New Champions Crowned At NJPW New Year's Golden Series

New Japan Pro-Wrestling's New Year's Golden Series entered its penultimate day on Saturday, February 19 in Hokkaido for a show that featured multiple title matches.

One of those matches was the main event IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship bout between champion Hiroshi Tanahashi and SANADA. Both men fought back and forth throughout the contest and SANADA picked up the win after he avoided a High Fly Flow and followed up with his Leg Clutch Pin for the 1-2-3. 

With the win, SANADA captures his first singles gold in NJPW. He has previously enjoyed success in tag team action and he is a three-time IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champion and three-time NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion.

SANADA wasn't the only new champion crowned in Hokkaido, though, and Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato - known as Team Six Or Nine - won a Four-Way featuring champions Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask, El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori, and El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Title. 

They picked up the win after Taguchi and Wato combined to hit their Number Nine assisted Downward Spiral finisher on Tiger Mask. 

Today was Wato's first gold in NJPW since returning from excursion in the summer of 2020, while Taguchi becomes a seven-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion. The Funky Weapon has previously held the gold four times with Prince Devitt, with Ricochet once and El Samurai once. 

Check out the full results from today's New Year's Golden Series show from Hokkaido below:

• DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku def. Kosei Fujita & Togi Makabe
• Minoru Suzuki & Taichi def. Ryohei Oiwa & Toru Yano
• Tomohiro Ishii & YOH def. SHO & Dick Togo
• Great-O-Khan def. Tomoaki Honma
• Hiromu Takahashi, Tetsuya Naito & Shingo Takagi def. Kazuchika Okada, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata
• Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato def. Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles (c), El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru and El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori - IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
• Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI (c) def. EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi - IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
• SANADA def. Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) - IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship