New Japan Pro Wrestling ran their annual “King of Pro Wrestling” event this weekend, with some major news coming out of the show.
AJ Styles was defeated by Hiroshi Tanahashi to end his IWGP Heavyweight Championship reign at 163 days. Tanahashi now begins his 7th run as world champion from the promotion, beating the record formerly held by Tatsumi Fujinami. Jeff Jarrett was involved in the action, and attempted to help Styles retain near the end of the match, but former WWE Superstar Yoshi Tatsu (Naofumi Yamamoto) made his return to the company to chase him off.
Former WWE Superstars Davey Boy Smith, Jr. and Lanch Archer – who wrestle together as the Killer Elite Squad – defeated Hiroyoshi Tenzan and Satoshi Kojima to become the new NWA World Tag Team Champions. This is their second run with the titles.
