Five title matches in historic Jingu event
The biggest event of the summer takes place on August 29 as NJPW returns to the historic Jingu Stadium for the first time in 21 years!
Watch Summer Struggle LIVE and in English on NJPW World!
Main Event: IWGP Intercontinental & Heavyweight Championships: Tetsuya Naito vs EVIL
Singles record: 1-1
Tetsuya Naito will be facing EVIL for the dual IWGP Intercontinental and Heavyweight Championships in our main event. It was at Dominion in Osaka Jo Hall that EVIL shocked the world just 24 hours after joining BULLET CLUB; enlisting the aid of the Spoiler Dick Togo, EVIL pinned the first double IWGP Champion to take the gold, delivering, in his words, his own twisted brand of ‘justice’.
Just a couple of weeks later at Sengoku Lord, Hiromu Takahashi stepped up to challenge EVIL, and visibly had the double champion beaten with Time Bomb II, before Togo again made his presence felt, a choke with a steel wire allowing EVIL to retain. Post match, Naito stormed the ring and demanded a championship rematch, declaring that ‘the rental period (on the IWGP titles) is over’.
21 years ago in 1999, Naito witnessed the last Jingu Stadium event firsthand, and ever since has earned his place to the center stage. Naito is more than used to having the deck stacked against him, overcoming the odds and career threatening injury to take home the twin IWGP titles for the first time in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 14. Can lightning strike twice in Jingu? Or will this summer night, too, end in EVIL fashion?
5th Match: IWGP Tag Team Championships: Golden☆Ace (Kota Ibushi & Hiroshi Tanahashi) vs Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi)
Tag record: 1-0 ZSJ & Taichi
The night’s semi-main event will see IWGP Tag Team Championships settled in another rematch from Dominion in July. Then it was Dangerous Tekkers ending Golden☆Ace’s reign at zero defences, in commanding fashion. Taking complete control of the match and physically dissecting Tanahashi’s knee, Taichi and ZSJ all but walked to tag team victory, and consistently refused a rematch for the titles- at least if Tanahashi was involved.
As Taichi repeatedly insisted that Tanahashi’s time was up, The Ace was repeatedly humiliated in multi man tag matches all through the Summer Struggle tour. Taichi would make overtures to Ibushi, saying that the Golden Star could have his rematch if he turned his back on Tanahashi and found a new partner, perhaps even in Suzuki-Gun. Yet Ibushi redoubled his commitment to the Ace after he and Tanahashi (along with Master Wato) narrowly scored a win over Suzuki-Gun in the NEVER 6-Man tournament.
With firmer ties between the two former champions, Tanahashi’s spirits elevated, as did Tanahashi himself, as an emphatic High Fly Flow in Korakuen on August 9 to Yoshinobu Kanemaru sent an emphatic message of soidarity to Dangerous Tekkers. Now seemingly past his crisis of confidence, can Tanahashi hold up his end of the bargain, and help he and Ibushi to their second tag reign?
4th Match: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Taiji Ishimori vs Hiromu Takahashi
Taiji Ishimori will challenge Hiromu Takahashi for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. After Hiromu failed in his challenge to EVIL at Sengoku Lord, Ishimori quickly made his presence felt, delivering a Bloody Cross and then making his IWGP challenge the next night. Working over a champion already damaged by his war in Nagoya, Ishimori was able to put Takahashi on the injured list for a couple of weeks as Summer Struggle continued, but on August 9, the Time Bomb made his return, chasing off BULLET CLUB and declaring he was ‘all better and ready to play’.
Anybody who saw Hiromu’s Best of the Super Junior final against Ishimori in 2018 will know that they are in for a high velocity, high impact classic in Jingu with this matchup, but is Takahashi’s shoulder up to the task?
3rd Match: NEVER Openweight Championship: Minoru Suzuki vs Shingo Takagi
The third match of the night will see NEVER Openweight Championship gold on the line as Shingo Takagi faces the challenge of Minoru Suzuki. The COVID-19 induced pandemic may have put paid to Shingo Takagi’s plans to be the most fighting NEVER Openweight Champion of all time, but as soon as NJPW action restarted in June, The Dragon picked up right where he left off. Defenses against Shingo Takagi and El Desperado both in the month of July moved Shingo to V3 with the NEVER title, and only one more defence away from tying the all time record for defenses of the title with inaugural champ Masato Tanaka, Tomohiro Ishii, and his opponent in Jingu, Minoru Suzuki. In fact, discount 110 days of inaction, and Takagi will be the fastesrt to ever meet the mark; but that’s if he can topple the King.
After The King’s plans to seize the twin treasures of IWGP Heavyweight and Intercontinental gold were scuppered by a loss to Yuji Nagata during the New Japan Cup, Suzuki made it his life’s work to destroy his decades long rival. In a thrilling Korakuen Hall main event during the Summer Struggle tour, Suzuki emerged with the victory and delcared afterward that he had his next target in mind.
It didn’t take long for that target to be revealed, and Shingo was more than happy to oblige. Takagi has promised that Suzuki is ‘in for the fight of your life’, and the Dragon will look to make his mark on history in Jingu Stadium with a match that will be very hard indeed to follow.
2nd Match: KOPW2020: Kazuchika Okada vs El Desperado vs SHO vs Toru Yano
After a unique night of action in Korakuen Hall Wednesday night, the four way KOPW2020 decider is now set. Kazuchika Okada, having bested Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo and Jado in a handicap match, will be facing Toru Yano fresh off a two count pinfall win over BUSHI, SANADA having submitted SHO and El Desperado, who lured Satoshi Kojima into a disqualification.
Okada referred to this rogue’s gallery of contenders as the Krooks of Pro-Wrestling, but that his presence will ensure KOPW lives up to its intended title of King of Pro-Wrestling. As Okada looks to broaden the concept of pro-wrestling within NJPW, will he leave Jingu with the preliminary crown, or will it instead go to his teammate Yano, his rival SANADA or the outsider Desperado?
1st Match: Master Wato vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru
The action in Jingu will all kick off with ‘Grand Master’ Master Wato facing ‘Heel Master’ Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the opener. Ever since Wato made his first appearance back from excursion during the New Japan Cup, he has instantly found bitter enemies in the members of Suzuki-Gun. A win in his debut opposite DOUKI was immediately followed by an assault from Kanemaru, and after showing what he can do teaming with Golden☆Ace through the Summer Struggle tour, he has now been granted a huge singles opportunity against one of the most decorated junior heavyweights in Japanese wrestling.
Summer Struggle’s return to Jingu Stadium comes 21 years after Yoshinobu Kanemaru’s 334th career match in Kyoto for All Japan Pro-Wrestling, a day coming some time before Wato started kindergarten. With considerably more wrestling experience than the Grand Master has life experience, it’s no wonder that Kanemaru feels aggrieved at Wato’s grandiose title and billing, but could it be the young master teaching the lessons in Jingu?
