A surprising title change capped off New Japan’s excursion into the United States.
This past weekend, New Japan Pro-Wrestling hosted their Windy City Riot event that featured three championship matches including the Strong Openweight title match between Gabe Kidd and Tomohiro Ishii. This was a rematch from their Battle in the Valley bout that ended in a time limit draw. The same thing happened here, with both men tied one win a piece. The referee ordered sudden death. Kidd wasn’t happy about that. The match ended after Ishii connected with his signature brainbuster finisher.
This is the first time that Ishii has won the STRONG Openweight title. He’s a six time NEVER Openweight Champion, and the NJPW STRONG belt is the second singles title he’s won in New Japan.
Elsewhere, Hirooki Goto defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Shota Umino. Surprisingly, the 2024 G1 Climax winner couldn’t get the job done as Goto hit the GTR for the three count.
In the number one contender’s match for Mercedes Mone’s NJPW STRONG Women’s title, Mina Shirakawa and AZM ended up in a double countout finish. It was confirmed later on that both women will challenge Mone for the belt at Resurgence next month. The match is scheduled on May 9th in Southern California.
Also, Konosuke Takeshita beat Hiroshi Tanahashi in his final US match. Since this was billed as a non-title match (Takeshita is the NEVER Openweight Champion) then many assumed that Tanahashi would win, but New Japan continues to put over Takeshita strong by giving the 29-year-old a clean victory over the New Japan legend.
Check out the official results for New Japan’s Windy City Riot:
- Zane Jay def. CJ Tino (pre-show)
- TJP def. Tom Lawlor
- Mina Shirakawa and AZM’s Strong Women’s Title #1 contenders match ended in a double countout
- World Class Wrecking Crew (Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson) def. Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & Kushida) to retain the Strong Openweight Tag Team championship
- Tomohiro Ishii def. Gabe Kidd in sudden death overtime of their 30-minute Iron Man match (2 falls to 1) to become the NEW Strong Openweight champ
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito & Titán) def. El Phantasmo & Rocky Romero
- Zack Sabre Jr. def. David Finlay
- Hirooki Goto def. Shota Umino to retain the IWGP World Heavyweight title
- Konosuke Takeshita def. Hiroshi Tanahashi