The July 20 New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) Road event featured a marquee match that served as a prelude to IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi’s v1 challenge to Evil’s IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental ‘Double Championship’ at Sengoku Lord.
Hiromu’s challenge will be the first time a reigning IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion has challenged for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship since July 20, 2013, when Prince Devitt challenged Okada at Kizuna Road. It’s also the first time the reigning junior champion has challenged for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.
The New Japan Road match saw the return of Dick Togo to an NJPW ring since he last appeared at the July 4, 2017, Lion’s Gate event. The match began with Hiromu wearing a Bullet Club shirt, scaring Los Ingobernables de Japon (LIJ) fans around the world before attacking Evil.
Despite recently losing his championships, Tetsuya Naito didn’t seem to be far from his usual demeanor. Despite the present fire from LIJ, they were not able to best Evil, Dick Togo, and Taiji Ishimori. Evil pinned Bushi at the 14 minute and 2-second mark after his Evil, STO.
The headline match saw Master Wato, Yuji Nagata, Kota Ibushi, and Hiroshi Tanahashi face the Suzuki-Gun team of Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Minoru Suzuki, and the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Dangerous Tekkers (Zack Sabre Jr/Taichi).
In what was a highly competitive match, in what could be a dominant run for Dangerous Tekkers in the tag team division after defeating Ibushi and Tanahashi for the title at Dominion. This highly competitive match saw Kanemaru bust out the Truth Out (a Twisting Brainbuster similar to Nagata’s Thunder Death Driver), after Deep Impact to give Wato his first defeat after returning from an excursion.
After the match Suzuki and Nagata kept fighting, a fall out from their highly acclaimed first-round New Japan Cup match, possibly leading up to the two facing again during the Summer Struggle tour.
