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DDT 3/30/23 Results

DDT returned to the US yesterday for the first of 2 events as part of The Collective, a WrestleMania weekend marathon of events put on by US independent promotion Game Changer Wrestling.

Yesterday’s event was held at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Los Angeles, CA and can be watched on demand on FITE+, a subscription service offered by FITE for $7.99/month or $69.99/year with a 7-day free trial so new subscribers actually can watch FOR FREE!

The announced paid attendance was 750, a legit sellout.

Match 1: MAO & Shunma Katsumata beat Chris Brookes & DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Yoshihiko, and MAO beat Yoshihiko to win the title. MAO becomes the 1567th Champion. Which led to…
Chris Brookes beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion MAO to win the title. Brookes becomes the 1568th Champion. Which led to…
Yoshihiko beat DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Champion Chris Brookes to win the title. Yoshihiko becomes the 1569th Champion.

Match 2: Danshoku Dieno & Yuki Iino vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Michael Nakazawa went to (of course) a no contest.

Match 3: Kazusada Higuchi & Takeshi Masada beat Andrew Everett & Nock Wayne. Higuchi pinned Everett after Brain Claw Slam.

Match 4: Saki Akai beat Vertvixen.

Match 5: Tetsuya Endo beat Joey Janela.

Match 6: Jun Akiyama & Eddie Kingston beat Daisuke Sasaki & KANON. Akiyama pinned KANON after Exploder.

Main Event: Konosuke Takeshita beat Yuki Ueno.

The next event is DDT vs. GCW later today. Live streaming on FITE+ will begin at 3 PM PT/6 PM ET. Live results are scheduled.

Ring Of Honor TV Results (3/30/23) (SPOILERS!)

Below are the quick results for this week’s Ring Of Honor TV on HonorClub, taped last night in St. Louis, MO after AEW Dynamite. Click below to read but be advised this will contain SPOILERS! (It premieres later today) (Update: The episode will premiere at 9 PM ET instead of the regular 7 PM ET)

Continue reading “Ring Of Honor TV Results (3/30/23) (SPOILERS!)”

Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive Results (3/30/23) (Updated)

Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling team up tonight for a much-hyped crossover PPV event, which looks great on paper but unfortunately has taken several major hits the last few weeks due to injuries. Impact lost now-former World Champion Josh Alexander & Knockouts Champion Mickie James, taking two title matches off the event, while New Japan lost Will Ospreay, delaying a dream match with Mike Bailey. But there is still a lot to look forward to and some of the matches, on the Impact side, will further set up matches for Rebellion on 4/16. The first-ever LIVE episode of Impact Wrestling previews tonight’s event and also features at least 2 previously non-televised matches: Josh Alexander vs. KENTA for the Impact World Championship and Miyu Yamashita vs. TBA in her Impact debut. The live Impact will simulcast on AXS TV and YouTube for Ultimate Insiders (no delays this week for YouTube).

Tonight’s event will be held at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA and can be watched LIVE on FITE in English for $24.99. You get the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays, a good thing for those on the east coast because of the very late start time. It WILL NOT be available on Impact+ or New Japan World. There will be a FREE pre-show on FITE with one match 15-30 minutes before the PPV begins. Including the pre-show it’ll be a half-nighter for all but west coast fans who will be up well past late night to watch, as I expect the running time to be standard PPV length at just over 3 hours.

Tonight’s current lineup:
Pre-Show:
Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd

PPV:
Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a Scramble Match for the title
Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared
Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Moose vs. Jeff Cobb
STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
yHiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT. Also, the match order for tonight will not be revealed ahead of time. We won’t know until entrances happen.

10:25 PM ET UPDATE: FITE is showing the pre-show still beginning at 7:45 PM PT/10:45 PM ET despite reports from New Japan of an earlier start time. So the later time it probably is.

10:45 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
Mandatory FBI warning…
We’ll be starting momentarily.
The feed officially begins at 1):49 PM ET.

We are LIVE from the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA Your hosts are Thom Hannifan, Matt Rehwoldt & Ian Riccaboni..

The event is a legit advance sellout although it’s a small venue so attendance will probably be around 500. The venue’s capacity, depending on the layout, can be up to 1500..

Pre-show match: Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
Result: Yuya Uemura beat Gabriel Kidd.

PPV:
We see the ring announcer getting the crowd warmed up…
Mandatory FBI Warning.
Opening video.

In addition to the English ring annoucner, we’ve got the NJPW STRONG Japanese announcer following, nice touch.

Match 1: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble Match for the title
Result: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel beat Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble by pinning Knight to retain the title.

Commentary reveals Bailey-Tanahashi will be the main event.

Match 2: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Result: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihn & PCO beat Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos. PCO pinned Kratos after PCOsault.

Match 3: Moose vs. Jeff Cobb. Audio issues with pre-match video package.
Result: Jeff Cobb beat Moose

Backstage interview segment cut away from due to technical issues. We go back to the hard camera at ringside.

Match 4: Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared. Mickie James joins commentary for this match, replacing Riccaboni.
Result: Dronna Purrazzo beat Masha Slamovich, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamahita in a 4-way by pinning Shaw. As a result, Purrazzo will either face James & Jordynne Grace in a 3-way for the Impact Knockouts Championship OR face Grace for the vacant title if James can’t compete.

Match 5: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Result: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club beat Aussie Open, TMDK and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way, when Chris Bey pinned Bad Dude Tito, to retain the titles.

Match 6: Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Result: KUSHIDA beat Lio Rush by submission

Match 7: STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
Result: STRING Openweight Champion KENTA beat Minoru Suzuki to regain the title

Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey
Result: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Mike Bailey

End Show.

Quick post-show final thoughts: Unfortunately I got really tired late night and slept through parts of the last 2 matches but despite the injury losses this was a fantastic card top to bottom. Every match was between delivered and overdelivered and there were no bad matches. The only complaint was some technical difficulties early on with video packages and backstage interviews but that took nothing away from a crossover event that must happen again soon. Must-buy replay if you missed it.

Overall show grade: A

UPDATE: According to New Japan’s Japanese website, the announced paid attendance was 652.

AEW Dynamite 3/29/23 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in St. Louis, MO:

Jungle Boy beat Matt Hardy. MJF came out afterwards for a long promo segment with Jungle Boy, which was really good.

Blackpool Combat Club beat Dalton Castle & The Boys. Claudio Castagnoli pinned one of the Boys after a sitout powerbomb. Squash. Over in seconds.

IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega beat Jeff Cobb to retain the title. Bryan Danielson returned after the match for the first time since his loss at Revolution and helped with a BCC beatdown of Omega post-match, confirming he is still part of the group and is part of BCC’s ongoing heel turn.

AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy beat The Butcher to retain the title.

Ruby Soho beat Willow Nightingale. Jamie Hayter returned post-match to save Nightingale, Riho & Skye Blue from a heel beatdown after Riho & Blue initially tried to make the save. Hayter was out the last couple weeks due to visa issues (she had to return to England to resolve these. It happens every couple years for most of the foreigners in the US for all promotions).

Adam Cole beat Daniel Garcia. Britt Baker came out post-match to celebrate with her BayBay and as a final promotion for the premiere of AEW All-Access after the show, which was to focus on Cole & Baker (they have been dating for many years in real life).

Friday on Rampage (back at regular time this week): Sammy Guevara vs. Konosuke Takeshita, Best Friends vs. Kings Of The Black Throne, Taya Valkyrie vs. Marina Shafir and Juice Robinson vs. Action Andretti.

Next week: Robinson vs. Ricky Starks, AEW Women’s Champion Jamie Hayter vs. Riho for the title, AEW Tag Team Champions Gunn Club vs. FTR for the titles and if FTR loses they must leave AEW, BCC appearance and, since we’re back in Long Island, NY, it’s MJF Day! It’s his hometown after all so of course he’ll get the huge face treatment.I just know it’s going to end up being hilarious. Also an early reminder that Rampage will be LIVE next week along with the next Battle Of The Belts (we don’t know yet if that will be live or taped).

Sumo-Early Post-March 2023 Tournament News (Updated)

As is generally the case a couple days after a tournament finishes, the Nihon Sumo Kyokai (Japan Sumo Association) has begun making announcements regarding early promotions and retirements:

For promotions, the following rikishi will be Shin-Juryo in May, making their career Juryo debuts:
Fujiseiun
Tokihayate
Chiyosakae will be Sai-Juryo, returning to the second tier after previously being demoted below the tier.
Although there was no official confirmation, former Ozeki Asanoyama and Juryo Champion Ichinojo will return to Makuuchi (top tier) in May. For those curious about Terutsuyoshi, no Juryo return as he finished 3-4 at Makushita 1, so that’s another demotion.

As for retirements, 8 were announced yesterday, mostly unranked (4, unranked wrestlers usually have been out long-term due to injuries) with 2 Sandanme and 2 Jonidan retirements. No notable names yet (likely meaning no decision yet from former Ozeki Tochinoshin among others) but one retirement was Kagamio (unranked), who reached the top tier several times during his career with a highest ranking of Maegashira 9. He has been inactive/unranked for some time though-according to Wikipedia, which admittedly is not the most reliable source [although the much more reliable Nikkan Sports was cited as a reference] he has been unranked since early 2021 due to injuries. He debuted in 2003 and reached Makuuchi in 2014, notably taking the second-longest time from debut among foreign born (non-Japanese, he is from Mongolia) wrestlers to reach the top tier, but was up and down multiple times. He did manage one Juryo Championship and lost two times in Juryo playoffs, including to current Yokozuna Terunofuji. He won a Sandanme championship in 2018 but had to continuously withdraw from tournaments starting in summer 2020 due to injuries. In July 2021 he transferred to Isenoumi Beya due to Kagamiyama Beya closing. He dropped off the rankings the next tournament due to continued absences. He won 3 career championships (one Juryo, one Makushita, one Sandanme). He also just became a Japanese citizen.

UPDATE: Nikkan Sports also confirmed that despite earning a promotion with a 4-3 record, Kawazoe will not be promoted to Juryo from Makushita 3. I had a feeling that would be the case partly due to numbers (Juryo is limited to 28 rikishi and all but maybe one of the top four in Makushita were going to be promoted there. That happened). Also seems to indicate Makushita Champion Ryuo, who was at Makushita 26 in March and went 7-0, won’t be a Juryo man either. Normally the Makushita champion moves up about 30 spots on the Banzuke and Ochiai was promoted from Makushita 15 to Juryo 14 after a 7-0 debut and championship. Sounds like Ryuo will maybe be Makushita 1.

New Japan News: 3/30 PPV Update

New Japan has announced one final change to tomorrow’s Multiverse United PPV with Impact Wrestling: Lio Rush is the replacement for Josh Alexander, who is off and has vacated the Impact World Championship due to injury. Rush will face KUSHIDA, who was supposed to face Alexander for the title.

Injury Report: DDT Big Man Down

Ahead of the April events and the big KING OF DDT Tournament as well as US events this week, DDT has announced Yukio Naya, eho just recently faced Yuji Hino for the KO-D Openweight Championship, has gone down with an injury. Fractured right ankle. Out indefinitely but it sounds like it will be a few months because he is now out of the tournament in May. Yusuke Okada is the replacement in the tournament. The full field has been announced, more on that later. For their event Saturday in Yokohama with those not in the US, the card was changed with Masashi Takeda being the replacement and he will face MJ Pawl in a hardcore match.

More as it becomes available.

Dragon Gate 3/27/23 Results

Dragon Gate wrapped up the Glorious Gate 2023 Tour today with their final event of the month.

Today’s event was held at Hiroshima Industrial Hall in Hiroshima. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 498.

Match 1: Shun Skywalker, KAI & H-Y-O beat Kzy, Strong Machine J & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI. Skywalker pinned KAMEI after a moonsault double knee dtop.

Match 2: Shachihoko BOY beat Ichikawa.

Match 3: Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat Dragon Kid & Punch Tominaga. Kanda pinned Tominaga after a diving elbow drop.

Match 4: BIGBOSS Shimizu & Jason Lee beat Minorita & Kaito Nagano. Lee pinned Nagano after Maximum Driver.

Match 5: YAMATO & Takashi Yoshida beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Mochizuki Jr. YAMATO pinned Jr. after Gallaria.

Main Event: Kota Minoura, BxB Hulk & Ben-K beat Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Madoka Kikuta. Minoura pinned Dia after R-301.

Next up is The Gate Of Passion 2023 tour beginning Saturday at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET. For April, 7 of the first 9 tour events will be on DRAGONGATE NETWORK, but there will be no broadcasts from 4/17-4/30.

TJPW News: May Plans, New Foreigner, More (Updated x4)

A bit of Tokyo Joshi Pro news today:

The next foreigner to visit Japan will be Sawyer Wreck from the US. A giant of a woman by Japanese height standards at about 6’2″, she trained at the 3D Academy under WWE Hall Of Famers Bully Ray & D-Von Dudley and currently has 4 years of experience, primarily competing in Game Changer Wrestling (GCW) these days. That experience includes a GCW match against Maki Itoh.

Wreck has been added to the just-announced TJPW INSPIRATION event on 5/1 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo and will face Hikari Noa in a deathmatch. Specific deathmatch type/fotmat is TBA. After that, Wreck will challenge the Princess Of Princess Champion (the 4/15 Mizuki-Nao Kakuta winner) for the title on 5/5 at Korakuen Hall (TJPW’s annual major Golden Week event). That’s the first match set for 5/5. Yuki Arai participation has also been announced.

The rest of the 5/1 card was also announced, as is usually the case with TJPW INSPIRATION events this is a short 4-match event with mostly comedy/unusual matches:
Mahiro Kiryu vs. Gabai Ji-Chan
HIMAWARI vs. Toga
Suzume & Arisu Endo vs. Moka Miyamoto & Kaya Toribami

The event will be streamed live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

UPDATE: Some of the talent not coming to the US this week will be in a special match Sunday at GOTANDA G6/G7, an all-day music festival in Japan. The match will be Moka Miyamoto & Neko Haruna vs. Mahiro Kiryu & HIMAWARI.

UPDATE 2: On 3/29 TJPW announced, in revealing the first post-US lineup for 4/8 (Ryogoku KFC Hall, Tokyo) that Miyu Yamashita, Maki Itoh & Yuka Sakazaki will not return to Japan for this event. They will stay abroad on excursions a little longer, but Yamashita likely won’t return to Japan until at least June. She already has some US independent dates set for mid-April. This may affect the Princess Tag Team Championship she currently holds with Itoh. Sakazaki may be back with All Elite Wrestling and/or Ring Of Honor for another stint as she will be on the ROH PPV Friday.

UPDATE 3: Yamashita is now schedules to return to Japan for a 6/25 TJPW event at Nishitetsu Hall in Fukuoka. However, this is subject to change as her International schedule is not set in stone.

UPDATE 4: TJPW has announced on Twitter that SKE48 member Marika Tani will be making her next semi-regular appearance as a guest on Japanese commentary for the 4/15 event on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, which features teammate Yuki Arai in tag team action and fellow teammate Shiori Aoki making her debut as a referee for said match. The event will also have English commentary with DDT’s Chris Brookes & Drew Parker.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 3/27/23 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour today with the last day of their 4-day tour of northern Japan and the final event before a scheduled break from events.

Today’s event was held at Hachinohe Yutori 1F Multipurpose Large Hall in Aomori and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date (probably Thursday morning). There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 269.

Match 1: Mohammed Yone beat Taishi Ozawa.

Match 2: Takashi Sugiura, Shuhei Taniguchi & Akitoshi Saito beat Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Kinya Okada. Taniguchi pinned Okada after a face kick.

Match 3: Ninja Mack, Lancelot, Super Crazy & Extreme Tiger beat AMAKUSA, Atsushi Kotoge, Seiki Yoshioka & Alejandro. Mack pinned Kotoge after Phoenix Splash.

Match 4: Saxon Huxley beat Yoshiki Inamura.

Match 5: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Yoshinari Ogawa beat Kaito Kiyomoya & HAYATA. Wagner pinned Kiyomiya after Wagner Driver.

Match 6: Naomichi Marufuji beat Yasutaku Yano.

Main Event: In a Captains Fall Match, where the team that beat the opposing team’s Captain wins, Jake Lee, Jack Morris, Anthony Greene, YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya, Hahima Ohara & Hi69. Lee pinned Hi69 after a skewered front high kick. The Captains were Hi69 and Tadasuke.

The next event is 4/8 at Osaka ATC Hall Floor B2 in Osaka. There will be no live broadcast. It should be noted that, unless ABEMA-only events are simulcast in English, there are no live WRESTLE UNIVERSE broadcasts scheduled until at least early May (everything will be on demand roughly 3 days after the events). (Update: It has been confirmed that 5/4 will be live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English only. It’s another ABEMA exclusive)