The Road to Wrestling Dontaku continued on April 24, completing three nights of action from Korakuen Hall. LIJ and CHAOS continued their battles against one another ahead of key title matches, and Jyushin Thunder Liger marked his 30th anniversary.
Watch the full event with English commentary here!
Full results and match photos here!
Match 7: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Sanada & Shingo Takagi) defeated CHAOS (SHO & Kazuchika Okada) when SANADA submitted SHO.
SANADA and Okada continued to feel each other out ahead of their May 4 title match in Fukuoka, adopting a slower pace to start than in Tuesday night’s tag. SHO and Shingo meanwhile continued to go full bore into one another, and the match quickly got extremely heated. In the end, SANADA looked at Okada to deliver a powerful message as he hit a Tombstone piledriver to SHO and followed with Skull End for the submission.
Post match SANADA said the Tombstone was a ‘gift’ for Okada meant to send a message, while Shingo questioned whether SHO was more focused on trying to topple the Dragon rather than retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag titles.
Match 6: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI & EVIL) defeated Kota Ibushi, YOH & Tomohiro Ishii when EVIL submitted YOH
In another case of moves being used to send messages, EVIL elected to use the Scorpion Deathlock, in reference to Ishii’s mentor Riki Choshu, to dispatch YOH and end this six man affair. YOH and BUSHI, EVIL and Ishii and Ibushi and Naito continued to tear into one another. Ringside mics after the match picked up Naito telling Ibushi that he wasn’t interested in the Intercontinental Championship itself, but rather using the IC title as a stepping stone to becoming double champion.
Match 5: Toa Henare, Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Hirooki Goto defeated Bullet Club (Hikuleo, Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa & Jay White) when Yano pinned Hikuleo
Yano continued to frustrate the Bullet Club with a schoolboy on Hikuleo ended the match and Yano quickly escaped with GoD’s IWGP Tag Championships. White and Goto continued a battle of one-upmanship, as Goto made some swift counters to any attempts from White at hitting the Bladerunner.
Match 4: Dragon Lee, Mikey Nicholls & Juice Robinson defeated Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & Bad Luck Fale) when Nicholls pinned Owens.
Nicholls’ week had started rough following a Fale beatdown and Owens Package Piledriver, but the balance had been well and truly restored by the end of the night Wednesday as the Mikey Bomb did the job.
Match 3: Suzuki-Gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki) defeated Jyushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask & Ryusuke Taguchi when Kanemaru pinned Tiger Mask
The other four participants were almost background action as all focus was on Liger and Suzuki’s continuing war. Suzuki brought a pair of open finger gloves to ringside in reference to his Pancrase defeat of Liger back in 2002. Both men attacked each other verbally as well as physically, as Liger loudly declared that the pro wrestling ring was sacred ground, and if Suzuki didn’t understand that then he needed to leave NJPW.
Match 2: Suzuki Gun (TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Zack Sabre Junior) defeated Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Rocky Romero when Taichi pinned Romero
A Taichi style Last Ride ended Romero’s night as ‘Z.T.T’ continued to look dominant.
Match 1: Ren Narita, Shota Umino & Satoshi Kojima defeated Yuji Nagata, Yuuya Uemura & Yota Tsuji when Narita pinned Uemura
Both sets of Young Lions brought some tremendous fire, while Kojima and Nagata weren’t letting up ahead of them teaming together in the Jim Crockett Cup in America this weekend. A Narita Bridging Front Suplex sealed the deal.
