I missed the first week due to travel and limited internet access, but here is a quick recap from the first week of the May 2024 Grand Sumo Tournament in Tokyo and notes from the first week so far:
Continue reading “Sumo-May 2024 Grand Sumo Tournament Day 8 (Halfway Point) Results & Notes”Category: Uncategorized
BREAKING: Absent TJPW Wrestler Gone
Many fans and even some wrestlers recently, including occasional visitor Max The Impaler (and myself too), have been wondering about Hikari Noa. She has been absent from Tokyo Joshi Pro since missing events in December due to the ever-vague poor physical condition. Now we have an update on her status, but it’s not good for us-Noa has left the promotion. They say she “graduated” and the promotion’s announcement made it sound like a personal decision to leave after discussing future plans there is/will be no comment from Noa but TJPW said she apologized to fans for not being able to live up to their wishes & expectations. A separate announcement from the Up Up Girls website says Noa made the decision to leave Wednesday (May 15).
Noa’s profile page has already been removed from DDT’s website but she was both an International Princess Champion and Princess Tag Team Champion (the latter with the soon-retiring Nao Kakuta, who has posted fond memories of them on Twitter) and also was in the first true hardcore matches in TJPW. No was also a member of the Up Up Girls group with (at the time) Miu Watanabe, Raku and-when she first joined-Shino Suzuki. She has been wrestling for 7 years but it’s not known if that will continue.
We join on wishing Noa the best in her future endeavors
Dragon Gate 5/9/24 Results
Dragon Gate began the Hopeful Gate 2024 Tour, the May tour, today with their monthly Tokyo event.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.
The paid attendance has not yet been announced.
Match 1: Luis Mante & Hyo beat Madoka Kikuta & Ryoya Tanaka. Hyo pinned Tanaka after Samson Driver.
Match 2: Don Fujii, Toru Owashi (DDT) & Takashi Yoshida beat Punch Tominaga, Ryu Fuda & Daiki Yanagiuchi. Owashi pinned Tanagiuchi after a chokeslam.
Match 3: Jason Lee & Gianni Valetta beat Yasushi Kanda & Kenichiro Arai. Valetta pinned Kanda after a King Kong kneedrop.
Match 4: Ultimo Dragon, Masaaki Mochizuki, BxB Hulk & Dragon Dia beat Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi, Genki Horiguchi & Shuji Kondo. Dia pinned Horiguchi after a modified driver. This likely was Dia’s last match in the promotion for at least a month due to New Japan participation in the Best Of The Super Junior 31 Tournament as an injury replacement.
Match 5: Kzy beat JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI.
Match 6; YAMATO & Susumu Yokosuka beat Kota Minoura & Ben-K by DQ. Minoura DQ’d. Ref assault.
Main Event: BIGBOSS Shimizu, Strong Machine J & U-T beat Open The Triangle Gate Champions Shun Skywalker, KAI & ISHIN to win the titles. Shimizu, J & U-T become the 90th Open The Triangle Gate Champions. J pinned KAI with Machine Suplex.
The next event is Saturday at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.
Injury Report: O-O-O It’s Painful in NOAH
A double whammy of injuries for Pro Wrestling NOAH today as they have just announced 2 absences: Yoshinari Ogawa & Hajime Ohara. Ogawa-unspecified injury suffered on 4/26. Ohara-concussion. Both out indefinitely. No potential card changes yet as they mostly have not been announced.
More as it becomes available.
Injury Report: Rough Early Start to Summer
Tokyo Joshi Pro announced the full 5/12 card today, and some unplanned absences with it-one is not injury-related as Nao Kakuta is off due to a scheduling conflict (stage performance) but one is as rookie Kira Summer will be out of action for the first time in her career. The always-vague poor physical condition coming out of yesterday, but serious enough to require a second examination. Out indefinitely. No changes will be needed for 5/12.
More as it becomes available.
In unrelated TJPW news, I also join her many fans and the roster in wishing Yuki Arai a happy 26th birthday!
Dragon Gate 5/6/24 Results (Updated)
Dragon Gate wrapped up The Gate Of Passion 2024 tour today in Aichi.
Today’s event was held at Tsushima Bunka Hall in Aichi. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 228.
Match 1: Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu, Strong Machine J & U-T beat Genki Horiguchi, Toru Owashi (DDT), Shachihoko BOY & Problem Dragon. J pinned Dragon after a lariat.
Match 2: Gianni Valetta beat Punch Tomonaga.
Match 3: Madoka Kikuta, Dragon Dia & Ryoya Tanaka beat Ben-K, Ryu Fuda & Ho Ho Lun. Dia pinned Fuda after DDDDT.
Match 4: ISHIN & Jason Lee beat Takashi Yoshida & Yasushi Kanda. Lee pinned Kanda.
Main Event: Luis Mante, Hyo & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat Dragon Kid, Susumu Yokosuka & Kagetora. Hyo pinned Kagetora after Hunting.
Next up is the Hopeful Gate 224 Your starting Thursday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:15 AM PT/5:15 AM ET.
UPDATE: After the event, it was announced that Kaito Nagano has retired effective immediately due to injuries.
All-Japan 5/6/24 Results
All-Japan wrapped up the preliminary rounds of the Champions Carnival today, finishing up Block A. (They did not participate in ALL TOGETHER this time)
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 1276.
Pre-show: Actress Girls Match: Nagisa Shiotsuki & Aoi Natsu beat JASMINE & MARU. Natsu pinned MARU.
Match 1: Kaz Hayashi (GLEAT), MUSASHI (Michinoku Pro) & Yuki Yoshioka (Dragon Gate) beat Rising Hayato, Hikaru Sato & Ryuji Hijikata. Hayashi pinned Hijikat after Final Cut.
Match 2: GAORA TV Champion Seigo Tachibana beat Dan Tamura to retain the title. V2 for Tachibana
Match 3: Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda, Jun & Rei Saito beat Suwama, Hartley Jackson, Hideki Suzuki & Road Crew. Jun Saito pinned Crew after Paycho Break.
Champions Carnival Block A:
Match 4: Ren Ayabe beat Kuroshio TOKYO Japan.
Match 5: Cyrus beat Shotaro Ashino.
Match 6: Hokuto Omori beat Yuma Aoyagi.
Main Event: Kento Miyahara beat Davey Boy Smith Jr. As a result, Miyahara wins Block A. No surprise.
The Finals will be Miyahara vs. Jun Saito.
The Final is Sunday at Yokohama Buntai in Yokohama. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.
Stardom 5/5/24 Results
Stardom wrapped up their Golden Week events yesterday with a big event in Fukuoka.
Yesterday’s event was held at Acros Fukuoka in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on PPV via Pia Stream. It should be available on Stardom World later this week.
The announced paid attendance was 691, It looks like this originally was a sellout but they added more capacity.
Match 1: Waka Tsukiyama beat Aya Sakura.
Match 2: Konami beat Yuna Mizumori & HANAKO in a 3-way by pinning HANAKO.
Match 3: AZM & Miyu Amasaki beat Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara. Amasaki pinned Kurara after Heavenly.
Match 4: Ami Sohrei & Saki Kashima beat Saya Kamitani & Lady C. Kashima pinned C.
Match 5: Natsuko Tora, Momo Watanabe & Thekla beat Saori Anou, Tam Nakano & Starlight Kid. Watanabe pinned Kid after Tequila Sunrise.
Match 6: Artist Of Stardom Champions Maika, Mina Shirakawa & Gina beat Mayu Iwatani, Hanan & Saya Iida to retain the titles.. Maika pinned Hanan after Michinoku Driver 2. V1 for the champs.
Main Event: Hazuki & Koguma beat Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira to win the titles. Hazuki & Koguma become the 32nd Goddesses Of Stardom Champions. Hazuki pinned Seira after a vertical drop brainbuster. Next up: AZM & Amasaki. That match will happen Sunday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Also on Sunday-Hina will return after being out the entire year so far due to injury.
The next event is Saturday at TKP Garden City Chiba in Chiba. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin Friday at 9 PM PT/midnight ET.
ALL TOGETHER 5/6/24 Results
ALL TOGETHER, the special joint cooperative cross-promotion event for charity fundraiser efforts, returned today for a 3rd installment, this time to raise funds for Noto Peninsula earthquake recovery efforts. A portion of ticket sales will be donated to various charities supporting the cause. This installment featured New Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH and DDT Pro Wrestling, and there was also a Stardom women’s match plus Dragon Gate and Big Japan participation.
Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand as a PPV only on ABEMA until 5/19. It will hopefully be available on New Japan World and/or WRESTLE UNIVERSE after that. These results come via NOAH’s website as New Japan’s websites are down.
The announced paid attendance was 4583.
There were changes to Match 6 because Tetsuya Endo was a last-minute removal from the card due to an injury suffered yesterday in DDT.
Match 1: Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL beat Naomichi Marufuji, Sanshiro Takagi & Hiroshi Tanahashi. EVIL pinned Tanahashi after EVIL.
Match 2: Kenoh beat Kosei Fujita.
Match 3: Starlight Kid & Natsupoi beat AZM & Miyu Amasaki. Kid pinned Amasaki with a star suplex hold.
Match 4: Tomohiro Ishii & Daisuke Sekimoto (Big Japan) beat Jeff Cobb & Masa Kitamiya. Ishii pinned Cobb after a vertical drop brainbuster.
Match 5: El Desperado, HAYATA, Ninja Mack, MAO & Kota Minoura (Dragon Gate) beat Hiromu Takahashi, Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Shunma Katsumata & YAMATO (Dragon Gate). Minoura pinned YAMATO.
Match 6: Taichi & KAI (Dragon Gate) beat Zack Sabre Jr. & Chris Brookes. Taichi beat Brookes with Taichi-type Gedo Clutch 37.
Match 7: Jake Lee, David Finlay & Gabriel Kidd beat Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Lee pinned Naito after FBS.
Main Event: Shota Umino, Kaito Kiyomiya & Yuki Ueno beat Yuya Uemura, Konosuke Takeshita & Shun Skywalker (DDT). Kiyomiya pinned Uemura after Transformed Shining Wizard.
One announcement from NOAH after the event: The first challenger for NEW GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya will be Gabriel Kidd. That match will happen on 6/16 at GRAND SHIP 2024 in YOKOHAMA at Yokohama Buntai.
BREAKING: ALL TOGETHER Last-Minute Card Changes Pending
According to DDT’s English language Twitter, there are likely to be last-minute changes to today’s ALL TOGETHER card because Tetsuya Endo is now off. Injured at yesterday’s DDT event. No word on a potential replacement but he wants Shunma Katsumata to be the replacement. With New Japan’s website down for maintenance we may bot find out what happens before event time.
