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1/29/23-2/4/23 Events Schedule

Here is the current events schedule for 1/29/23-2/4/23, which is subject to change (all times PT):
1/29:
Midnight-Dragon Gate Open The New Year Gate 2023 Tour, Heartful Mikuno Sports Culture Center, Mie, Japan. No live broadcast

1/30:
2 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour, Iwate Prefectural Gym, Iwate, Japan. No live or on demand broadcast
3 AM-Tokyo Joshi Pro “Beyond the origin, to the future”, Twin Box Akihabara, Tokyo, Japan. Closed venue event. Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE as a PPV (around $27 for non-subscribers, around $20 for paid subscribers)

1/31:
1:30 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour, Furusato Village Dome Theater, Akita, Japan. No live or on demand broadcast

2/1:
2 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour, Aomori Martial Arts Hall, Aomori, Japan. No live or on demand broadcast
5 PM-All Elite Wrestling “AEW Dynamite”, Dayton, OH. Live on TBS in US and FITE elsewhere

2/2:
5 PM-Impact Wrestling “IMPACT Wrestling”, Atlanta, GA. TAPED on AXS TV. Available on demand on Impact+ and YouTube at 5:30 PM

2/3:
1 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW TAMASHII, Sydney, Australia. No live broadcast
1:30 AM-Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Rey De Parejas 2023 Tournament, Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan. Live on DRAGONGATE NETWORK
7 PM-All Elite Wrestling “AEW Rampage”. TAPED on TNT in US and FITE elsewhere
11 PM-All-Japan Pro Wrestling #ajpwExciteMANIAx, Esforta Arena Hachioji Sub Arena, Tokyo, Japan. Live on AJPW.TV

2/4:
Midnight-New Japan Pro Wrestling THE NEW BEGINNING in SAPPORO, Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell, Hokkaido, Japan. Live on New Japan World
Midnight-Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling Rey De Parejas 2023 Tournament, Fujisan Messe, Shizuoka, Japan. No live broadcast
Midnight-Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling CITY CIRCUIT Tour, Osaka Azalea Taisho, Osaka, Japan. No live broadcast
12:30 AM-Pro Wrestling NOAH SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour, Green Dome Maebashi, Gunma, Japan. No live broadcast
1 AM-New Japan Pro Wrestling NJPW TAMASHII, Melbourne, Australia. No live broadcast
9 PM-New Japan Pro Wrestling THE NEW BEGINNING in SAPPORO, Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell. Live on New Japan World. LIVE RESULTS SCHEDULED
11 PM-DDT Pro Wrestling “Into The Fight 2023 Tour in Osaka”, Osaka Azalea Taisho. No live broadcast

New Japan 1/28/23 Results

New Japan continued the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with another non-televised house show event, the first following reports that the Japanese government has lifted all restrictions on capacity and vocal cheering at live events in place since the coronavirus pandemic began. However, vocal cheering was not allowed today.

Today’s event was held at Koga City ES Central Sports Park Hanamomo Gyn in Ibaraki. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 934.

Match 1: Great-O-Khan beat Ryohei Oiwa by submission.

Match 2: Tiger Mask & Toru Yano beat Oskar Leube & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Yano pinned Leube.

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

Match 4: Jado & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo & KENTA. Tanahashi beat Gedo with a Texas Cloverleaf.

Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Yuto Nakashima, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Foto & Tomohiro Ishii. Haste pinned Nakashima after Dynamic Bomb.

Match 6: Francesco Akira, TJP, Aaron Henare & Will Ospreay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned TAKA after Hidden Blade.

Main Event: Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Yoh pinned BUSHI after Direct Drive.

The next event is Monday at Iwate Prefectural Gym in Iwate. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

Ganbare Pro 1/28/23 Results (3 Events)

Ganbare Pro ran a special tripleheader of house shows today, beginning with a morning matinee as a regular event, followed by a mid-afternoon Shuichiro Katsumura Produced event and finally an evening wrestler-produced evevnt.

Today’s events were held at Oji Basement MON*STAR in Tokyo and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There were no live broadcasts.

Event 1:
The announced paid attendance was 75.

Match 1: Young Ganbare Cup: Yuki Kanzaki beat Sotatsu Nakamura by submission.

Match 2: Young Ganbare Cup: Kentaro Hachisu beat Yumehito Imanari.

Match 3: Yuna Manase beat Yoshiko Hasegawa.

Match 4: Takao Soma, Shinichiro Tominaga & HARUKAZE beat Keisuki Ishii, Shota & Yuuri. Soma pinned Shota after a reverse Gory Special Bomb.

Main Event: Mizuki Watase & Taison Maeguchi beat Ken Ohka & Tanomusaku Toba. Watase pinned Toba after an elbow butt.

Event 2:
The announced paid attendance was 79.

Match 1: In a 3-man grappling match series, Shuichiro Katsumura went 2-0-1 as follows:
Katsumura beat Sotatsu Nakamura.
Katsumura beat HARUKAZE.
Katsumura vs. HARASHIMA (DDT) went to a 5 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Yumehito Imanari, Shinichiro Tominaga & Moeka Haruhi beat Ken Ohka, Maori Kawashima & Yuuri. Haruhi pinned Yuuri after 79.5MHz.

Match 3: Takuya Wada beat Hong Kong International Policemen by ref stoppage in just 26 seconds. Which led to…
Takuya Wada beat Hong Kong International Policeman by submission.

Main Event: HARASHIMA, Mizuki Watase & Keisuke Ishii beat Shuichiro Katsumura, Takeshi Okada & Taison Maeguchi. HARASHIMA pinned Okada after Blue Sword.

Event 3:
The announced paid attendance was 92, a full house/near sellout.

Match 1: Young Ganbare Cup; Yumehito Imanari beat Yuki Kanzaki by submission.

Match 2: Young Ganbare Cup: Kentaro Hachisu vs. Sotatsu Nakamura went to a double countout.

Match 3: Moeka Haruhi & Itsuki Aoki beat Yuna Manase & Yuuri. Aoki pinned Yuuri after a frog splash.

Match 4: Young Ganbare Cup Finals: Yumehito Imanari beat Kentaro Hachisu to win the tournament. Of course the veteran and part of those deplorable Pheromones wins.

Main Event: In a survival elimination tag team match (eliminations by pinfall, submission, over the top rope), where the first team to be left with only one man remaining loses, Keisuke Ishii, Shota, Shinichiro Tominaga & Hartley Jackson beat Mizuki Watase, Ken Ohka, Shuichiro Katsumura & Takao Soma. Order of elimination: Katsumura, Soma, Ohka, Shota, Jackson, either Watase or Ohka. Because the Watase team had only one man left at that point, they could not continue and thus lost. The match in total went over 46 minutes.

The next event is 2/23 with another tripleheader. Broadcast plans TBA.

AEW Rampage 1/27/23 Results (SPOILERS!)

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Rampage in Lexington, KY (SPOILERS for west feed viewers!):

Continue reading “AEW Rampage 1/27/23 Results (SPOILERS!)”

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.