New Japan Pro Wrestling returns to the Ryogoku Sumo Hall for King of Pro-Wrestling 2016 on October 10th for their last major show before the promotion heads into Wrestle Kingdom season, kicking off with Power Struggle in November, and the World Tag League this December.
While the company wasn’t promoting this up until this weekend, Ring of Honor announcers Kevin Kelly and Steve Corino are in Japan and will be providing English commentary for the show, which kicks off at 3:00 a.m. EST on Monday morning, only on New Japan World.
There will be four championships on the line at this show, as well as Kenny Omega defending his G1 Climax briefcase against this year’s runner-up. ROH World Champion Adam Cole, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jay Lethal, Michael Elgin and Los Ingobernables de Japon will also be in action.
Check out our preview below.
KEY MATCHES
Kazuchika Okada will defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Naomichi Marufuji, the ace of Pro Wrestling Noah, in a rematch from their incredible bout in the first night of this year’s G1 Climax. Marufuji was able to upset the champ in that match – hence the rematch – but a title change here is pretty unlikely (read: not going to happen) as all signs continue to point towards Okada vs. Omega at the Tokyo Dome. Nevertheless this should be a great match.
Kenny Omega will put up his G1 Climax briefcase for a title shot at Wrestle Kingdom against the man he defeated in the finals of this year’s tournament, Hirooki Goto. While they’re match was incredibly good – albeit a hair under his five-star match with Naito the night before – this is an odd one. The idea used to be that whoever won the briefcase would defend it against anyone who beat him in the tournament; in this case that would be Michael Elgin, Katsuyori Shibata, and Yoshi-Hashi. He has thus far defended the case against… Yoshi-Hashi. The other two are/were heavily involved in their own programs, so New Japan threw Goto in there figuring to get another great match out of the two. But in a way it kind of negates the entire point of the G1 tournament, which is the most intensive and respected tournament in pro wrestling. If the guy who lost in the finals can just walk into another opportunity two months later, what’s the point?
Katsuyori Shibata will defend the NEVER Openweight Championship against Kyle O’Reilly. This match was set up back in August when O’Reilly got a non-title win over Shibata at a Ring of Honor show, and should be excellent. It’s somewhat of a step up for Kyle in New Japan; while the NEVER title isn’t on par with the Heavyweight or Intercontinental belts, he’s mostly been doing tag matches or working against the juniors. Shibata should retain, as it looks like NJPW is setting up a match between Shibata and the rumored-to-be-returning Minoru Suzuki at the Tokyo Dome.
The Briscoes will put up the IWGP Tag Team Championships against the Guerrillas of Destiny, Tama Tonga and Tanga Roa. This is a return to their match at Dominion where the Bullet Club members dropped the titles, and could be an opportune way for them to regain if the company wants to end the Briscoes experiment and get the belts back on New Japan guys going into Wrestle Kingdom. That being said, a lot of people thought the Young Bucks would win in their attempt to move up from the juniors, but the Briscoes are still champions 100+ days later, so who knows.
And in the fourth of four title matches on this show, the Young Bucks will defend the junior tag team titles against the new team of David Finlay and Ricochet. The duo along with Satoshi Kojima recently won the trios titles after Matt Sydal was taken off the Destruction cards due to travel issues (or at least that was the company line). This is big for Finlay, who recently moved up officially from the last crew of Young Lions (developmental stars), along with CJ Parker, and he already has a title and is in line for a second. It’s unlikely, given that the Bucks are really pushing being simultaneous ROH and NJPW champions, but it’s not impossible.
THE UNDERCARD
In an eight-man tag, all four members of Los Ingobernables de Japon (Naito, Evil, Bushi and Sanada) will take on Hiroshi Tanahashi, Jay Lethal, Michael Elgin and Kushida. This isn’t actually on the undercard, as it will take place between the two tag title matches and the three singles main events. There’s an interesting story running through this one, as Kushida and Elgin just dropped the juniors and Intercontinental titles (respectively) to Bushi and Naito (respectively).
The third generation veterans (Tenzan, Kojima, Nagata and Nakanishi) will be in action against four stars from Pro Wrestling Noah (Kitamiya, Nakajima, Taniguchi and Shiozaki) to further the program between the two companies heading into Wrestle Kingdom.
While his tag team partner is in action higher up the card, Ring of Honor TV Champion Bobby Fish teams with Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomoaki Honma and Togi Makabe to take on Baretta, Rocky Romero, Jado and Toru Yano.
And finally, in the opening match of the night, Will Ospreay, Yoshi-Hashi and Tomohiro Ishii takes on the trio of Bullet Club members Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale and Ring of Honor World Champion Adam Cole.
