ABEMA Presents DEMOLITION STAGE 2022 in FUKUOKA is now in the books as Pro Wrestling NOAH ran a special event in the city today, which took on added build when Keiji Muto was added to the card for his final match in Fukuoka. He was originally scheduled for a pre-event autograph session and to be on commentary.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka International Center in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast earlier today was in English only due to this being an ABEMA exclusive broadcast in Japan. If you watch the Japanese replay, skip ahead to about the 31 minute mark to jump past the pre-show talk (the actual event itself ran about 3 hours). You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube for a limited time.
The announced paid attendance was 1195. The venue was only at 50% capacity and they mostly used floor level seating, which made this sound like a poor number but that’s actually up for debate (full capacity with the setup likely would’ve been around 3000, had full capacity been allowed it would’ve been closer to 7000).
Match 1: Manabu Soya beat Taishi Ozawa. Soya’s left face below his eye was busted open during the match.
Match 2: Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito beat Masa Kitamiya & Shuhei Taniguchi. Yone pinned Taniguchi after Kinniku Muscle Buster.
Match 3: NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Super Crazy beat Yoshinari Ogawa, Yasutaka Yano & Kai Fujimura. Eita pinned Yano after Imperial Uno.
Match 4: Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Chris Ridgeway.
Match 5: Kazuyuki Fujita, Takashi Sugiura & Masato Tanaka beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura. Fujita pinned Kiyomiya after a powerbomb.
Match 6: In an Elimination Match with over the top rope, pinfall and submission eliminations, Atsushi Kotoge, Seiki Yoshioka, YO-HEY & Alejandro beat Shuji Kondo, Hajime Ohara, Tadasuke & Hi69. Order of elimination: Ohara by Alejandro (pinfall), Alejandro by Tadasuke (pinfall), Yoshioka & Kondo by Tadasuke simultaneously (over the top rope), YO-HEY by Tadasuke (over the top rope), Tadasuke by Kotoge (pindall), Hi69 by Kotoge (pinfall). Kotoge wins as last man left.
Match 7: PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER .EX FUKUOKA FINAL ~TRANS MAGIC~: Keiji Muto, Satoshi Kojima & Ninja Mack beat Naomichi Marufuji, Jack Morris & HAYATA. Mack pinned HAYATA after Ninja Bomb.
Main Event: In a Double Bout Rules match, where there were no pinfalls and the only way to win was by submission, TKO or DQ after 3 warnings, Kazushi Sakuraba & Hideki Suzuki beat Kenoh & Masakatsu Funaki. Sakuraba beat Funaki with a scorpion leglock.
The next event is MUTO RETIREMENT ROAD-ABEMA presents Ariake Gaisen-THE RETURN-PRO-WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER . 3 ~TRIUMPH~ on 10/30 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. In addition to all 5 GHC Titles being defended, this will feature the 3rd of Muto’s 5 final matches-this time it’s Muto, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshiki Inamura vs. the New Japan Pro Wrestling trio of Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma. This will be the promotion’s debut at the new venue that opened in 2021 for the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics. The venue will be at 50% capacity max because vocal cheering will be allowed. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English only will begin on 10/29 at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET with a pre-show dark match scheduled to begin at 11:40 PM PT/2:30 AM ET. The main card begins at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This is another ABEMA-exclusive broadcast so Japanese commentary will only be available on demand after the event.
