Pro Wrestling NOAH 3/9/23 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the never-ending STAR NAVIGATION 2023 Tour today, an event that abruptly took on a different tone last week when top Jr. Heavyweight Daisuke Harada announced he was being forced to retire due to a neck injury suffered last year. He returned today for a quick exhibition match before retiring.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast was English only as it was an ABEMA exclusive broadcast in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 1310. The promotion didn’t say this but based on recent capacity numbers for Korakuen events this may have been a legit sellout. If not it likely was close.

Match 1: Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hajime Ohara beat Konya Okada, Yasutaka Yano & Taisho Ozawa. Tadasuke pinned Ozawa after Jidanda Lariat to the back of the head.

Match 2: Super Crazy, Extreme Tiger & Lancelot beat YO-HEY, Seiki Yoshioka & Alejandro. Lancelot pinned Yoshioka after Lancelot Fly.

Match 3: Daisuke Harada Retirement Match: In an Exhibition Match, Daisuke Harada vs. Atsushi Kotoge went to a 1 minute time limit draw.

Match 4: Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Hideki Suzuki beat Naomichi Marufuji, Masaaki Mochizuki & Shuhei Taniguchi by ref stoppage. Sugiura beat Taniguchi with a front neck lock.

Match 5: Kenoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Manabu Soya beat Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura. Soya pinned Inaba after a jumping DDT.

Match 6: Eita beat HAYATA by DQ. Belt use.

Match 7: Chris Ridgeway beat Yoshinari Ogawa by submission.

Match 8: Jake Lee & Anthony Greene beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Atsushi Kotoge. Lee pinned Kotoge after a skewered front high kick.

Main Event: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA beat Hi69 to retain the title. V2 for AMAKUSA.

The next event is Tuesday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama, continuing the also-never-ending SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET (for those in the US, remember the spring time change happens this Sunday so we go forward 1 hour).

TJPW News: Yamashita EVE Title Match Tonight

Tokyo Joshi Pro star and Pro Wrestling EVE Champion Miyu Yamashita is back in England today for a title defense that was previously postponed. According to posts on Twitter she will defend the title against Lizzy Evo at tonight’s Pro Wrestling EVE event, which begins at 2:30 PM ET/11:30 AM PT and is available worldwide on YouTube. The first half of the event streams for free, but the second half will be behind a paywall for paying YouTube channel subscribers. Yamashita’s match is the main event so it’s behind the paywall.

More details below:

New Japan 3/8/23 Results

New Japan resumed the New Japan Cup 2023 tour today with Day 3, continuing first-round action.

Today’s event was held at Big Palette Fukushima in Fukushima and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 720.

Match 1: Yuto Nakashima & Shota Umino beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino beat Fujita with STF.

Match 2: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens, KENTA & David Finlay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Finlay pinned TAKA after Trash Panda.

Match 3: Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan beat BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Henare beat BUSHI with Ultima.

Match 4: Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Lio Rush, Tomoaki Honma & Tama Tonga. Naito pinned Honma after Destino.

Match 5: Jeff Cobb, Kyle Fletcher & Will Ospreay beat Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Ospreay pinned Yoh after Hidden Blade.

Match 6: New Japan Cup Round 1: Mark Davis beat Toru Yano. As a result, Davis advances to Round 2 and will face Ospreay.

Main Event: New Japan Cup Round 1: EVIL beat Ren Narita. As a result, EVIL advances to Round 2 and will face Jeff Cobb. Afterwards, EVIL finished with a self-putting-over promo to send the crowd home UNHAPPY.

The next event is Friday at Aimesse Yamanashi in Yamanashi. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1;30 AM Pr/4:30 AM ET.

TJPW News: New Debuting Wrestlers Get Names

Ahead of their debuts at GRAND PRINCESS ’23, Tokyo Joshi Pro has announced the new names for the two wrestlers making their debuts at the event:

“Momo” will now be known as Runa (Ryuna?) Okubo. She will be the youngest active wrestler in TJPW-she is just 14 years old, standing about 5 feet tall, and was inapires by her parents and traveled to a dojo in Tokyo to train every day after school from her home in Saitama. Her hobbies and skills include cooking and dancing and her goal is to be like TJPW wrestler Yuki Kamifuku.

“Haru” will be known as either Haru Fujo or Haru Kazashiro. Almost as young as Okubo, she will turn 15 in 3 weeks, stands about 5’1″ and learned about TJPW via programs on the Japanese version of Amazon Prime Video. She is an anime fan who decided to become a wrestler after seeing Nodoka Tenma’s retirement match. And in a very exciting doubleheader of sorts for her, she will graduate from junior high school the day after GRAND PRINCESS.

In their Debut Match, they will team with Kaya Toribami & Touma (who just had her Debut Match yesterday) to face Mahiro Kiryo, Wakana Uehara, HIMAWARI & Shino Suzuki.

In other event news, another Japanese event tradition will return at GRAND PRINCESS as it has been announced that fans will be allowed to throw streamers/ticker tape/paper rolls into the ring during wrestler introductions. This was halted in 2020 by the pandemic as an infection control measure and has been allowed at only one or two events since.

FREE VIDEO: DDT 3/4/23 Full Event (Limited Time)

Ahead of their big 5 hour 26th Anniversary Event on 3/21, DDT has made the full vide of their 3/4 Yokohama event available FOR FREE on YouTube for a limited time. Check it out below: (running time is 2 hours)

News: Top Independent Women’s Star Gives Birth

Some happy news to share from the Japanese women’s independent scene-Tsukasa Fujimoto, the top star of Ice Ribbon and longtime face of the former Emi Sakura-run promotion, is now a mother. She announced on Twitter she has given birth to her first child today, it’s a girl. Mother and baby are said to be doing well despite being born ahead of the due date. Fujimoto posted a picture of the new baby on her Twitter, which has been shared by Weekly Pro on their account and congratulations & well-wishes are flowing in from fans and wrestlers including Hall of Famer Aja Kong.

I join the Japanese wresting community and fans in sending congratulations and best wishes to new mother Tsukasa Fujimoto on welcoming her first baby into the world.

GLEAT 3/7/23 Results

GLEAT held a special Lidet UWF event today, featuring all UWF bouts and the start of a tournament to crown the inaugural Lidet UWF Champion. (I had originally noted it would be a one-day tournament, that was incorrect. They only hat the first part today, the tournament concludes at a later event)

Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube. The video was posted yesterday (may appear as a link on desktops as it was posted in mobile format).

The announced paid attendance was 214.

Match 1: Maya Fukuda beat Yura Suzuki by KO.

Match 2: Lidet UWF Championship Tournament: Yu Iizuka beat Minoru Tanaka by submission.

Match 3: Lidet UWF Championship Tournament: Shinya Aoki beat Tetsuya Izuchi by submission.

Match 4: Hideki Sekine beat Seichi Ikemoto by KO.

Match 5: Tatsuaki Nakano & Daichi Hashimoto beat Kaz Hayashi & Rionne Fujiwara by submission. Hashimoto beat Fujiwara with STF.

Match 6: Lidet UWF Championship Tournament: Takanori Ito beat Dan Tamura by KO.

Main Event: Lidet UWF Championship Tournament: Hikaru Sato beat Soma Watanabe by submission.

The Semifinals are 4/12 at Korakuen Hall and will be Ito vs. Iizuka and Sato vs. Aoki.

The next event is G PROWRESTLING Ver. 46 on 3/15 at Shinjuku Face. Broadcast plans TBA.

New Japan News: Card Changes This Week

New Japan has announced some changes to event lineups for this week because of David Finlay joining Bullet Club at yesterday’s 51st Anniversary event (none affect the New Japan Cup):

Tomorrow, Finlay replaces Gedo to team with El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA to face Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, El Desperado & DOUKI & TAKA Michinoku. He was to have teamed with Lio Rush & Tama Tonga to face LIJ. Tomoaki Honma is the replacement.

Friday, Finlay joins Bullet Club for an 8-man tag against Minoru Suzuki, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi. He was to have been in another 8-man tag against United Empire. Honma again is the replacement.

Finally, announced for Saturday is Finlay & El Phantasmo vs. Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. This card had been unannounced before so no changes.

UPCOMING LIVE/FREE EVENT VIDEO: GLEAT Lidet UWF 3 (3/7/23)

GLEAT holds it’s 3rd Lidet UWF event tomorrow where it will crown the inaugural UWF Champion in a one-day tournament (men only). The entire event will be available LIVE FOR FREE on YouTube.

You can watch the event below beginning tomorrow at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET and on demand after the event concludes.

https://www.youtube.com/live/3JTH1eCRPnQ?feature=share