The Japanese Golden Week holiday tradition continues, and just like last year, we’re going all out for two nights in Fukuoka! It’s Wrestling Dontaku!
WRESTLING DONTAKU 2019
May 3 & 4 2019
Fukuoka, Fukuoka International Center
Friday May 3 6PM Start
Saturday May 4 3PM Start
The first of two nights in the Fukuoka International Center will be headlined by a match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship, new champion Dragon Lee facing Taiji Ishimori.
Dragon Lee won the championship at G1 Supercard in Madison Square Garden. Ishimori had walked into MSG as champion, but walked out without the gold, a victim of the unique three way rules the title was defended in. After an intensely athletic and dangerous matchup, Lee defeated another of Ishinmori’s two challengers, Bandido, with the Desnucadora. Ishimori was furious at losing the title despite not being involved in the decision, and demanded a singles rematch.
Lee, however, seeks to defend his first IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship with pride. For the Mexican phenomenon, this is a chance to be the face of the junior heavyweight divison heading into the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, and moreover, a chance to extend his reign until he can face his absent rival Hiromu Takahashi for the gold.
In the semi main event, Jeff Cobb defends the NEVER Openweight Championship against Taichi. Taichi had been expecting to challenge a different NEVER Champion in Fukuoka; during the New Japan Cup tour, he repeatedly attacked and humiliated Will Ospreay. Yet Cobb was first in line for the NEVER title, and at G1 Supercard in MSG, defeated the Assassin to become a double NEVER and ROH TV Champion. Only the NEVER Championship is at stake here, in a match that provides an intriguing clash of styles. Will it be Cobb’s strength and agility, or Taichi’s wily nature that proves most effective?
Emotions will run high in the sixth match of the night when IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada teams with Tomohiro Ishii against EVIL and SANADA. In the semi finals of the New Japan Cup, Okada narrowly defeated Ishii in a thrilling and hard hitting bout. Now though, he must go back to0 co-existing with his CHAOS team mate, as they face former IWGP Tag Team Champions.
The next night will see Okada take on SANADA for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and Ishii face EVIL in what’s sure to be a brutal match up. This will be an intense preview for sure.
That bout will be preceded by a six man tag match pitting Juice Robinson, Mikey Nicholls and Hirooki Goto against Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens and Jay White. These three will all have been in singles action at Hi No Kuni with each other just days earlier and it will be hard for any referee to maintain order when they meet again.
The third match of the night will see Toru Yano, Togi Makabe and Will Ospreay face Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa and Hikuleo.
We’ll also see YOSHI-HASHI, Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask and Ryusuke Taguchi face Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado and TAKA Michinoku, as well as Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino and Ren Narita facing Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji and Yuuya Uemura.
