POWER STRUGGLE, New Japan’s final blowout event of the year, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World outside Japan only. It will be available in Japan at a later date. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 4046, a full house/near sellout. (The venue’s normal full capacity, normally for sumo but sometimes for wrestling or other events, is 5000) Not sure what today’s setup was)
Pre-Show Match: Boltin Oleg, The DKC & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Mochizuki Jr., Yoshiki Kato & Strong Machine J (Dragon Gate). Taguchi beat Jr. with Oh My & Gar Ankle.
Match 1: Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb beat Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima. Cobb pinned Leube after Tour Of The Islands.
Match 2: Master Wato & El Desperado beat Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors, MUSASHI & Yoh and Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles in a 4-way when Desperado pinned Fujita.
Match 3: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Tama Tonga beat Titan, BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Tonga pinned BUSHI after Gun Stun.
Match 4: Yota Tsuji & Tetsuya Naito beat Yuya Uemura & SANADA. Tsuji pinned Uemura after Gene Blaster.
Match 5: David Finlay beat Tanga Loa.
Match 6: Jon Moxley vs. Great-O-Khan went to a near-immediate double countout. Which led to…
Match 6 (again): In a Falls Count Anywhere match, Jon Moxley beat Great-O-Khan by ref stoppage (bulldog choke after Death Rider). There was some hair cutting in this match.
Match 7: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. to retain the titles. Tanahashi pinned Sabre. V4 for the champs. Afterwards, Bryan Danielson promo played, which was pre-taped. He challenged Okada for 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome. Despite Danielson being out most of the rest of the year due to injury (broken orbital bone, he reportedly had surgery already) and his status being unsure at this point, it’s now official.
(Side note: Although All Elite Wrestling and Danielson said Okada caused the injury last week on Dynamite in a tag match, that was just an angle. It reportedly happened the week before when Danielson faced Andrade El Idolo on AEW Collision, and it’s also being reported that it was a freak accident)
Match 8: Super Junior Tag League Finals: Francesco Akira & TJP beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho to win the tournament. TJP pinned Kanemaru after 2/2. As a result, Akira & TJP will face IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors for the titles at Tokyo Dome.
Match 9: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Taiji Ishimori to retain the title. V7 for Takahashi. No word on if he also won the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship back, although at yesterday’s pre-event presser Ishimori said he was going to vacate the title after this match if he beat Takahashi. We’ll wait for updates from New Japan and DDT. Next up: El Desperado. Nominated by Takahashi. That match will happen at Tokyo Dome.
UPDATE: And as luck would have it in the match above, per DDT…Hiromu Takahashi beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Taiji Ishimori to win the title. Takahashi becomes the 1589th Champion. As of now the title match vs. Kazuki Hirata on 11/12 is back on.
Main Event: IWGP US (UK) Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Shota Umino to retain the title.V3 for Ospreay. They went over 40 minutes. Next up: Very much up in the air. Reports yesterday were that if Umino won the title, he would face Moxley at Tokyo Dome. Also uncertainty because Ospreay reportedly will be a free agent soon as his contract is up early next year and he has been talking a lot about wanting to go to Impact Wrestling/TNA Wrestling (he was just there when Impact went to England-a reminder that if you saw him compete yesterday at Turning Point, that event was TAPED. It happened over a week ago), but I wouldn’t rule out WWE because his significant other is there (Blair Davenport, the former Bea Priestley, currently in NXT). But after the match, Finlay came out with a hammer and laid both Ospreay & Moxley out and destroyed the title belts as Gedo demanded a new belt be created for Finlay. Which, in typical Bullet Club fashion, sent the crowd home VERY UNHAPPY. Usually that’s reserved for House Of Torture because it takes AN AWFUL LOT to get booed in Japan, even as the most despicable heels, and especially like they do (I don’t know if even The Callous Hand Of Don would get reactions like that). Or simply put, you have to do stuff like that to get serious heat and hate from the normally very-respectful Japanese fans.
The next event is Lonestar Shootout Friday at Curtis Culwell Center in Garland Park, TX. While New Japan World hasn’t confirmed it yet, and likely won’t before then as it’ll be last-minute following their new relaunch the day before (you can’t subscribe or cancel until then), unlike Fighting Spirit Unleashed all indications are this will be a PPV with additional purchase required. It is not available for pre-order yet. New Japan World version will be Japanese only. The English broadcast will be a PPV on FITE and is now available for pre-order for $19.99. The broadcasts will begin Friday at 5 PM PT/8 PM ET.
On the Japan side, the next event is Anjo Rainy Days Saturday at Tochi Arena Anjo in Aichi. I think this is a Kazuchika Okada hometown event and he’ll probably be there as he’s not on Friday’s card but nothing has been announced for it yet. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. That will be followed by the New Japan Road tour, which this year will be only 2 events-11/17 at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata and 11/19 at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi. 11/17 will be live & on demand on New Japan World while there will be no broadcast for 11/19. After that will be the World Tag League, the final annual tournament of the year, from 11/20-12/10 (probably all live & on demand but the December broadcast schedule has not yet been announced-all the November events will be on New Japan World). followed by the year-ending Road To Tokyo Dome tour, which will be a doubleheader on 12/21 & 12/22 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo to wrap up 2023.