Jay White Returns At NJPW Wrestling Dontaku - Juice Robinson Joins Bullet Club!

Biz Cliz gets a new member and stand tall at Dontaku.

by Andrew Pollard
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Chase Owens Juice Robinson
NJPW

With NJPW Wrestling Dontaku now in the record books, Bullet Club have a new member.

After Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tomohiro Ishii to become a three-time IWGP United States Champion, Chase Owens distracted Tana before a masked man attacked the Ace of New Japan. Sporting a Bullet Club vest, said masked man revealed himself to be Juice Robinson.

A two-time IWGP US Champion himself, Juice recently seemed to be heading for the New Japan exit door. Having largely competed for the Los Angeles-based New Japan Strong arm throughout the pandemic, it was only earlier this month that Robinson stated his NJPW contract was expiring imminently, that he had no intention to return to Japan, and he even threw up questions about this wrestling future, period, after stating he no longer has the urge to wrestle.

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Not just did Juice appear and lay waste to Tanahashi, he was also present when Jay White made his own New Japan return as Wrestling Dontaku went off the air.

Following Kazuchika Okada retaining his IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Tetsuya Naito in the main event, Switchblade attacked Okada and celebrated with his Bullet Club buddies. Like Robinson, White had largely been competing in the US and for NJPW Strong across the past year or more. Similarly, the Good Brothers also returned at Dotaku, giving a beatdown to Tama Tonga after the GoD man became the new NEVER Openweight Champion.

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For those wondering why it was Tanahashi vs. Ishii for the IWGP US Championship here rather than Tana vs. Will Ospreay, that's because Ospreay tested positive for COVID-19. Of course, Tana vs. Ospreay was only on the table after SANADA had to vacate that title due to injury.

Complete with several title changes, the full results for NJPW Wrestling Dontaku read:

- Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & TAKA Michinoku defeated Shingo Takagi, BUSHI & Shiro Koshinaka

- Hiromu Takahashi defeated YOH

- Tanga Loa defeated Yujiro Takahashi

- Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships

- Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens defeated Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI and Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb (c) to become the new IWGP Tag Team Champions

- Tama Tonga defeated EVIL to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion

- Taiji Ishimori defeated El Desperado to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion

- Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Tomohiro Ishii to become the new IWGP United States Champion

- IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defeated Tetsuya Naito

Senior Writer
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Once described as the Swiss Army Knife of WhatCulture, Andrew can usually be found writing, editing, or presenting on a wide range of topics. As a lifelong wrestling fan, horror obsessive, and comic book nerd, he's been covering those topics professionally as far back as 2010. In addition to his current WhatCulture role of Senior Content Producer, Andrew previously spent nearly a decade as Online Editor and Lead Writer for the world's longest-running genre publication, Starburst Magazine, and his work has also been featured on BBC, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, WhatToWatch, Sportkskeeda, and various other outlets, in addition to being a Rotten Tomatoes-approved film critic. Between his main day job, his role as the lead panel host of Wales Comic Con, and his gig as a pre-match host for Wrexham AFC games, Andrew has also carried out a hugely varied amount of interviews, from the likes of Robert Englund, Kane Hodder, Adrienne Barbeau, Rob Zombie, Katharine Isabelle, Leigh Whannell, Bruce Campbell, and Tony Todd, to Kevin Smith, Ron Perlman, Elijah Wood, Giancarlo Esposito, Simon Pegg, Charlie Cox, the Russo Brothers, and Brian Blessed, to Kevin Conroy, Paul Dini, Tara Strong, Will Friedle, Burt Ward, Andrea Romano, Frank Miller, and Rob Liefeld, to Bret Hart, Sting, Mick Foley, Ricky Starks, Jamie Hayer, Britt Baker, Eric Bischoff, and William Regal, to Mickey Thomas, Joey Jones, Phil Parkinson, Brian Flynn, Denis Smith, Gary Bennett, Karl Connolly, and Bryan Robson - and that's just the tip of an ever-expanding iceberg. Where his beloved Wrexham AFC is concerned, Andrew is co-host of the Fearless in Devotion podcast, which won the Club Podcast of the Year gong at the 2024 FSA Awards.