New Japan returned to Gifu today for a Hiroshi Tanahashi hometown event, the final time the face of the promotion would compete in front of his hometown fans before retiring in 2 months.
Today’s event was held at Gifu Memorial Center First Gym in Gifu and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 exclusively on TV Asahi in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 3742, a legit advance sellout.
Match 1: Tatsuya Matsumoto, Shoma Kato & Boltin Oleg beat Zane Jay, Masatora Yasuda & Katsuya Murashima. Oleg pinned Jay after Burdict.
Match 2: Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Daiki Nagai, Gedo & Hiromu Takahashi. Jackson pinned Nagai after Death Valley Bomb.
Match 3: Yuki Yoshioka (Dragon Gate), KUSHIDA, Dradon Dia (Dragon Gate) & Ryusuke Taguchi beat YAMATO (Dragon Gate), Tiger Mask, KUUKAI & El Desperado. Taguchi pined TM 4 with Kido Clutch.
Match 4: Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL beat Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino. Togo pinned Wato, Afterwards, EVIL issued a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge and beat down Yano until Aaron Wolf appeared and made the save. Wolf makes his debut against EVIL at Tokyo Dome. And so the build begins.
Match 5: Clark Connors, OSKAR (The Grouch), Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) & Shingo Takagi beat Jacob Austin Young, Templario, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Ice pinned Young after Cruella.
Match 6: Super Junior Tag League Finals: Sho & DOUKI beat Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori to win the tournament. DOUKI pinned Ishimori. The current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions protect-normally tournament winners get a respective title shot but this won’t be the case, at least not right away for X & Ishimori.
Match 7: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji beat Hiroshi Tanahashi to retain the title. V1 for Tsuji. This was probably the last chance for Tanahashi to go into his finale at Tokyo Dome as a champion. This may be the proverbial passing of the torch to the next generation and perhaps anointing Tsuji as their leader. Afterwards, Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) came out and challenged Tanahashi to a match on 11/8.
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Hirooki Goto to retain the title. V1 for Takeshita. Next up: Unless plans unexpectedly change, Tokyo Dome. The challenger: Possibly Tsuji. Double Double Title? Perhaps…
The next event is NEW JAPAN ROAD in ANJO Saturday at Tosho Arena Anjo in AIchi, continuing the annual what was a Kazuchika Okada hometown event although Okada is now in All Elite Wrestling. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.
On a side note, despite New Japan teasing every remaining event until Tokyo Dome being live & on demand, the current schedule suggests no broadcast for an 11/16 event in Yamaguchi. Also, after Saturday the next two events around that one are PPVs.