Toshiaki Kawada Makes Surprise Appearance at NJPW Taichi’s School Pro Wrestling 2

By: Noah Leatherland

NJPW were in Taichi’s old junior high school for a special homecoming event. Ahead of an all-star main event, Taichi was surprised with an appearance by his mentor and one of the four heavenly pillars, Toshiaki Kawada.

Taichi made his entrance for the main event, wearing the sash as a special ambassador for his hometown, Ishikari. After that, the ring announcer revealed that Taichi’s teacher was here. Instead of one of Taichi’s old schoolteachers, his trainer, Toshiaki Kawada, made his way to the ring instead. Kawada took the microphone and spoke to his student:

Taichi, I actually came here today to ask you for a favor! I hear you’ve become a tourism ambassador for Ishikari City. Everyone’s rooting for you this much. How about you go back to ‘Taichi Ishikari’—the name Shinya Hashimoto gave you! How about that!? What do you think, everyone? Honestly, I think you should just stick with “Taichi Ishikari” from now on. The fans are really asking for it, aren’t they? If you don’t do it even though the fans are asking for it this much, I’m going to take away your title as tourism ambassador.

(Quote translated via DeepL)

With that strongarming from Kawada, Taichi wrestled the match as Taichi Ishikari. Taichi was advertised to have a mystery opponent, which was then revealed to be Zack Sabre Jr., reforming Dangerous Tekkers one more time. Together, they faced the duo of Yoshinobu Kanemaru and Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Naomichi Marufuji. Kanemaru also changed things up for the ocassion, entering to her NOAH theme and donning his old attire.

Though he was dipping into his NOAH roots, Kanemaru’s current NJPW allegiances came into play. Dick Togo attempted to get involved in typical House of Torture style, only to inadvertently cause Kanemaru to be caught by Marufuji’s hook kick. That set Kanemaru up to be hit with Dangerous Tekkers’ Zack Mephisto.

Taking the microphone after the match, Taichi addressed his opponents, his partner, his mentor and the hometown crowd:

Marufuji, thank you for coming all the way out here for me, even taking time out of your NOAH schedule. Wrestling you here it made me think, how many more years can we still go? Our time is short, so next time, let’s make it a singles match. Some people think we’re done, but we got the loudest chants of the day. So next time, you and me one on one.

…

And Kanemaru, you left? You let me down. But you still came here for the second year in a row, so maybe there’s something of me he’s fond for. So thank you. So maybe sometime we can do it again. Zack, thanks for answering the call. It was great to team with you again. Wouldn’t it be a shame if this was the last one? Let’s tag again sometime.

…

Thank you all. An old teacher of mine shows up and I thought he would be nice, but he told me to change my name instead. Through everything though, I’m so glad I followed you. You helped me form my style. I want to wrestle you still. If you ever want one more go around, let’s go. Thank you for coming all the way here. And we did this for the second year in a row, I became an ambassador and we got a pay per view. Thanks for coming and thanks for watching. Sorry for those guys invading the principal’s office. Maybe we can do this again next year?

…

You can see the Ishikari school motto here about making dreams come true. I never became a top wrestler like Kawada did, but I was able to do things he couldn’t. I was able to create something nobody else could and nobody else can, something that’s only mine. So everyone, please follow your own dreams and do your beat day by day.

(Quotes translated via NJPW Global on X)

Here are the full results for NJPW Taichi’s School Pro Wrestling 2, courtesy of purolove.com:

• Masatora Yasuda def. Ryoma Tsukamoto (11:19)
• DDT Universal Title: Ryusuke Taguchi (c) def. Dick Togo (15:03)
• YOH def. Satoshi Kojima (6:23)
• Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI def. Lonely Wolf & Hokkai Kumagoro (11:14)
• Yuya Uemura def. TAKA Michinoku (9:46)
• Anywhere-in-the-School Match: Toru Yano & El Desperado def. Yuto-Ice & Gedo (20:12)
• Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. def. Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshinobu Kanemaru (20:05)