NJPW has been building to this event since the summer, as Zack Sabre Jr. boldly decided to cash in his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship opportunity early and challenge Tetsuya Naito.
Elsewhere on the card, the Intergalactic Jet Setters are the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Ren Narita is the new NJPW World Television Champion and David Finaly retained the IWGP Global Heavyweight title by defeating Hirooki Goto.
In the main event, Sabre Jr. and Naito went to war, but after years of hard work, Sabre Jr. finally won the big one and became the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.
The match began with some technical wizardry from Sabre as he was quickly manipulating Naito’s joints. Naito did his best to battle back, but Sabre always had a response whether that was a head scissors or an arm bar. Sabre turned his attention to Naito’s knees and locked in a variety of holds to wrench at those legs. Once out of those holds, both men were exchanging reversals back and forth.
Naito then swept Sabre’s legs on the ring apron and hit him with a baseball slide to the floor. He now drove Sabre into the ring apron and the steel barricade repeatedly before both men were on the ring apron. Sabre jumped back into the ring and caught Naito entering the ring, he draped his legs over the ropes and trapped his head for a brutal neck twist. Sabre capitalized on this and locked Naito into a knee bar with the bridge before also cranking at Naito’s neck.
Sabre continued by drilling Naito with uppercuts, but Naito then managed to trip Sabre down and get him with a neck twist of his own. Naito now got Sabre with an arm drag, back elbow and dropkick before hanging him off the ropes for a neckbreaker over his knee. He followed that with another neckbreaker and locked Sabre into a scissor hold around his arms and neck. Sabre knew he needed to make a comeback so he caught Naito into an arm bar hanging over the top rope.
He quickly continued his attack with another neck twist and a dropkick to the back of Naito’s head. Sabre now locked in a head scissors, but Naito made it to the ropes and both men began trading uppercuts and elbows. That exchange concluded with a tornado DDT from Naito and they then went to the top rope where Naito hit an avalanche hurricanrana. He next locked Sabre into a variation of a cross-face with also a head scissors.
Sabre managed to get to the ropes and Naito was now clobbering Sabre with back elbows and he followed that with Esperanza. Naito then caught Sabre with a Destino, but it was not enough so he went for a second attempt. This time Sabre reversed it into a brutal submission and he was manipulating all of Naito’s joints. He was pulling Naito’s arms behind his back, but Naito got a toe on the ropes. Naito regained control by spiking Sabre with a brainbuster and he went for the Destino again.
This attempt was reversed again and Sabre then dropped Naito with a Gotch-Style Piledriver. That was followed by the PK and he next went for the Zack Driver, but Naito reversed it in mid-air into a Destino. However, Sabre kicked out again and Naito hit him with a rolling kick, and he then took a run at Sabre. He got about halfway when he was hit by a stiff lariat from Sabre. That was followed by not one, not two, but three Zack Drivers from Sabre to get the win and earn his first IWGP World Championship.
NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling 2024 Results
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Mistico
Takahashi drove Mistico into the mat with a knee breaker and then locked in a standing figure-four to get the win.
Winner: Hiromu Takahashi
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship Match: Bullet Club War Dogs (Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) (c) vs. Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA)
The War Dogs had KUSHIDA down and out in the middle of the ring, but Knight managed to tag himself in sneakily. He then leaped over Moloney to knock Connors to the floor and with assistance from KUSHIDA he got Moloney in a jackknife cover to steal the titles.
Winners: NEW IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Intergalactic Jet Setters (Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA)
IWGP Tag Team Championship Match: TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste) (c) vs. Bullet Club Rogue Army (Bad Luck Fale & Caveman Ugg)
TMDK battled against their much bigger opponents and were able to lift Caveman Ugg up for Thunder Valley to retain their championships.
Winners: Still IWGP Tag Team Champions, TMDK (Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste)
Following the match, Great-O-Khan and HENARE of the United Empire came down to the ring. They congratulated TMDK on their win but also said they wanted to fire up the tag division. United Empire announced they are entering the World Tag League and they want TMDK if they have the balls to face them.
Never Openweight Championship Match: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Ryohei Oiwa
Takagi sent Oiwa flying with a side suplex followed by a Pumping Bomber and a powerbomb. He then finished the job with a second Pumping Bomber and Last of the Dragon to get the victory.
Winner: Still Never Openweight Champion, Shingo Takagi
NJPW World Television Championship Three-Way Match: Jeff Cobb (c) vs. Yota Tsuji vs. Ren Narita
Narita brought a weapon into the mix when he drilled Cobb in the skull with his metal bar and he followed that with the Double Cross to cheat his way to a title.
Winner: NEW NJPW World Television Champion, Ren Narita
A vignette aired from two former NJPW stars, the current AEW EVPs Matthew and Nicholas Jackson. The Young Bucks are coming back to Japan for Wrestle Dynasty at the Tokyo Dome on January 5th!
ICYMI
The Young Bucks are making their return at Wrestle Dynasty on January 5th‼️
🎫Tickets:https://t.co/74MWSAlnji#wrestledynastypic.twitter.com/F1256dOXLb
— NJPW Global (@njpwglobal) October 14, 2024
El Phantasmo, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs. House of Torture (EVIL, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Yujiro Takahashi)
ELP and Umino flew to the outside taking EVIL and Kanemaru out, leaving Tanahashi to hit Takahashi with a sling blade and the High Fly Flow for the victory.
Winners: El Phantasmo, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino
Following the match, Tanahashi announced that he would soon be retiring. January 4th, 2026 will be the end of The Ace in NJPW.
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship Match: DOUKI (c) vs. SHO
SHO attacked DOUKI in the middle of his entrance, choking him, hitting him with his wrench and exploding a chair over his skull. He then spiked DOUKI into the concrete with a piledriver before bringing him into the ring where he unmasked DOUKI. Without his mask, DOUKI seemingly went insane as he spit red mist into the eyes of SHO and hit him with the wrench. DOUKI then hit SHO with two Suplex De La Lunas back-to-back to get the victory.
Winner: Still IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, DOUKI
Following the match, DOUKI relaxed once getting his mask back on, but he was then attacked from behind by Yoshinobu Kanearu. He spit whiskey into DOUKI’s face and wanted to hit him in the head with his title. However, out from the back to make the save came Master Wato, who had been out of action for almost a year. He took out Kanemaru with a Recientemente before lifting DOUKI’s title and letting him know he would be coming for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship.
IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship Match: David Finlay (c) vs. Hirooki Goto
Finlay has been locked in a feud with Goto since the G1 and that all came to a culmination tonight. Goto was closing in on the victory when Gedo got up on the apron to cause a distraction. That interference allowed Finlay to hit Goto with Into Oblivion and then a shillelagh shot to the head. He continued his offence with a powerbomb and the Overkill to retain the title.
Winner: Still IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion, David Finlay
Finlay was gloating about his victory and tainting Yuya Uemura, who is meant to be his next challenger after defeating Finlay in the G1. However, Uemura is out injured, so Taichi came down to the ring instead. He said he can call out Uemura because he is not here, but he is here and he has a lot of pride that cannot be broken. Taichi challenged Finlay for the Global Title and Finlay tried to then take a cheap shot, but Taichi avoided it and dropped Finlay with a side suplex. Taichi promised to take the title and bring it into the Tokyo Dome.
