Several titles changed hands at Wrestling Dontaku on Wednesday.
The show took place from the Fukuoka Convention Center and was headlined by SANADA defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi.
Hikuleo won the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship in the first title match of the night, defeating Bullet Club's KENTA. The finish of the match saw KENTA hit a low blow followed by a Busaiku knee but Hikuleo countered a second knee attempt into a powerslam and then followed that up with a chokeslam for the win.
In the second title match of the night, NJPW TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. and Jeff Cobb went to a 15-minute time-limit draw. ZSJ retains as a result. Chris Charlton mentioned on commentary that ZSJ will not be happy with this result and his program with Cobb will likely continue.
New NEVER Openweight Six Man Tag Team Champions were crowned at Wrestling Dontaku. Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii defeated El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita. The finish saw Okada pin Narita after a Rainmaker. After the match, the new champions were confronted by Shota Umino, who revealed that his former mentor, Jon Moxley, will return to Japan next month. It was teased on commentary that Mox, Umino, and a partner could challenge for the titles at Dominion on June 4.
Wrestling Dontaku 2023 also marked the 10-year anniversary of Bullet Club. At Wrestling Dontaku 2013, Karl Anderson turned on Hiroshi Tanahashi and aligned with Prince Devitt, Tama Tonga, and Bad Luck Fale to form the faction. On today's show, the group's new leader David Finlay defeated Tonga for the NEVER Openweight Championship.
After hitting a powerbomb on the ring apron and tossing Tonga into the post on the outside, Finlay had a clear advantage. He hit several power bombs on Tonga in the ring but refused to pin him in an attempt to get Jado to throw in the towel. After hitting his finisher a third time he finally pinned his opponent and won the title. Tonga had to be taken to the back on a stretcher.
After the match, Finlay was attacked by El Phantasmo, who was recently thrown out of Bullet Club at Sakura Genesis. Phantasmo tossed Gedo out of the ring and then delivered a superkick to the new champion. Finlay tried to escape by Phantasmo dove out of the ring on top of him and continued his attack. He was eventually pulled off of Finlay by the young lions at ringside.
In the night's main event, SANADA successfully retained his title against Hiromu Takahashi. The finish of the match saw SANADA hit a shining wizard after several near falls and follow it up with his Deadfall DDT for the win.
After SANADA made his post-match comments, a video similar to the ones that have been airing all tour was played. Yota Tsuji then returned to NJPW and attacked SANADA and the rest of the Just Five Guys stable. Tsuji held up the IWGP title over SANADA as the show came to a close.
Elsewhere on the card, Aussie Open reclaimed their IWGP Tag Team title belts that had been physically stolen earlier on the tour by House of Torture's EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi. They then challenged Bishamon and EVIL & Takahashi to a triple-threat match for the titles.
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku on 5/3 results:
CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Toru Yano, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated House Of Torture (Dick Togo, EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi)United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) vs. TMDK (Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste)Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) & Shota Umino defeated United Empire (Aaron Henare, Francesco Akira & TJP)Just 5 Guys (DOUKI, Taichi & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito)NJPW Strong Openweight Championship: Hikuleo defeated KENTA (c)NJPW World Television Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb (Time Limit Draw)NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship: Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii, & Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki & Ren Narita) (c)NEVER Openweight Championship: David Finlay defeated Tama Tonga (c)
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA (c) defeated Hiromu Takahashi
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