The start of May traditionally means Dontaku to NJPW fans. This year, both the Fukuoka festival and it’s corresponding wrestling events wree cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but fans could still enjoy classic Dontaku moments thanks to Tele Pro-Wrestling, with wrestlers joining the conversation. Classic Dontaku moments in fact like some of these:
May 2, 2002: Blue vs Green
While Dontaku was a part of the shedules through the mid 1990s, and a permanent fixture from 2009, the early 2000s saw major events staged in the Tokyo Dome in the month of May to mark the Golden Week holiday. In 2002, a special NJPW event celebrated 30 years of NJPW earlier in March, with a wealth of unexpected dream matchups.
Right at the top of the card though, and alongside Yuji Nagata narrowly retaining the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in a thriller with Yoshihiro Takayama, was a dream match nobody had thought possible.
2002 was a year of major change in new Japan. At the start of the year, Keiji Muto and Satoshi Kojima were big names in a departure of wrestlers from New to All Japan. Chono would step up, not just as leader of Team 2000, but as a representative of NJPW at large. The black clad mega star had spent much of the 1990s as an antagonistic force heading up T2000 and nWo Japan before it. Yet his love for New Japan and willingness to fight for the company and the principles of Strong Style were still evident and burning strongly.
Misawa was fighting for a newer company. Having been a major star in All Japan through the 1990s, Misawa championed the dramatic King’s Road style of pro wrestling. In 2000, he would take that style with him to form Pro Wrestling NOAH. The upstart promotion was making major waves in the early part of the new millennium, and its stars were eager to show their worth against the established names of NJPW.
When Chono and Misawa made their rises to super stardom in the 1990s, New and All Japan were two very distinct entities that would never cross. Their different approaches to pro-wrestling, both still incredibly popular, led many to fantasy book dream matches between the top stars, knowing in their hearts they would be practically impossible to make happen. Yet in 2002, here we were, with the biggest of big fights, underneath the shell of the Big Egg.
May 3, 2011: Raising an Army
Over the last few years, May 3 has come to be thought of as BULLET CLUB day, after the group’s foundation in 2013, but Dontaku should also be remembered for the foundation of another group in the form of the sinister Suzuki-Gun.
Suzuki-Gun’s origins were in the now unlikely seeming Kojima Gun, provisionally formed by Satoshi Kojima toward the end of 2010. When Kojima won the 2010 G1 Climax, and went on to capture the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, nobody could doubt his success, but he had a difficult time forming alliances. After all, he had spent the best part of the prior decade plying his trade in All Japan Pro-Wrestling, having left his NJPW home in 2002. Trust was hard to build, and Kojima would instead take other black sheep under his wing, in the form of Taichi on his return from Mexico, and TAKA Michinoku.
Kojima would often be seconded by the two, but it was clear there was a clash in philosophies. Kojima’s hard nose attitude belied a desire to fight clean and earnestly, and Taichi and TAKA were determined to break every rule they could find. Kojima would grow tired of their interference on his behalf, leading to Kojima physically ejecting them from his match at Dontaku with Togi Makabe.
Then, shockingly midway through the match, Minoru Suzuki made his first appearance in the cerulean blue since January. Suzuki would attack Kojima with Taichi and TAKA in tow, and threaten Makabe before the three made their exit, Suzuki-Gun now a force under their King.
May 4, 2019: Headbang Day
As mentioned, although Dontaku 2011 saw a significant step toward the foundation of Suzuki-Gun, the May holiday weekend is most strongly connected with BULLET CLUB. 2013 saw its foundation, 2014 had AJ Styles secure the group’s first IWGP Heavyweight Championship, 2018 saw Taiji Ishimori come to BULLET CLUB, and in 2019, EL Phantasmo made his debut.
Videos had appeared announcing a new BULLET CLUB member since march, and many had suspected that the effortlessly athletic ELP was behind them, but the rumours were confirmed on May 4, as Phantasmo joined Taiji Ishimori in tag action against Will Ospreay and Ryu Lee.
To those that knew Phantasmo, his spectacular athleticism was of no surprise in Fukuoka, but his newfound attitude, egotistical and rotten to the core, was. ELP would pick up a major win over Ospreay, before indulging in a post match celebration that set the tone for the months ahead filled with success in the ring and hate from the crowd.
May 5, 2000 Great Muta Faces Power Couple
Few in wrestling would embody the term ‘power couple’ like Kensuke Sasaki and Akira Hokuto at the dawn of the new millennium. At the top of their respective fields, Sasaki would rule over NJPW as IWGP Heavyweight Champion while Hokuto was dominant over the All Japan Women’s promotion, both using the terrifying Northern Lights Bomb en route to major victories.
Sasaki had started the year as IWGP Heavyweight Champion with a major win over rival Genichiro Tenryu. He maintained his dominance through the early part of the year, but when it came to the month of May, needed an added edge. The Great Muta had already declared his intention to head to America in the spring of 2000, and made an impactful statement at the expense of Masahiro Chono a month earlier, getting himself disqualified in a singles match in the Tokyo Dome. Now he sought to take the IWGP Heavyweight Championship away with him, after lulling Sasaki into a false sense of security by feigning a leg injury going into the match.
May 6, 2009: Monster Upset
Manabu Nakanishi was one of NJPW’s toughest competitors, who fought with pride for the cerulean blue. Still though, its richest prize would elude him. Nakanishi would challenge for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship on numerous occasions through the 2000s, but after coming heart wrenchingly close, would fail to seize the gold each time, most memorably in March 2003, where he wrestled close friend Yuji Nagata to a 60 minute draw over the title.
Yet Nakanishi remained ‘constantly ready’ to take on any opportunity that came his way. That opportunity came on May 6 2009. A Korakuen Hall double header followed Fukuoka’s Wrestling Dontaku that year, on cards highlighted by Kota Ibushi’s NJPW debut and stars from CMLL, including Mistico who was set to be part of a match with IWGP Heavyweight Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi. Yet amid concerns over the bird flu pandemic, the CMLL stars were not able to make the trip to Japan, the main event on May 6 becoming a friendly special single match between Tanahashi and Nakanishi instead.
Then, after a hard fought defence against Hirooki Goto in Fukuoka, confidence got the better of Tanahashi. The Ace declared that the special single match would now be for the IWGP title. Nakanishi vowed to, for once, not think about company or fans, but instead ‘do it for me’, and attack the already compromised neck of Tanahashi. With a huge German Suplex, he scored the shocking win, with the Korakuen crowd erupting as they witnessed what is to this day the sole IWGP Heavyweight Championship change ever to take place in the famous Hall.
Even in the midst of the greatest victory of his career, Nakanishi was modest to a fault. ‘I want to say something brash and showy, but this is only the first time I’ve ever been champion. I’ve missed out before. Now I’ve finally done it, I want to enjoy my time as champion’. Nakanishi’s reign was short lived. In June at Dominion, a rematch with Tanahashi saw Nakanishi’s one and only title reign come to an end, but the Yajin had made an enduring mark on the history books.
