Category: Uncategorized

New Japan 1/27/23 Results

On a pivotal day in Japan where the Japanese government apparently lifted all capacity and vocal cheering restrictions for events despite another coronavirus surge, New Japan held their first house show of the year as wrestlers celebrated the lifting of these restrictions that have been in place for years.

Today’s event was held at Funabashi City General Gym in Chiba. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 760.

Match 1: Aaron Henare beat Yuto Nakashima.

Match 2: Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe beat Oskar Leube & Huroyoshi Tenzan. Makabe pinned Leube after a King Kong kneedrop.

Match 3: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo beat Jado & Master Wato. Phantasmo pinned Jado after Sudden Death.

Match 4: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo & KENTA by DQ. Gedo DQ’d.

Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Ryohei Oiwa, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto. Nicholls pinned Oiwa after a sliding lariat.

Match 6: Francesco Akira, TJP, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned TAKA after Hidden Blade.

Main Event: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Tomoaki Honma & Kazuchika Okada. Takahashi pinned Taguchi after Time Bomb 2.

The next event is tomorrow at Koga City ES Central Sports Park Hanamomo Gym in Ibaraki. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

Additionally, last Saturday’s NJPW-NOAH crossover event is now available on New Japan World for all subscribers (no more PPV). If you are a WRESTLE UNIVERSE subscriber, their version will premiere on the service TONIGHT at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT and should be available on demand later this weekend (their version was an ABEMA PPV and their PPV window runs until early tomorrow).

(Correction: WRESTLE UNIVERSE on demand version is now available per their Japanese Twitter)

(Further clarification on above: Only the Japanese version is now on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Tonight will be the premiere of the English version)

DEVELOPING: GLEAT Announces UWF Championship Tournament

In a series of posts on Twitter, GLEAT has announced a tournament to crown an inaugural Lidet UWF Champion. Based on Akira Maeda’s 1980s-1990s promotion of hybrid wrestling & shootfighting, UWF matches are featured on GLEAT and sometimes G PROWRESTLING events and combine wrestling with MMA, with differences being there are no pinfalls and no closed fist strikes and matches end by KO with a 10 count down like in boxing or by TKO-fighters start with 5 points and lose a point for each down and rope break. Lose 5 points and that ends it. There are also tag team fights called Double Bouts, but only one fighter on each team is ever in at one time.

The tournament will have 8 participants and begin on 3/7 at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo with the Quarterfinals and some non-tournament fights, and the rest plus championship belt reveal on 4/12 at Korakuen Hall. The participants and first fights are are Soma Watanabe vs. Hikaru Sato, Takanori Ito vs. Dan Tamura, Tetsuya Izuchi vs. Shinya Aoki and Yu Iizuka vs. Minoru Tanaka.

More as it becomes available.

Impact Wrestling 1/26/23 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s IMPACT Wrestling from Atlanta, GA, not including the results from the Before The Impact pre-show available FOR FREE on YouTube:
These results are from the YouTube Ultimate Insiders version that begins 30 minutes after the AXS TV airing starts, it’s the same program just with no ads. Note that the program was taped several weeks ago however I DO NOT read spoilers before the show airs so I have no advance knowledge of what happened.

The pre-show match was Zicky Dice vs. Carlie Bravo.

Match 1: Impact X Champion Trey Miguel beat Mike Jackson to retain the title. Jackson is maybe the oldest active wrestler in the world at 73.

Match 2: KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight beat The Good Hands (John Skyler & Jason Hotch). KUSHIDA beat Hotch with a kimura.

Match 3: Impact Knockouts Tag Team Champions Death Dollz (Taya Valkyrie & Jessicka) beat Gisele Shaw & Tara to retain the titles. Jessicka pinned Shaw after Sick Driver after Tara turned on Shaw.

There will be 3 weekends of Chicago events in April, July & October as part of a first-ever season pass ticket package. October will include Bound For Glory, Impact’s biggest PPV of the year.

Match 4: Bullet Club (Ace Austin & Chris Bey) beat Major Players (Matt Cardona & Brian Myers). Austin pinned Cardona with a Bey-assisted bridge,

Match 5: Jonathan Gresham beat Sheldon Jean.

Main Event: Rich Swann beat Rhino, Eddie Edwards, Chris Sabin, Moose and Sami Callahan in a Golden 6 Shooter 6-way elimination match (eliminations by pinfall, submission or DQ), last eliminating Callahan. Order of elimination: Rhino by Callahan, Edwards by Sabin, Sabin by Moose, Moose by Swann, Callahan by Swann. As a result, Swann will face Impact World Champion Josh Alexander for the title at No Surrender on 2/24 in Las Vegas, NV.

Next week (announced tonight): Bullet Club vs. Knight/KUSHIDA & Gisele Shaw vs. Savannah Evans,

FREE VIDEO: Jay Briscoe Tribute Special

In case you missed it from other posts, here is the full Jay Briscoe Tribute Special put together by All Elite Wrestling & Ring Of Honor which premiered overnight after the west feed replay of AEW Dynamite (FYi: Running time is over 3 hours):

AEW Dynamite 1/25/23 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Lexington, KY:

Chris Jericho & Sammy Guevara beat Action Andretti & Ricky Starks. Guevara pinned Andretti after GTH.

AEW TNT Champion Darby Allin beat Buddy Matthews to retain the title.

Jungle Boy & Hook beat Ethan Page & Matt Hardy. Jungle Boy beat Page with Snare Trap.

Bryan Danielson beat Brian Cage.

Ruby Soho beat Toni Storm.

Jay Briscoe Tribute Match: Mark Briscoe beat Jay Lethal.

Friday on Rampage: Adam Page vs. Wheeler Yuta and Jamie Hayter vs. Emi Sakura.

Next week: Bryan Danielson vs. Timothy Thatcher.

Sumo-Early March 2023 Ranking Notes (Updated)

Based on Twitter posts from the Nihon Sumo Kyokai’s (Japan Sumo Association) official Twitter that I translated, and a couple of YouTube videos, we’re getting a few hints at notable rankings items for March:

Ochiai, the Makushita Champion in his Debut, and November Makushita Champion Tamashoho, who finished with a winning record at Makushita 1, will be Shin-Juryo in March and make their second tier debuts. Ochiai, who earned a Makushita 15 debut ranking as the 2022 Corporate Champion, sets the record for fastest promotion to Juryo from his debut, and the fastest possible-one tournament. The previous record was 2 tournaments by top-tier mainstay Endo. (Had he turned pro earlier when he had the chance, he probably would have started at the bottom of the Sandanme, the 4th tier). Uncertain is whether January Juryo Champion Asanoyama, a former Ozeki, will jump back to the top tier after going 14-1 at Juryo 12. Typically the Juryo champion moves up 7-9 spots in the Banzuke but that has been with 11-12 wins. It’s a toss-up but I think it won’t happen. I’m putting him at Juryo 1. And we’re also waiting for any hints as to whether Emperor’s Cup winner Takakeisho is in Yokozuna contention. The Ozeki’s last two tournaments have been winner in Ianuary and equal to a win in November (losing in a playoff). Generally that is enough to meet one criteria for Yokozuna-it’s that or win consecutive championships.

Also updated is the typical post-tournament retired rikishi list. Okinoumi, who retired after Day 6, is the only notable name on the list, and he has become Kimigohama Oyakata and will remain active on the path to becoming a coach/stablemaster and training rikishi. The only Makushita or higher retirement was Hikarifuji, who was at Makushita 21 but was absent. That and the retirement of apparently unranked Hoshinofuji leads me to wonder if they were the wrestlers from Isegahama Beya punished for their role in an apparent bullying scandal that involved potential rankings manipulation and cost stablemaster Isegahama his spot as chief judge in tournaments. One was suspended for the tournament-I’m thinking that’s Hikarifuji-and one who wasn’t ranked was forced to retire. There’s never been any mention or knowledge of Yokozuna Terunofuji possibly being involved, nor any updates on his status for March-Terunofuji pulled out of the September tournament due to injury and had double knee surgery afterwards. The hope was he would have returned in January but may have had a setback in training.

It also sounds like former top tier champion Tokushoryu will be Sai-Juryo, returning to the second tier after a one-tournament demotion to Makushita. A long losing tournament streak was snapped with a 4-3 finish at Makushita 2.

UPDATED: A new YouTube video posted on 1/26 by an unofficial reporter/commentator indicates that Kinbozan will be promoted to the top tier for the March tournament. That probably means he’ll be at the bottom, actual rank may depend on how Sanyaku shakes out as that could add a Maegashira rank to make 17 instead of the usual 16.

New Japan 1/25/23 Results

New Japan continued the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the second half of the opening Tokyo doubleheader.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.

The announced paid attendance was 670. It’s not known if vocal cheering was allowed, if yes then it was near capacity.

Match 1: Aaron Henare beat Oskar Leube.

Match 2: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo & KENTA. Yano pinned Gedo.

Match 3: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo beat Master Wato & Togi Makabe. Phantasmo pinned Makabe after Sudden Death.

Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Yuto Nakashima, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto. Fujita beat Nakashima with an arm lock.

Match 5: TJP & Great-O-Khan beat TAKA Michinoku & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Khan beat TAKA with Subaru Sheep Killer.

Match 6: Francesco Akira & Will Ospreay beat DOUKI & Taichi. Ospreay pinned DOUKI after Hidden Blade.

Match 7: SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Shota Umino & Tomoaki Honma. Naito pinned Honma.

Main Event: Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi & Kazuchika Okada beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi. Yoh pinned BUSHI after Direct Drive.

The next event is Friday at Funabashi City General Gym in Chiba. Vocal cheering is allowed. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. (There are no televised events scheduled the rest of the month so nothing on New Japan World until 2/4)

Dragon Gate 1/24/23 Results

Dragon Gate continued their current tour today with a hometown event for U-T. Some hometown event because he wasn’t even on the card.

Today’s event was held at Tobashi Sports Center in Nagoya and may be available on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 310.

Match 1: Kota Minoura, BxB Hulk & Minorita beat Kzy, Jason Lee & Strong Machine J. Hulk pinned Lee after First Flash.

Match 2: Ben-K beat Ryu Fuda.

Match 3: BIGBOSS Shimizu & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat Ho Ho Lun & Yoshiki Kato. Shimizu pinned Kato after BIGBOSS Press.

Match 4: Ultimo Dragon, YAMATO & Kagetora beat Susumu Mochizuki, Mochizuki Jr. & Yasushi Kanda by ref stoppage. YAMATO beat Jr. With a sleeper hold.

Main Event: Dragon Kid, Dragon Dia, Yuki Yoshioka & Madoka Kikuta beat Shun Skywalker, KAI, H-Y-O & ISHIN. Kid pinned H-Y-O after Bible.

The next event is Saturday at Fukuyama Big Rose in Hiroshima. There will be no live broadcast.

UPCOMING FREE VIDEO: DDT 11/5/22 Full Event (EPIC Chop Fest)

There are chop fests and there are chop fests in wresting…and then there was Kazusada Higuchi & Yuji Hino taking it to new heights in November 2022.Ahead of their upcoming KO-D Openweight Championship match, DDT is making the full 11/5/22 event with their first meeting available FOR FREE on YouTube. You can watch below, but be advised it will not be available until Wednesday (1/25/23) at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET, of course you can watch anytime on WRESTLE UNIVERSE if you are a subscriber.

BREAKING: Jay Briscoe Tribute Match on 1/25/23 AEW Dynamite

The Twitter post from Tony Khan below says it all…on what would’ve been Jay Briscoe’s 39th Birthday, his brother Mark will face Jay Lethal tomorrow on AEW Dynamite. Don’t miss it.