Tag: njpw

DEVELOPING: First NJPW KOPW Stip Set

Voting has concluded for the stip in the first KOPW 2023 Title match, and New Japan has just announced the results on their English website: With 60.7% of just under 30,000 votes worldwide between the NJPW English and Japanese Twitter accounts, challenger Great-O-Khan’s stip won so it’s an MMA Rules match. AND per a suggestion from champion Shingo Takagi, his IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot coming up later is on the line too. Takagi had proposed a 30 Count match, where a cumulative 30 count on pinfall attempts was required to win.

The match will happen next Sunday at THE NEW BEGINNING in Nagoya.

DEVELOPING: NJPW STRONG Ending Today?

This is just a rumor right now, but a post today on New Japan icon Hiroshi Tanahashi’s Japanese blog suggests the NJPW STRONG program is ending. This follows a Twitter post from NJPW President Takami Ohbari that STRONG “will be rebuilt next year”, meaning this year. Tanahashi indicates the final STRONG tapings are the one happening today. There are rumors elsewhere this could all be ties to AEW & Ring Of Honor owner Tony Khan’s plans for a reboot of ROH’s weekly TV show, which finished its prior 10-year syndication & FITE run last year and for now is expected to be on the rebooted HonorClub platform, now a streaming service for ROH past events and TV, available on the US only for $9.99/month.

This is all just a rumor right now but it does bear watching, moreso since New Japan and AEW have a working relationship.

More as it becomes available.

DEVELOPING: 2023 New Japan Cup Announced

On their Japanese website, New Japan announced the 2023 New Japan Cup Tournament, to take place in its traditional March timeframe. The tournament, a singles event with a single-elimination format, will begin on 3/5 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and tun 11 events, concluding on 3/21 at Aore Nagaoka in Niigata. Advance ticket sales for fan club members begin Friday.

More as it becomes available. Also, the promotion’s annual Anniversary Event will be held on 3/6 at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo, the date of what will be the promotion’s 51st Anniversary.

1/21 New Japan-NOAH Card Announced

At a press conference earlier today, New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH announced the card for the WRESTLE KINGDOM in YOKOHAMA crossover event on 1/21 at Yokohama Arena. All matches will be New Japan vs. NOAH matches, in particular 5 single matches consisting of LIJ vs. Kongo. The event will air live as a PPV on New Japan World (New Japan’s English website says no subscription requires) and will be available on demand to all subscribers 1 week later (1/28). On the NOAH side, it will be a PPV on ABEMA for around $26-27 US but may be available only in Japan. No word yet on when/if it may be available on WRESTLE UNIVERSE but at the earliest it would likely be 1 week after the event.

The full card:
Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa vs. Taishi Ozawa & Yasutaka Yano
Oskar Leube & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba
Talashi Sugiura, Satoshi Kojima, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Toru Yano vs. Gedo, El Phantasmo, KENTA & Baomichi Marufuji
El Desperado vs. YO-HEY
Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi & Tiger Mask vs. Alejandro, Junta Miyawaki & AMAKUSA
Kazuchika Okada & Togi Makabe vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Yoshiki Inamura
BUSHI vs. Tadasuke
Hiromu Takahashi vs. Hajime Ohara
SANADA vs. Manabu Soya
Shingo Takagi vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima
Tetsuya Naito vs. Kenoh

The first 2 matches are listed as pre-show matches. The event is scheduled to begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET but may start earlier for the pre-show.

You can watch the presser below (from New Japan’s YouTube channel, also available on NOAH’s YouTube):

New Japan 1/5/23 Results (Updated x2)

New Japan held their annual New Year’s Dash! event today, which marks the fallout from Tokyo Dome and the official start of the new year for the promotion.

Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! Click below to watch:

Japanese:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00631_1_1

English:
https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00631_2_1

The announced paid attendance was 2713. No vocal cheering so much closer to full capacity.

With one exception, no matches were announced on advance and were not revealed until entrances began.

Match 1: Dick Togo, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL beat Ren Narita, Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Honma. EVIL pinned Honma after Magic Killer.

Match 2: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Will Ospreay. DOUKI beat Akira with Jorge Rivera Special.

Match 3: Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat YOSHI-HASHO, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii. Nicholls pinned YOSHI-HASHI after Tank Buster.

Match 4: Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Unino & Togi Makabe beat BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito. Yoh pinned Takahashi after Direct Drive.

Match 5: Master Wato, Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, KENTA & Jay White by DQ. Phantasmo DQ’d. NEVER Openweight Title belt use. Afterwards. White challenged Hikuleo to a Loser Leaves Japan match.

Match 6: Shingo Takagi beat Toru Yano, Great-O-Khan & Sho in a 4-way by pinning Yano to win the KOPW 2023 Title.

Main Event: Kenny Omega & Kazuchika Okada beat Aaron Henare & Jeff Cobb. Okada pinned Henare after Rainmaker.

The next event is WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 in YOKOHAMA on 1/21 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama. It was announced earlier today it will again be a New Japan-Pro Wrestling NOAH crossover event. Broadcast plans TBA and we may know more after a press conference tomorrow at 3 AM ET/midnight PT but as of right now there will be no live broadcast in the US, at least not on New Japan World. It’s probably going to be only on ABEMA in Japan, possibly a PPV, then on demand later on New Japan World and WRESTLE UNIVERSE (Pro Wrestling NOAH’s streaming service under the CyberFight Group, which includes DDT and it’s sub-brands Ganbare Pro and Tokyo Joshi Pro). The press conference will be available live and on demand on the ABEMA, New Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH YouTube channels.

UPDATE: On his official Twitter account after the event, Kanemaru issued a challenge for the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship on behalf of himself and DOUKI. Also, a new faction called “Just Four Guys” is emerging, made up of former Suzuki-gun members TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Kanemaru & Taichi. Additionally, it looks like Kosei Fujita joined TMDK after the 3rd match as the faction has doubled its membership in adding Zack Sabre Jr. yesterday and now Fujita after losing Jonah (went back to WWE) and Bad Dude Tito. Normally the Young Lions don’t join factions like this before they go on their customary training excursions, so this is a very interesting development not to mention the Australians now have an Englishman (Sabre) as their apparent leader and now a Japanese youngster in their ranks.

UPDATE 2: 1/21 will be a PPV on New Japan World. Cost TBA. The PPV period will be 1 week. On 1/28 it will be available without extra cost for all subscribers. The card will be posted shortly.

New Japan 1/4/23 Results (Updated)

The biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and one of the biggest in the world, New Japan’s WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 in TOKYO DOME, is in the books.

For those who have not watched yet and who want to avoid SPOILERS, do not click below until after watching even though spoilers are now all over the place. If you want to know what happened, click below.

Continue reading “New Japan 1/4/23 Results (Updated)”

BREAKING: New Japan Announces East US Events

New Japan has just announced a US east coast doubleheader for later this year-On 4/15 they will return to Washington, DC for Capital Collision at Entertainment & Sports Arena. Then on 4/16 it’s Collision in Philadelphia at 2300 Arena (ECW Arena).

Tickets go on sale 1/13 for both events. Broadcast plans TBA but they likely will be live PPVs on FITE in English and New Japan World in Japanese.

More as it becomes available.

New Japan 12/23/22 Results

New Japan wrapped up their 2022 today with the second half of Road to TOKYO DOME, the final event of the year that also promised the final farewell to the Suzuki-gun faction after 11 years.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1376, a legit advance sellout.

Match 1: Sho & Yujiro Takahashi beat Yuto Nakashima & Jado. Takahashi pinned Nakashima after Pimp Juice.

Match 2: Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa. Ishii pinned Oiwa.

Match 3; Francesco Akira, Aaron Henare, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb beat Ren Narita, Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma & Togi Makabe. Akira pinned TM 4 after Fireball.

Match 4: Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi beat Dick Togo & EVIL. Takagi pinned Togo after a sliding lariat.

Match 5: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Satoshi Kojima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Goto pinned Tenzan after Shoto.

Match 6: BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Shota Umino, Ryusuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Naito pinned Taguchi after Destino.

Match 7: Master Wato, Yoh & Kazuchika Okada beat Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo. Yoh pinned Gedo after Direct Drive. Afterwards, Akira laid out Yoh with Fireball.

Main Event: Suzuki-gun Farewell Match: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. beat TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado, Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki. Sabre pinned Suzuki after Zack Driver. Afterwards, all the members took turns sending messages of gratitude to Suzuki as the faction will now disband, but as the celebration wound down…look out, it’s CRAZY KOUZU! Takashi Iizuka returned with his signature entrance rampaging through the crowd to steal his iron fingers back from Taichi!

And with that, New Japan’s 2022 comes to a close as the 50th Anniversary celebration nears its conclusion. A year-long celebration wound down on a very somber note following the death of founder Antonio Inoki in October, just as rumors were breaking that Inoki was going to be named Lifetime Honorary Chairman despite distancing himself from the promotion and focusing more on his own rival IGF promotion. But he was always an important part of New Japan and always will be. But as is custom in NJPW, the end leads to the beginning…

The first event of 2023 is the biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and the outside-US version of WrestleMania…WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 in TOKYO DOME, on 1/4 at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Live streaming ONLY ON New Japan World in Japanese and English will begin on 1/4 at 1:30 AM ET in the east US, 1/3 at 10:30 PM PT in the west US. Make sure to sign up for New Japan World between 1/1 and 1/3 so you’re subscribed and ready to watch, it should only cost between $7.50-$8 US. And after that, come back for New Year’s Dash on 1/5 which will be available worldwide FOR FREE!

New Japan 12/22/23 Results

New Japan began their final event of the year, Road to TOKYO DOME, today with the first half of a doubleheader that will be the final build to Japan’s version of WrestleMania on 1/4.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World FOR FREE! Click below to watch (in Japanese. English will be available in a day or two):

https://njpwworld.com/p/s_00630_1_1

The announced paid attendance was 1205.

Match 1: Francesco Akira beat Kosei Fujita.

Match 2: Aaron Henare beat Yuto Nakashima.

Match 3: Great-O-Khan beat Ryohei Oiwa.

Match 4: Jeff Cobb beat Tomoaki Honma. This was to have been Oskar Leube vs. Cobb, but Leube was removed from the event due to a fever.

The KOPW 2023 Championship belt is unveiled, replacing the constantly broken/repaired trophy. If you’re wondering who came up with the KOPW idea and all it’s ridiculousness…Kazuchika Okada.

Match 5: SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Shota Umino, Satoshi Kojima & Togi Makabe. Takagi pinned Makabe after Last of the Dragon.

Match 6: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Jado & Ren Narita. Taichi pinned Jado after a yokozuna type raised elbow. Jado was a replacement for Honma in this match.

Match 7: Yoshinobu Kanemaru & El Desperado beat Master Wato & Ryusuke Taguchi, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi and Gedo & Taiji Ishimori in a 4-way when Desperado pinned Gedo.

Main Event: Yoh, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada beat DOUKI, Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki. Yoh pinned DOUKI after Direct Drive.

The final event of the year is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.

BREAKING: New Japan Card Changes For 12/22 (Updated)

New Japan has just announced last-minute changes for today’s (12/22) event because Oskar Leube is now off. Fever. Coronavirus test was negative but as a cautionary measure he is out. He was to have faced Jeff Cobb. Tomoaki Honma is the replacement, although Honma was to have teamed with Ren Narita to face Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi. Jado is the replacement for Honma.

UPDATE: Leube is now off 12/23 as well. He was to have teamed with Yuto Nakashima to face Sho & Yujiro Takahashi. Jado is the replacement.

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