Six Title Bouts Announced For NJPW Wrestling Dontaku, Full Card

New Japan Pro-Wrestling has announced the lineup for its Wrestling Dontaku event on May 1.

Many of the promotion’s top stars will compete at the show, which will feature six title bouts. In the main event, Kazuchika Okada will defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Tetsuya Naito. Plus, Will Ospreay will challenge Hiroshi Tanahashi for the IWGP United States Championship. Other noteworthy names set for the show include EVIL, TAKA Michinoku, and Taiji Ishimori, among many others.

The preview, courtesy of NJPW’s website, is as follows:

On May 1 Wrestling Dontaku makes a long awaited return to Fukuoka’s Paypay Dome for the biggest festival card in years. Matches are now official for this huge event, which will be live and in English on NJPW World! Six championships are on the line on a night full of excitement and surprises to come.

In the main event, Kazuchika Okada looks to defend the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship for a fourth time against Tetsuya Naito. After Okada defended his title against El Ingobernable at new Year’s Golden Series in Sapporo, and Naito defeated Okada in the New Japan Cup, this is the third singles match between the two men in 2022 alone. After only ten matches between the two in the first 15 years of their NJPW careers, both are setting a formidable pace, as Okada won’t let his pride as champion be hurt, and Naito won’t let go of his dream of main eventing Wrestle Kingdom 17 on January 4 2023. Who walks out of Dontaku with the world title?

Hiroshi Tanahashi will face Will Ospreay with the IWGP United States Championship on the line. At Hyper Battle SANADA relinquished the US title, as his recovery from a fractured orbital bone means his return is still, as of yet, pending. SANADA wanted the title to revert to the former champion Hiroshi Tanahashi, a request that drew the ire of WIll Ospreay, at whose hands SANADA was injured. The Ace proposed that a match between the two decide the new champion, a match now official for the PayPay Dome. Ospreay and Tanahashi share a significant history, with a win over the Ace at the end of G1 Climax 29 setting Ospreay on a path to heavyweight competition, and his status in the United Empire today. Will Ospreay beat Tanahashi again to lift US gold, or can Tanahashi finally start a signficant reign with the championship?

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado has a lot of potential opponents gunning for him. Having just barely dispatched with SHO at Hyper Battle in a scrappy performance, Desperado was confronted by Francesco Akira, only for the new United Empire protege to declare that he would debut at Best of the Super Jr. In the meantime, Desperado has to defend against Taiji Ishimori. Since joining BULLET CLUB at the Dontaku event in 2018, Ishimori’s reputation as a lightning fast and extremely dangerous submission artist has been well cemented, and a summer 2021 challenge to Despe during his first reign as champion was ample evidence. Though Ishimori came up short that night, the damage that could well be lingering in thearm of the champion after SHO’s brutal Ryogoku assault could well pave the way for Ishimori to pick up his own third junior title.

EVIL defends the NEVER Openweight Championship against Tama Tonga at Dontaku. In round two of the New Japan Cup, Tama was closing in on a convincing victory after striking EVIL with a Gunstun, but when the referee was pulled from the ring, what ensued was the Guerrillas of Destiny’s violent expulsion from BULLET CLUB. Now a T-shirt wearing member of hontai, Tama Tonga has not forgotten EVIL’s betrayal, and is keen for revenge on May 1.

After Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb won the IWGP Tag Team Championships at Hyper Battle, they opened the door to any and all challengers. That included deposed champions Bishamon, who are quick to invoke a rematch challenge in Fukuoka, but BULLET CLUB also wanted some of the action. Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens were quick to confront the new champs backstage at Ryogoku and now a three way match is on.

More tag team action sees Six or Nine seek their second defence against Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI. The Suzuki-Gun side shot their shot at the champions backstage at Hyper Battle, a post match attack making their intentions perfectly clear. With DOUKI, the Heel master has a different partner to normal; as El Desperado is busy in singles action, DOUKI has a chance to sit under Kanemaru’s learning tree and grow in much the same way as Wato is continuing to do under Taguchi. Which combination of youth and experience leaves with the gold?

In a special singles match, Tanga Loa will face Yujiro Takahashi. hen Tama Tonga went to challenge EVIL for the NEVER Championship at Hyper Battle, Yujiro attempted to interrupt and make the save for the King of Darkness. Loa headed Yujiro off at the pass and hit him with Apesh*t, leading to this singles bout. This is a chance for Loa to prevent some HOUSE OF TORTURE interference in the NEVER Openweight Championship match, or a chance for Yujiro to allow H.O.T’s antics to move ahead unimpeded.

A wild match starts the night as Hiromu Takahashi and Shingo Takagi are joined by Tatsumi Fujinami to face Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. and TAKA Michinoku. In this 50th Anniversary year for NJPW, Fujinami has helped carry the standard, having wrestled in NJPW’s very first match, and being extremely active more than 50 years on. Fujinami has been a part of some all star teams, having joined Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi at the Anniversary Event itself, and then being on #STRONGHEARTS’ side at the New Japan Cup finals. Now he’s part of Los Ingobernables De Japon for a day, ans next to Shingo Takagi forms a pair of Dragons to join the Time Bomb opposite Suzuki-Gun.

The card is as follows:

• IWGP World Heavyweight Title: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Tetsuya Naito
• IWGP United States Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Will Ospreay
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title: El Desperado (c) vs. Taiji Ishimori
• NEVER Openweight Title: EVIL (c) vs. Tama Tonga
• IWGP Tag Team Titles: YOSHI-HASHI and Hirooki Goto (c) vs. Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan vs. Bad Luck Fale and Chase Owens
• IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles: Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato (c) vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI
• Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi, & Tatsumi Fujinami vs. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., & TAKA Michinoku
• Tanga Loa vs. Yujiro Takahashi

On April 16, NJPW will head to Chicago for its “Windy City Riot” event; more information is available here.

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