New Japan Pro Wrestling presented Royal Quest at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park on Saturday, August 31 in the United Kingdom where two new Champions were crowned. A hot London crowd witnessed new Bullet Club member, KENTA, defeat CHAOS member Tomohiro Ishii for the NEVER Openweight championship but not without a bit of controversy. KENTA turned on “The Stone Pitbull” at the NJPW G1 Climax Finals in a tag team match leading to this singles title encounter. It’s a case of the NEVER Openweight title curse, another quick title reign as Ishii loses the title before his fifth NEVER Openweight title run can get going.
Tomohiro Ishii brought his best to the former WWE 205 Live star and the Brainbuster nearly pinned KENTA until Tama Tongo and Tanga Loa got involved to help their Bullet Club stablemate. Ishii suffered a knockout forearm and the GTS finished him off, KENTA ended up in the hospital it was such a hard-hitting affair as he took to Twitter after the big NJPW Royal Quest title win. The reception to KENTA in the G1 Climax 29 tournament was somewhat lukewarm from the NJPW faithful crowds. KENTA embracing the hate is a terrific way to go and becoming a champion raises his stock already and the possibly of KENTA vs Katsuyori Shibata is too intriguing.
Hiroshi Tanahashi also shocked the UK crowd when he became the new British Heavyweight champion for RevPro over their best champion ever, Zack Sabre Jr in his home country. It has been a feud that has started since Sabre entered NJPW and debuted in the G1 Climax tournament two years ago with a clean submission win over “The Ace” with the Jim Breaks armbar. Both have traded wins in the years since that 2017 bout and Tanahashi gets the last laugh by proving he is far from past his prime and takes the prized possession of “The Technical Wizard” in the process. At NJPW Sengoku Lord on April 20 it was Tanahashi that suffered an elbow injury to Sabre and he ended up tapping out. The redemption of Tanahashi in 2019 continues as a Slingblade and High Fly Flow pin Sabre for the RevPro British Heavyweight championship at NJPW Royal Quest.
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