NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Night One results for Friday, May 3: Lee vs. Ishimori, Cobb vs. Taichi, and more

With G1 Supercard firmly in our rear view mirror, we’re moving on to New Japan Pro Wrestling’s spring spectacular on our way to Wrestling Dontaku at the beginning of May.

This year, there are five major shows on our plate, starting with last Saturday’s Sengoku Lord in Nagoya and this past Friday’s supersized Road to Wrestling Dontaku - Aki no Kuni Sengoku Emaki and Monday’s Wrestling Hi no Kuni before coming to a close with Wrestling Dontaku, which is doubled up into a two-night affair once again with night one today. All five shows, naturally, will air live and in full on NJPW World, so why not watch along with the best pro wrestling community on the internet?

Today’s action takes place in Fukuoka’s Fukuoka Convention Center, kicking off at a brisk 5AM Eastern / 2AM Pacific, and is headlined by a pair of title matches, as Taichi challenges double champ Jeff Cobb for his NEVER Openweight Championship and Taiji Ishimori puts the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on the line!

Ren Narita, Shota Umino, & Tomoaki Honma over Toa Henare, Yota Tsuji, & Yuya Uemura by pinfall with the bridging overhead belly-to-belly suplex from Narita on Uemura.

Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki, TAKA Michinoku, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) over Jushin Liger, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask IV, & YOSHI-HASHI by pinfall with the Michinoku Driver from TAKA on Tiger Dad.

Post-match, Suzuki continues to beat Liger down and he and Jushin eventually have a chair standoff on the ramp.

Chaos (Toru Yano & Will Ospreay) & Togi Makabe over Bullet Club (HIKULEO, Tama Tonga, & Tonga Loa) by pinfall with the OsCutter from Ospreay on HIKULEO.

Kota Ibushi & Roppongi 3K (SHO & YOH) over Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, & Tetsuya Naito) by pinfall with Kamigoye from Ibushi on BUSHI.

Post-match, Ibushi gets a promo and says he wants an answer from Naito as to when their title match is going to be, putting the ball in his challenger’s court. Tetsuya hits the ring and says he’d like it to be tomorrow but the card’s already decided, so... tranquilo.

Chaos (Hirooki Goto & Mikey Nicholls) & Juice Robinson over Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale, Chase Owens, & “Switchblade” Jay White) by pinfall with Pulp Friction from Robinson on Owens.

Post-match, a mysterious vignette of a man in a bar playing with a knife plays. It closes with a pair of graphics, one saying “Time’s up” and some Japanese text and the next a date, June 5. Which happens to be the Best of the Super Jr. finals.

Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL & SANADA) over Chaos (Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii) by referee stoppage with a sasori-gatame from EVIL on Ishii.

Taichi over Jeff Cobb (c) by pinfall with Black Mephisto to win the NEVER Openweight Championship.

Dragon Lee (c) over Taiji Ishimori by pinfall with his Orange Crush to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

Post-match, Lee cuts a promo about how much the title means to him and he’s waiting for Hiromu Takahashi to make his comeback.

Enjoy the show!