/cdn.vox-cdn.com/uploads/chorus_image/image/49478711/ChijbBPWIAAhd7F.0.0.jpg)
New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) held their annual "holiday" pay-per-view (PPV) Wrestling Donatku on May 3, 2016.
To piggyback on all the "era" talk WWE is throwing around these days, this was the first show of the Naito era, as it was the first major show featuring Los Ingoberables de Japon's leader defending his IWGP Heavyweight title. Donatku also featured a couple of title changes and set the stage for the promotion's Summer plans.
Plans which look to heavily feature Ricochet, which will add some spice to the speculation about the former Lucha Underground champ's future.
Here are the results from the show:
- Bad Luck Fale & Yujiro Takahashi def. Captain New Japan & Juice Robinson
- Kazushi Sakuraba, YOSHI-HASHI, Will Ospreay & Gedo def. Tiger Mask IV, Ryusuke Taguchi, Jay White & David Finlay
- Ricochet & Matt Sydal def. Roppongi Vice (Rocky Romero & Barreta) to become the new IWGP Jr Tag Team champions
- The Elite (Kenny Omega & the Young Bucks) def. Michael Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yoshitatsu to become the new NEVER Six-Man tag team champions
- Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa def. Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma to retain their IWGP Tag Team championship
- Yuji Nagata def. Katsuyori Shibata to become the new NEVER Openweight champion
- KUSHIDA def. Jushin Thunder Liger to retain his IWGP Jr heavyweight championship
- EVIL def. Hirooki Goto
- Kazuchika Okada def. SANADA
- Tetsuya Naito def. Tomohiro Ishii to retain his IWGP Heavyweight championship
Also announced were the blocks for the 23rd Best of Super Juniors (BoSJ) tournament. The sixteen wrestlers will compete round-robin, with the top two scorers (2 points for a win, 1 for a draw, 0 for a loss) advancing to the single-elimination semi-finals. The tourney begins on May 21, and closes on June 7.
Here are the groupings:
A BLOCK
- KUSHIDA (2015 Winner)
- Ryusuke Taguchi (2012 Winner)
- Kyle O'Reilly
- Matt Sydal
- Rocky Romero
- Gedo
- BUSHI
- Matt JacksonB BLOCK
- Jushin Thunder Liger (1994 & 2001 Winner)
- Tiger Mask IV (2004 & 2005 Winner)
- Ricochet (2014 Winner)
- Bobby Fish
- Barreta
- Nick Jackson
- Volador Jr.
- Will Ospreay
Both blocks look to have solid match-ups, but there will be a lot of buzz for Ospreay/Ricochet in the B group, whenever that goes down.
With Prince Puma's alter-ego a champion in the promotion yet again, could a second BoSJ win be in his future?
We'll know more as the ongoing New Japan saga winds its way toward their Dominion show on June 19.