NJPW Invasion Tour 2011

**NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast** was the first American tour run by Japanese professional wrestling promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) in May 2011. The tour was hosted by Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) and featured all of NJPW's top wrestlers, matches for three of the promotion's four championships and the introduction of a new fifth title.

## Background

The tour was first announced on October 3, 2010, when American promotion Jersey All Pro Wrestling (JAPW) announced it had reached a deal with NJPW to host the promotion's first ever shows in the country. NJPW officially announced the "NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast" tour on January 4, 2011, during Wrestle Kingdom V in Tokyo Dome, announcing that the events would be taking place on May 13 in Rahway, New Jersey, May 14 in New York City and May 15 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. NJPW also announced that during the tour the promotion would introduce its fifth active title, the IWGP Intercontinental Championship. Most of the wrestlers taking part in the tour were NJPW regulars, however, several JAPW workers, who were not regulars with NJPW, also took part in the tour; namely Charlie Haas, Dan Maff, Homicide, Josh Daniels, Low Ki and Rhino. Daniels was a late replacement for a NJPW regular Tama Tonga, who was sidelined with an injury. Hideo Saito and Kazuchika Okada, two NJPW contracted wrestlers, who were at the time on learning excursions to Puerto Rico and American Total Nonstop Action Wrestling (TNA) respectively, also returned to take part in the tour. The official cards for the events were released on May 4. The day before the start of the tour, NJPW held a press conference at the Ramada hotel in Newark, New Jersey. The conference mainly featured wrestlers talking about their feelings about working in the United States, but also featured a storyline development, where Rhino interrupted Togi Makabe and threatened to destroy him, setting up a storyline rivalry between the two, which lasted for the entire tour. Workers at the hotel were reportedly not in on the storyline interruption and were close to calling the police. In Japan, the tour was broadcast on tape delay by Fighting TV Samurai in two two-hour specials. The first concentrated on the IWGP Intercontinental Championship tournament and the second on the other big matches of the tour.

## Information

### City

Rahway, New Jersey, United States

The first event on the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast tour took place on May 13, 2011, at the Rahway Recreation Center in Rahway, New Jersey. The event featured eight matches and was the only event on the tour to not include any championship matches. The event included all four first round matches in the IWGP Intercontinental Championship tournament, which saw Yujiro Takahashi advance over Hideo Saito, Tetsuya Naito advance over Josh Daniels, Toru Yano advance over Dan Maff and MVP advance over Kazuchika Okada. In the main event tag team match, Charlie Haas and Rhino defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and Togi Makabe with Rhino pinning Makabe, building up the storyline rivalry between the two and also a future IWGP Heavyweight Championship match between Tanahashi and Haas.

## Information

### City

New York City, New York, United States

The second event on the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast tour took place on May 14, 2011, at Basketball City in New York City, New York. Prior to being announced at Basketball City, the event was scheduled to be held in Brooklyn. The event featured eight matches, two of which were contested for championships. The event also featured semifinals in the IWGP Intercontinental Championship tournament, which saw Toru Yano defeat Yujiro Takahashi and MVP defeat Tetsuya Naito. Following his match, MVP was attacked by Yano to build up the following day's tournament final. In the first title match of the event, Prince Devitt made his seventh successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against former champion Low Ki. In the main event of the evening, Hiroshi Tanahashi made his fourth successful defense of the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against former WWE wrestler Charlie Haas. This marked the second time NJPW's top title had been defended in the United States, ten years after Scott Norton had made the original title defense.

## Information

### City

Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States

The third and final event on the NJPW Invasion Tour 2011: Attack on East Coast tour took place on May 15, 2011, at the Asylum Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The event featured eight matches, three of which were contested for championships. The first title match of the event was contested for Jersey All Pro Wrestling's (JAPW) Light Heavyweight Championship, which NJPW wrestler Jushin Thunder Liger had captured the previous December. In the match Kenny Omega, a regular for both JAPW and NJPW, defeated Liger to become the new champion. Following the fourth match, Lance Archer made his NJPW debut by attacking Satoshi Kojima. Kojima was saved by MVP, who suggested the two should form a tag team together. This played on a NJPW storyline from earlier in the month, when members of the Kojima-gun stable had turned on Kojima and appointed Minoru Suzuki as the leader of the new Suzuki-gun stable. MVP was a member of Kojima-gun, but had not chosen sides in the conflict up until the event. In the second title match of the event, Apollo 55 (Prince Devitt and Ryusuke Taguchi) made their fifth successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against the Strong Style Thugz (Homicide and Low Ki). In the third title match of the event, MVP defeated Toru Yano in the finals of a tournament to become the inaugural IWGP Intercontinental Champion. The event concluded with a hardcore rules match between Rhino and Togi Makabe, playing off the history of the former ECW Arena. Makabe ended up winning the final match of the tour over the former ECW and WWE wrestler.

## Aftermath

MVP held the IWGP Intercontinental Championship for five months and successfully defended it twice in rematches against Toru Yano, before being defeated by Masato Tanaka on October 10, 2011, at Destruction '11. Following the Invasion Tour, Prince Devitt held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for another month, before losing it to Kota Ibushi in his eighth defense on June 18 at Dominion 6.18. Apollo 55 held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for another five months and successfully defended it two more times, before losing it to the No Remorse Corps (Davey Richards and Rocky Romero) at Destruction '11.

Following the Invasion Tour, JAPW stopped promoting shows due to the heavy financial losses caused by the tour. The promotion eventually returned, however, only promoting one anniversary show per year. Five of the six JAPW regulars who took part in the tour did not make another appearance for NJPW. The only exception was Low Ki, who joined NJPW in April 2012, and concluded his return tour by defeating Prince Devitt for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship on May 3 at Wrestling Dontaku 2012, in a rematch of their title match in New York City. Lance Archer, however, did become a regular for NJPW following the tour, joining Suzuki-gun and winning the 2011 G1 Tag League at the end of the year alongside the stable's leader, Minoru Suzuki. Hideo Saito ended his excursion with the tour and returned to NJPW at Dominion 6.18, attacking Yuji Nagata and joining the CHAOS stable. Kazuchika Okada meanwhile returned to Total Nonstop Action Wrestling and did not return to NJPW until January 2012. Repackaged as the "Rainmaker", Okada received a strong push and just a month later at The New Beginning defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi to end his thirteen-month reign as the IWGP Heavyweight Champion and become the new champion in what NJPW called the "upset of the century".

NJPW eventually returned to the United States in May 2014, now working alongside the Ring of Honor (ROH) promotion.

## References

1. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2010-10-03. New Japan Pro Wrestling comes to the U.S. . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Archived from the original on 2010-10-06. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
2. ↑ Johnson, Mike 2010-10-03. New Japan Pro Wrestling to run Northeast United States . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
3. ↑ *ja:レッスルキングダムⅤ ｉｎ 東京ドーム* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 Caldwell, James 2011-01-05. NJPW News: New Japan to introduce new title on U.S. tour, officially announces dates & venues for "Invasion" tour . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 Johnson, Mike 2011-01-04. New Japan announces dates and cities for American tour . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
6. ↑ 新王座も設立！ 「NJPW Invasion Tour 2011 ～Attack on East Coast～」開催!!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2011-01-05). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Johnson, Mike 2011-01-05. New Japan to institute new belt in United States, NYC location and more NJPW in the States news . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
8. ↑ ニューヨーク遠征のカードが続々決定!! 棚橋はチャーリー・ハースとIWGP戦! ジュニアタッグ防衛戦も決定!!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2011-05-06). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
9. ↑ Martin, Adam 2011-04-08. Indy News #2: Chikara, NJPW, Wrestling on GFL . *Wrestleview*. Archived from the original on 2011-04-13. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
10. ↑ New Japan News: IWGP Hvt. Title to be defended in U.S. next weekend, dream matches announced for Invasion tour, updated May 13-15 line-ups . *Pro Wrestling Torch* (2011-05-04). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
11. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2011-05-04. Wed. update: New Japan U.S. tour ads hot matches, WWE injury, UFC surprise injury, Edge Syfy gig . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Archived from the original on 2014-03-05. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
12. ↑ 12.0 12.1 12.2 12.3 Johnson, Mike 2011-05-12. Complete coverage of New Japan press conference: MVP promises Intercontinental victory, Rhino storms the conference and more  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
13. ↑ ja:新日本プロレス (in Japanese). *Fighting TV Samurai*. Archived from the original on 2011-07-28. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 14.3 14.4 14.5 14.6 14.7 14.8 *ja:初日から大熱狂も、真壁がライノに敗戦! 新設ベルト争奪戦は？ 5.13ニュージャージー大会詳細アップ!!* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2011-05-14). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
15. ↑ 15.0 15.1 15.2 15.3 15.4 15.5 15.6 15.7 Johnson, Mike 2011-05-13. Complete New Japan Pro Wrestling in Rahway, NJ live report: IWGP IC title tournament, Ki and Homicide vs. Liger and Tiger Mask, Rhino and Haas vs. Tanahashi and Makabe and more . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
16. ↑ 16.0 16.1 16.2 16.3 16.4 16.5 16.6 Martin, Adam 2011-05-14. 5/13 New Japan Pro Wrestling Results: Rahway, NJ . *Wrestleview*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
17. ↑ 17.00 17.01 17.02 17.03 17.04 17.05 17.06 17.07 17.08 17.09 17.10 *ja:夜の摩天楼で奏でる渾身のエアギター！棚橋がＣ・ハースをハイフライ葬！ 大熱狂のニューヨーク大会2日目詳報！* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2011-05-15). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
18. ↑ 18.0 18.1 18.2 18.3 18.4 18.5 18.6 18.7 18.8 Johnson, Mike 2011-05-14. Complete New Japan Pro Wrestling in NYC debut live coverage . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
19. ↑ 19.0 19.1 19.2 19.3 19.4 19.5 19.6 19.7 19.8 19.9 Martin, Adam 2011-05-15. 5/14 New Japan Pro Wrestling Results: New York . *Wrestleview*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
20. ↑ 20.00 20.01 20.02 20.03 20.04 20.05 20.06 20.07 20.08 20.09 20.10 20.11 20.12 Apollo55がフィラデルフィアの悪童コンビに快勝！ 真壁がハードコアの殿堂で咆哮！5.15アサイラム・アリーナ大会結果!!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2011-05-16). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
21. ↑ 21.00 21.01 21.02 21.03 21.04 21.05 21.06 21.07 21.08 21.09 21.10 21.11 Johnson, Mike 2011-05-15. Complete coverage of New Japan's debut at ECW Arena with an awesome show . *Pro Wrestling Insider*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
22. ↑ 22.00 22.01 22.02 22.03 22.04 22.05 22.06 22.07 22.08 22.09 22.10 22.11 Martin, Adam 2011-05-16. 5/15 New Japan Pro Wrestling Results: Philly, PA . *Wrestleview*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
23. ↑ *ja:レスリングどんたく 2011* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
24. ↑ Caldwell, James 2011-05-15. NJPW News: MVP becomes first-ever IWGP Intercontinental champion Sunday capping off "Invasion" tour . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
25. ↑ Caldwell, James 2011-07-18. NJPW News: Result of MVP's latest IWGP IC Title defense Monday, former WWE star challenges for IWGP Hvt. Title . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
26. ↑ 26.0 26.1 Destruction '11  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
27. ↑ Dominion 6.18  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
28. ↑ Meltzer, Dave 2015-09-24. JAPW promoter Fat Frank Iadevaia passes away . *Wrestling Observer Newsletter*. Retrieved on 2015-09-24.
29. ↑ "謎の男"の正体は、ロウ・キーだった!! 『YouTube』でプリンス・デヴィットに宣戦布告!!  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2012-04-03). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
30. ↑ Caldwell, James 2012-04-09. Low-Ki returning to Japan; ROH Champ to defend tag titles . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
31. ↑ NJPW 40th anniversary レスリングどんたく 2012  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
32. ↑ Caldwell, James 2012-05-03. Low Ki captures title in Japan . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
33. ↑ Caldwell, James 2011-05-16. NJPW News: MVP's first IWGP IC Title defense announced, Lance Hoyt part of next New Japan PPV . *Pro Wrestling Torch*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
34. ↑ G1 Tag League 2011  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
35. ↑ Dominion 6.18  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
36. ↑ NJPW 40th anniversary Tour. レッスルキングダムⅥ in 東京ドーム  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
37. ↑ The New Beginning  (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling*. Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
38. ↑ *ja:基本技に光を照らした超新星オカダ* (in Japanese). *Tokyo Sports* (2012-12-14). Retrieved on 2014-02-23.
39. ↑ *ja:今年5月、新日本プロレスが北米再上陸!! ROHとの共同開催で、5月10日カナダ、17日ニューヨーク大会が決定!!* (in Japanese). *New Japan Pro Wrestling* (2014-02-24). Retrieved on 2015-08-20.