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NJPW News: Pre-Show Gauntlet Added To Wrestle Kingdom, Fan Festa 2019 Matches
NJPW adds a Pre-Show Gauntlet to Wrestle Kingdom & more!
New Japan Pro Wrestling finished up their 2018 schedule this weekend with two Road To Tokyo Dome events at Korakuen Hall (see Friday’s results here, Saturday’s here) before they head into 2019 and Wrestle Kingdom 13 on January 4th.
NJPW’s annual Wrestle Kingdom show is always a stacked lineup and this year’s edition is no different, but the promotion was not finished with the card as it’s been announced that the Pre-Show will now feature a five team Gauntlet to crown the number one contenders to the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Titles. Battling for a shot at The Guerrillas Of Destiny and Taiji Ishimori will be Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano and Togi Makabe, Best Friends and Hirooki Goto, Killer Elite Squad and Minoru Suzuki, David Finlay, Jeff Cobb and Michael Elgin, then lastly will be Marty Scurll, Hangman Page and Yujiro Takahashi.
Additionally, preceding Wrestle Kingdom on January 3rd will be the Wrestle Kingdom 13 Fan Festa, which will now feature in-ring action as NJPW announced the following matches:
- Tiger Mask & Jyushin Thunder Liger vs. Ren Narita & Yuya Uemura
- Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi vs. Toa Henare & Tomoaki Honma
- Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Ayato Yoshida & Shota Umino
Here’s a look at the updated lineup for Wrestle Kingdom 13:
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
(C) Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
IWGP Intercontinental Championship
(C) Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito
Kazuchika Okada vs. ‘Switchblade’ Jay White
IWGP United States Championship
(C) Cody vs. Juice Robinson
NEVER Openweight Championship
(C) Kota Ibushi vs. Will Ospreay
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
(C) KUSHIDA vs. Taiji Ishimori
Triple Threat for the IWGP Tag Team Championship
(C) The Guerrillas Of Destiny vs EVIL & SANADA vs. The Young Bucks
RevPro British Heavyweight Title
(C) Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
Triple Threat for the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship
(C) El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Roppongi 3K vs. BUSHI & Shingo Takagi
Pre-Show: NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Title #1 Contender Gauntlet
Best Friends & Hirooki Goto vs. Killer Elite Squad & Minoru Suzuki vs.
Toru Yano, Togi Makabe & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. David Finley, Jeff Cobb & Michael Elgin vs.
Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi & Hangman Page
Which match are you looking forward to the most? Let us know on social media @theCHAIRSHOTcom and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
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Let us know what you think on social media @ChairshotMedia and always remember to use the hashtag #UseYourHead!
Did your picks win points?
The AEW Continental Classic is underway, with almost everyone competing. Check in here if you haven’t seen the winners and losers of week 1!
Here are your Gold League standings!
- Jon Moxley: 1-0, 3 points
- Swerve Strickland: 1-0, 3 points
- Jay White: 1-0, 3 points
- Rush: 0-1, 0 points
- Mark Briscoe: 0-1, 0 points.
- Jay Lethal: 0-1, 0 points
Here are your Blue League standings!
- Brody King: 1-0, 3 points
- Claudio Castagnoli: 1-0, 3 points
- Daniel Garcia: 0-1, 0 points
- Eddie Kingston: 0-1, 0 points
- Bryan Danielson: Yet to Compete
- Andrade El Idolo: Yet to Compete
My Thoughts:
Nothing too crazy, nothing too wild, this tournament only just got started. The only disappointing point is that they could not get Bryan “cleared to compete” Saturday night. Not sure how much of that is shoot given the bad eye, but this was kinda the problem of wanting him in the tournament over tons of other choices. Bryan wants to face Okada for WrestleKingdom 18, how is Bryan supposed to do that at his best if he’s also gonna be in a round robin, doing five top level matches in about as many weeks? And it takes away from Andrade being able to do something. Also a little surprised we didn’t even hear from Andrade on Saturday.
Now as we heard on Saturday, round two’s matches are set. Gold League will see Mark Briscoe VS Rush, White VS Swerve, and of course, Moxley VS Lethal. Nice variety there, a couple 0-1 guys facing off, as well as two 1-0 guys, and then 1-0 VS 0-1. No offense to Lethal, but he feels like an 0-2 going up against Moxley. Hard to call the other ones but that’s the fun of it. Meanwhile, Blue League sees Brody VS Claudio in a showdown to be 2-0, then Bryan and Andrade finally jump in, Bryan against Eddie and Andrade against Garcia. Sadly, feels like Eddie and Garcia are going 0-2, no way Tony Khan is booking Bryan and Andrade to lose their first shots.
In fact, that could be half the reason they did wait on those two, that’s almost too good for just a first round opener. But I still would’ve done it, same as NJPW does stuff like that for round robins, which this is all modeled after anyway.
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Tony Khan Reveals the Blue and Gold “Leagues!”
Originally livestreamed, Tony Khan and Tony Schiavone officially announced the twelve total entrants and divided them into the two round robin blocks known as the “Blue League” and “Gold League.” If you don’t feel like sifting through the almost 30 minute video, the groups are:
Blue League
- Bryan Danielson
- Andrade El Idolo
- Brody King
- Claudio Castagnoli
- Daniel Garcia
- Eddie Kingston
Gold League
- Jon Moxley
- Swerve Strickland
- Rush
- Mark Briscoe
- Jay Lethal
- Jay White
Tony Khan also explains the rules for the Continental Classic:
- Every match has a 20 minute time limit
- The winner of each match earns 3 points, losers earn 0, 1 point for a draw
- EVERYONE ELSE is banned from ringside for true 1v1 action
Eddie Kingston also joined the selection special as his “life’s work” is on the line in this tournament, both the ROH World Championship and NJPW Strong Openweight Championship on the line as part of the modern day North American Triple Crown Eddie, Tony Khan, AEW, ROH and NJPW are looking to create together. Gold League competes tonight on Dynamite while Blue League will have their start this Saturday on Collision. Look for more articles like this one to keep up with the Continental Classic standings over the next six weeks of tournament action!
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