Tag: New Japan

Multiverse United: Only The STRONG Survive Results (3/30/23) (Updated)

Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling team up tonight for a much-hyped crossover PPV event, which looks great on paper but unfortunately has taken several major hits the last few weeks due to injuries. Impact lost now-former World Champion Josh Alexander & Knockouts Champion Mickie James, taking two title matches off the event, while New Japan lost Will Ospreay, delaying a dream match with Mike Bailey. But there is still a lot to look forward to and some of the matches, on the Impact side, will further set up matches for Rebellion on 4/16. The first-ever LIVE episode of Impact Wrestling previews tonight’s event and also features at least 2 previously non-televised matches: Josh Alexander vs. KENTA for the Impact World Championship and Miyu Yamashita vs. TBA in her Impact debut. The live Impact will simulcast on AXS TV and YouTube for Ultimate Insiders (no delays this week for YouTube).

Tonight’s event will be held at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA and can be watched LIVE on FITE in English for $24.99. You get the live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays, a good thing for those on the east coast because of the very late start time. It WILL NOT be available on Impact+ or New Japan World. There will be a FREE pre-show on FITE with one match 15-30 minutes before the PPV begins. Including the pre-show it’ll be a half-nighter for all but west coast fans who will be up well past late night to watch, as I expect the running time to be standard PPV length at just over 3 hours.

Tonight’s current lineup:
Pre-Show:
Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd

PPV:
Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a Scramble Match for the title
Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared
Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Moose vs. Jeff Cobb
STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
yHiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 10:30 PM ET/7:30 PM PT. Also, the match order for tonight will not be revealed ahead of time. We won’t know until entrances happen.

10:25 PM ET UPDATE: FITE is showing the pre-show still beginning at 7:45 PM PT/10:45 PM ET despite reports from New Japan of an earlier start time. So the later time it probably is.

10:45 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
Mandatory FBI warning…
We’ll be starting momentarily.
The feed officially begins at 1):49 PM ET.

We are LIVE from the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA Your hosts are Thom Hannifan, Matt Rehwoldt & Ian Riccaboni..

The event is a legit advance sellout although it’s a small venue so attendance will probably be around 500. The venue’s capacity, depending on the layout, can be up to 1500..

Pre-show match: Yuya Uemura vs. Gabriel Kidd
Result: Yuya Uemura beat Gabriel Kidd.

PPV:
We see the ring announcer getting the crowd warmed up…
Mandatory FBI Warning.
Opening video.

In addition to the English ring annoucner, we’ve got the NJPW STRONG Japanese announcer following, nice touch.

Match 1: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel vs. Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble Match for the title
Result: Impact X Division Champion Trey Miguel beat Frankie Kazarian, Rich Swann, Kevin Knight, Clark Connors & Rocky Romero in a 6-way Scramble by pinning Knight to retain the title.

Commentary reveals Bailey-Tanahashi will be the main event.

Match 2: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihan & PCO vs. Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos
Result: Fred Rosser, Alex Coughlin, Sami Callihn & PCO beat Eddie Edwards, Joe Hendry, Tom Lawlor & JR Kratos. PCO pinned Kratos after PCOsault.

Match 3: Moose vs. Jeff Cobb. Audio issues with pre-match video package.
Result: Jeff Cobb beat Moose

Backstage interview segment cut away from due to technical issues. We go back to the hard camera at ringside.

Match 4: Masha Slamovich vs. Deonna Purrazzo, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamashita (Tokyo Joshi Pro) in a 4-way. The winner will either face Jordynne Grace for the vacant Impact Knockouts Championship at Rebellion or face Champion Mickie James and Grace in a 3-way for the title at Rebellion depending on if James is medically cleared. Mickie James joins commentary for this match, replacing Riccaboni.
Result: Dronna Purrazzo beat Masha Slamovich, Gisele Shaw & Miyu Yamahita in a 4-way by pinning Shaw. As a result, Purrazzo will either face James & Jordynne Grace in a 3-way for the Impact Knockouts Championship OR face Grace for the vacant title if James can’t compete.

Match 5: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club vs. Aussie Open, TMDK (Shane Haste & Bad Dude Tito) and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way for the titles
Result: Impact Tag Team Champions Bullet Club beat Aussie Open, TMDK and Motor City Machine Guns in a 4-way, when Chris Bey pinned Bad Dude Tito, to retain the titles.

Match 6: Lio Rush vs. KUSHIDA
Result: KUSHIDA beat Lio Rush by submission

Match 7: STRONG Openweight Champion KENTA vs. Minoru Suzuki for the title
Result: STRING Openweight Champion KENTA beat Minoru Suzuki to regain the title

Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Mike Bailey
Result: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Mike Bailey

End Show.

Quick post-show final thoughts: Unfortunately I got really tired late night and slept through parts of the last 2 matches but despite the injury losses this was a fantastic card top to bottom. Every match was between delivered and overdelivered and there were no bad matches. The only complaint was some technical difficulties early on with video packages and backstage interviews but that took nothing away from a crossover event that must happen again soon. Must-buy replay if you missed it.

Overall show grade: A

UPDATE: According to New Japan’s Japanese website, the announced paid attendance was 652.

New Japan News: 3/30 PPV Update

New Japan has announced one final change to tomorrow’s Multiverse United PPV with Impact Wrestling: Lio Rush is the replacement for Josh Alexander, who is off and has vacated the Impact World Championship due to injury. Rush will face KUSHIDA, who was supposed to face Alexander for the title.

Dragon Gate 3/24/23 Results

Dragon Gate held a special mini-event today as part of Yomiuri TV Castle Town Festival 2023 with 3 matches.

Today’s event was held at Yomiuri TV 1F 10plaza Special Ring in Osaka. There was no live broadcast.

The attendance was not announced.

Match 1: BxB Hulk & Ben-K beat Don Fujii & Genki Horiguchi. Ben-K pinned Horiguchi.

Match 2: Takashi Yoshida beat Ichikawa.

Main Event: Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Madoka Kikuta beat Shun Skywalker, KAI & H-Y-O. Yoshioka pinned H-Y-O after a frog splash.

The next event is tomorrow at Sanyo Fureai Park General Gym in Okayama. There will be no live broadcast.

BREAKING: Women’s 3-Way Title Match Added to NJPW Event

New Japan just announced a big addition to SAKURA GENESIS on 4/8: IWGP Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone vs. AZM & Hazuki in a 3-way for the title. Both challengers are from Stardom (which like New Japan is owned by Bushiroad Corporation) and while this is not official, Mayu Iwatani has challenged the winner for the title on 4/23 in Stardom at Yokohama Arena.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 3/21/23 Results (Updated)

New Japan wrapped up the 2023 New Japan Cup tournament today with the Finals, which would decide who would get sn IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot in just over 2 weeks.

Today’s event was held at Aore Nagaoka in Niigata and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 3384, a full house/near sellout.

Match 1: DOUKI & Taichi beat Yuto Nakashima & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Taichi pinned Nakashima after Dangerous Backdrop.

Match 2: Ryohei Oiwa & Shota Umino beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Fujita after Death Slider.

Match 3: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii & Tama Tonga. Phantasmo pinned Honma after CR 2.

Match 4: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano, Ren Narita & El Desperado. Takahashi pinned Taguchi after Big Juice. Borderline squash. Afterwards, House Of Torture demanded a rematch for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Titles.

A cryptic video played…

Match 5: Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan. Naito pinned Khan.

Match 6: Jeff Cobb & Aussie Open beat YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Mark Davis pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Corealis.

Match 7: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Lio Rush to retain the title. V2 for Takahashi. Next up: Possibly Robbie Eagles, who made the challenge by video via Zack Sabre Jr. Eagles has defected from Chaos to TMDK. It could happen on 4/8 at Ryogoku Kokugikan.

Main Event: New Japan Cup Finals: SANADA beat David Finlay to win the tournament. As a result, SANADA will face IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for the title on 4/8.

The next event is MULTIVERSE UNITED: Only The STRONG Survive, a joint event with Impact Wrestling, on 3/30 at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA. The event will be a live PPV only on FITE and is available now for pre-order for $24.99. Live streaming will begin at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET. Live results updates are scheduled.

UPDATE: Will Osprey is now officially off 3/31. Shoulder injury. He was to have faced Mike Bailey. Hiroshi Tanahashi is the replacement.

New Japan 3/19/23 Results

New Japan ran the penultimate day of the New Japan Cup today with the Semifinals, which would set up a very unlikely Finals regardless of the matchup.

Today’s event was held at G Messe Gunma in Gunma and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1396.

Match 1; Oskar Leube & Shota Umino beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino beat Fujita with STF.

Match 2: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Ryohei Oiwa, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii. Phantasmo pinned Oiwa.

Match 3: Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & RVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki. Sho pinned Taguchi.

Match 4: Jeff Cobb & Kyle Fletcher beat Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI. Cobb pinned Honma after Tour of the Islands.

Match 5: Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan beat BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Henare beat BUSHI with Ultima. Afterwards, Henare made a KOPW 2023 Title challenge to Takagi.

Match 6: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Lio Rush & Yoh. Naito pinned Yoh after Destino.

Match 7: New Japan Cup Semifinals: David Finlay beat Mark Davis.

Main Event: New Japan Cup Semifinals: SANADA beat Tama Tonga.

As a result, the Finals will be Finlay vs. SANADA with the winner facing IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for the title at SAKURA GENESIS on 4/8.

The Final is Tuesday at Aore Nagaoka in Niigata. Also set for the event is IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi vs. Lio Rush for the title. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.

New Japan 3/18/23 Results

New Japan continued the New Japan Cup today with the second half of the Quarterfinals, which would finish setting up the Final 4.

Today’s event was held at Act City Hamamatsu in Shizuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1101.

Match 1: Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Oskar Leube & Ryohei Oiwa. Fujita pinned Oiwa.

Match 2: Aaron Henare & Kyle Fletcher beat Tomoaki Honma & YOSHI-HASHI. Henare pinned Honma after Streets Of Rage.

Match 3: Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki beat El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA by DQ. KENTA DQ’d. Ref assault.

Match 4: Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Mark Davis beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Khan beat Togo with Subaru Sheep Killer.

Match 5: Lio Rush, Yoh, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Shingo Takagi & tetsuya Naito. Ishii pinned BUSHI after a vertical drop brainbuster. BUSHI was a late replacement for SANADA, who was removed from this match due to events earlier this week when he left LIJ to join what is now Just Five Guys (Taichi’s new post-Suzuki-Gun faction).

Match 6: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: David Finlay beat Shota Umino. As a result, Finlay advances to the Semifinals.

Main Event: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Tama Tonga beat Hirooki Goto. As a result, Tonga advances to the Semifinals.

As a result of today, the second Semifinal will be Finlay vs. Tonga. The promotion also announced that, as is tradition, the tournament winner will face IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada for the title at SAKURA GENESIS on 3/8 at Ryogoku Kokugikan. (The Cup winner always gets the next title match)

The Semifinals are tomorrow at G Messe Gunma in Gunma. The rest of the card beyond those matches (Finlay-Tonga and SANADA vs. Mark Davis) is TBA. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

New Japan 3/17/23 Results (Updated)

New Japan continued the New Japan Cup today with the beginning of the Quarterfinals.

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 1351, a legit sellout.

Match 1: Sho & Yujiro Takahashi beat Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. Takahashi pinned Fujita after Pimp Juice.

Match 2: Aaron Henare, Jeff Cobb, Great-O-Khan & Kyle Fletcher beat Oskar Leube, Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe. Fletcher pinned Leube after Grimstone.

Match 3: Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Satoshi Kojima, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tama Tonga. Yano pinned Tenzan.

Match 4: Lio Rush, Yoh & Tomohiro Ishii beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi. Rush pinned BUSHI.

Match 5: Shota Umino, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki beat El Phantasmo, Chase Owens, KENTA & David Finlay. Suzuki pinned KENTA after a Gotch-style piledriver.

Match 6: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: Mark Davis beat EVIL. As a result, Davis advances to the Semifinals. UPSET ALERT!!!

Main Event: New Japan Cup Quarterfinals: SANADA beat Tetsuya Naito. As a result, SANADA advances to the Semifinals. Afterwards, SANADA left LIJ and joined Just Four Guys (Taichi’s new post-Suzuki-Gun faction) and they now become Just Five Guys.

As a result of today, the first half of the Semifinals will be SANADA vs. Davis.

The next event is tomorrow at Act City Hamamatsu in Shizuoka with the remaining Quarterfinals-Umino vs. Finlay & Goto vs. Tonga. Because of SANADA defecting from LIJ there may be a change to Match 5 as he was supposed to be in an 8-man tag with LIJ. Most likely he and someone on the other side (Rush, Yoh, Yano, Tomohiro Ishii) get pulled to make it a 6-man tag but we’ll see. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

In other news today, the 30th installment of Best Of The Super Junior, the annual prestigious showcase for Jr. Heavyweights worldwide, was announced for its traditional May spot on the calendar. This year it will run over 12 events from May 12-May 28. The full schedule:
5/12-Korakuen Hall
5/13-Nagano Prefectural Budokan, Nagano
5/14-Nagoya International Conference Center Event Hall, Nagoya
5/16-Akita Prefectural Budokan, Akita
5/17-Sendai Sun Plaza, Sendai
5/18-Iwate Prefectural Gym, Iwate
5/19-Maeda Sub Arena, Aomori
5/21-Korakuen Hall
5/23-Osaka Prefectural Gym, Osaka
5/24-Osaka Prefectural Gym Sub-Arena
5/26-Yoyogi National Gym 2, Tokyo
5/28-Ota City General Gym, Tokyo

UPDATE: A change has indeed been made for tomorrow as suggested above-SANADA is now out of the aforementioned 8-man tag. BUSHI is the replacement.

BREAKING: AEW-NJPW Joint Event Returning In 2023

In a post on Facebook, All Elite Wrestling just announced the “Forbidden Door” PPV held last year with New Japan Pro Wrestling will return for a second installment this year. It will be held on 6/25 at Scotiabank Arena in Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 3/15/23 Results

New Japan wrapped up Round 2 of the New Japan Cup today, finishing setting up the Quarterfinals but there were changes to today’s card and the next round because Will Ospreay is now out of the tournament. He suffered a shoulder injury in his Round 2 win and is out indefinitely. It seems the man he beat to advance, Mark Davis, will take his place and be tasked with stopping EVIL from reaching the semifinals.

Today’s event was held at ZIP Arena Okayama in Okayama and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1298.

Match 1: Aaron Henare beat Yuto Nakashima by submission. This was to have been Nakashima & Oskar Leube vs. Henare & Jeff Cobb but Leube was removed from the event and Cobb was a replacement for Ospreay in Match 2.

Match 2: Jeff Cobb & Aussie Open beat Ryohei Oiwa, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Mark Davis pinned Oiwa after Waterslide.

Matxh 3: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Taichi pinned Togo after Seitei Jujiro.

Match 4: El Phantasmo, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Jado, Ren Narita & Tama Tonga. KENTA beat Jado with GAME OVER.

Match 5: Lio Rush, Yoh, Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA. Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Yoh pinned BUSHI after Direct Drive.

Match 6: New Japan Cup Round 2: David Finlay beat Great-O-Khan. As a result, Finlay advances to the Quarterfinals.

Main Event: New Japan Cup Round 2: Shota Umino beat Zack Sabre Jr. As a result, Umino advances to the Quarterfinals. No repeat tournament victory for Sabre.

As a result of today, the final Quarterfinal will be Finlay vs. Umino.

The next event is Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo with the start of the Quarterfinals. The full card including 2 Quarterfinals matches is TBA. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.