Taichi defeated Shingo Takagi on Saturday to become the current holder of New Japan’s KOPW title.
Takagi is the 2022 champion, as the rules of the title mean that whoever holds it at the end of each year becomes that year’s King of Pro Wrestling.
From January 1st, the title may change hands to a series of provisional champions until the year’s end.
The match was the main event at NJPW Satsuma no Kuni at the Kagoshima Nishihara Shokai Arena in Kagoshima.
The contest was held under ‘Takagi Style Triad’ rules, which meant that the winner had to score three victories over their opponent by any of pinfall, submission, count-out, knockout or stoppage.
Taichi won after scoring a stoppage over Takagi when both wrestlers had two victories in the match.
Elsewhere on the card, Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher of Aussie Open successfully defended their IWGP Tag Team Championships against TMDK (Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls).
NJPW Satsuma no Kuni Results
- KOPW 2023 Provisional Championship (Takagi Style Triad Match): Taichi def. Shingo Takagi (c) 3-2
- IWGP Tag Team Championships: Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher) (c) def. TMDK (Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls)
- Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DOUKI & SANADA def. BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito
- Jado, Master Wato, Hikuleo & Tama Tonga def. Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, KENTA & David Finlay
- Yuto Nakashima, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki def. Ryohei Oiwa, Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada
- Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb def. Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr
- Francesco Akira, TJP & Aaron Henare def. KUSHIDA, Kevin Knight & Tomoaki Honma
- EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi def. Oskar Leube & Shota Umino
- Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) def. Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano
