NJPW 3/26/05 Results

New Japan's latest big show from the Sumo Hall saw IWGP champion Hiroyoshi Tenzan retain his title in an incredible battle with Josh Barnett. Barnett controlled most of the match early on with quick strikes and submission attempts, even bloodying up Tenzan! But the IWGP champion fought back and nailed a wicked headbutt followed by the TTD and a big diving headbutt for a 2 count! Barnett fought back and hit Tenzan with a barrage of strikes and headkicks, then hit the dreaded Capture Buster and a German suplex, but only got a 2 count! Tenzan would fire back with a big release German suplex and another diving headbutt, and finally put away Barnett with the Anaconda Vice for the submission victory! The two hugged after the match and Barnett congratulated Tenzan on the win, but gestured for a rematch as well which Tenzan noddingly agreed to. There are NEW IWGP tag team champions as Liger & Tanaka pulled off a HUGE upset beating Nagata & Wolf, especially as Liger pinned Nagata for the win! The match got off to a quick start, with Liger hitting a Liger-bomb early on, but Nagata answered right back with a backdrop! The match was pretty much back and forth from there, till Liger managed to catch Nagata with a series of brainbusters and powerbombs leading up to the upset win. Tiger Mask was able to retain his Jr. Heavyweight title over Ryusuke Taguchi, and unlike their last encounter, Taguchi wasn't able to go over the twenty minute mark, but put up a good fight and shook Tiger's hand after the match. El Samurai then showed up and demanded to be next to challenge for the title. Just as the heavyweight tag titles changed hands, so did the Jr. heavyweight tag titles as Kanemoto & Inoue dethroned Naruse & Kakihara in their first defence of the titles. An incredible back and forth match, and arguably the best of the night as Inoue showed alot of fighting spirit, utilizing his the octopus-hold and cobra-twist to wear down and match skills with the two strikers before Kanemoto would seal the win for his team with his trademark moonsault. NJPW NEXESS - 3/26/2005 Tokyo Sumo Hall - 9,000 Fans U-30 Title No.1 Contenders Match: Hiroshi Nagao beat Naofumi Yamamoto in 19:04 with a chokeslam. 80% Tatsutoshi Gotoh & Hiro Saito beat Yutaka Yoshie & Toru Yano in 17:18 when Yano was counted out. 52% Tatsumi Fujinami beat Osamu Nishimura in 15:56 with a Dragon Sleeper. 76% IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles: Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue beat Masayuki Naruse & Masahito Kakihara in 28:15 when Kanemoto pinned Naruse with the moonsault press to become the new champions. 94% IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Tiger Mask beat Ryusuke Taguchi in 15:35 with a Tiger Suplex hold. 84% Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shinsuke Nakamura VS Togi Makabe & Ryushi Yanagisawa went to a 30:00 Draw. 71% Jun Akiyama beat Katsuyori Shibata in 16:21 with an avalanche-style Exploder. 76% IWGP Tag Team Titles: Jushin Thunder Liger & Minoru Tanaka beat Yuji Nagata & Blue Wolf in 24:14 when Liger pinned Nagata with a avalanche-style brainbuster to become the new champions. 74% Kensuke Sasaki & Genichiro Tenryu beat Masahiro Chono & Minoru Suzuki in 19:47 when Tenryu pinned Suzuki with the 53yrs Old. 77% IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Josh Barnett in 18:40 with the Anaconda Vice. 91%