WRESTLING DONTAKU Day 2, falling on the traditional day of New Japan’s annual Golden Week blowout event, is in the books.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka International Center in Fukuoka 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 3603, a full house/near sellout. While nearly 50% more than yesterday, that is still less than half capacity for the venue.
Pre-show match: Masatora Yasuda beat Taisei Nakahara.
Match 1: NNPW WORLD TV Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Chase Owens to retain the title. V3 for Takeshita. Afterwards a masked man attacked Takeshita then revealed his identity…SANADA! See You Next Time! For the title?!?
Match 2: Daiki Nagai & Gedo beat Tatsuya Matsumoto & Ryusuke Taguchi. Nagai pinned Matsumoto after a diving headbutt.
Match 3: OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) beat Tomoaki Honma & Shota Umino. OSKAR beat Honma with a nightmare hold.
Match 4: Master Wato, Yoh, Tiger Mask, Toru Yano & Aaron Wolf beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Don Fale & Ren Narita. Wolf pinned Takahashi after Angle Slam. Afterwards, TM 4 gave his farewell speech to the Fukuoka fans.
Match 5: Taichi & Yuya Uemura beat Hartley Jackson & Ryohei Oiwa. Taichi pinned Jackson after Black Mephisto.
Match 6: Robbie X, Taiji Ishimori, Drilla Moloney & Yota Tsuji beat Zane Jay, Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira & Jake Lee. Tsuji pinned Jay.
Match 7: Mistico (CMLL) & El Desperado beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles to win the titles. Mistico & Desperado become the 83rd IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Desperado beat Fujita with Numero Dos. Once again, a reminder that TMDK also stands for The Mighty Don’t Kosei.
Match 8: Great-O-Khan, HENARE & Will Ospreay beat NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Boltin Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto to win the titles. Khan, HENARE & Ospreay become the 34th NEVER Openweight Champions. Khan pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Great Blade Bomb. Afterwards, Khan & HENARE issued an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship challenge.
Main Event: IWGP Heavyweight Champion Callum Newman beat Shingo Takagi to retain the title. V1 for Newman. 35+ minutes in what easily has to be the longest match of Newman’s career so far. But this proves it wasn’t a fluke. And for now United Empire is back on top of New Japan.
In post-event backstage comments, Takeshita expressed a desire to align with the main New Japan unit as today marked his 2nd anniversary as a member of the promotion (he is also signed with DDT and All Elite Wrestling).
The next event is Wednesday at Karatsu City Gym in Saga. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.
UPDATE: While nothing has been announced yet for Wednesday, it appears Newman issued a challenge to Takagi & Tsuji after the main event for that day-both of them vs. Newman & Lee. If Newman gets beaten, whoever got the pinfall/submission gets a rematch for the title at DOMINION on 6/14. But if United Empre wins, Takagi & Tsuji can never challenge for the title again. More to come.
UPDATE 2: It’s now official. And specifically, if United Empire wins, neither can challenge Newman for the title again as long as he still is champion, not neither challenging for the title ever again.