NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2025 will be held at Ryogoku Sumo Hall tomorrow, October 11, streaming live on NJPW World. The show starts at 4:00 p.m. JST/3:00 a.m. ET.
Here are the highly anticipated matches on one of NJPW’s most stacked cards this year:
ZSJ-Takeshita III for The World Title
Zack Sabre Jr. and Konosuke Takeshita’s previous two singles matches happened at this year’s G1 Climax tournament, with both men getting a win against the other. They are set to break the tie in the main event of King of Pro-Wrestling for the World Heavyweight Championship.
After the G1 Climax, reigning champion Sabre set a goal for himself to avenge his only two losses in the tournament. He’s already halfway done, as he beat Ren Narita at Destruction two weeks ago.
This year’s tournament winner, Takeshita, stands in his way, with his own goal of main-eventing Wrestle Kingdom 20 as the World champion and G1 Climax winner. Will TMDK’s Frontman hold on to the gold, or will The Alpha ascend to the top of the pro-wrestling world?
Eternal Rivals Tussle for The Global Title Again
Gabe Kidd won the IWGP Global Heavyweight title from Yota Tsuji back in June at Dominion, and for his third defense, Tsuji will try to regain it from him. It will be their 24th singles match against one another, with Tsuji holding a one-win advantage.
These fierce rivals always bring out the best in each other when they wrestle, and it is expected that their rematch for the Global belt will be the same. With the same goal of leveraging the title to challenge for the World championship, match number 24 between Gene Blast and War Ready just got even more interesting.
IWGP Women’s Title Match to Open the Show
It was announced two days ago that the IWGP Women’s title will be defended at King of Pro-Wrestling. Sareee will face Syuri in a rematch slated as the opening bout for tomorrow.
The “Sun God” beat Syuri to win the title at Stardom in June, and the challenger is seeking payback. Two premier women’s wrestlers are set to show the world how the joshis do it in one of the biggest shows of the year.
K.O.B. Defends Tag Titles Against Umino and Uemura
The Knockout Brothers, Yuto-Ice, and OSKAR are set for their first defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championships against Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura. The challenger team made their intentions clear at Destruction to the new champions, which was met with fierceness.
The six previous champions weren’t able to go past their first defense, a trend which K.O.B. aims to break tomorrow. On the other side, the first-time partnership of Umino and Uemura will be put to a tough test as they seek to prove to the NJPW roster that they are a team to watch.
EVIL Hunts for A Fourth Reign as NEVER Champ
Boltin Oleg puts the NEVER Openweight title on the line against House of Torture’s leader EVIL. EVIL made his claim on the title he held thrice before, after Oleg defeated his fellow H.o.T. member Don Fale at Destruction for a second successful defense.
The King of Darkness won their first singles match back at this year’s G1 Climax with the help of Fale. Oleg will have to be ready for the worst once again, as everybody knows that you never truly face only one member of H.o.T.
ELP Defends TV Title Against Tanahashi on His 20th Year
Reigning NJPW World TV champion El Phantasmo will defend against Hiroshi Tanahashi for his 20th career anniversary match. On the other hand, Tanahashi seeks to win back the title, as he was the second wrestler to hold it.
This match will also be their first singles encounter, which could also be their last, as Tanahashi is set to retire at Wrestle Kingdom in less than three months. After finally getting one of his wishes to wrestle the man he has a lot of respect for, will ELP regret ever having it granted?
Here are the rest of the matches on the card:
NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling Match Card:
- Main event: IWGP World Heavyweight Championship – Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs Konosuke Takeshita (G1 Climax 35 Winner)
- 8th match: IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship – Gabe Kidd (c) vs Yota Tsuji
- 7th match: IWGP Tag Team Championships – OSKAR & Yuto-Ice (c) vs. Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino
- 6th match: NEVER Openweight Championship – Boltin Oleg (c) vs. EVIL
- 5th match: NJPW World TV Championship ~ El Phantasmo 20th Anniversary ~ Hiroshi Tanahashi Final Road Connection – El Phantasmo (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi
- 4th match: YOH, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita
- 3rd match: Riot in Ryogoku – Drilla Moloney vs. SANADA
- 2nd match: Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & Titan vs. David Finlay, Taiji Ishimori & Clark Connors
- 1st match: IWGP Women’s Championship – Sareee (c) vs. Syuri
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