El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru regain IWGP Jr. Tag Titles

In their first title defense, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo were not able to hold on to the championships.

Photo Courtesy: New Japan Pro-Wrestling

The tandem of El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles in the main event of the 1/23 NJPW Road to New Beginning show. In their first title defense, the dropped the belts to Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Desperado.

Kanemaru and Desperado took on Ishimori and Phantasmo at the Road to Castle Attack event on 2/25. Desperado got the pin on Ishimori to score the victory for his team.

The newly vacated IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship did grab the attention of Phantasmo, Desperado and BUSHI. Hiromu Takahashi appeared on the show and formally vacated the championship after it was announced that he will be out for an estimate of six months with a pectoral injury. Originally, Takahashi and BUSHI were scheduled to challenge Ishimori and Phantasmo for the tag titles.

Below are the results from the 2/25 Road to Castle Attack show:

  • Jeff Cobb, Will Ospreay & Great-O-Khan def. Yota Tsuji, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • Toru Yano, SHO & Kazuchika Okada def. EVIL, Dick Togo & Chase Owens
  • YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii def. Bullet Club (Jay White, Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa)
  • Shingo Takagi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito def. Yuji Nagata, Tomoaki Honma & Kota Ibushi
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo (c)
About Andrew Thompson 8005 Articles
A Washington D.C. native and graduate of Norfolk State University, Andrew Thompson has been covering wrestling since 2017.