Okada Calls Out Tanahashi’s Drawing Power, KUSHIDA Threatens The Heavyweight Division & More
During a post-match conference on 4/13, IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada had some harsh words for his challenger Hiroshi Tanahashi. While practically hugging his title belt, Okada said
You made your challenge and now we have empty seats. Nobody wants to see you face me.
Okada then begins to call Tanahashi “Mr. Tanahashi,” but stops himself and instead addresses Tanahashi as
Tanahashi Hiroshi, bastard.
During the same conference IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay and his challenger KUSHIDA both expressed interest at facing each other’s tag team partner on May 3rd. Set to face on May 4th, Ospreay will team with Okada to take on KUSHIDA & Tanahashi the night before. Ospreay said he’ll take Tanahashi, KUSHIDA can take Okada, and KUSHIDA expressed a similar intent.
KUSHIDA made an interesting statement to end.
To all the heavyweights, look out for me.
The conference ended with Tanahashi saying what Okada could do with his journey to breaking Tanahashi’s record of 11 title defenses.
Okada’s defense road…he can shove it!
Also featured are David Finlay & Michael Elgin. Finlay hyped his 4/24 match against IWGP United States Heavyweight Champion Jay White. Elgin also hyped Finlay’s match.
Road To Wrestling Dontaku Need To Watch Ratings
New Japan Pro Wrestling began their Road To Wrestling Dontaku Tour last week. Here’s an average need to watch rating for each show, with links to the full, spoiler-free New Japan recaps.
(4/13) Road To Wrestling Dontaku: 4.21
Must See Match: Yagi vs. Uemura is great but, honestly, you can probably skip this show. Life is short.
(4/14) Road To Wrestling Dontaku: 5.9
Must See Match: Narita vs. Tsuji, Los Ingobernables de Japon vs. Suzuki-gun (10-Man Elimination Tag) (10.0)
Road To Wrestling Dontaku Schedule
Here’s the full schedule for the last Road To Wrestling Dontaku shows. WrestleZone will be providing live coverage for all three events. They’ll air on NJPWWorld.com.
4/23 5:30am EST
- Ren Narita vs. Yota Tsuji
- Manabu Nakanishi, Yuji Nagata & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Tomoyuki Oka, Tetsuhiro Yagi & Shota Umino
- Roppongi 3K (Sho, Yoh & Rocky Romero) vs. Suzuki-gun (Takashi Iizuka, Taichi & TAKA Michinoku)
- Juice Robinson, Togi Makabe, Michael Elgin, Toa Henare & KUSHIDA vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto)
- Hiroshi Tanahashi, David Finlay & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. CHAOS (Jay White, Gedo & Kazuchika Okada)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (Minoru Suzuki, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr.)
- IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: Champions Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi)
4/24 5:30am EST
- Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Ren Narita
- Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Shota Umino vs. Yuji Nagata & Tomoyuki Oka
- Roppongi 3K (Sho, Yoh & Rocky Romero) vs. Suzuki-gun (Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Takashi Iizuka)
- Michael Elgin, KUSHIDA, Toa Henare & Togi Makabe vs. CHAOS (Will Ospreay, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL & Tetsuya Naito) vs. Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki)
- Ryusuke Taguchi, Juice Robinson & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Hirooki Goto & Gedo)
- IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship Match: Champion “Switchblade” Jay White vs. David Finlay
4/27 5:30am EST
- Tetsuhiro Yagi vs. Ren Narita
- Shota Umino, Tomoyuki Oka & Yuji Nagata vs. Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Jushin “Thunder” Liger
- Roppongi 3K (Sho, Yoh & Rocky Romero) vs. Suzuki-gun (TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Takashi Iizuka)
- David Finlay, Toa Henare, Togi Makabe & Michael Elgin vs. CHAOS (Jay White, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano & YOSHI-HASHI)
- Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL & Hiromu Takahashi) vs. Suzuki-gun (Davey Boy Smith Jr., Lance Archer, El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Minoru Suzuki)
- NEVER Openweight Championship Match: Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Juice Robinson
- Hiroshi Tanahashi & KUSHIDA vs. CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada & Will Ospreay)
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