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All-Japan 1/2/23 Results

All-Japan kicked off their 2023 today with their first New Year’s series event, featuring a slightly different look as a few stars departed at the end of last year, most notably former 2-time Triple Crown Champion Jake Lee (who apparently showed up in Pro Wrestling NOAH yesterday).

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

The announced paid attendance was 1055. That sounds close to a sellout depending on the layout.

Match 1: Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & Masao Hanabata beat Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai. Honda pinned Inoue after Final Vent.

Match 2: Takao Omori, Rising Hayato & Kaz Hayashi (GLEAT) beat Yoshitatsu, Black Menso-re & Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition). Hayashi pinned Menso-re after Final Cut.

Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Naruki Doi beat Shuji Ishikawa & Hokuto Omori. Suzuki pinned Omori after a Gotch-style piledriver.

Match 4: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura beat Jun & Rei Saito. Aoyagi pinned Jun with Staff Roll. As a result, Aoyagi & Nomura get the next All-Japan World Tag Team Championship match after today.

Match 5: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi beat Hikaru Sato to retain the title. V3 for Aoyagi.

Match 6: Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura beat All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Suwama & KONO to win the titles. Miyahara & Nomura become the 93rd All-Japan World Tag Team Champions. Nomura beat KONO with a sleeper hold. Next up: Because of their win earlier, Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura.

Main Event: Takuya Nomura won a 17-man New Year Battle Royal, last eliminating Ryo Inoue.

The next event is Tuesday with an All-Asia Tag Team Championship match and Takuya Nomura vs. Miyahara for the Triple Crown. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT. Live results are scheduled here but that is dependent on the widespread cable/internet outage in my area being resolved in time (I’m not optimistic).

In other news, the promotion announced that Shotaro Ashino, who suffered an injury during the World’s Strongest Tag League, will return on 1/22.

Pro Wrestling NOAH “NOAH THE NEW YEAR 2023” Results (1/1/23)

Pro Wrestling NOAH kicked off 2023 with their annual New Year/year-opening mega-blowout event later today, and it’s legit mega to kick off the biggest annual week of pro wrestling in Japan. A massive 11-match event is headlined by 4 GHC Title matches including the latest chapter in the beyond white-hot Kaito Kiyomiya-Kenoh rivalry, with Kiyomiya defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship this time, and in the second half of the double main event it’s a one-time-only super dream match as current WWE superstar Shinsuke Nakamura returns home to Japan for the first time since before the coronavirus pandemic began for a match against The Great Muta, as Keiji Muto’s masked/face painted alter-ego makes his penultimate career appearance before saying goodbye ahead of Muto’s retirement next month.

Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 9500, a legit sellout. That indicates 100% capacity with no vocal cheering.

Match 1: Yasutaka Yano beat Taishi Ozawa.

Match 2: Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura beat Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi. Inamura pinned Yone after Musou.

Match 3: Ninja Mack, Dante Leon & Alejandro beat Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hi69. Alejandro pinned Hi69 after Casadora Con Hero.

Match 4: Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Mochizuki Jr. beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka. Susumu pinned Yoshioka with Infinite Package.

Match 5: Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Ka Shin, NOSAWA Rongai & TBA-who turned out to be Hiroshi Hase, beat Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya & Hajime Ohara. Hase pinned Ohara with a Northern Lights suplex hold.

Match 6: Jack Morris beat Timothy Thatcher.

Match 7: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA beat Junta Miyawaki to retain the title. V1 for AMAKUSA.

Match 8: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima beat Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA to retain the titles. Kojima pinned Marufuji after Western Lariat. V3 for the champs.

Match 9: Yoshinari Ogawa & Etta beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Kzy to win the titles. Ogawa & Eita become the 54th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Eita pinned YO-HEY after Imperial Uno.

Match 10: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat Kenoh to retain the title. V3 for Kiyomiya.

Main Event: Shinsuke Nakamura beat The Great Muta.

The next events are on 1/8 at Korakuen Hall, a same-day doubleheader featuring a scramble tag team tournament. 8 teams participating consist of a NOAH wrestler and a Kongo wrestler, making for very interesting pairings. The first event will have the Quartterfinals, the second event will have the Semifinals and Finals. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT for the first event and next Sunday at 4 AM ET/1 AM PT for the second event.

In other news, it was announced that the Keiji Muto Retirement Event on 2/21 (that’s an early Tuesday morning event in the US). will be available live ONLY ON ABEMA AS A PPV. If available worldwide the cost will be around $40 US. There likely will be no live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE or anywhere else, and UNIVERSE subscribers will probably have to wait at least one week to watch on demand as ABEMA has PPV replays for 7 days included. But the Great Muta final event on 1/21 will be live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE and also available on FITE as a PPV for $19.99 (while that’s almost 3 times the cost of WRESTLE UNIVERSE you don’t have to deal with subscriptions. That will likely have only English commentary).

DDT 12/31/22 Results

DDT wrapped up their 2022 with a New Year’s Eve event today featuring a one day 6-man tag tournament with many independent names as well as DDT participants and also an independent year-end awards ceremony by Japanese sports network Samurai! TV.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast unless it was on Samurai! TV.

The announced paid attendance was 615, a full house/near sellout.

During the Japan Independent Awards Ceremony, DDT earned 2 prizes-Kazusada Higuchi was named MVP while the Best Unit award went to those deplorable Pheromons for a second straight year.

All 6-Man Tag Team Tournament Matches until the Semifinals had a 10 minute time limit.
Match 1: MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Yukio Naya, Hideyoshi Kamiya & Kikutaro. MAO pinned Kikutaro.
Match 2: Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI went to a 10 minute time limit draw. Which led to…
In a 1 Count Fall Overtime with No Time Limit, Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI beat Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka. Higuchi pinned Brookes.
Match 3: Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Tetsuya Endo, Yasufumi Nakanoue & Brahman Shu. Aoyagi pinned Shu.
Match 4: HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda beat Takeshi Masada, Takuya Nomura (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) & Masato Tanaka (ZERO1). Takeda pinned Masada after a reverse U Crash.

Match 5: Ryuji Ito, Jaki Numazawa, Abdullah Kobayashi & Kankuro Hoshino (Big Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Danshoku Dieno, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata & Shunma Katsumata. Ito pinned Hirata after Bilibili Dragon Splash.

Match 6: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI. Aoki pinned ? (DDT’s website didn’t say exactly who won and lost but looked like Aoki beating either Sekifuda or MUSASHI. Definitely not Higuchi taking the loss).

Match 7: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda. Ueno pinned HARASHIMA with a rolling guillotine Ace Crusher.

Match 8: Konosuke Takeshita, Rickey Shane Page, Drew Parker & Cara Noir beat Yuji Okayabashi, Kazumi Kikuta, Takuho Kato & Kazumasa Yoshida. Takeshita pinned Yoshida after Zahi.

Main Event: Tournament Finals (No Time LImit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto to win the tournament. Hashimoto pinned MAO after a rising DDT. Afterwards, Ueno appeared to ask Hashimoto & Aoyagi to come back for potentially a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge.

The promotion’s first event of 2023 is “Hatsuyume 2023” Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. Vocal cheering will be allowed and it’s trending towards being a legit sellout (only a few seats left in all but one section). After this event, DDT also announced that SKE48 member Marika Tani will be a guest on commentary Tuesday.

1/1/23-1/7/23 Events Schedule

Here is the current Events Schedule for 1/1/23-1/7/23, which is subject to change (all times PT). Note that effective this week, Dragon Gate and GLEAT events will be added as I begin expanded coverage of these promotions:

1/1:
6:30 PM-All-Japan Pro Wrestling “New Year Giant Series 2023”, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan. Live on AJPW.TV. LIVE RESULTS SCHEDULED

1/2:
6:30 PM-All-Japan Pro Wrestling “New Year Giant Series 2023”, Korakuen Hall. Live on AJPW.TV. LIVE RESULTS SCHEDULED

1/3:
1:30 AM-DDT Pro Wrestling “First Dream 2023”, Korakuen Hall. Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
6:30 PM-Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling “Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling ’23”, Korakuen Hall. Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. LIVE RESULTS SCHEDULED
10:20 PM-New Japan Pro Wrestling “WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 IN TOKYO DOME”, Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan. Live on New Japan World

1/4:
5 PM-All Elite Wrestling “AEW Dynamite”, Seattle, WA. Live on TBS in US and FITE elsewhere
7:30 PM-DDT Pro Wrestling “DDT New Year’s Festival”, Itabashi Green Hall, Tokyo, Japan. No live broadcast

1/5:
1:30 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling “New Year Dash!”, Ota City General Gym, Tokyo, Japan. Live on New Japan World. FREE BROADCAST
2 AM-Ganbare Pro Wrestling “Adrenaline 2023”, Itabashi Green Hall. No live broadcast

1/6:
7 PM-Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling CITY CIRCUIT Series, Kobe Art Center, Kobe, Japan. No live broadcast
7 PM-All Elite Wrestling “AEW Rampage”, Portland, OR. LIVE on TNT in US and FITE elsewhere
8 PM-All Elite Wrestling “Battle Of The Belts 5”. LIVE on TNT in US and FITE elsewhere
8 PM-DDT Pro Wrestling “New Year’s Current Explosion!”, Tsurumi Fruit & Vegetable Market, Kanagawa, Japan. No live broadcast

1/7:
1 AM-Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling, Osaka Prefectural Gym 2, Osaka, Japan. Live on DRAGONGATE NETWORK
7 PM-Pro Wrestling NOAH “NEW SUNRISE 2023”, Korakuen Hall. Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. LIVE RESULTS SCHEDULED
7:30 PM-Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling CITY CIRCUIT Series, Okayama Convention Center, Okayama, Japan. No live broadcast
TBA-Grand Sumo January 2023 Tournament Opening Day, Ryogoku Kokugikan, Tokyo, Japan (scheduled late afternoon start)

FREE VIDEO: GLEAT Ver. 4 (12/30/22)

In a change from past events where it was a PPV, GLEAT streamed their major GLEAT Ver. 4 event live on YouTube earlier today from Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo. If you missed it due to time differences (it was a 1 AM PT/4 AM ET start) you can watch below FOR FREE:

DDT 12/29/22 Results (Updated)

DDT ran their final big event of the year today, NEVER MIND 2022, loaded with numerous major matches and surprises and, unless you shelled out 250,000 yen for the most expensive seats, a money back guarantee if you found it boring courtesy of host LiLiCo. But how could a show starting with a LiLiCo anal explosion be boring?

Today’s event was held at Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 1207, a super full house/very near sellout. It sounds low for the venue because vocal cheering was allowed, so between the almost-automatic 50% capacity limit and the layout, that lowered the max capacity to maybe 1500 (the venue’s normal capacity is, I believe, in the 3000-3500 range). No word on how many refunds were requested post-show, if any.

The show opened with the promised LiLiCo anal explosion, a DDT blowout event tradition.

Pre-show Match 1: Hideki Okatani & Toui Kojima beat Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi. Okatani pinned Sumi after a diving knee drop.

Pre-show Match 2: Minoru Fujita, MJ Pawl & KANON beat Masa Takanashi, Antonio Honda & Takao Soma. KANON beat Honda with a cobra twist.

Keigo Nakamura, who has been out an extended time due to injury, will return on 1/13.

The LiLiCo anal explosion opened the main show.

Match 1: Sanshiro Takagi beat Takeshi Masada.

Match 2: HARASHIMA & Yukio Sakaguchi beat Yuji Hino & Yuki Ishida. HARASHIMA pinned Ishida after Blue Sword.

Match 3: Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino, Yumehito Imanari & Koju Takeda beat Akito, Osamu Nishimura, Shinichiro Kawamatsu & Shunma Katsumata. Iino pinned Katsumata. As a result, Katsumata must join Pheromons for a day.

Match 4: Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls) beat Shinya Aoki.

Match 5: Yuki Arai (Tokyo Joshi Pro) & Sali Akai beat Saori Anou & Rika Kawabata (Independent/Freelancers). Akai pinned Kawabata after Quetzalcoatl.

Match 6: Tetsuya Endo, Kotaro Suzuki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) & Yusuke Okada beat KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata to win the titles. Endo, Suzuki & Okada become the 49th KO-D Tag Team Champions. Endo pinned Hirata after Burning Star Press. Mext up: Those despicable Pheromons (Dieno/Iino/Takeda). That match will happen on 1/29 at Korakuen Hall.

Match 7: In a match with rules determined by Super Sasadango Machine’s weight pre-match, DDT Extreme Champion Jun Akiyama beat Super Sasadango Machine to retain the title. V1 for Akiyama. This went just over 2 minutes. Afterwards, Akiyama issued an open challenge for challengers. Next up: Antonio Honda. That match will happen on 1/21 at Yokohama Radiant Hall.

Match 8: Konosuke Takeshita & Yukio Naya beat Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan) & Rickey Shane Page. Naya pinned Page after a backdrop.

Match 9: MAO beat Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sasaki & Cara Noir in a 4-way by pinning Brookes.

Main Event: KO-D Openweight Champion Kazusada Higuchi beat Yuki Ueno to retain the title. V5 for Higuchi. Ueno’s DDT Universal Championship was not on the line. Next up: Hino. That match will happen pn 1/29.

Their final event of the year is Saturday at Korakuen Hall with a one-day 6-man tag team tournament. There will be no live broadcast.

UPDATE: With regards to Katsumata having to join Pheromons for a day, that day will be 1/13 at Shinjuku Face.

AEW Dynamite 12/28/22 Results (Updated x3)

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Broomfield, CO:

Bryan Danielson beat Ethan Page by submission.

Claudio Castagnoli & Jon Moxley beat Top Flight. Castagnoli pinned Darius Martin after an uppercut.

Hook beat Baylum Lynx by submission. Squash.

AEW Trios Title 7 Match Series Match 6: In a Falls Count Anywhere Match, The Elite beat Death Triangle. Kenny Omega pinned Rey Fenix after One Winged Angel through a table. It’s now 3-3, meaning Match 7 for the titles is a Ladder Match in 2 weeks on 1/11 in Los Angeles, CA. (It can’t be next week because Omega will be returning to New Japan Pro Wrestling for their Tokyo Dome event next Wednesday morning)

Tay Melo & Anna Jay.A.S. beat Ruby Soho & Willow Nightingale. Melo pinned Soho after TayKO.

AEW TNT Champion Samoa Joe beat Wardlow by submission to retain the title.

I missed the show due to illness so no thoughts/comments.

Friday on Rampage: Swerve Strickland vs. Wheeler Yuta and AEW All-Atlantic Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Trent Beretta for the title.

UPDATE: AEW TBS Champion Jade Cargill vs. Kiera Hogan for the title has been added to Rampage. Also promos from Jamie Hayter & Jon Moxley (the latter could result in a fight with Adam Page based on recent history).

UPDATE 2: Jay Lethal/Jeff Jarrett/Sonjay Dutt promo has been added to Rampage.

Added to next week on Dynamite is AEW TNT Champion Samoa Joe vs. Darby Allin for the title.

UPDATE 3: And Tony Schiavone speaking to Darby Allin & Sting has been added to Rampage. Bear in mind this is all TAPED already.

DEVELOPING: Sumo-Suspensions & Worse?

This is coming from a YouTube video I just saw so I can’t yet verify its accuracy (maybe we’ll know more next week when NHK World Japan does their regular Grand Sumo Preview special for the upcoming tournament), but it’s huge if true: July champion Ichinojo is OUT of the January tournament AND Isegahama, chief judge of sumo and stablemaster of Isegahama Beya, may be either demoted or removed from the sumo ranking board. That also would be huge for the banzuke and especially his wrestlers (pretty much anybody with “Fuji” at the end of their name). And one lower tier wrestler at the stable has been forced to retire over bullying allegations (it should be noted this stable boasts, among others, current Yokozuna Terunofuji).

Ichinojo’s issues seem to stem from poor conduct and missing training often, likely due to excessive drinking, and reportedly struck his stablemaster’s (Minato) wife once as she tried to escort Ichinojo home from a bar (and Ichinojo, the Mongolian who is the biggest top-tier wrestler at well over 450 pounds, and closer to 475, probably outweighed her by at least 350 pounds so that’s very scary). But this supposedly happened over 5 years ago so it’s “old news”. But this charge was reduced to breaking Covid rules (that’s what got former Ozeki Asanoyama suspended for a year, and November champion Abi suspended for 6 months). Minato (stablemaster of Minato Beya) is docked 20% pay for the next 3 months.

As for Isegahama Beya, a younger wrestler claimed he was beaten and had boiling chanko (stew) water poured on him, and those claims were found to be true. One of the guilty parties has retired, the other is out the next 2 tournaments. We may know who when the Nihon Sumo Kyokai updates the “Absent Rikishi Info” page on their website as the start of the tournament nears at the end of next week. Stablemaster Isegahama, the chief judge often seen prominently at sumo tournaments and as part of the awards ceremony, will likely be gone from that role completely and not seen at all.

The source of this news is the YouTube video below:

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