hoped for. No guest on Japanese commentary. Your host is Haruo Murata alongside Milano Collection A.T.
Match 1: TAKA Michinoku beat Kosei Fujita by submission.
Match 2: Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma beat Yuto Nakashima & Clark Connors. Honma pinned Nakashima after Kokeshi. After the match, TM 4 with microphone. He is competing in All-Japan Pro Wrestling tomorrow and vowed to win the All-Japan Jr. Heavyweight Championship.
Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Ryohei Oiwa & Tomohiro Ishii. Suzuki beat Oiwa.
Match 4: Yoh, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Gedo, Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Yoh pinned Gedo after Traas Kick.
Match 5: Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP beat Jado, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato. Henare pinned Jado after ultima.
Match 6: SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada. Takagi pinned Makabe after Last of the Dragon.
ATSUSHI, who probably is some kind of comedian dressed and face painted like a clown, joined comemntary for the main event.
Main Event: Hiromu Takahashi Homecoming Match: BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi beat Sho & Taiji Ishimori. Takahashi pinned Sho after Time Bomb. After the match, Takahashi’s LIJ factionmates joined him for the show-ending promo.
The next event is Monday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and features an IWGP Jr. heavyweight Tag Team Title match. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. And best of all, it’s the monthly event that everyone can watch FOR FREE! In other upcoming event news, New Japan World will have a live PPV broadcast of the GLEAT Ver. 3-1st Anniversary Event on 7/1 at Tokyo Dome City Hall. It will cost 3000 yen or just over $22 US in addition to the monthly subscription fees and will be available on demand until October 1. If you can wait, odds are sometime down the road it’ll be on YouTube.
Correction:The next event actually is tomorrow at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka, but it is a non-televised event so no live or on demand video will be available.
