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August 31, 2019 marked New Japan Pro Wrestling's first-ever Royal Quest show in the United Kingdom, as the Japanese promotion made their way over to the Copper Box with the biggest of names from their current day roster.
The show featured a main event between Kazuchika Okada, who defended the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Minoru Suzuki in the final match of the night. Whereas, other title matches included Zack Sabre Jr. defending the British Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi. And, Tomohiro Ishii also put his NEVER Openweight Championship on the line against KENTA.
The IWGP Tag Team Championships were also defended on the night as the Guerillas of Destiny put their straps on the line against one of Independent Circuit's best tag teams in the form of Aussie Open.
Other New Japan stars such as Tetsuya Naito, Jay White, Will Ospreay, and Robbie Eagles were also on show for the night, as they competed in numerous multi-man matches. With that being said, let's just dive straight into the Royal Quest results.
#1 Roppongi 3K (SHO, YOH, and Rocky Romero) vs Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, and Ren Narita
The first match of the night featured some of the best young prospects in New Japan today, as the two teams were lead by their respective coaches. As expected, the two teams had a brilliant match with the New Japan young lions putting on a brilliant show.
There were some solid exchanges involving Moxley's protege Shota Umino, who teamed up pretty well with Narita to take out SHO and YOH temporarily from the match.
Romero and Taguchi also had some amazing exchanges throughout the match before YOH eventually got the pinfall win for his team, as Roppongi 3K started off the night with an impressive win.
Result: Roppongi 3K (SHO, YOH, and Rocky Romero) defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, and Ren Narita
#2 Bullet Club (Hikuleo and Yujiro Takahashi) vs Kota Ibushi and Juice Robinson
As expected, G1 Climax 29 winner Kota Ibushi received a huge reception from the crowd at the Copper Box. However, the Bullet Club wasn't in for any games, as they got right down to business from the get-go with Hikuleo wasting little time and getting into the middle of the action.
Hikuleo and Takahashi controlled the bout in the early stages, however, given Ibushi and Robinson's veteran experience, the two men eventually got themselves back into the contest. Ibushi eventually picked up the win with a running knee and a Kamigoye on Hikuleo for the win.
#3 CHAOS (Robbie Eagles and Will Ospreay) vs Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori)
Next up were the 30-minute tag team matches and first-up we had the CHAOS Jr. heavyweight duo of Eagles, who teamed up with current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion, Will Ospreay for the very first time.
Known as The Birds of Prey, the duo of Eagles and Ospreay faced the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Phantasmo, and Ishimori in a non-title match. As expected, all four men got into the action right from the get-go with ELP and Ishimori attacking the CHAOS duo even before the bell rang.
All four men had some tremendous exchanges with each other with ELP and Eagles having some solid back-and-forth against each other. Eagles and Ospreay paired up pretty well throughout the match and the duo eventually hit a double Spanish Fly on Ishimori from the top rope for the three count and the win.
Following the match, Eagles and Ospreay challenged ELP and Ishimori for the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Championships.
Result: CHAOS (Robbie Eagles and Will Ospreay) defeated Bullet Club (El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori)
#4 Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and SANADA) vs Bullet Club (Jay White and Chase Owens)
Ahead of their IWGP Intercontinental Championship match at Destruction in Kobe, Jay White and current champion Tetsuya Naito faced off in a preview for their title match. Naito, as usual, gets a crazy reaction from the crowd as he begins the match with White. The two men had some solid exchanges and so did SANADA and Owens.
SANADA even locked in his traditional Paradise Lock on Owens but the Crown Jewel eventually answered back with some solid offense as he hit a straight kick to the face for a quick pinfall attempt.
Owens went for a Package Piledriver to seal the win but it eventually got reversed by a hook submission from SANADA, as Naito held White down on the outside as Owens tapped out.
Result: Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito and SANADA) defeated Bullet Club (Jay White and Chase Owens)
#5 Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) vs. Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher)- IWGP Tag Team Championship
The Copper Box was split for this one as half of them chanted "GoD", whereas, the other half were in favor of the Aussie Open. GoD began the match with the attacks. Without a doubt, this was one of the best matches of the evening, as the two teams absolutely went at it from start to finish.
This was the first time Aussie Open had challenged for the IWGP Tag Team Titles and despite a valiant effort, the Guerillas of Destiny managed to retain their titles after cutting off Aussie Open's Fidget Spinner as GoD hit a super powerbomb for the win.
Result: Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa) (c) defeated Aussie Open (Mark Davis and Kyle Fletcher)- IWGP Tag Team Championship
#6 Tomohiro Ishii vs KENTA- NEVER Openweight Championship
This was Kenta's first title match in NJPW and having joined the Bullet Club at the G1 Finals, he was beeming with a lot of confidence. The match itself began with a slow place but the two men sure did have a hard-htting bout.
In the closing stages of the match, Kenta's fellow Bullet Club stablemates Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa made their way out to the ring and took out the ref. Kenta finally hit the GTS to win the Never Openweight Championship.
Result: KENTA defeated Tomohiro Ishii to win the NEVER Openweight Championship
#7 Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs Hiroshi Tanahashi- British Heavyweight Championship
Zack Sabre Jr. and Hiroshi Tanahashi certainly have had better encounters than this one. However, by no means was this a bad match. Having faced each other at the Madison Square Garden earlier in the year, ZSJ and Tanahashi put on another brilliant match, with the crowd being super hot for the latter.
Having never won a title in the UK before, Tanahashi eventually hit the slingblade and followed it up with a High Fly Flow to win the British Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career.
Result: Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Zack Sabre Jr. to win the British Heavyweight Championship
#8 Kazuchika Okada (c) vs Minoru Suzuki- IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kazuchika Okada and Minoru Suzuki never fail to impress the fans and the chemistry between the two men is always outstanding. As expected, Okada and Suzuki had a hard-hitting affair with Suzuki exploiting most of Okada's upper body with his brutal PKs and strikes.
Throughout the entirety of the match, Suzuki used some brutal combinations but a resilient Kazuchika Okada countered a Gotch-Style Piledriver and after a series of amazing counters, Okada eventually hit The Rainmaker for the pinfall and the win.
Following the match, SANADA made his way out and challenged Okada to a future title match.
Result: Kazuchika Okada defeated Minoru Suzuki to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Championship
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