At New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s King of Pro Wrestling event held on October 13, 2025, Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Jr. to become the new IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The championship match, which headlined the card in Tokyo, Japan, concluded a 31-minute battle between the two competitors.
Throughout the contest, Sabre Jr. put Takeshita in various submissions including his Zack Driver finisher multiple times. Despite this, Takeshita won the match with a Powerdrive Knee.
Takeshita’s championship opportunity was earned by winning this year’s G1 Climax tournament. Traditionally, the G1 winner challenges for the title at the main event of Wrestle Kingdom in January. However, Takeshita chose to challenge for the championship sooner, expressing his desire to walk into the Tokyo Dome event as the reigning champion.
Following his victory, Takeshita addressed the audience, acknowledging that some may be displeased with his current position, and he issued a challenge to anyone in the back who had an issue with him. The call was answered by former world champion Hirooki Goto, who holds a recent victory over Takeshita from this year’s G1 tournament. This confrontation has set the stage for a future championship match, though a specific date has not yet been announced.
Here are the results from the New Japan King of Pro-Wrestling event:
- Syuri defeated Sareee (c) in a Singles match for the IWGP Women’s Championship.
- Bullet Club War Dogs (David Finlay, Taiji Ishimori and Clark Connors) defeated Mushozoku (Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi and Titán) in a Six-man tag team match.
- Drilla Moloney defeated Sanada in a No disqualification, no count-out match.
- Bishamon (Hirooki Goto and Yoshi-Hashi) and Yoh defeated TMDK (Ryohei Oiwa, Hartley Jackson and Kosei Fujita) in a Six-man tag team match.
- El Phantasmo (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi ended in a time limit draw in a Singles match for the NJPW World Television Championship.
- Evil defeated Boltin Oleg (c) in a Singles match for the NEVER Openweight Championship.
- Knock Out Brothers (Yuto-Ice and Oskar) (c) defeated RoughStorm (Shota Umino and Yuya Uemura) in a Tag team match for the IWGP Tag Team Championship.
- Yota Tsuji defeated Gabe Kidd (c) in a Singles match for the IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship.
- Konosuke Takeshita defeated Zack Sabre Jr. (c) in a Singles match for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
