Tag: New Japan

BREAKING: Kazuchika Okada Leaving New Japan (Updated)

Breaking news that I had to break in from vacation to post: New Japan is losing Kazuchika Okada on January 31. Contract expiring and he is moving on. But he will work the 3 big February events on 2/11, 2/23 & 2/24.

Read New Japan’s English statement with comments from Okada below:
https://www.njpw1972.com/168267

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: New Japan has begun announcing event lineup changes: The NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship match schedules for 2/11 in Osaka has been moved up to 1/24 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. It’ll be Okada’s last match at Korakuen for NJPW. Now on 2/11 it will be…One. Last. Time…Okada vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi. 2/24 for Okada’s final match is TBA as is 2/23. Also now on 1/24 is Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Tiger Mask and a planned Shoma Kato & Boltin Oleg vs. Katsuya Murashima & Toru Yano match will be a pre-show match.

New Japan Pro Wrestling “Battle In The Valley 2024” Results (1/13/24)

New Japan is back in the US for their first international event of the year, Battle In The Valley 2024. As usual they have loaded the card with a mix of wrestlers from Japan, the LA Dojo, partner and independent promotions and more. This year’s event is headlined by what is being billed as Will Ospreay’s last single match in New Japan (at least as a full-time member) before he jumps full-time to All Elite Wrestling next month, and it’s against none other than Kazuchika Okada. The co-main event sees a rematch between Shingo Takagi & Jon Moxley, not surprisingly it will be a No DQ match. Elsewhere, STRONG Openweight Champion Eddie Kingston will defend that title and his AEW Continental Crown (including the AEW Continental Championship and Ring Of Honor World Championship) against Gabriel Kidd while STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia defends her title against rising indy sensation Trish Adora. Bullet Club will also try to win the STRONG Tag Team Championship as Alex Coughlin & Clark Connors challenge Hikuleo & El Phantasmo, but it’s not a double title match so no IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on the line. That and plenty more to kick off a big international 2024 for the promotion.

Today’s event will be held at the San Jose Civic Center in San Jose, CA and can be watched LIVE on TrillerTV (fka FITE) in English for $19.99. IT IS NOT AVAILABLE LIVE ON NEW JAPAN WORLD OUTSIDE JAPAN. You get the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays with purchase. There will also be a FREE 30 minute pre-show before the event. None of the title matches have more than a 30 minute time limit and neither do any matches except the last 2 (1 Hour), so including the pre-show I predict the event will have a total running time of around 3 1/2 hours. The longest it could possibly go is roughly 5 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Matt Vandagriff vs. Goldy
Viva Van vs. Stephanie Vaquer
PPV:
Shota Umino, Fred Rosser & Jacob Fatu vs. Tom Lawlor, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson
Mascara Dorada & Volador Jr. vs. Rocky Romero & Soberano Jr.
TJP vs. David Finlay
STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Alex Coughlin & Clark Connors for the titles
STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia vs. Trish Adora for the title
Matt Riddle & TBA vs. Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr.
STRONG Openweight Champion & AEW Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Gabriel Kidd for the titles
Shingo Takagi vs. Jon Moxley in a No DQ match
Will Ospreay vs. Kazuchika Okada

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

6:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from San Jose Civic Center in San Jose, CA. Your hosts are Walker Stewart & Veda Scott.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. They say it’s a legit sellout, if so that means 2100. As of midday today the last number I had was 2050 and they’re still filing in but it’s going to be right around 2100. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2147, a legit sellout. That means they added some capacity, the original setup was for 2100)

Pre-show:
Match 1; Matt Vandagriff vs. Goldy. 20 minute time limit
Result: Matt Vandagriff beat Goldy

Match 2: Viva Van vs. Stephanie Vaquer. 20 minute time limit
Result: Stephanie Vaquer beat Viva Van

Pre-show ends at 6:55 PM PT/9:55 PM ET. Updates will resume when the PPV begins.

PPV:
Match 1: Shota Umino, Fred Rosser & Jacob Fatu vs. Tom Lawlor, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson. 20 minute time limit
Result: Shota Umino, Fred Rosser & Jacob Fatu beat Tom Lawlor, Royce Isaacs & Jorel Nelson. Umino pinned Isaacs after a double arm DDT.
After the match, while he was celebrating with the fans, Umino was sneak attacked and laid out by Jack Perry, normally part of All Elite Wrestling but not with them although he reportedly is no longer suspended after a backstage altercation with CM Punk last year. Perry held up an AEW contract and tore it up in the ring before producing and donning an armband reading “SCAPEGOAT”. Jungle Boy may officially be no more and no longer All Elite.

Match 2: Mascara Dorada & Volador Jr. vs. Rocky Romero & Soberano Jr.. 20 minute time limit
Result: Mascara Dorada & Volador Jr. beat Rocky Romero & Soberano Jr. Volador pinned Romero after a Canadian destroyer.

Match 3: TJP vs. David Finlay. 20 minute time limit
Result: David Finlay beat TJP

Match 4: STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Alex Coughlin & Clark Connors for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat Alex Coughlin & Clark Connors to retain the titles. Hikuleo pinned Coughlin after Super Thunder Kiss 86. V4 for the champs.

Match 5: STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia vs. Trish Adora for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia beat Trish Adora to retain the title. V8 for Giulia. So maybe she’s not going to WWE yet. (She is technically a freelancer now although she has made some appearances in Stardom since disbanding her Donna Del Mundo faction)

Video promo from…Mustafa Ali! He does a Presidential campaign-style promo to call out Hiromu Takahashi for a match at Windy City Riot on 4/12 in Chicago, IL. I am all for Ali in New Japan! Or anywhere besides WWE for that matter.

Match 6: Matt Riddle & TBA vs. Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr.. 30 minute time limit. TBA is…if a botched graphic during Riddle’s intro is true…and it is…Jeff Cobb.
Result: Matt Riddle & Jeff Cobb beat Zack Sabre Jr. & Bad Dude Tito. Riddle pinned Tito after Bro Derek.

Match 7: STRONG Openweight Champion & AEW Continental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston vs. Gabriel Kidd for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Openweight Champion & AEW Conitinental Crown Champion Eddie Kingston beat Gabriel Kidd by countout to retain the titles. V10 for Kingston. They kept brawling at the end before Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin joined in for the heel beatdown on Kingston.

Match 8: Shingo Takagi vs. Jon Moxley in a No DQ match. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Jon Moxley beat Shingo Takagi. YOU. SICK. F*CKS! Yeah, there was a little blood and gore.But incredible nonetheless.
Afterwards, Moxley with microphone. It didn’t work at first but Moxley acknowledged it was his fault for not pressing the button. He called out Tetsuya Naito. HOLY SH*T!!!

Quick break for ring cleaning.

It’s Now Official…Naito-Moxley on 4/12 in Chicago (NON-TITLE match for now) as well as Mustafa Ali vs. Hiromu Takahashi. The biggest NJPW STRONG event ever as they’ve been billing it…Definitely!

Main Event: Will Ospreay vs. Kazuchika Okada. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Kazuchika Okada beat Will Ospreay. They went almost 30 minutes. After the match Bullet Club hit the ring for a beatdown on Ospreay. After a couple minutes TJP, Jeff Cobb & Eddie Kingston ran out to make the save. Once he recovered, Ospreay with microphone. He ran down Bullet Club ahead of 2/11 in Osaka and told Kingston “I owe you one”. He then thanked the fans and touched on his 8 years in New Japan as he prepares to move to All Elite Wrestling next month and also puts Okada over. He finishes by building up his final NJPW match on 2/11, which will be a steel cage match. His NSFW choice words about that match got a huge pop to finish his final promo and send the crowd home happy.

End Show.

The next event is THE NEW BEGINNING IN NAGOYA on 1/20 at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Aichi. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

DEVELOPING: Has New Japan Gone EVIL? (Updated x2)

While browsing the socials just now, a post in Japanese by New Japan wrestler EVIL caught my eye, which was quoted by Tama Tonga. It stems from what happened at-and after-Tokyo Dome. Because this may affect an upcoming New Japan event, I am adding a SPOILER WARNING here just in case. Read on at your own risk. (See below, I’ve removes the spoiler warning because it actually is not)

What happened is EVIL posted a screenshot of the roster page from New Japan’s official Japanese website (the mobile version) showing EVIL as the 43rd NEVER Openweight Champion. Tonga is the current 42nd champion having won the title back on 1/4. But then in backstage comments Tonga announced he was leaving New Japan next month for family reasons (although he is from Tonga, he may have family in Hawaii which is where his brother Tanga Loa is from, Tonga wants to work where he can be closer to them). Tonga is to defend the title against EVIL next month and this screenshot suggests the conclusion is foregone. And it seems to be legit. I then went to NJPW’s Japanese website and took the following screenshot (note the time shown is US Pacific Time/GMT-8):

Make of that what you will while we wait for potential comments from New Japan.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: New Japan’s new English announcer, Walker Stewart, is claiming the title change happened today in Rio De Janeiro, Brazil. Nothing official yet from New Japan.

UPDATE 2: It was all fake. New Japan clarified this and posted a video clip of EVIL threatening website staff. See below:

New Japan News: Post-Tokyo Dome Press Conference News (Updated)

New Japan held their traditional post-major event press conference today for Tokyo Dome, a lot of news coming out of it:

NEW IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Tetsuya Naito appeared and was asked if his views on the title have changed now that he won it. So far, to put it simply, not really. He hasn’t work it yet and it hasn’t settled in. His first defense is set too: SANADA rematch. That will happen on 2/24 at Hikkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell in Hokkaido as part of THE NEW BEGINNING IN SAPPORO.

On 2/23 at the first half in Hokkaido, inaugural IWGP Global Champion David Finlay will make his first defense against Nic Nemeth, the former Dolph Ziggler in WWE. Nic & his younger brother Ryan (currently in All Elite Wrestling) watched the title match at Tokyo Dome from commentary and had a confrontation with Finlay after the match. That same day, NJPW WORLD TV Champion Biroshi Tanahashi will defend against fellow ex-WWE wrestler Matt Riddle.

On 2/11 at THE NEW BEGINNING IN OSAKA, AEW’s Bryan Danielson will face Zack Sabre Jr. and the main event will be Will Ospreay’s final New Japan match: United Empire vs. Bullet Club in a 10-man Steel Cage match. 2 title matches are also set for Osaka: Hikuleo & El Phantasmo vs. Chase Owens & KENTA for the IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship (but apparently not the STRONG Tag Team Championship), and NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls for the titles.

In addition to faction warfare, Korakuen Hall events later this month also have title matches: 1/23 will see NEW IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Desperado vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru for the title.

Finally, on 1/20 at THE NEW BEGINNING IN NAGOYA it will be NEVER Openweight Champion Tama Tonga vs. EVIL for the title and KOPW 2024 Champion Taiji Ishimori vs. Great-O-Khan for the title.

All events will stream live in Japanese and English on New Japan World.

UPDATE: On the socials after the presser concluded, STRONG Tag Team Champions El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin for the titles was announced for Saturday’s Battle In The Valley event. Like the above match, it’s not for both titles they hold.

Also, it appears Young Lions Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima may have chosen England for their training excursion. A social media post from Revolution Pro Wrestling (RevPro) has announced their debut in the promotion at their 2/4 event in London. They are being billed as “Young Blood” in a promo graphic for the match. RevPro has their own subscription streaming service so the match should be available there on demand soon after the event.

New Japan 1/5/24 Results

With Tokyo Dome now in the books, New Japan officially began their new year-and the road to Tokyo Dome 2025 (365 days to go! It’s a Leap Year so one extra day) with today’s annual year-opening New Year’s Dash!

Today’s event was held at Sumida City Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE!

Click below to watch (mobile/tablet users-you will be redirected to the New Japan World app to watch, it is free to download and no account/payment is needed for free content. The link below only works as intended on PC):

https://watch.njpwworld.com/details/39502?playlist_id=203&shw_ep=1

The announced paid attendance was 2910, a legit advance sellout. Except for the KOPW 2024 4-way, no matches were announced ahead of time. It was all a surprise until it happened.

Match 1: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Ryusuke Taguchi to retain the title. V1 for Tanahashi. This was to have been a NON-TITLE match but Taguchi requested the change last-second. Next up: Possibly former WWE wrestler Matt Riddle, who appeared via recorded video. Just as long as he knows he can’t use the weed stuff in Japan.

Match 2: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Ryohei Oiwa & Kaito Kiyomiya (Pro Wrestling NOAH). Goto pinned Oiwa after Shoto.

Match 3: Young Lions Farewell Match: El Phantasmo & Hikuleo beat Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima. Phantasmo pinned Nakashima after Super Thunder Kiss 86. Leube & Nakashima will now be heading outside Japan for the traditional international training excursions. Afterwards, Chase Owens attacked Phantasmo & Hikuleo and made an IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Title challenge for himself and KENTA.

Match 4: Master Wato, El Desperado, Tonoaki Honma, Togi Makabe, Shota Umino & Tama Tonga beat Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL. Umino pinned Togo after Death Rider. Afterwards, EVIL beat down Tonga and cut his hair.

Match 5: Francesco Akira, TJP, HENARE, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay vs. Drilla Moloney, Gabriel Kidd, Clark Connors, Alex Coughlin & David Finlay went to a no contest. Connors ref assault then out of control. Lasted about 5 minutes before that all happened. Afterwards, Ospreay challenged Bullet Club to a rematch on 2/11 while Finlay demanded it be a cage match. (This may be Ospreay’s last match before his full-time All Elite Wrestling contract begins if it happens) (Addendum: It will be)

Match 6: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA beat BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. TAKA pinned BUSHI after Michinoku Driver 2. Well there’s TAKA’s win for the year I guess.

Match 7: Taiji Ishimori beat Yoh, Toru Yano & Great-O-Khan in a 4-way elimination match to win the KOPW 2024 Championship and become the initial titleholder. Order of elimination: Yano by Yoh, Yoh by Khan, Khan by Ishimori.

Main Event: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley & Kazuchika Okada. Haste pinned Ishii after Tank Buster. Afterwards, Sabre challeged Danielson to a match while Fujita made a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge for the rest.

The next event is Battle In The Valley 2024 on 1/13 in San Jose, CA. The main event for that card was announced today, it will be Ospreay vs. Okada. At this time it is scheduled to be available only on TrillerTV (fka FITE) as a PPV in English only. It is available for pre-order for $19.99 and will begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET. No New Japan World broadcast at this time but that is subject to change.

Also announced today was the next US event after that-Windy City Riot on 4/12 at Wintrust Arena in Chicago, IL. Tickets range from $29-299.

The next Japan event is THE NEW BEGINNING IN NAGOYA on 1/20 at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

FREE VIDEO: NJPW WORLD TV Title Match From Tokyo Dome

In keeping with tradition with the title, New Japan World has made today’s NJPW WORLD TV Championship match available FOR FREE on the service and the socials. You can watch below for free, no signup or account required:

New Japan 1/4/24 Results (SPOILERS!) (Updated)

The biggest annual event in Japan, and the biggest wrestling spectacular in the world after WWE WrestleMania, WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 in TOKYO DOME, is now in the books as New Japan held their annual year-opening January 4 extravaganza today.

Due to time differences and event length, for those waiting until later to watch on demand and trying to avoid SPOILERS, I am posting a warning here so you can stop scrolling and come back later. If you do want to know what happened, click below and read on.

Continue reading “New Japan 1/4/24 Results (SPOILERS!) (Updated)”

BREAKING: New Japan 1/4/24 Full Card Announced

The countdown is on now…just 12 days to New Japan’s annual 1/4 year-opening spectacular at the Tokyo Dome, and the promotion has just announced the full card for the biggest Japanese pro wrestling event of the year. The full lineup is as follows (in order):
New Japan Ranbo. Battle Royal with an undetermined number of entrants. The last 4 left win and advance to a 4-way on 1/5/24 to determine the first KOPW 2024 Champion
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney vs. Francesco Akira & TJP for the titles
NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi for the title
Yota Tsuji vs. Yuya Uemura
Kaito Kiyomiya (Pro Wrestling NOAH) & Shota Umino vs. Ren Narita & EVIL (*)
NEVER Openweight Champion Shingo Takagi vs. Tama Tonga for the title
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto vs. STRONG Tag Team Champions Hikuleo & El Phantasmo for the titles (both titles)
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Taakahashi vs. El Desperado for the title
Will Ospreay vs. Jon Moxley & David Finlay in a 3-way for the IWGP Global Championship
Kazuchika Okada vs. Bryan Danielson (All Elite Wrestling)
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA vs. Tetsuya Naito for the title

(*)-New Japan’s English website says it’s Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Narita & EVIL but the match graphic and preview description says it’s Umino. I’m 100% certain it’s Kiyomiya & Umino and not Oiwa.

BREAKING: New Japan Appoints New President

In an announcement on their Japanese website, New Japan announced several leadership changes effective tomorrow (12/23, which is now that day Japan time): Former President Takami Ohbari has retired effective today and the replacement is current New Japan wrestler Hiroshi Tanahashi. Taro Okada, President of owner Bushiroad Fight Co. Ltd., becomes a part-Time Director.

A press conference with more details is scheduled for Tuesday (Monday night US time) and Tanahashi will be introduced to fans in bis new role at the Tokyo Dome on 1/4.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 12/22/23 Results

New Japan wrapped up Road To Tokyo Dome today with their final event of 2023z

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR REE! No account or payment required! This was a live ABEMA broadcast in Japan. You may need to download the NJPW WORLD app to watch on mobile devices (free).

Click below to go to the event page:
https://watch.njpwworld.com/details/39322?playlist_id=203

The announced paid attendance was 1513, a legit sellout.

There were some last-minute changes to the card after yesterday’s happenings: What was a pair of singles matches between TJP/Francesco Akira and Gabriel Kidd/Alex Coughlin became a tag team Coffin Match and another tag team match was added as a bonus match.

Match 1: Shoma Kato & Togi Makabe beat Katsuya Murashima & Satoshi Kojima. Makabe pinned Murashima. First career win for Kato!

Match 2: Yoh & Toru Yano beat Masked Boltin & Masked Horse. Yoh pinned Horse with Kid Clutch.

Match 3: Tomohiro Ishii beat Callum Newman.

Match 4: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima. YOSHI-HASHI pinned Nakashima after Shoto.

Match 5: Master Wato & El Desperado beat BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi. Wato pinned BUSHI.

Match 6: In a Coffin Match (No DQs, only way to win is to put one opponent on a coffin and close it on them), Drilla Moloney & Alex Coughlin beat Francesco Akira & TJP. Moloney beat TJP.

Match 7: Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Okada pinned Fujita with Dos Caras Clutch.

Main Event: Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA beat Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Uenura pinned Tsuji. Afterwards, Uemura challenged Tsuji to a match at Tokyo Dome before SANADA closed out 2023 with a final promo before he defends the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Naito on 1/4. DESTINO.

And that brings New Japan’s 2023 to a close. You know what that means-it’s almost that time again!!!

The next event (and first of 2024) is WRESTLE KINGDOM 18 IN TOKYO DOME, the biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and the biggest wrestling event in the world outside of WrestleMania, on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World is scheduled to begin on 1/3 at 11;30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET, but is subject to change. A public pre-event press conference (tickets required, already sold out) will be held on 1/3 at Tokyo Airship Theater.