This year’s theme to Wrestling Dontaku is “civil warfare”.  Four factions (Bullet Club, Chaos, Los Ingobernables de Japon, and Suzuki-gun), three wars.  Starting on April 13th in Korakuen Hall and ending on May 4th in Fukuoka, there will be 3 civil wars within New Japan where everything is on the line and where only one faction will rise in these three wars as the winners. Want to note that two of these wars will involve those who are not members of the four factions mentioned above. With that said, let’s get started with the official opening to Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2018 which features three of those wars where feuds have become personal (a picture of those three feuds is posted at the end of this post):

Did you enjoy the opening? If so, then you know that there are three wars happening within New Japan and during the tour, everything will be on the line and things will be settled.  With that, let’s start off with the first war which involves two groups that have the same agenda, destruction: 

Throughout the 2018 New Japan Cup, there were matches between Los Ingobernables de Japon and Suzuki-gun in which IWGP Intercontinental Champion Minoru Suzuki grew interested in Tetsuya Naito, requesting a title match against the former champion though until Sakura Genesis 2018, Naito had no interest in the title or the match itself.  Meanwhile, the Killer Elite Squad brought destruction throughout the Tag-Team division demanding a rematch to the reigning IWGP Tag-Team Champions while Hiromu Takahashi became obsessed with wanting the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship as well as the Champions themselves.   

Due to the number of members within Los Ingobernables de Japon, the remaining members of Suzuki-gun (Taichi, Takashi Iizuka, Taka Michinoku, and Zack Sabre Jr.) will be facing Roppongi 3K (Sho Tanaka, Yoh Komatsu, and Rocky Romero) during the first portion of the tour (April 13th-27th) and Bullet Club during the last portion of the tour (April 29th-May 1st). Those members will be revealed in the next warfare going on within New Japan. With that, these matches will be taking place within a two-day span which you can see in the video package above:

April 23rd (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2018):  IWGP Junior Tag Team Championship - [Challenger Team] Hiromu Takahashi and BUSHI vs. [Champion Team] El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru

April 29th (Wrestling Hinokuni 2018):  IWGP Tag Team Championship - [Challenger Team] Davey Boy Smith Jr. and Lance Archer (Killer Elite Squad) vs. [Champion Team] Seiya Sanada and “King of Darkness” EVIL

 April 29th (Wrestling Hinokuni 2018):  IWGP Intercontinental Championship - [Challenger] Tetsuya Naito vs. [Champion] Minoru Suzuki

The second warfare is more of an infighting war than a stable vs. stable-type war cause it involves the battle for leadership and supremacy:

On January 28th during the second night of The New Beginning in Sapporo, the infighting within Bullet Club was exposed when “The American Nightmare” Cody betrayed leader Kenny Omega in an attempt to take over the stable and make it his own. Cody’s betrayal within Bullet Club lead to the reunion of the Golden☆Lovers when Omega and Kota Ibushi hugged it out to end the second night in Sapporo.  Ibushi is the the only non-member involved in this Bullet Club infighting.  Everyone thought that things would be settled at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor XII in New Orleans back on April 7th but all that did was escalate the infighting when The Young Bucks (Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson) inadvertently caused Kenny Omega his match against Cody.  

Due to scheduling conflicts with Ring of Honor, this warfare will be settled at the main show itself despite it actually starting at Wrestling Hinokuni 2018.  What that means is this:  Ring of Honor has two events scheduled for April 27th in West Palm Beach and April 28th in Lakeland in which members of Bullet Club who are on Team Cody will be booked to compete in other matches thus making it difficult to bring them here to New Japan on those dates.  

Again, due to that scheduling conflict, Bullet Club members Kenny Omega, Yujiro Takahashi, and Chase Owens will be teaming up with Kota Ibushi to face four Suzuki-gun members who are not involve in the war against Los Ingobernables de Japon on April 29th as part of Wrestling Hinokuni 2018.  Then on May 3rd, during the first day of the main show itself, the infighting will be resumed in which these matches are to take place as seen in the video package above in and then the next day, those participants will be participating in a huge tag match that could have serious implications:

NEVER Open-weight Six Man Tag Team Championship:  [Challenger Team] Marty Scurll, Matt Jackson, and Nick Jackson vs. [Champion Team] Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, and Bad Luck Fale

Kota Ibushi [Golden☆Lovers] vs. “The American Nightmare” Cody

Kenny Omega [Golden☆Lovers] vs. Hangman Page 

Lastly, those who are not a member of Bullet Club, Los Ingobernables de Japon, or Suzuki-gun will be facing the following stable:

Also known as Taguchi Japan (only when Ryusuke Taguchi is involved in which he won’t be this year) there will be a total of four matches between these members and members of Chaos that be split in three dates with two of them being a part of the main show itself.  While three of these matches are focused on wanting to prove something, one of the four matches is personal which will you see in the video above.  With that, here are the four matches pitting the non-stable wrestlers (or Taguchi Japan if you want to call them that) and Chaos: 

April 24th (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2018):  IWGP United States Championship - [Challenger] David Finlay vs. [Champion] Jay White

April 27th (Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2018 ~Aki no Kuni SENGOKU EMAKI~):  NEVER Open-weight Championship - [Challenger] Juice Robinson vs. [Champion] Hirooki Goto

May 4th (Wrestling Dontaku 2018):  IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship - [Challenger] KUSHIDA vs. [Champion] Will Ospreay

May 4th (Wrestling Dontaku 2018):  IWGP Heavyweight Championship - [Challenger] Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. [Champion] Kazuchika Okada 

Two of these wars (LIJ vs. Suzuki-gun and Non-Stable vs. Chaos) will begin on April 13th while the other (Bullet Club infighting) will start on the 29th with Suzuki-gun subbing for Bullet Club-Team Cody through May 1st.  

Welcome to the Road to Wrestling Dontaku 2018, where war has begun and in the end of these three wars: one faction will stand tall in each of them. Who will stand tall? Find out starting this Friday (April 13th) on NJPW World.