Korakuen double header for the spring series
Japan enters late April on the countdown toward the Golden Week holidays, and wrestling fans are on the countdown to Wrestling Dontaku May 3 and 4. With plenty of key matches to look forward to, the first live NJPW World event of the series sees a faction warfare gauntlet main event.
Watch Road to Dontaku LIVE in English on NJPW World!
Main event: Faction Warfare Gauntlet Match- Just Five Guys (SANADA, Taichi, Yuya Uemura, DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku) vs United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan, TJP, Francesco Akira & Callum Newman)
Match starts as a ten minute singles match
Winner stays on, loser eliminated. Both members eliminated in the event of a draw
Should both teams go to their last member, deciding fall has no time limit
Order of entry not announced beforehand
Faction Warfare Gauntlet rules return in the main event in Korakuen Hall, as Just Five Guys and United Empire do battle in the unique match type. The last such gauntlet took place in February this year, and ended with Just Five Guys’ Yuya Uemura taking the final fall in a losing effort against Los Ingobernables De Japon. Yet defeat motivated Uemura to assert himself in recent weeks, and though he came up short alongside SANADA against Bishamon in Taiwan for the IWGP Tag team Championships, the unfazed Yuya is now seeking Great-O-Khan’s KOPW 2024 belt.
This match will serve as a preview of that affair, as well as of potential Best of the Super Jr. meetings between Francesco Akira, TJP and DOUKI. Meanwhile, although the gauntlet is determined as a series of singles matchups, the team nature of the match as a whole means eyes have to be on the United Empire’s performance. A string of losses for the faction continued this past weekend as TJP and Jeff Cobb were on the wrong end of Riot Rules in Chicago, while Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan and Akira all tasted defeat in Taiwan. Blame for poor performance has been placed at the feet of TJP in his self assigned role as captain, and the pressure for him to be the lynchpin of a successful side has to be palpable tonight.
4th Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji) vs BULLET CLUB War Dogs (David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Gedo, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney)
After incendiary comments from Gabe Kidd, and a backstage brawl in Ryogoku, War Dogs and LIJ will be doing battle through the Road to Dontaku, with this ten man bout being a triple preview of the IWGP Junior Tag titles on the line in Kagoshima, and the NEVER Openweight title, as well as Yota Tsuji vs David Finlay, in the Fukuoka series closer. Meanwhile, Tetsuya Naito returns to Korakuen Hall without the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship just lost to Jon Moxley in Chicago. How will El Ingobernable bounce back?
3rd Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Boltin Oleg, Shota Umino & Tomohiro Ishii vs HOUSE OF TORTURE (EVIL, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)
With the NEVER Openweight 6 man Tag Championships on the line the next night in Korakuen, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano and Boltin Oleg seek to assert themselves in this ten man preview. Meanwhile Ren Narita is gunning for Jon Moxley’s IWGP World Heavyweight Championship on May 4 at Dontaku, while Shota Umino is expected to have next. While Umino may have dispelled the spectre of Jack Perry in Chicago, Ren Narita and H.O.T still loom for the Roughneck, and heat is on tonight, as it always is when the HOUSE are involved.
2nd Match: Hikuleo, El Phantasmo, Ryusuke Taguchi & Jado vs TMDK (Zack Sabre Jr., Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Kosei Fujita)
While a deaftet to DOUKI in Taiwan means that Kosei Fujita will have to wait in his quest for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, there’s a lot of hardware around TMDK. Zack Sabre Jr. is once again the NJPW World TV Champion, and Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls have the NJPW STRONG Tag Championships- much to the former champions’ chagrin. El Phantasmo and Hikuleo knew what the risks were when they proposed a four way open challenge match for the STRONG gold at Windy City Riot, and indeed GoD were not involved in the decision that brought TMDK to their first NJPW tag team gold this past weekend. Can they stay on the upswing, or will GoD (plus Taguchi) cut them off?
1st match: Katsuya Murashima, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs BULLET CLUB (Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA)
With a tight travel schedule excuse for their V0 defeat at the hands of Bishamon with IWGP Tag team gold on the line back at Sakura Genesis, Chase Owens and KENTA are fortunate enough to have another crack at the whip at Dontaku May 4. Before that, a six man preview pits them against the champions and Katsuya Murashima as Dontaku action gets underway.
