Yuji Nagata & Satoshi Kojima & Shota Umino vs. Togi Makabe & Taisei Nakahara & Toru Yano 4:45. NJPW heavyweight legends Yuji Nagata and Satoshi Kojima did relatively fine for their age, as they are in their 50s. The action was significantly crisper when Shota Umino and Taisei Nakahara (who are still in their 20s) were in the ring, though. Togi Makabe and Toru Yano were not that great. This was a short match that ended when Umino made Nakahara submit. Mediocre match. *½ 

Yoh & Hirooki Goto & Ryusuke Taguchi & Tatsuya Matsumoto & Yoshi-Hashi vs. Jake Lee & Zane Jay & Jakob Austin Young & Francesco Akira & Great-O-Khan 9:28. Everyone did well enough in this ten-man tag, but Yoh was arguably the worker of the match, as the action moved at its smoothest when he was in. The United Empire won when Jake Lee pinned Tasuya Matsumoto for the win. Okay match. **

Jado & Oleg Boltin & Aaron Wolf vs. Gedo & Yuto-Ice & Oskar 9:55. It was the battle of a trio led by Jado and a trio led by Gedo. As you probably know, Jado & Gedo used to be tag team partners for years. Oleg Boltin is a wrestler from Kazakhstan who has been competing in NJPW since his debut in 2023. The work shown by Aaron Wolf and German wrestler Oskar was quite generic and sluggish. Yuto-Ice’s execution looked good and stiff, and he was arguably the worker of the match. Aaron Wolf made the wood tick parasite Gedo submit for the win. Okay match. ** 

Sho & Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Douki & Sanada & Ren Narita vs. El Desperado & Masatora Yasuda & Master Wato & Taichi & Yuya Uemura 9:20. This match featured a good amount of decent action. Led by Dick Togo, The House of Torture worked together like a cohesive unit and ended up winning the match when Sho scored the deserving win, as SHO was arguably the worker of the match. Decent match. **½ 

Shingo Takagi & Taiji Ishimori & Daiki Nagai & Yota Tsuji vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson 10:09. It’s always good to see ZSJ in action. And it was good to see Shingo Takagi can still go these days. But perhaps most impressive was Taiji Ishimori, who still executed his work with excellent velocity and accuracy. Another worker who was impressive was Kosei Fujita, who appears to have really shown a lot of growth as a worker in the past four years. He’s one of the more impressive young workers in NJPW right now. Fujita pinned Daiki Nagai to score the win for Sabre’s team. Decent match. **½  

Tiger Mask IV Retirement Match I: Tiger Mask IV vs. Tommy Billington 5:00. What better way to end the long and illustrious career of Tiger Mask IV than to face the nephew of the original opponent of the original Tiger Mask, Dynamite Kid. This match was essentially the 2026 version of Tiger Mask versus Dynamite Kid. It was during the early 1980s that the original Dynamite Kid had some of the most memorable matches in pro wrestling history against “The First Tiger Mask” Satoru Sayama. Dynamite and Sayama feuded from 4/23/81 and 4/21/83, and changed the pro wrestling world forever with their groundbreaking and modernizing junior heavyweight style. One of their battles took place at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, as Sayama beat Dynamite on 1/1/82 to win the vacant WWF Junior Heavyweight Title in an excellent 8-minute match. This 7/7/26 match at Korakuen Hall took place during Tommy Billington’s third trip to Japan, and this was his first match at the famous Korakuen Hall, and his first appearance in NJPW (as Billington had previously appeared in Kyushu Pro in 2024 and 2025). Billington has continuously shown improvement over the years after having shown that he was a tremendously promising wrestler ever since 2019. Things have been really looking up for Billington ever since he started appearing in Calgary’s Dungeon Wrestling from 2022 onwards and in AEW from 2024. Tiger Mask IV’s gimmick was the fourth incarnation of the legendary Tiger Mask gimmick made famous by Satoru Sayama. The Fourth Tiger Mask made his pro wrestling debut in 1995 in Michinoku Pro after being trained by Sayama and The Great Sasuke. While Tiger Mask II (Mitsuharu Misawa, who wrestled Dynamite Kid in the mid 1980s and the early 1990s) and Tiger Mask III (Koji Kanemoto) became very successful pro wrestlers under their real name, they failed to really make the Tiger Mask gimmick their own and didn’t manage to achieve significant success under the mask. However, Tiger Mask IV did indeed manage to become famous under the mask and never needed any other gimmick from day 1. Tiger Mask IV’s best feud was arguably against TAKA Michinoku (especially in 1995-1997), and the two faced off several times, including a couple of excellent singles matches in late ‘95 and during the must-see 10/10/96 Michinoku Pro ten-man tag, among many other occasions. After spending several years in Michinoku Pro, Tiger Mask IV eventually started appearing in NJPW in 2002, which later that year became his home league. He became such an established star in NJPW that in 2003, Hulk Hogan, who was thinking of starting his own promotion in Japan around that time, wanted Tiger Mask IV to work with him (which all never ended up happening). It was 31 years ago at Korakuen Hall in July 1995 that Tiger Mask IV had his first official match of his career against The Great Sasuke. This July 2026 Tiger Mask IV retirement match only had a 5-minute time limit, but these two did a very good job of making the most of the time. Picking Billington for his retirement match was a brilliant idea by Tiger Mask IV. The legendary Jushin Thunder Liger joined the commentary booth for this match. Billington was obviously very well aware of the legendary Dynamite Kid vs. Tiger Mask series of matches, as Billington used to watch tapes of the legendary feud when he would visit his uncle, who would keep watching those tapes over and over. Early in this 5-minute exhibition, Billington took a big bump over the top rope in front of Liger. Billington hit a vicious snap suplex on the floor. Billington clearly tried to show as much intensity as possible in order to channel the tenacity of his uncle. Billington certainly gave an impressive performance here. The match probably would have been even better if it was longer than five minutes, but let’s not forget that Tiger Mask IV was 55 years old at this time. One of Billington’s coolest-looking moves was the dropkick off the top rope, which he followed up with a snap suplex for a two count. Finally, Billington was looking to finish things off, as he went for a tombstone piledriver, but this move was blocked by Tiger Mask IV just before the 5-minute time limit expired. This was pretty good while it lasted. And this match will hopefully serve as a springboard for Billington to achieve even more success in pro wrestling in the future. It would be great to see NJPW invite Billington back so he can gain even more in-ring experience at a high level. It would be very interesting if he would become a participant in the next Super Junior tournaments. We’ll see what the future holds. Decent match. **¾ 

Tiger Mask IV Retirement Match II: Tiger Mask IV vs. Black Tiger IV 5:00 + 0:18. The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) feuded with The First Black Tiger (Mark Rocco) in NJPW in 1982 and 1983. Tiger Mask IV (Yoshihiro Yamazaki) feuded with Black Tiger IV (Rocky Romero) in NJPW from 2005 through 2009. For this one night, Rocky Romero returned as Black Tiger IV to face his arch nemesis. Right after the Tommy Billington match ended, Black Tiger IV attacked both Billington and Tiger Mask IV. Billington made sure to retaliate and tell Tiger Mask IV to “get him” before leaving the ring. In typical Black Tiger fashion, Black Tiger IV mainly focused on heelish behavior. Tiger Mask hit a tope suicida on Black Tiger. Tiger Mask hit a double-underhook off the top for a two count. This was quite an action-packed match for a 5-minute match. After the time limit expired, Black Tiger asked for more time and got it. And that’s when Tiger Mask IV managed to quickly hit the tiger suplex for the win. The match definitely served its purpose as the contemporary version of Tiger Mask vs. Black Tiger. Decent match. **¾ 

Tiger Mask IV retirement ceremony: After the retirement matches, we got a big retirement ceremony that featured current wrestlers and wrestlers from the past (and also some celebrities). This was really what the show was all about, a celebration of the career of a very good pro wrestler. It was great to see some of the biggest junior heavyweight legends like The Great Sasuke, Jushin Thunder Liger and Tatsumi Fujinami there as well. At the very end of the show, “Shodai Tiger Mask” Satoru Sayama showed up to make the ceremony complete. Sayama even locked up with The Fourth Tiger Mask in a “10-second exhibition.” In a backstage interview, Tiger Mask IV mentioned that he hopes that “Dynamite Kid” Tommy Billington will be in NJPW more often.

Show rating: 6.0/10.0. Good show.

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