Dramatic DDT

NJPW “SANSEI R&D PRESENTS WRESTLE KINGDOM 20 IN TOKYO DOME – HIROSHI TANAHASHI RETIREMENT”, 01/04/2026
Tokyo Dome
46,913 Fans – Super No Vacancy Full House

0. NJPW World TV Title: El Phantasmo (c) defeated Chris Brookes with the Super Thunder Kiss ’86 (11:48).
*V6 for El Phantasmo.
1. NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Titles – Tornado Rambo: Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson defeated Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Oleg Boltin when Sabre pinned Boltin with the European Clutch (20:43).
Order Of Elimination: Yuto-Ice/OSKAR/Clark Conners, Tiger Mask/Togi Makabe/Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii/Taichi/Satoshi Kojima and Shota Umino/Yuya Uemura/Kaisei Takechi, Toru Yano/YOH/Master Wato (c), Ren Narita/SANADA/Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Hirooki Goto/YOSHI-HASHI/Oleg Boltin.
*Toru Yano, YOH & Master Wato fail in V4. TMDK become the 32nd NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions!
6. IWGP World Heavyweight Title & IWGP Global Heavyweight Title: Yota Tsuji (c/g) defeated KONOSUKE TAKESHITA (c/w) with a Crab Hold (29:20).
*V2 for Yota Tsuji. KONOSUKE TAKESHITA fails in V2. Yota Tsuji becomes the 15th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion!

It was all set up for DDT to hijack one of the biggest wrestling events to happen in years but in the end it was all dashed away. Oh well at least New Japan made all of the right moves to help take care of their own problems. On the day that Hiroshi Tanahashi ended his legendary wrestling career, Konosuke Takeshita was there in the semi-final of the Tokyo Dome taking part in a double championship match against Yota Tsuji. Takeshita was putting the IWGP World Heavyweight Title on the line while Tsuji was defending the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title. Instead of wearing the “blessed” kneepad from yesterday’s DDT show, Takeshita had a different costume on that included a red bandana wrapped around his arm. It was later confirmed to belong to Shinsuke Nakamura who couldn’t be there on the night. The grand battle came down to Takeshita and Tsuji charging into each other, Wagamama versus Gene Blaster. The Gene Blast won out but rather than go for the pin, Tsuji instead put Takeshita in the Crab Hold to make him tap out! Takeshita admitted defeat afterwards but knows he can get stronger and climb higher. According to him, this is just the beginning.

Kaisei Takechi’s appearance in the Tornado Rambo match turned out to be rather pointless. He got to make a big entrance along with the rest of THE RAMPAGE with a live performance of the song “BREAK IT DOWN”. However the rules of the match resulted in his team’s elimination happening in a rather uneventful manner. Yuya Uemura and Taichi eliminated each other double Battle Royal style, meaning both of their teams were taken out of the match too. It wasn’t really a good showcase for Takechi, Uemura or Shota Umino in anyway outside of THE RAMPAGE entrance. Takechi wants to team up with the others again because he regrets how little they did in the match. Then maybe after that he could fight against them too.

The pre-show match allowed Chris Brookes to bring some SCHADENFREUDE International energy into the Tokyo Dome. With the likes of Antonio Honda, Baliyan Akki, Munetatsu Nakamura and Bunbun on his side, Brookes got to pull out the rubber band spot that stretched all the way up the Tokyo Dome entrance ramp. El Phantasmo had too much fight in him though and he kicked out of the Praying Mantis Bomb. Brookes kicked out of the CRIII but ELP quickly hit him with the Super Thunder Kiss ’86 to successfully defend the NJPW World TV Title. Backstage ELP talked about how a decade ago Brookes was one of the few wrestlers to give him a hand while he was touring the UK and that always meant a lot to him. He also talked about how the health scare Brookes had last year is what led to him finding out about his own cancer diagnosis months later. For that he will be forever greatful to Brookes. He also predicts 2026 is going to be a crazy year for pro wrestling in Japan and today they got to give everyone a taste of what it could be like.