Author: Admin

Stardom News: Annual Faction Tournament Announced

Unlike in most women’s promotions in Japan, faction warfare is an integral part of Stardom (Dragon Gate may be the best example as a whole of faction warfare in Japan). Today the promotion announced their annual faction tournament for upcoming events later this month, here’s how it will work:
All 6 current factions-Stars, Cosmic Angels, God’s Eye, E neXus V, Neo Genesis, H.A.T.E.-will participate in 2 3-team blocks. All matches will be 6-women tag matches, 2/3 Falls, 30 minute time limit, participants on each team are not announced until the match begins and each faction member must participate in at least one of their two matches. That puts H.A.T.E. in an impossible predicament because they have 7 members so they all can’t be in 2 different matches. The other factions all have 5 or 6. However, the participation rule is waived if one or more wrestlers in a faction can’t participate due to injury.
After the matches are concluded, the winners of each block advance to a championship match and the tournament winners get 2 title shots of their choice as long as they are Stardom titles (so not the IWGP Women’s Championship or STRONG Women’s Championship as those are New Japan titles). If there is a tie, the tiebreaker is match result. If said match was a draw, there will be a rematch (1 Fall, 30 minute time limit). The Final will be a 30 minute match between all members of a faction, possibly with 1 minute intervals, most total falls wins.

The blocks are as follows:
Red-Stars, God’s Eye, E neXus V
Blue-Cosmic Angels, Neo Genesis, H.A.T.E.
The matches:
1/17 (Matsuyama Community Center Special Exhibition Hall, Ehime)-Stars vs. E neXus V, Cosmic Angels vs. Neo Genesis
1/18 (Osaka Prefectural Gym 2, Osaka)-Stars vs. God’s Eye, Neo Genesis vs. H.A.T.E.
1/19 (Osaka Prefectural Gym 2)-God’s Eye vs. E neXus V, Cosmic Angels vs. H.A.T.E.
1.23 (Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo)-Final
The promotion also announced Hanan will not be part of the 1/19 event due to Diana participation. Events will also have non-tournament matches.

As far as Stardom World broadcasts, no live broadcast on 1/17 (on demand later), live on 1/18 & 1/19 (1/18 start in the US), TBA for 1/23 (I anticipate live but I sense they’ll try to be sneaky and force a PPV since it’s also the promotion’s 14th Anniversary event).

New Japan News: The King (Of Pro Wrestling) Is Officially Dead

Following Great-O-Khan announcing he was “retiring” the KOPW (King Of Pro Wrestling) championship at the end of 2024, meaning it wouldn’t be contested for at New Japan’s year-opening events (Tokyo Dome and NEW YEAR DASH!!), the IWGP Executive Committee-the sanctioning body that oversees New Japan’s championships-has made it official: The “title” is retired and dead. The title was created in mid-2020 at the suggestion of Kazuchika Okada and saw over 50 title matches in its existence, each with unique rules proposed by the participants and voted on by fans. It was never considered or treated as an “official” championship though.

Injury Report: Double DDT’d (Updated 1/15/25)

DDT has announced a pair of injury/illness changes for this weekend’s events-both Kazuki Hirata and Yuni are now off all 3 events. Hirata-right knee. Yuni-fever. This means the fourth match for tomorrow has to be changed as Hirata was announced as part of a 6-man Kotatsu Fighting match. (It actually has but not in an English-language post on DDT’s website. Makoto Oishi is the replacement).. it’s not known how long Hirata may be out, Yuni’s absence is precautionary.

More as it becomes available.

1/15/35 UPDATE: Hirata remains out indefinitely. Not serious but some swelling in the knee so it will continue to be monitored.

Dragon Gate 1/9/25 Results

Dragon Gate began their 2025 campaign today with the opener of the New Year Gate 2025 tour, the annual East-West competition event. Teams were determined based on their hometown, with foreigners on the West team.

Today’s event was held at Kobe Art Center in Kobe and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.

The announced paid attendance was 338.

Match 1: Yasushi Kanda & Ben-K beat Ryoya Tanaka & Akihiro Sahara. Ben-K pinned Sahara.

Match 2: Genki Horiguchi, Shachihoko BOY, Problem Dragon & JACKY KAMEI beat Kagetora, Punch Tominaga, Daiki Yanagiuchi & Ryu Fuda. KAMEI pinned Tominaga after JFK.

Match 3: Don Fujii, Takashi Yoshida & Naruki Doi beat Masaaki Mochizuki, Mochizuki Junior & ISHIN. Yoshida pinned ISHIN after a body press.

Match 4: Madoka Kikuta beat Honare by DQ. Weapon use.

Match 5: Strong Machine J, Susumu Yokosuka & KAI beat Luis Mante, Ho Ho Lun & Jason Lee. J pinned Lun after Genie Windmill.

Match 6: Dragon Dia & Riiita beat U-t & Hyo. Dia pinned U-T.

Main Event: YAMATO, BxB Hulk & Susumu Yokosuka beat Shun Skywalker, Kota Minoura & Yoshiki Kato. YAMATO pinned Kato after Omniscient & Omnipotent Frankensteiner.

East wins 4-3. All East members received a New Year’s Ball from GM Ryo Saito as a prize.

The next event is Saturday at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

BREAKING: The Collective 2025 Announced

In a post on social media shared by co-organizer Game Changer Wrestling, The Collective 2025, a series of independent events around WWE WrestleMania weekend in Las Vegas, NV, was just announced. This year it will take place from 4/17-4/19 with all events at the Pearl Theater at The Palms Casino Resort. DDT and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wresting are coming over from Japan again along with Josh Barnett’s Bloodsport, and there will be a joint DDT/TJPW/GCW event once again.

Bloodsport will tun on 4/17 at 8 PM PT, TJPW on 4/18 at 11 AM PT, DDT on 4/18 at 3 PM PT, and the joint DDT/TJPW/GCW event on 4/19 at 2 PM PT. All Collective events (11 at this time) will stream live and on demand on Triller/FITE via the Triller+ subscription package, available for $7:99/month. The DDT & TJPW events also will be on demand on WRESTE UNIVERSE at some point, but based on the last US events you’ll probably have to wait several months.

More as it becomes available.

BREAKING: New Japan Champion Signs With Promotion

Forget We Want Mina…more like Everyone Wants Konosuke. New Japan just announced that, following winning the NEVER Openweight Championship at the Tokyo Dome, Konosuke Takeshita has signed with the promotion. Already signed with both home promotion DDT and All Elite Wrestling, he is now in a unique position of being signed with 3 different promotions together. It’s not known how long this contract os for but knowing New Japan I imagine it’s for one year (contracts ate usually up after Tokyo Dome & New Year Dash and re-done during the break before the first tour of the year).

New Japan 1/6/25 Results

With Tokyo Dome now in the books, New Japan officially began their new year today, and the road to Tokyo Dome 2026, with their traditional new campaign launch event, NEW YEAR DASH!!

Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 2348.

None of the matches were announced in advance.

Pre-show match: Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Daiki Nagai, Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato. Nagata beat Nagai with Nagata Lock 2.

Match 1: In an Exhibition Match, Boltin Oleg vs. Josh Barnett went to a 5 minute time limit draw.

Match 2; Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, TJP, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Jado, Master Wato, Tomoaki Honma, Shota Umino & El Phantasmo. Khan pinned Honma after Eliminator. Afterwards, Khan tore up a handmade IWGP World Heavyweight Championship belt Umino had been carrying around which was made by a young fan, which probably sets up the next feud for Umino.

Match 3: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & Ren Narita beat Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Sho pinned TM 4.

Match 4: Clark Connors & SANADA beat TAKA Michinoku & Taichi. SANDA beat TAKA with Skull End.

Match 5: KUSHIDA & El Desperado beat KENTA & Taiji Ishimori. KUSHIDA beat KENTA with Hoverboard Lock.

Match 6: BUSHI, Titan, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney, Gabriel Kidd & David Finlay. Titan pinned Gedo after Jade Immortal.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Alex Zayne. Naito pinned Taguchi after Destino. Afterwards, Naito issued an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship challenge to Matt & Nick Jackson, who beat LIJ in a 3-way yesterday to win the vacant titles.

Main Event: Rocky Romero, Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Yoh beat Eagles with a ground cobra twist. Afterwards, with the shot in hand from winning the New Japan Ranbo on Saturday, Goto issues the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship challenge to Sabre. That match will likely happen at THE NEW BEGINNING on 2/11 at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka.

The next event is Battle In The Valley 2025 Saturday at San Jose Civic in San Jose, CA. Live streaming on New Japan World for all paying subscribers and as a PPV on Triller/FITE ($19.99) will begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET. No live results because, recent health concerns not withstanding, I will be there live in person!

DDT 1/5/25 Results

DDT ran a special “All seats 3000 yen” (around $20 US) New Year Festival 2025 event today in Tokyo.

Today’s event was held at Itabashi Green Hall in Tokyo and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Wednesday. There was no live broadcast.

The paid attendance was not announced but it was a legit advance sellout. For the venue that means 200-250.

Before the matches began, new ring announcer Task Ono, who debuted today, greeted the crowd.

NwA Jr. (Shunma Katsumata, Yuni, Kazuma Sumi) performed their debut song.

Match 1: Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO went to a 15 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Jun Akiyama beat Gota Ihashi.

Match 3: Tetsuya Endo beat Yuki Iino. This is/was Endo’s final DDT match for now before he heads to Pro Wrestling NOAH indefinitely.

Main Event: KO-D 10-Man Tag Team Champions Keigo Nakamura, To-y, Yuya Koroku, Kazuma Sumi & Yuki Ishida beat Danshoku Dieno, Toru Owashi, Akito, Kazuki Hirata & Antonio Honda and HARASHIMA, Takao Soma, Tomomiotsu Matsnaga, Yukio Naya & Yuni and Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul, KANON, Demus & Illusion in a 4-way elimination match to retain the titles. Order of elimination (one man means entire team out): Yuni by Hirata, Honda by Demus, Illusion by Nakamura. V1 for the champs.

The next event is KOTATSU FIGHTING 2025 Saturday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

New Japan Pro Wrestling “WRESTLE DYNASTY” LIVE Results (1/5/25) (Updated)

New Japan returns to the Tokyo Dome today just hours after their annual year-opening biggest event of the year for WRESTLE DYNASTY, a special crossover event featuring partner promotions AEW, CMLL, Stardom and more. With yesterday now in the books, that means several expected changes were made to the card but also some unexpected changes. With Zack Sabre Jr. still IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, that means he now defends against Ricochet in what will be the main event, while NEW NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita defends the title AND the AEW International Championshp against Tomohiro Ishii, and NEW IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji defends the title against Jack Perry. And in unexpected changes, Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi have cashed in their IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship shot earned for winning the World Tag League to make today’s determination match for the vacant titles a 3-way (and the TBA that was Great-O-Khan’s mystery partner has been revealed to be Jeff Cobb), plus Hiroshi Tanahashi & Katsuyori Shibata face off in an exhibition match.

Today’s event will be held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese and English. It will also be available live and on demand as a PPV on Triller/FITE for $29.99 or as a combo pack for $47.99 which includes unlimited replays of yesterday’s event. Both have replays for the next 90 days. There will be 2 pre-show matches and 12 matches total so strap in for a potential all-nighter if you’re on the US east coast as the event’s total running time will probably be close to 5 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
International Women’s Cup: Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale, Athena & Persephone in a 4-way
ROH Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho for the titles

Main show/PPV:
Lucha Gauntlet. 4 New Japan & 4 CMLL participants. Staggered entry (every minute), first pinfall or submission wins. No over the top rope rules
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata in a 5 Minute Exhibition Match
STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. RevPro British Women’s Champion Mina Shirakawa for the titles
David Finlay vs. Brody King
Shota Umino vs. Claudio Castagnoli
NEVER Openweight Champion & AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the titles
Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Matt & Nick Jackson and Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi in a 3-way for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship
IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry for the title
Kenny Omega vs. Gabriel Kidd
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet for the title

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

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

7 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Milano Collection A.T. & Miki Motoi. El Desperado is our first guest on commentary. Your English hosts are Walker Stewart & Chris Charlton.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd will still be filing in over the next hour but most of the floor/field level seating is already full. Advance sales didn’t seem as strong as for yesterday so I’ll initially guess it’ll be around 20,000. That still would likely be the second-biggest number of the entire year anywhere in Japan. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 16,300)

Pre-show:
Match 1: International Women’s Cup: Momo Watanabe vs. Willow Nightingale, Athena & Persephone in a 4-way. No time limit
Result: Momo Watanabe beat Willow Nightingale, Athena & Persephone in a 4-way by pinning Athena. Thekla, who was seconding Watanabe, was ejected right before by the ref for interfering, allowing Watanabe to use her baseball bat to knock out Athena.

Match 2: ROH Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: ROH Tag Team Champions Dustin Rhodes & Sammy Guevara beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho to retain the titles. Rhodes pinned Kanemaru after a Guevara swanton bomb.

Pre-show ends at 7:35 PM PT/10:30 PM ET. Updates will resume when the main show/PPV begins.

Main show/PPV:
This event is airing live as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 on TV Asahi.

Match 1: Lucha Gauntlet. 4 New Japan & 4 CMLL participants. Staggered entry (every minute), first pinfall or submission wins. No over the top rope rules. Participants were not announced in advance. No time limit.
Participants (order of entry in parentheses): New Japan-Kosei Fujita (2), Master Wato (4). Taiji Ishimori (6), El Desperado (8). CMLL-Hechicero (1), Soberano Jr. (3), Mascara Dorada (5), Titan (7).
Result: Taiji Ishimori won by pinning Desperado.

Match 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata in an Exhibition Match. 5 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw. A standup slap/chop fest.

Match 3: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. RevPro British Women’s Champion Mina Shirakawa for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone beat Mina Shirakawa to retain the title and win the RevPro British Women’s Championship. V4 for Mone. Which hopefully means I get to see her Saturday at Battle In The Valley.

El Desperado rejoins Japanese commentary for the next match and hosts are swapped as Haruo Murata gets a break.

Match 4: David Finlay vs. Brody King. 30 minute time limit
Result: David Finlay beat Brody King

Match 5: Shota Umino vs. Claudio Castagnoli. 30 minute time limit
Result: Shota Umino beat Claudio Castagnoli

Upcoming US event announcements. Windy City Riot in April in Chicago is being billed as Hiroshi Tanahashi’s final US appearance before his retirement.

Match 6: NEVER Openweight Champion & AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. Tomohiro Ishii for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: NEVER Openweight Champion & AEW International Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Tomohiro Ishii to retain the titles. V1 for Takeshita.

Match 7: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb vs. Matt & Nick Jackson and Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi in a 3-way for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Matt & Nick Jackson beat Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb and Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi in a 3-way, when Matt Jackson pinned Khan, to win the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship. The Jacksons become the 106th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

Hiroshi Tanahashi joins Japanese commentaryz

Match 8: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji beat Jack Perry to retain the title. V1 for Tsuji.

Match 9: Kenny Omega vs. Gabriel Kidd. No time limit
Result: Kenny Omega beat Gabriel Kidd

Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Ricochet by submission to retain the title. V4 for Sabre.

The next event is NEW YEAR DASH!! tomorrow at Ota City General Gym. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.

UPDATE: As a result of winning the pre-show women’s 4-way, Momo Watanabe gets a future title shot of her choice. Presumably that means any title in Stardom or the other women’s titles in AEW, ROH or CMLL. (UPDATE 2: It sounds like she chose the ROH Women’s Championship currently held by Athena)

New Japan 1/4/25 Results

The biggest annual extravaganza in Japanese pro wrestling, and second biggest in all wrestling after WrestleMania, New Japan’s year-opening WRESTLE KINGDOM 19, is in the books.

Today’s event was held at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. It is also available as a PPV on Triller/FITE for $29.99 or as a combo pack for $47.99 which includes tomorrow’s event and replays for 90 days (until 4/4). This event aired live in Japan as the premiere of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 on TV Asahi.

The announced paid attendance was 24,107. That’s actually down from last year’s event (27,422). It’s still (and will be) the biggest crowd of the year but against normal capacity for the Dome (65,000 for baseball) and Hiroshi Tanahashi’s goals of selling it out again, on paper that’s actually kinda bad, especially when pre-pandemic they routinely did twice this number. (And it wasn’t a full capacity setup, would have been maybe 50,000 tops)

Pre-show match: Hirooki Goto won the New Japan Ranbo Battle Royal, this year with 17 participants, last eliminating Great-O-Khan. As a result, Goto gets a future IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match.

Match 1: In a Ladder Match, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA, Francesco Akira & TJP and Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors in a 4-way to win the titles Fujita & Eagles become the 77th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.

Match 2: IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani beat AZM to retain the title. V9 for Iwatani. Fellow Stardom wrestler Momo Watanabe was a (very unenthusiastic) guest on Japanese commentary for this match.

Match 3: El Phantasmo beat NJPW WORLD TV Champion Ren Narita, Ryohei Oiwa & Jeff Cobb in a 4-way by pinning Narita to win the title. Phantasmo becomes the 7th NJPW WORLD TV Champion.

Match 4: In a Lumberjack Death Match, Hiroshi Tanahashi beat EVIL. Afterwards, the usual H.O.T. beatdown followed until Katsuyori Shibata returned and made the save.

Match 5: Konosuke Takeshita beat NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi to win the title and retain the AEW International Championship Takeshita becomes the 47th NEVER Openweight Champion.

Match 6: El Desperado beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion DOUKI by ref stoppage (injury) to win the title. Desperado becomes the 98th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion. Unfortunately this was a legit injury and the match only went about 5 minutes. DOUKI suffered a left arm injury on a dive through the ropes. Desperado promised a rematch in the future if circumstances allow.

Match 7: Yota Tsuji beat IWGP Global Champion David Finlay to win the title. Tsuji becomes the 4th IWGP Global Champion.

Match 8: Tetsuya Naito beat Hiromu Takahashi.

Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shuta Umino to retain the title. V3 for Sabre. This went almost 45 minutes.

The next event is WRESTLE DYNASTY tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World and as a PPV on Triller/FITE will begin TONIGHT at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.

As expected, and not expected, there are several changes to WRESTLE DYNASTY as a result of today’s matches:
The expected:
Konosuke Takeshita will defend both his titles against Tomohiro Ishii.
Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry is now for the IWGP Global Championship.
Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet is now for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
The unexpected:
The IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match between Great-O-Khan & TBA (mystery partner) and Matt & Nick Jackson is now a 3-way with Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi added.
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Katsuyori Shibata has been added, it will be a Exhibition Match with a 5 minute time limit

Including the pre-show, that makes 12 total matches for the event.