Lots of Dragon Gate news today to start June (click below to read):
Continue reading “Dragon Gate News: KING OF GATE, NJPW Participation, More”Category: Uncategorized
New Japan News: NJPW STRONG Archive Now On FITE
Good news for fans of New Japan’s now-discontinued NJPW STRONG TV series who don’t subscribe to New Japan World: The entire archive, up to and including this year’s Capital Collision event, is now available on FITE for FITE+ subscribers. Previously you had to pay to watch episodes or but bundle packs that usually consisted of 4 episodes for the price of one, although New Japan has also been releasing past episodes weekly for free on YouTube.
FITE+ is FITE’s subscription service available for $7.99/month or $69.99/year and, for the amount of combat sports content included, both live and on demand, is an indescribable bargain.
Link to the full press release:
https://www.fite.tv/article/huge-stash-of-njpw-strong-events-now-on-fite/
AEW Rampage 6/2/23 Results (SPOILERS!)
Here are the quick results (matches only) for tomorrow’s TAPED AEW Rampage in San Diego, CA (SPOILERS!):
Continue reading “AEW Rampage 6/2/23 Results (SPOILERS!)”BREAKING: NOAH Wrestlers Departing
Pro Wrestling NOAH announced on Twitter a short time ago that Kinya Okada & Yasutaka Yano are leaving the promotion, presumably effective immediately. It seems to be by mutual agreement but no further details were released. An official statement has also been posted on NOAH’s website but that also said nothing further.
More as it becomes available.
DEVELOPING: New Japan Headed To Mexico
On today’s episode of their weekly “CMLL Informa” news program, airing every Wednesday afternoon on YouTube, Mexico’s CMLL promotion announced they will host New Japan for a special edition of the FANTASTICAMANIA series on June 30 at Arena Mexico in Mexico City, Mexico. 6 matches will make up the event as follows:
Hombre Bala Jr., El Runaz & Capitan Suicida vs. Okumura, Dark Magic & Akuma
Lluvia & Zeuxis vs. Jarochita & Stephanie Vaquer
El Satanico vs. Tiger Mask
El Desperado vs. Mascara Dorada 2.0
Titan, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito vs. Mistico, Atantis Jr. & Soberano Jr.
CMLL Historic Welterweight Champion Rocky Romero vs. Volador Jr. for the title
Broadcast plans TBA but CMLL normally puts their Friday events on YouTube up 2-3 days after the events. (Live streams are possibly geoblocked outside of Mexico). The event is scheduled to start at 6:30 PM PT/8:30 PM CT/9:30 PM ET (Mexico City is in the US CT time zone) which means this would be a late Saturday morning event in Japan.
AEW Dynamite 5/31/23 Results
Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in San Diego, CA:
Jon Moxley, Claudio Castagnoli & Wheeler Yuta beat Lucha Bros & Bandido. Yuta pinned Bandido with a seatbelt hold. Bandido managed to hanging vertical suplex and hold Yuta for ONE FULL MINUTE during the match.
Swerve Strickland beat Trent Beretta & Big Bill in a 3-way by pinning Beretta.
Don Callis has turned Konosuke Takeshita full heel. A noteworthy Kazuchika Okada name drop here.
Orange Cassidy & Darby Allin beat Bishop Kaun & Toa Liona. Allin pinned Kaun after Coffin Drop. Sting returned post-match.
Tony Khan’s next major Collision Announcement was made…See I’m A Punk. Crowd reaction was very loud and, because they were not in Chicago, mostly negative.
AEW TBS Champion Kris Statlander beat Nyla Rose to retain the title. Already teasing Taya Valkyrie getting another chance.
Adam Cole & Britt Baker beat Chris Jericho & Saraya. Mixed tag rules meaning only the same sex was legal at all times, no intergender stuff. Cole pinned Jericho after BOOM.
While not as much PPV fallout as I hoped for (only a taped MJF promo again) this was a fine episode. Nothing must-see but nothing must-skip and I was entertained throughout.
Friday on Rampage: All Championship Edition! An AAA Mega Championship 3-way title match (El Hijo Del Vikingo vs. 2 others who I didn’t catch because they sped through announcements), New Japan STRONG Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale vs. Emi Sakura for the title, NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Action Andretti for the title and ROH Pure Champion Katsuyori Shibata vs. Lee Moriarty for the title. Rampage is back at regular time (Fridays at 10 PM ET/PT) going forward with only one more potential NBA/NHL pre-emption this season: That could be in 2 weeks on 6/16 if the NHL Stanley Cup Finals needs a Game 6 (TNT has all Finals games this year).
Next week: AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Swerve Strickland for the title and Jay White vs. Ricky Starks with Juice Robinson and FTR banned from ringside. Also there are 2 more non-televised house shows this weekend. Toni Storm claimed she will be defending the AEW Women’s Championship at one or both events.
Pro Wrestling NOAH 5/31/23 Results
Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour today with an event that promised a Stormy Voyage of a main event as a heated rivalry resumed.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 455. A legit advance sellout. No same-day tickets were sold.
Match 1: Manabu Soya beat Taishi Ozawa. Borderline squash, it went just 88 seconds.
Match 2: Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Daga beat Shuji Kondo, Hajime Ohara & Hi69. Daga pinned Hi69 after a piledriver. (Update: After this match/event Hi69 left Kongo)
Match 3: Sean Legacy beat Stallion Rogers.
Match 4: HAYATA & Eita beat Dante Leon & Junta Miyawaki. HAYATA pinned Miyawaki after 403 Impact.
Match 5: Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura beat Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Shuhei Taniguchi, Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito. Kiyomiya pinned Saito after Shining Wizard.
Match 6: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka to retain the titles. Tadasuke pinned Kotoge after Good Looking Piledriver. V2 for the champs. Next up: Chris Ridgeway & Daga. That match will happen on 6/22 at Korakuen Hall.
Main Event: Kenoh vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima went to a 45 minute time limit draw.
The next event is ALL TOGETHER AGAIN, a New Japan/All-Japan/NOAH crossover event for charity, on 6/9 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World as a PPV will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.
The next NOAH standalone event is 6/10 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 12:30 AM PT/3:30 AM ET.
BREAKING: Sumo-New Ozeki Promotion! (And More News) (Updated 6/1)
Breaking sumo news via the Nihon Sumo Kyokai Japanese Twitter account…it’s official: Kiribayama has been promoted to Ozeki! Widely expected anytime now, the promotion to the second-highest rank comes after the Sekiwake managed 34 wins over the last 3 tournaments and also his first top tier championship in March. The vote was unanimous for promotion according to Nikkan Sports. Kiribayama also may have undergone a shikona, or name change after the announcement. It appears his new name will be Kirishima. He is the 6th Mongolian wrestler in the last 15 years to reach Ozeki and history is in his favor…they all eventually were promoted to Yokozuna, the highest rank, most recently Terunofuji. To be eligible for promotion to Grand Champion, Kirishima now must win consecutive tournaments or finish 2 straight tournaments with wins equal to victory.
In other news, the Shin-Juryo & Sai-Juryo rikishi were announced. Promoted to Makushita are Yuma, Shishi-the first rikishi from Ukraine to reach the second tier, and Kawazoe, who also has undergone a shikona and will now be known as Kiho. The returning Juryo riksihi are Shiden (who was absent for what would have been his Juryo debut in 2022) and Chiyonoumi.
While we wait to find out where he will be ranked, May Juryo runner-up Ochiai has also undergone a shikona, changing his name to Hakuoho, It’s a combination of part of his hometown and paying homage to his stablemaster, the former Yokozuna Hakuho (now Miyagino). He went 14-1 this tournament at Juryo 8 and lost the championship to Gonoyama in a playoff.
6/1 UPDATE: Reliable YouTube insider source “Chris Sumo” reports former top tier wrestler Ishiura has retired due to injury (which I have confirmed via the Association’s English website) and will become Oyakata Magaki. Ishiura last competed in the March 2022 Tournament before being sidelined bu what is believed to be a back injury. The former Magaki has left the Japan Sumo Association earlier than expected, his name was briefly taken by former Yokozuna Hakuko upon retirement last year and he is now Miyagino following taking over the Miyagino Beya where Ishiura will remain and train/mentor subordinates & fellow rikishi. Ishiura reached a highest rank of Maegashira 5 and finishes his career with a record of 350-321-108 (win-loss-absent), 161-186-43 in the top tier, 2 championships (1 Jonidan, 1 Jonokuchi) and 1 Special Prize (Fighting Spirit).
Injury Report: DDT King Is Down
Injuries have been hitting tournament winners and especially DDT hard recently. The latest one to go down is recent KING OF DDT winner Chris Brookes. Dislocated right shoulder suffered this past weekend. Out at least 3 weeks but no return date set. Changes for this weekend’s events have been made.
More as it becomes available.
Dragon Gate 5/29/23 Results
Dragon Gate wrapped up the Hopeful Gate 2023 Tour today with the final event of the month.
Today’s event was held at Fukui Industrial Hall in Fukui. There was no broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 228.
Match 1: YAMATO & Dragon Kid beat Diamante & H-Y-O. YAMATO pinned H-Y-O after Omniscient & Omnipotent Frankensteiner.
Match 2: BIGBOSS Shimizu beat Daiki Yanagiuchi.
Match 3: Jason Lee & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat Takashi Yoshida & Ho Ho Lun. KAMEI pinned Lun after “JACKY” Knife.
Match 4: Shun Skywalker, KAI & ISHIN beat Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T by DQ. J DQ’d. Ref assault.
Match 5: susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat BxB Hulk & Kagetora. Kanda pinned Kagetora after Candy Magic.
Main Event: Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Kota Minoura, Ben-K & Minorita. Kikuta pinned Minorita after a rolling lariat.
Next up is the Rainbow Gate 2023 Tour, the promotion’s June series, starting Thursday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, the first half of a doubleheader there. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.