Hirooki Goto is still the champ.
David Finlay came out of the 2025 New Japan Cup looking like the company’s next big star. The 32-year-old has been on the cusp of the main event for the past couple of years and it seemed that he would finally break the glass ceiling at Genesis. Unfortunately, April 5th was not the time for Finlay.
Him and Goto had a back-and-forth match at the Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Finlay came seconds from winning after he hit his Overkill finisher, but Goto kicked out. The match changed into Goto's favor when Finlay tried to connect with a second Overkill. Goto countered with a stunner and eventually hit the Revolution neckbreaker for the three count. It didn’t take long for Goto’s next challenger to be confirmed.
Goto grabbed a mic and called out Shota Umino. The 2024 G1 Climax winner came out and accepted Goto’s challenge. Though the IWGP World Heavyweight title didn’t change hands, two other titles did. The Great-O-Khan beat El Phantasmo for the NJPW World Television title via countout.
The United Empire’s Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb are the new IWGP Tag Team Champions. Cobb even taunted people who thought that he was leaving New Japan Pro-Wrestling. Unless Cobb loses it quickly then this pretty much confirms that he’ll be staying in New Japan for the foreseeable future.
It was a fun night for New Japan, though many feel that Finlay not winning was a mistake. Whatever the case may be, it was a quality wrestling show. Check out the results below:
Yuya Uemura defeated SANADA at 10:26.
NJPW World Television Championship Match: The Great-O-Khan defeated El Phantasmo (c) via countout at 11:09 to win the title.
Shota Umino defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at 12:47.
NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships Match: House of Torture (Ren Narita, SHO, & Yujiro Takahashi) (c) defeated Bullet Club War Dogs (Gabe Kidd, Drilla Moloney, & Taiji Ishimori) at 7:30 to retain the titles.
NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Konosuke Takeshita (c) defeated Ryohei Oiwa at 12:54 to retain the title.
IWGP Tag Team Championships: The United Empire (Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi) (c) at 10:45 to win the titles.
IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship Match: Yota Tsuji (c) defeated EVIL at 21:24 to retain the title.
IWGP World Heavyweight Championship Match: Hirooki Goto (c) defeated David Finlay at 24:21 to retain the title.