Summer Struggle (2020)

Promotional poster for the tour featuring various NJPW Wrestlers

**Summer Struggle** was a professional wrestling tour, produced by the Japanese New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The tour would take place between July 26 and August 29, 2020, with shows taking place in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Osaka, and Ehime. The tour's final night on August 29, featured NJPW's second outdoor event in the promotion's history.

Due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the tour had some restrictions in the attendance, after the Japanese Government lifted the State of Emergency.

The tour featured the tournament to crown the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions and the inaugural KOPW 2020 tournament, while also featuring three other title matches with EVIL defending the IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships against Tetsuya Naito in a rematch from the 2020 Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall, Hiromu Takahashi defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori and Shingo Takagi defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Minoru Suzuki. This was the twelveth tour under the *Summer Struggle* name.

## Production

### Background

The tour was announced on June 15, 2020, during the *Together Project Special*, which was NJPW's first event following the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On July 26, it was announced that the tour would start on July 26 at the Korakuen Hall and would culminate with NJPW's second outdoor event in the promotion's history for the first time in 21 years on August 29 at baseball stadium the *Meiji Jingu Stadium*. The last and only time NJPW held an outdoor event was on August 28, 1999, the Jingu Climax at the Meiji Jingu Stadium, which was main evented by The Great Muta facing The Great Nita in a No Rope Explosive Barbed Wire Barricade Explosive Land Mine Double Hell Deathmatch.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

As a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, other wrestling promotions began to cancel or postpone their shows in an attempt to prevent further spreading of the COVID-19 virus. At the end of February, following recommendations by the Japanese Ministry of Health regarding the coronavirus outbreak, NJPW canceled the events between March 1 and March 15 including the promotion's Anniversary Event and the first and the second round of New Japan Cup. On March 23, NJPW also canceled the 2020 Sakura Genesis event, which was originally scheduled to take place on March 31. On April 8, NJPW canceled more events from April 11 through May 4, leading to the cancelation of both nights of 2020 Wrestling Dontaku and would also cancel the whole Best of the Super Juniors tournament as a result of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on May 6. Various wrestlers such as David Finlay, El Phantasmo, KENTA, the Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa), Jay White, Juice Robinson, Will Ospreay, Rocky Romero, and Robbie Eagles were unable to work on NJPW events due to travel restrictions because of the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, NJPW wrestlers and staff created the *NJPW Together* project in order to do bring content to NJPW World with interviews and old archived matches. On May 6, NJPW announced that their Wrestle Dynasty event would be postponed to 2021, due to the effects of the 2019-20 coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. On June 8, during an online press conference, NJPW Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi announced that the promotion would start to held shows on June 15, starting with the *Together Project Special* and the return of the 2020 New Japan Cup between June 16 and July 11, with all shows being held behind closed doors. It was also that the finals of the New Japan Cup and the Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall would be the first shows to allow fans into the arena, but only a third of the venue's normal capacity, after the Japanese Government lifted some restrictions on many regions in Japan. On August 7, *Wrestling Observer Newsletter* reported that NJPW would only allow 30% capacity for their show at Jingu Stadium on August 29. On August 13, NJPW announced that the eleventh night of the tour was canceled, while the card twelfth night was changed after one of the wrestlers that was scheduled to appear had developed a fever. The wrestler was immediately tested for the COVID-19 which revealed to be negative.

### Storylines

The Summer Struggle (2020) involved different wrestlers from pre-existing scripted feuds and storylines. Wrestlers portrayed villains, heroes, or less distinguishable characters in the scripted events that built tension and culminated in a wrestling match or series of matches.

Summer Struggle featured a title match for the IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships with EVIL making his second title defense against Tetsuya Naito. On July 11, EVIL defeated Kazuchika Okada in the finals to win the 2020 New Japan Cup, when Gedo, Jado, Taiji Ishimori, and Yujiro Takahashi helped him win the match and earn a shot at the IWGP Intercontinental and IWGP Heavyweight Championships. Afterwards, EVIL called out Tetsuya Naito, before turning on him and the *Los Ingobernables de Japon* stable, defecting to Bullet Club. On July 12 at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall, EVIL defeated Naito to win the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships. On July 25 at Sengoku Lord in Nagoya, EVIL defeated Hiromu Takahashi to retain the IWGP Heavyweight and IWGP Intercontinental Championships. Afterwards, Naito confronted EVIL, challenging him to a title match for both titles. The title match was announced on July 28. In the weeks leading to October's 2015 King of Pro-Wrestling event, Naito began teasing bringing in a *pareja* ("partner") to witness his match against Hiroshi Tanahashi, contested for Tanahashi's contract for a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom 10 in Tokyo Dome, which was later revealed to Takaaki Watanabe, who made his NJPW return after a two-year overseas learning excursion. In a post-match interview, Naito gave Watanabe his new ring name, "King of Darkness" EVIL.

Also on July 25, after EVIL retained his titles against Hiromu Takahashi, EVIL's Bullet Club stablemate Taiji Ishimori layout Takahashi with the *Bloody Cross*, before indicating that he wanted a title match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. The following day, he would challenge Takahashi to a title match during the first night of the tour on July 26. The title match was announced on July 28. Leading to the match, Ishimori injured Takahashi, which forced him to miss various shows of the tour.

Since June 2020, Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.) began targetting the IWGP Tag Team Championships, after developing a feud with reigning champions Golden☆Ace (Hiroshi Tanahashi, and Kota Ibushi) during the 2020 New Japan Cup, which featured Taichi and Sabre systematically attacking Tanahashi and Ibushi after their matches. On July 12 at Dominion in Osaka-jo Hall, Sabre and Taichi defeated Tanahashi and Ibushi to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship. Afterwards, during the tour, Tanahashi asked for a rematch, but Taichi refused, claiming that "Tanahashi’s time was up", which was further cemented after Tanahashi and Ibushi lost various tag team matches against Suzuki-gun, which in turn led to Ibushi began distrusting in Tanahashi to be his partner. Taichi would offer Ibushi a rematch for the IWGP Tag Team Championship if Tanahashi wasn't his partner or even join Suzuki-gun, leading Ibushi to reaffirm his confidence on Tanahashi, following a victory against Dangerous Tekkers on August 7, in the first round of the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship. The title match was officially announced on August 10 for the August 29 event.

Since February, Shingo Takagi had the ambition of setting the record for the most successful title defenses of the NEVER Openweight Championship, but his plans were derailed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. After NJPW resumed events in June, Takagi defended the title against Sho and El Desperado. In July, during the tour, after Minoru Suzuki defeated his rival Yuji Nagata, teased a mystery opponent to be his next target, which was revealed on August 10. The following day, NJPW officially announced the match for the August 29 event. Following a victory over Takagi and his *Los Ingobernables de Japon* stablemate BUSHI on August 12, Suzuki officially challenged Takagi to a title match, which Takagi accepted. Leading to the match, if Takagi retains the title against Suzuki he could tie Suzuki's record for the most title defenses.

In July 2020, Hirai Kawato made his return to NJPW from his excursion under the ring name "Master Wato", the mysterious "GrandMaster", who had been teased since June. Afterwards, he was attacked by DOUKI. On July 11, in his return match, Wato defeated DOUKI. After the match, DOUKI's Suzuki-gun stablemate Yoshinobu Kanemaru attacked Wato until Hiroyoshi Tenzan made the save. Over the following months, Wato and Tenzan began feuding with Suzuki-gun, culminating on August 10, NJPW announcing a match between Wato and Kanemaru for the August 29 event.

The tour also featured the inaugural KOPW 2020 tournament and the tournament to crown the new NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Champions. The tournament matches for the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship took place between August 6 and 9, while the KOPW tournament matches took place between August 26 and 29.

## Results

### Night 1

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### Night 2

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### Night 3

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### Night 4

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### Night 5

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### Night 6

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### Night 7

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### Night 8

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### Night 9

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
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### Night 10

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### Night 11

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### Night 12

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
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### Night 13

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match

### Night 14

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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match