It’s the newest big event on the NJPW calendar, and Sengoku Lord is set to be a huge night for our fans in Nagoya!
SENGOKU LORD in NAGOYA
Saturday, April 20, 2019
Aichi, Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium (Dolphins Arena)
The main event of Sengoku Lord will see the IWGP Intercontinental Championship at stake as new champion Kota Ibushi defends against Zack Sabre Junior.
At G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden, Ibushi finally seized the Intercontinental Championship he had been desperate to attain for over four years. In tribute to his ‘god’ Shinsuke Nakamura, it was a pair of Boma Ye strikes that saw Ibushi defeat Tetsuya Naito to lift the white and gold. It was the proudest moment of Ibushi’s career, but it’s one thing to win a championship and quite another to hold it.
Zack Sabre Junior knows all about remaining champion, as he defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi in MSG to keep his RPW Undisputed British Heavyweight Championship, not on the line in this match. Sabre eliminated Ibushi in the New Japan Cup, and the cocky Brit is confident he can add another title belt to his collection.
In the semi main event of the evening, IWGP United States Champion Juice Robinson defends his title against Bullet Club’s Underboss, Bad Luck Fale. Back on March 24 in Nagaoka, Robinson defeated Chase Owens to defend his US title for the second time. Yet it wasn’t for lack of trying on the part of the Bullet Club, and Fale, who interfered in the match. After Juice’s victory in fact, Fale would viciously assault the champ, who came within an inch of being hit with the devastating Bad Luck Fall.
Fale’s huge size and strength have seen him become a singles champion in the past, but can the former IWGP Intercontinental Champion become the next United States Champion?
The sixth match sees an all star ten man tag team match as Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, SHO and YOH of CHAOS face Los Ingobernables de Japon in the form of Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Shingo Takagi and BUSHI.
This is a match rife with championship implications. At Dontaku on May 4, SANADA will challenge Okada for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and in Hiroshima April 29, SHO and YOH will face Takagi and BUSHI for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships. Then there’s EVIL and Ishii, who engaged in a huge brawl when they last met on the final night of the New Japan Cup, and who will clash in singles action in Fukuoka May 4. This is a key match for members of both groups to make a statement, not least for recently deposed Intercontinental Champion Naito as he looks to bounce back.
Sengoku Lord will also see Mikey Nicholls face Chase Owens. CHAOS’ new addition Nicholls first drew Bullet Club ire when he beat their young gun Hikuleo in the first round of the New Japan Cup. When Juice Robinson was assaulted by the club following Owens’ defeat in his US Championship match, Nichols took it upon himself to intervene; now Owens is looking to make the Australian pay.
In the fith match of the night, two contemporaries in 2002 Dojo class members Hirooki Goto and Ryusuke Taguchi will be in tag action against Jay White and Hikuleo. At Hi no Kuni on April 29, White and Goto will face off in singles action; how will they approach this preview tag team encounter?
The Nagoya fans will also get to see the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Dragon Lee in action, as he teams with Togi Makabe and Toru Yano to face Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga and Taiji Ishimori. Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma, Toa Henare and Jyushin Thunder Liger make an impressive five man team against Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. And Ren Narita and Shota Umino will face Yota Tsuji and Yuuya Uemura.
