As noted, Hiromu Takahashi suffered a neck injury in his IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship match against Dragon Lee at last weekend’s G1 Special in San Francisco. After finishing the match, he reportedly collapsed backstage and was taken to the hospital shortly after.
The injury was said to most likely come from the move below.
NJPW previously confirmed he’s conscious and is able to sit/talk. Earlier today, NJPW gave some more information on Takahashi being transported back to Japan for further treatment.
“On July 7, during the G1 Special in San Francisco event, Hiromu Takahashi sustained a neck injury and was taken to a San Francisco hospital for evaluation.Takahashi was able to return to Japan today, and will proceed with treatment. We apologize for the delay in publishing this update, which was in order to ensure smooth and efficient transit for Takahashi at the airport. We deeply appreciate our fans’ concerns. Please stay tuned to NJPW for further updates.”
In his championship match, Takahashi was able to wrestle for another couple minutes after being dropped on his neck. He would eventually hit his finisher (Time Bomb) to pick up a pinfall victory and retain the title. Takahashi is a two-time NJPW Jr. Heavyweight Champion.
Below is episode 101 (“Family Dinner”) of Being the Elite. The episode features the aftermath of the NJPW G1 Special (full results here) where Tama Tonga, Tonga Loa, and Haku attacked the other Bullet Club members. Also, after Kenny Omega defeated Cody, it looked like the two had buried the hatchet. Here’s a recap of the episode:
* In his hotel room, Chris Jericho says goodbye to The Young Bucks and finds out Marty Scurll had been hanging in his closet to ask if he could join him and The Young Bucks to become the fourth member of The Alpha Club. Scurll then tries to recruit Jericho into The Villain Club, but Jericho is writing on something, not a list – because WWE owns that – he’s just writing some notes about Scurll. Jericho has zero interest and asks him to leave his room, Scurll tries to go back into the closet, but eventually leaves. Jericho then says quietly to the camera, “He just made the list!”
* Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks make it to the Cow Palace for the NJPW G1 Special. Cody does rehearsals for his entrance where he was carried to the ring.
* Matt Jackson tries to talk some sense into Cody and let’s him know the group still loves him and to be safe in his title match against Omega. Cody looks to have mixed feelings about all of this.
* SoCal Uncensored is really not happy to be in Virgnia, they talk some trash about George Mason not signing the Constitution.
* Omega speaks with Matt and Nick before their match and the two look a little stressed. They ask Omega how he broke the “5 Star Scale,” they’ve tried everything, but can’t do it. “It’s no secret that critics love a very long ass singles match, so you guys are already at a disadvantage,” Omega responds. He then says the secret is psychology.
* Adam Page apparently has two personalities and they argue over him taking out Joey Ryan. Page ends up beating himself up and it looks like the bad side is the only one left.
* Matt talks with Kenny and says he thinks there is still some good in Cody. Kenny says he’s just going to have a match, Matt laughs and replies not to hurt him too bad.
* Flashback to last week when Nick has a premonition: “Something bad’s gonna happen.” Clips are shown of Tonga, Loa, and Haku attacking the Bullet Club after the G1 Special main event.
* After the show, The Bucks, Page, Omega, and Scurll are eating in a hotel room. Cody knocks on the door and limps in. Kenny ends up moving over on the couch to give him a spot and hands him some food. Dejected, the group sits in silence until Cody says, “So, how are we going to make these motherf—— pay?…And what the hell is Haku’s problem?”
Matt Hardy is proposing he and Bray Wyatt make a trip to All In to defend the WWE RAW tag team titles against The Young Bucks.
Hardy tweeted out the suggestion after comments made by The Bucks following Saturday’s New Japanshow in San Francisco.
When asked about what they have left to accomplish, Matt Jackson made a suggestion some might consider out of the ordinary.
“How cool would it be to win the WWE tag team championship belts and not even have to perform on their show? That would be great,” he told reporters.
“A little one off?,” Nick responded.
“Yeah, a little one off. That would be fun,” Matt replied.
The result was a tweet from Hardy that read: “What are these FANTASTICAL FANCIES that you speak of, Bucks of Youth? September 1st?” The tweet included pictures of Hardy/Wyatt with their belts and The Young Bucks carrying their titles.
Matt Hardy has extensive history with The Young Bucks — and we recently saw WWE give Nick and Matt quite a bit of promotion on their social channels.
TheG1 Special in San Francisco was full of unexpected moments and high spots. Juice Robinson fought Jay White in a battle that popped The Cow Palace when Robinson captured the IWGP United States Title. Unfortunately, Jim Ross suffered an injury during this match.
White sent Robinson into the steel guardrail right in front of the commentary position during their contest. Ross and Josh Barnett were calling the match when the railing came at them and hit a monitor down which knocked Ross out of his chair.
Barnett got angry at White and followed him into the ring. It was an intense moment that nobody saw coming, especially JR. The WWE Hall Of Famer says he couldn’t sleep that night because he was in so much pain and couldn’t even get his bag up in the overhead compartment on the plane as he traveled home.
Ross claims the spot during the G1 Special in San Francisco had nothing to do with the storyline and it wasn’t discussed with him beforehand either. JR says he might also have broken a rib. Hopefully, he heals up soon.
Hiromu Takahashi injured his neck during the G1 Special in San Francisco.
The injury occurred during a Phoenix-plex gone wrong from Dragon Lee and NJPW’s website reports Hiromu was taken to the hospital after the match.
The Los Ingobernables de Japon stable member continued to wrestle after hitting the top of his head and reportedly may have collapsed when he walked backstage.
According to NJPW, Takahashi is “in a state that can sit and talk with consciousness” — which sounds like a step in the right direction — while undergoing examinations.
– Post-match, The Young Bucks and Brandi check on both wrestlers. Omega helps Cody up. Cody heads out of the ring, looks at the ring for a moment and continues to walk to the back. Omega gets on the mic and says “This is my first title defense as IWGP Heavyweight Champion.” He was happy to do it in front of these fans. Omega says everyone deserves a second chance, even Cody. He continues no matter who the person is, we should stand behind good people and he will continue to give his very best. He thanks everyone for coming tonight and does his usual sign off.
From the back come Haku, Tama Tonga, and Tonga Loa, initially things look fine, but the three attack Kenny and The Young Bucks from behind. They beat up all three guys in the ring and having “Fire Squad” shirts on. Adam Page runs out and gets dropped. Marty Scurll tries to help out and doesn’t do much better. Tama yells “You did this!” at Kenny Omega. Loa now attacks Takahashi and Owens now! Tama brings in a chair and swings away on a couple people. Cody stumbles out from the back, Tama hands him a chair, Cody then smacks Tanga and Loa, but Haku stops him, they end up dropping Cody now. After the trio leaves, Cody helps Omega up and it looks like things are better between the two of them as the group gathers together. (transcript via WrestlingINC)
You can check out videos of the match and what happened afterwards below:
Kenny Omega completed a long journey when he defeated Kacuchika Okada at NJPW’s Dominion show to become IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Now Omega is the top name in New Japan Pro Wrestling and is set to defend his new title at the Cow Palace this Saturday. Omega’s match at the G1 USA Special will not only be for his championship, but the leadership role in The Bullet Club is up for grabs as well.
WWE had Kenny Omega in their developmental territory for a short time when he performed in Deep South Wrestling, but he left in 2016 after only a year.
Omega previously told WrestlingINC’s Aaron Varble he feels he would do well in adapting to WWE’s environment. He was recently a guest on The Ross Report where The Cleaner was asked about the possibility of WWE and Omega joining forces down the line.
“I’ve been keeping up to date on kind of the goings on and I always at the very least look at the highlights of every show, both brands, 205 Live, and even the NXT stuff. I’m really happy for everyone that’s doing well there.
“I was able to work in a fantastic program with The New Day [at E3] and they really brought something special to that sort of feud because all three of those guys are very special athletes, they’re very special performers. They have a special kind of charisma. They know how to work the people, work for cameras, work for the TV. When I think about the possibilities of what it would be like if I could ever mix it up with some of those guys it gets me excited. because they are a lot of great performers.”
Omega continued discussing Superstars in WWE, but also stated how good the talent is in so many other promotions as well. He said it would be impossible to have a bad match at this point due to the rich talent available. It would also be a missed opportunity if he wasn’t able to eventually mix it up with some of the top names on WWE’s roster
“A lot of the guys that even though they came up through the indies you know we were in different stages of our lives and we never mixed it up together. I could say you know if I could work with Seth Rollins at some point in time that would be a lot of fun.
“So when I think about the possibilities of stuff like that it does get me excited. Now every promotion has so many good guys. There’s really no way I would have a bad time going almost anywhere because the depth of the talent is just so deep. WWE right now has a very great collection of talent with guys and I would feel like it’s a missed opportunity if I couldn’t work with them at some point.”
A WWE vs. NJPW event sounds like an impossible pipe dream, but Kenny Omega says he’d love to see a working relationship form between the two companies so it could happen.
Omega took part in a media call to promote NJPW‘s upcoming live G1 Special in San Francisco on AXS TV and at one point said he believes now is the time to ease up on “us vs. them” mentality.
As you may have seen, Triple H recently said WWE was open to the idea of forming working relationships with other organizations … which naturally got people talking about an NJPW alliance.
When asked about the WWE exec’s comments, Omega was on the exact same page.
“I definitely would want to see that,” he answered. “I think that nowadays, with the popularity and respect level of other sports — for example basketball, or baseball or soccer — I feel that it wouldn’t be out of place for pro wrestling to stand at the same level as those sports. And I think the only way we stand a chance at doing that is if we really band together and give them the best of the best.”
The Cleaner went on to say most “dream matches” currently on fan wishlists are, for the most part, people who compete in different promotions. This includes matches like The Elite vs. New Day or Tommaso Ciampa vs. Kenny Omega.
“I think that now is a very good opportunity to cash in on that. And I believe that both parties benefit.”
The official Twitter account of the upcoming All In event on September 1 at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois (just outside Chicago) announced on Wednesday night that they have licensed production to broadcast the event in some capacity.
An announcement on how the event will be broadcast will be made in the coming weeks.
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