Tag: njpw

New Japan 6/22/25 Results

New Japan continued the New Japan Soul 2025 Tour today in Fukushima.

Today’s event was held at Toyota Crown Arena in Fukushima. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The paid attendance was not announced.

Match 1: Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Zane Jay went to a 10 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Daiki Nagai beat Masatora Yasuda.

Match 3: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DOUKI, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita beat Katsuya Murashima, Shoma Kato, Yoh, Master Wato & Toru Yano. DOUKI beat Kato with Half Paradise Lock.

Match 4: SANADA, Don Fale, Chase Owens & EVIL beat Jado, Togi Makabe, Boltin Oleg & YOSHI-HASHI by DQ. Jado DQ’d.

Match 5: Tiger Mask, Shota Umino & Taichi beat Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Umino pinned Young after Second Chapter.

Match 6: Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Gabriel Kidd. Taguchi beat Gedo with Oh My & Gar Ankle.

Main Event: Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomoaki Honma, Yuya Uemura & Hirooki Goto. Oiwa pinned Honma after The Grip.

The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET, however there is a chance it begins at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET due to 2 pre-show matches being scheduled. This will also be a live Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.

New Japan 6/21/25 Results

New Japan continued the New Japan Soul 2025 Tour today in Yamagata.

Today’s event was held at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 906.

Match 1: Tatsuya Matsuoto vs. Zane Jay went to a 10 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, DOUKI, Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita beat Daiki Nagai, Master Wato, Yoh & Toru Yano. DOUKI beat Nagai with Half Paradise Lock.

Match 3: SANADA, Don Fale, Chase Owens & EVIL beat Katsuya Murashima, Shoma Kato, Jado & YOSHI-HASHI. SANADA beat Kato with Skull End.

Match 4: Gedo, Gabriel Kidd & Drilla Moloney beat Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Tomohiro Ishii. Moloney pinned TM 4 after Drilla Killer.

Match 5: Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuya Uemura & Taichi beat Jacob Austin Young, Great-O-Khan & Callum Newman. Uemura pinned Young after a diving body attack.

Match 6: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Tomoaki Honma.

Main Event: Boltin Oleg, Shota Umino & Hirooki Goto beat Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Oleg pinned Jackson after Kamikaze.

The next event is tomorrow at Fukushima Toyota Crown Arena in Fukushima. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. (Mostly non-televised the rest of the month)

Injury Report: KneE-L-Pain

Following up on a last-minute change to New Japan’s Thursday event because El Phantasmo suffered an apparent knee injury, he is now off this weekend’s events because of it. Changes to both days have been made, tomorrow what was a 10-man tag becomes an 8-man tag with Boltin Oleg moved to another match to replace Phantasmo and Dick Togo is now off as a result. For Sunday Tomoaki Honma gets the same and Togo is now off. It’s not known how long Phantasmo will be out

New Japan 6/19/25 Results

New Japan continued the New Japan Soul 2025 tour today in Aomori.

Today’s event was held at Hachinohe City East Gym in Aomori and can be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube. It will be available on New Japan World ASAP as apparent technical difficulties from yesterday continue.

There was also a last-second change to the card due to El Phantasmo being pulled from the event. Knee injury. Status uncertain. He was to have teamed with Yuya Uemura & Hirooki Goto to face Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Zack Sabre Jr. in the main event. Tomoaki Honma was the replacement.

The announced paid attendance was 1006.

Match 1: Tatsuya Matsunoto vs. Zane Jay went to a 10 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Masayora Yasuda beat Daiki Nagai.

Match 3: Yoshinobu Kanemaro, Sho, DOUKI, Ren Narita & Yujiro Takahashi beat Katsuya Murashima, Shoma Kato, Yoh, Master Wato & Toru Yano. Narita beat Murashima with a modified kneebar.

Match 4: SANADA, Don Fale, Chase Owens & EVIL beat Jado, Togi Makabe, YOSHI-HASHI & Boltin Oleg by DQ. Jado DQ’d.

Match 5: Tiger Mask, Shota Umino & Taichi beat Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Umino pinned Young after Second Chapter.

Match 6: Ryusuke Taguchi, Tokohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Gabriel Kidd. Taguchi beat Gedo with Oh My & Gar Ankle.

Main Event: Tomoaki Honma, Yuya Uemura & Hirooki Goto beat Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Uemura pinned Jackson with a kannuki suplex hold.

The next event is Saturday at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata. Live streaming on New Japan World will (hopefully) begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.

PS-wondering about why no Los Ingobernables de Japon on the tour so far? Mexico. Hiromu Takahashi posted on social media recently with photos from Mexico as they are on an excursion there. Yota Tsuji is there too, not sure about Shingo Takagi.

New Japan 6/18/25 Results (Updated)

New Japan licked off the New Japan Soul 2025 Tour today, marking the halfway point of the promotion’s annual schedule.

Today’s event was held at Aomori Budokan in Aomori and can be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube. UPDATE: There were technical issues with the live broadcast on New Japan World so it is not available on demand yet. The entire event was uploaded to YouTube as a result and, when made available on New Japan World, will be available FOR FREE with no paid subscription required to watch.

The announced paid attendance was 1105.

Match 1: Tatsuya Matsumoto & Zane Jay Debut Match: Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Zane Jay went to a 10 minute time limit draw. This was Matsumoto’s career debut as a true rookie and Jay’s first Japan match, he previously competed on New Japan’s US events and trained at the US-based NJPW Academy.

Match 2: Daiki Nagai beat Masatora Yasuda.

Match 3: DOUKI, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & Ren Narita beat Shoma Kato, Yoh, Master Wato & Toru Yano. DOUKI beat Kato with Half Paradise Lock.

Match 4: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SANADA, Don Fale (Bad Luck Fale), Chase Owens & EVIL beat Katsuya Murashima, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe, YOSHI-HASHI & Boltin Oleg. SANADA beat Murashima with Skull End.

Match 5: Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuya Uemura & Taichi beat Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Uemura pinned Young after a diving body attack.

Match 6: Tiger Mask, Tomohiro Ishii & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney & Gabriel Kidd. Ishii pinned Gedo after a vertical drop brainbuster.

Main Event: El Phantasmo, Shota Umino & Hirooki Goto beat Hartlry Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Phantasmo pinned Jackson after Thunder Kiss 86.

The next event is tomorrow at Hachinohe City East Gym in Aomori. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

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.