High stakes singles bout and a NEVER title match in Fukuoka

Coinciding with the annual Dontaku festival, Wrestling Dontaku dates back to the mid 1990s, but has been a consistent fixture on the New Japan calendar since 2009.

After last year’s cards had to be cancelled due to the pandemic, the Fukuoka fans have been hotly anticipating this year’s two nights of action,

which kicks off May 3 with a championship match and bitter feuds settled. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

Main event: NEVER Openweight Championship- Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Jay White

The main event of the evening will see Hiroshi Tanahashi attempt his second defence of the NEVER Openweight Championship against first time challenger Switchblade Jay White. 

Tanahashi secured the NEVER title back on January 30 at New Beginning in Nagoya.

Through an instant classic battle, and an intense war of words with the Dragon, Tanahashi gained a newfound respect for the NEVER title.

No longer seeing the Openweight gold as a means to the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship scene, but rather a goal in.

and of itself that can be furthered to equal the status of the richest prize in the game, Tanahashi set himself entirely new goals.

Electing to carry the belt over his shoulder before he deemed himself worthy to wear it around his waist,

Tanahashi declared that he would take on more and more newsworthy opponents in more and more main events. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

Jay White is certainly a newsworthy and main event worthy challenger.

The Switchblade is driven by the opportunity to complete a championship grand slam- consisting of NEVER, IWGP United States,

Heavyweight and Intercontinental titles- and forever cement his legacy in the process while still in his twenties.

White would state that his win over Tanahashi during the New Japan Cup- his fourth career victory over the Ace- was qualification enough,

but Tanahashi refused his challenge until a submission win over the Switchblade at Sakura Genesis gave him confidence enough to put the title up for grabs.

Has Tanahashi played into Jay White’s hands? As Tanahashi threw himself into the Road to Dontaku tour, wrestling nightly in tag matches against Gedo,

the Blacksmith’s charge has been given time to rest, train and prepare that should not be undervalued.

Add the lopsided record between these two men, with Tanahashi’s last singles victory over White coming in October 2018,

and the champion may be coming into this match as the underdog where odds makers would be concerned. 

Tanahashi doesn’t have the best history in Dontaku either, having not won a championship match here since 2011,

and with the 2013 formation of BULLET CLUB at his violent expense still lingering in the memory.

Yet the resolve and determination of the Ace can never be ignored, and Tanahashi will be all the more determined to vanquish spirits of the past tonight. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

5th Match- Iron Finger From Hell Ladder Match- Taichi vs Tama Tonga

One must retrieve the Iron Fingers From Hell to win the match. The Iron Fingers From Hell will be retired thereafter

As BULLET CLUB celebrates their eighth anniversary at Dontaku, so Suzuki-Gun marks ten years with these events.

It’s appropriate then that founder members from each faction should be colliding tonight in a vicious match with a lot of history attached to it. 

Or, attached to the ceiling at least. The semi main event this even9ing will be the second ever Ladder Match in NJPW history,

and the first since Dominion 2016, when Michael Elgin and Kenny Omega battled over the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. This time,

it isn’t gold that’s hanging over the ring, but iron; the Iron Fingers From Hell to be exact. 

The Iron Fingers were the last item left behind by Suzuki-Gun’s crazed animal Takashi iizuka when he retired in 2019.

Taichi took hold of the fingers, and held that they were imbued with the evil spirit of iizuka himself, using them to gain victory on occasion since.

Yet at Wrestle Kingdom, they were used against him by Tama Tonga as Guerrillas of Destiny took their seventh IWGP Tag Team Championships.

Tonga would leave with the Iron Finger as well as the belts, beginning weeks of taunts that lasted until New Beginning in Hiroshima. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

There, Taichi would get his hands on the weapon, and used it in a rampage that led to a DQ loss.

With competitors and referees all at risk,Sakura Genesis saw the Iron Fingers put under the custody of NJPW officials.

This ladder match will now end the struggles over the mystical item. Whoever the winner, the Iron Fingers must never be used again,

but will it be Taichi laying the cursed object to rest, or will Tonga be able to taunt Taichi for evermore?

4th Match: Zack Sabre Jr. vs Tanga Loa

If ZSJ wins, Dangerous Tekkers get an IWGP Tag Team Championship match. If Tanga Loa wins, Dangerous Tekkers can never challenge again.

While Tama Tonga and Taichi do ladder match battle in the semi main event of the evening, their respective tag team partners have their own singles bout with a lot on the line. 

After Zack Sabre Jr. pinned Tanga Loa to get a victory for the Suzuki-Gun side in Ryogoku at Sakura Genesis,

he was more than justified in thinking Dangerous Tekkers deserved an IWGP Tag Team Championship shot. After all,

while he and Taichi had lost in their Wrestle Kingdom rematch at New Beginning in Hiroshima,

the Iron Finger led beatdown by Taichi left Guerrillas of Destiny much the worse for wear. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

Yet Tanga Loa would only grant the match under one condition. If ZSJ could beat the Silverback one on one, then the tag match would go down at a later date.

As Suzuki-Gun and BULLET CLUB battled throughout the Road to Dontaku tour however, Loa decided to up the ante further; should Sabre lose the bout,

Dangerous Tekkers would never challenge for IWGP Tag Team gold again.

For ZSJ and Dangerous Tekkers then, there is everything to lose, but the British submission master is expert in high pressure scenarios.

It’s unlikely Sabre will crack under the pressure, but could Loa’s limbs be cracking in Fukuoka instead? 

3rd Match: Los Ingobernables De Japon (Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA & BUSHI) vs United Empire (Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aaron Henare)

 After weeks of intense preliminary battles, Shingo Takagi’s IWGP World Heavyweight Championship challenge is nigh.

One night before the Dragon steps into the ring against the Commonwealth Kingpin, eight man warfare takes place tonight.

Though Tetsuya Naito and SANADA emerged victorious from their own singles matches against Great-O-Khan and Aaron Henare during this tour,

the United Empire has proven all but impervious as a combined unit over the past several weeks. Will they again assert their dominance tonight? 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

2nd Match: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, SHO & YOH) vs Suzuki-Gun (Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

 Roppongi 3K have been clashing with El Desperado, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Minoru Suzuki throughout the road to Wrestling Dontaku,

with a range of partners at their side. From Young Lions, to Tomoaki Honma to Tiger mask, all have been at the side of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

Tonight though, it’s safe to say they have their strongest partner yet in Kazuchika Okada. 

Set to challenge whoever emerges from May 4’s main event at Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome on May 29, the Rainmaker has been absent for the better part of a month,

since Sakura Genesis at Ryogoku Sumo Hall. Now back in action, he’ll be tying up with a familiar foe in Minoru Suzuki,

while he and SHO support YOH in tomorrow’s IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship challenge. 

Wrestling Dontaku 2021

1st match: Tiger Mask, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Master Wato & Toru Yano vs BULLET CLUB (EVIL, Taiji Ishimori, Dick Togo & Yoshinobu Kanemaru)

The night gets started with eight man tag team action. With their KOPW 2021 clash behind them, EVIL and Toru Yano will look to make a mark and set a new course for Wrestle Grand Slam in Yokohama Stadium and the Tokyo Dome. So too will their tag partners tonight, with four junior heavyweights in the mix that might have something to say to the winner of El Desperado and YOH May 4.