There’s only one match left in the career of Hiroshi Tanahashi.
Tanahashi made his second-last in-ring appearance on Monday night, wrestling 23-year-old junior heavyweight Kosei Fujita in the main event of an NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome card. The event closed out a show from Korakuen Hall, a venue where Tanahashi has stepped into the ring nearly 500 times in his lengthy career.
Tanahashi survived a hot start from Fujita early in the match, later on putting together a pair of High Fly Flows to defeat the rising junior heavyweight in 12 minutes.
Tanahashi’s recent appearances have seen him overcome many of the promotion’s more prominent junior heavyweights. Last weekend, he faced off against El Desperado and Hiromu Takahashi in singles bouts as well.
It was an emotional post-match for Tanahashi, who bid farewell to the legendary wrestling venue and the sold-out crowd who came to see him. After a lengthy speech, the former multi-time champ spent a significant amount of time greeting fans at ringside, accepting a bouquet of flowers from one ringside attendee.
The only thing left for Tanahashi to do now is have his retirement match on January 4, facing AEW’s Kazuchika Okada in the main event of the Tokyo Dome at Wrestle Kingdom 20.
El Phantasmo successfully defended his NJPW World Television Championship in an open challenge on Monday night, taking down veteran Ryusuke Taguchi in just under nine minutes with a roll-up pinfall following loads of comedy spots.
More importantly, he was attacked after the match by DDT’s Chris Brookes, who challenged Phantasmo to a title match as part of Wrestle Kingdom 20 next month. Brookes and Phantasmo have a significant history together, previously facing off a dozen times since 2018, including a pair of one-on-one appearances. Phantasmo has not previously overcome Brookes in singles bouts.
It was also confirmed on Monday that Andrade El Idolo will make his first NJPW appearance in over a decade at Wrestle Kingdom 20 next month.
Here are the results from today’s card:
- El Phantasmo def. Ryusuke Taguchi (NJPW World Television Championship)
- Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Boltin Oleg def. Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tiger Mask
- EVIL, Ren Narita, SANADA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi def. Master Wato, Shota Umino, Toru Yano, YOH & Yuye Uemura
- Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young def. Gedo, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi
- DOUKI & SHO def. Daiki Nagai & Taiji Ishimori, El Desperado & Kuukai (Three-Way Tag Match)
- OSKAR, Yuto-Ice & Yota Tsuji def. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.
- Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Kosei Fujita
