Author: Admin

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.

Injury Report: The Mighty Don’t Kosei

In a social media post I just came across, which was shared by New Japan World English announcer Walker Stewart, New Japan’s Kosei Fujita announced he will be having what appears to be nasal bone surgery tomorrow. Appears to be related to chronic conditions including rhinitis and more. It’s not known if he’ll miss significant time. He is not on this week’s Hokkaido doubleheader, after that New Japan is off until the annual Anniversary Event on 3/6 then the New Japan Cup on 3/7, so if he’s in the Cup he will have about 2 weeks to recover. My guess is, barring any complications, he’ll be back in time for at least part of the Cup seriesz

More as it becomes available. The original post is below, Fujita included an image of a pre-op x-ray:

All-Japan 2/20/24 Results (Updated x2)

All-Japan continued their February tour today with a major event in Tokyo.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.

The announced paid attendance was 1269.

There was a change to the main event announced last week as Rei Saito was removed due to injury (shoulder). He was to have challenged Katsuhiko Nakajima for the Triple Crown. Jun Saito was the replacement. The Saitos also vacated the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship as a result.

There was a last-minute addition of an ActWres Girls pre-show match. Surprising given the promotion is on hiatus following the death of a roster member earlier this month (she was killed in a car accident en route to their last event).

Match 1: Suwama beat Hideki Suzuki.

Match 2: Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Hikaru Sato & Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer) beat Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer). Hokuto Omori, Ren Ayabe & Osamu Nishimura. Jackson pinned Ayabe after Falcon Arrow.

Match 3: Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai beat KONO & Toshizo. Honda pinned Toshizo after Final Vent.

Match 4: Kento Miyahara & Rising Hayato beat Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Hayato pinned Atsuki Aoyagi after Overdose.

Match 5: GAORA TV Champion Seigo Tachibana beat Ryo Inoue to retain the title. V1 for Tachibana.

Match 6: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura beat Fuminori Abe to retain the title. V3 for Tamura.

Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Jun Saito to retain the Triple Crown. V4 for Nakajima.

The next event is Friday (Thursday night US time) at Okayama Convention Center in Okayama. There will be no live broadcast.

UPDATE: After the Jr. title match, MUSASHI made a surprise appearance and is aiming for Tamura and the title. MUSASHI, who has made some appearances in New Japan over the last few months thanks to relations/past partnerships with New Japan wrestler Yoh, is leaving home promotion Michinoku Pro in the coming weeks after his contract expires. It sounds like he will be participating in All-Japan going forward, but it’s not clear if he will sign with them or be doing so as a freelancerz.

UPDATE 2: Next up for Tamura: Not MUSASHI but Rising Hayato. That match will happen on 3/9 at Kotakuen.

Injury Report: And Yet Another One DDT’d

Still no breaks for DDT on the injury front as another one was added to the body count over the weekend-the latest casualty is young wrestler Kazuma Sumi. Left knee. Out at least this next week and will miss the next 2 events on Friday and Sunday, beyond that is uncertain.

More as it becomes available.

DEVELOPING: DDT Announcer/Commentator Fired

In a posy on their website in Japanese and English, DDT announced ring announcer/WRESTLE UNIVERSE commentator Ken Kato has been fired by the promotion effective today. Apparently he made what the promotion deemed inappropriate comments on social media/SNS (I have not seen these comments yet) and showed no remorse when approached about it. So his contract was terminated. Kato was heard on pre-show matches on WRESTLE UNIVERSE and occasionally relieved regular host/commentator Haruo Murata on longer DDT live broadcasts.

New Japan 2/19/24 Results

New Japan wrapped up CMLL FANTASTICAMANIA 2024 today, which was considered another successful event and likely set the table for another installment in 2025 (it has been annual since 2011 except for a couple times the last few years when it didn’t happen due to the pandemic).

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This was a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 1455, a legit sellout.

Before the event began, CMLL President Salvador Luterroth appeared to greet the crowd. Luterroth and the CMLL wrestlers also visited the Mexican embassy in Tokyo earlier in the day.

Match 1: Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi & Brillante Jr. beat Francesco Akira, Pegasso & Stigma. Brillante pinned Pegasso after Senton Contornillo.

Match 2: BUSHI, KAMAITACHI, Tetsuya Naito & Titan beat Sho, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DIfunto & Magnus. Titan pinned Difunto after Jade Immortal.

Match 3: OKUMURA beat Dark Panther.

Match 4: Atlantis Jr. beat Hechicero.

Match 5: MUSASHI (Michinoku Pro), El Desperado, Templario & Volador Jr. beat Tiger Mask, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Soberano Jr. & Rocky Romero. Desperado pinned TM 4 after El Es Cero.

Match 6: Mistico beat Ultimo Guerrero.

Main Event: Mascara Dorada beat Stuka Jr.

The next event is THE NEW BEGINNING in SAPPORO Friday & Saturday at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell in Hokkaido. Live streaming on New Japan World for both events will begin Friday at midnight PT/3 AM ET for the first event and at 9 PM PT/midnight ET for the second event. Both will be available OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY, they will be TV Asahi live broadcasts in Japan.(Correction: The post initially said the next events were Saturday & Sunday in Japan. They are Friday and Saturday, both Friday in the US)