Tag: New Japan

New Japan News: Upcoming Tag League Teams Announced

New Japan announced the full lists of entrants for the upcoming World Tag League and Super Jr. Tag League today, which will run concurrently over the next tour. Each tournament will have 10 teams entered and will be in traditional round-robin format with 2 points earned for a match win, 1 for a time limit draw or certain other draws and 0 points for a loss. Of note for the World Tag League is a break from tradition-the current IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, FTR, are not in the tournament, perhaps because of their All Elite Wrestling schedule. Top Guys Out indeed. But the current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions, Francesco Akira & TJP, are in the Super Jr. Tag League. Lance Archer will represent AEW in the World Tag League. Ace Austin & Chris Bey will represent Impact Wrestling in the Super Jr. Tag League.

The World Tag League entrants:
Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI
Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL
SANADA & Tetsuya Naito
Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano
Aussie Open (Mark Davis & Kyle Fletcher)
Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki
Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens
Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls
Alex Coughlin & Gabriel Kidd
YOSHI-HASHI & Goto are the defending tournament champions.

The Super Jr. Tag League entrants:
Francesco Akira & TJP
Yoh & Lio Rush
BUSHI & Titan
Ace Austin & Chris Bey
Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles
Sho & Dick Togo
Ryusuke Taguchi & Clark Connors
DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight
El Lindaman & Alex Zayne
Kanemaru & El Desperado won the last tournament, but Desperado is not entered this year.

The Super Jr. Tag League begins on 11/21, with the World Tag League to begin on 11/22. All tournament events will be available live and on demand on New Japan World.

New Japan News: Weekend Card Change

New Japan has announced a change to this weekend’s Anjo City event (Anjo City 70th Anniversary & Kazuchika Okada homecoming): Jado is now off the event. International excursion. He was to have teamed with Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi to face Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI. Satoshi Kojima is the replacement. Kojima has been competing in Pro Wrestling NOAH the last several months and has held the GHC Heavyweight Championship and currently is a GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champion.

11/20/22 HISTORIC X-OVER Card Announced (Updated)

The full card for the New Japan/Stardom HISTORIC X-OVER event on 11/20/22 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo has been announced. There will be 11 matches including 2 pre-show matches and the main event will be the IWGP Women’s Championship Tournament Finals for the title.

The full card:
Pre-Show:
Oskar Leube Debut Match: Oskar Leube, Ryohei Oiwa, Kosei Fujita & Yuto Nakashima vs. Kevin Knight, Gabriel Kidd, Clark Connors & Alex Coughlin
Stardom 15 Woman Battle Royal

Main Show:
Lio Rush, Tomohiro Ishii, Yoh & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL
Lady C, AZM & Saya Kamitani vs. Mai Sakurai, Himeka & Thekla
Tom Lawlor & Syuri vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Giulia
Tam Nakano, Natsupoi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi vs. Starlight Kid, Momo Watanabe, El Desperado & DOUKI
Hiroshi Tanahashi & Utami Hayashishita vs. Hirooki Goto & Maika
BUSHI, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi, Shongo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Aussie Open, TJP, Francesco Akira & Gideon Gray
The Great Muta (Keiji Muto), Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada vs. Great-O-Khan, Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb
IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay vs. Shota Umino for the title
Mayu Iwatani vs. KAIRI for the IWGP Women’s Championship

The mixed tag matches aren’t “true” mixed matches because the men can only face the men, and the women only face the women. No intergender action, there must be a tag on both sides.

The event will be available worldwide as a PPV on New Japan World. The pre-show will begin on 11/20 at 2 AM ET/11 PM PT with the main show at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

UPDATE: The PPV is now available for pre-order. It will be in English and will cost 3990 yen, or about $27 US. There is conflicting information regarding if a New Japan World subscription is required (New Japan’s English website says no, but the PPV purchase page says yes). If you buy the PPV you get the live stream on 11/20 at midnight PT/3 AM ET and unlimited replays until 11/27 at 7 AM PT/10 AM ET. The replay will also be available to all New Japan World subscribers without additional fees at a later date.

New Japan 11/5/22 Results (Updated)

New Japan wrapped up the BATTLE AUTUMN ’22 Tour with what likely will be the penultimate major event of the year, with multiple title matches and at least one more Tokyo Dome title match being set as we’ll find out who will face off for the inaugural NJPW WORLD TV Championship.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World in Japanese and English.

The announced paid attendance was 4006, a full house/near sellout. That suggests Osaka has, at least for some events, eased up its strict pandemic capacity limits above 50% (if it were still at half this would be a legit overflow crowd).

Match 1: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Francesco Akira & TJP beat Titan & BUSHI to retain the titles. Akira pinned BUSHI after The Leaning Tower. V2 for the champs.

Match 2: Gideon Gray, Aaron Henare & Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) beat Alex Zayne, Toru Yano, David Finlay & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Fletcher pinned Yano after Corealis.

Match 3: Hikuleo beat Yujiro Takahashi. This lasted just 28 seconds. Sho interference at the start backfired. This was to have been Hikuleo vs. NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson for the title, but Anderson no-showed due to claiming he would be at a WWE event in Saudi Arabia today. There were rumors Anderson would be stripped of the title but as of this moment he has not been.

Match 4: NJPW WORLD TV Championship Tournament Semifinals: Ren Narita beat SANADA.

Match 5: NJPW WORLD TV Championship Tournament Semifinals: Zack Sabre Jr. beat EVIL by submission.

As a result of the Semifinals, it will be Narita vs. Sabre for the title at Tokyo Dome. (It’s gonna be Narita although Sabre deserves a singles title run. I’m sensing Narita is going to be be pushed as the eventual next Hiroshi Tanahashi or Kazuchika Okada, although Okada has a good 10+ years left in him as long as he remains healthy)

Match 6: In a tag team match where the pairings were determined by random draw at a press conference yesterday, Master Wato & El Desperado beat Hiromu Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori. Wato pinned Takahashi after countering Time Bomb with a jumping knee strike. Regardless of the type of match, this is a huge victory for Wato.

Match 7: Tama Tonga & Kazuchika Okada beat KENTA & Jay White. Tonga pinned KENTA after Gun Stun.

Match 8: IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR beat Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb to retain the titles. Dax Harwood pinned Khan after Big Rig. V2 for the champs. They will be taking the belts back to All Elite Wrestling with them. I expect their next defense to be at Tokyo Dome unless they make something happen in AEW.

Main Event: IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Tetsuya Naito to retain the title. V3 for Ospreay. 30 minute marathon. Next up…Shota Umino!?! If this happens, it likely will be on 11/20 at Ariake Arena in Tokyo. (Umino, the son of referee Red Shoes Unno, has been in England since before the pandemic began on his post-Young Lion training excursion).

The next events are a special Kazuchika Okada Homecoming & Anjo City 70th Anniversary event on 11/12 at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi and the debut of NJPW TAMASHII on Friday in Sydney, Australia and 11/13 in Christchurch, New Zealand. TAMASHII is a new sub-brand focusing on Australia & New Zealand-based talent, much like how NJPW STRONG focuses on the LA Dojo in the USA. New Zealand dojo head and current NJPW wrestler Bad Luck Fale is heading up TAMASHII.
There will be no live or on demand broadcasts for all 3 events.

The next “main” event is HISTORIC X-OVER, a joint event between New Japan & Stardom (both are owned by Bushiroad Corporation), on 11/20 at Ariake Arena in Japan. This will be a worldwide PPV on New Japan World (additional purchase required). That will be followed by the World Tag League & Super Jr. Tag League, which will run together, beginning on 11/21 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

UPDATE: It’s now official. Ospreay-Umino for the US Title will happen on 11/20.

New Japan 11/3/22 Results

New Japan ran the penultimate event of the BATTLE AUTUMN ’22 Tour today, the first half of an Osaka doubleheader. They were at a smaller venue today before going to a bigger venue for the final event.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 745.

Match 1: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Ryohei Oiwa & Yuto Nakashima. Tanahashi beat Oiwa with a Texas Cloverleaf.

Match 2: Jado & Hikuleo beat Gideon Gray & Aaron Henare. Hikuleo pinned Gray after a powerslam.

Match 3: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Tomoaki Honma & David Finlay. Khan beat Honma with Subaru Sheep Killer.

Match 4: DOUKI, El Desperado & Taichi beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & KENTA. DOUKI beat Gedo with Italian Stretch 32.

Match 5: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Dick Togo & EVIL. Kanemaru beat Togo with a Figure 4.

Match 6: BUSHI beat Francesco Akira.

Match 7: Titan beat TJP.

Main Event: Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Ren Narita, Alex Zayne & Master Wato. Naito pinned Zayne after Destino.

The tour-ender is Saturday at Osaka Prefectural Gym. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.

In other news, Katsuyori Shibata made a surprise appearance in All Elite Wrestling on last night’s AEW Dynamite. He will face Orange Cassidy for the AEW All-Atlantic Championship tomorrow on AEW Rampage, airing LIVE on TNT in the US at 10 PM ET (TAPED at 10 PM PT).

New Japan 11/2/22 Results

New Japan continues the BURNING AUTUMN ’22 Tour with what may be, excluding upcoming events in New Zealand, the final non-televised event for the year.

Today’s event was held at Yoshitsune Arena in Ishikawa. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 1991.

The Governor of Ishikawa Prefecture was in attendance. A portion of today’s proceeds were donated to Komatsu City, the host region for the event.

Match 1: Yuto Nakashima beat Kosei Fujita.

Match 2: Taichi beat Ryohei Oiwa.

Match 3: Ren Narita & David Finlay beat Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe. Narita beat Honma with a cobra twist.

Match 4: Alex Zayne, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gideon Gray, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Zayne pinned Gray after Taco Driver.

Match 5: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Dick Togo & EVIL. Kanemaru beat Togo with a Figure 4.

Match 6: Jado, Master Wato & Hikuleo beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & KENTA. Wato pinned Gedo after RPP.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA beat DOUKI & El Desperado. SANADA pinned DOUKI.

Main Event: Titan, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Aaron Henare. Naito pinned Henare after Destino.

The next event is tomorrow at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.

New Japan 11/1/22 Results

New Japan continued the BURNING AUTUMN ’22 Tour today with a house show, making their first visit to Echizen City.

Today’s event was held at Aisin Sports Arena on Fukui. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 604.

Match 1: DOUKI beat Yuto Nakashima by submission.

Match 2: Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe beat Kosei Fujita & Alex Zayne. Makabe pinned Fujita.

Match 3: Ren Narita beat Ryohei Oiwa by submission.

Match 4: David Finlay, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gideon Gray, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Finlay pinned Gray after Trash Panda.

Match 5: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Dick Togo & EVIL. Taichi beat Togo with Taichi-type Gedo Clutch.

Match 6: Jado, Master Wato & Hikuleo beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & KENTA. Wato beat Gedo with Vendeval.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & SANADA beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado. SANADA beat Kanemaru with Skull End.

Main Event: Titan, BUSHI & Tetsuya Naito beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Aaron Henare. Naito pinned Henare after Destino.

The next event is tomorrow at Yoshitsune Arena in Ishikawa. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

DEVELOPING: New Japan 11/5 Title Match Off (Updated)

Updating the ongoing drama between New Japan and NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson around the scheduled 11/5 title match in Osaka, the match is now off. The promotion claims it has still not received a response from Anderson so the match has bern cancelled. He was to have defended the title against Hikuleo. In fallout from recent live events, Hikuleo will now face Yujiro Takahashi on 11/5 in a NON-TITLE match.

Despite rumors this could happen, Anderson has not yet been stripped of the title. He is missing the event due to claiming he will instead be at a WWE event in Saudi Arabia that day.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: In related news, New Japan has added IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR vs. Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb for the titles to 11/5.

New Japan 10/30/22 Results

New Japan continued the BURNING AUTUMN ’22 Tour today with an event featuring the final Quarterfinals of the NJPW WORLD TV Title Tournament. The Semifinals would be set today ahead of the tour-ender on 11/5, where we’ll find out who will face off to become the first champion at Tokyo Dome in January.

Today’s event was held at Makuhari Messe Industrial Exhibition Hall 1 in Chiba and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 493.

Match 1: DOUKI beat Kosei Fujita by submission.

Match 2: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Ryohei Oiwa & Yuto Nakashima. Khan pinned Oiwa after Imperial Drop. Afterwards, Khan & Cobb called out IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR, who are to be at the 11/5 tour-ender to defend the titles (FTR beat the United Empire duo to win the titles).

Match 3: Master Wato & Hikuleo beat Dick Togo & EVIL. Hikuleo pinned Togo after a chokeslam.

Match 4: Alex Zayne, Tiger Mask & David Finlay beat TAKA Michinoku, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. Finlay pinned TAKA after Trash Panda.

Match 5: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado beat Gedo & Taiji Ishimori. Kanemaru beat Gedo with a Figure 4.

Match 6: Titan, BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Gideon Gray, Francesco Akira, TJP & Aaton Henare. Takahashi pinned Gray.

Match 7: NJPW WORLD TV Title Tournament Quarterfinals: Ren Narita beat Toru Yano.

Main Event: NJPW WORLD TV Title Tournament Quarterfinals: SANADA beat KENTA. As a result, SANADA will face Narita in the Semifinals. The other Semifinal is EVIL vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

The next event is Tuesday at Echizen City AW-I Sports Arena in Fukui. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 10/30/22 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the Keiji Muto Retirement Road series today with what possibly was the first pro wrestling event to be held at Tokyo’s new Ariake Arena venue, constructed for the 2020 (delayed to 2021) Summer Olympics in Japan. This marks the halfway point in Muto’s originally planned 5 match retirement series, today’s match was a crossover match with New Japan Pro Wrestling as Muto was opposite perhaps the G.O.A.T. of New Japan, the one & only Hiroshi Tanahashi.

Today’s event was held at Ariake Arena in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast earlier was only in English due to being an ABEMA exclusive.

The announced paid attendance was 3739. Because vocal cheering was allowed, that meant 50% capacity (the venue’s normal max capacity will be 12,000). Between that and the layout, this was roughly 75-80% full, a good debut number for the venue.

Pre-Show Dark Match: Kai Fujimura beat Taishi Ozawa.

Main Show:
Before the first match, Go Shiozaki came out to address the crowd. He was wearing a t-shirt that read “I AM NOAH COMEBACK COMMING SOON”. Yes, it was misspelled. Shiozaki is out due to injury. He led the crowd in shouts of “I AM NOAH! WE ARE NOAH!”
Match 1: Manabu Soya, Shuji Kondo & Hajime Ohara beat Shuhei Taniguchi, Alejandro & Extreme Tiger. Kondo pinned Alejandro after a King Kong lariat.

Match 2: Jack Morris & Dante Leon beat Daiki Inaba & YO-HEY. Morris pinned YO-HEY after Inferno.

Match 3: Yoshinari Ogawa, Chris Ridgeway & Yasutaka Yano beat NOSAWA Rongai, Eita & Super Crazy by DQ. Eita DQ’d. NOSAWA weapon use.

Match 4: Hideki Suzuki & Dr. Wagner Jr. beat Takashi Sugiura 7 Masa Kitamiya. Wagner pinned Kitamiya after Wagner Driver.

Before the next match began, a recorded video played…O…M…G…January 1, Nippon Budokan…The Great Muta vs….SHINSUKE NAKAMURA!!! He’s coming home to Japan! (Nakamura has spent the last decade-plus in WWE since leaving New Japan) This will be an ABEMA live broadcast so hopefully in English on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

Match 5: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka beat Tadasuke & Hi69 to retain the titles. Kotoge pinned Hi69. V1 for the champs. Afterwards, Shuji Kondo & Hajime Ohara hit the ring to make the next challenge and start a Kongo beatdown of the champs until a mysterious masked man ran in to make the save and clean house. The mystery man then unmasked himself…Haoh! Tadasuke was en fuego because Haoh was expelled from NOAH after losing their last match against each other. But Haoh seems to be back and will now be known as AMAKUSA.

Match 6: Ninja Mack beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion HAYATA by ref stoppage (injury) to win the title. Mack becomes the 50th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion. HAYATA could not continue due to an elbow injury. Never how you want a title match (or any match) to end. The injury occurred just before the 10 minute mark when Mack went for a sequence starting with multple backflips after bouncing off the ropes following a running start, then with HAYATA on the apron Mack backflipped over the ropes into a powerbomb to the floor. The ref checked on HAYATA then began the 20 count. At 5 the ref checked again on HAYATA and stopped it. HAYATA was already clutching his left elbow and wrist area. It might have landed on the hard floor just past where the mats around the ring ended.

Match 7: In a GHC Martial Arts Rules Match, GHC National Champion Masakatsu Funaki beat Kazushi Sakuraba by ref stoppage (submission) to retain the title.V6 for Funaki. The rules made this a very short match, just 199 seconds.

Match 8: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima beat Kenoh & Katsuhiko Nakajima to retain the titles. Kojima pinned Nakajima after Western Lariat. V1 for the champs.

Match 9: Keiji Muto Retirement Series-PRO WRESTLING LOVE FOREVER 3 ~TRIUMPH~: Keiji Muto, Naomichi Marufuji & Yoshiki Inamura beat Hiroshi Tanahashi, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma (New Japan Pro Wrestling). Marufuji pinned Honma after Shiranui.

Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat Kazuyuki Fujita to retain the title. V1 for Kiyomiya. And fulfillment as he avenged his only N-1 VICTORY 2022 loss.

Regarding HAYATA, it was announced after the event he was scheduled to be on the 11/10 event and is now off. The event will feature 5 matches, all GHC title matches. Thus here is who is next up for all the champions at that event (in match order):
Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team (Kotoge/YO-HEY): Kondo & Hajime Ohara
Jr. Heavyweight (Mack): Leon
Heavyweight Tag (Sugiura/Kojima): Mohammed Yone & Akitoshi Saito
National (Funaki): Wagner Jr.
Heavyweight (Kiyomiya): Timothy Thatcher
This event will be live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
More on the HAYATA injury when/if it becomes available. The earlier announcement means he is out at least 2 weeks. There are only 4 events scheduled in November with December’s schedule TBA beyond a special Tokyo Gurentai produced standalone event on 12/20.

The next event is Thursday at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka, which likely will end the SUNNY VOYAGE 2022 Tour. This will be aired on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date, which probably will be 11/6 or 11/7 (there will be no live broadcast).