News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
New Japan has just announced 2 wrestlers are now out for the immediate future:
Hirooki Goto suffered an undisclosed injury today at DESTRUCTION IN KOBE. Out indefinitely but will miss non-televised events tomorrow & Tuesday at a minimum.
Taichi has requested and was granted a leave of absence for unspecified reasons. Out indefinitely but presumably off the rest of the tour, or at least through 10/7.
More as it becomes available.
DESTRUCTION in KOBE, one of 2 major events on New Japan’s current tour, went down earlier today in its traditional place on the calendar.
Today’s event was held at Kobe World Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi.
The announced paid attendance was 4212, a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: Drilla Moloney & Clark Connors beat Kevin Knight & Tiger Mask. Moloney pinned TM 4 after Full Clip.
Match 2: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI & SANADA beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. TAKA pinned Togo after Michinoku Driver 2. Wait, when was the last time TAKA won a match in New Japan, let alone be responsible for the win?
Match 3: Jado, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo, Tanga Loa & Tama Tonga beat Gedo, Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Chase Owens & David Finlay. Tonga pinned Gedo after Gun Stun.
Match 4: Yoh & Lio Rush beat BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi. Rush pinned BUSHI after Final Hour.
Match 5: Bad Dude Tito & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii & Kazuchika Okada. Sabre pinned Ishii with European Clutch.
Match 6: In a Seconds Handcuffed Match, where House Of Torture members were handcuffed to Just 5 Guys members at ringside, Sho beat KOPW 2023 Chaampion Taichi to win the title. Yoshinobu Kanemaru interference. He seemingly turned on Just 5 Guys to help Sho win. So maybe they will now be Just 4 Guys.
Match 7: IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls to retain the titles. YOSHI-HASHI pinned NIcholls. V2 for the champs.
Match 8: Shingo Takagi beat Great-O-Khan.
Match 9: Tetsuya Naito beat Jeff Cobb. As a result, Naito retained his spot in the 1/4 Tokyo Dome main event.
Main Event: IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay beat Yota Tsuji to retain the title. V1 for Ospreay. Next up: Sabre. This could happen at Royal Quest 3 in England. It should be noted that Ospreay has rebranded the title as the IWGP UK Heavyweight Championship although it does not seem to be recognized as such by New Japan. (UPDATE: It’s now official for Royal Quest 3 on 10/14)
The next event is tomorrow at Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. Also a heads-up for the second DESTRUCTION event in October at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo-at this time New Japan lists the event as only being broadcast live on ABEMA. So it may not be available on New Japan World outside of Japan, but we’ll see what happens.
Tokyo Joshi Pro has announced the full card for WRESTLE PRINCESS 4 on 10/9 at Tama Mirai Messe in Tokyo, their most important event of the year. The full lineup is as follows (in order):
Haru Kazashiro vs. Runa Okubo
Arisu Endo, Kaya Toribami & HIMAWARI vs. HARUKAZE, Yoshiko Hasegawa & Riara
Moka Miyamoto vs. Juria Nagano
Aja Kong, Raku & Shino Suzuki vs. Hyper Misao, Wakana Uehara & Toga
Ryo Mizunami & Yuki Aino vs. Miu Watanabe & Yuki Arai
Saki-sama (Saki Akai), May Saint-Michel (Mei Suruga), Yukio Saint Laurent (Yukio Sakaguchi( & Martha vs. :Shoko Nakajima, Suzume, Pom Harajuku & Antonio Honda
Maki Itoh vs. Nyla Rose
Hikari Noa & Nao Kakuta vs. Yuki Kamifuku & Mahiro Kiryu for the vacant Princess Tag Team Championship
International Princess Champion Rika Tatsumi vs. NWA Women’s TV Champion Max The Impaler for the titles (double title match)
Princess Of Princess Champion Mizuki vs. Miyu Yamashita for the title
Neko Haruna will appear at an onsite autograph session but will not compete (injured).
Tickets are still available and the event will also stream LIVE on WRESTLE UNVIERSE beginning on 10/8 at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
A planned New Japan STRONG Openweight Championship match tonight in US independent promotion DEFY Wrestling is now off. Current champion Eddie Kingston has announced on Instagram that he is no longer working independent events and dates outside of AEW, Ring Of Honor and New Japan until further notice due to a lower back injury. He was to have defenses the title against Rocky Romero. DEFY announced on social media they didn’t find out until Kingston’s Instagram post. Not a good look for the new double champ after Wednesday’s high spot moment on AEW Dynamite in New York City.
More as it becomes available.
New Japan continued the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour today with the last televised event of this part of the series.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka Island City Forum in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1253, a legit sellout.
Match 1: Hiromu Takahashi beat Yuto Nakahsima.
Match 2: Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe beat Boltin Oleg & Oskar Leube. Makabe pinned Leube after a King Kong kneedrop.
Match 3: Yoh, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Tiger Mask & Satoshi Kojima, Yano pinned TM 4.
Match 4: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste, Mikey NIcholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Nicholls pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Highway To Hell.
Match 5: BUSHI, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Tsuji pinned NEwman after Gene Blaster.
Match 6: Best of 7 Series Match 2: El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki beat Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata. Desperado pinned Wato after Pinche Loco. 1-0 with 1 draw.
Main Event: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA beat Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & EVIL. SANADA pinned Togo after a rounding body press.
Also, before the event the results of fan voting for the upcoming KOPW 2023 Title match between Taichi & Sho were announced. Taichi’s rules won so it will be a Seconds Handcuffed Match, meaning all members of House Of Torture will be handcuffed to all members of Just 5 Guys at ringside (no Yoshinobu Kanemaru, who is out due to injury. Sho had proposed a 10 Minute Guaranteed Winner match, which would’ve been a match with a 10 minute time limit, and if it went to a time limit draw Sho would’ve won, Taichi would’ve been banned from using Black Mephisto and Sho also wanted additional rules due to the size difference between them (Sho is a Jr. Heavyweight while Taichi is a Heavyweight). one being Taichi also would have been banned from using Dangerous Backdrop. Taichi’s rules won the vote by a margin of roughly 62.7% to 37.3%. The match will be on 9/24.
The next event is tomorrow at Dejima Messe Nagasaki in Nagasaki. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. None of the 4 events this week will be available live or on demand.
There have been A LOT of injuries recently across the major Japanese promotions. Here are some of the latest updates:
New Japan-Yoshinobu Kanemaru is now off the rest of the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour. Knee injury suffered earlier this week. Boltin Oleg, was was out since last weekend due to a fever and arm infection (they were related), is cleared to return.
All-Japan/GLEAT-Sayaka Unagi is out indefinitely. Left shoulder injury suffered yesterday. For All-Japan, she was to have faced Sunny tomorrow. SAKI (not Saki Akai) is the replacement. For GLEAT, she is off the 9/17 event.
Stardom-Momo Kohga, Lady C, Miyu Amasaki and Mai Sakurai all will miss some of all of the rest of the 5 STAR GP, which runs through 9/30.
UPDATE: Tokyo Joshi Pro announced Neko Haruna has multiple knee and ACL injuries and will have surgery in October. Out several months if not longer. She will appear on 10/9 but not compete.
UPDATE 2: 9/14-what is going on in TJPW? For their event Saturday they have had to blow the card up. Not one, not two, not three…but SIX wrestlers are now off-Mizuki, Yuki Kamifuku, Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu, Raku and HIMAWARI. The very vague poor physica condition for all beyond illnesses. Add Neko Haruna (knees) and that’s 7 in the last few days. They somehow still are managing 7 matches scheduled with Ryo Mizunami being a late add. As compensation, any fan in attendance can request and will be given a colored piece of paper autographed by a random wrestler.
UPDATE 3: 9/15-Something is going around TJPW as now they have announced Wakana Uehara is now off tomorrow. Fever. So that’s now 7 off tomorrow, 8 if you count Neko Haruna. That’s about 1/3 of the roster.
New Japan continues the Toad To DESTRUCTION Tour today with BLUE JUSTICE 13, the latest Yuji Nagata Produced event in his hometown.
Today’s event was held at Togane Arena in Chiba and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 1332.
There were once again last-minute card changes due to injuries-Yoshinobu Kanemaru legit injured his knee yesterday and Boltin Oleg remains out due to an arm infection and fever. Kanemaru is also off tomorrow’s event.
Match 1: Jado, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Hiroyoshi Tenzan beat Oskar Leube, Yuto Nakashima, Makabe pinned Nakashima after a King Kong kneefrop.
Match 2: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yoh & Ryusuke Taguchi. Yano pinned Taguchi.
Match 3: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Kazuchika Okada. Sabre pinned Ishii with a crucifix.
Match 4: HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat BUSHI, SHingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. HENARE beat BUSHI with Ultima.
Match 5: Yota Tsuji & Hiromu Takahashi beat Callum Newman & Will Ospreay. Takahashi pinned Newman after Time Bomb.
Match 6: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & EVIL beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA. EVIL pinned TAKA after EVIL.
Main Event: Best of 7 Series Match 1: Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata vs. Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki went to a 30 minute time limit draw.
The next event is tomorrow at Tatsunoko Arena in Ibaraki. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. In fact, of the 8 remaining events on this part of the tour only one will be televised at all.
New Japan continued the Road to DESTRUCTION Tour today with the second half of an opening Tokyo doubleheader.
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 paid attendance has not yet been announced.
There were again last-minute changes to the card because Boltin Oleg remained out due to an infection in his left arm and related fever, and also because Zack Sabre Jr. asked to defend the NJPW WORLD TV Championship against Satoshi Kojima after his defense yesterday-that last-minute change was made.
Match 1: Yoh & Ryusuke Taguchi beat TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI. Yoh pinned TAKA after Black Hole Vacation.
Match 2: Tomoaki Honma, Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata beat Yuto Nakashima, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki. Umino pinned Nakashima after Death Slider.
Match 3: Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls. Goto pinned Tito after Shoto.
Match 4: Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & EVIL beat DOUKI, Taichi & SANADA. EVIL pinned DOUKI after EVIL. There was an absolute last-second change here because Yoshinobu Kanemaru was supposed to be in the match but he injured his knee when Just 5 Guys attempted a pre-match sneak attack on House Of Torture. DOUKI was the replacement.
Match 5: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Satoshi Kojima by submission to retain the title. V14(!) for Sabre.
Match 6: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe & Hiroyoshi Tenzan to retain the titles. Ishii pinned Tenzan after a vertical drop brainbuster. V2 for the champs.
Main Event: In an elimination match, Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Will Ospreay beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Cobb was the only winner left, last eliminating Naito. This could have Tokyo Dome main event implications if this perhaps results in Naito being forced to defend his title shot contract against Cobb.
The next event is BLUE JUSTICE 13, a Yuji Nagata Produced event, tomorrow at Togane Arena in Chiba. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.
New Japan kicked off the Road To DESTRUCTION Tour today with the opening event in Tokyo., coming back from possibly their longest break of the year.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! It also streamed on ABEMA in Japan. Click below to watch (in Japanese, English is also available):
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00660_1_1
The announced paid attendance was 1087.
There was a last-minute change to the card because Boltin Oleg was off. Left wrist injury and fever. He was to have faced Zack Sabre Jr. for the NJPW WORLD TV Championship. Ryohei Oiwa was the replacement at Oleg’s request.
Before the event began, a 10 Bell Salute for the legendary Terry Funk, who passed away recently, was held. Funk regularly visited Japan in his prime along with his brother Dory Funk Jr., who remains involved with All-Japan Pro Wrestling.
Match 1: DOUKI & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Yoh & Ryusuke Taguchi. Kanemaru beat Taguchi with a figure 4.
Match 2: Tomoaki Honma, El Desperado, Ren Narita & Minoru Suzuki beat Oskar Leube, Master Wato, Shota Umino & Yuji Nagata. Narita beat Leube with a cobra twist.
Match 3: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat Toru Yano, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Haste pinned Yano after Highway To Hell.
Match 4: Yuto Nakashima, Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada vs. Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan went to a no contest. Tenzan out of control, breaking ref’s restraint and continuously assaulting Ishii. Tenzan is part of a trio challenging Ishii, Tanahashi & Okada for the NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship tomorrow.
Match 5: Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Callum Newman, HENARE, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb. Tsuji pinned Newman after Gene Blaster. According to New Japan’s Japanese website, Newman is a new member of United Empire.
Match 6: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Ryohei Oiwa to retain the title. V13(!) for Sabre. Next up: If Sabre has his way, Kojima. Sabre wants it tomorrow but Kojima is already in a match. Stay tuned…
Main Event: Sho & EVIL beat Taichi & SANADA. EVIL pinned SANADA after EVIL.
The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. This will be a Samurai! TV simulcast for those watching outside Japan.
New Japan ran Day 13 of the G1 CLIMAX 33 today, with only Block A matches today for their final day of prelims.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 3150.
Match 1: Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat DOUKI & Taichi. Khan beat DOUKI with Subaru Sheep Killer.
Match 2: Yoh, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Gedo, KENTA & David Finlay. Yoh pinned Gedo after Torras Kick.
Match 3: Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. EVIL pinned BUSHI after EVIL.
Match 4: HENARE & Will Ospreay beat Togi Makabe & El Phantasmo. HENARE pinned Makabe after Streets Of Rage.
Match 5: Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Tama Tonnga & Tanga Loa. Ishii pinned Tenzan after a sliding lariat.
G1 CLIMAX Block A:
Match 6: Yota Tsuji beat Gabriel Kidd.
Match 7: Ren Narita beat Kaito Kiyomiya.
Match 8: SANADA beat Chase Owens. Perfect record.
Main Event: Hikuleo beat Shota Umino. As a result, Hikuleo finishes 2nd in Block A and advances to the Quarterfinals.
Day 14 is tomorrow with the last day of Block B prelims. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin TONIGHT at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
