NJPW 22/23 : A Return To Glory

The stars of New Japan Pro-Wrestling are gearing up for our second and final week of the Summer Struggle tour as we head up north and work our way back to Tokyo, making stops in Sapporo, Aomori, Yamagata and Nagano for five nights of hard-hitting strong style action.

NJPW1972.com has been given first-look at the main card announcement for the upcoming shows and we can confirm that just like last week, championships will be defended at every event as well as a host of special singles and tag matches to boot.

Let’s unpack the upcoming championship matches first…


But there’s more! Outside of our scheduled championship matches the Summer Struggle tour will also see an exciting array of singles and tag bouts featuring some of New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s top stars…

The Summer Struggle tour continues to plow on for its sixth night, emanating tonight from Aomori with a strong card to boast including an IWGP Tag Team Championship match and a huge G1 Climax Block B rematch to close the show.

The show kicked off with two of the Young Lions Kosei Fujita and Yuto Nakashima this time teaming up alongside veteran and former IWGP Heavyweight, GHC Heavyweight and All Japan Triple Crown Champion Satoshi Kojima to tackle Bullet Club’s Juice Robinson, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori in six-man action. Having lost to Tanahashi last night in Sapporo, Juice was in a terrible mood tonight and seemed to relish taking out his frustrations on the Young Lions, and it didn’t take too long before Bullet Club pushed them to their limits. In the end Juice would finish Fujita with the Pulp Friction to score a win for Bullet Club, although something tells us it wasn’t enough to satiate Robinson’s sour mood.

Next we had juniors in action as the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA teamed with former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato to clash with two thirds of the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Champions El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru, along with their Suzuki-gun compadre DOUKI. With the champion set to defend his title against El Desperado tomorrow night in Yamagata this was the last chance for either man to gain the mental upper hand, so both were pushing to get that all important pin. Tonight that distinction would once again go to the man with the belt after KUSHIDA locked DOUKI in the Hoverboard Lock, with the latter unable to hold out from tapping before Despy could break it up. The challenger squared up to the champion after the match and let him know that the juniors division was Despy’s and KUSHIDA had no clout in New Japan anymore, but that was just talk and the result tomorrow night will be what really matters.

Following that we had tag team action as a precursor to the big double title bout in two nights time which pit the reigning double champ Will Ospreay and his partner Aaron Henare against former the IWGP Tag Team Championship coalition of Zack Sabre Jr. and Taichi. Having already twisted up Ospreay’s junior solider Francesco Akira last night, ZSJ was on a mission to leave every member of United Empire twisted like a box of old cables before their title match and was once again able to score a victory by tapping out Henare with the Senior Stretch to put him two-for-two over Ospreay’s army on the tour’s second leg. The afterglow of victory didn’t linger long for Dangerous Tekkers though as after the bell both Taichi and ZSJ were blasted by Jeff Cobb and The Great-O-Khan who blindsided the winners and pummelled them into the ground with their leaders help. Ospreay told them both that tomorrow night they’d perish to the trio now standing tall and that they didn’t stand a chance, but that message only humoured their opponents leader and future opponent Minoru Suzuki who came out onto the ramp laughing at what he saw as misplaced confidence.

The first half of the show was topped off by a special singles bout pitting Jay White’s next championship challenger JONAH against Bullet Club’s Hikuleo. The BC’s resident giant was on a mission to dish out some damage and hamper JONAH’s chances of success against “Switchblade” in three nights time but “The King Of Monsters” relied on his greater ring experience on top of his explosive size and strength to thwart any attempt at derailing his could-be destiny and in less than 7 minutes JONAH had crushed Hikuleo with the Death Drop Driver to score the win.

We jumped into the second half with six-man action where the CHAOS reps Hirooki Goto, Yoshi Hashi and Robbie Eagles looked to extract some retribution from House Of Torture’s EVIL, Sho and Yoh after what they did to Rocky Romero last night which has apparently landed the multi-time champion a spot on the shelf. The always-just Goto was adamant on his cause to wipe the smile off EVIL’s face and the two engaged in a tough struggle back and forth but Hirooki-san’s tunnel vision of EVIL opened an avenue for Sho and Yoh to continue the retuning of their double team offense to keep Eagles and Yoshi Hashi at bay. In the end it was a double knee to Eagles followed by the Direct Drive from Yoh to secure a win for House Of Torture.

This was followed by our last six-man bout of the night between NJPW home team members Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan and David Finlay and the Bullet Club super team of the NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson, his longtime partner Doc Gallows and the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White. The cockiness of Bullet Club was on full display tonight as they showed blatant disrespect to their opponents; particularly Tenzan’s age, Finlay’s crybaby attitude and Tanahashi’s apparent “fall from grace” (according to “Switchblade”, of course). “The Ace Of The Universe” made sure they ate those words and engaged in heavy back-and-forths with both White and Anderson in hopes of securing himself a future title shot but in the end “Switchblade” managed to spike Tenzan with a Blade Runner to secure the victory for Bullet Club. The match was followed by more drama and frustration from David Finlay who this time berated Tenzan for the loss; a move Tanahashi definitely didn’t approve of. “The Ace” would push Finlay across the ring for not showing the proper respect to the former IWGP Heavyweight Champion, and for a moment it looked like the third-generation star might blow up but after taking a deep breath he seemed to see the error of his ways and apologised to Tenzan which got him the stern nod of approval from Tanahashi.

Next we had a main-event calibre tag bout pitting Los Ingobernables de Japon’s SANADA and Shingo Takagi against CHAOS heavyweights Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii, acting as the first warm up to “The Dragon’s” right-to-challenge opportunity match against “The Rainmaker” on the final night of the Summer Struggle tour later this week. The competition within this match was fierce despite all four men working within the parameters of the rules. Ishii relished in the chance to second “The Rainmaker” and brought out the heavy artillery to slow down the freight train-like Takagi, whilst SANADA was gunning to break “The Rainmaker” to position him on the back foot going into his future bout with his partner. Okada and Takagi almost had each other pinned off a Rainmaker and a Made In Japan respectively, with both fall attempts being broken up by their partners and in the end it was Ishii who would rock SANADA with a deafening headbutt before nailing him with a Brainbuster to score the win for CHAOS. With neither Okada or Takagi earning the fall the future opponents locked eyes after the bell and it was certain that they weren’t satisfied with their personal outcomes of this first test, but there’s still plenty of time to gain momentum before their big match in Tokyo.

The semi-final match of the night followed next with the IWGP Tag Team Championships on the line. The reigning champs Jeff Cobb and The Great-O-Khan had their work cut out as they battled multi-time champions Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa who are currently on a two-prong mission to get back on top of what they see as “their” division whilst also dismantling Jay White’s Bullet Club after they were double crossed by “Switchblade” and ex-communicated from the group. This may have been United Empire’s toughest test yet and there were many times when Guerrillas Of Destiny ran circles around them, utilising their amazing chemistry to set the pace. Unfortunately for the challengers their beef with Bullet Club spilled over into the bout when Jay White and The Good Brothers arrived at ringside to cause trouble. The G.O.D threw themselves at the trio and started to brawl and the referee looked to be debating throwing the match out, but JONAH would hit the ring also and ended up chasing White away. The Good Brothers would follow suit and give up the fight, leaving Tama and Tanga to return to the match but it wouldn’t be long before Cobb turned it around and after a Tour Of The Islands for Loa, it was all over.

Finally in our Aomori main event we witnessed a G1 Climax rematch between Block B runner up Tetsuya Naito and KENTA, the only man besides the eventual block winner Will Ospreay to score a pin on him throughout the tournament. Going into the bout it was clear Naito was looking to get his win back and scrub that loss out of his mind as we pushed through the remainder of the year, whilst KENTA wanted to prove the win wasn’t a fluke brought on by the frustration and embarrassment of losing to Block B loser David Finlay two nights prior. What emerged from that dynamic was a tremendous clash of styles that saw Naito’s speed and flair come up against KENTA’s slower and more methodical pace. The Bullet Club veteran targeted Naito’s problem knees to slow him down and remove his aerial arsenal and it was definitely effective, but despite Naito’s aloof attitude it was obvious he had something to fight for tonight and did his best to weather the storm. His tenacity paid dividends towards the end of the bout as KENTA’s patience turned to frustration that he couldn’t put Naito away and after finally hitting Destino the leader of Los Ingobernables de Japon would score the pin to send the crowd home thoroughly entertained.

The third night of Summer Struggle’s second and final leg unfolds in Yamagata tonight and this evening the spotlight is on the junior-heavyweight division with both the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight & Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team titles up for grabs.

The show kicked off with six-man action as the Young Lion duo of Kosei Fujita and Yuto Nakashima alongside the veteran Satoshi Kojima faced off against House Of Torture’s EVIL, Sho and Yoh. Dick Togo and Yujiro Takahashi joined at ringside for the hell of it and caused all manner of problems for the Young Lions, and overall House Of Torture’s behaviour drove Kojima to rage. Despite the veteran’s fiery offense, Sho and Yoh worked together to put Fujita away and score the win for the team.

Three-way junior tag team action followed next pitting the former IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions TJP and Francesco Akira against Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI of Suzuki-gun, and other former champs Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato. We learnt throughout the bout that during the upcoming Power Struggle tour that proceeds the World Tag League we’ll be treated to the Super Jr. Tag League, so all of these competitors are surely looking to sharpen their iron knowing that sprint looms ahead. As for this bout it was Francesco Akira’s night, who showed why he was a tag champ in the first place when he planted Wato with his Speedfire finisher to clinch the victory for United Empire. They made sure to tell the cameras and the commentary team that the Super Jr. Tag League was theirs this year.

Controversy ripples through the result of the next match as the attitude issues of David Finlay continued to rub Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Hiroshi Tanahashi the wrong way after Finlay would score a cheap handful-of-tights roll up win on Robbie Eagles to earn a victory over him and his CHAOS partners Yoshi-Hashi and Hirooki Goto. Neither his opponents or his partners showed any respect for how Finlay chose to get it done tonight, leading to a bust up after the match. Finlay would get up in the face of Tanahashi and through the ringside microphones you could hear Finlay calling him “high and mighty”, which only pissed off Tanahashi more and eventually “The Ace” pushed Finlay down on his ass, telling him he was done with him. Tenzan watched on not knowing where to stand but clearly looked disappointed that Finlay’s attitude had led to all this. As for Tanahashi, he didn’t stick around and left the ring having washed his hands of the third-generation star.

Following that altercation we got a quick but hard-hitting tag match pitting Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada against the newcomers Clark Connors and “Filthy” Tom Lawlor; a contest that saw Lawlor go blow for blow with both Ishii and Okada in impressive fashion but in the end “The Stone Pitbull” tied it up for his team after knocking Connors out with a headbutt that caught him right on the chin, leaving him wide open for a 3 count.

Then in the final bout of the first half the heavyweights of United Empire and Suzuki-gun would clash in epic fashion just one night away from Will Ospreay and Zack Sabre Jr.’s double-championship showdown. After being beaten down by Ospreay, Jeff Cobb and The Great-O-Khan last night in Aomori, ZSJ and Taichi looked to rectify that disrespect and having Minoru Suzuki in the fold definitely helped their case. However the most shocking outcome truly played out when after a series of wild and technical pin reversals ZSJ managed to secure Ospreay’s shoulders on the match for just over the 3 second mark, leaving “The Kingpin” absolutely speechless as he popped up and tried to argue with the referee. Suzuki-gun quickly got out of dodge and celebrated with ZSJ who signalled to Ospreay that “that was one and it was piss-easy mate!”. Both Ospreay and ZSJ knew that tomorrow in one-on-one action it would be a totally different dynamic but in the moment Ospreay was left beside himself.

From here we pushed into the second half which opened with six-man action between the coalition of Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and JONAH and their Bullet Club opponents Juice Robinson, Chase Owens and the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White. This would be the first official chance the Guerrillas Of Destiny would get to go face to face with “Switchblade” since their ex-communication and they took every opportunity to show them why he made the biggest mistake of his life that night at IMPACT Wrestling, but that’s not to say it was a one-sided affair. Since returning to Japan and becoming champion Jay White has been even more ruthless and cunning than ever before and his soldiers have seemed to gel better than ever, especially with the addition of his day one Dojo-mate Juice Robinson with his new no-****s-given attitude. That being said, this time around JONAH would appear the difference maker and almost had Jay White up for a Death Drop Driver before Chase Owens made the save, but this only opened Chase to one himself which led to JONAH scoring the win for his team. The Guerrillas Of Destiny looked a little pissed that they didn’t score the fall for themselves and didn’t raise their partners hand, so I think it’s safe to say their beef with Bullet Club is far from over.

The first of our two title matches followed next as Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI looked set to defend their new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships for the first time against former champions Taiji Ishimori and El Phantasmo. The Bullet Club juniors pushed to quash the new champ’s reign before it would have a chance to begin, with Ishimori having the most to prove since losing his IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship to KUSHIDA. The match geared up into a full sprint quite quickly and the chaos worked in the favour of Los Ingobernables de Japon and after 13 minutes of fire Takahashi managed to crush Ishimori with the Time Bomb to clinch their first successful retention of their new titles.

The drama would continue after the bell though when following their hands being raised the champions were blindsided by Sho, Yoh and the rest of House Of Torture who used their numbers to quickly beat them down and demand some attention. With the floor cleared it would be EVIL who took the microphone and gave some colour to their actions. He put over how the junior division should be terrified at the reunited team of Sho and Yoh, but they weren’t the same duo that they were in their Roppongi3K; this new, improved and even more vicious iteration would now be known as Triple6K and they’re coming for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championships.

The semi-final bout would see Los Ingobernables de Japon’s heavyweight battalion take on Bullet Club’s upper echelon in a heavy handed affair. This was a battle of pride above all else, although Shingo Takagi was gunning to flex his abilities and build some momentum going into his Right To Challenge bout with Kazuchika Okada in two nights time. He would prove the driving force throughout the bout and would manage to pin Doc Gallows off a super-charged Pumping Bomber to secure the win for his crew. Following the match Tetsuya Naito and SANADA would give “The Dragon” the floor to reiterate his plan to take the briefcase away from Kazuchika Okada in Tokyo and walk into Wrestle Kingdom to reclaim his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. This would prompt “The Rainmaker” to march down to the ring and the two would have a competitive standoff and face each other for the first time since Takagi pinned Okada during the G1. Never shy of confidence and now with a prize in hand for his achievements, “The Rainmaker” held the briefcase in the air and told Shingo to bring everything he’s got to Tokyo.

The final bout of the night saw the new IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion KUSHIDA in his first title defense against former champion and undisputed junior ace of the pandemic era El Desperado. Hyped as one of the most anticipated matches of the Summer Struggle tour, the bout didn’t disappoint as both men fought their hardest to prove the points they made in the matches run up. KUSHIDA had already cemented his return with the title win but beating El Desperado was integral to reassert himself at the top of the mountain, whilst Despy’s reputation that he built during the pandemic era hung in the balance. The two traded momentum back and forth as each man tried upping the intensity, with Despy continually refusing to submit to the Hoverboard Lock despite countless attempts. However in the closing moments of the bout Desperado would continue to fight through the pain of the hold and struggled to pull himself to the ropes, forcing KUSHIDA to break the hold, switch tactics and crush him with the Back To The Future suplex driver which was enough for him to secure the three count and retain his championship.

After the bell KUSHIDA had his hand raised in victory but the drama didn’t stop there, as El Desperado pulled himself to his feet and forced the champion’s attention with a firm grip. It looked like the two might come to blows again but instead Despy lowered his guns and patted the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title belt that hung over KUSHIDA’s shoulder, accepting the defeat and giving him the ring to close out the show. He got on the microphone and began to address the crowd when he was unnervingly descended upon by Bad Luck Fale who slowly stomped down to the ring. With his defences up KUSHIDA prepared for what might be a fight he couldn’t win, but Fale wasn’t looking for trouble. Instead he climbed into the ring and handed over something to the champion; a Bullet Club-branded Ace of Spades.