NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Results

New Japan Pro-Wrestling held their latest major event on Wednesday, May 3 as the promotion presented Wrestling Dontaku from Fukuoka.

SANADA defended the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship for the first time in the main event against former LIJ faction mate Hiromu Takahashi. The IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion came close to scoring an upset after multiple Time Bombs but he was unable to put SANADA away and the Just Five Guys leader fired back with a huge Shining Wizard and his Dead Fall finisher to pick up the win.

SANADA looked set to end Wrestling Dontaku standing tall after confetti filled the ring but the man behind the recent apocalyptic vignettes was revealed to be Yota Tsuji as he interrupted SANADA's post-match celebrations and took out all of the members of Just Five Guys. Tsuji then held aloft the IWGP World Heavyweight Title to hint at a future match for the gold.

While SANADA retained his title, several championships did change hands at Wrestling Dontaku. In the first switch of the show, Hikuleo defeated KENTA to win the NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship before Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii beat Ren Narita, Minoru Suzuki, and El Desperado to capture the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Titles. David Finlay later defeated Tama Tonga on the 10-year anniversary of Bullet Club's formation to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion. Tonga was taken out of the arena following the match on a stretcher, leaving his NJPW future uncertain.

Finlay's first challenger didn't take long to reveal himself as El Phantasmo attacked the new NEVER Openweight Champion following the match to cement himself as a babyface. ELP had never accepted Finlay as the new leader of Bullet Club and their issues recently culminated with Phantasmo being kicked out of the stable.

It was also revealed at Wrestling Dontaku that Jon Moxley will return to Japan for the first time since February 2020 at Dominion on June 4. He announced his return in a pre-taped promo after Shota Umino interrupted Okada, Tanahashi, and Ishii's post-match celebrations. Umino and Moxley look set to challenge for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Titles with an unannounced partner at Dominion.

In another title match at Wrestling Dontaku, Zack Sabre Jr. and Jeff Cobb fought to a 15-minute time limit draw over the NJPW World Television Championship. They both stated post-match that they want to run it back at a future show. New Japan also held their usual slate of tag team matches.

Check out the full results for NJPW Wrestling Dontaku below:

• YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto, YOH, & Toru Yano def. Dick Togo, SHO, EVIL, & Yujiro Takahashi
• Great-O-Khan & Aussie Open def. Kosei Fujita, Mikey Nicholls, & Shane Haste
• KUSHIDA, Kevin Knight, & Shota Umino def. TJP, Francesco Akira, & Aaron Henare
• Taichi, DOUKI, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. BUSHI, Tetsuya Naito, & Shingo Takagi
• Hikuleo def. KENTA (c) - NJPW STRONG Openweight Championship
• Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Jeff Cobb ended in a Time-Limit Draw - NJPW World Television Championship 
• Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi, & Tomohiro Ishii def. Ren Narita, Minoru Suzuki, & El Desperado (c) - NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Championships
• David Finlay def. Tama Tonga (c) - NEVER Openweight Championship
• SANADA (c) def. Hiromu Takahashi - IWGP World Heavyweight Championship