Four more matches have been confirmed for the Death Pain Invitational.
In less than a week, we could have a new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion as El Desperado will defend his belt against Jun Kasai. But that isn’t the only match confirmed.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has added Rina Yamashita and a mystery partner versus Masashi Takeda and Keni Fukimoto in a Hardcore match. Rina has been billed as the (Death match Amazoness) and the Stardom talent has been embroiled in an intense feud with Suzuki Suzu. These two previously fought in March in a violent no disqualification TLC match.
The second match will see former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion “Super Dragon” Tatsuhito Takaiwa team with GENTARO, Kengo, and Dragon Libre to take on Ryusuke Taguchi, Master Wato, Katsuya Murashima, and Daiki Nagai. Taguchi and Master Wato have become mentors to Murashima and Nagai, who are Young Lions training down at the New Japan dojo.
Last, but not least, long time New Japan veteran Toru Yano is scheduled to partner with Tomoya Hirata to take on Volchin Oleg & Toru Sugiura in a tag team bout. Now the card hasn’t exactly been finalized for the Death Pain Invitational, but it’s certainly shaping up to be an exciting show.
The main event between IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado and Jun Kasai could be something special as the two men showed some nice chemistry during a couple of multi-man matches they’ve had together. Kasai is getting his first opportunity at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title because Kasai got a huge victory over El Desperado in a violent and bloody Fluorescent & Alpha Death match back in May.
This is their first one-on-one encounter. Jun Kasai has mostly spent his time in Pro Wrestling Freedoms and is a multi-time KING OF FREEDOM World Champion. The winner of this match will go on to defend their belt against Kosei Fujita, who won the 2025 Best of the Super Juniors Tournament in order to earn a shot at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. As of this writing, a date for the pending match has yet to be made official. It should be very interesting to see who ends up facing Kosei for the belt. We'll keep you updated on when it happens.