NJPW Power Struggle

The official Power Struggle logo.

Power Struggle is an annual professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event has been held since 2011 and aired domestically as a regular pay-per-view (PPV) and internationally as an internet pay-per-view (iPPV). The event is held in November and is the final major event before the annual January 4 Dome Show, NJPW's biggest event of the year.

2011

The first Power Struggle was held on November 12, 2011, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium. The event featured eleven matches, five of which were contested for championships.^[1] All five champions were successful in their defenses. Davey Richards, one half of the No Remorse Corps, who successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Kushida and Tiger Mask, challenged Prince Devitt, after he had successfully defended the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taka Michinoku, to a future title match.^[1] The match took place on December 4 and saw Devitt emerge victorious.^[2] The semi-main event saw Bad Intentions make their tenth successful defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championship against Lance Archer and Minoru Suzuki.^[1] This would turn out to be the final successful defense of the team, which set the record not only for most defenses, but also the longest reign. In the main event, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Toru Yano for his ninth successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship, regaining possession of the title belt, which had been stolen by Yano.^[1]

2012

The second Power Struggle took place on November 11, 2012, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Bodymaker Colosseum. The event featured nine matches, five of which were contested for championships.^[3][4] Both junior heavyweight titles changed hands; Time Splitters, winners of the 2012 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, captured the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship from the Forever Hooligans, while Prince Devitt regained the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship from Low Ki.^[3] Meanwhile, K.E.S. successfully defended the IWGP Tag Team Championship against previous champions Ten-Koji and Shinsuke Nakamura successfully defended the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Karl Anderson, after which he nominated Kazushi Sakuraba his challenger for Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome.^[3] The event also saw Kazuchika Okada retain his IWGP Heavyweight Championship contract against Hirooki Goto, while Hiroshi Tanahashi retained the title itself against Yujiro Takahashi, setting up the main event between the two for Wrestle Kingdom 7 in Tokyo Dome.^[3]

2013

The third Power Struggle took place on November 9, 2013, in Osaka, Osaka, at the Bodymaker Colosseum. The event featured ten matches (including one dark match), five of which were contested for championships.^[5][6][7] The opening match of the event saw The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson), who had made their NJPW debuts just the previous month by winning the 2013 Super Jr. Tag Tournament, defeat Suzukigun (Taichi and Taka Michinoku) for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.^[5] The fourth match was a two-fall three-way match for both the IWGP and the NWA World Tag Team Championship, pitting IWGP champions Ten-Koji against NWA champions K.E.S. and an NWA team of the debuting Jax Dane and NWA World Heavyweight Champion Rob Conway, who made his fourth NJPW appearance at the event. Ten-Koji was defeated in both falls, with Dane and Conway taking the first to win the NWA title and K.E.S. the second to regain the IWGP title.^[8] The event also featured former rivals Kazushi Sakuraba and Yuji Nagata teaming up for the first time to defeat Takashi Iizuka and Toru Yano en route to a match against Daniel and Rolles Gracie at Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome, Hiroshi Tanahashi defeating Tomohiro Ishii in a rematch from the 2013 G1 Climax and Shinsuke Nakamura making his third successful defense of the IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Minoru Suzuki in a match, which had the added stipulation that Nakamura would have had to join Suzukigun had he lost the title.^[5] Post-match, Nakamura nominated Tanahashi as his next challenger, setting up the first main event match for Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome.^{[5][9][10][11]} Two of the top matches of the event saw Tetsuya Naito successfully defend the NEVER Openweight Championship and his contract for an IWGP Heavyweight Championship match against previous champion Masato Tanaka and Kazuchika Okada successfully defending the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Karl Anderson in a rematch of the finals of the 2012 G1 Climax, setting up the second of a double main event for Wrestle Kingdom 8 in Tokyo Dome between Okada and Naito.^{[5][9][10][11]}

References

External links

• The official New Japan Pro Wrestling website