Hiromu returns as Summer Struggle concludes.
The long summer and the long Summer Struggle comes to an end on August 25. Yet an end is a start, and as we get set for Wrestle Grand Slam in the MetLife Dome next weekend, Hiromu Takahashi makes a fresh start in his return bout!
Watch Summer Struggle live or in English on demand on NJPW World!
Main event: Hiromu Takahashi vs DOUKI
Singles record: 1-0 Hiromu
In our main event, Hiromu Takahashi will wrestle his first match in 188 days when he takes on Suzuki-Gun’s DOUKI. When Hiromu announced on July 25 that he was medically cleared to return to competition, he was quick to issue a challenge for the biggest match possible- against Robbie Eagles for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Yet Hiromu wanted to hit the ring before his title match in MetLife on September 5, and issued a challenge to DOUKI, anticipating that the Suzuki-Gun member would bring the kind of heat and frustration he would thrive on.
Yet DOUKI was quick to assert that Hiromu shouldn’t look past him, and that if he was able to get a win past the Time Bomb, he should have the shot against Eagles at Wrestle Grand Slam. It all comes full circle to Eagles himself, who snuck a flash pinfall on Takahashi the last time Hiromu returned from injury in December 2019; could history repeat tonight, and will that change the entire junior heavyweight landscape?
4th Match: Master Wato vs Robbie Eagles
singles record: 1-0 Wato
Should DOUKI defeat Hiromu Takahashi in our main event Friday, he would certainly have a valid claim to challenge Robbie Eagles for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Yet one would argue that Master Wato already possesses such a claim. A win during Best of the Super Jr. 27 proved that the blue haired prodigy is capable of defeating the current junior champion, and Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi’s win over Eagles and Tiger mask during Super Jr. Tag League sent another powerful message. Now in a one on one environment, and with the Sniper of the Skies in possession of the junior gold, this is a non title match but with high stakes for Wato as Eagles similarly needs to send a message to the junior division as champion and to Hiromu as number one contender.
3rd Match: Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada vs United Empire (Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb)
Kazuchika Okada continues to team with heavy hontai hitters in the third match of the night as he pairs with Togi Makabe to take on the United Empire. So far, there’s been no defusing the bombs United Empire have had to throw, with Rainmaker-Style Tours of the Islands connecting night after night to Okada’s partners. Will this final preview match see Okada turn the tables?
2nd Match: YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi vs Suzuki-Gun (Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & Minoru Suzuki)
Six man action will see Dangerous Tekkers face one of their challengers for September 5 in tag team championship action for the final time before the big events in MetLife Dome. Goto and YOSHI-HASHI have traded post match attacks with the IWGP Tag Team Champions over the last few nights, and the story tonight might be just as much about what happens outside the ring than within it. What goes down in this final encounter?
1st Match: Ryohei Oiwa vs Kosei Fujita
Singles record: 0-0-3
From SHO and YOH to Uemura and Tsuji, it’s not uncommon for new Young Lions who debut together getting locked in a back and forth struggle with plenty of time limit draws. Certainly that’s been the case this week with Oiwa and Fujita, as both have gone to draws as fellow lion Nakashima has looked on. Will one man or the other get the advantage tonight?
