New Japan began the New Japan Road Tour today, a very short series consisting of just 2 events this year.
Today’s event was held at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. (There were a number of technical issues reported today)
The announced paid attendance was 784.
There was a last-second change to the cars at the beginning of the event as Match 6, a 6-man tag on the card was changed from a NON-TITLE match to a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match.
Match 1: Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Boltin Oleg, Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima. Kojima pinned Nakashima after a lariat.
Match 2: Master Wato & Toru Yano beat Gedo & Taiji Ishimori by DQ. Gedo DQ’d.
Match 3: Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Callum Newman, HENARE & Great-O-Khan. Goto pinned Newman after Shoto.
Match 4: Tiger Mask, Ren Narita, Minoru Suxuki & Yuji Nagata beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi. Umino pinned BUSHI after Blaze Blade.
Match 5: Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura & SANADA. Kanemaru beat TAKA with a figure 4.
Match 6: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita & Tomoaki Honma to retain the titles. Tanahashi pinned Narita. V6 for the champs.
Main Event: In a match with restricted moves and Yoshinobu Kanemaru as special referee, Taichi beat KOPW 2023 Champion Sho to win the title. Referee Red Shors Unno made the 3 count when Kanemaru was out. As a result, per another stip for the match, Sho can never wrestle in Yamagata again. Next up: Kanemaru if Taichi gets his wish.
The tour-ender is Sunday at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
