New Japan Road To Dontaku Results 4/13

After last week’s historic G1 Supercard show with Ring Of Honor, New Japan returned to the road for the Dontaku tour. This will take up much of April and will lead to the Dontaku show, where we’ll have our next round of title matches.

As of this writing, the show is only available in Japanese Commentary, so I may be wrong in some interpretations I make. My apologies ahead of time if I get things wrong.

The opening video package recapped the last month, and the Madison Square Garden show. Kota Ibushi won his first Intercontinental Title. Guerillas Of Destiny won the ROH Tag Titles, but Yano stole the IWGP Tag Belts. Jeff Cobb won the NEVER Openweight Championship. And of course Kazuchia Okada won his fifth IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

The upcoming matches for the next major show include:

Okada defending against SANADA
Jeff Cobb defending against Taichi
Ibushi defending against Sabre
Roppongi 3K defending against BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
Jay White vs. Goto
Ishii vs. EVIL

Yota Tsuji s. Yuya Uemera with a Boston Crab – Very even match at the beginning, with both men using mat based holds. Uemera. When neither men were able to outwrestle the other, the match switched gears into strikes. In the end, Tsuji managed to get Uemera to the match and apply a Boston Crab for the submission

Toa Henare p. Ren Narita with a Uranage – The Young Lion Narita showed fire and took the fight to Henare right from the start. Henare rebounded and hit some power moves. The two traded strikes and suplexes until Henare hit a Uranage for the three count,

Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, & El Desperado) b. Satoshi Kojima,, Yuji Nagata, & Shota Umino when Suzuki pinned Umino with a Gotch Piledriver – The heels attacked before the match and tossed the babyfaces to the floor. Everybody brawled on the floor for a few minutes. By the time the match got back in the ring, Suzuki was in control and worked over Umino. Nagata got the hot tag and ran wild. Kojima hit Suzuki with the Machine Gun Chops. When Umino tagged back in, a multi-man brawl broke out. In the ensuing action, Suzuki hit the Gotch Piledriver on Umino for the pin.

Bullet Club (Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, & Taiji Ishimori) b. Togi Makabe, Toru Yano, & Tomoaki Honma when Loa pinned Honma with an Over The Shoulder Piledriver – Like before, the heels attacked out of the gate and the brawl spilled to the floor. Back in the ring, Yano got teamed up on. Makabe got the hot tag and the babyfaces rallied. Honma got the tag and hit a few Kokeshi headbutts. However, he did miss one and got hit with Loa’s over The Shoulder Piledriver for the pin.

IWGP US Champion Juice Robinson, Hirooki Goto, Ruysuke Taguchi, & Mikey Nicholls b. Bullet Club (Jay White, Bad Luck Fale, Hikuleo, & Chase Owens) when Robinson pinned Hikuleo with Pulp Friction – This time, the babyfaces got the shine in the opening minutes. Taguchi directed the team to hit corner splashes on Owens. The heels regrouped and took the match to the floor, leaving Taguchi in the ring with White. Goto ran wild with the hot tag. He traded clotheslines with Hikuleo for a double down. Juice tagged in and hit a flying bodypress. Owens broke up the pin. Juice knocked Fale out of the ring which gave Hikuleo the chance to hit a Uranage. Juice kicked out, and hit Pulp Friction for the pinfall victory.

IWGP Intercontinental Champion Kota Ibushi, Jyushin Thunder Liger, & YOSHI-HASHI) b. Suzuki-Gun (Revolution Pro British Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi, & Taka Michinoku) when Hashi pinned Michinoku with a Fisherman’s Brainbuster – Hashi started out against Taichi. before long the match spilled to the floor and the heels gained control. They worked over Liger and tried to unmask him. Double tag out to Sabre and Ibushi. They traded strikes, which lead to a multi-man brawl. While everybody else fought on the floor, Hashi hit Taka with a Fisherman’s Brainbuster and pinned him

After the match the heels attacked, and Sabre left Ibushi laying with a Zack Driver.

Los Ingobernables De Japon (Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, BUSHI, & Shingo Takagi) b. CHAOS (IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, Show, Yo, & Rocky Romero) when Naito pinned Romero with Destino – CHAOS showed great teamwork by taking it to LIJ. Ishii and EVIL dueled with back and forth strikes. LIJ started working over Yo, which set up the hot tag to Sho. Okada and Sanada traded blows. Rocky got the tag and took it to Naito, even triple teaming with his R3K teammates. In the ensuing brawl, EVIL put Ishii in a Sharpshooter/Scorpion Deathlock. With everybody else being held at bay on the floor, Naito hit Rocky with a Destino and got the pin.