New Japan held their annual New Year’s Dash! event today, which marks the fallout from Tokyo Dome and the official start of the new year for the promotion.
Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! Click below to watch:
Japanese:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00631_1_1
English:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00631_2_1
The announced paid attendance was 2713. No vocal cheering so much closer to full capacity.
With one exception, no matches were announced on advance and were not revealed until entrances began.
Match 1: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ren Narita, Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma. EVIL pinned Honma after Magic Killer.
Match 2: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Will Ospreay. DOUKI beat Akira with Jorge Rivera Special.
Match 3: Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat YOSHI-HASHO, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii. Nicholls pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Tank Buster.
Match 4: Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Unino & Togi Makabe beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito. Yoh pinned Takahashi after Direct Drive.
Match 5: Master Wato, Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, KENTA & Jay White by DQ. Phantasmo DQ’d. NEVER Openweight Title belt use. Afterwards. White challenged Hikuleo to a Loser Leaves Japan match.
Match 6: Shingo Takagi beat Toru Yano, Great-O-Khan & Sho in a 4-way by pinning Yano to win the KOPW 2023 Title.
Main Event: Kenny Omega & Kazuchika Okada beat Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb. Okada pinned Henare after Rainmaker.
The next event is WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 in YOKOHAMA on 1/21 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama. It was announced earlier today it will again be a New Japan-Pro Wrestling NOAH crossover event. Broadcast plans TBA and we may know more after a press conference tomorrow at 3 AM ET/midnight PT but as of right now there will be no live broadcast in the US, at least not on New Japan World. It’s probably going to be only on ABEMA in Japan, possibly a PPV, then on demand later on New Japan World and WRESTLE UNIVERSE (Pro Wrestling NOAH’s streaming service under the CyberFight Group, which includes DDT and it’s sub-brands Ganbare Pro and Tokyo Joshi Pro). The press conference will be available live and on demand on the ABEMA, New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH YouTube channels.
UPDATE: On his official Twitter account after the event, Kanemaru issued a challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on behalf of himself and DOUKI. Also, a new faction called “Just Four Guys” is emerging, made up of former Suzuki-gun members TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Kanemaru & Taichi. Additionally, it looks like Kosei Fujita joined TMDK after the 3rd match as the faction has doubled its membership in adding Zack Sabre Jr. yesterday and now Fujita after losing Jonah (went back to WWE) and Bad Dude Tito. Normally the Young Lions don’t join factions like this before they go on their customary training excursions, so this is a very interesting development not to mention the Australians now have an Englishman (Sabre) as their apparent leader and now a Japanese youngster in their ranks.
UPDATE 2: 1/21 will be a PPV on New Japan World. Cost TBA. The PPV period will be 1 week. On 1/28 it will be available without extra cost for all subscribers. The card will be posted shortly.
