Author: Admin

Injury Report: More New Japan Changes For This Week (Updated)

Updating ongoing issues, New Japan has announced more injury changes for this weekend’s remaining house shows: Jeff Cobb remains out indefinitely (left thigh) and will miss both events and Satoshi Kojima, just back from another US event, is also off both events. Left MCL. Tomohiro Ishii is also off the rest of this week’s events due to being in All Elite Wrestling this Saturday (announced last week). Great-O-Khan, YOSHI-HASHI & Ryusuke Taguchi are the respective replacements. No word on how long Kojima is out.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: Kojima is now off the upcoming CMLL Fantasticamania series, meaning at least 2 more weeks.

New Japan 2/6/24 Results

New Japan continued the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the first of a few untelevised house shows this week.

Today’s event was held at Wing Hat Kusakabe in Saitama. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 493.

There were last-minute changes to the card again due to the continued absences of Jeff Cobb, HENARE & Gabriel Kidd. All were to have been in Match 6, a 10-man tag match. Great-O-Khan was a replacement for Cobb & HENARE and it became an 8-man tag.

Match 1: Katsuya Murashima & Boltin Oleg beat Shoma Kato & Tomoaki Honma. Oleg pinned Kato after Kamikaze.

Match 2: Toru Yano, Yoh & El Desperado beat Yujiro Takahashi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho. Yano pinned Takahashi.

Match 3: Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuji Nagata & Shota Umino beat Dick Togo, Ren Narita & EVIL. Umino pinned Togo after Death Rider.

Match 4: Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Jado, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. Ishimori pinned Jado.

Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sabre beat TM 4 with Cattle Mutilation.

Match 6: Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin & David Finlay beat Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, TJP & Great-O-Khan. Finlay pinned Newman after Overkill.

Main Event: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, SHingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA. Naito pinned ? after Destino. (New Japan’s Japanese website currently doesn’t say who pinned who but from the finisher I know it was Naito. If I had to guess who took the fall it would be either TAKA or DOUKI. When/if I find out this will be updated)

The next event is Thursday at Iwaki City Gym in Fukushima. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

News: GLEAT Holding Masato Yoshino Produced Event

GLEAT has announced a special Masato Yoshino Produced event, SPEED STAR Masato Yoshino “Unity” “The First”, to be held on 2/15 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo. Yoshino, a former wrestler in Dragon Gate who may very well have been the fastest wrestler ever (only Seiki Yoshioka cam run the ropes anywhere close to as fast as Yoshino could in his prime, at least among those I’ve seen), has been working in an executive role with GLEAT since its creation alongside former Dragon Gate mainstay CIMA.

GLEAT has announced the full card for the event:
T-Hawk & El Lindaman vs. Kaito Ishida & Takehiro Yamamura
Ryuichi Kawakami & Dongry Fujie (?) vs. Tetsuya Izuchi & Issei Onitsuka
Masato Yoshino & CIMA in a 5-minute public recording segment for Yoshino’s YouTube channel
Sareee & Kizuna Tanaka vs. Nanae Takahashi & Yuu
Hayato Tamura & Yuma Anzai vs. Minoru Suzuki & KAZMA SAKAMOTO

Tickets are on sale now. No word yet on if video will be available live or on demand on YouTube. Check out the event poster below:

New Japan 2/5/24 Results (Updated)

New Japan continued the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the second half of a Tokyo doubleheader.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! (Mobile/tablet users will likely need to download and use the NJPW WORLD app to watch, same for smart TVs) This was an ABEMA simulcast in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 1015.

There were last-minute changes to the event following yesterday-HENARE & Gabriel Kidd were not medically cleared after their Double KO and Jeff Cobb remained out after a Bullet Club beatdown pre-event. He was off yesterday due to injury but appeared for a pre-event autograph session.

Pre-show Match: Katsuya Murashima vs. Shoma Kato went to a 10 minute time limit draw.

Match 1: Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Jado, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. KENTA pinned Jado.

Match 2: Boltin Oleg, Yoh, Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado & Shota Umino beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, Sho & EVIL. Umino pinned Takahashi after Death Rider.

Match 3: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, Togi Makabe & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sabre beat Makabe with an armbar.

Match 4: Callum Newman, Francesco Akira, TJP & Great-O-Khan beat Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin & David Finlay by DQ. Finlay DQ’d. Chair use.

Main Event: In an elimination match series with 10 minute time limits (more like a gauntlet match), Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Yota Tsuji beat SANADA, DOUKI, TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Yuya Uemura. In the final deciding match, Tsuji beat Uemura. Afterwards, Tsuji requested his 2/24 match against Uemura be changed to a Hair vs. Hair Deathmatch, and then set his sights on Naito and the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship after that. But first Naito has to defend against SANADA and Tsuji presumably would have to win the New Japan Cup…

The next event is tomorrow at Wing Hat Kusakabe in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcasts. In fact, there are no more broadcasts for the tour. The next live broadcast is THE NEW BEGINNING in OSAKA on Sunday at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Tokyo beginning at midnight PT/3 AM ET. The New Japan World broadcast will be available OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY. This will be a TV Asahi live broadcast in Japan.

UPDATE: Cobb, Kidd & HENARE are all off tomorrow now. They were to have been in a 10-man tag match. Great-O-Khan is a replacement for Cobb/HENARE and it’s now an 8-man tag. Also, for 2/24 the Tsuji-Uemura Hair vs. Hair Match is now official. The loser loses his hair.

Obituary: Young Japanese Woman Wrestler Dies (Updated)

Some very sad news to report from Japan-Asahi, a member of the ActWres Girls promotion which has been appearing recently in All-Japan Pro Wrestling, died Thursday just before the promotion’s scheduled event at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo from what appears to be an unexpected accident. Based on what was in her social media profiles, she was only 21. She began her career in August 2017 in Ice Ribbon, facing the legendary Manami Toyota in her debut match, then moved on to ActWres Girls in Fall 2023.

The promotion has cancelled their next event on 2/9 and has requested privacy for their wrestlers at this time. There is no word on when the promotion will resume activities.

UPDATE BBM Sports, the publisher of Japanese wrestling magazine Weekly Pro, has published an article with more about Asahi and her career (Asahi is/was not her real name), also clarifying that she was 21. The article below is in Japanese but some browsers can translate it:

https://www.bbm-japan.com/article/detail/49072

BREAKING: Stardom Founder Out (Updated x2)

This is MASSIVE…Stardom has just fired founder/head/executive producer Rossy Ogawa. A quick translation of the statement on Stardom’s Japanese-language website suggests it was due to his being involved in the departures of many wrestlers & staff (most recently, and notably, the possible impending departure of Giulia, although she is still with Stardom as a freelancer, but she may have just disbanded her Donna Del Mundo faction, that being said there are constant rumors she is potentially headed to WWE, and more recently Stardom let Kairi return to WWE for a second time [as Kairi Sane]).
Ogawa has been involved with wrestling going back to the days of All-Japan Women in the 20th century and was part of Stardom’s event earlier today (yesterday Japan time) in Osaka. Staff and wrestlers were informed of the move yesterday per Stardom’s English-language Twitter..

The full statement is at the below link (in Japanese):
https://wwr-stardom.com/news/20240205-4/

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: There are now rumors that a mass exodus of wrestlers from Stardom could be coming soon after this as most if not all contracts are up in March, and the split between Stardom & Ogawa was reportedly going to happen at the end of this month before the announcement. The rumors also are that Stardom felt Ogawa was “poaching” talent for WWE, but that may be the view only of one Tony Khan, AEW owner/head, who thinks he can’t get Stardom talent to work with AEW because of that (AEW does have a working relationship with fellow Bushiroad-owned promotion New Japan Pro Wrestling). Stardom also believes Ogawa will create another new promotion. And some US reporters believe Kairi left to go back to WWE because she knew Ogawa was leaving this year.

This story is far from over.

UPDATE 2: Tokyo Sports has picked up the story and they claim Ogawa announced last November that he was going to retire this spring (Ogawa is 66). And he confirmed his intent to create a new promotion. Translation of the article sounds like a lot of he said, they said. Link below (in Japanese):

https://www.tokyo-sports.co.jp/articles/-/291313

Stardom 2/4/24 Results

Stardom held another 13th Anniversary blowout event today in Osaka, Stardom Supreme Fight 2024.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on PPV via Pia Live for 4400 Japanese yen (around $30 US) until Wednesday morning. It will be available on demand on Stardom World at a later date after that, probably next weekend.

The announced paid attendance was 1377.

There was a last-minute change to the event because Sayaka Kurara was pulled from the card just before it started. Illness. She was to have teamed with Lady C & Miyu Amasaki to face Natsuko Rota, Momo Watanabe & Ruaka. Ruaka was removed from the match and added to the first match, which originally was Mai Sakurai vs. HANAKO & Ranna Yagami in a 3-way, to make it a 4-way.

Match 1: Mai Sakurai beat Ruaka, HANAKO & Ranna Yagami in a 4-way by pinning Yagami.

Match 2: Hanan & Saya Iida beat Saki Kashima & Ami Sohrei. Hanan pinned Kashima after 17.

Match 3: Future Of Stardom Champion Rina beat Yuzuki to retain the title. V5 for Rina.

Match 6: Momo Watanabe & Natsuko Tora beat Miyu Amasaki & Lady C. Watanabe pinned C after B Driver.

Match 7: Tam Nakano Return Match: Yuna Mizumori & Tam Nakano beat Waka Tsukiyama & Mina Shirakawa. Nakano pinned Tsukiyama with a tiger suplex hold. Nakano had been out for 4 months due to injury and it cost her the World Of Stardom Championship, which she had to vacate as a result.

Match 8: High Speed Champion Mei Seira vs. Hazuki went to a 15 minute time limit draw. As a result, Seira retains the title. V4 for Seira.

Match 9: Stardom 13th Anniversary Match: Nanae Takahashi, AZM, Utami Hayashishita & Mayu Iwatani beat Suzu Suzuki, MIRAI, Syuri & Giulia. Iwatani pinned Suzuki after a moonsault press.

Match 10: Wonder Of Stardom Champion Saori Anou beat Starlight Kid to retain the title. V1 for Anou.

Main Event: World Of Stardom Champion Maika beat Saya Kamitani to retain the title. V1 for Maika. Next up: Possibly Nakano, who of course wants back the title she didn’t lose.

The next event is 2/11 at Fujisan Messe in Shizuoka. It will be available on demand on Stardom World at a later date.

New Japan 2/4/24 Results

New Japan continued the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING tour today with the first half of a Tokyo doubleheader.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1433, a legit sellout.

There was a last-minute change to the card today because Jeff Cobb was removed a few hours before due to injury. Left thigh. He was to have faced Alex Coughlin. Great-O-Khan was the replacement. Cobb still was at a pre-event autograph session…and reportedly got a Bullet Club beatdown there.

Match 1: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, Sho & EVIL beat Boltin Oleg, Togi Makabe, YOSHI-HASHI, El Desperado & Shota Umino. EVIL pinned Makabe after EVIL. After the match, EVIL went nWo on the NEVER Openweight Championship, spraying the belt with black spray paint.

Match 2: Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Tomoaki Honma, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. Owens pinned Honma after a package piledriver.

Match 3: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sabre beat Taguchi with a sleeper hold.

Match 4: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Uemura beat Tsuji with an armbar.

Match 5: Great-O-Khan beat Alex Coughlin.

Match 6: HENARE vs. Gabriel Kidd went to a Double KO.

Match 7: David Finlay beat Callum Newman.

Main Event: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Francesco Akira & TJP to win the titles. Moloney & Connors become the 75th IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Connors pinned Akira after Full Clip. Bullet CLub stands tall again and of course sends the crowd home very unhappy.

The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET, and you can watch live and on demand FOR FREE! This will be an ABEMA simulcast in Japan.

Injury Report: No Corn On The Cobb Today

New Japan has just announced an injury absence-Jeff Cobb is now off today’s event. Left thigh. He was to have faced Alex Coughlin. Great-O-Khan is the replacement. That was to have been the 6th match but will now be the 5th match. Gabriel Kidd vs. HENARE is now match 6. It’s not known if Cobb will miss any more time.

More as it becomes available.

BREAKING: New Japan Star Wins US Title

At tonight’s Major League Wrestling (MLW) event in the US, New Japan’s Satoshi Kojima added another notch to his legacy, winning the MLW World Championship for a second time by beating Alex Kane for the title. Naturally, fans made sure the Bread Club leader was feted appropriately with, of course, throwing of bread into the ring.

The event can be watched on demand on TrillerTV (fka FITE) with a TrillerTV+ subscription which is $7.99/month of $79.99/year.