NJPW New Year Dash notes: Moxley, Danielson, Ospreay, Riddle, new programs

NJPW shot angles for all of its key players at Friday’s New Year Dash show. 

Notes from the event:

Jon Moxley —

Shingo Takagi challenged Moxley to a match at next Saturday’s Battle in the Valley pay-per-view in San Jose. Moxley accepted the challenge and proposed a no-DQ match.

Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii teamed with AEW’s Moxley & Bryan Danielson in the show’s main event against TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita. TMDK came away with the victory.

Bryan Danielson —

Sabre talked trash to Danielson in his post-match comments, with Danielson responding that Sabre can’t tap him out. Sabre vs. Danielson could be set for as early as Battle in the Valley next Saturday, a show that will be headlined by Okada vs. Will Ospreay as the company announced Friday.

Will Ospreay —

In addition to Ospreay vs. Okada being made official, Ospreay announced that February 11th’s The New Beginning in Osaka will be his “last NJPW match,” agreeing to team with United Empire ‘s TJP, Francesco Akira, HENARE & Jeff Cobb against Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Alex Coughlin, Gabe Kidd, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney) in a ten-man tag. Finlay accepted the challenge and announced that the match will be held inside a steel cage. 

Matt Riddle —

Matt Riddle appeared on the show in a video promo challenging NJPW World TV Champion and company president Hiroshi Tanahashi to a future match. Tana made his first successful defense of the TV title in the opener against Ryusuke Taguchi.

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship —

SANADA issued a challenge to new champ Tetsuya Naito following a ten-man tag with SANADA’s Just Five Guys defeating Naito’s LIJ. The conclusion to Wrestle Kingdom left you to believe that either SANADA or EVIL would face Naito next. 

NEVER Openweight Championship —

EVIL attacked new NEVER Openweight Champion Tama Tonga on the show and cut Tonga’s hair, which would appear to set a program between the two over the NEVER title in motion and keep EVIL out of the World title picture for the moment.

NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team title challenge —

The main event also led to Fujita, Nicholls & Haste challenging Okada, Ishii, and Hiroshi Tanahashi for the NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team titles at a later date. 

IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship —

Yoshinobu Kanemaru was involved in House of Torture’s attack on Tonga and Junior champ El Desperado, with Kanemaru posing with Desperado’s title belt to establish himself as the next challenger. 

IWGP Tag Team Championship —

New title holders El Phantasmo & Hikuleo were attacked after their match as Chase Owens laid out ELP with a piledriver and challenging the new champs to a title match with KENTA as his partner.

KOPW —

The first KOPW 2024 Champion was crowned after Taiji Ishimori scored the final pinfall in a four-way with a ten-minute time limit. 

Young Blood sendoff —

Phantasmo & Hikuleo defeated Young Blood (Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima) in Young Blood’s final outing before they will be sent away on their international excursion.