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NJPW Wrestling Hinokuni

The official Wrestling Hinokuni logo

Wrestling Hinokuni (レスリング火の国, Resuringu Hinokuni) is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event was established in 2015 and takes place in late April between the larger Invasion Attack and Wrestling Dontaku events. The event is held in Mashiki, Kumamoto and its name refers to the nickname of Kumamoto Prefecture, "Land of Fire" (火の国, Hinokuni).[1] The 2017 event was canceled due to the 2017 Kumamoto earthquakes and later it was replaced by Wrestling Toyonokuni, taking place in Beppu, Ōita. However Wrestling Hinokuni returned in 2018.

Production

The Wrestling Hinokuni events feature professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.[2]

Events

# Event Date City Venue Attendance Main event Ref(s)
1 Wrestling Hinokuni 2015 April 29, 2015 Mashiki,

Kumamoto

Grand Messe Kumamoto 2,460 Tomohiro Ishii (c) versus Togi Makabe for the NEVER Openweight Championship [3][4][5][6]
2 Wrestling Hinokuni 2016 April 29, 2016 Mashiki,

Kumamoto

Grand Messe Kumamoto N/A Kenny Omega (c) versus Michael Elgin for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship [7]
3 Wrestling Hinokuni 2018 April 29, 2018 Mashiki, Kumamoto Grand Messe Kumamoto 3,435 Minoru Suzuki (c) versus Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship [8]
(c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match

2015

The first Wrestling Hinokuni took place on April 29, 2015, at the Grand Messe Kumamoto in Mashiki, Kumamoto,[3] and aired worldwide on New Japan Pro Wrestling World.[6] The event featured nine matches, three of which were contested for championships. Wrestlers representing the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA) took part in the event with both the NWA World Heavyweight and NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championships being defended.[3] In the first title match, NWA representative Steve Anthony successfully defended the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship against NJPW's Jushin Thunder Liger. This was a rematch from a match in Las Vegas earlier in the month, where Anthony also defeated Liger to capture the title.[3] The second title match saw NJPW's Hiroyoshi Tenzan make his second successful defense of the NWA World Heavyweight Championship against NWA's Big Daddy Yum-Yum.[3] Several matches at the event also built to matches taking place at Wrestling Dontaku 2015 the following week.[3] One of these matches saw Bullet Club's Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Kenny Omega defeat Alex Shelley, Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma in a six-man tag team match in the buildup to an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between champion Omega and challenger Shelley.[3]

Another match built to the main event of Wrestling Dontaku 2015, which would see Hirooki Goto challenge Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship.[3] At Wrestling Hinokuni 2015, Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba and Toru Yano defeated Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata.[3] In the main event of the show, Tomohiro Ishii defended the NEVER Openweight Championship against Togi Makabe. This was a rematch from January's Wrestle Kingdom 9 in Tokyo Dome, where Makabe defeated Ishii to become the new NEVER Openweight Champion.[9] However, on February 14, Makabe was stripped of the title after he was forced to pull out of a scheduled rematch with Ishii due to influenza, which led to Ishii defeating Tomoaki Honma to recapture the now vacant title.[10] The main event saw Makabe again defeat Ishii to win the NEVER Openweight Championship for the second time.[3][11]

# Results[3][4][5][6] Stipulations Times
1 CHAOS (Beretta, Gedo and Rocky Romero) defeated Jay White, Sho Tanaka and Yohei Komatsu Six-man tag team match 08:01
2 Bullet Club (Cody Hall and Yujiro Takahashi) defeated Captain New Japan and Satoshi Kojima Tag team match 08:07
3 KUSHIDA, Manabu Nakanishi and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated Máscara Dorada, Tiger Mask and Yuji Nagata Six-man tag team match 07:50
4 Steve Anthony (c) defeated Jushin Thunder Liger Singles match for the NWA World Junior Heavyweight Championship 12:35
5 Hiroyoshi Tenzan (c) defeated Big Daddy Yum-Yum Singles match for the NWA World Heavyweight Championship 10:57
6 Bullet Club (Doc Gallows, Karl Anderson and Kenny Omega) defeated Alex Shelley, Tetsuya Naito and Tomoaki Honma Six-man tag team match 12:50
7 Chaos (Kazuchika Okada and Yoshi-Hashi) defeated Bullet Club (Bad Luck Fale and Tama Tonga) Tag team match 11:39
8 = CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba, Shinsuke Nakamura and Toru Yano) defeated Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Katsuyori Shibata Six-man tag team match 16:45
9 Togi Makabe defeated Tomohiro Ishii (c) Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship 25:42
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • Videoicon – refers to the video of that match

2016

Wrestling Hinokuni 2016 is a canceled professional wrestling event scheduled to take place on April 29, 2016, at the Grand Messe Kumamoto in Mashiki, Kumamoto.[12] The event was set to feature nine matches, three of which were to be contested for championships.[7] The event was to be headlined by Kenny Omega making his first defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Michael Elgin.[7] This was set up earlier in the month at Invasion Attack 2016, where the two had a heated confrontation after Elgin, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yoshitatsu had defeated Omega and The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship.[13] Another title match was set to continue a storyline, where Katsuyori Shibata defended the NEVER Openweight Championship against NJPW veterans, known as the "third generation".[7] Having already defended the title against Satoshi Kojima, at Invasion Attack 2016, Shibata successfully defended the title against Hiroyoshi Tenzan and afterwards kicked Yuji Nagata to set him up as his next challenger.[14] The two had previously faced off in August 2014 during the 2014 G1 Climax tournament, where Nagata defeated Shibata.[7]

The event was also scheduled to feature a rematch from Invasion Attack 2016, where the new IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero), would defend the title against previous champions, Matt Sydal and Ricochet.[7] One of the big non-title matches at Wrestling Hinokuni was set to continue the rivalry between the Chaos and Los Ingobernables de Japón stables as the former's Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Will Ospreay were set to take on the latter's Bushi, Evil, Sanada and Tetsuya Naito.[7] This match would also build up three matches taking place at Wrestling Dontaku 2016, where Goto was set to take on Evil, Okada take on Sanada and Ishii challenge Naito for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.[15][16]

On April 14, Kumamoto was hit with an earthquake, which led to NJPW announcing that they were trying to determine whether they could continue going forward with the show.[17] After another earthquake two days later, NJPW officially canceled the show on April 18.[18][19][20] Top matches from the event were later moved to the April 27 Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2016 and May 3 Wrestling Dontaku 2016 events.[21][22][23]

# Matches[7][18] Stipulations
1 David Finlay vs. Jay White Singles match
2 Juice Robinson and Manabu Nakanishi vs. CHAOS (Kazushi Sakuraba and Yoshi-Hashi) Tag team match
3 Jushin Thunder Liger and Tiger Mask vs. Kushida and Ryusuke Taguchi Tag team match
4 Bullet Club (Tama Tonga, Tanga Roa and Yujiro Takahashi) vs. Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma and Yoshitatsu Six-man tag team match
5 Roppongi Vice (Beretta and Rocky Romero) (c) vs. Matt Sydal and Ricochet Tag team match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
6 CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Tomohiro Ishii and Will Ospreay) vs. Los Ingobernables de Japón (BUSHI, EVIL, SANADA and Tetsuya Naito) Eight-man tag team match
7 Katsuyori Shibata (c) vs. Yuji Nagata Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship
8 Bad Luck Fale vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi Singles match
9 Kenny Omega (c) vs. Michael Elgin Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • Videoicon – refers to the video of that match

2018

Wrestling Hinokuni 2018 was a professional wrestling event that took place on April 29, 2018, at the Grand Messe Kumamoto in Mashiki, Kumamoto. The event was set to feature nine matches, two of which were to be contested for championships. The event was to be headlined by Minoru Suzuki making his second defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Tetsuya Naito. The match was set up after Sakura Genesis 2018, where Naito provoked and challenged Suzuki for his IWGP Intercontinental Championship, which in the past Naito began systematically destroying the belt, forcing NJPW to have it repaired in June 2017. During the confrontation, between the two, Naito stated that title was "a bigger deal when he used to throwing it around". The two in March during the matches, Naito went to provoke Suzuki and the two would even brawl to back. The match between the two was made official on April 2. The Suzuki-gun and Los Ingobernables de Japon angle resulted in Wrestling Hinokuni 2018 also featuring other prominent matches featuring the stable BUSHI facing El Desperado and Hiromu Takahashi facing Yoshinobu Kanemaru. After Suzuki-gun (Desperado and Kanemaru), won and retained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI and Takahashi) and also Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) in a three-way tag team match, where L.I.J almost winning both title matches, but Suzuki-gun cheated to win both matches and at the second match Kanemaru and Desperado were not legal in the match and still managed to retain the titles. Later on a backstage interview, Takahashi and BUSHI challenged Kanemaru and Desperado. The singles matches between the two were announced in the following day. In the past BUSHI and Desperado previously faced off in May 2017 during the Best of the Super Juniors tournament, where Desperado defeated BUSHI.

The Suzuki-gun and Los Ingobernables de Japon is angle resulted in also being scheduled a rematch from IWGP Tag Team Champions EVIL and SANADA make their defense of the title against previous champions, K.E.S. (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.). On January 4, 2018 at Wrestle Kingdom 12 EVIL and SANADA defeated Archer and Smith to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. After winning the titles EVIL was sidelined with an injury after fracturing his left orbital bone in February. Shortly after, K.E.S made their intensions on receiving a rematch for the titles. On March 30, EVIL made his return teaming with his Los Ingobernables de Japon stablemates Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, SANADA and Tetsuya Naito in a winning effort against Archer and Smith's Suzuki-gun stablemates Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado and Minoru Suzuki. Two days later at Sakura Genesis, Archer and Smith teamed up with Suzuki in a winning effort against EVIL, SANADA and Naito with Archer pinning EVIL. The rematch between the two teams was made official in the following day.

# Matches Stipulations Times
1 Yuji Nagata and Tetsuhiro Yagi defeated Tomoyuki Oka and Shota Umino Tag Team match 9:41
2 David Finlay, Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask IV and Ryusuke Taguchi defeated CHAOS (Jay White, Sho, Yoh and Rocky Romero) Eight-man tag team match 7:18
3 CHAOS (Tomohiro Ishii and Toru Yano) defeated Togi Makabe and Toa Henare Tag team match 7:56
4 Suzuki-gun (Zack Sabre Jr., Takashi Iizuka, Taichi and Taka Michinoku) defeated Kenny Omega, Kota Ibushi, Yujiro Takahashi and Chase Owens Eight-man tag team match 8:51
5 Taguchi Japan (Hiroshi Tanahashi, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin and KUSHIDA defeated CHAOS (Hirooki Goto, Kazuchika Okada, Yoshi-Hashi and Will Ospreay) Eight-man tag team match 10:13
6 BUSHI defeated El Desperado Singles match 9:58
7 Hiromu Takahashi defeated Yoshinobu Kanemaru Singles match 11:28
8 Los Ingobernables de Japon (EVIL and SANADA) (c) defeated K.E.S. (Lance Archer and Davey Boy Smith Jr.) Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship 17:58
9 Tetsuya Naito defeated Minoru Suzuki (c) Singles match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship 30:22
  • (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
  • Videoicon – refers to the video of that match

References

  1. Overview of Kumamoto City . Kumamoto International Foundation. Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  2. Grabianowski, Ed. How Pro Wrestling Works . HowStuffWorks, Inc.. Discovery Communications. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  3. 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 3.12 3.13 ja:レスリング火の国 (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  4. 4.0 4.1 Rose, Bryan 2015-04-29. New Japan Pro Wrestling 4-29-15 house show report: Togi Makabe vs. Tomohiro Ishii highlights three title matches . Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Archived from the original on 2015-05-18. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  5. 5.0 5.1 Error on call to template:ref web: Parameters archiveurl and archivedate must be both specified or both omittedMacklin, Matthew 2015-04-29. Quick 4/29 NJPW Wrestling Hinokuni results . Pro Wrestling Insider. Archived from the original on 2015-04-29. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  6. 6.0 6.1 6.2 Show results - 4/29 New Japan Wrestling Hinokoku [sic]: New NEVER champion, Bullet Club several matches, two NWA title matches, plus Shelley, Tanahashi, Okada, Nakamura, more . Pro Wrestling Torch (2015-04-29). Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  7. 7.0 7.1 7.2 7.3 7.4 7.5 7.6 7.7 ja:【WD16】4月29日(金・祝)「レスリング火の国」全カード決定!メインはケニーvsエルガン!セミは棚橋vsファレ!柴田vs永田のNEVER戦!Jr.タッグ王座戦! (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling (2016-04-13). Archived from the original on 2016-04-13. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  8. ja:【電撃決定!!】なんと15年ぶり!今年の『G1』優勝決定戦の舞台は、8月10日(金)11日(土)12日(日)日本武道館“3連戦”!!【WK12】 (in Japanese). New Japan Pro-Wrestling (2018-01-04). Retrieved on 2018-01-04.
  9. Caldwell, James 2015-01-04. Caldwell's NJPW Tokyo Dome show results 1/4: Complete "virtual-time" coverage of live Wrestle Kingdom PPV - Tanahashi vs. Okada, Bullet Club, Nakamura, Jim Ross, more . Pro Wrestling Torch. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  10. ja:石井がNEVER“暫定”王者に (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2015-02-16). Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  11. ja:真壁NEVER王座奪還の裏に浜ちゃんあり (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2015-04-30). Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  12. ja:【WD16】4月29日(金)グランメッセ熊本大会、開催中止のお知らせ (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling (2016-04-18). Archived from the original on 2016-04-18. Retrieved on 2016-04-18.
  13. Meltzer, Dave 2016-04-09. NJPW Invasion Attack live results: Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito for the IWGP Championship . Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  14. ja:【新日・両国】柴田がNEVER王座V3!天山をPK葬 (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2016-04-11). Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  15. Meltzer, Dave 2016-04-10. New Japan announces line-ups for next two big shows  . Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  16. Caldwell, James 2016-04-11. New Japan announces next big title matches post-Invasion Attack, including Naito’s first title defenses, Omega vs. Elgin, more  . Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on 2016-04-11. Retrieved on 2016-04-13.
  17. ja:【お知らせ】4月29日(金)グランメッセ熊本大会に関しまして (in Japanese). New Japan Pro Wrestling (2016-04-15). Archived from the original on 2016-04-15. Retrieved on 2016-04-15.
  18. 18.0 18.1 Meltzer, Dave 2016-04-18. NJPW cancels PPV due to Kumamoto earthquakes . Wrestling Observer Newsletter. Retrieved on 2016-04-18.
  19. Crockett, Paul 2016-04-18. New Japan PPV canceled . Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved on 2016-04-18.
  20. ja:新日 4・29熊本大会の中止を発表 (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2016-04-18). Retrieved on 2016-04-18.
  21. Macklin, Matthew 2016-04-19. New Japan updates, new lineup for Wrestling Dontaku & more . Pro Wrestling Insider. Retrieved on 2016-04-19.
  22. Caldwell, James 2016-04-19. New Japan re-arranges next two big shows following earthquake, stacks “Wrestling Dontaku” card . Pro Wrestling Torch. Archived from the original on 2016-04-20. Retrieved on 2016-04-20.
  23. ja:NEVER王座争う柴田と永田 それぞれの被災地への思い (in Japanese). Tokyo Sports (2016-04-20). Retrieved on 2016-04-20.

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