NJPW Fantastica Mania 2018 Night One Results, Naito Says He's Bigger Than IWGP Title (Photo)

By Joshua Gagnon

- Above are the first two matches from today's NJPW's Fantastica Mania 2018 show featuring stars from CMLL. Night two and three are on January 21 and 22, both beginning at 4:30am / 1:30am PT live on NJPW World.

- Earlier today at Fantastica Mania, Cuatrero took the CMLL Middleweight Title away from Angel de Oro, Sobernaro Jr. retained the Mexican Welterweight Title against Sanson, and in the main event, Neibla Roja retained the CMLL Light Heavyweight Title against Gran Guerrero. Below are the full results:

* Okumura defeated Fuego
* BUSHI, Rush, Hiromu Takahashi, and Tetsuya Naito defeated Dragon Lee, Hirai Kawato, Satoshi Kojima, and Star Jr.
* Atlantis, Drone, Mistico, and Volador Jr. defeated Barbaro Cavernario, Puma, Disturbio, and Ultimo Guerrero
* Cuatrero defeated Champion Angel de Oro (c) (CMLL Middleweight Championship)
* Sobernaro Jr. (c) defeated Sanson (Mexican Welterweight Championship)
* Neibla Roja (c) defeated Gran Guerrero (CMLL Light Heavyweight Championship)

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- A couple days ago, NJPW stars accepted their 2017 Tokyo Awards, which featured Tetsuya Naito winning pro wrestling MVP for the second year in a row. He's only the fifth to achieve this joining: Antonio Inoki, Jumbo Tsuruta, Genichiro Tenryu, and Kazuchika Okada. In the photo below you can see Naito putting his foot on the newly won award. Despite Kazuchika Okada holding the IWGP Heavyweight Championship for the entire year, Naito said winning MVP again shows he's bigger than the IWGP Heavyweight Championship.

"Representing New Japan Pro Wrestling and Los Ingobernables de Japon, your Tokyo Sports MVP is Tetsuya Naito. I'd like to thank the Tokyo Sports editorial board for naming me MVP," Naito said. "A lot of people saw me and Los Ingobernables de Japon as a flash in the pan, that just as quickly as we got popular, it'd all be over. Yet here I am, only the fifth in history to win this award two years straight. And I did this in a year where the IWGP champion held his belt from start to finish. What that means is that I exist on another plane. It means that Tetsuya Naito is bigger than the IWGP Championship. That's not arrogance talking; that's something that I've proven to everyone."

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