Due to scheduled international travel that ultimately will take me to Japan and South Korea for the first time in my life, there will be a lengthy pause in site activity in the near future. This pause will begin on April 30, 2025 and is tentatively scheduled to run until May 19, 2025 as I expect to have limited internet connectivity at best (and wi-fi won’t be the best for what I have to pay for) and with time differences & travel I won’t be able to keep up with events. Scheduling sucks because travel & connections mean I’ll miss out on chances to attend some major live events (I arrive in Tokyo just after Pro Wrestling NOAH’s 5/3 blowout event wraps up and I’ll just miss out on Dragon Gate’s annual 5/5 blowout event in Nagoya, plus I won’t be near Tokyo for sumo near the end of my trip) and I’ll be 16 hours ahead of my normal time zone. If all goes as planned, normal updates will resume on May 19, 2025. Apologies in advance for any disruptions because I know I will miss a lot of major events.
DDT 4/3/25 Results
DDT ran their now-monthly “Meet & Greet & Fight” event today in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage in Tokyo and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.
The paid attendance was not announced.
The show started with the now-usual NwA Jr. perofrmance as they are now DDT’s version of Up Up Girls. During which…
Kazuma Sumi beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Yuni to win the title. Sumi becomes the 1739th Champion.
And then…
Yuni beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Kazuma Sumi to win the title. Yuni becomes the 1740th Champion.
And right after that…
Shunma Katsumata beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Yuno to win the title. Katsumata becomes the 1741st Champion.
Match 1: Illusion beat Yuni.
Match 2: Kazuki Hirata beat Mecha To-y.
Match 3: HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya beat Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida. Naya pinned Ishida after a chokeslam.
Main Event: Keigo Nakamura & Yuya Koroku beat Takeshi Masada & Kazuma Sumi. Nakamura pinned Sumi.
The next event is Sunday at Korakuen Hall with Chris Brookes vs. Koroku for the KO-D Openweight Championship, a KO-D Tag Team Championship match and the return of Naomi Yoshimura after 2 1/2 years out due to injuries. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese will begin Saturday at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET and likely will include a pre-show match scheduled for 7:10 PM PT/10:10 PM ET. The official event starts at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET.
Stardom 4/2/25 Results
Stardom ran their latest Tokyo midweek event today, rather uncommon for the promotion.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on Stardom World in Japanese. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 1456.
There were late changes to the card due to Natsupoi & Saki Kashima both being off. Natsupoi-undisclosed injury but she was a guest on commentary. Kashima-illness (again).
Pre-show match: Fukigen beat Yuna Mizunori & Anne Kanaya on a 3-way by pinning Kanaya
Match 1: Konami, Thekla & Rina beat Waka Tsukiyama, HANAKO & Rian. Thekla pinned Rian after Poisonous Spider Drop.
Match 2: Hanan, Saya Iida & Yuria Hime beat Aya Sakura, Sayaka Kurara & Akira Kurogame. iida pinned Kurogame after a lariat.
Match 3: Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki, Koguma & Momo Kohgo beat Syuri, Lady C, Ranna Yagami & Tomoka Inaba. Hazuki pinned C.
Match 4: Future Of Stardom Champion Hina beat Tabata (CMLL) to retain the title. V1 for Hina.
Match 5: Maika beat Mina Shirakawa.
Match 6: AZM, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki & Suzu Suzuki vs. Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora, Ruaka & Azusa Inaba went to a no contest.
Main Event: Tam Nakano (Independent/Freelancer) beat Saori Anou.
The next event is Sunday at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi. This event will have Shirakawa’s fonal Stardom match. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin Saturday at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
New Japan 4/2/25 Results
New Japan continued the Road To SAKURA GENESIS Tour today in Yamanashi.
Today’s event was held at Aimesse Yamanashi in Yamanashi and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. Originally it was to be non-televised but since this may be Hiroshi Tanahashi’s last match there before retirement, plans changed and it was streamed live.
The announced paid attendance was 850.
Match 1: Tiger Mask, Yoh, Master Wato, Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe beat Katsuya Murashima, Ninja Mack, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Yoh beat Murashima with Anaconda Vice
Match 2: Drilla Moloney & SANADA beat TAKA Michinoku & Yuya Uenura. Moloney pinned TAKA after Drilla Killer.
Match 3: Gabriel Kidd, Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori beat Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer), Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles. Kidd pinned Jackson after Drill-A-Hole Piledriver.
Match 4: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira & Callum Newman. Takahashi pinned Young with Maximum The Holding 3rd Form.
Match 5: Yota Tsuji beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru by DQ. EVIL low blow.
Match 6: El Desperado, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Clark Connors, Gedo & David Finlay. Desperado beat Gedo with Numero Dos.
Main Event: Shingo Takagi beat Hiroshi Tanahashi.
The tour-ender is Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, which has now been dubbed “Jr. Genesis” with an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
Tokyo Joshi Pro 4/2/25 Results
With an emotional weekend in Nagoya in the books as Yuki Arai said goodbye to SKE48 after over a decade, Tokyo Joshi Pro returned to Tokyo today for an outdoor event.
Today’s event was held at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage in Tokyo and will be available on drmand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Saturday. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 136.
There were last-minute changes to the card due to Pom Harajuku being pulled off the event. The always-vague poor health. Antonio Honda was also a last-minute removal. Chronic illness. A.YAZAWA was the replacement.
Match 1: Suzume & Neko Haruna beat Toga & Chika Namase. Suzume pinned Nanase after Ring A Bell.
Match 2: Maki Itoh & Yuki Kamifuku beat Kira Summer & Ivy Steele. Itoh beat Steele with Itoh Deluxe.
Match 3: Arisu Endo beat Uta Takami & Miu Watanabe in a 3-way by pinning Takami.
Match 4: Miyu Yamashita & Moka Miyamoto beat Wakana Uehara & Mifu Ashida. Yamashita pinned Ashida after Attitude Adjustment.
Match 5: In a Rock & Roll Deathmatch, where all wrestlers must rock out when music played, Rika Tatsumi & Mahiro Kiryu beat A.YAZAWA & Trans-Am Hiroshi. Tatsumi pinned YAZAWA.
Main Event: In a 3 event competition that detetmined which team could win the actual match with 1 count pinfalls or 2 count pinfalls. Mizuki, Yuki Aino, Raku, Haru Kazashiro & Shino Suzuki beat Shoko Nakajima, Hyper Misao, Kaya Toribami, Yoshiko Hasegawa & HIMAWARI. First event: Mizuki team wins a Ball Insertion conpetition 5-2. Second event: In a 2-legged wrestling 2 count pinfalls match, Nakajima team wins (Nakajima & Hasegawa pinned Kazashiro & Suzuki). Third event: Nakajima team won a baton relay race. That meant Nakajima team could win with 1 count pinfalls, Mizuki team with 2 count pinfalls. Match result: Raku pinned Misao.
The next event is Saturday at Hiroshima Sangyo Kaikan in Hiroshima. Shoko Nakajima, Uta Takami & HIMAWARI will miss the event as they are headed to the US early for other events ahead of The Collective. There will be no live broadcast.
In other news, as soon as Arai left SKE48 she announced the official idol-rite-of-passage: Her first sexy modeling photobook. Shot on location in Indonesia, it has all kinds of content-swimsuits, lingerie, implied nudity, all you’d expect from a gravure idol. It’s been all over Japanese media since Arai announced it herself. On sale in Japan on 5/23. (UPDATE: She’s announced that it’s already hit #1 on the Amazon Japan bestseller chart as a preorder) She will return to TJPW full-time in May but will be on the US event in Las Vegas, NV on 4/18. and it was announced her US debut match will be against Arisu Endo. The event will have 7 matches including 3 title matches. Broadcast plans TBA but I expect the live broadcast will be only on TrillerTV/FITE with a Triller+ membership which is $7.99/month or $71.99/year. The event is scheduled for 4/18 at 11 AM PT/2 PM ET.
It was also announced that Matcha & Alexis Lee will participate in TJPW on 5/3 & 5/5. Matches TBA.
DEVELOPING: Destino Elsewhere? (Updated 4/3/25)
First things first, this is from Tokyo Sports so proverbial salt grains…but they dropped a major New Japan bombshell RUMOR earlier today…Tetsuya Naito may be leaving the promotion soon. He actually has been a freelancer since the end of January when his contract expired and he hasn’t signed a new one. To an extent Naito confirmed the story and indicated a potential contract dispute, perhaps over the number of matches worked annually. He will be 43 later this year and his injury history (knees in particular, much like Hiroshi Tanahashi) is well-known. Negotiations seem to be ongoing on a new contract, which given he’s also coming up on 20 years with New Japan may be his last. He is half of the current IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions with Hiromu Takahashi with a title defense this weekend at SAKURA GENESIS, so what happens there could be a clue to his future.
Original story at the link below (in Japanese):
https://t.co/odbVunBqcj
4/3/25 UPDATE: In a social media post, Naito confirmed the story is accurate.
DDT 4/1/25 Results
DDT ran their third Spoiler Free Wrestling event today, where fans and basically everyone was prohibited from posting online or on social media about the event-anything related to it-until midnight after the event ended.
Today’s event was held at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage in Tokyo and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.
The paid attendance was not announced.
Match 1; Shunma Katsumata, MAO & Makoto Oishi beat DDT Iron Man Heaymetalweoght Champion Shunma Katsumata, Yuni & Kazuma Suni, with Yuni pinning Katsumata to win the title. Yuni becomes the 1738th Champion.
Matxh 2: The results of a Secret Accomplice Match were not announced.
Match 3: Kazuki Hirata beat Yuya Koroku.
Match 4: In a Baseball Knuckle Match, where the loser of rock-paper-scissors games at specific intervals had to remove a piece of clothing and the first to remove a specified number of clothes loses, Danshoku Dieno beat To-y.
Match 5: Stone Cold Steve Ochinochin Jr. wen a 12 man battle royal, last eliminating Stone Cold Steve Ochinochin. All participants were parodies of former wrestling legends, mostly from WWF/E.
Main Event: Results were not announced.
The next event is Thursday. There will be no live broadcast.
In other news, a second Daisuke Sasaki Produced event, CHARISMANIA 2, was announced for 6/18 at Shinjuku Face. Damnation T.A. participation has been announced for the event.
Pro Wrestling NOAH 3/31/25 Results
Pro Wrestling NOAH finished up their March schedule today with an event in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 362.
Match 1: Saxon Huxley, HAYATA & YO-HEY beat Mohammed Yone, Shuhei Taniguchi & Black Menso-re. Huxley pinned Menso-re after a neck hanging bomb.
Match 2: Owadasan beat Naomichi Marufuji & Daiki Odashima in a 3-way by pinning Odashima.
Match 3: AMAKUDA & Junta Miyawaki vs. Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara went to a no contest.
Match 4: Takashi Sugiura & kazuyuki Fujita beat Knull & Bryce Hansen. Sugiura pinned Hansen after Olympic Yosen Slam.
Match 5: Masa Kitamiya, Eita & Shuji Kondo beat Harutoki, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura. Kitamiya pinned Alejandro after Saito Suplex.
Match 6: Kaito Kiyomiya beat Daga by submission.
Match 7: KENTA, Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki beat OZAWA, Tetsuya Endo & Tadasuke. Sasaki beat Tadasuke with a modified body slam sleeper hold.
Main Event: GHC National Championship Tournament: Galeno beat Manabu Soya. As a result, Galeno will face Tetsuya Endo for the vacant GHC National Championship on 4/11 at Niigata City Gym in Niigata.
The next event is Saturday at Fujisan Messe in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast.
In other news, the first challenger team for GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki was announced after the event-Jun Masaoka & Gaia Hox. That match will happen on 4/14 at Korakuen Hall.
Injury Report: The Cyrus Virus (Updated 3/31/2025-Repost)
Sometimes the puns are…yeah…but might be accurate as All-Japan announced Cyrus is now out of action. The always-vague poor health. Out Saturday and, because he can’t travel to Japan as a result, out of the Champions Carnival. He was to have been in a battle royal Saturday. No replacement. For the Champions Carnival, replacement TBA.
More as it becomes available.
3/31/2025 UPDATE: Takashi Yoshida (Dragon Gate) is the replacement for the Champions Carnival.
News: New Japan Wrestler Moving On?
While he is generally only a part-timer in New Japan, it was announced on social media that Kevin Knight has been signed by All Elite Wrestling as of last night. Knight usually teams with KUSHIDA when he appears on New Japan and is a 2-time IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion who also has competed in many other promotions. Of course this doesn’t close the door to New Japan although now the question is whether or not we may see him in Best Of The Super Junior this year. We’ll find out at or after SAKURA GENESIS I guess.
