Big Matches Set For NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2016
Who is up first for the newly crowned Tetsuya Naito?
When Shinsuke Nakamura, AJ Styles, Karl Anderson and Doc Gallows abandoned the New Japan Pro Wrestling ship at the beginning of the year, many naysayers crowed that the company would struggle to cope with such a loss of talent.
Those four may be impossible to replace, but NJPW continues to produce some of the best professional wrestling on the planet, and yesterday's Invasion Attack was no different.
Tetsuya Naito defeated Kazuchika Okada in the main event for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship, and less than 24 hours later his challenger for the forthcoming Wrestling Dontaku event has been announced. Current Ring of Honor Television Champion Tomohiro Ishii stepped up to Naito after the match, and the two will do battle at the big event on May 3rd. It is extremely unlikely that Ishii will win the belt, but it is absolutely certain that Naito will be totally battered in defending it.
Elsewhere on the card, Kazuchika Okada will begin yet another redemption story by going up against the newest member of Naito's Los Ingobernables de Japon, former TNA X-Divison champion Sanada, KUSHIDA will defend his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against the legendary Jushin Thunder Liger and Hirooki Goto will face LIdJ's EVIL in what will be a stiff, stiff battle.
Four days before Wrestling Dontaku there is also the small matter of NJPW Wrestling Fire, a show that will be headlined by two gaijins as Kenny Omega continues his main event push by defending his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Michael Elgin. Elsewhere on the card, Katsuyori Shibata will continue beating up the New Japan Dads as he goes up against Yuji Nagata, and possibly maybe probably NXT bound Ricochet will team up with Matt Sydal and try to regain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight tag straps from RPG Vice.
The NJPW juggernaut continues to roll on.