Tag: New Japan

New Japan News: G1 CLIMAX 35 Field Set (Updated)

The Road To Tokyo Dome is officially underway as New Japan has announced the field for the 35th G1 CLIMAX Tournament, their biggest tournament of the year. This year will be a field of 20 split into 2 blocks, with a play-in tournament determining the last 4 of those 20.

The 16 already in are as follows:
Block A: Hirooki Goto, Boltin Oleg, Yuya Uemura, Yota Tsuji, David Finlay, EVIL, SANADA, Hiroshi Tanahashi
Block B: El Phantasmo, Shota Umino, Shingo Takagi, Zack Sabre Jr., Great-O-Khan, Gabriel Kidd, Ren Narita, Konosuke Takeshita

Sabre is the defending tournament winner.

The play-in matches, where the winners of each match qualify, are as follows:
Block A: Taichi vs. Callum Newman (6/23), Ryohei Oiwa vs. Don Fale (7/4)
Block B: Tomohiro Ishii vs. Drilla Moloney (6/23), YOSHI-HASHI vs. Chase Owens (7/4)

The tournament starts on 7/20 in Hokkaido and ends on 8/17 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. This year the top 3 in each block will advance, with the block winners advancing directly to the Semifinals and 2nd & 3rd going to a playoff match. The winner of the tournament gets an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match, while traditionally at Tokyo Dome that is not always the case-Sabre gambled on an early cash-in to go to October’s Royal Quest 4 event in his home country of England as champion and it paid off because he won the title.

In non-G1 news, a new Young Lion will debut during the upcoming New Japan Soul 2025 tour as Tatsuya Matsumoto will begin his career on Wednesday, and will face Zane Jay in the first of a series of matches between them on the tour. Jay is a graduate of the US-based NJPW Academy, the first true graduate to make his Japan debut in the promotion after training & competing in US events. Earlier this year he gave up his ‘STRONG Survivor” title and guaranteed position in opening matches on US events to pursue training and competing in Japan.
Matsumoto, 24, is a Junior Heavyweight and former personal trainer who passed the entrance test in 2023 and began training last year. He was a wrestler in high school.

UPDATE: Taichi has announced on social media that Just 5/4 Guys is no more. After the return and subsequent defection of DOUKI to House Of Torture, Taichi is disbanding the faction, which was really just himself and Yuya Uemura now (plus TAKA Michinoku although he is a freelancer, they were 5 until SANADA defected to HOT too) and will now be part of the main aka unaffiliated New Japan core unit.

New Japan 6/15/25 Results (Updated)

DOMINION, New Japan’s annual June Osaka blowout event, is now in the books.

Today’s event was held at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired live as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 exclusively on TV Asahi in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 6525.

Pre-show match: Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato beat Daiki Nagai & Masatora Yasuda. Murashima pinned Yasuda.

Match 1: Don Fale (Bad Luck Fale), Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & Sanada beat Taiji iIshimori, Clark Connors, Chase Owens & Drilla Moloney. SANADA pinned Moloney after a guitar shot. At the end of the match, Owens turned on his teammates and defected to House of Torture. (For those curious, Don Fale is not Fale’s real name)

Match 2: Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. beat El Phantasmo & Shota Umino. Sabre pinned Umino with a European clutch.

Match 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yuya Uemura.

Match 4: DOUKI & Sho beat IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Master Wato & Yoh to win the titles. DOUKI & Sho become the 79th IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions.. DOUKI beat Wato with a modified figure 4. This was to have been Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Sho challenging but Kanemaru was out with an apparent right arm injury. DOUKI was the replacement as he returned from a long injury absence AND defected to House Of Torture. So now Just 4 Guys are presumably Just 3 Guys.

Match 5: Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan to win the titles. Taichi & Ishii become the 110th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Taichi pinned Newman after Black Mephisto.

Match 6: Boltin Oleg beat NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita to win the title. Oleg becomes the 48th NEVER Openweight Champion. UPSET ALERT!!!

Match 7: In a Dog Collar Chain Deathmatch, EVIL beat David Finlay by TKO.

Match 8: Gabriel Kidd beat IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji to win the title. Kidd becomes the 5th IWGP Global Champion. Next/first up: If Kidd has his way, Tanahashi. He wants the soon-retiring Ace.

Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto beat Shingo Takagi to retain the title. V7 for Goto. Next up: If the cameramen gave us any clue post-match, possibly Sabre.

The next event is Wednesday at Aomori Budokan in Aomori to start the New Japan Soul 2025 tour. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

UPDATE: Kidd gets his wish-it’s now official. Tanahashi is next. That match will happen on 7/4 at Tokyo Budokan in Tokyo.

Goto-Sabre for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship is now official as well. That match will happen at TANAHASHI JAM on 6/29 at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya, which will be the last event ever in the iconic wrestling & sumo venue before it closes. Note that 6/29 WILL NOT BE AVAILABLE ON NEW JAPAN WORLD. It will be available only in Japan exclusively on TV Asahi. NEW NEVER Openweight Champion Boltin Oleg will also make his first title defense on 6/29, which appears to be against Yuji Nagata, and NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo will defend the title vs. TBA (open challenge).

News: Special Venue Anniversary Event Upcoming

According to a report from Japanese news site Puroresu Today which I them confirmed confirmed via the venue’s website, Shinjuku Face in Tokyo is holding a special pro wrestling event on 7/31 to celebrate the venue’s 20th Anniversary. The venue, used for both theater performances and combat sports events (martial arts and pro wrestling), The event will feature participation and cooperation in production from several promotions including New Japan, All-Japan and DDT. And it looks like WWE is letting Shinsuke Nakamura return to Japan to take part too.

The full card was announced today and is scheduled to feature 5 matches with participation from at least 6 promotions including women’s promotion OZ Academy. The main event will feature New Japan, All-Japan & DDT together as New Japan’s Hiromu Takahashi teams with DDT’s Chris Brookes to face All-Japan’s Atsuki Aoyagi & DDT’s Yuki Ueno. The card is as follows:
Daisuke Sasaki, Illusion & Hideki Okatani vs. Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata & Makoto Oishi
Minoru Suzuki & Shinsuke Nakamura vs. Jun Akiyama & Taita (?) Kobashi
Mayumi Ozaki, HARASHIMA & Yukio Naya vs. Sakura Hirota, Antonio Honda & Takeshi Masada (with Sanshiro Takagi)
Kuroshio TOKYO Japan vs. MAO
Hiromu Takahashi & Chris Brookes vs. Atsuki Aoyagi & Yuki Ueno

Tickets are now on sale. It’s not known if there will be any live or on demand broadcast but hopefully matches will show up on one or more of New Japan World, AHPW.TV or WRESTLE UNIVERSE given participation. But with CyberFight Corporation listed as a co-producer of the event the most likely hope seems to be WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

After previously being a live event venue called Liquid Room from 1994-2004, it closed in 2004 then was renovated and re-opened as Shinjuku Face on July 29, 2005 and is an event hall on Floor 7 of the Humax Pavilion in the Shinjuku area of Tokyo. The venue’s listed capacity for martial arts events including pro wrestling is 511 (but typical max capacity for wrestling is 500) and 471 for theater/performing arts. It hosts both major promotions and independent promotions. The event will come just 2 days after the official 20th anniversary of the venue’s opening. You can find out more about the venue at its official website (in Japanese), shinjuku-face.com.

New Japan/DDT 6/9/25 Results

New Japan & DDT came together today for a weird one-match event between Toru Yano & Super Sasadango Machine, billed as a one-sided competition which of course was more than just one match and primarily a comedy event.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand as a PPV on New Japan World and WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. The PPV costs $18.99 US on New Japan World and 2500 Japanese yen (around $17.25) on WRESTLE UNIVERSE and will be available until 6/30. You can also watch a pre-show FOR FREE on YouTube.

The paid attendance was not announced. But looking at a photo from Tokyo Joshi Pro ring announcer Sayuri Namba, who apparently was in the crowd, it may have been a legit sellout and probably was around 1500.

The event began with the introduction of PPV managers, commentary, referees and special guests from both sides among others. Naturally it wasn’t all nice & friendly. Which led to…
Match 1: In an Exhibition Match, Daiki Nagai vs. Kazuma Sumi went to a 3 minute time limit draw. Which led to…
Extra Time: Daiki Nagai vs. Kazuma Sumi went to a 5 minute time limit draw.

An “Information Corner” segment with Yoh & Antonio Honda was held.

Machine gave one of his comedy PowerPoint presentations and the match was suddenly changed to be for the DDT Extreme Championship held by Machine.

Match 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano & Yoh beat Super Sasadango Machine, Akito & Antonio Honda. Tanahashi pinned Machine after High Fly Flow.

Both sides kept fighting afterwards until the head of the World Pro Wrestling Federation appeared to send “peacekeepers”. Which led to…
Match 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Toru Yano, Yoh, Super Sasadango Machine, Akito & Antonio Honda beat Sanshiro Takagi, HARASHIMA, Toru Owashi, Shuji Ishikawa, Ken Ohka & MAO. Yoh pinned Takagi with a dragon suplex hold.

Main Event: DDT Extreme Champion Super Sasadango Machine vs. Toru Yano went to a double countout. As a result, Machine retains the title. V1 for Machine. They somehow managed to go-seriously-over 2 hours. And all’s well that ends well.

For New Japan, the next event is DOMINION, the annual June blowout event, Sunday at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This is a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.

For DDT, the next event is Wednesday at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage. There will be no live broadcast.

New Japan News: Tokyo Dome 2026 Event Official

Amidst a flood of New Japan news items yesterday was this item which I missed until just now-start making holiday travel plans because WRESTLE KINGDOM 20, the biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and maybe biggest in the world after WWE WrestleMania, has been officially announced. It will be held on its traditional date of January 4 (a Sunday) at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Already set for the event is Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement but everything else is TBA.

More details including ticket information will be announced closer to the event.

New Japan 6/1/25 Results (Updated 6/2/25 x4)

New Japan wrapped up the Best Of The Super Junior 32 Tournament today with the Finals.

Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 3044.

Pre-show match: Robbie X beat Shoma Kato.

Match 1: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & SANADA beat Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Master Wato, Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano. Kanemaru beat Wato with a figure 4.

Match 2: Francesco Akira, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan beat Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Taichi. Khan pinned Honma after a wrist clutch Eliminator.

Match 3: Nick Wayne, MAO, El Phantasmo & Shota Umino beat Robbie Eagles, Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Phantasmo pinned Jackson after CR2.

Match 4: Titan & Yota Tsuji beat Clark Connors & Taiji Ishimori. Tsuji pinned Connors after Gene Blaster.

Match 5: EVIL beat Gedo by submission. Borderline glorified squash.

Match 6: Ninja Mack, Dragon Dia & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado & Yuya Uemura. Tanahashi pinned TAKA after High Fly Flow. Afterwards, Jun Kasai appeared and challenged Desperado to a match on 6/24.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Hirooki Goto. Takagi pinned Taguchi after Burning Dragon.

Main Event: Best Of The Super Junior Finals: Kosei Fujita beat Yoh to win the tournament. Fujita becomes the youngest BOSJ winner in history. As a result, Fujita also gets an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot in the near future.

The next event is DOMINION, the annual June blowout event, on 6/15 at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This will be a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.

Also coming up before then is a New Japan/DDT crossover event focused on a Toru Yano vs. Super Sasadango Machine match on 6/9 at Korakuen Hall. That event will be a live PPV on both New Japan World and WRESTLE UNIVERSE for 2500 Japanese yen (around $17 US) beginning at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

6/2/25 UPDATE: At today’s customary post-tournament presser, it was confirmed the title match between Desperado & Fujita will not happen at DOMINION. There is a chance of it happening on 6/24 at Korakuen Hall at an El Desperado Produced event although Desperado wants to defend the title against Jun Sakai that day. That is not yet official so officially the date is TBA. I’m thinking either 7/4 at Tokyo Budokan (Nippon Budokan?) or 7/6 at Korakuen.

Also announced today by Stardom were upcoming IWGP Women’s Championship matches: Syuri will make her first title defense Friday (6/6/25) vs. Alex Windsor at a Pro Wrestling EVE event in England. You may be able to watch that match on YouTube although it will likely be paywalled. Whoever comes out as champion will defend in Stardom on 6/21/25 at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 vs. Sareee. That will, while not yet announced, almost definitely be a PPV on Stardom World.

UPDATE 2: DDT has now announced Fujita will make his first appearance in the promotion on their 7/13 event. He will be in a tag match with TBA, billed as his “friend”, as his partner.

UPDATE 3: It’s now official-El Desperado vs. Jun Kasai on 6/24 will be for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

UPDATE 4: Following up on Update 2 above, said “friend” teaming with Fujita on 7/13 in DDT is Takeshi Masada. They will face To-y & Yuya Koroku.

New Japan 5/29/25 Results

New Japan ran the penultimate event of Best Of The Super Junior today, finishing up Block B.

Today’s event was held at Region Plaza Joetsu in Niigata and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The paid attendance has not been announced.

Match 1: Dragon Dia, Ninja Mack & KUSHIDA beat Daiki Nagai, Masatora Yasuda & Shoma Kato. KUSHIDA beat Yasuda with a hoverboard lock.

Match 2: Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Katsuya Murashima, Toru Yano & Master Wato. Narita beat Murashima with a knee lock.

Match 3: Yota Tsuji & Hiromu Takahashi beat Jacob Austin Young & Francesco Akira. Tsuji pinned Young after Gene Blaster.

Match 4: Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita beat Gedo, Robbie X & Clark Connors. Fujita pinned Gedo with Neshin Special.

Beat Of The Super Junior Block B:
Match 5: Kevin Knight beat Ryusuke Taguchi.
Match 6: Titan beat Nick Wayne.
Match 7: MAO beat Sho.
Match 8: El Desperado beat Robbie Eagles by submission.
Main Event: Yoh beat Taiji Ishimori. As a result, Yoh wins Block B on tiebreakers (he beat both MAO and Desperado) and advances to the Finals to face Fujita.

The Final is Sunday at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

New Japan 5/27/25 Results (Updated)

New Japan continued the Best Of The Super Junior today with the final day of Block A., which would determine who advanced to the Finals. (I previously stated the top 2 in each block would make the Finals. That was incorrect as I found out today only the winner of each block advances this year)

Today’s event was held at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 668.

Match 1: Yota Tsuji & Titan beat Daiki Nagai & Nick Wayne. Tsuji pinned Nagai after Gene Blaster.

Match 2: Yujiro Takahashi & Sho beat Shoma Kato & MAO. Takahashi pinned Kato after Pimp Juice.

Match 3: Toru Yano & El Desperado beat Hartley Jackson & Robbie Eagles. Yano pinned Jackson.

Match 4: Tiger Mask & Yoh beat Gedo & Taiji Ishimori. Yoh beat Gedo with Anaconda Vice.

Best Of The Super Junior Block A:
Match 5: Ninja Mack beat Dragon Dia.
Match 6: Francesco Akira beat KUSHIDA.
Match 7: Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Master Wato by submission.
Match 8: Kosei Fujita beat Clark Connors.
Main Event: Robbie X beat Hiromu Takahashi. As a result, Fujita wins Block A on tiebreakers and advances to the Finals. It was a 5-way tie but he beat everyone in the tie.

The final day of Block B, with a potentially similar tiebreaker scenario, is Thursday at Region Plaza Joetsu in Niigata. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

UPDATE: In post-event comments via New Japan’s English website, Robbie X announced he wants to be the first challenger to Fujita if he wins the BOSJ and, subsequently, the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship. We’ll see. When the winner gets the title shot is TBA but I’m thinking DOMINION on 6/15.

BREAKING: New Japan TAMASHII Gets First Titles

In a news post a short tome ago, New Japan announced the first title for its TAMASHII sub-brand based in and focused on Australia, New Zealand and the Oceania region. The TAMASHII Tag Team Championship will be first awarded at the next event on 7/4 in Mangere, New Zealand via a one-night tournament to crown inaugural champions. Participants TBA but the event poster suggests at least a 4-team tournament.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 5/25/25 Results

New Japan continued the Best Of The Super Junior today in Nagoya.

Today’s event was held at Port Messe Nagoya Exhibition Hall 2 in Nagoya and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This also aired on an unknown TV channel in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 1404.

All matches were Best Of The Super Junior matches, 30 minute time limit.

Match 1: Block B: Robbie Eagles beat Ryusuke Taguchi.
Match 2: Block A: KUSHIDA beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru.
Match 3: Block B: Yoh beat Titan.
Match 4: Block A: Dragon Dia beat Robbie X.
Match 5: Block B: MAO beat Nick Wayne.
Match 6: Block A: Ninja Mack beat Kosei Fujita.
Match 7: Block B: Sho beat Taiji Ishimori.
Match 8: Block A: Clark Connors beat Francesco Akira by DQ. Chair use.
Match 9: Block B: El Desperado beat Kevin Knight.
Main Event: Block A: Hiromu Takahashi beat Master Wato.

Standings:
Block A:
1-Takahashi, 5-3, 10 pts
2-Wato, 5-3, 10 pts
3-Connors, 5-3, 10 pts
4-Fujita, 4-4, 8 pts
5-KUSHIDA, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
6-Akira, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
7-Dia, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
8-Mack, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)
9-X, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)
10-Kanemaru, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)

Block B:
1-Yoh, 5-3, 10 pts
2-Desperado, 5-3, 10 pts
3-MAO, 5-3, 10 pts
4-Sho, 4-4, 8 pts
5-Wayne, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
6-Eagles, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
7-Ishimori, 4-4, 8 pts (OUT)
8-Taguchi, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)
9-Knight, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)
10-Titan, 3-5, 6 pts (OUT)
The top 2 in each block advance to the Finals. In Block A, a spot is Takahashi’s to lose-he just has to win his final match (X) to advance. Connors has the advantage among the rest, only needing to beat Fujita to advance on tiebreakers. Wato must win (Kanemaru) and needs Fujita to beat Connors to advance. Fujita must beat Connors and Takahashi & Wato must lose to advance on tiebreakers. Everyone else is out due to tiebreakers. In Block B, Yoh advances with a win in his last match (Ishimori), and Desperado will advance with a win (Eagles). MAO must win (Sho) and Yoh and/or Desperado must lose to advance because MAO loses tiebreaker to both. Sho must beat MAO and Yoh must lose and Desperado must win or draw to advance on tiebreakers (Sho beat MAO and Yoh but lost to Desperado). Everyone else is out.

The final day of Block A is Tuesday at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.