Following a press conference earlier this week to propose the stip for the KOPW 2022 trophy rematch this Sunday at DOMINION, when Shingo Takagi defends against Taichi, the results of fan voting to determine the stip were just revealed. With just under 30,000 total votes cast on Twitter over 48 hours (shorter than usual), Takagi’s proposal wins so it’s a 10 minute Unlimited Pinfall Count Match. There are no 3 count pinfalls or submissions, whoever gets the most cumulative pinfall counts (total time presumably) in 10 minutes wins. Taichi proposed a 10 count Limited Finish match, where the first to get a 10 count using just one move-Gedo Clutch for Taichi, Ground Cobra Twist for Takagi-wins.
AEW All-Atlantic Title Belt
In case you missed AEW Dynamite last night, below is the new All-Atlantic Championship belt, billed by AEW as their way of showing appreciation for their fans in 130+ countries outside the US. The inaugural champion will be crowned at the AEW/New Japan Pro Wrestling Forbidden Door PPV at the end of the month.
AEW Dynamite 6/8/22 Results
Here are the quick results from last night’s AEW Dynamite from Independence, MO:
Kyle O’Reilly won a 21-man Casino Battle Royal, last eliminating Wheeler Yuta. O’Reilly earned a spot in the main event against Jon Moxley.
FTR & Trent Beretta promo. Interrupted by Will Ospreay & Aussie Open.
Adam Page beat David Finlay.
A new singles title, the AEW All-Atlantic Championship was announced. Still no trios title. 8-man tournament to crown inaugural champion started now, finals at Forbidden Door. One quarterfinal will involve New Japan Pro Wrestling.
Tournament match: Pac beat Buddy Matthews.
Other quarterfinals are Miro vs. Ethan Page and Malakai Black vs. Penta Oscuro and TBA in New Japan. Miro/Page winner faces Pac. Black/Penta winner faces NJPW.
Wardlow promo. He demands a TNT Title shot. Smart Mark Sterling then challenges Wardlow via backstage promo to either a lawsuit in court or a TWENTY vs. 1 handicap match against the security Wardlow beat up every week in the MJF build-up. The latter is next week.
AEW Women’s World Champion Thunder Rosa beat Marina Shafir to retain the title.
Main Event: Jon Moxley beat Kyle O’Reilly. As a result, Moxley will face Hiroshi Tanahashi or Hirooki Goto at Forbidden Door for the Interim AEW World Championship. Tanahashi-Goto is Sunday in New Japan.
Friday on Rampage: Red Velvet vs. Kris Statlander, Jay Lethal & Satnam Singh vs. TBA, FTR & Trent Beretta vs. Will Ospreay & Aussie Open, Jake Hager vs. Eddie Kingston, Hook & Danhausen appearance. Rampage returns to regular time this week (10 PM ET/PT) now that sports pre-emptions on TNT are done until at least October (and maybe next year unless there are pre-emptions for NBA or NHL season openers)
CyberFight Festival Late Card Change
A late change to CyberFight Festival ’22 was announced today by Tokyo Joshi Pro-Raku is now off Sunday’s event. The ever-vague poor physical condition. She was to have been in a 10-woman TJPW pre-show match. YuuRI (Ganbare Pro) is the replacement.
AEW Updated Rankings 6/8/22
Here are the updated AEW Rankings for the week going into Dynamite tonight:
Pro Wrestling NOAH 6/8/22 Results
Pro Wrestling NOAH ran the second half of STAR NAVIGATION ’22 today, finishing off their build to CyberFight Festival ’22.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE later today. The live broadcast was only on ABEMA in Japan.
The paid attendance has not yet been announced.
Match 1: Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki beat Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada. Suzuki beat Okada with Robinson Special.
Match 2: NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki beat Extreme Tiger, Haoh & Alejandro. Eita pinned Alejandro after Trauma.
Match 3: Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Hi69 beat Simon Gotch, HAYATA & Kai Fujimura. Ohara pinned Fujimura after Muy Bien.
Match 4: Timothy Thatcher beat Shuhei Taniguchi by submission.
Match 5: Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya beat Takashi Sugiura, Rene Dupree & Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. Nakajima pinned Dupree after Vertical Spike.
Match 6: Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY beat Open The Triangle Gate Champions Yoshinari Ogawa, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu to win the titles. Harada, Kotoge & YO-HEY become the 80th Open The Triangle Gate Champions. Harada pinned Yoshioka with Katayama German.
Main Event: Satoshi Kojima, Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Daiki Inaba beat Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Michael Elgin & Masa Kitamiya. Kojima pinned Shiozaki after a Western lariat.
Next up is CyberFight Festival ’22 Sunday at Saitama Super Arena in Saitama, with Shiozaki-Kojima for the GHC Heavyweight Championship as the main event. The next event after that is 6/19 at Kobe Sambo Hall on Kobe. There will be mo live broadcast
In post-event news, 2 title matches have been announced for the next N INNOVATION on 6/23: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion HAYATA vs. Hajime Ohara for the title and NEW Open The Triangle Gate Champions Daisuke Harada, Atsushi Kotoge & YO-HEY vs. NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki for the titles. Anticipate another title change here because these are Dragon Gate titles and Eita is based there.
Ganbare Pro 6/7/22 Results
Ganbare Pro ran the DDT Group’s final event before CyberFight Festival today.
Today’s event was held at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 122.
Match 1: Rie Kawabata & Maria beat HARUKAZE & YuuRI. Kawabata pinned YuuRI after a moonsault press.
Match 2: Takao Soma beat Tsuyoshi Okada.
Match 3: Shuichiro Katsumura & Shigehiro Irie beat Kouki Iwasaki & Taison Maeguchi. Katsumura beat Maeguchi. After this, Katsumura vs. Minoru Suzuki was added to their 7/10 event.
Match 4: Masa Takanashi beat Shota.
Main Event: Yumehito Imanari, Keisuke Ishii & Yuna Manase beat Ken Ohka, Mizuki Watase & Moeka Haruhi. Imanari pinned Ohka with a Thesz Press.
The next standalone event is 6/29 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring, but up next is CyberFight Festival ’22 Sunday at the Saitama Super Arena in Saitama.
BREAKING: New Japan Introduces New Tag Team Title
BREAKING: New Japan has just announced a tag team championship for NJPW STRONG. The new STRONG Openweight Tag Team Championship will be awarded to the winners of an 8-team single elimination tournament to be held over the next two tapings on 6/19 in Hollywood, CA (Quarterfinals & Semifinals) and 7/24 in Charlotte, NC (Finals). Teams and brackets TBA.
More as it becomes available.
Pro Wrestling NOAH 6/7/22 Results
Pro Wrestling NOAH ran the first half of STAR NAVIGATION 2022 today, a doubleheader that serves as their final build to CyberFight Festival ’22.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. The live broadcast was available only on ABEMA in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 455.
Match 1: Hajime Ohara beat Alejandro.
Match 2: Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito beat Shuhei Taniguchi & Kai Fujimura. Saito pinned Fujimura after Sickle Of Death.
Match 3: HAYATA & Daiki Inaba beat YO-HEY & Kinya Okada. HAYATA pinned Okada with a crucifix.
Match 4: Atsushi Kotoge beat Extreme Tiger.
Match 5: Daisuke Harada & Haoh beat Tadasuke & Hi69 by DQ. Tadasuke DQ’d. Ref assault.
Match 6: Satoshi Kojima beat Manabu Soya.
Match 7: Yoshinari Ogawa, Seiki Yoshioka & Yuya Susumu beat Open The Triangle Gate Champions NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Kotaro Suzuki to win the titles. Ogawa, Yoshioka & Susumu become the 79th Open The Triangle Gate Champions. Yoshioka pinned NOSAWA after a buzzsaw kick. These are the trios/6-man titles in Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling.
Match 8: Masato Tanaka, Masaaki Mochizuki & Simon Gotch beat Kenoh, Masakatsu Funaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima. Tanaka pinned Funaki.
Main Event: Takashi Sugiura, Hideki Suzuki, Rene Dupree, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Timothy Thatcher beat Go Shiozaki, Kaito Kiyomiya, Michael Elgin, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura. Thatcher beat Inamura with a Fujiwara armbar.
The second event is tomorrow. 2 late changes were announced for tomorrow: TBA in the 4th match, who may also be added to CyberFight Festival, is Thatcher, and Ogawa/Yoshioka/Susumu vs. Kotoge/Harada/YO-HEY is now for the Open The Triangle Gate Championship. Live streaming of the event is ABEMA ONLY, but it will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE afterwards.
Other post-event news:
GHC National Champion Masakatsu Funaki vs. Masato Tanaka for the title and Kazushi Sakuraba vs. Simon Gotch have been announced for 6/19 at Kobe Sambo Hall in Kobe. This event will be taped for on demand broadcast at a later date (no live broadcast).
Announced for the next N INNOVATION on 6/23 at Shinjuku Face is Haoh vs. Tadasuke in a Loser Expulsion Match-the loser must leave NOAH.
New Japan-Stardom Joint Event Late 2022
At a press conference in Japan earlier today, Bushiroad Corporation-the current owner of New Japan Pro Wrestling and Stardom-announced that as part of its 15th Anniversary celebration, a joint NJPW-Stardom event will be held on November 20 at the new Ariake Arena in Tokyo. Hiroshi Tanahashi represented NJPW while Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid represented Stardom. More details are forthcoming but Tanahashi hinted at possibly a mixed/intergender tag team match at the event.
Ariake Arena was built for the 2020 Summer Olympics in Japan and would have a maximum capacity of 15,000 for wrestling, slightly more than Ryogoku Kokugikan (around 14,000 for pro wrestling but closer to 15,000 for sumo) and would likely put it behind only the Tokyo Dome in terms of capacity for pro wrestling.
More as it becomes available.
