News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
And another absence to add to the growing body count as New Japan just added Lio Rush to the sidelined lists. Illness. Out tomorrow and Thursday. No mention of whether it may be coronavirus related. Ryusuke Taguchi is the replacement.
More as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Rush posted an update on social media in Japanese to the fans addressing this. Fever. And a very bad one at that-105. No word on his status after Thursday.
New Japan continued the Road To DESTRUCTION Tout today with the second half of a weekend doubleheader in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! No login or signup required!
Click below to watch in Japanese:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00660_11_1
Click below to watch in English:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00660_12_1
The announced paid attendance was 1062.
There were some last-minute changes to this event (and yesterday) due to no Yoh. Fever. Out indefinitely.
Before the event, House Of Torture attacked SANADA at the end of a pre-event autograph session.
Pre-Show: In an arm wresting match, Tanga Loa beat Chase Owens. Bullet Club attacked Loa afterwards.
Match 1: Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Boltin Oleg & Oskar Leube. Ishii pinned Leube after a sliding lariat.
Match 2: HENARE & Jeff Cobb beat Yuto Nakashima & Hiroshi Tanahashi. HENARE pinned Nakashima after Rampage.
Match 3: Toya Tsuji & Shingo Takagi beat Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Takagi pinned Newman after Pumping Bomber.
Match 4: Best of 7 Series Match 5: Master Wato, Shota Unino & Yuji Nagata beat El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki. Wato pinned Desperado after Recientemente 2. 2-2-1. So either the team that wins the 6th match takes the series or it will be a draw.
Match 5: Lio Rush, YOSHI-HASHI & Kazuchika Okada beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito. YOSHI-HASHI beat BUSHI with Butterfly Lock.
Match 6: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA. Kanemaru pinned TAKA.
Main Event: In an Elimination Match, Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, El Phantasmo, Hikukeo, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga beat Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Chase Owens & David Finlay. Tonga was the only winner left, last eliminating Finlay.
The next event is Tuesday at Akita Terrsa on Akita. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. The next 3 events are non-televised with the next broadcast being Saturday’s tour-ender.
UPDATE: After the event New Japan announced Hirooki Goto, who has missed the last couple events due to an MCL injury, is now out the rest of the tour, which covers the rest of this week.
New Japan continued the Road To DESTRUCTION Tour today with the start of a weekend doubleheader in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This was a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 1476, a legit sellout.
Match 1: HENARE beat Oskar Leube.
Match 2: YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yuto Nakashima, Boltin Oleg & Tiger Mask. Tanahashi beat Nakashima with a Texas cloverleaf. Afterwards, Impact Wrestling’s Chris Sabin, Alex Shelley & Josh Alexander appeared via recorded video and issued a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge.
Match 3: BUSHI, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi beat Callum Newman, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Tsuji pinned Newman with a reverse campana.
Match 4: Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd & Alex Coughlin. KUSHIDA pinned Moloney with Perfect Small Package.
Match 5: Jado, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga beat Gedo, Chase Owens & David Finlay. Loa pinned Gedo after OJK.
Match 6: Best of 7 Series Match 4: El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki beat Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata. Narita pinned Umino with a front suplex hold. 2-1-1 in favor of the winners.
Match 7: TAKA Michonoku, DOUKI & SANADA beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho & EVIL. DOUKI pinned Sho with a jackknife. Afterwards, Taichi announced his return for the rest of the tour. He missed a couple events this week for personal reasons.
Main Event: Lio Rush & Kazuchika Okada beat Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito. Rush pinned Takahashi after Final Hour.
The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World and ABEMA (in Japan only) will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET, and best of all you can watch this event live and on demand FOR FREE!
It’s been a good week for Eddie Kingston. He now has 2 championships, won them in his hometown of New York City, and now is getting paid. Kingston has now told an unspecified podcast that he has re-signed with All Elite Wrestling and will stay with the promotion, it’s a 4-year deal. He didn’t say how much he’ll get paid or exact length beyond “I got four more years”, but it was also revealed by New Japan that Kingston is headed to London for New Japan’s Royal Quest 3 event on 10/14. He’ll team with Hiroshi Tanahashi & Michael Oku to face TJP, HENARE & Jeff Cobb.
This also comes shortly after Kingston sating he will not be working any non-AEWRing Of Honor or New Japan dates for a while due to a back injury, causing a planned STRONG Openweight Championship defense against Rocky Romero tonight to be cancelled.
New Japan has just announced 2 wrestlers are now out for the immediate future:
Hirooki Goto suffered an undisclosed injury today at DESTRUCTION IN KOBE. Out indefinitely but will miss non-televised events tomorrow & Tuesday at a minimum.
Taichi has requested and was granted a leave of absence for unspecified reasons. Out indefinitely but presumably off the rest of the tour, or at least through 10/7.
More as it becomes available.
DESTRUCTION in KOBE, one of 2 major events on New Japan’s current tour, went down earlier today in its traditional place on the calendar.
Today’s event was held at Kobe World Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 4212, a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Kevin Knight & Tiger Mask. Moloney pinned TM 4 after Full Clip.
Match 2: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI & SANADA beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. TAKA pinned Togo after Michinoku Driver 2. Wait, when was the last time TAKA won a match in New Japan, let alone be responsible for the win?
Match 3: Jado, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga beat Gedo, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Chase Owens & David Finlay. Tonga pinned Gedo after Gun Stun.
Match 4: Yoh & Lio Rush beat BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi. Rush pinned BUSHI after Final Hour.
Match 5: Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada. Sabre pinned Ishii with European Clutch.
Match 6: In a Seconds Handcuffed Match, where House Of Torture members were handcuffed to Just 5 Guys members at ringside, Sho beat KOPW 2023 Chaampion Taichi to win the title. Yoshinobu Kanemaru interference. He seemingly turned on Just 5 Guys to help Sho win. So maybe they will now be Just 4 Guys.
Match 7: IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls to retain the titles. YOSHI-HASHI pinned NIcholls. V2 for the champs.
Match 8: Shingo Takagi beat Great-O-Khan.
Match 9: Tetsuya Naito beat Jeff Cobb. As a result, Naito retained his spot in the 1/4 Tokyo Dome main event.
Main Event: IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Yota Tsuji to retain the title. V1 for Ospreay. Next up: Sabre. This could happen at Royal Quest 3 in England. It should be noted that Ospreay has rebranded the title as the IWGP UK Heavyweight Championship although it does not seem to be recognized as such by New Japan. (UPDATE: It’s now official for Royal Quest 3 on 10/14)
The next event is tomorrow at Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. Also a heads-up for the second DESTRUCTION event in October at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo-at this time New Japan lists the event as only being broadcast live on ABEMA. So it may not be available on New Japan World outside of Japan, but we’ll see what happens.
A planned New Japan STRONG Openweight Championship match tonight in US independent promotion DEFY Wrestling is now off. Current champion Eddie Kingston has announced on Instagram that he is no longer working independent events and dates outside of AEW, Ring Of Honor and New Japan until further notice due to a lower back injury. He was to have defenses the title against Rocky Romero. DEFY announced on social media they didn’t find out until Kingston’s Instagram post. Not a good look for the new double champ after Wednesday’s high spot moment on AEW Dynamite in New York City.
More as it becomes available.
New Japan continued the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour today with the last televised event of this part of the series.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka Island City Forum in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1253, a legit sellout.
Match 1: Hiromu Takahashi beat Yuto Nakahsima.
Match 2: Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe beat Boltin Oleg & Oskar Leube. Makabe pinned Leube after a King Kong kneedrop.
Match 3: Yoh, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Satoshi Kojima, Yano pinned TM 4.
Match 4: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste, Mikey NIcholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Nicholls pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Highway To Hell.
Match 5: BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Tsuji pinned NEwman after Gene Blaster.
Match 6: Best of 7 Series Match 2: El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki beat Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata. Desperado pinned Wato after Pinche Loco. 1-0 with 1 draw.
Main Event: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & EVIL. SANADA pinned Togo after a rounding body press.
Also, before the event the results of fan voting for the upcoming KOPW 2023 Title match between Taichi & Sho were announced. Taichi’s rules won so it will be a Seconds Handcuffed Match, meaning all members of House Of Torture will be handcuffed to all members of Just 5 Guys at ringside (no Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who is out due to injury. Sho had proposed a 10 Minute Guaranteed Winner match, which would’ve been a match with a 10 minute time limit, and if it went to a time limit draw Sho would’ve won, Taichi would’ve been banned from using Black Mephisto and Sho also wanted additional rules due to the size difference between them (Sho is a Jr. Heavyweight while Taichi is a Heavyweight). one being Taichi also would have been banned from using Dangerous Backdrop. Taichi’s rules won the vote by a margin of roughly 62.7% to 37.3%. The match will be on 9/24.
The next event is tomorrow at Dejima Messe Nagasaki in Nagasaki. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. None of the 4 events this week will be available live or on demand.
There have been A LOT of injuries recently across the major Japanese promotions. Here are some of the latest updates:
New Japan-Yoshinobu Kanemaru is now off the rest of the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour. Knee injury suffered earlier this week. Boltin Oleg, was was out since last weekend due to a fever and arm infection (they were related), is cleared to return.
All-Japan/GLEAT-Sayaka Unagi is out indefinitely. Left shoulder injury suffered yesterday. For All-Japan, she was to have faced Sunny tomorrow. SAKI (not Saki Akai) is the replacement. For GLEAT, she is off the 9/17 event.
Stardom-Momo Kohga, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki and Mai Sakurai all will miss some of all of the rest of the 5 STAR GP, which runs through 9/30.
UPDATE: Tokyo Joshi Pro announced Neko Haruna has multiple knee and ACL injuries and will have surgery in October. Out several months if not longer. She will appear on 10/9 but not compete.
UPDATE 2: 9/14-what is going on in TJPW? For their event Saturday they have had to blow the card up. Not one, not two, not three…but SIX wrestlers are now off-Mizuki, Yuki Kamifuku, Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, Raku and HIMAWARI. The very vague poor physica condition for all beyond illnesses. Add Neko Haruna (knees) and that’s 7 in the last few days. They somehow still are managing 7 matches scheduled with Ryo Mizunami being a late add. As compensation, any fan in attendance can request and will be given a colored piece of paper autographed by a random wrestler.
UPDATE 3: 9/15-Something is going around TJPW as now they have announced Wakana Uehara is now off tomorrow. Fever. So that’s now 7 off tomorrow, 8 if you count Neko Haruna. That’s about 1/3 of the roster.
New Japan continues the Toad To DESTRUCTION Tour today with BLUE JUSTICE 13, the latest Yuji Nagata Produced event in his hometown.
Today’s event was held at Togane Arena in Chiba and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1332.
There were once again last-minute card changes due to injuries-Yoshinobu Kanemaru legit injured his knee yesterday and Boltin Oleg remains out due to an arm infection and fever. Kanemaru is also off tomorrow’s event.
Match 1: Jado, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Oskar Leube, Yuto Nakashima, Makabe pinned Nakashima after a King Kong kneefrop.
Match 2: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yoh & Ryusuke Taguchi. Yano pinned Taguchi.
Match 3: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Sabre pinned Ishii with a crucifix.
Match 4: HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat BUSHI, SHingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. HENARE beat BUSHI with Ultima.
Match 5: Yota Tsuji & Hiromu Takahashi beat Callum Newman & Will Ospreay. Takahashi pinned Newman after Time Bomb.
Match 6: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & EVIL beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA. EVIL pinned TAKA after EVIL.
Main Event: Best of 7 Series Match 1: Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata vs. Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki went to a 30 minute time limit draw.
The next event is tomorrow at Tatsunoko Arena in Ibaraki. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. In fact, of the 8 remaining events on this part of the tour only one will be televised at all.