A lot of New Japan news coming out of yesterday as expected, here’s what we know so far:
First, the full card for ROYAL QUEST 4 on Sunday in London, England is now official:
Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima vs. Brendan White & Danny Jones
Danny Black & Joe Landau vs. Taiji Ishimori & TBA
Kanji & Mina Shirakawa vs. Dani Luna & AZM
Kosei Fujita vs. Michael Oku
Yota Tsuji vs. Drilla Moloney
Shota Umino vs. Callum Newman
David Finlay vs. TAKA Michinoku
Titan, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Mascara Dorada, Robbie Eagles & Ryohei Oiwa
STRONG Tag Team Champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls vs. Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi for the titles
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. SANADA for the title
The event will be streamed LIVE on New Japan World worldwide for all paid monthly subscribers (it is not a PPV) beginning at 9:30 AM PT/12:30 PM ET. The live broadcast will only be in Japanese. English will be on demand only at a later date. Live results will be provided for the event.
For the annual Anjo City event on 11/9, all matches will again be announced only on the day of the event, and since there’s no Kazuchika Okada this year for his honetown event, Tam Nakano of Stardom will appear instead as the hometown participant.
3 title matches are set for 11/4 at POWER STRUGGLE at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka: IWGP Global Chanpion David Finlay vs. Taichi for the title, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI vs. Master Wato for the title and IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls vs. HENARE & Great-O-Khan for the titles. 11/4 also will feature the Super Jr. Tag League Finals.
The Super Jr. Tag League fired has been announced, 12 teams will compete this year in a round-robin format split into 2 blocks of 6 teams. Block A is as follows: Tiger Mask & Capitan Suicida, Ryusuke Taguchi & Dragon Dia (Dragon Gate), Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI, Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney, Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Block B is as follows: NEW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA, The DKC & Ninja Mack (Independent/Freelancer, moat recently with Pro Wrestling NOAH), Yoh & Rocky Romero, Francesco Akira & TJP, Jude London & Paris de Silva (Australia/TAMASHII), Taiji Ishimori & TBA.
Format TBA but most likely it will be only the winner of each block advancing to the finals. Akira & TJP are the defending tournament winners. With the winners likely getting the next title shot, that means Connors & Moloney probably have to win to get their rematch against Knight & KUSHIDA after yesterday’s shocking upset.
At today’s post-event press conference, which also had the signing ceremony for Sabre-SANADA, they also had a drawing to determine who the next IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot goes to after Sunday. If Sabre wins and retains the title, Shingo Takagi will be next. If SANADA wins the title, Shota Umino is next. The former brings interesting possibilities given Takagi is the current NEVER Openweight Champion (and a former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion). When that match will happen in either form is TBA but I would tentatively say 11/4.
UPDATE: Both Sabre-Takagi and SANADA-Umino have been added to 11/4. One will be for the title depending on Sunday’s result.
UPDATE 2: The start time for ROYAL QUEST 4 has been moved up to 9 AM PT/Noon ET for a pre-show match which will be the first match listed above.
