# NJPW 49th Anniversary Show

The NJPW 49th Anniversary Show was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro-Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on March 4, 2021 in Tokyo, Japan at the Nippon Budokan arena.
The event featured six matches, including the start of the annual New Japan Cup. In the main event match, Kota Ibushi defeated the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado to retain his IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships and become the first IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

## Production

Other on-screen personnel :
| Role: | Name: |
| English Commentators | Kevin Kelly |
| English Commentators | Chris Charlton |
| English Commentators | Rocky Romero |
| Japanese Commentators | Shinpei Nogami |
| Japanese Commentators | Milano Collection A.T. |
| Japanese Commentators | Katsuhiko Kanazawa |
| Japanese Commentators | Kazuyoshi Sakai |
| Japanese Commentators | Togi Makabe |
| Japanese Commentators | Miki Motoi |
| Japanese Commentators | Jushin Thunder Liger |
| Japanese Commentators | Masahiro Chono |
| Ring announcers | Makoto Abe |
| Ring announcers | Kimihiko Ozaki |
| Referees | Kenta Sato |
| Referees | Marty Asami |
| Referees | Red Shoes Unno |

### Background

NJPW was founded by Antonio Inoki on January 13, 1972 after his departure from the Japan Pro Wrestling Alliance promotion. The first NJPW event, titled Opening Series, took place on March 6, 1972, in the Ota Ward Gymnasium in Tokyo, to a crowd of 5,000. The NJPW Anniversary Show has since been held annually in the first week of March to celebrate the anniversary of the company, starting with the 40th Anniversary Show in 2012.
Since 2020, NJPW has been unable to run events with a full arena capacity due to COVID-19 restrictions. The 49th Anniversary Show continued this policy.

### Storylines

The NJPW 49th Anniversary Show featured professional wrestling matches that involve different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portray villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that build tension and culminate in a wrestling match or series of matches.
After Kota Ibushi defeated Tetsuya Naito at Castle Attack, he was confronted by the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado. A match between the two wrestlers was later signed for the Anniversary Show. While the Anniversary Show traditionally features a non-title match between the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and the current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion, it was announced that Kota Ibushi vs. El Desperado will be a title match for Ibushi's IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships while also crowning the first IWGP World Heavyweight Champion.

## Results

| No. | Results | Stipulations | Times |
| 1 | Master Wato, Gabriel Kidd, Tomoaki Honma and Hirooki Goto defeated Suzuki-gun (Douki, Zack Sabre Jr., Minoru Suzuki and Taichi) | Eight-man tag team match | 10:39 |
| 2 | Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, Jay White, Chase Owens, Kenta and Evil) defeated Taguchi Japan (Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, David Finlay, Juice Robinson and Hiroshi Tanahashi) | Ten-man tag team match | 7:39 |
| 3 | Chaos (Sho, Tomohiro Ishii and Kazuchika Okada) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japón (Bushi, Sanada and Shingo Takagi) | Six-man tag team match | 9:13 |
| 4 | Jeff Cobb defeated Satoshi Kojima | Singles match New Japan Cup first round match | 11:50 |
| 5 | Great-O-Khan defeated Tetsuya Naito by referee stoppage | Singles match New Japan Cup first round match | 20:20 |
| 6 | Kota Ibushi (c) defeated El Desperado | Singles match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Intercontinental Championship Both titles were unified; Ibushi was crowned the inaugural IWGP World Heavyweight Champion immediately after the match. | 20:36 |
| (c) – the champion(s) heading into the match ||||