Tag: New Japan

New Japan wrapped up their 2024 today with the final event of the year and the conclusion of the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1509, a legit sellout.

Pre-show match; Hiromu Takahashi beat Katsuya Murashima.

Match 1: Jeff Cobb beat Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer).

Match 2: Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA vs. Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles went to a no contest. Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors interference. Then United Empire interference. Which led to…

Match 3: Francesco Akira & TJP vs. Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney went to a no contest in 40 seconds. Chairs used by Bullet Club. Afterwards, Fujita proposed changing the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship 4-way match on 1/4, possibly to either a No DQ or a TLC (Tables, Ladders, Chairs) match. We’ll see.

Match 4; Master Wato, Satoshi Kojima & El Desperado beat TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & DOUKI. Desperado pinned TAKA after Pinche Loco.

Match 5: Tomoaki Honma, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano, El Phantasmo & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL. Phantasmo pinned Takahashi after Thunder Kiss 86. Afterwards, EVIL cut off at least some of Tanahashi’s hair, much to the anger of the crowd.

Match 6; Gedo, SANADA & David Finlay beat BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji. Finlay pinned BUSHI after Overkill.

Main Event: Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino beat Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Oiwa after Death Rider.

2024 has now come to a close for New Japan. And you know what that means…it’s the end, but also the beginning…

The next event is WRESTLE KINGDOM 19, the annual year-opener and the biggest event in all of Japanese pro wrestling and perhaps the biggest in the world outside of WrestleMania, on 1/4 at The Tokyo Dome. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This will be a live and exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan. (UPDATE: The event will now begin with a pre-show match on 1/3 at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET)

UPDATE: Another 1/4 change-the KOPW Title is now dead. Retired by Great-O-Khan and won’t return next year. Instead, the New Japan Ranbo Battle Royal on 1/4 now has a new stip-the winner will get an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot after 1/5.

New Japan ran the penultimate event of the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour, and the year, today in Tokyo.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This was also a free live simulcast on ABEMA in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 1420, a full house/near sellout.

Pre-show match: Hiromu Takahashi beat Shoma Kato.

Match 1: Satoshi Kojima beat Boltin Oleg. This was to have been Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs. Oleg & Toru Yano, but Tenzan was a last-minute removal from the event due to a fever. Yano was also removed as a result.

Match 2; Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita beat Jacob Austin Young & Jeff Cobb and Hartley Jackson & Ryohei Oiwa in a 3-way when Narita pinned Young. After the match, El Phantasmo, who has been away from the promotion due to treatment for cancer, appeared and announced he will return tomorrow, and also issued a NJPW WORLD TV Championship challenge. As a result, the 3-way for the title on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome is now a 4-way.

Match 3: Master Wato & El Desperado beat TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI. Desperado beat TAKA with Numero Dos.

Match 4: Robbie Eagles beat Kevin Knight, Francesco Akira & Drilla Moloney in a 4-way by pinning Moloney.

Match 5: BUSHI, SHingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji beat Gedo, SANADA & David FInlay. Tsuji pinned Gedo after Gene Blaster.

Match 6; Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino. Sabre pinned Tanahashi after Zack Driver.

Main Event: In a 3 Falls 3 Years Of KOPW Culmination Match, KOPW 2024 Champion Great-O-Khan vs. Taichi ended in a DRAW. 1-1-1. As a result, Khan retains the title. Fall 1, a No Ropes Push Out Match, was won by Taichi. Fall 2, with Yoshinobu Kanemaru as special referee, was won by Khan. Fall 3, a Last Man Standing Anywhere Match )originally a Last Man Standing Lumberjack Death Match), ended in a Double KO. Khan will be the final KOPW 2024 Champion as it will reset and start over for 2025.

The next event, and the final event of the year, is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.

New Japan reached the halfway point of the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour today with an event in Tochigi, the last event for a while outside of Tokyo.

Today’s event was held at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 1056.

Match 1: Shoma Kato & Tomoaki Honma beat Daiki Nagai & Katsuya Murashima. Kato pinned Nagai.

Match 2; SANADA, Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira & TJP by DQ. Young DQ’d.

Match 3: Ryohei Oiwa, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA. Oiwa pinned Taguchi after The Grip.

Match 4: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Sho & Ren Narita. Cobb pinned Sho after Tour of the Islands.

Match 5: Master Wato, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Wato beat Togo with Vendeval.

Match 6: TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI beat Tiger Mask & El Desperado. DOUKI beat TM 4 with Italian Stretch 32.

Match 7: BUSHI & Yota Tsuji beat Gedo & David Finlay. BUSHI pinned Gedo after Fable.

Main Event: Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Umino beat Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer) & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Jackson after Death Rider.

The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. This will also be a live ABEMA broadcast in Japan.

In other news, the promotion will host a retirement match for longtime wrestler Sumie Sakai, who has been competing since the mid-1990s, at Battle In The Valley on 1/11 in San Jose, CA. It will be a 6-person tag match with Sakai and 2 partners of her choice vs. Hiromu Takahashi and 2 partners of his choice. Today we learned Takahashi’s second partner will be Yuka Sakazaki, formerly of Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling and now competing internationally, including with All Elite Wrestling. Takahashi’s first partner was previously revealed to be current IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani. Sakai hasn’t revealed her partners yet. As I will be there in person on 1/11 I’m excited to be able to see Sakazaki compete both in person and in New Japan.

UPDATE: Hiroyoshi Tenzan is now off tomorrow’s event. Fever. He was to have teamed with Satoshi Kojima to face Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano. Yano is now off and it will be Kojima vs. Oleg.

New Japan continued the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour today in Yamagata.

Today’s event was held at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 875.

There were potential changes to the cars due to no Sho. He was “exiled from Yamagata” due to losing a KOPW 2023 Championship match in November 2023. However, he may have appeared as a mysterious masked man. With no video available we may never know.

Match 1: Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano beat Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato. Oleg pinned Kato after Kamikaze.

Match 2: Ryohei Oiwa, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors. Oiwa pinned Gedo after The Grip.

Match 3: Ryusuke Taguchi, Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA beat Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira & TJP. Knight pinned Young after Perfect Timing.

Match 4: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Ren Narita. Khan beat Kanemaru with Subaru Sheep Killer.

Match 5: Master Wato & El Desperado beat TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI. Wato beat TAKA with Recientemente..

Match 6: SANADA & David Finlay beat BUSHI & Yota Tsuji by DQ. BUSHI DQ’d.

Match 7: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma & Hiroshi Tanahashi. EVIL pinned Honma after EVIL.

Main Event: Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Unino beat Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer) & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Jackson after Death Rider.

The next event is Saturday at Light Cube Utsumomiya in Tochigi. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

New Japan kicked off the year-ending Road To TOKYO DOME Tour today, the last build to the annual Tokyo Dome spectacular on 1/4.

Today’s event was held at Tokorozawa Citizen Gym in Saitama. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 726.

Match 1: Shoma Kato & Tomoaki Honma beat Daiki Nagai & Katsuya Murashima. Kato pinned Nagai.

Match 2: Ryohei Oiwa, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Jacob Austin Young, Francesco Akira & TJP. Oiwa pinned Young after The Grip.

Match 3: SANADA, Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA by DQ. Taguchi DQ’d.

Match 4: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita. Cobb pinned Takahashi after Tour of the Islands.

Match 5: Master Wato, Boltin Oleg, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Divk Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho & EVIL. Wato beat Togo with Vendeval.

Match 6: TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI beat Tiger Mask & El Desperado. DOUKI beat TM 4 with Italian Stretch 32.

Match 7: BUSHI & Yota Ysuji beat Gedo & David Finlay. BUSHI pinned Gedo after Fable.

Main Event: Tomohiro Ishii & Shota Unino beat Hartley Jackson (Independent/Freelancer) & Zack Sabre Jr. Ishii pinned Jackson after a vertical drop brainbister.

The next event is tomorrow at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata. There will be no love or on demand broadcast.

New Japan runs their final US event of the year, STRONG STYLE EVOLVED 2024, today, and the event may have implications for Tokyo Dome as well as their next US event in January (which I will be attending). In addition to plenty of Tokyo Dome previews, 3 title matches headline the event-first is STRONG Tag Team Champions Grizzled Young Veterans defending the titles against West Coast Wrecking Crew. The second title match sees STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd defend against Ryohei Oiwa. And in the main event, after pulling off quite the upset to earn this spot Hazuki will try to win the STRONG Women’s Championship from Mercedes Mone, and frankly ruin January for me as I really want to see the C.E.O. in person as champion, not having the title go to Stardom yet. We’ll see.

Today’s event will be held at Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA and can be watched LIVE on New Japan World in Japanese and English. It will also be available as a PPV on TrillerTV/FITE for $19.99. There also will be a pre-show with one match 30 minutes before the event. Including that and with all the main card matches being 30 minute time limit I anticipate this being a “standard” PPV with a total running time of about 3 1/2 hours (not much longer as it’s a Sunday night event).

Today’s lineup:
Pre-show: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay

PPV:
Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie
STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs for the titles
Clark Connors vs. KUSHIDA, TJP & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way
Lio Rush vs. Hechicero
Titan & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jacob Austin Young & Templario
STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Ryohei Oiwa for the title
Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino
Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry
STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki for the title

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 4:30 PM PT/7:30 PM ET.

4:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Walter Pyramid in Long Beach, CA. Your hosts are Haruo Murata & Milano Collection A.T. Your English hosts are Walker Stewart & Veda Scott.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The setup is for just under 2800 and the latest estimate on ticket sales I had was Friday afternoon and was roughly 1900. Mostly empty now as the crowd is slowly filing in but I’m thinking the final number will be around 2000. (Early main show note: The crowd looks smaller than that, or in some sections it’s a very late arriving crowd. Looks closer to maybe 1500 from what I can see after the first match. Typical late-arriving LA area crowd as it grew a bit over the first hour) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2435. That number definitely sounds overstated. Didn’t look like that much on livestream)

You can also watch the pre-show FOR FREE on YouTube.

Pre-show match: Matt Vandagriff vs. Zane Jay. 20 minute time limit
Result: Zane Jay beat Matt Vandagriff by submission. Vandagriff’s “STRONG Survivor” run is over.

Updates will resume when the PPV/main show begins.

PPV/main show:
Match card order opening video starts things off.

The matches begin at 5:04 PM PT/8:04 PM ET.

Match 1: Mina Shirakawa vs. Johnnie Robbie. 30 minute time limit
Result: Mina Shirakawa beat Johnnie Robbie

Match 2: STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson vs. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs beat STRONG Tag Team Champions James Drake & Zack Gibson to win the titles. Nelson & Isaacs become the 11th STRONG Tag Team Champions. Isaacs pinned Drake. Long time coming win for West Coast Wrecking Crew. Afterwards, Rocky Romero came out. With microphone. He greets the crowd then congratulates the new champs while putting them over. Then the Vice President gets to business…challenge issued with Yoh as his partner for 1/11 in San Jose (SWEET!!! When I’ll be there in person!). Accepted. When Romero leaves, Isaacs drags him back in for a suplex.

Match 3: Clark Connors vs. KUSHIDA, TJP & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way. 30 minute time limit
Result: TJP beat Clark Connors, KUSHIDA & Kosei Fujita in a 4-way by pinning KUSHIDA. Rollup while Fujita had Connors in a submission hold to steal it with a 3 count. VERY CLEVER!!!

Match 4: Lio Rush vs. Hechicero. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hechicero beat Lio Rush

Match 5: Titan & Hiromu Takahashi vs. Jacob Austin Young & Templario. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jacob Austin Young & Templario beat Titan & Hiromu Takahashi. Templario pinned Titan.

Match 6: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd vs. Ryohei Oiwa for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion Gabriel Kidd beat Ryohei Oiwa to retain the title. V4 for Kidd. Afterwards, Kidd with microphone. He cursed out the crowd and a particular fan in the crowd with some uncensored language. He then turned his attention to Kenny Omega, who Kidd is scheduled to face at the Tokyo Dome in January. He finished by calling out Tomohiro Ishii for his next title defense on 1/11 when I’ll be there. OOOOOOOOOOOH!!!

Match 7: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino. 30 minute time limit
Result: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Fred Rosser, Tom Lawlor & Shota Umino. Tito pinned Lawlor after a piledriver.

Match 8: Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuji vs. Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry. 30 minute time limit
Result: Konosuke Takeshita & Jack Perry beat Shingo Takagi & Yota Tsuhi. Perry pinned Tsuji after a running knee strike. Afterwards, Takagi went back in for more but got the heel beatdown until Hiromu Takahashi made the save, only to then get blindsided by Matt & Nick Jackson with a Suprekick Party. The Young Bucks will face Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito for the vacant IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship at Tokyo Dome. After they sent Perry to the back, Matt Jackson with microphone. Took some working up the crowd to try and get half a near-hometown pop (the Jacksons are from nearby Rancho Cucamonga) before Nick stated they came back to play politics…oh wait, to win the tag titles on 1/5 one more time before they retire. Despite trying to be heels they got a mixed reaction.

Main Event: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. Hazuki for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone beat Hazuki to retain the title. V3 for Mone. But many very close calls over the 25+ minutes. Afterwards, Mone with microphone. She began talking about May 2023 when, in the first title match, she was stretchered out after being injured during the match and now she’s back at champion. Then she stated her first goal for 2025-Tokyo Dome on 1/5. So I may not get the C.E.O. as champion on 1/11…but perhaps…next up…Mina Shirakawa came out. Rather skimpily dressed too but she’s a diva after all. Shirakawa with microphone. Of course she started in English playing the HLAEW card but then she got serious. Challenge issued for 1/5. In return, Mone said she wants a double title match for one of the Europe-based titles Shirakawa holds. So I’m gonna have to hold my breath for 3 weeks to see if I get my Mone worth or if I have to settle for some HLAEW…they did a little synchronized strutting & showing off in the ring to end the event.

End Show.

The next event is the Road To TOKYO DOME Tour, the year-ending series, starting Wednesday at Tokorozawa Municipal Gym in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. (No broadcasts for the first 3 events then back live on New Japan World for the final 2 events of the year at Korakuen Hall)

UPDATE: It’s now official-Mone vs. Shirakawa for the STRONG Women’s Championship is set for 1/5. If Shirakawa retains the RevPro British Women’s Championship in her next defense against Dani Luna before then, it’s for both titles. Also added to 1/5 is a Lucha Gauntlet Match with 8 TBA participants, 4 from New Japan and 4 from CMLL. 2 start then a new wrestler enters every minute, first pinfall wins. The participants will not be announced in advance.

New Japan held a TAKA Michinoku & Taichi Produced special mini-event today, the first such event for the duo in about 2 years (this was the 3rd such event they have done in New Japan). It could be called a mini-event as it had just 2 matches and was not on the New Japan schedule.

Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo. Presumably there is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The paid attendance was not announced.

Match 1: Tetsuya Musashi (Just Tap Out, TAKA’s latest independent promotion) & Tomoaki Honma beat Ryoma Tsukamoto (Independent/Freelancer) & Abdullah Kobayashi (Big Japan). Honma pinned Tsukamoto after Kokeshi.

Match 2: In a 3 Falls Match, TAKA MIchinoku & Taichi beat SANADA & Gedo 2-1. Fall 1: Taichi pinned Gedo after Holy Emperor’s Cross Mausoleum. Fall 2: SANADA beat TAKA with Skull End. Fall 3: TAKA pinned Gedo after Michinoku Driver 2. Afterwards, Taichi challenged SANADA to a single match.

They considered the event to be a great success and plan to do more in the future.

New Japan posted on the socials a short time ago about an unmentioned-before title defense on today’s Ring Of Honor TV program (only available online on the HonorClub subscription service)-the episode saw Grizzled Young Veterans successfully defend the STRONG Tag Team Championship against MxM in a faceoff of former WWE tag teams. V1 for the champs. This means their scheduled defense Sunday at STRONG STYLE EVOLVED will now be their 2nd defense instead of 1st.

As part of a number of changes for the second Tokyo Dome event on 1/5, New Japan has announced that the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship is now VACANT. Great-O-Khan & HENARE have vacated the titles due to a HENARE injury. They were supposed to defend the titles against The Young Bucks. It will now be Khan & TBA (partner of his choice) vs. the Bucks for the vacant titles. Although Tetsuya Naito & Hiromu Takahashi won the World Tag League and should get a title shot, it won’t happen until after Tokyo Dome.

It was also announced that on 1/5, whoever is the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion and IWGP Global Champion after 1:4 eill defend the titles that day. That means either Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Ricochet or Shota Unino vs. Claudio Castagnoli will be for the World title and David Finlay vs. Brody King or Yota Tsuji vs. Jack Perry will be for the Global title.