Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni (2021)

Promotional poster for the event, featuring caricatures of several NJPW wrestlers

## Information

### Date

02021-04-28-0000April 28, 2021
02021-04-29-0000April 29, 2021

### Attendance

Night 1:
1,055
Night 2:
1,701

### City

Kagoshima, Japan

**Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni (2021)** was a professional wrestling event promoted by New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW). The event took place on two nights April 28 and 29, 2021, in Kagoshima at Nishihara Shokai Arena. Both nights featured six matches, with the first night featuring two of which were contested for championships. The first night was headlined by Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) and the second night was headlined by Golden☆Ace (Kota Ibushi and Hiroshi Tanahashi) facing United Empire (Aaron Henare and Jeff Cobb). This was the first event under the Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni name.

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

## Production

### 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.

### Storylines

Wrestling Satsuma no Kuni 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.

The first night of event was main event by Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship against Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru). On August 27, 2020, Roppongi 3K (Sho and Yoh) were forced to vacate the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship, after Yoh was sidelined with a knee injury. On March 21, 2021, Yoh made his return from injury, challenging Suzuki-gun (El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru) to a title match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on behalf of Roppongi 3K. This led to on April 4 at Sakura Genisis, Yoh and Sho defeating Desperado and Kanemaru to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship for the fifth time. Following the match, Yoh challenged Desperado to a title match for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. Afterwards, in a post-match interview, Desperado accepted Yoh's challenged on the condition that Roppongi 3K gave them a rematch for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

The event also included a title match for the provional KOPW 2021 Championship, with Toru Yano making his second title defense against EVIL. in February, Bullet Club began feuding with the CHAOS stable. On March 16, Bullet Club's EVIL eliminated CHAOS' Toru Yano in the quarterfinals of the 2021 New Japan Cup, following the interference of Dick Togo, who turned out the lights in *Korakuen Hall*. At Sakura Genesis, Yano got some revenge on Togo by placing a blindfold him to pick up the win for his team. On April 11, NJPW announced the proposed stipulations for the match with EVIL proposing a Darkness match and Yano a Creation of Darkness Blindfold match. This led to on April 18, NJPW announcing that Yano had won the fan vote by a margin of 51.58% to 48.42%. On April 20, after a tag team match between EVIL and Yano, EVIL spray-paintied Yano's KOPW trophy.

The event also included the feud between the United Empire and *Los Ingobernables de Japón*, following a storyline between United Empire's members Great-O-Khan and Will Ospreay and *Los Ingobernables de Japón* members Tetsuya Naito and Shingo Takagi.

## Results

### Night 1

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6

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

### Night 2

 2
 3
 4
 5
 6

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

## External links

* The official New Japan Pro Wrestling website