Abdullah Kobayashi Becomes The BJW Death Match Heavyweight Champion For The Seventh Time

By: Lewis Carlan

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling held its “2026 NEW YEAR BATTLE BEGINNING” at Korakuen Hall with a respectable crowd of 634 fans in attendance for the event.

The main event featured the BJW Death Match Heavyweight Champion Yusaku Ito defending his title against the legendary Abdullah Kobayashi. Ito was making his fourth defense of the title he won back on Aug. 24th 2025.

The match between Ito and Kobayashi was a brutal one and lots of blood flowed. The ring was surrounded with light tubes which were used numerous times as weapons during the encounter. Ito used every trick in the book including spraying black mist into the face of Kobayashi in an effort to retain the title. The crowd was 100% behind Kobayashi as they chanted his name in unison throughout the match.

Kobayashi gave the crowd what they wanted when he delivered an elbow drop from the top rope onto Ito who was covered in light tubes to become the new BJW Death Match Heavyweight Champion.

The victory made Kobayashi a seven time BJW Death Match Heavyweight Champion and puts him in a tie with Ryuji Ito for the most reigns as champion. Following the bout, the new champion was confronted by one half of the BJW World Tag Team Champions Kazumi Kikuta. The two had a verbal confrontation which ended in Kikuta attacking Kobayashi after Kobayashi appeared to challenge Kikuta for the tag titles.

Kobayashi is now a double champion as he also holds the BJW Yokohama Shopping Street Six Man Tag Team Championship with Kankuro Hoshino & Ryuji Ito.

In other action, the Yosomono team of BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion Daimonji So, Minoru Fujita & Jacob Crane defeated Daichi Hashimoto, Hideyoshi Kamitani & Kazumasa Yoshida after Hashimoto turned on Yoshida. This led to Hashimoto and Kamitani to join the Yosomono faction. You can read more about that shocking development here.

Here are the full results for BJW “2026 NEW YEAR BATTLE BEGINNING” courtesy of purolove.com:

• Ryuji Ito defeats Ryuma Sekimo (8:33) with a Dragon Splash.
• Kosuke Sato, Yuya Aoki & Shota Takanishi defeat Fuminori Abe, Dmitri Alexandrov & I Am The Provider (11:01) after Sato’s Bloody Sunday against Provider.
• Yasufumi Nakanoue & Ryota Hama defeat Jimmy Chondo Lyon & Michael Weaver (7:15) after a diving elbow drop from Nakanoue against Lyon.
• Outsiders vs. Big Japan: Daimonji So, Minoru Fujita & Jacob Crane defeat Daichi Hashimoto, Hideyoshi Kamitani & Kazumasa Yoshida (13:57) after Daimonji’s Black Rain against Yoshida.
• Fluorescent Lighttubes Death Match: MASADA, Beast Man & Mickie Knuckles defeat Kankuro Hoshino, Masaya Takahashi & Kazumi Kikuta (16:00) after a kneedrop by MASADA against Hoshino.
• BJW Death Match Heavyweight Title: Abdullah Kobayashi defeats Yusaku Ito (c) (8:33) with the Diving Bakachinga Elbow Drop with Light tubes – Title change

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling events can be seen on BJW Core subscription streaming site or on their official YouTube channel with membership.