Stipulation set for last NJPW KOPW title match of 2024

A fan vote has determined the stipulation for NJPW’s last KOPW Championship match of 2024.

The official KOPW Champion for this year will be decided when Great-O-Khan defends against Taichi at NJPW’s Road to Tokyo Dome show on Sunday, December 22. After champion and challenger each proposed a stipulation option, fans have voted for it to be a “Best of Taichi KOPW Two out of Three Falls Match.”

Each fall will be contested under different rules:

• Fall one: No ropes sumo match (wrestler who throws their opponent out of the ring wins)
• Fall two: Yoshinobu Kanemaru special referee match
• Fall three: Last Man Standing lumberjack match

Win or lose, Taichi has said this will be the last time he ever competes for the KOPW (King of Pro Wrestling) title. He was the official champion for 2023, while O-Khan has held the championship for most of 2024. The title resets at the end of every year with a new provisional champion set to be crowned at the start of 2025.

In storyline, Taichi randomly drew from his past KOPW title matches to create the rules for this two-out-of-three falls bout. A complicating factor for the second fall is that he and Kanemaru are no longer aligned after Kanemaru betrayed Taichi and joined House of Torture in September 2023.

The December 22 Road to Tokyo Dome event is taking place from Korakuen Hall and will air live on NJPW World. O-Khan vs. Taichi will be the main event.

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