New Japan Pro Wrestling wrapped up a weekend of dome action on Sunday with night 2 of Wrestle Grand Slam. The show, and the weekend, was closed by a heartwarming moment.
Los Ingobernables de Japon’s Shingo Takagi found himself battling against the odds in Sunday’s world title match. The champ fought not only the challenger EVIL, but all of EVIL’s compatriots in BC House of Torture. Just when it seemed the numbers were too much, BUSHI, SANADA, Hiromu & Naito, all of LIJ rushed out to fight off the gangland tactics of HoT, and gained a modicum of revenge for EVIL’s betrayal of the faction.
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⚾️WRESTLE GRAND SLAM
in MetLife Dome?(9/5)を公開‼️
＼復帰戦の王者鷹木、ダーティーファイト全開のEVILを相手に一体どんな闘いを見せるのか⁉️
果たして勝つのは⁉️? @Takagi__Shingo × @151012EVIL
? #njpwworld で配信中??登録＆視聴⏩https://t.co/CcdQ1XrpWA#njpw #njwgsDay2 pic.twitter.com/T3uXfGUiLz
— NJPW WORLD (@njpwworld) September 5, 2021
With his found family evening the odds, Takagi managed to hit EVIL with Last of the Dragon and retain the title. The champ then took a heartfelt moment with his stable as pyro went off, and the crowd applauded. Seeing such a normally aloof stable come together in a time of crisis was a legitimately inspiring end to the weekend of limited capacity shows, with the usual COVID restrictions that fans have gotten all too used to. There is a dark cloud hanging over Takagi’s seemingly cursed run with the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, but bad weather is better with friends.
Takagi’s friends had rougher nights than he. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA were pushed to the side in a three-way tag team championship match, that saw a near-victory stolen from them by the reigning champs, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. Later in the night, Hiromu Takahashi unsuccessfully challenged IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Robbie Eagles. Takahashi had vacated the title earlier in the year, and hoped to pick up right where he left off with “Mr. Belt,” but Eagles’s motivation to prove himself more than a paper champion won out. Now, without a clear claim to his dearly beloved Jr. Title, Hiromu must watch as newly-crowned Jr. Tag Team Champion El Desperado steps up to the plate to challenge CHAOS’s motivated Aussie.
Plus, Great-O-Khan got a statement win over Tomohiro Ishii in tag team action, and the women of STARDOM once again thrilled the MetLife Dome crowd.
Here are the full results:
9/5
Wrestle Grand Slam: Night 2
Available on NJPWWorld.com
- STARDOM Special Match: Donna Del Mondo (Giulia & Syuri) def. Queen’s Quest (Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani) by submission. (11:31)
Syuri submitted Saya Kamitani via White Tiger. - United Empire (Jeff Cobb & Great-O-Khan) def. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) by pinfall. (11:45)
Great-O-Khan pinned Tomohiro Ishii via Eliminator. - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: Suzuki-gun (El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) def. Bullet Club (El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori) (c) by pinfall. (20:28)
El Desperado pinned El Phantasmo via Pinche Loco. - IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Three Way Match: Suzuki-gun (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) (c) def. Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & SANADA) vs. CHAOS (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) by pinfall. (26:43)
Taichi pinned YOSHI-HASHI via Black Mephisto - IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship Match: Robbie Eagles (c) def. Hiromu Takahashi by submission via Ron Miller Special. (24:07)
- IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Shingo Takagi (c) def. EVIL by pinfall via Last of the Dragon. (30:20)
NJPW will return on Sept. 18th at 4am ET for the 1st night of the 31st G1 Climax.
