Pantoja’s NJPW New Year Dash 2026 Review

NJPW New Year Dash!!

January 5^th, 2026 | Ota City Gymnasium in Tokyo, Japan | Attendance: 3,523

It’s New Japan’s post-Wrestle Kingdom show where major things used to happen but now it’s a rarity. Still, this should set up some of the direction the company will go in the coming weeks/months.

Also, I do have reviews planned for STARDOM’s first two shows of the year and Marigold’s PPV, whenever that becomes available on the streaming site.

Katsuya Murashima, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura vs. Team 150

Team 150 consists of Tomohiro Ishii, Taichi, and Satoshi Kojima. A fellow wrestling fan compared Shota to Sammy Guevara in that he’s part of a group that was supposed to be the future/foundation of a promotion but is significantly behind the others in that group. That feels appropriate to be honest. Anyway, I like a simple opener. Just let a bunch of dudes go out there and wail on each other, which is what we got here. I think Yuya and Shota have solid tag team chemistry, while there was a really fun exchange between Ishii and Murashima. They went back and forth late until Ishii made Murashima tap to the Boston Crab in 10:23. That was a fun way to start the show. [***¼] 

After the bell, Ishii and Taichi had a face-off with Shota and Yuya. Ishii spit blood at Shota, leading to an exchange of blows.

El Phantasmo and Shoma Kato vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Rocky Romero

This match is mostly here to give Takeshita something to do before he likely heads back to the States. ELP and Takeshita had some good exchanges where and I got a callback to the shockingly great Rocky/ELP match from the Best of the Super Juniors a while back. Like Murashima in the previous match, Shoma Kato was seemingly out to prove a point. The guy was throwing everything he had at Takeshita and even placed him in the Boston Crab that beat Takeshita at Wrestle Kingdom. ELP took a fantastic Blue Thunder Bomb. Takeshita really hit two of the best Blue Thunder Bombs less than 24 hours apart. Takeshita beat Kato with the Boston Crab in 8:43. Better than I thought it would be with surprising spirit. [***]

Bishamon and Boltin Oleg vs. SANADA, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Yujiro Takahashi

A New Japan show is off to a good start and Gedo can’t have that continue so here’s the House of Torture to ruin things. I don’t have much to say here. There wasn’t too much House of Torture bullshit but Kanemaru and Takahashi bring nothing of value to the ring these days, while SANADA hasn’t been good in several years. That means the Bishamon/Boltin trio, which is a fun one, was held back here. In the end, a Shoto assisted splash put Yujiro down at the 9:23 mark. [*½]

Andrade El Idolo, Francesco Akira and Jakob Austin Young vs. Clark Connors, Gabe Kidd and Hiromu Takahashi

This is pretty similar to the bigger tag from the day prior. It started with a brawl before the bell and kind of kept up that chaotic nature from start to finish. Clark Connors was pretty fired up and looked good out there, while Gabe was his usual awesome self. Andrade again looked really good out there. He’s in fantastic shape and I really do think New Japan should give him a significant push in 2026. If he can’t work AEW, might as well help a company that desperately needs stars. Andrade got the win over Clark with an elevated DDT after 10:31. This was pretty solid. Nothing about it really stood out besides Andrade clearly still being good but I was entertained throughout. [**¾]

Post-match, Gabe Kidd got on the microphone and challenged Andrade to a fight. The two traded blows and we’re headed towards a singles match soon.

Aaron Wolf, Master Wato, Toru Yano and YOH vs. Dick Togo, Don Fale, EVIL and Ren Narita

Goddammit, it’s the House of Torture again. This time, it was all the House of Torture antics we’ve come to know and hate for years. Generic brawling, slow moving wrestlers, ringing the bell early, etc. You know the drill. It’s always there and it’s always bad. They put in no effort, so neither will it. The finish saw YOH make Togo tap to a Texas Cloverleaf in 5:37. At least it was short. This sucked though. [*]

Callum Newman, The Great-O-Khan, HENARE and Jake Lee vs. David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Shingo Takagi and Yota Tsuji

Yota Tsuji revealed the old V4 IWGP Heavyweight Title design and was announced as such. The IWGP World Title, with its shit design and lame legacy, is gone and we’re back to the title that was so great. Giving Jake Lee a shot the first shot at that shouldn’t be legal. Before the bell, Yota told Jake that he hasn’t earned a shot and to convince him, so Lee just hit him instead. The match itself was some good stuff because guys like Drilla, Shingo, Yota, and HENARE are very good. The likes of Jake and Callum continue to be swings and misses for me. I liked Shingo and Drilla doing spots together. They’d be a killer team if they want to fix the tag division. I know Gedo doesn’t want that but still. HENARE sealed the deal with a powerbomb on Drilla for a pretty big win in 8:56. I wish this got a few more minutes and they took time away from some earlier matches. Still, this was good. [***]

Yota slapped Jake after the match for holding his title. Callum got on the mic and tried to play the tough guy, issuing a challenge to David Finlay. They’re trying so hard with Callum. That brought out Will Ospreay to stare down Finlay. After Finlay left, Will cut a promo saying that he didn’t realize how leaving would make things crumble and that he’ll be back in New Japan when he’s healthy. He’ll be back to support Callum, his little brother. The two embraced and the stable posed together but Callum tried to hit Will with a chair. The other members stopped him and Callum stormed off. So we’re gonna get Will/Callum at some point. Ok. That’s a choice.

IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: DOUKI and SHO [c] vs. El Desperado & Kuukai vs. Ichiban Sweet Boys vs. Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori

Man, they really need to merge divisions because these titles don’t matter at all. Though that has been the case since like 2016. This was contested under tornado rules so there were no tags, meaning this was chaos from the start. That worked in its favor, allowing for no real slow down and things moved along nicely. Everyone got a chance to get their shit on, we had fun bits like both Robbies battling over the crowd reaction, and the expected spots like a Tower of Doom and House of Torture shenanigans. In the end, the Ichiban Sweet Boys nailed a tandem DVD style move to win the titles in 7:20. That was a brisk match filled with solid action. [***]

Francesco Akira hit the ring after the match to jump Taiji Ishimori, who was saved by Hiromu Takahashi.

IWGP Tag Team Championship: The Knockout Brothers [c] vs. Ryohei Oiwa and Zack Sabre Jr.

The Knockout Brothers are really cool. Commentary was working hard to try and hype this being a main event as the titles meaning something again. While that’s not totally true, the KO Brothers are a big reason for hope. Right from the start, this was hard hitting with a great mix of technical stuff, which is where ZSJ works best. In fact, that style fit everyone. ZSJ was able to negate his size disadvantage by taking things to the mat. There, he was in control and the size of the Knockout Brothers didn’t matter until it helped them reach the ropes for a break. As this moved past the 15 minute mark, we really started kicking into the next gear. They were throwing lariats, suplexes, and more as the intensity picked up. Oiwa stepping up to trade blows with Yuto-Ice was awesome. They started going in with the big near falls late, yet never wasted them on things like finisher kickouts. I could watch these dudes hit each other with forearms for hours. In the end, Oiwa fell to the Tombstone/kick to the head combo as the champions retained in 26:22. An awesome main event that’s better than what we usually get on New Year Dash. [****¼]

After the match, Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura showed up to issue a challenge for the titles. However, so did Taichi and Tomohiro Ishii. Yuto-Ice told them to fight each other and the winner gets a shot.

7.0

The final score: review Good

The 411

Kind of par for the course for New Year Dash. This time around, we got a fantastic main event but two really bad House of Torture matches to offset it. The IWGP Title is back, Will Ospreay will be returning for a run at some point, and I came away mostly pleased with these two nights of New Japan.