News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
Ahead of the final “episode” this Monday, Pro Wrestling NOAH has made the first 3 MONDAY MAGIC events available FOR FREE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. No account or payment requires to view but also note their acclaimed 1 week free trial is back too.
Click below to watch Episode 1 (and scroll down for links to Episodes 2 & 3) on WRESTLE UNIVERSE:
https://www.wrestle-universe.com/en/videos/3hMN5wdg8AGt2oioG7DVWo
UPDATE: They will only be free until 12/24 at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
Just after Mitsuharu Misawa formed Pro Wrestling NOAH in 2000, he would spearhead the creation of an alliance to attempt to better facilitate cooperation between Japanese promotions. Today a new such alliance was formed to modernize those efforts-the United Japan Pro Wrestling Industry Group.
The initial membership will consist of the following promotions: New Japan Pro Wrestling, All-Japan Pro Wrestling, Pro Wrestling NOAH, Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling, Big Japan Pro Wrestling, DDT Pro Wrestling and its affiliated sub-brands (Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling & Ganbare Pro Wrestling) and Stardom. Seiji Sakaguchi is the founding chairman with the executive offices based at New Japan Pro Wrestling HQ and New Japan Chairman Naoki Sugabayashi serving as executive chief.
The biggest thing for fans to get excited about here is a joint event scheduled for 5/6/24 at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo under the United Japan Pro Wrestling banner. More details forthcoming.
New Japan’s English website has posted a press release with much more about this new alliance, read the full statement here:
The Japanese newspaper/website Tokyo Sports announced the winners of their annual Year-End Awards, which are a very big deal in Japanese pro wrestling. The promotions have begun congratulating their winners, for convenience here is a full list of the major winners courtesy of Samurai! TV and New Japan World personality:commentator Miki Motoi:
The award winners:
MVP-Tetsuya Naito (New Japan)
Match Of The Year-The Great Muta vs. Shinsuke Nakamura (NOAH, 1/1)
Tag Team-Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI (New Japan)
Outstanding Performance: Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan)
Fighting Spirit-Kenoh (NOAH)
Technique-Yuma Aoyagi (All-Japan)
Rookie Of The Year-Jun & Rei Saito (All-Japan)
Women’s MVP-Tam Nakano (Stardom)
According to news items from both All-Japan and Pro Wrestling NOAH, both promotions are set to participate in a special February 2024 event to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of Japanese TV station Nippon TV (NTV), which at one time or another was a broadcast partner for both (I remember NOAH events in the early days airing on NTV’s G+ network). The event, called (loosely translated from Japanese) “70 Years of Pro Wrestling Broadcast THE Nippon TV Pro Wrestling”, will be held on 2/9 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Tickets are now on sale ranging from around $60 US up to around $650 (Correction: Earlier versions of this post said $6500, which was incorrect as that’s around 1 million yen where these tickets actually are 100,000 yen) for front row VIP seats that come with commemorative goods, a special photo opportunity and more. All-Japan has announced Masanobu Fuchi will appear at the event while NOAH Vice President Naomichi Marufuji issued a statement about the event but didn’t do any name drops.
The event will be broadcast on Japanese TV but it’s not yet known if it will be live or taped, and at this time it’s not known when/if it may be available on AJPW.TV and/or WRESTLE UNIVERSE. Check out a promo graphic for the event below:
Pro Wrestling NOAH continues the SUNNY VOYAGE 2023 Tour today with a house show built around what they bill as their biggest annual pre-event autograph session for fans in attendance.
Today’s event was held at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka and can be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube. This was an “emergency decision” made just yesterday, originally there was to be no live broadcast. It will also be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Tuesday or Wednesday. (If you do watch below, the view is fixed/hard camera only for the entire event and there is no commentary. The total running time was about 2 1/4 hours)
You can watch the event FOR FREE below, video courtesy of the Pro Wrestling NOAH Official Japanese YouTube channel:
The announced paid attendance was 412.
Match 1: Hajime Ohara & Kai Fujimura beat Super Crazy & Yu Owada. Fujimura pinned Owada.
Match 2: Terry Yaki beat Extreme Tiger.
Match 3: Saxon Huxley, Timothy Thatcher & Shuhei Taniguchi beat Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Taishi Ozawa. Thatcher pinned Ozawa.
Match 4: Alejandro beat Tadasuke.
Match 5: Jake Lee, LJ Cleary & YO-HEY beat Takashi Sugiura, Atsushi Kotoge & Hi69. YO-HEY pinned Hi69 after Super Face-G.
Match 6: HAYATA & Eita beat Shuji Kondo & Junta Miyawaki. Eita pinned Miwataki after a dropkick.
Main Event: Kenoh, Naomichi Marufuji & Go Shiozeki beat Manabu Soya, Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba. Marufuji pinned Inaba after God Tiger King.
The next event is Saturday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Friday at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced an “emergency decision” regarding Sunday’s event-originally slated for no live broadcast with on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date-probably Wednesday-they have now announced it will be streamed LIVE FOR FREE on YouTube. It will be a hard-camera-only broadcast and there will be no commentary.
Save or set a reminder for the below video and come back to watch live Saturday at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET. (Video/live feed courtesy of Pro Wrestling NOAH Official Japanese YouTube Channel)
Pro Wrestling NOAH ran their first major event of the month, NOAH THE BEST, today as the promotion builds to a big end of the year and start of 2024.
Today’s event was held at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast was English only due to the usual ABEMA exclusives in Japan. You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 1156.
Match 1: LEONA (Dradition) & Kai Fujimura beat Taishi Ozawa & Yu Owada. LEONA beat Owada with a figure 4.
Match 2: Ninja Mack, Alejandro & Extreme Tiger beat Super Crazy, Terry Yaki & Alpha Zoe (?). Alejandro pinned Yaki after Empty Bullet.
Match 3: Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba beat Vinny Massaro & Stallion Rogers. Kitamiya beat Rogers with Prison Lock. Massaro is an American independent wrestler who trained and competed in NOAH some 15+ years ago and was making a return to the promotion.
Match 4: HAYATA & Eita beat Atsushi Kotoge & Hi69. Eita pinned Kotoge after a dropkick.
Match 5: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa beat Saxon Huxley, Timothy Thatcher & Shuhei Taniguchi. Wagner Jr. pinned Taniguchi after Wagner Driver.
Match 6: GHC National Champion Jack Morris beat Hajime Ohara to retain the title. V1 for Morris.
Match 7: Jake Lee, Anthony Greene, LJ Cleary, YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura, Go Shiozaki, Shuji Kondo & Junta Miyawaki. YO-HEY pinned Miyawaki after a dropkick.
Main Event: Manabu Soya & Tatsumi Fujinami (Dradition) beat Kenoh & Jinsei Shinzaki (Michinoku Pro). Soya beat Kenoh with a dragon sleeper.
Major post-event news/fallout:
After the event, in backstage comments Kitamiya demanded a match against New Japan ironman Tomohiro Ishii. HOSS FIGHT ALERT!!! Please let that happen soon!
The 1/2 main event was set by a surprise appearance by Kota Ibushi, who recently signed with All Elite Wrestling (but it’s a limited deal of sorts and Ibushi won’t be full-time in AEW, he’ll have a lot of freedom to continue working in Japan as he pleases, which was very important to him). It will be Ibushi vs. Marufuji at Ariake Arena in Tokyo.
The next event is 12/10 at Kira Messe Numazu in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast.
Following up on his plans to take a step back from Pro Wrestling NOAH, the promotion has announced that Seiki Yoshioka is leaving the promotion at the end of December. He is terminating his contract because it would be difficult for him to compete full-time as he takes on a new career challenge. No word yet on that exactly that means.
More as it becomes available.
Pro Wrestling NOAH ran the 4th and penultimate episode of MONDAY MAGIC today.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The paid attendance has not yet bern announced but it appears to be a legit advance sellout, which would mean 450-500. No same-day tickets.
Match 1: YO-HEY beat Dragon Bane & Alejandro in a 3-way by pinning Bane.
Match 2: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Titus Alexander & Hajime Ohara beat Jack Morris, Anthony Greene & LJ Cleary. Alexander pinned Cleary after Big Ugly.
Match 3: Kaito Kiyomiya, Ryohei Oiwa, Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Inaba beat Saxon Huxley, Timothy Thatcher, Vinny Massaro & ?. Kiyomiya pinned Massaro after Transformed Shining Wizard.
Match 4: Nagisa Nozaki Return Match: Nagisa Nozaki beat Miyuki Takase.
Match 5: HAYATA & Rising Hayato (All-Japan) beat Shuji Kondo & Junta Miyawaki. Hayato pinned Miyawaki after Sid Vicious. (HAYATA & Hayato. The team we never knew we needed)
Match 6: Ninja Mack beat GHC Hardcore Champion Masato Tanaka and Super Crazy in a 3-way by pinning Tanaka to win the title. Mack becomes the 11th GHC Hardcore Champion. (NOAH apparently is not recognizing the title’s prior history, billing Mack as the second champion)
Main Event: Kenoh & Satoshi Kojima beat Manabu Soya & Go Shiozaki. Kojima pinned Shiozaki after a lariat.
At some point The Great Muta also showed up and did weird Muta things…
The next event is NOAH THE BEST 2023 Saturday at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in English ONLY will begin Friday at 11 PM PT/Saturday at 2 AM ET. This is an ABEMA-exclusive broadcast in Japan.
Pro Wrestling NOAH has announced two injury absences, although one is an update to a prior issue…but the new one could have major implications because it’s GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Daga. Left knee sprain. Out indefinitely. It most likely happened Friday in his successful title defense against Shuji Kondo. Unless he’ll be out more than a month his title reign probably isn’t in jeopardy (the next scheduled title match is 1/2/24, and as of now it’s still on)
The other absence is an extension of Yoshinari Ogawa’s time out. Now out until at least after the 12/10 event. He has been out since last week as a precaution due to dizziness.
More as it becomes available.
UPDATE: NOAH now says Daga will miss “several events” so this will mean at least a couple weeks.
