El Desperado Set To Defend The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title Against YOH on Sept. 24th At NJPW Event In Hokkaido

By: Lewis Carlan

On Sept.24th, New Japan Pro-Wrestling will present it’s final NJPW BATTLE LINE HOKKAIDO Road to DESTRUCTION event before the huge DESTRUCTION in KOBE show on Sept. 28th. The NJPW BATTLE LINE HOKKAIDO Road to DESTRUCTION event will feature two IWGP Championship matches.

In the main event, the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Desperado will be making the eighth defense of his fifth reign as he faces the challenge of YOH. El Desperado has held the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title since Jan. 4th when he beat DOUKI to enter into his fifth reign as champion.

YOH, who has held the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Titles on six different occasions, has never experienced what it is like to be the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion. His last attempt to win the title came on April 6th 2024 at NJPW Sakura Genesis and was against then champion SHO. The bout ended in disaster as YOH dislocated his left shoulder at the 90 second point of the match which resulted in a referee stoppage. The injury caused YOH to miss six months of in-ring action. YOH has a chance to redeem himself and win the title that has eluded him his entire career on Sept. 24th.

The IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles will be on the line as the champions SHO & DOUKI representing House of Torture will defend against the Ichiban Sweet Boys Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita. This will be the second defense for SHO & DOUKI since winning the titles on back on June 15th. The TMDK duo of Eagles and Fujita will be looking to regain the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Titles they lost on April 29th.

Image Credit: NJPW

In other action, the TMDK team of the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson will square off against the House of Torture trio of Ren Narita, SANADA & Yujiro Takahashi. This will be the final preliminary match between Sabre Jr. and Narita before their IWGP World Heavyweight Championship bout at DESTRUCTION at KOBE on Sept. 28th.

Image Credit: NJPW

Here is the full lineup of matches for NJPW BATTLE LINE HOKKAIDO Road to DESTRUCTION on Sept. 24 courtesy of purolove.com:

• Katsuya Murashima & Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Masatora Yasuda & Zane Jay
• Hiroshi Tanahashi Final Road ~ Enishi: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Master Wato
• Toru Yano, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. Tiger Mask, Ryusuke Taguchi & Shoma Kato
• Shota Umino, Oleg Boltin & Yuya Uemura vs. “King of Darkness” EVIL, Don Fale & Dick Togo
• Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji & Daiki Nagai vs. David Finlay, Gabe Kidd & Gedo
• Tomohiro Ishii, Taichi & & TAKA Michinoku vs. Yuto-Ice, OSKAR & Taiji Ishimori
• Zack Sabre Jr., Ryohei Oiwa & Hartley Jackson vs. Ren Narita, SANADA & Yujiro Takahashi
• IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: SHO & DOUKI (c) vs. Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita
• IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: El Desperado (c) vs. YOH

The event will air live on NJPW World subscription streaming service.