New Japan wrapped up the BATTLE AUTUMN ’22 Tour with what likely will be the penultimate major event of the year, with multiple title matches and at least one more Tokyo Dome title match being set as we’ll find out who will face off for the inaugural NJPW WORLD TV Championship.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.
The announced paid attendance was 4006, a full house/near sellout. That suggests Osaka has, at least for some events, eased up its strict pandemic capacity limits above 50% (if it were still at half this would be a legit overflow crowd).
Match 1: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Francesco Akira & TJP beat Titan & BUSHI to retain the titles. Akira pinned BUSHI after The Leaning Tower. V2 for the champs.
Match 2: Gideon Gray, Aaron Henare & Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) beat Alex Zayne, Toru Yano, David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Fletcher pinned Yano after Corealis.
Match 3: Hikuleo beat Yujiro Takahashi. This lasted just 28 seconds. Sho interference at the start backfired. This was to have been Hikuleo vs. NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson for the title, but Anderson no-showed due to claiming he would be at a WWE event in Saudi Arabia today. There were rumors Anderson would be stripped of the title but as of this moment he has not been.
Match 4: NJPW WORLD TV Championship Tournament Semifinals: Ren Narita beat SANADA.
Match 5: NJPW WORLD TV Championship Tournament Semifinals: Zack Sabre Jr. beat EVIL by submission.
As a result of the Semifinals, it will be Narita vs. Sabre for the title at Tokyo Dome. (It’s gonna be Narita although Sabre deserves a singles title run. I’m sensing Narita is going to be be pushed as the eventual next Hiroshi Tanahashi or Kazuchika Okada, although Okada has a good 10+ years left in him as long as he remains healthy)
Match 6: In a tag team match where the pairings were determined by random draw at a press conference yesterday, Master Wato & El Desperado beat Hiromu Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori. Wato pinned Takahashi after countering Time Bomb with a jumping knee strike. Regardless of the type of match, this is a huge victory for Wato.
Match 7: Tama Tonga & Kazuchika Okada beat KENTA & Jay White. Tonga pinned KENTA after Gun Stun.
Match 8: IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR beat Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb to retain the titles. Dax Harwood pinned Khan after Big Rig. V2 for the champs. They will be taking the belts back to All Elite Wrestling with them. I expect their next defense to be at Tokyo Dome unless they make something happen in AEW.
Main Event: IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Tetsuya Naito to retain the title. V3 for Ospreay. 30 minute marathon. Next up…Shota Umino!?! If this happens, it likely will be on 11/20 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. (Umino, the son of referee Red Shoes Unno, has been in England since before the pandemic began on his post-Young Lion training excursion).
The next events are a special Kazuchika Okada Homecoming & Anjo City 70th Anniversary event on 11/12 at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi and the debut of NJPW TAMASHII on Friday in Sydney, Australia and 11/13 in Christchurch, New Zealand. TAMASHII is a new sub-brand focusing on Australia & New Zealand-based talent, much like how NJPW STRONG focuses on the LA Dojo in the USA. New Zealand dojo head and current NJPW wrestler Bad Luck Fale is heading up TAMASHII.
There will be no live or on demand broadcasts for all 3 events.
The next “main” event is HISTORIC X-OVER, a joint event between New Japan & Stardom (both are owned by Bushiroad Corporation), on 11/20 at Ariake Arena in Japan. This will be a worldwide PPV on New Japan World (additional purchase required). That will be followed by the World Tag League & Super Jr. Tag League, which will run together, beginning on 11/21 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.
UPDATE: It’s now official. Ospreay-Umino for the US Title will happen on 11/20.
