Category: Uncategorized

Injury Report: Crippled Champions Carnival Winner (Updated x2)

All-Japan announced potentially major injury news today-Champions Carnival winner Shotaro Ashino, who is scheduled to face Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown in a few weeks, is in danger of losing his chance because of injury suffered in the Finals. Left ulna fracture. Out indefinitely. The title match is in just over 2 weeks so status is uncertain. This may also cause Ashino to miss the Hana Kimura Memorial Event on 5/23.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: An UNOFFICIAL French-language All-Japan Twitter account is saying Ashino is off 5/29, when the Triple Crown match will happen. T-Hawk, who lost to Ashino in the Champions Carnival Finals, is the replacement.

Official confirmation to come.

UPDATE 2: On 5/12 (Japan time), All-Japan announced a determination match between Ryuki Honda & T-Hawk for the 5/29 title match will happen on 5/18 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo. The winner will face Nagata for the Triple Crown on 5/29 while the loser will face Yuma Anzai on 5/29.

News: Upcoming New Japan TAMASHII Events Postponed, Impact Replacing

In a press release today, Impact Wrestling announced they are headed to Australia in June & July for the first time. The events will be held on 6/30 & 7/1 Australia time as part of a 4-day tour from 6/29-7/2, with the events being held in Wagga Wagga, New South Wales. The press release notes the events will be broadcast worldwide on FITE, Impact broadcast partners, digital and social media which suggests they should also be available for Impact+ and YouTube Ultimate Insider subscribers and also AXS TV in the US. Tickets go on sale Saturday (Sunday in Australia).

These events replace planned New Japan TAMASHII events and Oceania Cup, the latter of which is postponed due to NJPW scheduling & talent availability issues. While there are no NjPW events during this time and no press release has been put out from New Japan about this, the events would be less than a week after the Forbidden Door 2 joint event with All Elite Wrestling in Canada. The TAMASHII dates had not yet been announced.

More as it becomes available.

FREE VIDEO: The Firm Deletion Full Match (5/5/23)

While AEW taped and aired The Firm Deletion Match this past Friday on Rampage, what did air on Rampage was edited for time and not the full match. Although it was uploaded to Bleacher Report before, AEW has now uploaded the whole match, which went about 20 minutes, to YouTube. Check it out below:

News: First All Together Again Matches Announced

The first matches for All Together Again, the joint New Japan/All-Japan/NOAH charity fundraiser event in June, were announced today. 3 trios matches are set for the card which are as follows:
YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura
BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Yuji Nagata, Suwama & Yuma Anzai
Kaito Kiyomiya, Kento Miyahara & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada, Yuma Aoyagi & Kenoh

I can see that last match being the main event, and it’s probably going to be Kiyomiya & Okada fighting amongst themselves constantly and a match maybe happening around it given their history.

More matches TBA. The event is scheduled for 6/9 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and will be available as a PPV on New Japan World.

Injury Report: GLEAT Wrestler Out This Weekend

In a press release they put out today, GLEAT announced Masato Kamino is injured and off of Sunday’s G PROWRESTLING event in Hokkaido. Meniscus. Out indefinitely. He was to have teamed with Takanori Ito & Yusuke Kodama to face Minoru Tanaka, Kaz Hayashi & Noriyuki Yoshida. No replacement named yet.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan News: Upcoming Title Match in US (SPOILERS!)

New Japan’s Zack Sabre Jr. was among those who appeared at this past weekend’s Ring Of Honor TV tapings in Orlando, FL and while it’s not known when it will air, there was an NJPW WORLD Tv Title match as part of the tapings. It could air as soon as Thursday (new episodes of ROH TV premiere Thursdays on HonorClub, available only in the US for $9.99/month). If you want to know what happened click below as this contains SPOILERS! (The match should also be available on New Japan World at a later date)

Continue reading “New Japan News: Upcoming Title Match in US (SPOILERS!)”

All-Japan News: Next Triple Crown Match Official

Following up on the conclusion of the Champions Carnival, All-Japan has announced that Triple Crown Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Shotaro Ashino for the Triple Crown will happen on 5/29 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Ashino won the Champions Carnival in an upset, beating T-Hawk in the Finals to earn the opportunity.

This will be the second defense for Nagata, who has mostly stayed away from New Japan since winning the title and had made frequent appearances in All-Japan.

News: Fujinami Launching New Effort

It seems that Tatsumi Fujinami, 69 with 52 years experience in the ring, is never really going to retire. Still remaining active mainly in his Dradition promotion, Hochi News reports (in a story shared by Dradition) that Fujinami is starting another new promotion, with translation indicating it will be called “Dragon Stadium” and it will feature young wrestlers who recently debuted hand-selected by Fujinami. They mainly will be selected from promotions he is currently active in, which would mean Dradition primarily and possibly others. Fujinami intends to apply training methods he learned from the late Antonio Inoki & Karl Gotch in the promotion and that is “a project to create a new stage for young people that conveys the Dragonism cultivated in the Showa era (which ended 5 years ago in the Japanese calendar) to the present in Reiwa”.

Original source (in Japanese):
https://hochi.news/articles/20230505-OHT1T51030.fhtml

BREAKING: Yuka Sakazaki Leaving TJPW After 2023

At a press conference in Tokyo today, Tokyo Joshi Pro star Yuka Sakazaki made a major announcement: She is leaving the promotion after the 10th Anniversary Event on 12/1 at Korakuen Hall. Sakazaki will be leaving Japan to continue her career overseas. It was also announced her next excursion will run until after the 6/4 event, and the next Princess Tag Team Championship defense for Sakazaki & Mizuki will be on 6/11 vs. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe.

This most likely hints at Sakazaki going to All Elite Wrestling full-time as she has been a member of the roster since the early days of the promotion, but the coronavirus pandemic kept her away from 2020 until 2022.

More as it becomes available.

Dragon Gate 5/7/23 Results

Dragon Gate continued the Hopeful Gate 20223 Tour today with another non-televised house show.

Today’s event was held at Yokkaichi Kusunoki Ryokuchi Gym in Mie. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 312.

Match 1: Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat BxB Hulk & Ben-K. Kanda pinned Hulk after Candy Magic.

Match 2: Jason Lee & Strong Machine J beat Genki Horiguchi & Kagetora. Lee pinned Horiguchi after Maximum Driver.

Match 3: Kota Minoura beat Kaito Nagano.

Match 4: Diamante, KAI & ISHIN beat Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid & Shachihoko BOY. Diamante pinned BOY after a tombstone piledriver.

Match 5: Don Fujii & Takashi Yoshida beat Shun Skywalker & H-Y-O. Fujii beat H-Y-O with Gedo Clutch.

Main Event: Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & U-T. Kikuta pinned U-T after a rolling lariat.

The next event is Thursday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.