A lot has changed in New Japan recently with the retirement of Hiroshi Tanahashi, the pending retirement of Tiger Mask 4 and more, but one thing has not…Yuji Nagata is still the self-proclaimed oldest member at 57 years old, and he’ll do his best today as well for his latest hometown event, BLUE JUSTICE 17. With the promotion’s first visit this year to Chiba Prefecture, Nagata gets to once again put on his own event with Nagata of course part of the main event but otherwise the event looks to be like a regular house show event, hopefully another successful one for Nagata.
Today’s event will be held at Sakura Civic Gym in Chiba and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube. There are 7 matches and with a regular house show plan the running time will not go past 3 hours, I’d anticipate between 2-2 1/2 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Zane Jay & Tiger Mask vs. Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles
Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh vs. Daiki Nagai, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby)
Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaro, Sho & DOUKI
Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.
Shoma Kato, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino vs. Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii
Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee
Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata vs. Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
11 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Sakura Civic Gym in Chiba, Japan. Commentary will join after the opening video. Hiroyoshi Tenzan is today’s guest on commentary.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The venue has a reported full capacity of over 4000 but I doubt it will be anywhere near that. What I can see looks mostly but not completely full, I’ll predict around 2500. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1693)
The matches begin right after the opening video. None of the usual onscreen graphics today except for matches in the upper left corner.
Match 1: Zane Jay & Tiger Mask vs. Kosei Fujita & (a mustachioed) Robbie Eagles. 20 minute time limit
Result: Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Zane Jay & Tiger Mask. Eagles beat Jay with an inverted Boston Crab.
Match 2: Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh vs. Daiki Nagai, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby). 20 minute time limit
Result: Daiki Nagai, OSKAR & Yuto Ice beat Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh. OSKAR beat Murashima.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 3: Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaro, Sho & DOUKI. 20 minute time limit
Result: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho & DOUKI beat Masatora Yasuda, Ryusuke Taguchi & El Desperado. Kanemaru beat Yasuda with a figure 4.
Match 4: Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr.. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tatsuya Matsumoto, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Jackson pinned Matsumoto after Death Valley Bomb.
Match 5: Shoma Kato, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino vs. Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii. 30 minute time limit
Result: Satoshi Kojima, Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii beat Shoma Kato, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino. Taichi pinned Kato after Dangerous Backdrop.
Match 6: Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira, Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Jake Lee beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Young beat Gedo.
Hiroshi Tanahashi joins commentary for the main event.
Main Event: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata vs. Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL. 30 minute time limit
Result: Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, Aaron Wolf & Yuji Nagata beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren narita & EVIL. Wolf beat Togo. Afterwards, Wolf got to lead the closing promo for the first time although he seemed a little unsure about it at first. Pretty good Japanese though. Then he properly handed it over to Nagata to finish it up and send the hometown crowd home happy. Nagata brought Tenzan and a freshly-haircut Tanahashi (no more mullet) to the ring as a surprise to commemorate the anniversary of Tenzan’s pro wrestling debut. Tenzan clearly is still affected by injuries last year and was a bit unstable at times in the ring and moving very stiffly. (This was specifically for Tenzan’s 35th Anniversary in the ring) Nagata also said they will return to the venue, but due to its pending closing for upgrades/renovation it probably will not be for 2 years, however they will run other venues when they return to Chiba.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo to kick off the Road To THE NEW BEGINNING Tour, the “official official” start to the promotion’s new year. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.