Title Bouts Set For NJPW Road To King of Pro-Wrestling
Two title matches are set for NJPW Road to King of Pro-Wrestling.
On October 6, El Desperado will defend the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title against DOUKI.
A few nights later on October 11, DOUKI & SHO will defend the IWGP Junior Tag Team Titles against El Desperado and KUUKAI.
From NJPW:
Our main event in Korakuen sees El Desperado looking for his ninth defence of IWGP Junior Heavyweight gold in 2025 against DOUKI. With a very solid claim to NJPW’s MVP status in 2025, Desperado has faced challenge after challenge this year with different styles and great aplomb and success. Yet the way in which he won the title in the first place, after a match cut short by DOUKI injury and a referee stoppage is certainly something the champion wants addressed, and the challenger all the more so.
DOUKI called Dersperado a ‘fake champion and a fake king’ claiming that Desperado has only devalued a title DOUKI had held, to considerably high regard, in 2024. Yet Desperado has stated the opposite to be the case, pointing to his resume this year in which out of now ten matches over ten months contested for the junior title, eight have been main events. One has to question the depths DOUKI may plumb to win the gold back, and how the championship’s status may react as a result; or after several matches where both former ‘hermanos’ have broguht the level best out of one another, just what form this matchup may take.
The main event in Saitama sees DOUKI and SHO seek their third defence of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships against El Desperado and newcomer KUUKAI. As H.O.T’s reign of torture with the junior tag titles has grown, Desperado has enlisted someone with a similar past to himself and DOUKI, a man in KUUKAI who has toiled on the Mexican independent scene since 2022 since going on indefinite excursion from Michinoku Pro. It makes for an intriguing tag title match, moulded by Desperado and DOUKI’s singles championship match just five days earlier. Will DOUKI be a double champion and a two time IWGP Junior title holder by the time Saitama rolls round?
Fans can check out the lineup for NJPW King of Pro-Wrestling here.
