Mistico Retains and Shoma Kato Leaves on Excursion at NJPW Fantastica Mania 2026 Closing Day

By Noah Leatherland

NJPW and CMLL’s joint Fantastica Mania 2026 tour came to an end in Korakuen Hall. The main event saw Mistico facing off with Soberano Jr. for the CMLL World Light Heavyweight Title, whilst the show also marked Shoma Kato’s final appearance in Japan before heading to Mexico on excursion.

The night kicked off with Kato’s final send off match. He went one-on-one with Averno, the man who won the World Historic Light Heavyweight Championship from Atlantis Jr. the previous night. Kato lasted a little over 10 minutes before falling to the champion. The fans in Korakuen Hall gave Kato a warm send-off. Kato will fly to Mexico with the rest of the CMLL contingent and begin his excursion.

Kato also had a few words about his excursion in his post-match comments:

I said I wanted to go to Mexico, and throughout this series I realised that was the right call… Getting stronger is a given, and once I’ve achieved results over there and am certain I can win a title in New Japan, I’ll be back!

The closing event of NJPW Fantastica Mania also saw a singles match between Tiger Mask and Magnus. Throughout the tour, Magnus had taken on the villainous Black Tiger persona. He had targeted Tiger Mask over and over again, even puling off his titular mask. However, after Tiger Mask scored a win over him, Magnus’ true feelings came to light:

Magnus: Let me say it once more in front of everyone. My deepest respect to you, my angel in this life. Thank you.

Tiger Mask: Actually, it seems that back when he was a fan, before he became a wrestler, he had a photo taken with me at Arena Mexico…

(Quotes translated via DeepL)

Mistico also paid tribute to the famed Tiger Mask, donning a special mask in his style for his entrance. The ace of CMLL defended his World Light Heavyweight Championship against Soberano Jr. in the main event. The bout went just over 25 minutes, before Mistico locked in his La Mistica armbar and made his challenger tap out.

This brings the 2026 Fantastica Mania tour to a close. However, CMLL and NJPW will collaborate with MLW for Fantastica Mania USA in April.

Here are the full results for NJPW Fantastica Mania 2026 Day 7, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Averno def. Shoma Kato (10:27)
• Hijo de Stuka Jr., Yujiro Takahashi, SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru def. Stigma, Master Wato, Masatora Yasuda & Tatsuya Matsumoto (7:40)
• Tiger Mask def. Magnus (7:45)
• Atlantis, Atlantis Jr. & Ryusuke Taguchi def. Hechicero, Satoshi Kojima & OKUMURA (10:28)
• Mascara Dorada, Futuro & Valiente Jr. def. Titan, Hatsuratsu Guerrero & Daiki Nagai (7:27)
• Templario def. Ultimo Guerrero (13:25)
• CMLL World Light Heavyweight Title: Mistico (c) def. Soberano Jr. (25:40)