Three titles change hands at Power Struggle

With its last two matches, New Japan’s latest event gave us the traditional Wrestle Kingdom main event for January in the Tokyo Dome (one of its two nights there, not to be confused with its third night in Yokohama Arena). But before Kazuchika Okada successfully defended his G1 Right to Challenge contract and Shingo Takagi his IWGP World Heavyweight title, there was upheaval in other championship scenes at Power Struggle - full results from which are here.

KENTA’s been trying to win the IWGP United States title since he won the first ever New Japan Cup USA last year. He was unable to take the belt from Jon Moxley, but in Osaka today (Nov. 6), he did take it from Hiroshi Tanahashi. A GTS ended Tanahashi’s first run with the U.S. belt after 84 days (he took it from Lance Archer at Resurgence) and one successful defense.

El Desperado became a two-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight champ in Edion Arena Osaka this morning, defeating Robbie Eagles by submission with Numero Dos. This was the usual banger you’d expect from these two, and this division.

Eagles first run with the Jr. Heavyweight title ends after 104 days and one successful defense.

The NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag belts have been around waists of Eagles’ CHAOS stablemates Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI for much longer - 454 days and nine successful defenses, to be exact. That ended at Power Struggle, at the hands of Bullet Club’s House of Torture offshoot EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi and SHO. EVIL hit his eponymous finisher on YOSHI-HASHI to score the pin. This one led to a post-match angle where SHO’s old Roppongi 3K tag partner YOH returned to stop an assault on the former champs.

Ready for the Road to Tokyo Dome (after next weekend’s U.S. PPV Battle in the Valley, of course... more on that in a bit)?