New Japan continued the BURNING SPIRIT Tour today with a special Yuji Nagata 30th Anniversary event as the promotion returned to the BLUE JUSTICE founder’s hometown in Chiba Prefecture. Nagata, the self-proclaimed strongest 53-years-old (I think), remains very popular and you know he would try his best today like almost every day.
Today’s event was held at Togane Arena in Chiba and will be available on demand on New Japan World at a later date. There was no live broadcast (it was taped for later broadcast on Samurai! TV in Japan). Based on the Japanese broadcast schedule it may be up to one week before it is available on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1200.
Match 1: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Kosei Fujita. Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Sho beat FUjita with Snake Bite. Afterwards, House Of Torture requested yet another Dog Cage/Kennel Match for 9/18, when they will challenge the Chaos trio once again for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship. (This is getting ridiculous(ly boring).
Match 2: Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP beat The DKC, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi. Henare pinned DKC after Rampage.
Match 3: Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale beat Gideon Gray & Jeff Cobb. Fale beat Gray by Gray giving up in just over 2 minutes.
Match 4: Jado, Tomoaki Honma, Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA beat Gedo, Hikuleo, KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. KUSHIDA pinned Gedo with a hammerlock suplex hold.
Match 5: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat TAKA Michinoku, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. Takahashi pinned TAKA with Nameless Hiromu Roll.
Match 6: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Jonah beat Toru Yano, Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada. Jonah pinned Makabe after Torpedo.
Main Event: Yuji Nagata 30th Anniversary Match: Great-O-Khan beat Yuji Nagata. They went almost 22 minutes.
After the match, a 30th Anniversary commemoration celebration was held in the ring for Nagata featuring the main roster present, with gifts & flowers presented by Tanahashi, Satoshi Kojima, former New Japan wrestler Manabu Nakanishi and others and a suprise appearance by the legendary Tatsumi Fujinami. Former New Japan wrestlers including now-DDT star Jun Akiyama and The Living Legend, Keiji Muto (now in Pro Wrestling NOAH as he winds down his incomparable career), sent recorded video messages that were played. The ceremony concluded with an announcement that the promotion would return here next year.
The next event is Tuesday at Towa Pharmaceutical RACTAB Dome Sub-Arena aka Kadoma Sports Center in Osaka. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. (No video for the next 3 events. Back on New Japan World next Sunday)
UPDATE: The promotion has announced that the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Title match on 9/18 is now a Dog Cage Survival Match. It’s a tornado match with no tags and there will be a dog cage in each corner. You can lock someone in the cage and they are eliminated from the match. If all 3 members of a team get locked in cages, the match ends then in addition to pinfalls and submissions.
