El Phantasmo had to dig deep to keep his NJPW World Television Championship on Sunday night.
Phantasmo retained his title on the kick-off portion of NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 20 this weekend, getting past DDT representative Chris Brookes with just over three minutes to go in the 15-minute time limit contest.
Both wreslters weren’t able to get the job done with some of their bigger moves: Phantasmo kicked out of a Praying Mantis Bomb, and Brookes survived beyond a CR2. It was eventually a pair of Thunderkiss 86 springboard frogsplashes from Phantasmo which secured him the victory.
In one of the more memorable moments of the bout, Brookes (with the help of ChocoPro ally Baliyan Akki, who ran up a lengthy ramp inside the Tokyo Dome) stretched out a massive resistance band before flinging it in the face of Phantasmo.
Brookes, who had shared the ring with Phantasmo a dozen times in the past, called for a shot at his NJPW World Television Championship during a Korakuen Hall card last month. Phantasmo has put together the belt’s second-longest reign to date, extending past 250 days following his win on Sunday.
In a last-minute addition to the pre-show, Katsuya Murashima and Masatora Yasuda beat fellow Young Lions Shoma Kato and Tatsuya Matsumoto in six minutes. It was Murashima, in his first-ever Tokyo Dome appearance, who got to end the bout by locking in a Boston Crab submission.
Results
- Katsuya Murashima & Masatora Yasuda def. Shoma Kato & Tatsuya Matsumoto (6:19)
- El Phantasmo def. Chris Brookes (NJPW World Television Championship) (11:49)
Still to come
- Master Wato, Toru Yano & YOH vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe vs. Kaisei Takechi, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura vs. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Boltin Oleg vs. Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Ren Narita, SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Clark Connors, OSKAR & Yuto-Ice (NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships) (Rambo Match)
- Syuri vs. Saya Kamitani (IWGP Women’s Championship & NJPW STRONG Women’s Championship)
- Andrade El Idolo, Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan, HENARE & TBA vs. David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi
- Taiji Ishimori vs. El Desperado vs. SHO vs. Kosei Fujita (IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship #1 Contenders Match)
- EVIL vs. Aaron Wolf (NEVER Openweight Championship)
- Konosuke Takeshita vs. Yota Tsuji (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship & IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada
