Jon Moxley Wins IWGP World Title, Jack Perry Takes Over Chicago | Weekly Puro Guide

New Japan Pro Wrestling

NJPW held their annual Windy City Riot show in the Windtrust Arena in Chicago in front of over 6,000 fans, which is the highest attendance of the company in years. The show featured multiple championship matches, including three title changes and the return of Jack Perry to American soil.

In the first championship match of the night, Stephanie Vaquer faced STARDOM’s AZM for the New Japan STRONG Women’s Championship. They had great chemistry from the very beginning with Vaquer using her power and leg work to stop AZM’s quickness. The final minutes were just fantastic. Both AZM & Vaquer are two of the best the world has to offer, and they performed great in front of a huge audience. In the end, it was Vaquer who was able to defeat AZM and retain her title.

Mikey Nicholls & Shane Haste were able to capture the NJPW STRONG Openweight Tag Team Title in a four corner match to end the six-month reign of El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. This was a fun match with many spots, but nothing too exciting. It’s tough to care about the tag division in New Japan in 2024, but the original TMDK duo deserves this win more than anyone else, especially after their great 2023.

Jack Perry made his return to American soil on this show just two days after the footage of his backstage incident at All In with CM Punk was shown on AEW Dynamite. The ‘Scapegoat’ made a fantastic entrance with the Chicago flag & a “cry me a river” font on the back of his jacket in front of a loud crowd that booed the hell out of him. It was by far the biggest moment of his career, and he’s never looked like more of a star than he did here. Fans can discuss until the end of time whether AEW should have posted the footage or not, but if it helped one person, then it is Jack Perry.

The match itself was just a ride that was a must-watch. While the work wasn’t amazing or anything like that, the crowd made it special with their constant chants at the ‘Scapegoat’ from “CM Punk” chants to “Cry me a river” to “You got choked out”, which even led to Perry applying a choke hold on Shota Umino. The result was different than expected for the ‘Scapegoat’, as Shota Umino was able to defeat him. Perry gave ‘Shooter’ respect after the match, and it seems like his run in New Japan is done. This was a career night for Jack Perry as he was able to create hype for himself with the footage getting leaked and his performance in this match against ‘Shooter’. In the best case, AEW can transform that into a long-term money act even when the CM Punk topic is overused.

Matt Riddle lost his New Japan TV Championship to Zack Sabre Jr. in a really good contest that nearly went to a time-limit-draw. It was by far the best performance of Riddle in the ring after he got released by WWE, which should be no surprise since he went against Zack Sabre Jr., who is on the run of his life. Instantly after losing, Riddle rolled out of the ring and bro-fisted the fans on his way backstage, which makes it seem like he is done with New Japan after not even three months. Zack is now a 2x TV Champion, and it feels like a step back after the biggest win of his career against the ‘American Dragon’ Bryan Danielson just two months ago.

The main event of the show was for the IWGP World Heavyweight Title as Tetsuya Naito defended against Jon Moxley, and the match was just great. Both are two incredible pro wrestlers, and they show in this match why. From the pacing to the excitement to the spots. Everything just worked, and after 20 minutes, Jon Moxley is the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and the first wrestler to win the World Title of WWE, AEW, and New Japan.

After the match, Moxley called out his student Shota Umino to face him next, but Ren Narita jumped in the ring and attacked the newly crowned champion, and announced that he is next in line for a shot at the World Title. The match was made official for Wrestling Dontaku in Fukuoka, where Narita will get his first shot at the top prize in New Japan.

There are a lot of interesting matches NJPW can run with Moxley as World Champion. Next to the match against Ren Narita, it’s only a matter of time until Shota Umino faces his mentor with the title on the line, which could be the last step for him to become the star that the promotion wants him to be. Another of course is the rematch against Tetsuya Naito, which now is a major money match for the company with Naito trying to regain the World Title and bring it back to New Japan, while he has never beaten Mox in a singles match. With that, New Japan fans have another Naito story to sink their teeth into and root for him.

New Japan also held a show in Taiwan, where they crowned the new NEVER Openweight Six Man Champions in a four-team tournament after Okada, Tanahashi, and Tomohiro Ishii vacated the titles after Kazuchika Okadal left the promotion at the beginning of the year to join AEW.

The new NEVER Openweight Six Man Champions were decided between United Empire, House of Torture, LIJ and Tanahashi, Oleg Boltin, & Toru Yano. In the first semi-final, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Oleg Boltin, & Toru Yano defeated Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, & Great-O-Khan in a solid match, while EVIL, SHO, & Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated BUSHI, Shingo Takagi, & Yota Tsuji in a fine match to advance to the final.

In the final, the team of Tanahashi, Oleg Boltin & Toru Yano was able to defeat the House of Torture team to crown themselves the new Six Man Champions. It’s the fifth time Tanahashi & Yano hold the NEVER Six Man Titles, whilst it’s the first title of Oleg Boltin’s career as he becomes one of the few Young Lions to win a championship in New Japan while still being considered a Young Lion.

New Japan has also announced the matches for their Wrestling Dontaku tour and it includes 10 championship matches over the three-week tour, including two on the Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni 2024 show as BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi will challenge Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title as part of the LIJ vs. War Dogs rivalry, whilst DOUKI gets his first IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title match against the current Champion SHO, with the winner not only holding the Junior belt but also gaining a lot of momentum for the Best of the Super Juniors that is starting in a month.

Wrestling Dontaku is a two-day event this year in Fukuoka. On the first night, Zack Sabre Jr. puts his newly won NJPW World Television Title on the line against Jeff Cobb to continue their rivalry over the TV Title from last year, while in the main event of the show Hiroshi Tanahashi has the chance to capture the IWGP Global Heavyweight Title against the current Champion Nic Nemeth, who potentially could also walk into the match as the TNA World Champion.

On the second night, Chase Owens & KENTA will face Bishamon in a rematch from Sakura Genesis for the IWGP Tag Team Championship, which just describes the state of the New Japan tag division perfectly in 2024. After his tremendous promo from last week, Gabe Kidd will challenge Shingo Takagi for the NEVER Openweight Championship in the biggest singles match of his career that could make him a star if he does well, especially if he wins the championship. In the main event, Jon Moxley is defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship for the first time against House of Torture’s Ren Narita. It’s an interesting main event as Ren needs to prove why he deserves this huge spot here. He hasn’t delivered yet in his matches as part of House of Torture, but if there is anyone who can get something great out of the HoT match layout, then it’s Jon Moxley, as we have seen it on Sakura Genesis.