New Japan Pro Power Struggle 2021 results

The final major single event of 2021 in NJPW brings us to the Edion Arena in Osaka for Power Struggle. The Power Struggle even has grown in importance these last two years due to the altered calendar designed around the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics that resulted in NJPW moving the G1 Climax tournament to the autumn and the cancelation of the Destruction tour and King of Pro Wrestling. As such all the major end-of-year encounters have been crammed into one show as opposed to being spread out throughout the Autumn.

This year’s Power Struggle event has five title matches and the Right to Challenge certificate (or belt in this case) has been on the line. By the end of the night, we would see who would be in the main event for one of the three-night of Wrestle Kingdom coming up in January.

This was also the first show to go back to the old pre-Covid-19 formats of NJPW shows thanks to event curfews being listed. We would get nine matches instead of the usual 4-6 matches we’ve had in the last 18 months.

Results for Power Struggle in short:

• Yoshinobu Kanemare & DOUKI defeated Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita by submission
• Tanga Loa, Gedo & Jado defeated Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask by pinfall
• BUSHI, Hiroshi Tanahashi & SANADA defeated Yuji Nagata, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi by pinfall
• EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi defeated Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI (c) by pinfall (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Championship)
• Toru Yano (c) defeated Great-O-Khan by points (Amateur Wrestling match/Provisional KOPW2021)
• El Desperado defeated Robbie Eagles (c) by submission (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship)
• KENTA defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) by pinfall (IWGP US Heavyweight Championship)
• Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Tama Tonga by pinfall (Right to Challenge at Tokyo Dome)
• Shingo Takagi (c) defeated Zack Sabre Jr. by pinfall (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)

Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita v Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI

The evening begins with a very brief encounter between two of the latest crop of Young Lions going up against the veteran bruisers from Suzuki-gun. Barring a brief flurry at the start of the match the Suzuki-gun duo made very short work of Oiwa and Fujita. DOUKI barely got into the match before Kanemaru used the Boston Crab to win the match by submission. Both DOUKI and Kanemaru are now looking ahead to the start of Best of the Super Juniors.

Tanga Loa, Gedo & Jado v Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Tiger Mask

Again, a very quick tag match with Bullet Club getting a reasonably straightforward win after Tanga Loa hit Honma with Apesh*t. Loa will be a major player in this year’s World Tag League as he reunites his brother, Tama Tonga, in the Guerrillas of Destiny as they look to defend their WTL trophies. Makabe and Honma (Great Bash Heel) confirmed their entries to WTL as did Tiger Mask backstage. Yuji Nagata had been trying to convince one-half of the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champions to join him in the Heavyweight Tag Team tournament. Tiger Mask agreed thus dropping out of this year’s BOSJ tournament for the first time in almost two decades.

BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA v Yuji Nagata, Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi

For the third encounter in a row, we are greeted with a brief tag team match which isn’t surprising given these matches were added late to the card after the Japanese government agreed to lift the state curfew on such events.

The Los Ingoberanbles de Japon trio won the match reasonably quickly. Taguchi and Hiromu got back into their mini-feud over Tenzan’s (former) Mongolian Chops early on while Master Wato tried to show his stuff before Nagata carried most of the match for his team. Taguchi would eventually get isolated with SANADA and managed to damage “Cold Skull’s” ankle with the Ankle Lock but got caught in an O’Connor Roll to give LIJ the win.

Hirooki Goto, Tomohiro Ishii & YOSHI-HASHI (c) v EVIL, SHO & Yujiro Takahashi (NEVER Openweight 6-Man Championship)

The House of Torture trio had defeated the reigning champions at the G1 Climax 31 finals in the Nippon Budokan via nefarious means to get the title shot. The CHAOS trio started quickly by jump-starting the match in an attempt to gain vengeance over the Bullet Club adversaries who have been making their lives a misery throughout the Road to Power Struggle.

Needless to say, the House of Torture used every dirty trick in the book to gain the advantage with Dick Togo getting involved at every opportunity including getting a two count on YOSHI-HASHI after a Magic Killer. After a double team from Goto and YOSHI-HASHI, they thought they had won the match but Togo pulled the referee out.

SHO then hit YOSHI-HASHI with a spanner before EVIL hit his signature Everything is Evil for the win and the championships. As the House of Torture celebrated ending CHAOS’ record reign they carried on the beat down until YOH made his return and cleared out the ring as he tried to get his hands on former partner SHO.

YOH will get his chance as he and SHO will collide during the BOSJ. Goto and YOSHI-HASHI are also scheduled to take on EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi during World Tag League so an opportunity at vengeance is just around the corner.

Toru Yano (c) v Great-O-Khan (Amateur Wrestling match/Provisional KOPW2021)

The fans voted for Yano’s proposed Amateur Wrestling match over Khan’s preferred Kiss My Foot match. As such we got a brief explanation of the rules by judge Yuji Nagata as he used Young Lions to explain the points system for use in the match.

There was no “Sublime Master Thief” tonight as Yano went old school tonight. Both he and Khan went back to their amateur decked out in traditional amateur wrestling gear and played the match completely straight.

The match was scheduled for two periods of three minutes with Yano picking up a win by 6 points to 5. Yano got the first point by forcing Khan into the ropes before Khan rode Yano’s back for two points to go 2-1 up and then spun him for another two points to lead 4-1 at the end of the first period.

At the start of the second period, Yano would force Khan into the ropes to cut the lead to two before Khan did the same to Yano to get his lead back to three. As the time limit was going down Yano hit a side belly to belly to grab four points and win the match and retain his title.

An infuriated Great-O-Khan and Aaron Henare would layout Yano after the match before Nagata would step in and force the United Empire duo to the back.

Robbie Eagles (c) v El Desperado (IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship)

El Desperado had to put his and Kanemaru’s Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on the line against the Flying Tiger duo of Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask during the Road to Power Struggle for Eagles to agree to put his title on the line again Desperado tonight. Flying Tiger made the most of the opportunity by taking the titles from the Suzuki-gun duo at Korakuen Hall. Desperado needed to win tonight to make his risk worthwhile.

Eagles had defeated Desperado during Wrestle Kingdom in Tokyo Dome show and was been built as a strong champion having also tapped out division star; Hiromu Takahashi during his only previous title defense.

As more technical junior heavyweights they put on a master class of limb work as both attacked each other’s legs in hope of using their respective leg submissions: the Ron Miller Special (Eagles) and Numero Dos (Desperado). Both would hook their moves early on but make it to the ropes.

The two would exchange near falls before Eagles would use a Hurricanrana to escape Despe’s attempt at El Pinche Loco. An attempt to attack Desperado’s knee again would backfire as Desperado would hook in Numero Dos again but this time with wrist control giving Eagles no choice but to verbally submit making El Desperado a two-time IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion and thus go into BOSJ as champion.

Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) v KENTA (IWGP US Heavyweight Championship)

KENTA had snuck his way back in the United States title scene after agreeing to give Chase Owens first dibs at the title if Owens would step aside from his title match. Owens agreed and went back to the US giving KENTA the shot at Power Struggle.

Tanahashi and KENTA had a battle of air guitar and air violin early before KENTA used a cheap shot to gain the early advantage before trying to escape with the US title belt. KENTA counters Tana with a Power Slam on the entrance ramp. The “Ace” would use a Dragon Screw in the ropes but KENTA knocks him off the turnbuckle as he went for Aces High.

KENTA would set up a table but this would backfire as Tana hit a Sling Blade before using the High Fly Flow onto KENTA through the table. Tanahashi would go for a second High Fly Flow to win the match in the ring but KENTA got his knees up. KENTA would almost get the win with Game Over but Tana would make the ropes.

A Psycho Knee would get KENTA a two count but Tana would reverse a Go 2 Sleep into a Sling Blade again. KENTA would then force Tanahashi into the exposed turnbuckle and use the GTS to finally win the belt he had been chasing since NJPW had returned to action after Spring 2020’s forced shutdown.

Backstage KENTA would make a massive cross-promotional challenge to All Elite Wrestling’s CM Punk. With KENTA heading back to the USA with the belt it might be worth keeping an eye out on AEW TV to see if the hidden door gets opened by KENTA again.

Kazuchika Okada (c) v Tama Tonga (Right to Challenge at Tokyo Dome)

During this year’s G1 Climax tournament only one man was able to defeat Kazuchika Okada on the way to his third G1 title; Tama Tonga. Tonga’s clean win over Okada was by far the biggest win of his singles career. A predominately tag team specialist, Tonga put on some of his best career performances during this year’s G1. Immediately after Okada’s win over an injured Kota Ibushi we would Tama Tonga challenge Okada for his shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion at Wrestle Kingdom 16.

Okada would accept the challenge and in doing so would unveil his version of the Right to Challenge certificate. Gone was the traditional briefcase and contract and back was version 4 of the IWGP Heavyweight Champion that the “Rainmaker” made famous during his legendary two-year reign a few years ago.

As such, the belt and the Right to Challenge were on the line at Power Struggle and Tonga stepped up yet again in an absolutely excellent match. The story of the match revolves around Tama Tonga’s repeated attempts at the Gun Stun and knowing he would win if he could hit it. A story not dissimilar to Kazuchika Okada’s seminal match with Kenny Omega at Wrestle Kingdom 14 as Omega just couldn’t catch Okada in his signature One-Winged Angel.

Both men hit all their signature moves but kept escaping each other’s big finisher. Okada though would counter yet another Gun Stun from Tonga and land his Rainmaker for a win. Okada may have won but I can’t put Tonga over enough. He has improved dramatically as a single wrestler and this is yet another breakout performance.

Shingo Takagi (c) v Zack Sabre Jr. (IWGP World Heavyweight Championship)

After ZSJ made Takagi submit during the G1 Climax there was little doubt that the “Submission Master” was at the front of the line for a title shot against the “Dragon”. It was no secret what ZSJ’s strategy was going to be as he targeted the same arm he had done during the G1.

Takagi was much better prepared this time but would eventually start to succumb to ZSJ’s attacks on his arm which would eventually prevent Shingo from capitalizing on the Pumping Bomber. ZSJ would use a top rope flipping Arm Bar and turn that into a Triangle and almost got the win but Shingo would make the ropes. A Zack Driver would almost get the pinfall win as well but Shingo kicked out at the last split second.

ZSJ would use a Triangle again but Shingo would turn this into Last of the Dragon but wouldn’t be able to make the cover due to the damage done to his arm. A European Clutch would almost give ZSJ the title again before Shingo pulled out another Last of the Dragon out of nowhere to retain the title.

After the match Okada would come down to ringside to sarcastically praise Shingo on his title retention and lay the challenge down for Wrestle Kingdom 16. Shingo Takagi accepted confirming the main event for the first night in Tokyo Dome.