News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
The injury bug is once again hitting Japan really hard in a big way, and unfortunately Pro Wrestling NOAH just announced it’s a Bo Go…Go Shiozaki is OUT of the N-1 VICTORY Tournament. Fractured thoracic vertebrae. In simpler medical terms, spine/middle back. Out indefinitely. A replacement in the tournament will be named soon.
More as it becomes available.
8/3/24 UPDATE: Atsushi Kotoge is the replacement.
Pro Wrestling NOAH held a special charity fundraiser event for Noto Peninsula earthquake recovery efforts today in Ishikawa. A portion of the proceeds from ticket sales will be donated to disaster relief efforts.
Today’s event was held at Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Exhibition Hall 3 in Ishikawa and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 1316, a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: Yu Owada beat Kai Fujimura.
Match 2: Shuji Kondo & Shuhei Taniguchi beat Mohammed Yone & Atsushi Kotoge. Kondo pinned Kotoge after a King Kong lariat.
Match 3: Super Crazy beat Hi69.
Match 4: Eita & Ninja Mack beat Hajime Ohara & Junta Miyawaki. Mack pinned Ohara after a whirlwind kick.
Match 5: Manabu Soya, Masa Kitamiya & Yoshiki Inamura beat Ryohei Oiwa, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf. Inamura pinned Wolf after Musou.
Match 6: Jack Morris, Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa beat HAYATA, YO-HEY & Tadasuke. Morris pinned Tadasuke after a tiger driver.
Main Event: Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, AMAKUSA & Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan) beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Kenoh, Alejandro & Cristobal by ref stoppage. AMAKUSA beat Cristobal.
The next event is the N-1 VICTORY Tournament beginning on 8/4 at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English Only will begin Saturday at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET…and even better, the WRESTLE UNIVERSE broadcast will be available to everyone FOR FREE! This is an ABEMA exclusive broadcast in Japan.
UPDATE: The main event stoppage was due to a Cristobal injury. Possible concussion. Hospitalized as a precaution but has since been released. Out indefinitely. Card changes for the future TBA but he was not part of the N-1 field.
Another casualty for Pro Wrestling NOAH’s weekend charity event as they have announced Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. is now off Sunday’s Ishikawa event. Illness. He joins Go Shiozaki & Ulka Sasaki on the sidelines for this event. Card changes have been made. It’s not known if he will miss any more time but as of now will hopefully be back for the N-1 VICTORY Tournament.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced an injury change to this weekend’s charity event in Ishikawa: Ulka Sasaki is now off. Shoulder. He was to have teamed with Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf to face Manabu Soya, Masa Kitamoya & Yoshiki Inamura. Shuji Kondo is the replacement-he was to have faced Tadasuke & Super Crazy in a 3-way, that match is now a single match. It’s not known how long Sasaki may be out, important with the N-1 VICTORY Tournament upcoming.
More as it becomes available.
UPDATE: Go Shiozaki is now off too. Back.
Following the announcement of his retirement last week, Pro Wrestling NOAH held a press conference with Akitoshi Saito today to announce further details. Specifically the date-his retirement event will be on 11/17 at Aichi Prefectural Gym in Nagoya.
More as it becomes available.
Pro Wrestling NOAH runs their monthly STAR NAVIGATION 2024 Tour event today, the series of Korakuen Hall events, and it’s a rare weekend morning matinee. Not counting a charity fundraiser event after this, it’s the last event before the annual N-1 VICTORY Tournament so almost all the participants will be in various tag matches. There is also a GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match scheduled as Shuji Kondo & Eita will defend the titles against Alejandro & Cristobal. In the opening match, Kai Fujimura will return from injury.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in ENGLISH ONLY. This is an ABEMA exclusive broadcast so there may be some parts edited out or that we won’t see live, and Japanese audio will only be available in the on demand version shortly after the event ends. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube. This is a 7 match card and even with the title match i anticipate this event having a “standard” Korakuen running time of around 2 1/2 hours, so if you’re planning to watch other events like I am prepare to perhaps do some brief split screen streaming.
Today’s lineup:
Kai Fujimura vs. Yu Owada
Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki
Naomichi Marufuji, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & AMAKUSA vs. Takashi Sugiura, Hajime Ohara & Alpha Wolf
HAYATA, YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. Daga, Yoshinari Ogawa & Super Crazy
GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Shuji Kondo & Eita vs. Alejandro & Cristobal for the titles
Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki vs. Yoshiki Inamura & Manabu Soya
Kaito Kiyomiya, Jack Morris & Dragon Bane vs. Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya & Ryohei Oiwa
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 15 minutes before the event.
7:30 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. English Commentary will join the broadcast shortly.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Looks like the “new normal” full capacity setup and looked to be around 75% full from the quick first look I got. If that’s the case, I’m predicting the crowd should be near 1000. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 903)
The opening video plays almost as soon as we join, so the matches should begin in 5-10 minutes.
The matches begin at 7:34 PM PT/10:34 PM ET. Thankfully no G-Man ring announcer. Your hosts are Mark Pickering & Mike Schroder (I don’t know where Stewart Fulton is but I miss him already).
Match 1: Kai Fujimura Return Match: Kai Fujimura vs. Yu Owada. 15 minute time limit
Result: Yu Owada beat Kai Fujimura
Match 2: Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki. 20 minute time limit
Result: Junta Miyawaki beat Ninja Mack
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 3: Naomichi Marufuji, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & AMAKUSA vs. Takashi Sugiura, Hajime Ohara & Alpha Wolf. 20 minute time limit
Result: Naomichi Marufuji, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & AMAKUSA beat Takashi Sugiura, Hajime Ohara & Alpha Wolf. Wagner Jr. pinned Ohara after Wagner Driver.
Match 4: HAYATA, YO-HEY & Tadasuke vs. Daga, Yoshinari Ogawa & Super Crazy. 30 minute time limit
Result: HAYATA, YO-HEY & Tadauske beat Daga, Yoshinari Ogawa & Super Crazy. YO-HEY pinned Crazy after a dropkick.
Match 5: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Shuji Kondo & Eita vs. Alejandro & Cristobal for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Shuji Kondo & Eita beat Alejandro & Cristobal to retain the titles. Eita pinned Cristobal after Imperial Uno. V1 for the champs.
Match 6: Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki vs. Yoshiki Inamura & Manabu Soya. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yoshiki Inamura & Manabu Soya beat Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki. Soya pinned Sasaki after a lariat. Afterwards, Soya with microphone. He simply put over his chances in the N-1 VICTORY, a surprise perhaps given he just beat the GHC National Champion. But with the tournament, no title matches for a while. Heavyweight & National titles anyway.
Main Event: Kaito Kiyomiya, Jack Morris & Dragon Bane vs. Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya & Ryohei Oiwa. 1 Hour time linit
Result: Kaito Kiyomiya, Jack Morris & Dragon Bane beat Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya & Ryohei Oiwa. Kiyomiya pinned Kitamiya after Transformed Shining Wizard. Afterwards, Kiyomiya with microphone. He started to put himself over ahead of the N-1 VICTORY, which brought everyone else in the match back in to put themselves over ahead of the tournament (they’re all in). After everyone else was done, Kiyomiya finished putting himself over and predicting he would win to end the show.
The next event is a Noto Peninsula earthquake relief fundraiser event on 7/28 at Ishikawa Prefectural Industrial Exhibition Hall 3 in Ishikawa. There will be no live broadcast.
Pro Wrestling NOAH ran another LIMIT BREAK ex. event today, continuing their series of crossover events with other promotions.
Today’s event was held at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 252.
Match 1: Jun Akiyama (DDT) beat Yu Owada.
Match 2: Yasu & Hide Kubota (Independent/Freelancers) beat Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Takumi Saito (Independent/Freelancers). Yasu Kubota pinned Saito after a swanton bomb.
Match 3: Yoshitatsu beat Junya Matsunaga (ZERO1).
Match 4: Akira Iwamoto & Yuko Kikuchi (Independent/Freelancers) beat Atsushi Kotoge & Kohei Kinoshita (Independent/Freelancer). Iwamoto pinned Kinoshita after Solitary Art.
Match 5: Mohammed Yone, Hi69 & Haruto Ki (Independent/Freelancer) beat Masato Tanaka, Chris Weiss & Takuya Sugawara (ZERO1). Hi69 pinned SUhawara after Stuka Splash.
Main Event: Go Shiozaki & Kazuyuki Fujita beat Akitoshi Saito & Shuji Ishikawa. Shiozaki pinned Saito after Go Lariat.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo for the monthly STAR NAVIGATION ’24 event. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English Only will begin TONIGHT at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET with live rtesults being provided. This will be an ABEMA exclusive broadcast. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
In other news, regarding Akitoshi Saito’s retirement announcement recently, a press conference with Saito about this will be held Monday. It will be streamed live on YouTube beginning Sunday at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced a change to this Saturday’s LIMIT BREAK ex. event: REAL ZERO1 wrestler Satsuki Nagao is now off the card. Unspecified injury. He was to have faced Yoshitatsu. Junya Matsunaga (also from REAL ZERO1) is the replacement.
DESTINATION 2024, Pro Wrestling NOAH’s latest signature blowout event, is in the books.
Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand as a PPV only on ABEMA in select countries including the US for the next week. You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 4196. Not sure what the setup was for (the venue’s normal capacity is around 8500, I imagine it was set up for closer to 6000) but on paper this sounds like a decent number and much better than for recent major events capacity-wise.
Match 1: Alejandro & Cristobal beat Ninja Mack & Junta Miyawaki and Hajime Ohara & Super Crazy in a 3-way when Alejandro pinned Crazy.
Match 2: Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba beat Takashi Sugiura, Kazuyuki Fujita & Shuhei Taniguchi. Soya pinned Taniguchi after a jumping DDT.
Match 3: Shuji Kondo, Eita & AKIRA (Independent/Freelancer0 beat Yoshinari Ogawa, Ryohei Oiwa & Yu Owada. Eita pinned Owada after Imperial Uno.
Match 4; Kenoh beat Yuji Nagata (New Japan).
Match 5: GLG FInal Match: Jake Lee, YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Jack Morris, Anthony Greene & LJ Cleary. Lee pinned Cleary after FBS. Per Lee’s earlier announcement, GLG has now disbanded.
Match 6: Go Shiozaki beat ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion Akitoshi Saito to win the title. Shiozaki becomes the 34th ZERO1 World Heavyweight Champion.
Match 7: Ulka Sasaki beat GHC National Champion HAYATA by ref stoppage (techinical submission) to win the title. Sasaki becomes the 12th GHC National Champion.
Match 8: AMAKUSA beat GHC Juntior Heavyweight Champion Daga to win the title. AMAKUSA becomes the 55th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.
Match 9: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Galeno Del Mal beat Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf. Wagner Jr. pinned Wolf after Wagner Driver.
Match 10: AJ Styles (WWE) beat Naomichi Marufuji.
Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat YOICHI to retain the title. V2 for Kiyomiya. Next up: Probably the N-1 VICTORY Tournament winner, unless it’s Kiyomiya.
The next event is The Reeve Presents LIMIT BREAK ex. on 7/20 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. LIve streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 12:30 AM PT/3:30 AM ET.
The usual post-event news/fallout:
Injury Report: Daiki Inaba was injured during his match. Torn meniscus. Out indefinitely.
After the event, YOICHI announced he was changing his ring name back to Yoshiki Inamura.
The next Nippon Budokan event will be NOAH THE NEW YEAR on 1/1/2025.
The full N-1 VICTORY schedule and field was announced, there will be 16 participants in 2 blocks of 8. More significantly, there is more WWE participation as WWE has recently shown more openness to working with other promotions (at least in their NXT brand, which has some programs going with US-based TNA Wrestling although they did allow AJ Styles to come over today and let Shinsuke Nakamura return to Japan to face Keiji Muto at the start of this year). The full field:
Block A: Kaito Kiyomiya, Go Shiozaki, Masa Kitamiya, Ryohei Oiwa, Jack Morris, Dragon Bane, Luis Mante (Dragon Gate, some graphics call him Lewis Mante), Josh Briggs (WWE).
Block B: Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Ulka Sasaki, Yoshiki Inamura, Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Alpha Wolf, Titus Alexander, Tavion Heights (WWE).
Both Briggs & Heights are part of WWE’s NXT label.
Shiozaki is the defending tournament champion. The tournament begins on 8/4 and ends on 9/1 (all tournament events except 8/18 will stream LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE, but there will be no live broadcast on 8/18 and 8/12 may only be on ABEMA). The winner in each block will advance to the Finals on 9/1. Tiebreakers will be head-to-head result. If that was a draw, a tiebreaker match will be held.
UPDATE: Akitoshi Saito announced his retirement after losing to Shiozaki. it’s not yet clear if it’s immediate or at a later date. If it’s immediate, Saito is walking away after 33 1/2 years in the ring. His exact age isn’t lnown vut I believe he is in his mid-50s. They also are acting like Jake Lee is leaving the promotion and jumping to New Japan, but he was already announced for this year’s G1 CLIMAX tournament so it’s not known if this is a permanent move or just an angle to cover for the appearance. Lee is apparently now part of Bullet Club. We’ll find out in September, I guess.
Pro Wrestling NOAH wrapped up a 3-day weekend in Hokkaido today with one more house show event.
Today’s event was held at Hakodate General Wholesale Center Distribution Hall in Hokkaido and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date (scheduled for Friday). There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 332.
Match 1: Black Menso-re (Independent/Freelancer) beat Tadasuke & Junta Miyawaki in a 3-way by pinning Miyawaki.
Match 2: Anthony Greene beat Daiki Inaba.
Match 3: Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Super Crazy. Bane pinned Crazy.
Match 4: Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Eita beat Jake Lee, LJ Cleary & YO-HEY. Marufuji pinned Cleary after Shiranui.
Match 5; Daga & Ulka Sasaki vs. HAYATA & AMAKUSA went to a double countout. Which led to…
Match 5 (again): HAYATA & AMAKUSA beat Daga & Ulka Sasaki. HAYATA pinned Sasaki.
Main Event: Kaito Kiyomiya, Kenoh, Alejandro & Cristobal beat YOICHI, Masa Kitamiya, Ryohei Oiwa & Yu Owada. Kiyomiya pinned Owada after Transformed Shining Wizard.
The next event is ABEMA Presents DESTINATION 2024 Saturday at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo. Live streaming only on ABEMA as a PPV in select countries (including the US) in Japanese and English will begin Friday at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. Note that while it can be watched in a web browser, you must download the ABEMA iOS/Android app to purchase the PPV, which before event day costs 3500 Japanese yen (around $22 US) plus additional fees. On event day or after the event )on demand) it goes up to 4000 yen (around $27 US) and will be available on demand until 8 AM on 7/21. That means it will be at least a week or more after the event before it could show up on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. (UPDATE: You also will be able to watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube)
