New Japan returned to Chiba today for the latest Yuji Nagata Produced hometown event, BLUE JUSTICE 16, where the self-proclaimed oldest member at 57 years old would do his best today (as he does all but maybe 5 days a year on average, tomorrow sure to be one of those days he does not) to put on a memorable show for the local fans.
Today’s event was held at Togane Arena in Chiba and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 1509.
Match 1: Zane Jay & Masatora Yasuda beat Tatsuya Matsumoto & Tiger Mask. Yasuda pinned Matsumoto.
Match 2: Dick Togo, EVIL & Don Fale beat Katsuya Murashima, Shoma Kato & Boltin Oleg. EVIL beat Kato with a scorpion deathlock.
Match 3: Clark Connors, OSKAR (Oskar Leube) & Yuto Ice (Yuto Nakashima) beat TAKA MIchinoku, Tomoaki Honma & Taichi. Ice pinned Honma after K.O.B. (Knock Out Brothers-a combination tombstone piledriver & soccer ball kick)
Match 4: Daiki Nagai, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, David Finlay & Gabriel Kidd. Takahashi pinned Gedo after Maximum The Holding 3rd Form.
Match 5: Togi Makabe, Master Wato, Toru Yano & Yoh beat Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado. Wato pinned Taguchi.
Match 6: DOUKI, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, SANADA & Ren Narita beat Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles, Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. SANADA pinned Jackson after a rounding body press.
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yuji Nagata. After the match, Nagata’s son-who has become quite the wrestler himself-presented Tanahashi with the customary flowers following his final match in the area before his retirement in January.
The next event is the Road To DESTRUCTION Tour starting Tuesday at Fujisan Messe in Shizuoka. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. The tour is only 3 events this week with only the tour-ender Saturday being available on New Japan World (Korakuen Hall), and in fact it’s mostly non-televised events this month as only 2 of the subsequent 7 events following on the annual Hokkaido tour will be broadcast before DESTRUCTION at the end of the month, which will be on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY (exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan). There is also a PPV Friday at Korakuen which is available for pre-order now for $21.99 US.