This is just a RUMOR right now so apply the proverbial salt and don’t take it as official yet…but there is word going around the US wrestling net/dirt sheets that New Japan wrestler EVIL could be done with the promotion soon. While also not official, the House Of Torture leader supposedly has given notice to the promotion and could be headed to WWE. While big by Japan standards as a Heavyweight, he’d be a small one in WWE at 5″10, 235 pounds. He’s also 38 so this may be his last best chance for an international run like this. Given New Japan has typically renewed/redone contracts in January after Tokyo Dome and the year-opening events-or not-we may know more by the end of the month, or perhaps after THE NEW BEGINNING-the first blowout event of the year-on 2/11, but dropping the NEVER Openweight Championship to Aaron Wolf on 1/4 may or may not be a clue.
More as it becomes available.
UPDATE: A wrestling podcast I’ve never heard of suggests Hiromu Takahashi may be leaving too. Same for perhaps David Finlay & Gabriel Kidd..
Maybe Natsupoi can help here, or not…she may not like news that her new hubby, Shingo Takagi, has been announced as sidelined by New Japan for now. Left side abdominal injury. Out about 3 weeks. Currently scheduled to return on 2/11.
New Japan continued the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the second half of the opening Tokyo doubleheader.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This was changed last-minute to also be a live Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 1231.
Match 1: Young Lions Cup Semifinals: Shoma Kato beat Masatora Yasuda.
Match 2: Young Lions Cup Semifinals: Katsuya Murashima beat Daiki Nagai. As a resultX the Final will be Kato vs. Murashima.
Match 3: OSKAR (The Grouch) & Uuto Ice (Ice Baby) beat Tatsuya Matsumoto & Shota Unino. Ice pinned Matsunoto after KOB.
Match 4: Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano & Aaron Wolf beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, EVIL & Ren Narita. Wolf beat Takahashi with an armbar.
Match 5: Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Francesco Akira & Jake Lee beat Gedo, Taiji Ishinori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Lee pinned Takagi after FBS.
Match 6: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho to retain the titles. Fujita pinned Kanemaru after Thrill Ride. V1 for the champs.
Main Event: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI beat El Desperado to retain the title. V1 for DOUKI.
The next event is BOAT RACE Miyajima Presents STRONG SPLASH, a weekend doubleheader starting Saturday at Boat Race Miyajima Event Hall in Hiroshima. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. Unless plans change today was the last live/on demand broadcast for the month.
UPDATE: At some point after the event, another title match was announced-the next defense of the STRONG Openweight Championship by Tomohiro Ishii will be against Boltin Oleg. That match will happen on 2/27 at the next US event.
New Japan kicked off the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today, marking the official start to their year, the start of the road to Tokyo Dome 2027, and a true new beginning after 25+ years of Hiroshi Tanahashi as the face of the promotion…although he’s still around as President. The Young Lions Cup also returned today after several years giving the rookies & trainees a prize to compete for.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo 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 1006.
Match 1: Young Lions Cup: Masatora Yasuda beat Takuya Matsumoto. As a result, Yasuda advances to the Semifinals and will face Shoma Kato.
Match 2: Young Lions Cup: Daiki Nagai beat Zane Jay. As a result, Nagai advances to the Semifinals and will face Katsuya Murashima. (Both Kato & Murashima got free passes to the Semifinals)
Match 3: Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano, El Desperado & Aaron Wolf beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, EVIL, DOUKI & Ren Narita. Wato beat Togo with Vendeval.
Match 4: Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Akira pinned Gedo after Unmanned Emerald Flowsion.
Match 5: Sho beat Kosei Fujita by DQ.
Match 6: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Robbie Eagles.
Match 7: Boltin Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. to win the titles. Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI & Goto become the 33rd NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Goto pinned Oiwa after GTR.
Main Event: Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino beat Tomohiro Ishii & Taichi. Umino pinned Taichi after Second Chapter. As a result, Uemura & Umino get the next IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship shot. That match will happen at THE NEW BEGINNING on 2/11 at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka.
The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
A lot has changed in New Japan recently with the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi, the pending retirement of Tiger Mask 4 and more, but one thing has not…Yuji Nagata is still the self-proclaimed oldest member at 57 years old, and he’ll do his best today as well for his latest hometown event, BLUE JUSTICE 17. With the promotion’s first visit this year to Chiba Prefecture, Nagata gets to once again put on his own event with Nagata of course part of the main event but otherwise the event looks to be like a regular house show event, hopefully another successful one for Nagata.
Today’s event will be held at Sakura Civic Gym in Chiba and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube. There are 7 matches and with a regular house show plan the running time will not go past 3 hours, I’d anticipate between 2-2 1/2 hours.
Today’s lineup: Zane Jay & Tiger Mask vs. Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh vs. Daiki Nagai, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaro, Sho & DOUKI Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Shoma Kato, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino vs. Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata vs. Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
11 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Sakura Civic Gym in Chiba, Japan. Commentary will join after the opening video. Hiroyoshi Tenzan is today’s guest on commentary.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The venue has a reported full capacity of over 4000 but I doubt it will be anywhere near that. What I can see looks mostly but not completely full, I’ll predict around 2500. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1693)
The matches begin right after the opening video. None of the usual onscreen graphics today except for matches in the upper left corner.
Match 1: Zane Jay & Tiger Mask vs. Kosei Fujita & (a mustachioed) Robbie Eagles. 20 minute time limit Result: Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Zane Jay & Tiger Mask. Eagles beat Jay with an inverted Boston Crab.
Match 2: Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh vs. Daiki Nagai, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby). 20 minute time limit Result: Daiki Nagai, OSKAR & Yuto Ice beat Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh. OSKAR beat Murashima.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 3: Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaro, Sho & DOUKI. 20 minute time limit Result: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho & DOUKI beat Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado. Kanemaru beat Yasuda with a figure 4.
Match 4: Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.. 30 minute time limit Result: Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Jackson pinned Matsumoto after Death Valley Bomb.
Match 6: Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee. 30 minute time limit Result: Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Young beat Gedo.
Hiroshi Tanahashi joins commentary for the main event.
Main Event: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata vs. Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL. 30 minute time limit Result: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren narita & EVIL. Wolf beat Togo. Afterwards, Wolf got to lead the closing promo for the first time although he seemed a little unsure about it at first. Pretty good Japanese though. Then he properly handed it over to Nagata to finish it up and send the hometown crowd home happy. Nagata brought Tenzan and a freshly-haircut Tanahashi (no more mullet) to the ring as a surprise to commemorate the anniversary of Tenzan’s pro wrestling debut. Tenzan clearly is still affected by injuries last year and was a bit unstable at times in the ring and moving very stiffly. (This was specifically for Tenzan’s 35th Anniversary in the ring) Nagata also said they will return to the venue, but due to its pending closing for upgrades/renovation it probably will not be for 2 years, however they will run other venues when they return to Chiba.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo to kick off the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour, the “official official” start to the promotion’s new year. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
Huge news from New Japan after yesterday’s event…the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is no more. At the request of Yota Tsuji and with approval of President Hiroshi Tanahashi, the IWGP Heavyweight Championship is being revived with the popular V4 design and Tsuji will now be recognized as the 87th Champion.
More to come.
UPDATE: This means the IWGP Intercontinental Championship is officially retired. The IWGP Global Championship is unaffected. All prior IWGP World Heavyweight Champions will be recognized as the 75th-86th IWGP Heavyweight Champions, the exception being 74th Champion Kota Ibushi who held the title when the World Heavyweight Championship was created. This was by Tsuji’s count to Tanahashi, meaning by my count they possibly missed someone…(Clarification-the aforementioned count is correct. Title history pages have been updated to reflect this)
UPDATE 2: In related New Japan news. Tanahashi claims over 3.5 million people viewed the 1/4 event. There are reports New Japan World had 108,000 subscribers watching and around 3.4 million viewers for the live broadcast on TV Asahi in Japan.
With Tokyo Dome now behind us, the post-Hiroshi Tanahashi era* and the official start of New Japan 2026 came today with their traditional year-opening event, NEW YEAR DASH!!
Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo 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 3523, a full house/near sellout.
Match 4: Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akita & Andrade El Idolo beat Clark Connors, Hiromu Takahashi & Gabriel Kidd. Idolo pinned Connors after The Message. Afterwards, Kidd challenged Idolo to a match on 2/11.
Match 5: Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano & Aaron Wolf beat Dick Togo, Don Fale, Ren Narita & EVIL. Yoh beat Togo with a Texas cloverleaf. Afterwards, Narita laid out Wolf and teased a NEVER Openweight Championship challenge.
Match 6: HENARE, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee beat Drilla Moloney, Shingo Takagi, David Finlay & Yota Tsuju. HENARE pinned Momoney after a coalescing Eliminator. Afterwards, Will Ospreay appeared to shake hands with his United Empire factionmates, although Newman wasn’t thrilled. (Ospreay appeared today as a pre-match autograph signer for fans)
Match 7: Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Sho & DOUKI, Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X and El Desperado & KUUKAI in a 4-way, when Fujita pinned X, to win the titles. Fujita & Eagles become the 80th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Afterwards, Akira attacked Ishimori until Hiromu Takahashi made the save.
Main Event: IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) beat Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiea to retain the titles. Ice pinned Oiwa after KOB. V2 for the champs. Next up: The winner of an upcoming match between Uemura/Umino and Ishii/Taichi. UPDATE: That match will happen on 1/19.
The next event is BLUE JUSTICE 17, the next Yuji Nagata Produced hometown event, on 1/18 at Sakura Civic Gym in Chiba. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin on 1/17 at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
*-Tanahashi only retired as a wrestler. He will remain as President of the promotion, reporting to Chairman Naoki Sugabayasbi and Bushiroad President Takaaki Kitani (the owner of New Japan).
UPDATE: Ospreay also stated he intends to return to New Japan while still competing in All Elite Wrestling when he does cone back Emphasis on when as his future is uncertain while he recovers from a major neck injury. It may mot be anytime soon, I think we’re still looking at several more months.
There are also widespread rumors that, based on his outfits, guitars and comments after Tokyo Dome and today, SANADA is leaving the promotion. Nothing official yet.
UPDATE 2: Wolf-Narita for the NEVER title is now official. That match will happen on 2/11.
The promotion also announced SANADA is temporarily leaving the promotion. Return date TBA
The biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and maybe the biggest in the world after WWE WrestleMania, New Japan’s 1/4 signature event, WRESTLE KINGDOM 20, is finally today. The biggest event in the series will be a very melancholy event and one perhaps some have secvretly been dreading as the promotion says goodbye to perhaps their greatest ever, Hiroshi Tanahashi, who will retire after today. He’s not really leaving as he will remain in his second job as President of New Japan Pro Wrestling, 3rd in command in the promotion (behind Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi and Bushiroad Corporation President Takaaki Kitani-Bushiroad is the owner of New Japan), but for the first time in more than 25 years he won’t be a wrestler, marking the end of a career that has seen him become a once a century generational talent-imagine RIc Flair, Hulk Hogan & John Cena all rolled into one. It’s about so much more than that, with several title matches including Stardom being featured in a double title match, the debut of highly-touted Aaron Wolf and much more, but the focus is largely on the main event as Tanahashi’s final match comes against one of his greatest rivals and who perhaps was going to be the future torch-bearer for the promotion: Kazuchika Okada, who left for All Elite Wrestling but returns today for one glorious finale. (A lot of internet fans thought it would be-and should be-Shinsuke Nakamura instead, but there was zero chance of that because Nakamura is in WWE and New Japan has a working relationship with AEW. That’s Not Best For Business)
Today’s event will be held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE & EXCLUSIVE OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World in Japanese & English (no Triller/FITE or anywhere else). This is a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan, which the NJPW World feed will be a simulcast of. The event is a legit advance sellout. The start time has been moved up 30 minutes for a pre-show match. This is also perhaps the promotoin’s longest event of the year even with only 8 matches scheduled but 6 are title matches, and if you’re watching live in the US it’s an all-nighter as the running time will probably be 4 1/2-5 hours, maybe longer depending on how much of an epic send-off Tanahashi gets-and gives-us as there surely will be one final air guitar concert to send the crowd home happy (hopefully). I may not make it through it despite it being a 10:30 PM start for me but I’ve hopefully got enough caffeine to push through. If updates suddenly stop near the end, I didn’t make it through and will update the results after a few hours’ sleep.
Today’s lineup: Pre-show: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo vs. Chris Brookes for the title Main show: 8 team 24-man battle royal for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship. When one wrestler is eliminated, his entire team is out. Last team left wins. Current Champions Yoh, Master Wato & Toru Yano are participating IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri vs. STRONG Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani for the titles Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi vs. HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo & TBA El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way for an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot Aaron Wolf Debut Match: NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL vs. Aaron Wolf for the title IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji for the titles Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM PT/1:30 AM ET. The main card is scheduled to begin at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
Pre-Show Update; There has been a late addition of a pre-pre-show match added to the event: Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda. Because of this, updates will now begin at 10:15 PM PT/1:15 AM ET.
10:15 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata (remotely, presumably at Korakuen Hall still as Tokyo Josih Pro’s evnt he called for WRESTLE UNIVERSE finished less than an hour ago) & Milano Collection A.T. No guest on commentary yet.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a legit advance sellout but it’s not the full capacity Dome, which is 65,000 for baseball. I’m thinking it’ll be around 50,000. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance-a legit advance sellout with standing room included-was 46,913. That’s about 70% of normal Dome capacity)
Pre-pre-show match: Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda. 10 minute time limit Result: Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda beat Shoma Kato & Tetauya Matsumoto. Murashima beat Matsumoto with a modified Boston Crab.
We go right into the pre-show afterwards so it’s starting 5 minutes early. By the way, no free YouTube opening simulcast today. But the next match will be available on demand FOR FREE on YouTube at some point after the event.
Pre-show: Pre-show match: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo vs. Chris Brookes (DDT) for the title. 15 minute time limit. DDT wrestler Super Sasadango Machine (Muscle Sakai) and a member of BALLISTIK BOYZ are guests on commentary for this match Result: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo beat Chris Brookes to retain the title. V6 for Phantasmo.
End Pre-show. Updates will resume when the main portion of the event begins in about 15 minutes. The live stream will resume at that time.
Main show: This event is airing in Japan as the premiere of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2026 on TV Asahi. New host on commentary.
Match 1: 8 team 24-man battle royal for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship. When one wrestler is eliminated, his entire team is out. Last team left wins. No time limit. Staggered entry. Order of entry: Kaisei Takechi/Yuya Uemura/Shota Umino, Yoshinobu Kanemaru/Ren Narita/SANADA, Clark Connors/OSKAR (The Grouch)/Yuto Ice (Ice Baby (with Thekla, who is married to Connors), Zack Sabre Jr/Ryohei Oiwa/Hartley Jackson, Togi Makabe/Ryusuke Taguchi/Tiger Mask (final Tokyo Dome for TM 4 as he is retiring in the next few months), Hirooki Goto/YOSHI-HASHI/Boltin Oleg, Tomohiro Ishii/Taichi/Satoshi Kojima, NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Master Wato/Yoh/Toru Yano Order of elimination: OSKAR (Connors/OSKAR/Ice out), TM 4 (Makabe/Taguchi/TM 4 out), Taichi (Taichi/Ishii/Kojima out), Uemura (Uemura/Umino/Takechi out), Yoh (Wato/Yoh/Yano out-that means whoever wins will be NEW CHAMPIONS), SANADA (Kanemaru/SANADA/Narita out), Oleg (YOSHI-HASHI/Goto/Oleg out) Result: Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Zack Sabre Jr. win, last eliminating Oleg/YOSHI-HASHI/Goto, to win the titles. Oiwa, Jackson & Sabre become the 32nd NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions. As Ishii/Taichi/Kojima entered, cameras caught sumo wrestler & Yokozuna Grand Champion Onosato sitting at ringside.
Host change as Haruo Murata is back on Japanese commentary. Might be alternating today. Stardom wrestler Maika is a guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 2: IWGP Women’s Champion Syuri (Stardom) vs. STRONG Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani (Stardom) for the titles. 1 Hour time limit. Stardom’s ring announcer handles the introductions here Result: Syuri beat Saya Kamitani to win the titles. Syuri becomes the 7th STRONG Women’s Champion. IWGP V1 for Syuri.
Match 3: Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi vs. HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo (who the English announcer billed as from AEW) & TBA. TBA is revealed to be…Jake Lee! 30 minute time limit Result: HENARE, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, Andrade El Idolo & Jake Lee beat Hiromu Takahashi, Gabriel Kidd, Drilla Moloney, David Finlay & Shingo Takagi. Lee pinned Takahashi. Afterwards, another mystery man wearing Andrade’s mask appeared, and revealed himself to be the returning Francesco Akira who then laid out Takahashi.
Yoh is the guest on commentary for the next match.
Match 4: El Desperado vs. Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way for an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot. 1 Hour time limit Before anyone entered, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI came out. With microphone in the ring. A few words amidst heaby boos before intros began. Result: El Desperado beat Taiji Ishimori, Sho & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way by pinning Sho. As a result, Desperado gets the next IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot. No surprise, Desperado always wins at Tokyo Dome, or so it seems.
Afterwards, a short promo was shown for the next DESPE INVITATIONAL event…4/16 in Las Vegas, NV. This was followed by a promo video for upcoming major events in 2026 including the New Japan Cup in March, SAKURA GENESIS on 4/4 at Ryogoku Kokugikan, WRESTLING REDZONE in HIROSHIMA on 4/25, WRESTLING DONTAKU on 5/3 & 5/4 in Fukuoka, Best Of The Super Junior, DOMINION on 6/14 in Osaka, the G1 CLIMAX opener in the USA on 7/11 at NOW Arena in Chicago, IL followed by the Finals on 8/15 & 8/16 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
The guests on commentary for the next match are Yano, Yuji Nagata and…Masahiro Chono!
Match 5: Aaron Wolf Debut Match: NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL vs. Aaron Wolf for the title. 1 Hour time limit Result: Aaron Wolf beat NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL by ref stoppage (technical submission) to win the title. Wolf becomes the 50th NEVER Openweight Champion.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Match 6: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji for the titles. 1 Hour time limit Result: Yota Tsuji beat Konosuke Takeshita by submission to win the titles. Tsuji becomes the 15th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Global V2 for Tsuji. Tsuji’s post-match promo was interrupted by Jake Lee, who beat down the new double champion and silently seemed to issue the challenge, at least for the World title.
That means the time has come…
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada. 1 Hour time limit Result: Kazuchika Okada beat Hiroshi Tanahashi. And after 30+ intense minutes, it’s all over. 25+ years of Hiroshi Tanahashi ends with a loss to one of his greatest rivals. Now he will transition to President full-time. The retirement ceremony for Tanahashi followed (will watch later as after 9 hours of wrestling I have to throw in the towel). Several former New Japan wrestlers were present for flower presentations including Kenny Omega, Will Ospreay, Kota Ibushi (hobbling badly alongside Omega), Katsuyori Shibata (who traded some chops with Tanahashi), Keiji Muto, of course Tatsumi Fujinami and, in a big surprise, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito. The final 10 bell salute followed and Tanahashi rightfully took his time leaving, including being pushed out on a rolling platform by the Young Lions as the festivities went on for about an hour. Now he is President Ace but always FOREVER ACE.
The next event is NEW YEAR DASH!! tomorrow at Ota City General Gym. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. (The original post incorrectly said the event was at Korakuen Hall. Why I should not be posting at 3 AM)
UPDATE: In non-Dome news, there was a STRONG Tag Team Championship match this weekend in CMLL in Mexico, in which current champions Angel De Oro & Niebla Roja beat Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs to retain he titles. V1 for the champs.
You can also watch the full backstage comments from today, including highlights of Tanahashi’s retirement ceremony and his final epic air guitar performance to send the crowd home happy, FOR FREE on YouTube.
UPDATE 2: The full card for tomorrow is set now, and for now there is a hilarious typo on New Japan’s English website. Take a look at the screencap below about the main event and see for yourself…
Last I checked, that’s not Yota Tsuji pictured there with Ryohei Oiwa…Tsuji is to be in an 8-man tag earlier in the card. Before the main event, there is also a 4-way for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.
UPDATE 3: You can now watch the full Phantasmo-Brookes match FOR FREE on YouTube via the NJPW WORLD Official channel.
New Japan wrapped up their 2025 with the final event of the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour and the Hiroshi Tanahashi retirement road, the last event before his retirement match at Tokyo Dome.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE!!! No account or paid subscription required! No YouTube as a result.
The announced paid attendance was 1515, a legit sellout.
Match 1: NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo beat TBA, revealed at match time to be Ryusuke Taguchi, to retain the title. V5 for Phantasmo. Next up: Possibly DDT wrestler Chris Brookes, who attacked Phantasmo post-match and issued the challenge. According to DDT’s official English social media, the challenge is for Tokyo Dome.
Match 2; Boltin Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Tiger Mask, Satoshi Kojima & Taichi. YOSHI-HASHI pjnned TM 4.
Match 3: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, SANADA & EVIL beat Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino. Narita pinned Wato. Afterwards, a House Of Torture beatdown commenced until DDT’s Kaisei Takechi made the save, surely to the delight of female fans in attendance.
Match 4: Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan beat Gedo, Hiromu Takahashi & David Finlay. Newman pinned Gedo after Overkill. Afterwards, Newman revealed one of the two TBA for United Empire in the 10-man tag at Tokyo Dome…Andrade El Idolo. Supposedly Andrade has a 1 year no-compete clause due to being let go again by WWR for drug program violations but I’d heard a “one-time exception” was being negotiated by his legal team. This must be it.
Match 5: Sho & DOUKI beat KUUKAI & El Desperado and Daiki Nagai & Taiji Ishinori in a 3-way when DOUKI pinned Nagai.
Match 6: Yota Tsuji, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) beat Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Tsuji pinned Jackson after Gene Blaster.
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Kosei Fujita. Afterwards, Tanahashi said farewell to the venue where he made his debut and performed one final Korakuen epic air guitar show to send the fans home happy.
2025 has now come to a close for New Japan and the Hiroshi Tanahashi Retirement Road has reached the final stop because…
The next event, the first of 2026, is WRESTLE KINGDOM 20 in TOKYO DOME, the biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and maybe biggest in the world after WWE WrestleMania, on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. The event is a legit advance sellout. Live streaming EXCLUSIVELY on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin on 1/3 at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. This will be a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan only. Additionally, a special program looking back at Tanahashi’s career will be aired on New Japan World FOR FREE Wednesday beginning at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
UPDATE: It’s now official. Phantasmo-Brookes has been added to Tokyo Dome and will be a pre-show match.
Also, the full field for the battle royal for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match on 1/4 has been announced: Master Wato, Yoh & Toru Yano will defend the titles against these 7 teams-Shota Umino/Yuya Uemura/Kaisei Takechi (DDT), Hirooki Goto/YOSHI-HASHI/Boltin Oleg, Zack Sabre Jr./Ryohei Oiwa/Hartley Jackson, Togi Makabe/Ryusuke Taguxhi/Tiger Mask, Clark Connors/OSKAR/Yuto Ice, Tomohiro Ishii/Taichi/Satoshi Kojima, Ren Narita/Yoshinobu Kanemaru/SANADA. 2 teams will start and a new team enters every minute. When one wrestler is eliminated that entire trio is out. Eliminations are by pinfall, submission or over the top rope. Last team left wins the match and the titles
New Japan ran their last outside-Tokyo event of the year today and the last such event of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s career as they went to Tochigi for the second and penultimate event of the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour.
Today’s event was held at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi 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 1323, a legit sellout.
Match 1: Sho & DOUKI beat Tatsuya Matsumoto & KUUKAI (Michinoku Pro) by ref stoppage. DOUKI beat Matsumoto with Italian Stretch 32.
Match 2: Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe beat Zane Jay & Katsuya Murashima. Makabe pinned Jay after a King Kong kneedrop.
Match 3: Shoma Kato, Master Wato, Yoh & Toru Yano beat Masatora Yasuda, Tiger Mask, Satoshi Kojima & Taichi.Wato pinned Yasuda after a swan dive uppercut.
Match 4: Boltin Oleg, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, SANADA, Ren Narita & EVIL. Uemura pinned Takahashi with a Kannuki suplex hold.
Match 5: Jacob Austion Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan beat Daiki Nagai, Hiromu Takahashi & SHingo Takagi. Newman pinned Nagai after Time Bomb.
Match 6: Taiji Ishimori, Yota Tsuji, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) beat Kosei Fujita, Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Tsuji pinned Jackson after Gene Blaster.
Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat El Desperado. Afterwards, Tanahashi said his final farewell to the fans including epic air guitar despite a seemingly painful knee to sent the crowd home happy. And sad too as it’s the last time they’ll see Tanahashi compete.
The tour-ender, and the final event of 2025, is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET, and EVERYONE will be able to watch the full event live & on demand FOR FREE!!!
