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The Fallout From Wrestle Kingdom 19 & Wrestle Dynasty

Capping off of a historic year with another momentous achievement at Wrestle Kingdom, becoming the only foreigner to win a Tokyo Dome main event, as well as the only wrestler ever to successfully win in the Tokyo Dome main event on consecutive nights by beating both Shota Umino and Ricochet, Zack Sabre Jr. went into the new year riding a wave of momentum. However, before he even made his defenses, another contender would be named under mostly unremarkable circumstances.

The New Beginning in Osaka

While the match existed before, since 2021, the New Japan Ranbo has been the launchpad of the KOPW title going into the new year. However, with the deactivation of the title at the end of 2024, the Ranbo was repurposed into a #1 contendership match for the IWGP World Heavyweight title. In the end, the match came down to two people: Great-O-Khan, the final KOPW champion and the one to suggest the #1 contendership stipulation for the match, and Hirooki Goto, the one who would go on to eventually win the match and become the #1 contender to the World Heavyweight title.

Let’s talk a bit about Hirooki Goto. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Goto or his history, Goto is one of the most decorated wrestlers in New Japan of the past decade or so. He also holds the dubious record of having the most number of IWGP Heavyweight title challenges without a title win, going 0-8 in title matches for the top prize between 2007 and 2016. Since his last title challenge, he’s been relegated more to the midcard of the company, flourishing in the NEVER title scene, and, more recently, excelling in the tag team scene, winning 3 back-to-back World Tag Leagues with his regular partner YOSHI-HASHI as the Bishamon tag team.

However, Goto’s had a bit of a singles career resurgence as of late. He went to the finals of the New Japan Cup last year, and had a laudable performance in this past G1 Climax as well. Though he didn’t win, he did pick up some impressive victories, including over then Global champion David Finlay, current Global champion and the man who beat Goto in the New Japan Cup finals Yota Tsuji, and current NEVER champion Konosuke Takeshita. This was all off the back of the death of Goto’s father, motivating Goto’s hunt for the top title after almost a decade without a challenge. Despite failing in those two tournaments, however, opportunity would find Goto in the New Japan Ranbo, giving him what could’ve been his last shot at the gold.

And so it came to be, at The New Beginning in Osaka, the same event where his last two failed title challenges took place, Hirooki Goto would once again challenge for the top prize in New Japan, this time against Zack Sabre Jr. It was an emotional event, with the crowd firmly on Goto’s side, and riding the momentum and the fervor of the crowd, Hirooki Goto finally achieved his goal, defeating ZSJ and becoming the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. He celebrates with his children in the ring in a shower of golden confetti.

Anniversary Show & New Japan Cup

It would not take long for his first challengers to emerge. To begin with, Goto named his first challenger, Hiroshi Tanahashi, before even winning the title. He said that if he won the title, he would want to defend against Tanahashi in this year, the year of Tanahashi’s retirement, running back several of Goto’s failed challenges, this time with Goto as champion. Not only that, but Yuji Nagata approached Goto as well during the backstage comments after his title win, wanting to get another chance at challenging for the title, considering that he’s close to retiring as well, and that he hasn’t had a title challenge in 14 years. These two challengers were both relative contemporaries of Goto, so there’s a theme of the old guard showing out in these first few defenses.

Goto’s first title defense against Tanahashi match took place at the Anniversary Show. Tanahashi has been a frequent opponent of Goto, particularly in Heavyweight title matches. Three of Goto’s eight failed title challenges were against Tanahashi, and Tanahashi was the first Heavyweight champion Goto challenged, all the way back in 2007. Now, however, the roles have been reversed, with Goto as champion and Tanahashi as challenger. With renewed vigor following his title win, Goto managed to best Tanahashi in a Heavyweight title match, cementing his first defense with a personal win.

Next up was Yuji Nagata. The two faced off in the middle of the New Japan Cup, where the next challenger for the IWGP World Heavyweight title would be decided. However, would that champion be Goto, or would it be Nagata? After an intense match, it would, in fact, be Goto who will face the winner of the Cup. Who could that possibly be?

It was quite the eventful New Japan Cup. Global champion Yota Tsuji went out in the first round, Jeff Cobb upset Naito, the War Dogs and House of Torture clashed up and down the bracket, and newcomer Drilla Moloney made it to the top 8. However, our final four for the tournament were the War Dogs’ David Finlay, LIJ’s Shingo Takagi, Hontai’s Shota Umino, and TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. Umino was able to take out Takagi, and Finlay beat ZSJ, so the finals came down to Finlay vs Umino (a curious pair, as these were the two guys who lost the main and semi-main events of this year’s Wrestle Kingdom). In the finals, Finlay managed to outlast Umino, and earn himself a World title match at Sakura Genesis.

Sakura Genesis

This was the first major event for Finlay after Wrestle Kingdom. After losing the Global title to Tsuji at Wrestle Kingdom, Finlay fell out of the spotlight here in New Japan Pro-Wrestling. However, he re-emerged in the New Japan Cup, showing why he held the Global title for over 200 days, leaving bodies behind in his campaign for gold, building up to his first ever IWGP World Heavyweight title challenge.

Goto and Finlay have a bit of history. Goto benefitted from Finlay dropping out of last year’s New Japan Cup, as he got a bye that eventually led to him making it to the finals. Finlay was also the loser of Goto’s big emotional G1 Climax win, so Finlay has been closely tied to Goto’s slow rise over the past year. However, critically, Finlay won their last encounter, when Goto unsuccessfully challenged Finlay for his Global title. Now that Goto’s the defending champion, though, favor is pushed in the opposite direction, and Goto notches another successful defense under his belt.

Windy City Riot

So what’s next for Goto? It would be Goto himself that would answer that question, as he personally called out his next challenger: Shota Umino. Shota’s had a pretty rough go of it over the past year or so. This’ll be his third world title challenge in a year. He challenged Jon Moxley at last year’s Resurgence event, and he took on ZSJ in the main event of this year’s Wrestle Kingdom, losing both matches. Since Wrestle Kingdom, Umino experienced a crisis of confidence, but he re-debuted with a new look and a new attitude during the New Japan Cup. It carried him all the way to the finals, but unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to win the tournament, and he fell to David Finlay. 

However, he now has the privilege of being personally named as a challenger by Goto himself. The match would take place at Windy City Riot in Chicago, and with the merging of Chaos with Hontai, this would effectively be a battle for the leadership of New Japan’s home team. However, for Goto, he simply wants to prove his dominance against a younger wrestler, while also showing the American audiences true Japanese Strong Style. Windy City Riot came around, and after a tough battle, Goto reigned supreme, adding another successful defense to his reign.

Wrestling Dontaku

His next challenger came about under unique circumstances.

Initially, Jeff Cobb had been making noise about wanting a World title challenge. However, as time would tell, Jeff Cobb eventually found himself out of New Japan and on his way to a new family. With this, he would leave behind the IWGP Tag Team titles, which he held with Callum Newman, but that’s not all Callum inherited from Cobb. After being forced to relinquish his hard-fought tag title, with no other challengers on the horizon, Newman decided to take some initiative, taking over Cobb’s demands and challenging Goto himself to a World title match.

This set the stage for the following tour. Not only would Bishamon face Newman and O-Khan for the vacant tag titles, but Newman would get his wish, facing Goto at Wrestling Dontaku for his IWGP World Heavyweight title. However, while Callum Newman would be successful in swiftly returning the tag titles to United Empire, he would not have such luck in taking out Goto, marking Goto’s record-setting 5th defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight title.

Resurgence

Once again, Goto sought new challengers to step up to the plate, and at his call, some interesting names came forward. First would be Zack Sabre Jr., fresh off his win over Hiroshi Tanahashi, as well as a win in a New Japan Cup rematch over tournament winner David Finlay, who was looking to regain the title he lost to Goto. However, not far behind him was Shingo Takagi, who was hot after his own singles win over the other New Japan Cup finalist Shota Umino. Frustrated with the dissolution of LIJ and at Goto’s own fortune, he wanted a shot at the title as well. However, since Zack came out first, he would be the first challenger, getting his title shot at Resurgence, while Takagi would challenge whoever wins that match at Dominion.

At Resurgence, however, things got a bit messy. It was set to be a classic between Goto and ZSJ, but a controversial double-pin caused the match to end in confusion and uncertainty. The one thing that was certain was that ZSJ did not beat Goto, and while it was a bit of a limp ending, it secured Goto’s 6th title defense.

Dominion 6.15

With that, The Dominion match was made official. Hirooki Goto would defend his IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Shingo Takagi. It has been a very eventful spring for Goto, having 6 title defenses in just 3 months. As we heat things up for the summer, can he keep cool and carry the title forward? That will be his challenge at Dominion.

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