Wolf watch: absent
NJPWWorld TV title Open Challenge: El Phantasmo[c] [w/Jado] def Ryusuke Taguchi — (8:58, roll up)
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ELP is here in a Santa hat, with reindeer Jado accompanying him. He gives out NJPW stickers to fans and a pair of LED shades to one lucky fan.
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ELP cuts a promo, with Jado doing the comedy mistranslation gimmick.
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It’s Taguchi. NJPW actually does still work with a horse racing company, but Masked Horse is still out to pasture. (It may be a different house racing company now, idk.)
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This was more a 2025 Guch match than a Big Match Taguch match. Whether that’s a plus or minus depends on your personal preference.
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Post match, Jado brings ELP a water bottle to wash his face. ELP shakes Guch’s hand and re-dresses him.
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ELP gets the mic again. As he said before, he wants to do a TV Title open challenge at the Tokyo Dome.
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Santa (Matsumoto) is here with a present for ELP. It’s Bunbun, of DDT. Chris Brookes comes from behind and attacks ELP, Jado, and Santa.
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Brookes promo. In Japanese he semi-mockingly apologizes, then introduces himself and accepts ELP’s TV title challenge for WK.
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ELP gets up, Brookes hits him with the Praying Mantis Bomb.
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Brookes mocks ELP for not knowing enough Japanese to have understood him. 2026 the wrestling world changes, and it starts with Brookes winning the TV title.
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Brookes poses with the belt then exits through the crowd. After a moment, ELP gets up and follows after him.
Boltin Oleg, Bishamon (YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto) def Tiger Mask, Satoshi Kojima, Taichi[w/Tomohiro Ishii]
— (8:04, [a Shoto with an added Boltin splash])
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Ishii has made his return to be in the corner of his NEVER 6 Ranbo teammates Taichi and Koji.
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Goto and Taichi start.
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This was fun. Bishamon/Goto, which is another Ranbo team, worked together really well and did a trios move to win.
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Post match, after the winners have celebrated and left, Taichi and Koji end up back in the ring. Once again the tension from Taichi’s frustration with Koji losing boils over and they start shoving each other.
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Ishii comes in the ring and backs Taichi off. Taichi tells Koji that if he wants to be on the team, they have to win. Koji says okay. Taichi and Koji shake hands and Ishii and Koji hug.
Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, SANADA[t-shirt version], Ren Narita, EVIL[w/Dick Togo] def Master Wato, YOH, Toru Yano, Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino — (8:02, pin)
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Shota’s in a Santa coat and hat, and has some extra wristbands to give out as presents.
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HoT wait a couple moments after the entrances are over to attack. SANADA, Nobu, Yano, and YOH end up in the ring; after some double teaming it’s Nobu and YOH first officially legal.
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HoT Shenanigans level: moderate. Dick-to-dick. Ren, SANADA, and Nobu also all got to use their tools.
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In the ending stretch EVIL went to hit Wato with the NEVER 6 title but Aaron Wild came in for the save (and tripped while doing so). But once again Wolf got choked, and then powed right in the kisser with the NEVER 6 gold.
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Post match, Dick drags Wolf backstage and EVIL follows. NEVER 6 Ranbo competitors Ren, SANADA, and Nobu; along with Yujiro; attack Champs Yano, Wato, and YOH.
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Until Kaisei Takechi of DDT (the Jpop guy) shows up. He along with Yuya and Shota send the House packing.
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Shota gets a mic. He checks on YOH, Wato, and Yano, then says that since Takechi came to help… does that mean what he thinks?
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Takechi confirms he wants to team with Yuya and Shota for the NEVER 6 Ranbo.
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Yuya gets the mic and says that it’s not enough in NJPW to just be a cool guy. But if Takechi’s prepared to fight with all his spirit then let’s do it.
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Takechi hugs them both and then they pose together.
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They have a brief stand off/confrontation with the NEVER 6 Champs as they leave.
Jakob Austin Young, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan def Gedo, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi — (4:44, Overkill)
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So Chris Charlton is pushing this thing about how the two mystery UE partners come from “a mystery backer who is putting up the money for it.” I have never heard this even alluded to anywhere else besides from Chris’ mouth or keyboard, which means it is absolutely true and Chris is just trying to foreshadow with all the subtlety of a Danshoku Dieno match.
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Just as they’re announcing Shingo, he leads his teammates in attacking UE. There’s an outside/crowd brawl, eventually Callum brings Gedo into the ring.
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This was very good. And I was intrigued, and then the post match happened and now I don’t actually fucking care. Let’s see if this January debut foreigner beats the record by lasting until June.
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Post match, Callum as usual starts wailing Gedo with punches. He bats away some YL, then briefly backs off when Shingo comes in. Callum sneakily hits Shingo with Excalibur, but then bails when Hiromu comes in.
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Callum sits on the ringside with a mic. He taunts the crowd in Japanese, then taunts Hiromu and Shingo in mostly English.
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For Christmas, Callum is revealing one of the WK mystery partners. Lights go out, and a video plays to introduce Andrade El Idolo. La Sombra is back in Japan. He is the investor Chris was talking about. (Andrade is also currently the top Champ in Mexican indy The Crash, which I’m pretty sure is one that NJPW and CMLL guys aren’t allowed to work.)
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Callum and JAY fuck with some fans as the leave.
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Hiromu tells the camera that Andrade must be insane to join United Empire.
3-Way Tag Match: SHO, DOUKI def KUUKAI, El Desperado; Daiki Nagai, Taiji Ishimori — (6:34, pin [after a sheet shot from SHO])
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SHO cuts a version of his usual promo; claiming DOUKI single-handedly sold out the Tokyo Dome and then running down the country hick fans.
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But this time instead of HoT attacking right after the promo, the opposing teams do so instead.
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Ishimori and Nagai stay in the ring with SHO and do some double teams. Then they leave and Despe and KUUKAI bring in DOUKI.
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HoT Shenanigans level: light-moderate.
Yota Tsuji, Knock Out Brothers (OSKAR, Yuto-Ice) def Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa, Zack Sabre Jr. — (11:11, Gene Blaster)
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After the entrances we see the usual stuff between K.O.B and Zack/Oiwa. Oiwa wants to start with Yuto, but gets OSKAR instead.
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(I have to watch this again in a few hours when I’m in a better mood.)
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Post match, OSKAR and Oiwa have a minor altercation, then Yuto runs over to attack Oiwa.
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Yuto brings Oiwa in the ring to brawl while OSKAR holds Zack captive to watch. Yuto KOs Oiwa twice. Zack then gets free of OSKAR and comes into the ring to exchange blows with Yuto, but then OSKAR comes in and he and Yuto take Zack out.
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K.O.B pose on top of Zack and Oiwa with their belts. OSKAR kicks the WTL trophies off the apron, and one hits the guardrail and breaks.
Fujita/Tana video, which I’ll link in the comments.
Tanahashi Final Road ~Connection~: Hiroshi Tanahashi[w/Tomohiro Ishii] def Kosei Fujita — (12:10, High Fly Flow)
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Very good, as you’d expect. Personally I did like it better than the Despe and Hiromu matches; though I didn’t dislike either of those.
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Post match, Tana rolls over to Fujita to briefly chat. After getting his hand raised, he collapses to chat with Fujita some more (who has his hands over his eyes because he’s probably crying).
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Tana goes over to the ropes to appeal to the fans. When Fujita starts to stand up, Tana goes back over to him. They chat some more, then Tana gives Fujita a firm slap on the shoulder. Fujita leaves.
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Tana teases leaving, but of course he’s not going to just yet.
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I’m not going to fully transcribe this stuff because it’s Tana’s last Korakuen Hall celebration as an active performer, just go watch it in a day when they add the English subtitles. But he (with help from ELP) made them practice the wave again, so if you’re going to WK please be ready to do that.
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Go Ace.
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”Programming” note: I do not do one of these for WK, because it’s historically the one show I can count on Evan making a post-show thread for and that accomplishes what the original goal of these was (preventing a goofy site from shilling their swill). I may be back for Dash, I may not. I also had some other projects in the works for between now and WK but may just abandon them. TBH the subset of posters on this sub who like to be weirdly hostile to me (some of you are really not at all slick with using alt accounts to do that, btw) are starting to get to me to the point where I kind of just want to delete this account and leave the sub and/or Reddit altogether.
——Confirmed NEVER 6 Ranbo Teams——
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Yano/YOH/Wato[c]
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Kaisei Takechi/Shota Umino/Yuya Uemura
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Makabe/Taguchi/Tiger Mask (Tiger’s last WK)
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Bishamon/Boltin
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Taichi/Ishii/Kojima
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Ren/SANADA/Nobu
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Hartley/Oiwa/ZSJ
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Reminder: If you see another basic full results post after this one (especially one from a website trying to shill their zero-effort content) it is considered a repost and should be reported as such.
by EffingKENTA