Wrestling Dontaku is the latest big New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) show on the schedule as they’ve felt nonstop since 2023 began. This is one of their staples of the year while also the final major show ahead of the Best of the Super Juniors tournament and their second biggest show, Dominion. SANADA will make his first defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship when he takes on his former Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemate and reigning IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Hiromu Takahashi.
Here’s a look at the full card for Wrestling Dontaku.
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Full Card
— Yuto Nakashima vs. Boltin Oleg vs. Oskar Leube vs. Ryohei Oiwa in a Young Lion Consecutive Battle Match
— CHAOS (YOH, Toru Yano, Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) vs. House of Torture (EVIL, SHO, Dick Togo & Yujiro Takahashi)
— TMDK (Shane Haste, Mikey Nichols & Kosei Fujita) vs. United Empire (Great-O-Khan, Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis)
— Jet Setters (KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight) & Shota Umino vs. United Empire (Aaron Henare, TJP & Francesco Akira)
— Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI) vs. Just 5 Guys (Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI)
— NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship: KENTA (c) vs. Hikuleo
— NJPW World TV Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb
— NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championship: STRONG STYLE (Minoru Suzuki, Ren Narita & El Desperado) (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi
— NEVER Openweight Championship: Tama Tonga (c) vs. David Finlay
— IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: SANADA (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
Start Time: Wednesday, May 3, 2023, at 5 a.m. EST
NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Main Event Preview
SANADA vs. Hiromu Takahashi: World Champion and Junior Champion Collide
The main event of Wrestling Dontaku will feature two of NJPW’s most popular wrestlers as SANADA goes one-on-one with Hiromu Takahashi. Anytime the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion collide, it’s an important match but knowing their history makes it all the more special. “The Ticking Timebomb” has dreamt of holding both the World and Jr. Championships at the same time and made sure that could be a possibility when successfully defending his title against SANADA’s stablemate Yoshinobu Kanemaru last week. That being said, Kanemaru destroyed the leg of Takahashi which made the successful defense more of a survival in the end. It’ll be interesting if that plays into the match here.
SANADA is going to do all he can to keep his reign going as it was only a month ago that he defeated Kazuhika Okada to become world champion for the first time in his career. There’s no doubt that SANADA is ready for this position but a successful defense will surely guarantee that to everyone who may still doubt him. In their lone previous battle back in 2012, SANADA got the win over Takahashi while representing All Japan Pro Wrestling (AJPW). Obviously, they’re completely different wrestlers today than they were then but a win is a win.
If and when SANADA is able to walk out with V1, we should see who steps up to him for Dominion. Our suspicion says that it’s likely to be his former leader, Tetsuya Naito, but we will have to wait and see on that one.
Prediction: SANADA
More from LWOS Pro Wrestling
Stay tuned to the Last Word on Pro Wrestling for more on this and other stories from around the world of wrestling, as they develop. You can always count on LWOPW to be on top of the major news in the wrestling world, as well as to provide you with analysis, previews, videos, interviews, and editorials on the wrestling world. You can rewatch all NJPW events and plenty more tremendous wrestling content from New Japan Pro-Wrestling on NJPWWorld.com; The King of Sports Streaming.
