Hiroyoshi Tenzan announces final opponent ahead of retirement match
Hiroyoshi Tenzan has announced who he will face in his final match.
Prior to the start of today’s G1 Climax 36 show in Sapporo, Tenzan addressed the live crowd and revealed that he will face his longtime tag team partner Satoshi Kojima in his retirement match on August 15.
“I wanted one more singles match with a tag partner, sometimes opponent and close friend,” Tenzan said.
NJPW G1 Climax 36 on August 15, 2026
NJPW’s August 15, 2026, event is scheduled for Ryogoku Sumo Hall in Tokyo. The show will also feature the semifinals of the G1 Climax tournament, with the finals taking place on Sunday, August 16, at the same venue.
NJPW wrote:
“Dojo contemporaries, Tenzan and Kojima trained with one another in the Noge Dojo, and while Tenzan would get to debut six months ahead of Kojima, the two would wrestle in Kojima’s debut match on July 16, 1991. Both would win the Young Lion Cup and go on excursions as a result, with Kojima facing Tenzan on his 1996 return from excursion in the Tokyo Dome.
Between nWo Japan, Team 2000 and then on separate rosters in New and All Japan, TenCozy became best friends and better enemies. The two have held the IWGP Tag Team Championships six times, and battled fiercely with famous matches happening in Ryogoku in 2005, where Kojima beat Tenzan to lift both the AJPW Triple Crown and the IWGP heavyweight Championships, and in the 2006 G1 Climax final, when a terrifying Original TTD saw Tenzan to his third trophy.
The only duo to ever main event in the Tokyo Dome both as singles opponents, at Nexess VI in 2005, and as a tag team at Wrestle Kingdom 1 in 2007, these two legends will do battle for five more minutes August 15!”
Ian Carey is a writer from Toronto, Ontario, Canada, whose work has been featured in NOW Magazine, The Huffington Post, and more. A lifelong wrestling aficionado born in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, he has covered the industry for a decade and a half. He joined the f4wonline.com team in 2019.