Toukon Souzou New Chapter 2005: WrestleFile Historical Verdict

Tatsumi Fujinami and Osamu Nishimura defeated Riki Choshu and Tomohiro Ishii in 8:37 to open Toukon Souzou New Chapter on October 8, 2005 at Tokyo Dome. The pairing puts Fujinami beside Nishimura and Choshu beside Ishii, rather than making this a singles confrontation between the veteran names. WrestleFile graded the opener C+ / 6.5. None of the four won the IWGP Heavyweight Championship here, which changed only in the later triple-threat final when Brock Lesnar defeated the defending Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono. This early win is useful for the lineup and event chronology without assigning an unlisted title or method of victory.

Tatsuhito Takaiwa and Yoshihito Sasaki defeated Koji Kanemoto and Wataru Inoue in 9:03 in the second match of the October 2005 Tokyo Dome special. WrestleFile scored the four-person tag C+ / 6.5, a supporting result with no championship transfer attached. Takaiwa and Sasaki are the winning team; Kanemoto and Inoue the losing side. Later on the card, C.T.U.'s Hirooki Goto and Minoru defended the junior tag belts against the unrelated team of Negro Casas and Felino, while Black Tiger took the junior singles title from Tiger Mask. Those independent junior outcomes shouldn't be borrowed to describe this earlier tag result.

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Takashi Iizuka, Naofumi Yamamoto and Yutaka Yoshie defeated Shinjiro Otani, Kohei Sato, Ryouji Sai and Kamikaze in 15:05. This third match of Toukon Souzou New Chapter was a four-on-four team result, and WrestleFile graded it C+ / 6.8. The full eight-person lineup is necessary to distinguish Tenzan's winning unit from the group led by Otani. The bout did not determine either the IWGP heavyweight singles or junior heavyweight title. Those belts changed later in a three-way involving Lesnar and in Black Tiger's victory over Tiger Mask, respectively. No unreported tournament stakes or finish are established for this match.

C.T.U. champions Hirooki Goto and Minoru defeated Negro Casas and Felino in 10:11 to RETAIN the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on October 8, 2005. WrestleFile graded the match C+ / 6.9. Goto and Minoru were defending team titleholders, not challengers, and the Mexican visitors Casas and Felino did not take the belts. This result needs to stand apart from Black Tiger's later individual IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship win over Tiger Mask, another championship in a different division format. The evening also concluded with a third championship story, Brock Lesnar winning the IWGP Heavyweight singles belt in the three-person final.

Kendo Kashin and Manabu Nakanishi, billed as Team JAPAN, defeated Charlie Haas and Mark Jindrak in 9:41 in a special former-WWE crossover tag at Toukon Souzou New Chapter 2005. WrestleFile gave this fifth contest C+ / 6.5. Kashin partnered Nakanishi on the winning side, while Haas and Jindrak were the visitors on the losing team. The bout was a distinct two-on-two encounter rather than the next Team JAPAN singles match, where Matt Morgan defeated Yuji Nagata. Neither this special tag nor that later singles result decided the IWGP junior or heavyweight championship changes that took place toward the end of the Tokyo Dome program.

Matt Morgan defeated Yuji Nagata in 7:00 in the sixth contest of Toukon Souzou New Chapter, another special Team JAPAN-versus-former-WWE pairing. WrestleFile's C / 6.3 is lower than the C+ / 6.5 assigned to the preceding Kendo Kashin-Manabu Nakanishi victory over Charlie Haas and Mark Jindrak. Morgan was the winner and Nagata the opponent; the source does not give a more specific ending and no title was transferred through this singles result. The card's major championship consequences lay elsewhere: Black Tiger won the IWGP junior singles title from Tiger Mask, and Brock Lesnar became IWGP Heavyweight champion in the three-way main event.

Black Tiger defeated Tiger Mask in 12:01 in the title-versus-title junior singles match at Toukon Souzou New Chapter. Black Tiger entered as NWA World Junior Heavyweight Champion while Tiger Mask was the incumbent IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion; the saved result identifies Black Tiger as the NEW IWGP titleholder after the contest. WrestleFile graded it B- / 7.4. The record does not establish an additional NWA title transfer to Tiger Mask. This championship switch differed from C.T.U.'s successful IWGP junior team defense earlier and from Brock Lesnar's later heavyweight singles title acquisition in a three-person final. Keeping the exact lineage and champion identities clear is essential to the October 2005 results.

Shinsuke Nakamura and Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Toshiaki Kawada and Yoji Anjo in 18:11 in the penultimate match of the October 8, 2005 Tokyo Dome event. WrestleFile graded the featured crossover tag B- / 7.4, equal to Black Tiger's junior championship victory immediately before it but with no reported title change of its own. Nakamura and Tanahashi were the winning duo; Kawada and Anjo were their opponents. Nakamura would later challenge Brock Lesnar for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship in January 2006, but on this card Lesnar had not yet won the title until the main event. This tag victory shouldn't be treated as Nakamura winning that future singles championship.

Brock Lesnar defeated incumbent IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuyuki Fujita and Masahiro Chono in an 8:05 three-way to WIN the title in the Toukon Souzou New Chapter main event on October 8, 2005. WrestleFile assigned B / 7.5 to the match. Lesnar entered as challenger against TWO opponents; this wasn't a singles win against only Fujita or a successful Lesnar title defense. The three-way installed a new champion and provided the reign that continued into Lesnar's separate January 2006 defense against Shinsuke Nakamura. The card also had a junior title change when Black Tiger defeated Tiger Mask, while C.T.U. retained its distinct IWGP junior tag championship against Casas and Felino.