Tag: njpw

Injury Report: No Desperado At The Boat Races

New Japan has announced a late injury change to tomorrow’s (apparently non-televised) event at Shimonoseki Boat Races-El Desperado is now off. Lower back. Out indefinitely. He was to have been in the main event teaming with Yuya Uemura, Shota Umino & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kosei Fujita, Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Go Takemura (Independent/Freelancer) is the replacement. It’s not yet known how long Desperado will be out but with his being part of the World Tag League starting Thursday it could be an issue if he can’t compete.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 11/12/25 Results

Once again New Japan was convinced to let Taiji Ishimori pretend to be a reckless superhuman today and put on his own event so we got “Superhuman Taiji Ishimori Is Reckless Once Again”.

Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand as a PPV on New Japan World for about 3000 Japanese yen in Japan or $21.99 in the US. You can also watch the pre-show FOR FREE on YouTube.

The announced paid attendance was 465, a legit advance sellout. That’s 93% max capacity for the venue (500 for wrestling).

Pre-show match: Taiji Ishimori beat Daiki Nagai by submission.

Match 1: Taiji Ishimori beat Brahman Shu in 7 seconds by DQ. Which led to…
Match 1 (again): Taiji Ishimori & KAGETORA beat Brahmans Shu & Kei in 11 seconds by DQ. Shu DQ’d. Which led to…
Match 1 (yet again): Taro Nohashi, KAGETORA & Taiji Ishimori beat Brahmans Shu, Kei & Ryusuke (Ryusuke Taguchi) in 25 seconds hy DQ. Shu DQ’d. Which led to…
Match 1 (Take 4): In a Tornado match, Brahmans Yuji (Yuji Nagata), Ryusuke, Shu & Kei beat Yuko Miyamoto, Taro Nohashi, KAGETORA & Taiji Ishimori. Yuji beat Nohashi with a white eyed armbar (presumably Nagata Lock 2).

Match 2: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Taiji Ishimori by submission.

Match 3: In a handicap match, Shuji Ishikawa beat Black Menso-re & Taiji Ishimori by pinning Menso-re.

Match 4: Masato Tanaka won a 10 man battle royal, last eliminating Mammoth Sasaki.

Main Event: Taiji Ishimori beat Dragon Kid (Dragon Gate).

The next event is SHIMONOSEKI IMPACT Sunday at J:COM Arena Shimonoseki in Yamaguchi. And surprisingly, despite promises New Japan seemingly made on social media for all events through Tokyo Dome, apparently there will be no live or on demand broadcast. They made it sound like every event until and including Tokyo Dome will be live & on demand, along with another PPV next week.

New Japan 11/8/25 Results (Updated)

New Japan ran their annual Anjo event today despite certain wrestlers this was a hometown event for being gone from the promotion.

Today’s event was held at Tosho Arena Anjo in Aichi and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.

The announced paid attendance was 1483.

There were last-minute changes to the card due to Kosei Fujita being pulled off the event. The always vague poor health.

Match 1: Katsuya Murashima beat Tatsuya Matsumoto.

Match 2: Masatora Yasida & Taichi beat Zane Jay & Shoma Kato. Taichi pinned Jay after Dangerous Backdrop.

Match 2: Jacob Austin Young, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan beat Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma & Boltin Oleg. Newman pinned Honma after Fireball.

Match 4: Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & Shingo Takagi beat Sho, DOUKI & Yujiro Takahashi. Ishimori pinned Sho after Bloody Cross.

Match 5: Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura beat Daiki Nagai, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yota Tsuji. Uemuta beat Nagai with a chicken wing.

Match 6: El Desperado, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Goto pinned Jackson after Shoto.

Match 7: NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Champions Master Wato, Yoh & Toru Yano beat Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & EVIL to retain the titles. Wato beat Togo with Vendeval. V2 for the champs.

Main Event: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Yuto Ice (Ice Baby). Afterwards, the opponent for Tanahashi’s retirement match at Tokyo Dome was revealed…RAINMAKER!!! Back in his hometown today, it’s Kauzchika Okada! (There were a lot of online rumors on US news sites that it was probably going to be Shinsuke Nakamura. But there was less than zero chance of that happening just because Nakamura currently is in WWE and New Japan has a working partnership with WWE rival All Elite Wrestling, where Okada is. WWE has a working partnership with Pro Wrestling NOAH. So I knew it was all but going to be Okada because of that)

The next event is “Superhuman Taiji Ishimori Is Reckless Once Again” Wednesday at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World as a PPV will begin at 1:40 AM PT/4:40 AM ET. The PPV is available for pre-order for $21.99 US.

UPDATE: Following up on the Okada appearance, Tanahashi will hold a Tokyo Dome press conference at midnight PT/3 AM ET tonight. You will be able to watch it live and on demand FOR FREE on New Japan World and presumably YouTube.

Injury Report: The Mighty Don’t Kosei

It must be that time of the year again as many wrestlers are at least briefly being sidelined in Japan. now New Japan has announced Kosei Fujita is a last-minute removal from tomorrow’s event. The always vague poor health. He was to have teamed with Zack Sabre Jr, Ryohei Oiwa (birthday boy) & Hartlry Jackson to face Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Taichi & El Desperado. Taichi is now out of the match too and instead will team with Masatora Yasuda to face Zane Jay & Shoma Kato. Tatsuya Matsumoto & Katsuya Murashima are now out of that tag match as a result and will now face each other in a single match. With the next event either 4 or 9 days away I doubt Fujita will miss any more events after this.

New Japan News: World Tag League Field, Next Nagata Event

Some more New Japan news:

The field for the upcoming World Tag League has been announced. This year it’s a 16-team field in 2 blocks of 8, the usual round-robin prelim format. The entered teams are as follows:
Block A: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI, Taichi & Satoshi Kojima, Toru Yano & Boltin Oleg, El Desperado & Shuji Ishikawa (Independent/Freelancer), Yota Tsuji & Gabriel Kidd, Shingo Takagi & Drilla Moloney, EVIL & Don Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Chase Owens
Block B: Hiroshi Tanahashi & El Phantasmo, Shota Umino & Yuya Uemura, David Finlay & Hiromu Takahashi, OSKAR (The Grouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby), Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan, Ren Narita & SANADA, Lance Archer & Alex Zayne.
Last year’s tournament was won by Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito, sparing us from the despair of Bishamon 5-peat talks. Kojima is essentially an injury replacement for Tomohiro Ishii, who is out indefinitely due to a shoulder injury suffered a couple weeks ago in the US in All Elite Wrestling.

Elsewhere, the next Yuji Nagata Produced event has been announced. BLUE JUSTICE 17 will mark the promotion’s next visit to Chiba and will be held on 1/18 at Sakura Civic Gym. Advance tickets go on sale this weekend for fan club members and 11/23 for the public.

Injury Report: Stonewalled

Apparently being a Stone Pitbull and the toughest two dollar steak doesn’t make you impervious to injury. Neither does All Elite Wrestling. New Japan has announced that, in part due to that, Tomohiro Ishii is headed to the sidelines. Dislocated right shoulder suffered on 10/22 in AEW. Out indefinitely. It’s not yet known how long he will be out but given he’s not in the World Tag League it may be most of the rest of the year.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan News: More Tokyo Dome Announcements

New Japan held their latest Tokyo Dome press conference earlier today, here are some notable items coming out of it. The full presser can be watched on demand FOR FREE on New Japan World (no account/paid subscription required) and YouTube.

2 new matches are official: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita vs. IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji for the titles and IWGP Women’s Champion Sturi vs. STRONG Women’s Champion Saya Kamitani for the titles (but not the World Of Stardom Championship also held by Kamitani).

The previously announced Aaron Wolf vs. EVIL match, the debut match for the former, will now be for the NEVER Openweight Championship held by EVIL. Originally it was not going to be. EVIL used a can of spray paint to paint the title belt gold at the presser…which for the most part it already was.

Hiroshi Tanahashi announced that the number of sold tickets so far for 1/4 is 31,548. If the Dome is used at full capacity (usually for baseball) that’s about halfway yo a legit sellout as the Dome can hold 65,000. At worst, it’s on pace to only be out-drawn worldwide by WWE WrestleMania. Fitting as I consider 1/4 to be the biggest pro wrestling event annually outside of WrestleMania.

Tanahashi was asked about a potential final opponent following backstage comments at the last event where he talked to Gedo about it. Gedo is also the head booker for New Japan. This led US websites to start rumors about it being former New Japan wrestler and longtime rival Shinsuke Nakamura, but one reason I doubt it happens-he’a in WWE. New Japan has a working partnership with All Elite Wrestling, WWE’s biggest rival. I think that makes more recent rival and torchbearer-to-be Kazuchika Okada more likely. A foreign wrestler was also hinted at.

The broadcast plans are also set for the event, beginning on 1/3 at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET (1/4 at 4 PM Japan time):
INSIDE JAPAN ONLY: TV Asahi live and exclusive broadcast
OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY: New Japan World live and on demand. NOT AVAILABLE IN JAPAN (at least until several days latrr)

New Japan 11/2/25 Results

New Japan returned to Gifu today for a Hiroshi Tanahashi hometown event, the final time the face of the promotion would compete in front of his hometown fans before retiring in 2 months.

Today’s event was held at Gifu Memorial Center First Gym in Gifu and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 exclusively on TV Asahi in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 3742, a legit advance sellout.

Match 1: Tatsuya Matsumoto, Shoma Kato & Boltin Oleg beat Zane Jay, Masatora Yasuda & Katsuya Murashima. Oleg pinned Jay after Burdict.

Match 2: Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Daiki Nagai, Gedo & Hiromu Takahashi. Jackson pinned Nagai after Death Valley Bomb.

Match 3: Yuki Yoshioka (Dragon Gate), KUSHIDA, Dradon Dia (Dragon Gate) & Ryusuke Taguchi beat YAMATO (Dragon Gate), Tiger Mask, KUUKAI & El Desperado. Taguchi pined TM 4 with Kido Clutch.

Match 4: Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL beat Master Wato, Yoh, Toru Yano, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino. Togo pinned Wato, Afterwards, EVIL issued a NEVER 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge and beat down Yano until Aaron Wolf appeared and made the save. Wolf makes his debut against EVIL at Tokyo Dome. And so the build begins.

Match 5: Clark Connors, OSKAR (The Grouch), Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) & Shingo Takagi beat Jacob Austin Young, Templario, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan. Ice pinned Young after Cruella.

Match 6: Super Junior Tag League Finals: Sho & DOUKI beat Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori to win the tournament. DOUKI pinned Ishimori. The current IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions protect-normally tournament winners get a respective title shot but this won’t be the case, at least not right away for X & Ishimori.

Match 7: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji beat Hiroshi Tanahashi to retain the title. V1 for Tsuji. This was probably the last chance for Tanahashi to go into his finale at Tokyo Dome as a champion. This may be the proverbial passing of the torch to the next generation and perhaps anointing Tsuji as their leader. Afterwards, Yuto Ice (Ice Baby) came out and challenged Tanahashi to a match on 11/8.

Main Event: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Hirooki Goto to retain the title. V1 for Takeshita. Next up: Unless plans unexpectedly change, Tokyo Dome. The challenger: Possibly Tsuji. Double Double Title? Perhaps…

The next event is NEW JAPAN ROAD in ANJO Saturday at Tosho Arena Anjo in AIchi, continuing the annual what was a Kazuchika Okada hometown event although Okada is now in All Elite Wrestling. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.

On a side note, despite New Japan teasing every remaining event until Tokyo Dome being live & on demand, the current schedule suggests no broadcast for an 11/16 event in Yamaguchi. Also, after Saturday the next two events around that one are PPVs.

New Japan 11/1/25 Results

New Japan wrapped up the Super Junior Tag League today with the final day of Block B.

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 977, a legit sellout. Reduced capacity though, Osaka has been holding events like this with smaller crowds since the pandemic.

Match 1: Masatora Yasuda & Shoma Kato beat Zane Jay & Tatsuya Matsumoto. Kato pinned Matsumoto.

Match 2: Dragon Dia (Dragon Gate), Ryusuke Taguchi, Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano beat Daiki Nagai, Clark Connors, OSKAR (The Grtouch) & Yuto Ice (Ice Baby). Oleg pinned Nagai.

Match 3: Yujiro Takahashi, Sho & DOUKI beat Callum Newman, Jacob Austin Young & Templario. Takahashi pinned Young after Big Juice.

Match 4: Gedo, Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi beat Katsuya Murashima, Master Wato & Yoh. Takashi pinned Murashima after War Special.

Super Junior Tag League Block B:
Match 5: YAMATO (Dragon Gate) & Tiger Mask beat Dick Togo & Yoshinobu Kanemaru by ref stoppage (technical submission). YAMATO beat Togo.
Match 6: KUUKAI & El Desperado beat Yuki Yoshioka (Dragon Gate) & KUSHIDA. Desperado pinned Yoshioka after Pinche Loco.
Main Event: Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori beat Kosei FUjita & Robbie Eagles. Ishimori pinned Tagles after Bloody Cross. As a result, X & Ishimori win Block B on tiebreakers. (Yoshioka/KUSHIDA were eliminated by their loss).

The Finals will be X & Ishimori vs. Sho & DOUKI. That match will happen tomorrow.

The next event is tomorrow at Gifu Memorial Center First Gym in Gifu for a Hiroshi Tanahashi hometown event, the final time Tanahashi will compete in his hometown before retiring at Tokyo Dome. The event is a legit advance sellout. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at-a little wacky due to the US time change overnight-1 AM PT/3 AM ET. This will be a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.

New Japan 10/30/25 Results

New Japan continued the Super Junior Tag League today with the last day of Block A.

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

The announced paid attendance was 701.

Match 1: Masatora Yasuda & Boltin Oleg beat Zane Jay & Tatsuya Matsunoto. Oleg pinned Matsumoto.

Match 2: Yujiro Takahashi, Dick Togo & Yoshinobu Kanemaru beat Shoma Kato, YAMATO (Dragon Gate) & Tiger Mask. Takahashi pinned Kato after Pimp Juice.

Match 3: Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yuki Yoshioka (Dragon Gate) & KUSHIDA beat Katsuya Murashima, KUUKAI & El Depserado. Tanahashi pinned Murashima after High Fly Flow.

Match 4: OSKAR (The Grouch), Robbie X & Taiji Ishimori beat Hartley Jackson, Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles. OSKAR beat Javkson with a body sleeper.

Super Junior Tag League Block A:
Match 5: Jacob Austin Young & Templario beat Daiki Nagai & Clark Connors. Uoung pinned Nagai after Jacobs Ladder.
Match 6: Dragon Dia (Dragon Gate) & Ryusuke Taguchi beat Gedo & Hiromu Takahashi. Dia pinned Gedo.
Main Event: Sho & DOUKI beat Master Wato & Yoh. DOUKI pinned Wato. As a result, Sho & DOUKI win Block A and advance to the Finals and send the Fukui fans home very unhappy…and really put the “Fuk-u” in Fukui. They will face the Block B winners.

The next event is Saturday at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka with the end of Block B. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.