Nexess V (2005): WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Nishimura wrestled to a time-limit DRAW in 15:00 in the match billed as Fujinami's return at Nexess V on March 26, 2005. WrestleFile gave the opener C+ / 6.8. Neither Fujinami nor Nishimura is a credited winner, and this was not an IWGP title match. The drawn result anticipates another important draw closing this Ryōgoku Kokugikan show, when champion Satoshi Kojima retained the IWGP Heavyweight Championship because challenger Shinsuke Nakamura could not defeat him before the limit. Recording both draws separately is more accurate than treating every named veteran appearance as a victory.

Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue defeated Taiji Ishimori and Katsuhiko Nakajima in 10:54 in the second match of Nexess V 2005. WrestleFile scored the junior-oriented tag C+ / 6.5. Kanemoto and Inoue were the winning pair; Ishimori and Nakajima were opponents, and this match did not decide the IWGP junior team championship. By the following May Nexess VI event, Kanemoto and Inoue would be defending junior tag champions and lose the belts to C.T.U.'s Goto and Minoru. That later historical title result shouldn't be retroactively attached to this March non-title victory.

Tiger Mask, El Samurai and Masahito Kakihara defeated the masked C.T.U. team of CTU-L, CTU-G and CTU-T in 10:45 at Nexess V. The third match used a distinct trio of masked opponents, not the named Hirooki Goto and Minoru championship pairing later at Nexess VI. WrestleFile graded this March 26 six-person match C+ / 6.5. The saved sides identify Tiger Mask, Samurai and Kakihara as winners and all three masked C.T.U. identities as defeated participants. The outcome does not install a new IWGP junior tag champion, nor does it change the heavyweight singles championship held by Kojima later in the event.

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Yutaka Yoshie defeated Togi Makabe and Ryushi Yanagisawa in 7:13 at the March 2005 Ryōgoku Nexess V show. WrestleFile assigned C / 6.3 to this fourth-match tag result, one of the lower saved scores on the ten-contest program. Tanahashi's partner was Yoshie, while Makabe and Yanagisawa formed the opposing unit. No title transfer or new tournament winner is listed for this tag. Those developments are tracked elsewhere: Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Manabu Nakanishi and Masahiro Chono in separately recorded contender-program bouts, while the reigning IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kojima kept his belt through a time-limit draw.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Manabu Nakanishi in 12:17 in the IWGP Heavyweight Championship contender tournament semifinal listing at Nexess V. WrestleFile grades it B- / 7.3. The match mattered to Tenzan's contender route, but it did not grant him the championship because the incumbent Satoshi Kojima had a separate defense against Shinsuke Nakamura later that night. Tenzan also defeated Masahiro Chono in another contender semifinal listing on this card, a separate match that earned B+ / 8.0. The championship itself remained with Kojima through the closing time-limit draw, before Tenzan actually took the title in May at Nexess VI.

Hirooki Goto defeated Hiroyuki Ito in 9:55 to WIN the 2005 Young Lion Cup final at Nexess V in Ryōgoku. The sixth-match tournament result carried WrestleFile's C+ / 6.8. This victory crowned the Young Lion Cup winner, not a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion or the junior tag champions. Its competitive conclusion also contrasts with two different time-limit draws on the show: the opener involving Fujinami and Nishimura, and Kojima's successful heavyweight title retention against Shinsuke Nakamura in the main event. Goto's early tournament achievement is therefore a distinct historical result that should not be conflated with his later C.T.U. junior tag title win at May's Nexess VI.

Minoru Suzuki and Ron Waterman defeated Takashi Iizuka and Kensuke Sasaki in 14:03 in the seventh Nexess V contest on March 26, 2005. WrestleFile gave the two-on-two meeting C+ / 6.8. Suzuki and Waterman were the winning side, with Iizuka and Sasaki the losing partners. The event ledger does not list this as a title bout, so it should not be described as a heavyweight tag championship defense or a new champion crowned. Contender semifinal matches involving Hiroyoshi Tenzan happened around the same stretch, and the actual IWGP Heavyweight Championship remained with Satoshi Kojima following the time-limit draw against Nakamura.

Tsuyoshi Kohsaka defeated Yuji Nagata by TECHNICAL KNOCKOUT in 4:41 in the eighth match at the 2005 Ryōgoku Nexess V show. WrestleFile graded it C+ / 6.6, and the specific TKO ending distinguishes the bout from a generic wrestling pinfall, submission or referee's decision. Kohsaka was the documented winner and Nagata the losing opponent. The short fight took place before the high-scoring Tenzan-Chono contender semifinal and the championship main event, which ended in a draw. No championship changed through this stoppage, and importing May's title switch between Tenzan and Kojima would confuse the two separate Nexess dates.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan defeated Masahiro Chono in 19:02 in the IWGP Heavyweight contender tournament semifinal listing at Nexess V. WrestleFile's B+ / 8.0 makes this penultimate contest one of the card's best scored matches, but it did not itself confer the IWGP Heavyweight title. Tenzan had also defeated Manabu Nakanishi in another named semifinal bout, and champion Satoshi Kojima retained the actual belt against Shinsuke Nakamura when the following match finished in a time-limit draw. Tenzan's real championship WIN over Kojima belonged to the next Nexess VI event in May 2005, not this March contender-result victory.

The main event of NJPW Nexess V put IWGP Heavyweight Champion Satoshi Kojima opposite Shinsuke Nakamura with the title at stake. The wrestlers went the full sixty-minute time limit, and the championship remained with Kojima after the draw. That is a very different outcome from a decisive defense: Nakamura did not pin Kojima, and Kojima did not score a fall over the challenger. The sixty-minute duration occupied the final match of the ten-bout card and provided the show with a genuine endurance test. The historical result source documents the draw explicitly, so the review should not infer an unrecorded finish, sudden stoppage or title vacancy after the bell.

The B+ grade and 8.4 score reflect the scale of a full-hour heavyweight championship contest and its central place on the card. Kojima carried the title into a meeting with a younger star who represented an important direction for New Japan’s heavyweight division. The draw kept the champion in possession of the belt while leaving the challenger without a clear defeat, a practical difference from a clean pinfall conclusion. That unfinished sporting question gives the match a specific identity beyond duration alone. It was the final event attraction, not a preliminary tour contest, and the unusual length made the title decision one of the defining elements of the show.