NJPW Wrestling Dontaku night one notes: Bullet Club Dogpound Cage match headlines

The future of Bullet Club was decided on night one of Wrestling Dontaku, 12 years after the faction was formed at the event in 2013.

The War Dogs defeated House of Torture in a Dogpound Steel Cage Match to close Saturday’s show in Fukuoka. Gabe Kidd secured the win after delivering a piledriver to Ren Narita on top of a barbed-wire-covered table.

Per the stipulation, the losing team was forced to leave Bullet Club, meaning House of Torture has officially been expelled from the faction.

Unlike the previous Dogpound Cage Match between Bullet Club and United Empire, all 10 wrestlers started the match at once rather than entering at intervals. Several big spots took place during the bout, with multiple wrestlers going through tables. Dick Togo and Gedo also got involved, with Gedo delivering a splash to Togo from the cage onto a table that didn’t break. SANADA and Drilla Moloney clashed during the match, with SANADA using a fork on Moloney before being put through a table.

After the match, EVIL wrapped a chain around the neck of David Finlay, who was handcuffed to the cage, and choked him before leaving the ring area. Backstage, Finlay challenged EVIL to a Dog Collar Match. Moloney also had words for SANADA backstage, while Kidd cut a promo declaring the War Dogs the best version of Bullet Club ever.

Full coverage of today’s show is available here.

Shingo Takagi defeated Shota Umino in semi-main event

In the semi-main event, Takagi put away Umino with a Burning Dragon, a Pumping Bomber, and Last of the Dragon. Umino had appeared to be on the verge of victory before Takagi countered a Second Chapter attempt.

This marks the second singles loss in a row for Umino after he failed to defeat Hirooki Goto for the IWGP World Championship at Windy City Riot last month.

El Phantasmo vs. Konosuke Takeshita went to a time-limit draw

The first of two big matches between NJPW World TV Champion El Phantasmo and NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita took place on Saturday. Only ELP’s TV title was on the line in this bout, which ended in a 15-minute time-limit draw.

The newest member of the Don Callis Family, Rocky Romero, was in Takeshita’s corner and interfered during the match. El Phantasmo was attempting a CR2 just as the time limit expired. The two will now meet again next week at Resurgence, this time with Takeshita’s NEVER Openweight Championship on the line.

Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi

The 14th and final singles match between Zack Sabre Jr. and Hiroshi Tanahashi took place on the show, with ZSJ scoring the win via Zack Driver just over 13 minutes into the bout. With the victory, Sabre evens their all-time head-to-head series at seven wins apiece.

Full coverage of today’s show from Fukuoka is available here.

NJPW Wrestling Dontaku 2025 night one results:

  • Katsuya Murashima defeated Daiki Nagai
  • Master Wato, Oleg Boltin, Toru Yano & YOH defeated TMDK (Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Ryohei Oiwa)
  • Just 4 Guys (Taichi, TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uemura) & Tomohiro Ishii defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito & Yota Tsuji)
  • Bishamon (Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI) & Ryusuke Taguchi defeated United Empire (Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan & Jakob Austin Young)
  • El Phantasmo (c) vs. Konosuke Takeshita (with Rocky Romero) for the NJPW World Television Championship ended in a time-limit draw
  • Zack Sabre Jr. defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • Shingo Takagi defeated Shota Umino
  • BULLET CLUB War Dogs (Clark Connors, David Finlay, Drilla Moloney, Gabe Kidd & Taiji Ishimori) defeated House Of Torture (EVIL, Ren Narita, SANADA, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru) in a Steel Cage Match