A Japan TV only exclusive?!

NJPW celebrates Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement tour by giving him his own TV special! And you won’t believe what he has in store!

OFFICIAL RESULTS

• Kickoff – Katsuya Murashima VS Daiki Odashima; Time Limit Draw.
• Six Man Tag: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Shota Umino & Ryusuke Taguchi VS Tatsumi Fujinami, Hiromu Takahashi & LEONA; Tanahashi, Shota & Taguchi win.
• 8 Man Tag: Hontai VS The House of Torture; The House of Torture wins.
• NEVER Openweight Championship: Boltin Oleg VS Yuji Nagata; Boltin wins and retains the title.
• 8 Man Tag: Master Wato, YOH, El Desperado & Dragon Kid VS The House of Torture; Wato, Yoh, Desperado & Dragon Kid win.
• NJPW World Television Championship: El Phantasmo VS Taiji Ishimori; ELP wins and retains the title.
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Hirooki Goto VS Zack Sabre Jr; ZSJ wins and becomes the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
• Hiroshi Tanahashi & Naomichi Marufuji VS Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa; Tanahashi & Marufuji win.

MY THOUGHTS

Well, this is a first. I would have done a report style article for this show, but it is a TV only exclusive, with no apparent plans to ever put it on NJPW World. And yet, they not only put Goto VS ZSJ for the world title here, ZSJ WINS! A huge title move, and it’s really surprising they did this just before the G1 Climax with no rematch planned before, even with a couple New Japan Soul shows left on the schedule. I’m sure it was a great match, maybe even awesome, but only the Japanese audience will have witnessed it.

And even all that aside, this move is still really surprising. If Zack was going to take the title back, why do it now? Did they not have any solid G1 plans and are now going to have Goto fight his way to the finals? What about Tanahashi? It’s his last G1, will he at least be a finalist? WrestleKingdom 20 will be here before you know it, they gotta be setting up something memorable for Tanahashi’s last match.