At the end of October, 2004, New Japan showed off some of it's exceptional young talent with a one night U-30 tag team tournament, stressing openweight (heavyweight/junior) tandems. It would come down to Tanahashi vs. Nakamura in the final, New Japan's great young hopes leading their junior heavyweight partners and facing off.
U-30 One Night Tag Tournament (10/30/04)
Semi Final: Shinsuke Nakamura & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Katsuyori Shibata & Hirooki Goto (11:44) when Nakamura used a reverse cross armbreaker on Goto.
Semi Final: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Taiji Ishimori beat Blue Wolf & Katsuhiko Nakajima (13:30) when Tanahashi used a German suplex hold on Nakajima.
Final: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Taiji Ishimori beat Shinsuke Nakamura & Ryusuke Taguchi (14:49) when Ishimori used a Superstar elbow on Taguchi.