NJPW Wrestling World 2001 01/04/2001 DVD

After the IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kensuke Sasaki lost a non title match to rival promotion AJPW's Ace Toshiaki Kawada on 10/9/00 in a sold out Tokyo Dome, he refused to accept the championship. He felt he was not worthy to hold the top prize in New Japan after losing to an outsider. NJPW had a chance at redemption when two of their rising stars Yuji Nagata and Takashi Iizuka faced AJPW's Toshiaki Kawada and Masanobu Fuchi on 12/14/00 in one of my favorite tag matches of all time. Unfortunately for New Japan their chance at redemption fell just out of reach when the match was stopped at the 30 minute mark after reaching the time limit. As the year 2000 ends, the year 2001 begins with another sold out Tokyo Dome and a tournament to crown a new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Also on the show Keiji Mutoh returns sporting a brand new look with a bald head and soon to grow in his trademark goatee, Shinya Hashimoto makes one of his last appearances in New Japan as he is leaving to start his own promotion Zero-1, and this is the last show featuring Riki Choshu with full control of the booking. This show is seen as a turning point in a lot of ways with a lot of the major stars leaving soon after and the long time booker stepping down.

IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
Kensuke Sasaki vs. Satoshi Kojima

IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament First Round Match
Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Yuji Nagata

Koji Kanemoto & Minoru Tanaka vs. Shinya Makabe & Tatsuhito Takaiwa

Kendo Kashin vs. Takashi Iizuka

IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match
(Winner of Kensuke vs Kojima) vs. Masahiro Chono

IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament Semi Final Match
(Winner of Tenzan vs Nagata) vs. Toshiaki Kawada

Keiji Muto & Shinjiro Otani vs. Jushin Thunder Liger & Manabu Nakanishi

Riki Choshu vs. Shinya Hashimoto

IWGP Heavyweight Title Tournament Final Match for the Vacant IWGP Heavyweight Title