Last night in Sapporo, NJPW kicked off their SOUL tour, with two championships changing hands, along with the first IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Steel Cage match in the headliner. Also, the 34 participants that will compete in the G1 Climax and information regarding the mini-play-in tournament were revealed.
Let’s get to this recap of NJPW SOUL in Sapporo:
- El Desperado defeated SHO in the Steel Cage match to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship. The match itself was compelling, House of Torture got their butts handed to them by Team Hontai (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Boltin Oleg & Satoshi Kojima) too. Post-match, the newly crowned IWGP Jr. Champion called out DOUKI for a future title match and the former Perros del Mal member accepted.
- The G1 Climax 34 entrants were revealed on this show as well
– A Block: Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Shota Umino, SANADA, EVIL, Zack Sabre Jr, Great O-Khan, Gabe Kidd & Jake Lee
– B Block: David Finlay, Hirooki Goto, Yota Tsuji, Yuya Uemura, Jeff Cobb, Ren Narita & Konosuke Takeshita
- A play-in tournament will take place up until July 5th, 2 guys will round out the G1 Climax 34. Here are the competitors involved with the qualifying tournament:
– A Block – KENTA, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Callum Newman, Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi
– B Block – Hiroshi Tanahashi, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, TJP, Taichi, Satoshi Kojima.
- David Finlay retained the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship against SANADA on the undercard.
- HENARE won the NEVER Openweight Championship from Shingo Takagi in a Dominion rematch.
- Drilla Moloney/Clark Connors retained the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag team Championships against TMDK (Kosei Fujita/Robbie Eagles),
- The NEVER Openweight Trios Championships changed hands as Los Ingobernables de Japon lost in their first defense against the former champions. Boltin Oleg, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano are once again NEVER Trios Champions.
- Tetsuya Naito & Titan defeated TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uemura.
- Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) defeated Dick Togo & EVIL.
- DOUKI & Taichi defeated Ren Narita & Uncle Nobu.
- Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Jeff Cobb, Great O-Khan & TJP defeated Katsuya Murashima, Satoshi Kojima, Tomohiro Ishii, Tomoaki Honma & Shoma Kato in the opening match.
This show is currently available on VOD via NJPW World, the streaming service of New Japan Pro Wrestling.
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