12 Biggest Stories From New Japan's Power Struggle And What They Mean Going Forward
8. Tomohiro Ishii Retains British Heavyweight Title In Slugfest
Fighting for Revolution Pro Wrestling’s British Heavyweight Championship, Minoru Suzuki and defending champ Tomohiro Ishii met at Power Struggle. The two have feuded for the RPW belt through much of 2018 with frequent appearances in the UK. In fact, Saturday marked only the second time the British title was defended on a show in Japan.
From the start, the bout was nothing but hard, brutal, cringe-inducing strikes. Both men were quickly staggered as they traded forearms, palm strikes, and slaps. Suzuki and Ishii continued with increasingly raucous shots for much of the bout. As with many of their previous encounters, scientific wrestling was scarce as their were very few slams or submissions throughout. However, when the Stone Pitbull finally landed his patented brainbuster, it signalled the end as he retained his British Heavyweight title.
It's almost certain that the longtime rivals will meet again one day. In the meantime, Suzuki will return to the UK in November to defend the RPW Tag titles alongside Zack Sabre Jr. Since Sabre's feud with Tetsuya Naito seemingly wrapped up at Power Struggle and as the relationship between New Japan and RPW continues to grow, perhaps the Suzuki-gun duo could bring their belts to Wrestle Kingdom.