NJPW held a press conference late Sunday night and released the line-ups for the annual Wrestling Dontaku cards in Fukuoka.
The shows are scheduled for Monday, May 3rd, and Tuesday, May 4th at the Fukuoka Convention Center and will culminate with Will Ospreay’s first defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship. Ospreay won the championship from Kota Ibushi at Sakura Genesis on Sunday and was immediately challenged by both Kazuchika Okada and Shingo Takagi.
Takagi will receive the first championship match at Wrestling Dontaku in a rematch from the finals of the New Japan Cup. The winner will defend the championship against Okada at the Tokyo Dome on May 29th as part of the “Wrestling Grand Slam” shows.
The first night will feature an Iron Finger from Hell Ladder Match between Taichi and Tama Tonga. It’s the second ladder match in company history after Kenny Omega and Michael Elgin had the first at Dominion in June 2016. The main event of the first night is a rematch between Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jay White for the NEVER Openweight Championship after White eliminated Tanahashi in the New Japan Cup.
Below are the line-ups for the two Wrestling Dontaku cards in May:
Monday, May 3rd in Fukuoka at 5 am ET:
*NEVER Openweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (champion) vs. Jay White
*Iron Finger from Hell Ladder Match: Taichi vs. Tama Tonga
*Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tanga Loa
*Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, The Great O-Khan & Aaron Henare vs. Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, SANADA & BUSHI
*Kazuchika Okada & Roppongi 3K vs. Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Toru Yano, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tiger Mask & Master Wato vs. EVIL, Yujiro, Taiji Ishimori & Dick Togo
Tuesday, May 4th in Fukuoka at 2 am ET:
*IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Will Ospreay (champion) vs. Shingo Takagi
*IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado (champion) vs. YOH
*Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato vs. Jay White, EVIL, KENTA, Yujiro & Taiji Ishimori
*Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI vs. The Great O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare
*Kazuchika Okada & SHO vs. Minoru Suzuki & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
*Guerrillas of Destiny & Jado vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Taichi & DOUKI
