News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
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)”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 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 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.
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.
New Japan has announced that Jay White & Kazuchika Okada are the first confirmed names for Battle In The Valley, the first US event of 2023, on 2/18 in San Jose, CA, making it very likely the IWGP World Heavyweight Champion after Tokyo Dome will be there. It was also confirmed that the event will be a live PPV in English on FITE for $19.99. The event likely will be a PPV on New Japan World in Japanese for around the same cost.
New Japan held the last TAKA Michinoku & Taichi produced independent event of the year today, commemorating a combined 50 years in wresting between the two (most of which is TAKA with a good 30 years but This would also be the last such event because the Suzuki-gun faction will disband soon under orders from Minoru Suzuki. Taichi has at least 15-20 years himself). Although separate from New Japan, the promotion handled a lot of advertising and buildup for the event.
Today’s event was held at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo and can be watched on demand as a standalone PPV on New Japan World. An additional purchase is requires to watch until it is removed from behind the paywall, which is expected to be in March 2023.
The announced paid attendance was 1258.
Matches 1-3 results are not yet available (not posted).
Match 4: In a No DQ match, DOUKI & Minoru Suzuki beat Jun Kasai (Freedoms) & Tomoaki Honma by ref stoppage. Suzuki beat Honma with a sleeper hold.
Match 5: Lance Archer & El Desperado beat MJ Pawl & Daisuke Sasaki (DDT) by DQ. Sasaki DQ’d. Chair use.
Match 6: In a 10 Million Yen Bounty 3 Falls Match, where countering/kicking out of Nameless Hiromu Roll or Michinoku Driver 2 would claim the bounty (or steal it away), Hiromu Takahashi beat TAKA Michinokiu 2-0. In the end, Takahashi kept the bounty after TAKA won it but Hiromu then won it back.
Main Event: In a Takagi-Style Lumberjack Last Man Standing Death Match, where the only way to win was a 10 count down after a pinfall, KOPW 2022 Trophy holder Shingo Takagi beat Taichi to retain the trophy. Unless something is added last-second to this week, and that’s incredibly unlikely because of how the matches and stip voting work, Takagi will end 2022 with the trophy and it will be done away with ahead of the 2023 trophy determination matches beginning at Tokyo Dome.
At their press conference earlier today, New Japan announces the full card for 1/4 at Tokyo Dome in addition to updated guidelines that will allow vocal cheering at full capacity to some extent (note Japanese fans aren’t cheering/singing types like US fans are, that wouldn’t be allowed), but for now those are in effect for 1/4 only.
The full card:
Pre-Show:
Boltin Oleg Debut Match: Boltin Oleg vs. Ryohei Oiwa. 3 Minute Exhibition Match
New Japan Ranbo Qualifier for the KOPW 2023 Trophy Determination Match. Battle royal where usually the last 4 left advance to the match at a later date
Antonio Inoki Memorial Match: Yuji Nagata, Satoshi Kojima & Togi Makabe vs. Tatsumi Fujinami, Minoru Suzuki & Tiger Mask 4
Main Show:
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Francesco Akira & TJP vs. Lio Rush & Yoh for the titles
IWGP Women’s Champion KAIRI vs. Tam Nakano for the title
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR vs. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI for the titles
Ren Narita vs. Zack Sabre Jr. for the inaugural NJPW World TV Championship
NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson vs. Tama Tonga for the title
Keiji Muto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Shota Umino vs. BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion Taiji Ishimori vs. Hiromu Takahashi, El Desperado & Master Wato in a 4-way for the title
IWGP US Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay vs. Kenny Onega for the title
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Jay White vs. Kazuchika Okada for the title
The pre-show is scheduled to begin at 1:30 AM ET/10:30 PM PT ahead of the main show at 3 AM ET/midnight PT.
With their last major tour of the year in the books, New Japan has a 1/4 Tokyo Dome press conference scheduled for later today Japan time. You can watch below FOR FREE or on YouTube starting at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET or on demand after it begins (please note this will be in Japanese only):
New Japan wrapped up the Super Jr. Tag League & World Tag League today with their last major event of the year. Both tournament finals were held and likely would set up additional title matches for Tokyo Dome on 1/4.
Today’s event was held at Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.
The announced paid attendance was 2031.
Match 1: El Lindaman & Alex Zayne beat Kosei Fujita & Ryohei Oiwa. Lindaman pinned Fujita with a German suplex hold.
Match 2: Shane Haste & Mikey Nicholls beat Kevin Knight & KUSHIDA. Haste pinned Knight after Tank Buster.
Match 3: Francesco Akira, TJP, Aaron Henare & Great-O-Khan beat Gabriel Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Robbie Ragles & Tiger Mask. TJP pinned TM 4.
Match 4: DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Lance Archer & Minoru Suzuki beat Dick Togo, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL. Suzuki pinned Togo after a Gotch-style piledriver. Afterwards, Suzuki with microphone for a major announcement he promised…he shocked the crowd by announcing his Suzuki-gun faction will disband at the end of the year after over a decade.
Match 5: Titan. BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito beat Clark Connors, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Naito pinned Connors after Destino.
Match 6: Gedo, Taiji Ishimori & Jay White beat Master Wato, Tama Tonfga & Kazuchika Okada. Gedo pinned Wato.
Match 7: NEVER Openweight Champion Karl Anderson beat Hikuleo to retain the title. V2 for Anderson. Next up: Tonga. That match will happen at Tokyo Dome.
Match 8: Super Jr. Tag League Finals: Lio Rush & Yoh beat Ace Austin & Chris Bey to win the tournament. Yoh pinned Austin after Direct Drive. While not definite, this probably means Rush & Yoh will face IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Francesco Akira & TJP for the titles at Tokyo Dome.
Main Event: World Tag League Finals: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto beat Aussie Open to win the tournament. YOSHI-HASHI pinned Kyle Fletcher after Abyss. It’s the second straight tournament victory for YOSHI-HASHI & Goto and means they will probably face IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions FTR for the titles at Tokyo Dome, assuming All Elite Wresting lets them miss that day’s AEW Dynamite (not guaranteed).
The next event is Road to TOKYO DOME, the year-ending doubleheader, on 12/22 and 12/23 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming of both events on New Japan World will begin each day at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET, and even better you can watch the 12/22 event FOR FREE!