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El Desperado came into the second half of 2025 continuing a very dominant IWGP Junior Heavyweight title reign. Since winning the title at Wrestle Kingdom, he’s accumulated 5 strong title defenses, but at this point, he was looking at potentially two title challenges to look forward to. 

The first came from famed death match wrestler Jun Kasai, who has seemingly had Despe’s number all year long in Despe’s various death match excursions outside New Japan. The second came from Kosei Fujita, the wunderkind from TMDK who has broken many records this year already for being the youngest to achieve various accomplishments. Both are formidable challenges that Despe has to seriously prepare for, so he has a lot on his plate.

Death Pain Invitacional

As a matter of priority, Despe decided to tackle Kasai first. Fujita was okay with this, even if it meant that he’d be facing Kasai for the title instead. As such, the title match with Kasai was scheduled at the aptly named Death Pain Invitacional event in what would be a Fluorescent Lighttubes Glass Board Barbed Wire Death Match. It was the kind of match that favored Jun Kasai, and that Kasai had been consistently beating Despe in. However, those losses were never in one-on-one matches (once was in a tag team match, and the other was in a three-way), so maybe that would be the difference-maker.

If any of you know who Jun Kasai is, or even what a death match is, you probably have a good idea of how this match went. If not, even the name “Fluorescent Lighttubes Glass Board Barbed Wire Death Match” should tell you most of what you need to know. By the end of the match, the ring and the ringside area was littered with blood, sweat, broken glass, table shards, and bbq skewers. Amidst all the rubble, one man stood tall, as El Desperado defeated Jun Kasai to retain his Junior title.

New Japan Soul

With Kasai taken care of, it was time to move on to Fujita. This would be Fujita’s second chance at the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title, after having failed in his challenge earlier this year on the Road to The New Beginning. However, being emboldened by his BOSJ win, Fujita is hoping that he’ll fare better this time around. The match would take place on July 9, the final day of the New Japan Soul tour, the eve of the G1 Climax and just two weeks after Death Pain Invitacional. 

Fujita looked like a much more credible title challenger on his second try. He came in with a lot more confidence, and Despe seemed to take him a lot more seriously this time around. No longer was he the brash, young, fiery upstart from several months earlier. As such, it was a much more even contest, a show of each wrestler’s technical skills. With such a back-and-forth match, what would eventually win out would be Despe’s experience, as he was able to weather through Fujita’s offense and secure a 7th successful defense.

Battle Line Hokkaido

After that was the G1 Climax, where the Junior Heavyweights took a step back from the spotlight. However, developments in the Junior Heavyweight title scene. It all began with Ryusuke Taguchi wanting to reform Taguchi Japan and go after the NEVER 6-Man titles. His first recruit would be an unwilling El Desperado, who did not want to join Taguchi Japan, but ended up teaming with Taguchi several times in the coming shows. 

However, on the day of the G1 Climax finals, Taguchi auditioned Yoshi-Hashi for membership in a non-title 6-man tag match against the 6-man tag team champions, which ended up with Yoh pinning El Desperado to win the match for his team, inspiring Yoh to challenge Despe for the Junior title. Eventually, Taguchi managed to put together a team of himself, Despe, and Tanahashi to go for the NEVER 6-Man tag titles (in an unsuccessful attempt), but the match between Yoh and El Desperado for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship was set for Battle Line Hokkaido.

Let’s take a moment to talk about Yoh. Yoh is a good wrestler, and an interesting person. He is highly decorated in New Japan, but that’s mainly for his tag team accomplishments. As far as singles success goes, I’d sum it up as “close, but no cigar”. He’s 0-4 in Junior Heavyweight title matches, and 0-2 in BOSJ finals. He has yet to find a way to break through into the top of the division as a singles competitor, but this may be his chance.

Yoh has actually beaten Despe twice this year, the first time being in the BOSJ, where Yoh made it to the finals. In fact, the last 3 times that Yoh and Despe met in singles action were in BOSJ matches, and Yoh won all three, so Yoh definitely has the ability to beat Despe in a one-on-one match. Yoh’s got a tricky style, and it’s proven to be effective in the past, but can it get him gold? Well, on this night, it was not enough, as Despe was able to take him out. Looks like the time for Yoh is not now.

Road to King of Pro-Wrestling

The next challenger was a fateful one, as none other than Douki, the former Junior champion, came down unprompted to make a stand against El Desperado. He was coming off of a successful title defense himself, having retained the junior tag titles earlier in the night, but now his concern was the belt he felt he never truly lost. He accused Despe of being a fake champion and demanded a match to get his title back, which Despe granted. In return, however, Despe would get a Junior Tag Title challenge against Douki & Sho, and to do this, he brought in an outsider: Kukai, a Japanese independent wrestler who, like Douki, spent a lot of time on the Mexican indie scene. 

Now, the way Douki lost his title at Wrestle Kingdom was tragic, but his return as part of House of Torture has been anything but valiant. That being said, he’s been highly successful in his tag team title run with Sho, but is he ready to take back his place as Junior champion? Well, when match day came, we would see the answer to that, as Despe and Douki faced off. However, as has become the norm for House of Torture, shenanigans were abound. Sho came in to help Douki, while Kukai evened the odds for Despe. However, a critical shot from Sho with a steel plate sealed the deal. Douki defeated Despe and reclaimed his Junior title, holding both the IWGP Junior Heavyweight title and the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles. Moreover, Despe & Kukai would go on to lose their tag title challenge, solidifying Douki’s status as a double champion.

Super Jr. Tag League

Next came the Super Junior Tag League, which didn’t involve the Junior Heavyweight title, but as junior tag champs, they were still a focal point. I won’t go into too much detail here, but to sum it up, it was a show of dominance for Douki and Sho, and continued House of Torture’s dominance in the Junior division, regardless of the quality of their work.

Wrestle Kingdom 20

With all that taken care of, it seems like there was nothing left to do for the juniors for the rest of the year. Next would be World Tag League, and after that Wrestle Kingdom. The junior tag champs won Super Junior Tag League, which typically paints a picture for the junior tag titles, but the champs don’t seem to be interested in nominating a challenger. Likewise, Douki seems very satisfied with not defending his Junior Heavyweight title either, so what’s there to do?

Well, the solution, it seems, is that other wrestlers would need to step up. The first to do so was Kosei Fujita, who confronted Douki after his Super Junior Tag League win. The next would be Taiji Ishimori, one half of the losing side of the finals of the Super Junior Tag League, who wanted a shot at Douki in singles action after being on the winning side of a 6-man tag team match at New Japan Road in Anjo. The last was the now former champion El Desperado, who stopped a fleeing Douki at the Anjo show. It would eventually be decided that they would fight amongst each other for #1 contendership.

However, Douki did not want to accept this, deeming all three to be “unworthy”. As such, he elected a representative to join them: Sho. Therefore, the match would be made official. It would be Kosei Fujita vs Taiji Ishimori vs El Desperado vs Sho at Wrestle Kingdom to decide the #1 contender for Douki’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight title. Who will be the first person to challenge Douki in this new reign? Will it be the former champ, the young up-and-comer, the wronged tag tournament finalist, or the House of Torture plant? Hopefully, we’ll finally see an end to Douki’s ducking of challengers after Wrestle Kingdom.

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