Knockout Brothers Earn IWGP Tag Team Title Shot in Bloody Brawl at NJPW Battle Line Hokkaido

By: Noah Leatherland

NJPW are on the northern island of Hokkaido for the Battle Line tour ahead of Destruction in Kobe. On the latest leg, the Knockout Brothers earned their way to a future title shot after powering through a visceral fight against the Most Violent Players, Togi Makabe and Toru Yano.

The Destruction tour has seen Yano return to his more fiendish ways, bleaching his hair and dipping back into his brawling style of the past. He and Makabe brought that fire into the Kuribayashi Shokai Arena for the contender battle with KOB.  They were even seconded by Tomoaki Honma, reviving the Great Bash Heel faction for the day at least.

However, Yano was the first one to be busted open, a precise kick to the head from Yuto-Ice and being driven into the exposed turnbuckle drew the blood. Yano soon returned the favour, a chair shot opening the floodgates on Yuto-Ice’s forehead. Yano soon made the cut worse at ringside, a pair of scissors being his weapon of choice.

Still, OSKAR and Yuto-Ice continued to fight. Yano and Makabe even received an assist by Takashi Iizuka, injecting some more GBH flavour into the bout. When that wasn’t enough, OSKAR also felt the wrath of a Honma kokeshi. With Yuto-Ice and Makabe left to slug it out in the ring, OSKAR managed to rally enough for him and Ice to hit the KOB and secure the win. With that victory, the Knockout Brothers are now the number one contender’s for the IWGP Tag Team Championships.

After clashing with those legends, Yuto-Ice was feeling the high in his post-match comments:

Today’s GBH was brilliant, wasn’t it? Wrestlers from that generation—well, they’ve got a strength I just don’t have … The longer you watch pro-wrestling, the more you realise there’s a supreme high waiting for you at the end of it. Being able to share that with the crowd at the venue, and to show it to those who couldn’t make it via the screen—I’m really glad I got to become a New Japan wrestler.

(Quote translated via DeepL)

Here are the full results for NJPW Battle Line Hokkaido, September 19th:

• Taisei Nakahara def. Yushin Hatazawa (6:47)
• Muro Ranbo 2026: Shun Skywalker def. Jado, Dick Togo, Masatora Yasuda, Oleg Boltin, HENARE, SHO, DOUKI, El Desperado, Master Wato, Jakob Austin Young, Jake Lee, Great-O-Khan & Shota Umino (21:27)
• Jeff Cobb & Gedo def. Callum Newman & Zane Jay (8:10)
• Aaron Wolf, Yuya Uemura & Taichi def. Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson & Kosei Fujita (10:55)
• Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi, Taiji Ishimori, Robbie X & Daiki Nagai def. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, YOH, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tatsuya Matsumoto (12:35)
• IWGP Tag Team Title #1 Contendership: Yuto-Ice & OSKAR def. Toru Yano & Togi Makabe (33:57)