The NJPW New Year Dash event was held earlier today under a mystery format, with no full card announced in advance. The matches were not revealed until the wrestlers came out for their entrances.
New Year Dash was held at the Ota City General Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan, in front of just over 2,500 fans. Below are results:
* House of Torture (EVIL, Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Tiger Mask, Ren Narita, and Tomoaki Honma. Togo and EVIL hit a Magic Killer on Honma for the win. After the match, House of Torture attacked Narita until Minoru Suzuki made the save. HoT also beat down Suzuki until El Desperado made the save, then joined Suzuki and Narita to fight HoT off. It looks like HoT’s EVIL, Takahashi and SHO will defend the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Titles against Suzuki, Narita and Desperado soon
* Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, and DOUKI defeated United Empire (Will Ospreay, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions TJP and Francesco Akira). TAKA Michinoku came out with Taichi, DOUKI, and Kanemaru, and cut a promo before the match, promising they will change the face of NJPW. The finish saw Taichi take out Ospreay, then DOUKI was able to get the pin on Akira. Ospreay was still hurting from the Wrestle Kingdom 17 loss to new IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega. After the match, United Empire beat down the winners
* TMDK (NJPW World Television Champion Zack Sabre Jr., Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls) defeated CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii, IWGP Tag Team Champions Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi). Haste and Nicholls got the pin on YH to win. After the match, Haste and Nicholls held the IWGP Tag Team Title belts over YH and Goto, while Ishii and ZSJ also faced off. After the face-offs, TMDK sat on the apron and ZSJ introduced their fourth member – Kosei Fujita. They took off his Young Lion gear and gave him a TMDK shirt
* YOH, Togi Makabe, Shota Umino, and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón (BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi). YOH pinned Takahashi to set up a future title match, then cut a post-match promo to officially issue the challenge
* NEVER Openweight Champion Tama Tonga, Hikuleo, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Master Wato defeated The Bullet Club (Jay White, KENTA, El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori). The referee called the match after catching ELP trying to hit Tonga with the title belt. After the bell, The Bullet Club beat down and destroyed the babyfaces. White took the mic and gave a heated promo to Hikuleo, challenging him to a future Loser Leaves Japan match
* Shingo Takagi defeated Great-O-Khan, Toru Yano and SHO to win the King of Pro Wrestling 2023 Provisional Title. House of Torture, who accompanied SHO to the ring, constantly interfered and helped SHO with weapons. After so much of this, the other competitors took out SHO. Great-O-Khan went to finish Yano but Shingo broke the pin up, then hit Yano with Last of The Dragon to capture the new KOPW Title belt. Shingo faced off with Great-O-Khan after the match
* IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada and IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega defeated United Empire (Jeff Cobb, Aaron Henare). There was a massive pop for Okada and Omega teaming up for the first time. Like Will Ospreay did earlier in the show, Omega sold the brutal match from Wrestle Kingdom 17 the night before. Omega and Okada hit a combination V-Trigger and Rainmaker on Henare to get the win. After the match, Okada cut a promo until KOPW 2023 Champion Shingo Takagi interrupted to issue a challenge for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title. Okada accepted the challenge for a later date
Stay tuned to WrestlingHeadlines.com for more.
Follow Marc on Twitter at @this_is_marc. Send any news, tips or corrections to us by clicking here.
