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New Japan 2/23/24 Results

Nee Japan ran the first half of THE NEW BEGINNING in SAPPORO earlier today.

Today’s event was held at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell in Hokkaido and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2024 on TV Asahi.

The announced paid attendance was 3231.

Pre-show Match: Tomoya & Toru Yano beat Shoma Kato & Tomoaki Honma. Tomoya pinned Kato after La Adachita 2005.

Match 1: Zack Sabre Jr. beat Yuji Nagata by submission.

Match 2: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita beat Boltin Oleg, Ryusuke Taguchi & Togi Makabe. Narita pinned Makabe after Double Cross.

Match 3: Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada beat Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Conb. Okada pinned Newman after Rainmaker. This was to have been a 10-man tag but HENARE was removed due to injuries suffered at the Osaka event earlier this month, and Hirooki Goto was also removed as a result.

Match 4: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Yakagi & Tetsuya Naito beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA. Takagi pinned TAKA after Pumping Bomber.

Match 5: IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani beat Mina Shirakawa to retain the title. V4 for Iwatani.

Match 6: Sho beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado by countout to win the title. Sho becomes the 95th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. Ren Narita interference helped.

Match 7: NEVER Openweight Champion EVIL beat Shota Umino to retain the title. V1 for EVIL.

Match 8: Matt Riddle beat NJPW WORLD TV Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi to win the title. Riddle becomes the 3rd NJPW WORLD TV Champion. WHAT THE PRESIDENT ACE F**K?!? Definitely will not be popular. Next up: Riddle wanted Sabre but he declined and said Bad Dude Tito gets the shot instead. That match will happen Thursday in Major League Wrestling (MLW).

Main Event: Noc Nemeth beat IWGP Global Champion David Finlay to win the title. Nemeth becomes the second IWGP Global Champion. SHOW OFF!! Post-match, Nemeth talked about wanting to team with Tanahashi tomorrow, which would require a card change because Nemeth is supposed to be teaming with Ryusuke Taguchi to face Gedo & Finlay.

The second event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin TONIGHT at 9 PM PT:midnight ET with live results scheduled. This will be a TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.

Injury Report: Hard HE(ad)NARE

In what was perhaps the most violent New Japan match ever a couple weeks ago, we learned, among other things, HENARE has the pride of his people and a VERY tough head. His noggin looked like a mummy before it was over because of how heavily taped up and bloody it was, and apparently that head wound was as bad as it looked. Out this weekend as a result. He was to have been in 10-man tag matches both days. For tomorrow, Hirooki Goto is also out of the match to make it an 8-man tag. For Saturday, Callum Newman is the replacement.

Ganbare Pro 2/23/24 Results

Ganbare Pro has their monthly event coming up today, which is a major event with 3 big matches. The highlight of the non-title matches is the return of Yuna Manase, who has been out since early last year due to injury. She stepped down as the GM of Ganbare Women ahead of her in-ring return. The 2 title matches start with a Pro Wrestling EVE (England) title match as EVE International Champion Yuu defends against Yoshiko Hasegawa, then in the main event Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion Shuichiro Katsumura defends against Takuya Wada.

Today’s event will be held at Yokohama Raidant Hall in Yokohama and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. There will likely be no commentary. There will be an intermission after the 4th match. That will extend the 6-match event by about 15-20 minutes so the running time will probably be a little over 2 1/2 hours. Also, this event will be happening at the same time as a Pro Wrestling NOAH event that is live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE so there may be delays in the posting of results.

Today’s lineup:
Shota vs. Munetatsu Nakamura
YuuRI & Riara vs. HARUKAZE & Bunny OIkawa
Ken Ohka, Mizuki Watase & Tyson Maeguchi vs. Keisuke Ishii, Takao Soma & Shinichiro Tominaga
Pro Wrestling EVE International Champion Yuu vs. Yoshiko Hasegawa for the title
Intermission
Yuna Manase & Yumehito Imanari vs. Sayaka Unagi & Minoru Fujita
Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion Shuichiro Katsumura vs. Takuya Wada for the title

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.

6:45 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in about 15 minutes.

6:53 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama, Japan. There is no commentary.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It is a legit advance sellout which was announced yesterday so if it’s full capacity it will be, give or take a couple, roughly 350. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance, a legit advance sellout, was 329)

The matches should begin in a few minutes.

The matches begin at 7:04 PM PT. Hard camera view only.

Match 1: Shota vs. Munetatsu Nakamura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shota beat Munetatsu Nakamura

Match 2: YuuRI & Riara vs. HARUKAZE & Bunny OIkawa. 30 minute time limit
Result: HARUKAZE & Bunny Oikawa beat YuuRI & Riara. Oikawa pinned Riara.

Match 3: Ken Ohka, Mizuki Watase & Tyson Maeguchi vs. Keisuke Ishii, Takao Soma & Shinichiro Tominaga. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ken Ohka, Mizuki Watase & Tyson Maeguchi beat Keisuke Ishii, Takao Soma & Shinichiro Tominaga. Ohka pinned Tominaga after New Flame Spear.

Match 4: Pro Wrestling EVE International Champion Yuu vs. Yoshiko Hasegawa for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: Pro Wrestling EVE International Champion Yuu beat Yoshiko Hasegawa to retain the title. V11 for Yuu.

Intermission. The event should resume in 15-20 minutes (as of 8:03 PM PT).

The matches resume at 8:18 PM PT.

Match 5: Yuna Manase Return Match: Yuna Manase & Yumehito Imanari vs. Sayaka Unagi (Independent/Freelancer) & Minoru Fujita (Indpeendent/Freelancer). 30 minute time limit
Result: Sayaka Unagi & Minoru Fujita beat Yuna Manase & Yumehito Imanari. Fujita pinned Manase with a Japanese leg roll clutch hold.

Main Event: Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion Shuichiro Katsumura vs. Takuya Wada for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion Shuichiro Katsumura beat Takuya Wada by submission to retain the title. V2 for Katsumura. Next up: TBA but on 3/20 Takao Soma & Shota will challenge for the Spirit Of Ganbare World Tag Team Championship.

The next event is a Ganbare Women event on 3/9 followed by the next Ganbare event on 3/20, both at Takashimadaira Community Center in Tokyo. This may be the last Ganbare Women event in the current format due to several wrestlers leaving the promotion next month and Ganbare also separating from ownership of DDT & CyberFIght Corporation to become an independent promotion. However, the promotion’s events will continue to be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. For the next 2 events, broadcast plans TBA.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 2/23/24 Results (Updated)

Pro Wrestling NOAH continues the never-ending STAR NAVIGATION 2024 Tour today with a rare weekday matinee, which actually makes for very convenient live viewing for US fans as a result. In addition to serving as build for the upcoming Victory Challenge Tag League, there are 2 title matches headlining the event. First, since GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene won’t be defending the titles for a while (until after the tag league), Greene decided to challenge Morris for the GHC National Championship in the meantime so the champs will face off for the “Red belt”. After that, their factionmates, YO-HEY & Tadasuke, will defend the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship in the main event against the odd couple pairing of HAYATA & Eita, who are unpredictable together to sya the least given their history.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English only. This is yet another ABEMA exclusive broadcast that is otherwise available only in Japan so their commentary and some audio will be muted and some parts of video may be edited out (that version will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese shortly after the event). This may be changing soon as WRESTLE UNIVERSE announced a major overhaul in its service to take effect in one month, including more like Korakuen broadcasts and much more. There will be a price increase though, it’s going from 900 Japanese yen/month to 1298 yen/month (from about $6 US to around $8.75) It’s hard to predict how long this event will go but I imagine WRESTLE UNIVERSE won’t want it to go too long to avoid having to broadcast THREE events live at the same time, but with 2 title matches among 8 total I’m guessing it’ll go in the range of 3 hours.
Late add: You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.

Today’s lineup:
Hi69 vs. Alejandro
Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy
Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki
Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf
Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher
Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jake Lee & LJ Cleary
GHC National Champion Jack Morris vs. Anthony Greene for the title
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. HAYATA & Eita for the titles

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:15 PM PT/9:15 PM ET. The event is scheduled to begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

6:15 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream ha started. We should be going to the venue in a few minutes.

6:30 PM PT UPDATE: Gonna be joining later than scheduled. Guess we gotta wait for all that ABEMA exclusive stuff to finish up.

6:35 PM PT UPDATE: Reload and we seem to be good, so live updates begin now…
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Stewart (BANG!) Fulton & Mark Pickering. For some matches, they will be joined by ring announcer G-Man (he of the undoubtedly plastic chin).

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Haven’t gotten a good look at the crowd or setup yet but looks and sounds like a decent crowd so far, hopefully at least 1000. (It’s not quite the full capacity setup and not a sellout but it looks like it’s going to be over 1000 and maybe over 1100) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1115)

Match 1: Hi69 vs. Alejandro. 15 minute time limit
Result: Alejandro beat Hi69

Match 2: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy. 20 minute time limit
Result: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy. Daga pinned Ohara after Diablo Wings.

The YouTube broadcast ends here.

Match 3: Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki. 20 minute time limit
Result: Ninja Mack beat Junta Miyawaki. Mack may have suffered a left knee or upper leg injury during the match.

Match 4: Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki vs. Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf. 30 minute time limit
Result: Go Shiozaki, Atsushi Kotoge, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Masa Kiramiya, Daiki Inaba, Takashi Sugiura & Ulka Sasaki. Kotoge pinned Inaba after Kill Switch.

Match 5: Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher. 30 minute time limit
Result: Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo, Saxon Huxley & Timothy Thatcher beat Kenoh, Yu Owada, Kaito Kiromiya & Ryohei Oiwa. Soya pinned Owada after Ballistic. Afterwards, the participants from Match 4 return to the ring with microphone for tag league promos.

Match 6: Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Jake Lee & LJ Cleary. 30 minute time limit
Result: Naomichi Marufuji & Kazuyuki Fujita beat Jake Lee & LJ Cleary. Marufuji pinned Cleary after a Spanish Fly.

Match 7: GHC National Champion Jack Morris vs. Anthony Greene for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: GHC National Champion Jack Morris beat Anthony Greene to retain the title. V3 for Morris.

Main Event: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. HAYATA & Eita for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat HAYATA & Eita to retain the titles. Tadasuke pinned Eita after a piledriver. V3 for the champs. Afterwards, Tadasuke with microphone. He challenged Daga for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship. Daga responded in English & Spanish…accepted. With a catch: Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa get a shot at the Tag Team Titles. More to come on all this later today. After this, YO-HEY encouraged Tadasuke to sing, which led to some comedy karaoke to send the crowd home happy.

The next event is tomorrow at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama for the start of the Victory Challenge Tag League. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET.

UPDATE: Eita was injured during the main event. Sprained left knee. Out indefinitely. Also, Daga-Tadasuke for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship will happen on 3/2 at GREAT VOYAGE 2024 in NAGOYA and Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. participation has been announced for 3/17.

News: Major Changes Coming To WRESTLE UNIVERSE

DDT announced today a spate pf major changes coming to the WRESTLE UNIVERSE streaming service, both good and bad. The bad first-price increases are coming. Starting March 22 the monthly subscription fee will go up to 1298 Japanese yen/month, which at this time would be around $8.75 US. It had been 900 yen or $6-6.25/month. The good-a lot more content will be added-more Pro Wrestling NOAH live Korakuen Hall broadcasts (hopefully fewer ABEMA for us outside Japan), adding on demand broadcasts from Michinoku Pro, REAL ZERO1 & Sendai Girls, continuing with Ganbare Pro broadcasts after they leave CyberFight Group in March (those events will be on demand only), a new dedicated YouTube channel, digital gifts each month and more. Additionally, all subscribers that are active after March 22 will get a coupon for 1000 yen (around $6.75) off the purchase cost of the 5/4 Pro Wrestling NOAH PPV broadcast.

If you don’t want to pay the higher prices, you need to cancel at least 24 hours before they take effect, meaning before 3/21 at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.

TJPW News: New Wrestler Debut This Weekend

Tokyo Joshi Pro has 3 new trainees set for debuts over the next month, and the first one os now official-Chika, who will debut Sunday, will be known as Chika Nanase and will face Moka Miyamoto in her debut match. Nanase, who will turn 20 on March 9, is 4’11” and will debut in her hometown of Osaka.

Two more trainees-Uta (the newest Up Up Girls member) & Kira (a wrestler from Australia)-will debut in March.

Injury Report: All-Japan Not All-Aoyagi For A While

All-Japan has reported an injury coming out of yesterday’s Korakuen event: Atsuki Aoyagi was injured during the event and is now officially on the sidelines. Left ACL, meniscus and other ligaments. Out indefinitely. For Friday, he was to have teamed with Dan Tamura & Ren Ayabe to fave Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi (his brother) & Rising Hayato. Takao Omori, who recently left All-Japan, is the replacement.
For Saturday’s event, Omori will be a replacement in a 6-man tag match for Rising Hayato, who will now replace Aoyagi in the main event.
For Sunday’s event, changes are TBA but Omori will participate.
Aoyagi’s status beyond this weekend is uncertain as the promotion will be off until 3/9. It will probably depend on if it’s a minor injury or something worse that could mean months out.

More as it becomes available.

AEW Dynamite 2/21/24 Results (Updated)

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Tulsa, OK:

Match 1: Jon Moxley & Claudio Castagnoli vs. FTR
Result: Time Limit Draw

Orange Cassidy interviewed. Looks like he’ll face Mike Bennett tonight.

FTR interviewed. They want a rematch with BCC for Revolution. Moxley & Castagnoli interrupt as they are held back.

Match 2: Orange Cassidy vs. Mike Bennett
Result: Orange Cassidy beat Mike Bennett

Ric Flair arrives. He heads to talk to The Young Bucks.

Daniel Garcia interviewed. He gets the AEW TNT Championship match at Revolution, which brings out Christian Cage to try and talk him out of it. Cage sent Nick Wayne & Killswitch down for the beatdown but Garcia immediately put Wayne in a sharpshooter and Matt Menard made the save with a chair before Killswitch could get into the ring.

Match 3: Toni Storm vs. TBA (Sydni Winnell, a local)
Result: Toni Storm beat Sydni Winnell. Squash.

Match 4: Deonna Purrazzo vs. Madison Rayne
Result: Deonna Purrazzo beat Madison Rayne by submission. Match almost stopped when Rayne may have taken a DDT wrong and the doctor checked on Rayne, who seemed to be okay. They finished right away. Toni Storm attacked Purrazzo post-match.

Darby Allin & Sting promo.

Wardlow interviewed. Quickly becomes a very angry promo because he’s tired of screwjobs and wants his. This was really good and perhaps somewhat legit.

Rampage post-match comments with The Acclaimed & Bullet Club. Jay White proposed himself, Gunn Club & Billy Gunn in an 8-man tag for what would be this week’s Collision.

Added to Revolution: Meat Madness aka Wardlow vs. Powerhouse Hobbs.

Main Event: Hook, Rob Van Dam & Adam Page vs. Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland & Brian Cage
Result: Samoa Joe, Swerve Strickland & Brian Cage beat Hook, Rob Dan Dam & Adam Page. Joe beat Van Dam with Coqina Clutch.

Clearly things didn’t go as planned tonight due to injuries and circumstances beyond their control. Not much I cared for tonight but I”ll give them a free pass this week. The Wardlow promo was must-see though.

Next week: Will Ospreay begins his full-time AEW run.

Friday on Rampage: Mariah May vs. Anna Jay, Roderick Strong vs. Jake Hager, The Young Bucks vs. TBA, a 3-way trios match and Sammy Guevara promo.

Saturday on Collision: Bryan Danielson vs. Jun Akiyama, Thunder Rosa vs. TBA and Serena Deeb vs. TBA.

UPDATE: After the show, AEW announced FTR vs. Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty for Collision.

DEVELOPING: Sumo-Big Trouble For Former Legend (Updated x2)

Nikkan Sports reports on another troubling case of bullying/violence in sumo by more experienced rikishi towards younger and lower ranked subordinates…this is especially troubling as it involves Miyagino stable, now owned and operated by former Yokozuna Haluho, the greatest Yokozuna of all time. Specifically it involves his highest ranked wrestler Hokuseiho, who at 6’10” is maybe the tallest wrestler in all of sumo. Apparently Hokuseiho not only bullied and was physically violent towards subordinates, but also stole money from them.

Here’s what I’ve been able to figure out punishment-wise from translation, from the Compliance Committee of the Japan Sumo Association: Miyagino/Hakuho has been given a 2-level demotion in ranking among senior stablemasters/oyakata, which is a severe penalty that is just short of the only worse sanctions-dismissal and then forced retirement. Hokuseiho has been reportedly suspended since after the January tournament according to reliable YouTube reporter “Chris Sumo”, and at an extraordinary board meeting on Friday it probably will be recommended that Hokuseiho be forced to retire, meaning if true his career is over. Possibly also disciplined to a lesser extent, or at least mentioned in this, is the current Magaki Oyakata, the former wrestler Ishiura who was forced to retire this past year due to injury.

If this is the end for Hokuseiho, the 22-year-old from Hokkaido will be done after just short of 4 years with a career record of 134-72-44, 41-40-9 in 6 top tier tournaments, and a 2-4-9 (win-loss-absent) record in his final tournament in January, cut short due to injury. He withdrew after his second win on Day 5. His career highest rank was Maegashira 6, he was at Maegaahira 8 in January. He will mot be eligible for elder stock, a retirement ceremony at Ryoogku Kokugikan or other benefits (as well as staying on as a coach/oyakata) because he only had 2 years total in the top 2 tiers-you need 5 years (30 total tournaments) at Makuuchi or Juryo. Hokuseiho only appeared in 23 total tournaments.

More as it becomes available. The original article (in Japanese) is below:
https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/sumo/news/202402210001519.html

UPDATE: Hokuseiho will retire. Nikkan Sports reports he gave notice ahead of tomorrow’s meeting to determine discipline. He was the highest ranked wrestler in the stable.

UPDATE 2: Miyagino/Hakuho will also lose his stablemaster role for a while. For the March Tournament and into April, an interim stablemaster from Isegahama stable will be appointed and the stable and association will assume oversight of Miyagino stable. As far as stablemaster rankings go the demotion puts him at the bottom pf the seniority list.