New Japan returned to England today for ROYAL QUEST 3, their 3rd visit in recent years to the UK as they continue their post-pandemic international expansion efforts.
Today’s event was held at Copper Box in London, England and can be watched on demand on the Revolution Pro Wrestling on demand streaming service (subscription required, which is around $9.50/month or $90/year). It will be available on demand on New Japan World for all subscribers at a later date.
The paid attendance was not announced.
Match 1: Taiji Ishimori beat Robbie X. This was Ishimori’s first match in several months as he returned from injury today.
Match 2: El Desperado beat Trent Seven.
Match 3: Yota Tsuji beat Luke Jacobs.
Match 4: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Leon Slater & Cameron Khai to retain the titles. Connors pinned Khai after Full Clip. V3 for the champs.
Match 5: El Phantasmo, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga beat Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin & David Finlay. Loa pinned Finlay after Apeshit.
Match 6: Ren Narita & Shota Umino beat Francesco Akira & Great-O-Khan. Umino pinned Akira after Death Slider.
Match 7: BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito beat DOUKI & SANADA. Naito pinned DOUKI after Destino.
Match 8: Michael Oku, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Eddie Kingston beat TJP, HENARE & Jeff Cobb. Oku pinned TJP.
Match 9: Shingo Takagi beat Tomohiro Ishii.
Main Event: IWGP US (Self-Proclaimed UK) Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Zack Sabre Jr. to retain the title. V2 for Ospreay. Next up: Umino. That match will happen on 11/4 at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka.
The next international event is Fighting Spirit Unleashed on 10/28 at Sam’s Town Live in Las Vegas, NV. Live streaming on New Japan World in Japanese (for all paying subscribers) and FITE in English only ($19.99) will begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.
In Japan. next up is the Road To POWER STRUGGLE Tour with the Super Junior Tag League beginning on 10/21 at Kumagaya City Gym in Saitama. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET. At this time all but maybe 2 of the tour’s events will be broadcast. This year’s field is 10 teams in a single group round-robin format, with the top 2 teams in the standings advancing to the Finals. The teams: Yoh & TBA, KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight, Ryusuke Taguchi & The DKC, El Desperado & Master Wato, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku, BUSHI & Titan, Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita, TJP & Francesco Akira, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney, Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Yoh & Lio Rush were the defending champions and Rush was going to be paired with Yoh but plans changed after Rush missed the end of the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour due to illness. The winners presumably will get an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship shot unless Connors & Moloney (the current champions) win.
UPDATE: MUSASHI (Michinoku Pro) has been announced as the partner for Yoh in the Super Jr. Tag League.
10/16/23 UPDATE: The event is now available on demand on New Japan World in English for all subscribers. Japanese will be available at a later date.
