WRESTLING DONTAKU 2023, New Japan’s annual Golden Week blowout event, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka International Center in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 4498, a legit advance sellout. They must have had quite the stage setup taking a ton of space because that’s only 60% capacity (the venue’s max capacity is 7500, but that’s primarily for sumo).
Pre-Show Match: In a Young Lion Consecutive Battles Match where Ryohei Oiwa faced Oskar Leube, Boltin Oleg & Yuto Nakashima in 5 minute time limit matches with the chance to win prizes from TV Asahi and an NJPW WORLD TV Championship match if he won all 3, Oiwa finished with one loss and 2 time limit draws. He wins nothing. Leube beat Oiwa.
Match 1: Yoh, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. YOSHI-HASHI pinned Togo after Shoto.
Match 2: Great-O-Khan & Aussie Open beat Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. Khan beat Fujita with Subaru Sheep Killer.
Match 3: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA & Shota Umino beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Aaron Henare. KUSHIDA pinned TJP with Perfect Small Package.
Match 4: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Taichi pinned BUSHI after Seitei Jujiro.
Match 5: Hikuleo beat STRONG Openweight Chanpion KENTA to win the title. Hikuleo becomes the 4th STRONG Openweight Champion.
Match 6: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jeff Cobb went to a 15 minute time limit draw. As a result, Sabre retains the title. V6 for Sabre. Next up: Since Oiwa couldn’t earn a shot today, TBA.
Match 7: Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki to win the titles. Ishii, Tanahashi & Okada become the 26th NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions. Okada pinned Narita after Rainmaker. Next up: Possibly Umino, who may have chosen Jon Moxley as one of his partners. Moxley will return to Japan for the first time since the pandemic began at DOMINION in June. Other partner seems TBA but it was hinted that Moxley is bringing someone with him, which immediately suggests someone from All Elite Wrestling-namely one of Bryan Danielson, Claudio Castagnoli or Wheeler Yuta.
Match 8: David Finlay beat NEVER Openweight Champion Tama Tonga to win the title. Finlay becomes the 39th NEVER Openweight Champion. Next up: TBA, but Finlay’s celebration was short lived thanks to an ambush by El Phantasmo, who is now on the New Japan side after being kicked out of Bullet Club.
Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Chanpion SANADA beat Hiromu Takahashi to retain the title. V1 for SANADA. Takahashi’s IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship was not on the line here. Note that as of earlier today New Japan’s English website incorrectly indicated Takahashi wok while indicating SANADA retained. Next up: Possibly a challenger less than nobody expected…Yota Tsuji!?! The Young Lion, who is/has been on his traditional training excursion (he chose to go to Mexico and has been competing in CMLL) made a surprise appearance and laid out SANADA post-match.
Next up is Best Of The Super Junior 30, New Japan’s annual prestigious Jr. Heavyweight showcase, beginning on 5/12 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. Every BOSJ event will be available live and on demand in Japanese and English. A pre-tournament press conference and talk show event will be held on 5/11 at Tokyo FM Hall in Tokyo, which is open to the public (tickets required to attend).
