NJPW Wrestling Dontaku Preview – Okada Will Have To Go Through Tanahashi For Record

Night Three

Finally, night three will really be about two matches, the first of which will see KUSHIDA challenging Will Ospreay for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.  This match will primarily be about Will Ospreay proving to himself that he is the ace of that division and that he has finally surpassed KUSHIDA.  This will also serve as the final primer for the Best of the Super Jrs., which both men will compete in.

Now normally, that match alone would make you tune in, but this is New Japan Pro Wrestling and they have the greatest wrestlers on the planet.  They will have already given us Kenny Omega on night two, now it’s time to send out Kazuchika Okada to defend his IWGP Heavyweight Championship, and this time he’ll be going for a record 12 title defenses in a single reign.

The man he has to face to break that record, though, just happens to be the man he’s currently tied with, ‘the Ace of New Japan’ Hiroshi Tanahashi.  I said at the top of this preview that the “worst” night looked to be night two, well, this is the best.  You couldn’t have booked it better, no matter what anyone thinks about how long Okada’s run has been as champion, it’s undeniable that Okada vs. Tanahashi feels big.

Wrestling Dontaku is usually a middling show, caught between Sakura Genesis and the Best of the Super Jrs. but this year the BOTSJ feels like an afterthought – all the focus is on whether Okada can break Tanahashi’s record by beating the man himself!  I, for one, think May 3 cannot come soon enough.

• adam hangman page
• Killer Elite Squad
• SANADA
• Tetsuya Naito
• KUSHIDA
• new japan pro wrestling
• kota ibushi
• LIJ
• los ingobernables de japon
• Bullet Club
• Marty Scurll
• Hiromu Takahashi
• Hiroshi Tanahashi
• Suzuki-Gun
• Jay White
• EVIL
• Kazuchika Okada
• Minoru Suzuki
• Will Ospreay
• The Young Bucks
• Cody
• Kenny Omega

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