New Japan Pro Wrestling’s World Tag League and Best of the Super Juniors tournaments both reached their conclusions at the historic Nippon Budokan on Friday.
In the doubles ranks, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) finally overcame their tournament hoodoo to triumph over 2019 winners FinJuice (Juice Robinson and David Finlay).
The match, which was marred by Bullet Club shenanigans throughout, would eventually be sealed following interference from KENTA, who struck Robinson with his IWGP US title shot briefcase.
It was a mirror image of the scene a year previous at the Budokan, where Tonga’s interference would ultimately seal KENTA the NEVER Openweight Championship belt, his first with the promotion.
Having won the tournament, it’s now expected that G.O.D will challenge for the IWGP Tag Team Championships, currently held by Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr & Taichi), at WrestleKingdom in January.
In the night’s second tournament final, Los Ingobernables de Japon sensation Hiromu Takahashi seized his second Best of the Super Juniors trophy by besting heated rival El Desperado.
The match featured several dramatic turns, with Takahashi clawing and tearing at his opponents mask, to the point where Desperado voluntarily removed it, much to the surprise of the Tokyo faithful.
Desperado has, in the past, shown scant regard for the lucha libre tradition and again, appeared unfazed once his face was revealed to the masses.
Hiromu would ultimately scoop the victory by hitting a running Death Valley Driver into an exposed steel turnbuckle, followed by both iterations of his Time Bomb finisher.
Post match, Takahashi surprised the crowd by suggesting that his next opponent should not be the current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori, as would be tradition, but instead, the winner of New Japan USA’s junior tournament, the Super J-Cup.
Full results from the show:
Best of the Super Juniors Final Hiromu Takahashi defeated El Desperado
World Tag League Final Guerrillas of Destiny defeated FinJuice
Kota Ibushi and Master Wato defeated Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI
SANADA and Shingo Takagi defeated EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi
Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb and Great-O-Khan defeated Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Toa Henare
Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens and Bad Luck Fale defeated Robbie Eagles, SHO and Toru Yano