NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam Discussion Thread

[Chris]

Eagles/Despy was good af and I didn't expect the Robbie win Him vs Hiromu should be a banger

 

[Chris]

37 minutes for the tag title match Shit was amazing though

 

[Chris]

Shingo/Tanahashi fucking ruled

Def one of the weirder Tokyo Dome shows I've ever seen though but man they made the best of it.

 

[Chris]

They put EVIL back in the world title picture

 

[Necro]

New Japan Pro Wrestling held the first night of its three-night Wrestle Grand Slam event today in the Tokyo Dome.

The full results were:

Spoiler

• KOPW 2021 New Japan Ranbo: Chase Owens def. BUSHI, Dick Togo, DOUKI, Great-O-Khan, Hirooki Goto, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, KENTA, Master Wato, Minoru Suzuki, Satoshi Kojima, SHO, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano (c), YOH, YOSHI-HASHI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yuji Nagata & Yujiro Takahashi
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori (c) def. Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles def. El Desperado (c)
• Kazuchika Okada def. Jeff Cobb
• IWGP Tag Team Championships: Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. def. SANADA and Tetsuya Naito (c)
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Hiromu Takahashi appeared at the start of the show and announced his intention to challenge the winner of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match.

El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori made their first successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships against Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi.

Robbie Eagles defeated El Desperado to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career. One could reasonably expect Eagles to attempt his first defense of the title against Takahashi in the near future.

New Japan legend Masahiro Chono joined the Japanese commentary team for the last two matches.

Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. defeated SANADA and Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships. After the match, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI came to the ring to signal their intention to challenge for the titles.

In the main event, Shingo Takagi made his first successful defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi

Six hours before the start of the show, New Japan announced Kota Ibushi would be unable to compete at the show and Tanahashi would take his place in the main event challenging Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

It was previously announced on July 21 that Ibushi been diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. Tanahashi appealed to take Ibushi’s place in the main event if needed at Summer Struggle in Nagoya yesterday, which turned out to be the case.

Today’s show marked Tanahashi’s eleventh Tokyo Dome main event.

After the main event, the lights went out and a video aired of EVIL (with Dick Togo) challenging Takagi for the title.

When the lights came back on, EVIL was stood in the ring and attacked Takagi.

The second and third nights of Wrestle Grand Slam are scheduled to take place on September 4 and 5 in the MetLife Dome in Saitama.

 

[Kairi HoHo]

Damn I just finished the Junior Tag Title Match between Phantasmo/Ishimori vs Romero/Tagushi and it was really good. I loved this work of ELP having a loaded boot and it helps him retain because of the distraction. He's lucky he didn't break his foot on that Moonsault.

 

[CakeWalker]

The rambo was god awful, as always. The only benefit was finally seeing the Texas Champion with KOPW.....tooooo sweeeeeeeet

 

[CakeWalker]

I did love what the Mega Coaches brought to the contest, but ELP and Ishimori just continuing to be one of the best junior tag team units around. They would be the perfect team to face the Bucks, if this Bullet Club wars is going to actually happen. But what is in the boot! OMG! We will never know!

 

[CakeWalker]

I was genuinely in disbelief when I heard Robbie won the title, but he put on a great performance in the match. Really nice to see him being recognised with a title run.

 

[CakeWalker]

Cobb vs. Okada was lack lustre. Both are phenomenal workers and I love watching them, but it wasn't either of their best work. Felt ike something was missing from this one. I'm probably being too critical, but I think I have a higher bar of expectation for both of them.

 

[Chris]

Cobb vs. Okada was lack lustre. Both are phenomenal workers and I love watching them, but it wasn't either of their best work. Felt ike something was missing from this one. I'm probably being too critical, but I think I have a higher bar of expectation for both of them.

Nah I agree, match was good but they can do a lot more. Felt like they were saving some good stuff, hopefully too

 

[CakeWalker]

Nah I agree, match was good but they can do a lot more. Felt like they were saving some good stuff, hopefully too

What I am hoping, is that it leads to a Cobb win and at least put him in contention for some gold. If this just becomes a gateway for Okada to win the world title, then I will be annoyed.

 

[Chris]

I hope they run it back in the G1 for sure

 

[Comrade Khan]

I hope they run it back in the G1 for sure

they can both lose to the American Dragon in the G1 though

 

[CakeWalker]

I honestly would prefer Danielson not to win the G1, if he enters it this years though.