Summer Struggle (2021)

Promotional poster for the tour featuring various NJPW Wrestlers and Red Shoes Unno

## Information

### Date

July 10, 2021
July 11, 2021
July 13, 2021
July 14, 2021
July 17, 2021
July 19, 2021
July 22, 2021
July 23, 2021
July 24, 2021
July 27, 2021
July 30, 2021
July 31, 2021
August 1, 2021
August 7, 2021
August 8, 2021
August 9, 2021
August 10, 2021
August 14, 2021
August 15, 2021
August 16, 2021
August 17, 2021
August 24, 2021
August 25, 2021
August 26, 2021
August 27, 2021

### Attendance

1,542 (July 10)
2,172 (July 11)
1,008 (July 13)
715 (July 14)
687 (July 17)
542 (July 19)
1,490 (July 22)
1,804 (July 23)
1,786 (July 24)
454 (July 27)
550 (July 30)
637 (July 31)
690 (August 1)
483 (August 8)
435 (August 9)
759 (August 10)
921 (August 14)
506 (August 15)
380 (August 16)
428 (August 17)
291 (August 24)
279 (August 25)
277 (August 26)
580 (August 27)

### Venue

Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena
(July 10–11)
Nices Arena
(July 14)
 Korakuen Hall
(July 17; July 27–August 9;August 16–August 27)
Ryugasaki City General Gymnasium
(July 19)
Osaka Prefectural Gym
(July 22–23)
Yokohama Budokan
(August 10)
White Ring
(August 14)
Fujisan Messe
(August 15)

### City

Hokkaido, Japan
(July 10–11)
Sendai, Japan
(July 17)
Tokyo, Japan
(July 17; July 27–August 9; August 29)
Ibaraki, Japan (July 19)
Osaka, Japan
(August 22-23)
Yokohama, Japan
(August 10)
Nagano, Japan
(August 14)
Shizuoka, Japan
(August 15)

**Summer Struggle** was a professional wrestling tour, produced by the Japanese New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) promotion. The tour would take place between July 10 and August 27, 2021, with shows taking place in Tokyo, Shizuoka, Osaka, Sendai, Hokkaido, Yokohama and Nagano.

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 El Desperado defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Taiji Ishimori and the Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr.) defending the IWGP Tag Team Championship against *Los Ingobernables de Japón* (Tetsuya Naito and SANADA). This was the thirteen tour under the *Summer Struggle* name.

## Production

### Background

The tour was announced on June 11, 2021, it was also announced that movie of Godzilla vs Kong would be the sponsor of the Summer Struggle and Kizuna Road events. The last time the tour was held was in 2020 after being announced on June 15, 2020, during the *Together Project Special*, which was NJPW's first event following the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

#### Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic

The event was originally to take place on June 6, 2021. 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 2020, 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. Since the start of the pandemic 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. NJPW resume promoting shows in June being held behind closed doors, until the finals of the 2020 New Japan Cup with a limited capacity after the Japanese Government lifted some restrictions in many regions in Japan.

On May 4, on the second night of Wrestling Dontaku, NJPW announced that two wrestlers complain of a fever at the beginning of the show, leading them to undergo examinations and a PCR test. The following day, NJPW announced that those two wrestlers had tested positive for COVID-19. On May 7, the Japanese government announced an extension to the state of emergency currently in place in Tokyo and other prefectures, leading NJPW to announce the postponement of the Wrestle Grand Slam. Two days later, NJPW reported seven more positive cases upon further testing. Upon the positive cases and the State of Emergency, NJPW was forced on June 2 to postpone the event from June 6 to June 7. On July 10, it was announced that Kota Ibushi would miss the first night of the tour due to side effects of his COVID-19 vaccination. On August 15, NJPW announced that BUSHI and Shingo Takagi were going to miss the show due to both having a fever with both undergoing PCR tests to futher more Tetsuya Naito, EVIL, SANADA, Yujiro Takahashi, Gedo and Dick Togo would miss the August 16 and 17 shows after tracing contact with them.

## Results

### Night 1

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

### Night 2

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

### Night 3

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

### Night 4

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

### Night 5

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

### Night 6

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

### Night 7

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

### Night 8

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

### Night 9

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

### Night 10

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

### Night 11

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

### Night 12

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

### 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

### Night 15

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

### Night 16

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

### Night 17

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

### Night 18

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

### Night 19

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

### Night 20

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

### Night 21

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

### Night 22

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

### Night 23

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

### Night 24

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

### Night 25

 2
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* (c) – refers to the champion(s) heading into the match
* – refers to the video of that match