NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 Notes: Hirooki Goto Wins Ranbo & Earns IWGP World Title Shot, Konosuke Takeshita Wins NEVER Openweight Title & Match Set with Ishii for Wrestle Dynasty, More Titles Change Hands, DOUKI Suffered Arm Injury

Indie / Misc
Jan 4, 2025

Hirooki Goto Wins New Japan Ranbo & Earns Shot at IWGP World Title

Saturday’s Wrestle Kingdom 19 event for New Japan Pro Wrestling at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan featured Hirooki Goto emerging victorious in this year’s New Japan Ranbo battle royal match and earned a title shot for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

This match featured in order for entrants Great-O-Khan, Josh Barnett, Boltin Oleg, Hirooki Goto, Yuji Nagata, Togi Makabe, KENTA, YOSHI-HASHI, Yujiro Takahashi, Toru Yano, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma, SANADA, Taichi, Tomohiro Ishii, and Alex Zayne.

The final four in the match were Khan, Goto, Ishii, and Zayne with Ishii the first to be eliminated and followed by Zayne to bring it down to just Khan and Goto for the final two.

Ichiban Sweet Boys Wins IWGP Jr. Tag Titles at NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19

Saturday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 event also featured Ichiban Sweet Boys (Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles) defeating Catch 2/2 (Francesco Akira & TJP), Bullet Club War Dogs (Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors), and Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA) to become the new IWGP Junior Tag Team Champions.

This was Fujita’s first ever championship victory in his NJPW career and Eagles second ever IWGP Jr. Tag titles victory in his NJPW career.

El Phantasmo Wins NJPW World TV Title at Wrestle Kingdom 19

Saturday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 event also featured El Phantasmo defeating Jeff Cobb, Ryohei Oiwa, and Ren Narita to become the new NJPW World Television Champion.

This was ELP’s first ever NJPW World TV Championship victory in his NJPW career.

Konosuke Takeshita Wins NEVER Openweight Title at Wrestle Kingdom 19

Saturday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 event also featured Konosuke Takeshita defeating Shingo Takagi to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.

This match also featured Takeshita’s AEW International Championship also being on the line as a title vs. title match.

This was Takeshita’s first ever championship victory in NJPW.

As a result of his victory, Takeshita will officially be defending his AEW International and newly won NEVER Openweight titles against Tomohiro Ishii at NJPW x AEW Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo.

El Desperado Wins IWGP Jr. Title & DOUKI Suffered Serious Arm Injury

Saturday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 event also featured El Desperado defeating DOUKI to become the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion.

El Desperado’s victory was declared by the referee after DOUKI suffered a serious arm injury following a senton spot off the top rope by DOUKI to El Desperado on the outside. DOUKI crashed hard onto Desperado onto the barricade and landed awkwardly on the floor. This led to the referee checking on DOUKI and quickly called for the bell due to DOUKI being in serious pain and unable to continue.

Following the match, Desperado grabbed a microphone and gave words of encouragement to DOUKI and stated that when DOUKI comes back, he wants them to revisit their match for the IWGP Jr. title.

Yota Tsuji Wins IWGP Global Title at Wrestle Kingdom 19

Saturday’s NJPW Wrestle Kingdom 19 event also featured Yota Tsuji defeating David Finlay to become the new IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion.

This was Tsuji’s first singles championship victory of his NJPW career and his second championship victory, following him winning the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team titles in June of 2024.

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