News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
At the end of tonight’s Impact “Rebellion” PPV, Impact Wrestling and New Japan Pro Wrestling announced that, following a successful debut in March at WrestleCon, Multiverse United will return for a second event on 8/20 at 2300 Arena in Philadelphia. No word yet on ticket sale dates or PPV plans but it almost certainly will be available on FITE.
More as it becomes available.
New Japan runs the second half of their weekend mid-Atlantic US doubleheader today at the famed 2300 aka former ECW Arena in Philadelphia. They’re going in with a lot of controversy following yesterday’s Washington, DC event because following his vicious pre-match assault on Fred Rosser, including assaulting a referee, Juice Robinson has been suspended by New Japan immediately until further notice, meaning he’s out of the co-main event and the IWGP US Championship #1 Contender Tournament. That costs him perhaps a shot at Kenny Omega and the title among other things. Rosser is the replacement and it also means Rosser is out of his scheduled tag team match. Homicide is the replacement there. Also out today is Eddie Kingston with what was originally reported as an undisclosed injury. Various news site/dirt sheet reports indicated in the last few days that the injury actually is hernia surgery. Kingston was to have faced Gabriel Kidd. All Elite Wrestling’s Orange Cassidy is the replacement and, because he successfully defended the AEW International Championship Wednesday on AEW Dynamite, that match today is now a title match.
BREAKING: As I was posting this and going back to New Japan’s English website to get the card, more last-minute changes for today have been announced: Hiroshi Tanahashi and TJP are now off today’s event. Tanahashi has suffered an undisclosed injury. TJP is out due to travel issues. Tanahashi will still participate in a pre-event meet & greet. He was to have teamed with Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii to face TJP & Aussie Open. That match will now be Aussie Open vs. Rush & Ishii and Aussie Open have agreed to make it for the STRONG Tag Team Championship.
UPDATE: Per a post on his Twitter, Tanahashi said his injury is a broken rib. Out indefinitely.
Today’s event will be held at 2300 Arena (the former ECW Arena) in Philadelphia, PA and can be watched LIVE on FITE in English. The event is available for $14.99 or you can get a combo pack that includes yesterday’s Capital Collision event for $29.99 and save $5. You get today’s live broadcast and unlimited on demand replays with either purchase. This event will not be available live on New Japan World. There is no pre-show scheduled. Even with the changes today it doesn’t really change the match times or how long the event will go, based on yesterday I would plan on the event’s running time being just over 3 hours.
Today’s current lineup (including the above changes):
Volador Jr. & El Desperado vs. Kevin Knight & Delirious
Alex Coughin vs. Tracy Williams in a Ring Of Honor Pure Rules Match
The DKC vs. Clark Connors
Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs & Tom Lawlor
Rocky Romero & Homicide vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SANADA
AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Gabriel Kidd for the title
Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chase Owens & KENTA
IWGP US Championship #1 Contender Tournament: Fred Rosser vs. Lance Archer
STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open vs. Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii for the titles
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 5 PM ET/2 PM PT.
2 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, PA. Your hosts are Ian Riccaboni, Alex Kozlov & Veda Scott.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event but it’s a legit sellout. This is a much smaller venue than yesterday so probably will be in the range of 800-900 depending on the layout (max capacity for the venue is 1300).
As we start the announcer is mentioning the changes today to the crowd. Then right to the action.
Match 1: Volador Jr. & El Desperado vs. Kevin Knight & Delirious. 20 minute time limit
Result: Volador Jr. & El Desperado beat Kevin Knight & Delirious. Desperado pinned Delirious after Pinche Loco.
Match 2: Alex Coughin vs. Tracy Williams in a Ring Of Honor Pure Rules Match. 20 minute time limit
Result: Alex Coughlin beat Tracy Williams
Match 3: The DKC vs. Clark Connors. 20 minute time limit
Before the match, David Finlay with microphone putting over Connors as the newest member of Bullet Club.
Result: Clark Connors beat The DKC. Glorified squash.
Match 4: Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs & Tom Lawlor. 20 minute time limit(?). The ring announcer said 30 minute time limit though…
Result: Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs & Tom Lawlor beat Bad Dude Tito, Shane Haste & Zack Sabre Jr. Lawlor pinned Tito after a straitjacket & knee strike to the back of the head.
Match 5: Rocky Romero & Homicide vs. Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SANADA. 30 minute time limit
Rseult: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & SANADA beat Rocky Romero & Homicide. SANADA pinned Homicide with O’Connor Bridge.
Match 6: AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy vs. Gabriel Kidd for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: AEW International Champion Orange Cassidy beat Gabriel Kidd to retain the title.
Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito vs. Chase Owens & KENTA. 30 minute time limit
Result: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Chase Owens & KENTA. Naito pinned Owens after Destino.
After the match, Rocky Romero came back out. Naito thought he wanted Takahashi in a title match now. Romero with microphone. He says a while back Takahashi promised US fans an All Star Jr. Festival in the US. And it’s happening in Philadelphia at 2300 Arena on August 19!
Match 8: IWGP US Championship #1 Contender Tournament: Fred Rosser vs. Lance Archer. 1 Hour time limit. Pre-match, Archer with microphone. He suggested the match be changed to a Philly Street Fight and apparently it’s on!
Result: Lance Archer beat Fred Rosser. Despite being suspended until further notice, Juice Robinson showed up and interfered to help Archer win.
Main Event: STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open vs. Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open beat Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii to retain the titles. Kyle Fletcher pinned Rush after Corealis. V1 for the champs.
Afterwards, Aussie Open with microphone for the show-closing promo. Again they call out FTR by taking shots at them before putting themselves over to end the show.
They had a tough task ahead of them topping or at least equalizing yesterday’s event, and it didn’t help that they lost two of the main event participants last-minute. But despite an unexpected screwjob ending in the semifinal match and a usual Orange Cassidy match (Kidd sure showed out though), it was a solid event for the most part and is definitely worth the $14.99 (the matches will also air on New Japan World via STRONG On Demand at a later date). The All-Star Jr. Festival announcement was a great surprise for the Philly fans and I’m excited for it to happen in the US in August.
Overall show grade: B+
End Show.
The next US event is Resurgence on 5/21 in Long Beach, CA. Already set is Hroshi Tanahashi vs. Will Ospreay with the winner facing Lance Archer for the next IWGP US Championship shot…assuming Tanahashi will be ready and recovered from the broken rib in time.
Next up is the Road to WRESTLING DONTAKU 2023 Tour beginning Thursday at Nara Prefectural Convention Center Convention Hall in Nara, Japan. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
Post-event note: The announced paid attendance was 977, a legit sellout with standing room tickets sold.
New Japan has announced last-minute changes to today’s Collision in Philadelphia event following the events of yesterday: Juice Robinson has been SUSPENDED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE EFFECTIVE IMMEDIATELY after his pre-match assault on Fred Rosser, which included assaulting the referee. That means Robinson is off today’s event. He was to have faced Lance Archer in the IWGP US Championship #1 Contender Tournament. Rosser is the replacement. This changes Match 5 as well because Rosser was to have teamed with Rocky Romero to face SANADA & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Homicide is the replacement.
UPDATE: Hiroshi Tanahashi & TJP are now off as well. Tanahashi has an undisclosed injury. TJP is out due to travel issues. As a result, the main event will now be NEW STRONG Tag Team Champions Aussie Open vs. Lio Rush & Tomohiro Ishii for the titles.
UPDATE 2: Tanahashi has a broken rib per his Twitter. Out indefinitely.
New Japan began the 3rd weekend of TAMASHII events today, the first of 3 events in Australia.
Today’s event was held at Hindley Street Music Hall in Adelaide, Australia. There was no live broadcast.
The paid attendance was not announced, but it was a legit advance sellout.
Match 1: Delta Brady beat Amber.
Match 2: Corndog & Dean Brady beat Robbie Heart & Wrecking Ball. Corndog pinned Heart after Corndog Splash.
Match 3: Eli Theseus & Gabriel Aeros beat Barren & Einar The Strange. Theseus pinned Strange after Hades Curse.
Match 4: Grimm Basso beat Joey Graham.
Match 5: Bad Luck Fale & Jack Bonza beat Banjo Powers & Party Guy Ty. Bonza pinned Ty after Napalm Thunder Driver.
Match 6: Robbie Eagles beat Link Barnett by submission.
Match 7: Shingo Takagi beat Punch Drunk Istria by submission.
Main Event: Hirooki Goto beat Chris Basso.
The next event is tomorrow at Liberty Hall in Sydney, Australia. There will be no love broadcast.
In 2012, New Japan Pro Wrestling, All-Japan Pro Wrestling and Pro Wrestling NOAH truly opened the “Forbidden Door” with “All Together”, a special joint charity event to raise funds for 2012 earthquake/tsunami disaster relief in Japan. At a press conference today, they cane together to announce “All Together Again”, a sequel to be held on June 9 at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. A portion of proceeds will be donated to charity again.
New Japan is organizing the event and it will be broadcast live as a PPV on New Japan World in Japanese and English for 3980 yen (around $30 US) at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.
More as it becomes available.
Ahead of their next US PPVs this weekend, New Japan is making the full 2/18/23 event available on YouTube FOR FREE for a limited time. Click below to watch on YouTube (it will be available beginning tonight at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT and will only be available until Friday at 8 PM ET/5 PM PT. After that it will be available on New Japan World for paying subscribers and also for purchase on FITE). I bought the PPV on FITE but wound up not watching it due to the start being delayed extensively by technical issues.
UPDATE: Japanese audio version is also available:
New Japan has announced changes to the 4/16 COLLISION IN PHILADELPHIA event: Eddie Kingston is now off. Undisclosed injury. Out indefinitely. He was to have faced Gabriel Kidd. Orange Cassidy (All Elite Wrestling) is the replacement, and if he beats Buddy Matthews this Wednesday (4/12) on AEW Dynamite, this match will be for the AEW International Championship.
SAKURA GENESIS, New Japan’s traditional April blowout event, is now in the books. 5 title matches headlined the event with New Japan Cup winner SANADA going for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in the main event.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World. The live broadcast was part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2023 on TV Asahi in Japan.
The announced paid attendance was 6510. Depending on the seating configuration for the box and floor stats in the lower half of the venue, that’s between 40-55% of full capacity as they slowly ramp back up to normal. (The box seats normally sit between 2-6 people for sumo tournaments)
Match 1: Great-O-Khan, Toru Yano & Minoru Suzuki beat Yoh, El Desperado & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Yano pinned Tanahashi. This match’s participants were not announced until it began.
Match 2: Francesco Akira, Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb beat Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Cobb pinned Sho after Tour of the Islands. Afterwards, Akira appeared to accept an IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship challenge from JET SETTERS (KUSHIDA & Kevin Knight).
Match 3: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat BUSHI, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito. Kanemaru beat BUSHI with a Figure 4.
Match 4: El Phantasmo, KENTA & David Finlay beat Master Wato, Hikuleo & Tama Tonga. Phantasmo pinned Wato after CR 2. Afterwards, KENTA, Finlay & Taiji Ishimori suddenly turned on Phantasmo and beat him down. Could Phantasmo now be out of Bullet Club?
Match 5: IWGP Women’s Champion Mercedes Mone beat AZM & Hazuki in a 3-way by pinning AZM to retain the title. V1 for Mone. Next up: Mayu Iwatani. That match will happen at a major Stardom event later this month at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama.
Match 6: NJPW WORLD TV Champion Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shota Umino to retain the title. V4 for Sabre.
Match 7: Aussie Open (Kyle Fletcher & Mark Davis) beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto to win the titles. Aussie Open become the 98th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Fletcher pinned Goto after Corealis.
Match 8: IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Hiromu Takahashi beat Robbie Eagles to retain the title. V3 for Takahashi.
Main Event: SANADA beat IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okadaa to win the title. SANADA becomes the 7th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. Considering they also announced the 2023 G1 CLIMAX today (more on that below), now the questions are will Okada get another shot before then, and does this mean he is the favorite to 3-peat the G1 and perhaps get the main event and win it back at Tokyo Dome in 2024? SANADA follows up a New Japan Cup triumph by claiming the top prize for the first time in his career. Next up: It could be…Hiromu Takahashi!?! The current IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion made the challenge to his former LIJ stablemate! But not necessarily so fast-Kanemaru stepped in to challenge Hiromu for the Jr. Heavyweight Championship first. To Be Continued…
The next event is CAPITAL COLLISION on 4/15 at Entertainment & Sports Arena in Washington, DC. Live streaming on New Japan World as a separate PPV in Japanese and on FITE as a PPV in English will begin at 7 PM ET/4 PM PT. The event costs about $22 on New Japan World and $19.99 on FITE but you can also get a discount bundle for $29.99 that also includes COLLISION IN PHILADELPHIA on 4/16 which will be a FITE-only PPV, no live broadcast on New Japan World. The events will also be available via STRONG On Demand on New Japan World in the coming months.
In other news, as noted above the 2023 G1 CLIMAX 33 Tournament was announced today, which officially begins the road to Tokyo Dome as the winner traditionally gets the main event spot and an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match on 1/4. The schedule is as follows:
7/15-Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell, Hokkaido
7/16-Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell
7/18-Yamagata Sports Center, Yamagata
7/19-Xebio Arena Sendai, Sendai
7/21-Aore Nagaoka, Niigata
7/23-Nagano Big Hat, Nagano
7/25-Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
7/26-Korakuen Hall
7/27-Ota City General Gym, Tokyo
7/30-Aichi Prefectural Gym, Nagoya
8/1-Takamatsu Gym, Takamatsu
8/2-Hiroshima Sun Plaza, Hiroshima
8/5-Osaka Prefectural Gym, Osaka
8/6-Osaka Prefectural Gym
8/8-Yokohama Budokan, Yokohama
8/9-Act City Hamamatsu, Shizuoka
8/10-Funabashi Arena, Chiba
8/12-Ryogoku Kokugikan
8/13-Ryogoku Kokugikan (Finals)
Much more on this to come as the tournament gets closer. I would expect further details and entries to be announced in June.
New Japan wrapped up the Road to SAKURA GENESIS Tour today with the final build to Saturday’s annual April blowout event.
Today’s event was held at Tokorozawa Civic Gym in Saitama. There was no live broadcast and there is no on demand broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 711.
Match 1: Ryusuke Taguchi, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Narita pinned Togo with a blizzard suplex hold.
Match 2: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo beat BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Phantasmo pinned BUSHI after a combined moonsault press.
Match 3: Shota Umino beat Ryohei Oiwa.
Match 4: Zack Sabre Jr. beat Oskar Leube by submission.
Match 5: Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb & Aussie Open beat Tomoaki Honma, Toru Yano, Tomohiro Ishii, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Henare pinned Hinma after Streets Of Rage.
Match 6: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles. Naito pinned Fujita.
Main Event: In an Elimination Match, TAKA Michinoku DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & SANADA beat Madter Wato, Yoh, Tiger Mask, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada. SANADA was the only winning team member left.
The next event is SAKURA GENESIS Saturday at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World outside Japan only will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET. The live broadcast will be only on TV Asahi in Japan (New Japan World will have on demand only). A special press conference and public event with championship match contract signings and more will be held tomorrow. It is open to the public but some events require paid tickets.
New Japan continued the Road to SAKURA GENESIS Tour today with a non-televised house show.
Today’s event was held at Twin Messe Shizuoka North Building in Shizuoka. There was no live broadcast and there is no on demand video available.
The announced paid attendance was 559.
Match 1: Toru Yano & Tonohiro Ishii beat Oskar Leube & Yuto Nakashima. Ishii pinned Nakashima.
Match 2: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Ren Narita, El Desperado & Minoru Suzuki beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Narita pinned Togo with a blizzard suplex hold.
Match 3: Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan beat BUSHI & Shingo Takagi. Khan beat BUSHI with Subaru Sheep Killer.
Match 4: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat Gedo & El Phantasmo. Takahashi pinned Gedo after Hero Mirror Special.
Match 5: Jeff Cobb & Aussie Open beat Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Cobb pinned Honma after Your of the Islands.
Match 6: Ryohei Oiwa, Ryusuke Taguchi & Shota Umino beat Kosei Fujita, Robbie Eagles & Zack Sabre Jr. Umino pinned Fujita with La Magistral.
Main Event: TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Master Wato, Yoh, Tiger Mask, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada. Taichi pinned Wato after Tonsho Cross Phoenix.
The tour-ender is Thursday at Tokorozawa Civic Gym in Saitama. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
In other news, Yuji Nagata announced his annual produced “Blue Justice 12” event will be held on 6/18 at Sakura Municipal Gym in Chiba. He also announced on Twitter that the annual Togane Arena event in Chiba will be held this fall.
