Night two of NJPW Road to King of Pro-Wrestling 2025 bore witness to a fated rematch for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight title between DOUKI and El Desperado. Plus, a special preview of the IWGP Tag Team title bout on October 13 in the form of two singles matches.
Here are the highlights of the show:
DOUKI Shocks The World
DOUKI took down El Desperado to become a two-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight champion in the main event, stopping Desperado’s reign at eight title defenses. However, it was not without controversy, as nearly everything is with the House of Torture.
SHO interfered and helped his Jr. tag champion partner to win the match. Referee ‘Red Shoes’ Unno had to stop the match as Desperado was motionless while in the Italian Stretch Number #32.
DOUKI not only avenged his loss at Wrestle Kingdom 19 in January, but he also won in the same way Desperado did back then. Now, House of Torture has all the gold in the junior heavyweight division, with a chance of increasing their hardware on the 13th when EVIL challenges for the NEVER Openweight title against Boltin Oleg.
However, this is not over yet, as Desperado will have a chance to get back at DOUKI on Saturday when he teams up with his freelancer partner KUUKAI to challenge for the Jr. tag titles.
Uemura and Umino Sweep K.O.B.
The challenger team of Yuya Uemura and Shota Umino both won in singles matches against the newly-minted IWGP Tag Team champions Yuto-Ice and OSKAR of the Knockout Brothers. Uemura won over Ice, while Umino beat OSKAR.
While it isn’t extraordinary as both are established singles competitors, Uemura and Umino got a huge confidence boost heading into the title match at King of Pro-Wrestling next week. On the champions’ side, K.O.B. will use this as fuel for their fire to prove that they are still the better team come following Monday.
Here are the full results for the show:
NJPW Road to King of Pro-Wrestling Results – Night 2:
- Main event: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship – DOUKI def. El Desperado (c)
- 6th match: Yuya Uemura def. Yuto-Ice
- 5th match: Shota Umino def. OSKAR
- 4th match: Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, & Titan def. Gabe Kidd, David Finlay, Taiji Ishimori, & Gedo
- 3rd match: EVIL, Don Fale, SHO, & Dick Togo def. Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, KUUKAI, & Tiger Mask
- 2nd match: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors def. Sanada & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
- 1st match: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuya Murashima def. El Phantasmo & Jado
- Kick-off match: Masatora Yasuda & Zane Jay def. Shoma Kato & Tastuya Matsumoto
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