NEW JAPAN PRO-WRESTLING

NEWS

JAN.22.2023

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Shingo retains KOPW in second step of tough winter mountain climb

O-Khan follows Nakajima in successes as Okada and potentially more await

Shingo Takagi has retained the KOPW 2023 belt, after a victory in Nagoya over Great-O-Khan in the challenger’s choice of rules in a mixed martial arts match.

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The interpretation of mixed martial arts in this instance had both competitors wrestle while wearing martial arts gi. Victory could only obtained by KO, TKO or submissions, while seconds were encouraged to push combatants into the ring should they spill outside in a bid to keep the action confined.

O-Khan was accompanied to ringside by members of the United Empire, while Takagi headed to the ring alone, but in the early moments the United Empire’s unofficial ‘lumberjacks’ were certainly giving O-Khan rather more time than he should have gotten to recover on the floor, actions that would bring Tetsuya Naito, SANADA and Hiromu Takahashi to the LIJ corner. 

Those cornermen would see O-Khan largely in control in the early moments; though Takagi was proficient enough with a judo backbone as a young man, O-Khan showed his world championship level ability on the mat, with Shingo clearly gaining more momentum when he went for more traditionally pro-wrestling lariats and strikes. Indeed it wasn’t long before Takagi lost the gi entirely, but O-Khan would keep his for longer, often using it as a weapon to smother the belt holder with as he worked for a head and arm choke. 

As Takagi stayed in the hunt, O-Khan fought a good bit more dirty. After the gi smothering, O-Khan would use his belt to choke Takagi over the ropes, before Ospreay struck with an OsCutter ont he floor, all moves that compounded the damage that Katsuhiko Nakajima had done to Shingo’s midsection less than 24 hours earlier. 

Takagi would not give up though, and as O-Khan grabbed a sleeper, stood and delivered a modified Last of the Dragon. The referee would apply a count to O-Khan who rose at nine, but would fall into the clutches of Takagi’s own head and arm katahajime; as O-Khan’s eyes rolled back into his head, referee Red Shoes Unno called for the bell.

Takagi had not just defended his KOPW belt but also his right to challenge Kazuchika Okada February 11 in Osaka. After the bout, Takagi called Okada to the ring where he made an intriguing proposal- to put not just the IWGP World Heavyweight title but the KOPW belt on the line as well. Shingo suggested a title for title affair could be contested under all manner of KOPW style stipulations. Yet while Okada respected Shingo’s run with KOPW he said he ‘only has one love’- for the IWGP. Saying that IWGP competition is ‘wrestling as it should be’ with a straight ahead man to man battle, he politely but firmly refused Shingo’s idea, but promised an epic encounter in Osaka.

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