Tag: Taiji Ishimori

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 results: Naito, Okada, Finlay win big

Who got their hand raised in Tokyo Dome? We’ve got you covered with full NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 results.

If the calendar has flipped to January and a few days have passed to let it sink in, that can only mean one thing: It’s time for NJPW Wrestle Kingdom. The annual Tokyo Dome show is the biggest event in Japanese wrestling each year, and it’s a pretty big deal for fans around the world provided they can set their schedules accordingly.

As is tradition, Wrestle Kingdom 18 is headlined by an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match, this time with a bit of a student vs. teacher vibe as Sanada tries to fend off Tetsuya Naito. The final match on any Wrestle Kingdom card tends to set the direction for New Japan for months, but that may be true this time around more than ever.

U.S. fans will get to see two very familiar and accomplished faces from AEW. Bryan Danielson takes on Kazuchika Okada in a non-title match that could outshine even the main event, while Jon Moxley tangles with both Will Ospreay and David Finlay for a brand new championship.

More title bouts are up and down tonight’s card — seven in all out of 10 matches (plus the traditional New Japan Ranpo to kick things off). It should be a long but very exciting show.

We’ve got our sleep schedule rearranged and consumed our caffeine, and will be recapping the whole event right here.

NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 18 results:

(please click on any match with a link for full details)

  • Great-O-Khan, Taiji Ishimori, Toru Yano and Yoh win the KOPW 2024 New Japan Ranbo, meaning they head to New Year Dash to compete for the Provisional KOPW 2024 Championship
  • Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira and TJP/The Aswang) def. Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors and Drilla Moloney) by pinfall to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, aided greatly by TJP’s transformation into The Aswang
  • Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Zack Sabre Jr. by pinfall to become the new NJPW World Television Champion
  • Yuya Uemura def. Yota Tsuji by pinfall
  • House of Torture (Evil and Ren Narita) def. Shota Umino and Kaito Kiyomiya by pinfall, with the help of plenty of interference from the rest of House of Torture and a timely shot from a push-up bar
  • Tama Tonga def. Shingo Takagi by pinfall to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion
  • Nic Nemeth (known as Dolph Ziggler in WWE) and brother Ryan Nemeth are shown making their way to “VIP seats”
  • Guerrillas of Destiny (Hikuleo and El Phantasmo) def. Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) by pinfall to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions and retain the Strong Openweight Tag Team Championship
  • El Desperado def. Hiromu Takahashi by pinfall to become the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion
  • David Finlay def. Will Ospreay and Jon Moxley to become the inaugural IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion
  • On his way out, Finlay makes a point of stopping in front of Nic Nemeth, and after exchanging words, he shoves Nemeth; that touches off a brawl that continues until and even after they are pulled apart
  • Kazuchika Okada def. Bryan Danielson by pinfall
  • Tetsuya Naito def. Sanada by pinfall to become the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion
  • After the match, Naito is attacked by EVIL and Dick Togo, but Sanada helps fight them off

Two title matches confirmed for Wrestle Kingdom 17

Participants from the first two of many title matches for Wrestle Kingdom 17 had their say.

With Wrestle Kingdom 17 once again looming as the biggest show of the NJPW calendar year on Jan. 4, there are guaranteed to be a number of title matches. Thanks to a press conference held late Monday night, U.S. time, we officially know what two of them will be.

In what figures to be the show’s main event, IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White will defend his title against Kazuchika Okada. It will be the latest in an interesting series of singles matches between the two that has seen White take four victories in five meetings, even when Okada was the unquestioned top star in the promotion.

They’ve met twice before for the world championship, with Okada beating White at ROH/NJPW G1 SuperCard in 2019 and White returning the favor at NJPW Dominion 6.12 In Osaka-Jo Hall earlier this year. White then successfully held off Okada, Adam Cole and Hangman Adam Page in a four-way match to retain the title at Forbidden Door, the crossover event with AEW in Chicago.

Okada secured his spot for Wrestle Kingdom in August, pinning Will Ospreay in the G1 Climax final. Yet he didn’t know who he’d face until this week, when White turned back Tama Tonga in an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match. At the press conference, White seemed annoyed that Okada didn’t have the same stakes in his match with JONAH.

“I’m still confused as to why his match against the monster JONAH, why that wasn’t for the right to challenge me at Wrestle Kingdom,” White said. “It doesn’t make sense to me, but then I’m not surprised, or shocked because of course this man is going to get that treatment.”

The other Wrestle Kingdom 17 match made official was a four-way bout for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship that will see champion Taiji Ishimori try to retain against Hiromu Takahashi, El Desperado and Master Wato.

The junior heavyweights’ portion of the press conference was a bit wilder, with Hiromu passing out a flier he made for a proposed “Miyakojima tour” for the four combatants, as well as confusion over the actual rules of the four-way.

“When we’ve done tag team three ways and four ways there’s always been tags and two guys in,” El Desperado said.

“This is singles, so it’s got nothing to do with it,” Hiromu replied. “Five years ago when I had a four-way, everyone was all over the place.”

They also bickered a bit over a Nov. 5 show in Osaka where the four of them will be in a tag team match with the sides decided by random draw. No one seemed eager to tag up with anyone else, and Wato ended up posing for photos intended for the whole group by himself.

Wrestle Kingdom 17 is set for the Tokyo Dome on Jan. 4, returning to a single-night event for the first time since 2019. Other matches already expected to be confirmed will be the final bout in a tournament to determine the inaugural NJPW World Television Championship, as well as an IWGP Women’s Championship match after that title is first awarded at the Historic X-Over show on Nov. 20.

Kushida returns, says he will ‘spend the rest of my wrestling life in NJPW’

Kushida returned on the June 21 New Japan Road show at Korakuen Hall after three years away, making it clear he’s back in NJPW to stay.

After more than three years away, Kushida is back in NJPW — and says he’s home for good.

Kushida made a dramatic return at the end of today’s New Japan Road show at Korakuen Hall, arriving after Taiji Ishimori defeated Hiromu Takahashi to retain his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Responding to Ishimori’s assertion that there were no challengers left in the division, Kushida made it clear he’s already got designs on the title, though the champ felt he needed to prove himself first.

Saying later that he had “literally just signed my NJPW contract,” Kushida also revealed that his intention was “to spend the rest of my wrestling life in NJPW,” That’s significant since the 39-year-old wrestler left NJPW in the spring of 2019 to compete in WWE’s NXT brand. His arrival was treated like a big deal by WWE — not least because it allowed him to keep his real name — and he experienced some success, winning the NXT Cruiserweight Championship.

Still, the sentiment among a good portion of wrestling fans was that Kushida never reached his full potential in NXT, and his departure seemed inevitable once that brand was revamped into NXT 2.0 with a greater focus on developing young talent. Most of Kushida’s last few months under WWE contract were spent in tag team matches, often on the losing end, and his final NXT match was taped on March 22.

Kushida does have unfinished business with Ishimori as well, as the last time he competed for a championship in NJPW was when he lost the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship to the Bullet Club wrestler at Wrestle Kingdom 13. That show in January 2019 now feels like a lifetime ago, but it should be interesting to see how quickly Kushida reacclimates himself to the NJPW scene, and if he can get back in the title hunt as quickly as he hopes.