News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
New Japan has announced that, effective June 28, it will be acquiring Stardom from parent company Bushiroad Corporation. The promotion will acquire all stakes in Bushiroad Fight Co. Ltd, due to be renamed Stardom Co. Ltd., for 100 million Japanese yen (around $675,000 US). Beyond statements form Stardom President/CEO Taro Okada & NJPW President/CEO Hiroshi Tanahashi, no further details were released.
More as it becomes available.
All-Japan has announced a couple of changes to the already announced card for 5/6 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo (final Champions Carnival prelim event): An 8-man tag match of Rising Hayato, Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue vs. Kaz Hayashi, MUSASHI, Seigo Tachibana & Seiki Yoshioka is now a 6-man tag as Tamura & Tachibana have been pulled from the match. Tachibana will now defend the GAORA TV Championship against Tamura that day.
Pro Wrestling NOAH wrapped up Season 2 of MONDAY MAGIC today with the final episode.
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 been announced but it was a legit advance sellout.
Match 1: Ryohei Oiwa beat Yu Owada.
Match 2: Titus Alexander & Starboy Charlie beat Naomichi Marufuji & Hajime Ohara. Alexander pinned Ohara after Big Ugly.
Match 3: Ulka Sasaki beat Masa Kitamiya by submission.
Match 4: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene beat TBA & TBA, which were Masaaki Mochizuki & Susumu Yokosuka (Dragon Gate), to retain the titles. Greene pinned Mochizuki. V7 for the champs.
Match 5: Alejandro, Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Shuji Kondo & Junta Miyawaki beat HAYATA, Daga, Ninja Mack, YO-HEY & Tadasuke. Kondo pinned YO-HEY after a King Kong lariat.
Main Event: Kaito Kiyomiya beat Jake Lee. As a result, Kiyumiya will face GHC Heavyweight Champion Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. for the title on 5/4.
The next event is Friday at Bandaijima Multipurpose Plaza in Niigata. There will be no live broadcast.
UPDATE: Next up for Morris/Greene: Another open challenge. That match will happen on 5/4.
New Japan continued the Road To WRESTLING DONTAKU Tour today with the first half of a Tokyo doubleheader.
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 811.
Match 1; Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Katsuya Murashima, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Ishimori beat Murashima with Bone Lock.
Match 2: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Shoma Kato, Jado, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. Fujita pinned Kato.
Match 3: Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & EVIL beat Boltin Oleg, Shota Umino, Toru Yano, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii. Kanemaru pinned Oleg with Samson Clutch.
Match 4; BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd & David Finlay. Takahashi pinned Gedo.
Main Event: In an elimination Gauntlet match, Great-O-Khan, Jeff Cobb, Callum Newman, Francesco Akira & TJP beat Yuya Uemura, SANADA, TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI & Taichi. Order of elimination: Khan vs. Uemura went to a 10 minute time limit draw (both out), Cobb vs. SANADA went to a 10 minute time limit draw (both out), TAKA by Newman, Newman by DOUKI, Akira by DOUKI, DOUKI by TJP, Taichi by TJP. United Empire wins with TJP the only man left.
The next event is tomorrow. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynasty PPV in St. Louis, MO:
Pre-show:
Trent Beretta beat Matt Sydal.
Orange Cassidy & Katsuyori Shibata beat Shane Taylor & Lee Moriarty.
ROH Trios Champions Gunn Club & Jay White beat AEW Trios Champions The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn to retain the ROH titles and become THE NEW AEW TRIOS CHAMPIONS!
PPV:
AEW Continental Champion Kazuchika Okada beat Pac to retain the title.
House Of Black beat Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe. Malakai Black pinned Copeland after Black Mass.
Willow Nightingale beat AEW TBS Champion Julia Hart to become THE NEW AEW TBS CHAMPION! Next up: Mercedes Mone at Double Or Nothing. All but a guaranteed title change.
AEW International Champion Roderick Strong beat Kyle O’Reilly to retain the title. Wardlow tried to interfere late but got caught.
Chris Jericho beat FTW Champion Hook to become THE NEW FTW CHAMPION! FTW match means no rules so of course Jericho won cheap (baseball bat shot)
AEW Women’s Champion Toni Storm beat Thunder Rosa to retain the title.
Will Ospreay beat Bryan Danielson.
In a Ladder Match, The Young Bucks beat FTR to become THE NEW AEW TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS! Jack Perry returned disguised as a fan who interfered late in the match and was unmasked by security.
Swerve Strickland beat AEW World Champion Samoa Joe to become THE NEW AEW WORLD CHAMPION!
End Show.
The post-event media scrum is scheduled for 9:15 PM PT/12:15 AM ET and will be streamed LIVE on YouTube.
DDT held what was billed as the first “Spoiler-Free Wrestling” event today, as fans were not allowed to post any results, photos/videos, etc. to social media and the promotion would not post any results from the event until the end of the day, which was a short time ago (about an hour before this was posted).
Today’s event was held at Tsurumi Fruit & Vegetable Market in Kanagawa and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 312, a super full house/very near sellout.
Before the matches began, there was a brawl involving Yuki Iino, Danshoku Dieno, Rukiya & Takeshi Masada until HARASHIMA intervened. There were also changes to upcoming events: On 4/28, Keigo Nakamura’s return match against MAO is now for the DDT Universal Championship, and on next up for the DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata is, by his choice, Antonio Honda. That match will happen on 5/17.
Match 1; In a No DQ Match, Daisuke Sasaki & KANON vs. Bad Buddy Yuni & Pitochico Sumi (Kazuma Sumi) was suddenly changed mid-match. Which led to…
Match 1 (again): Bad Buddy Yuni beat Pitochico Sumi by submission.
Match 2: In a No Ropes elimination match, where a wrestler was eliminated by falling out of the ring, Kazusada Higuchi beat Gota Ihashi, Yukio Naya & MJ Paul. Order of elimination: Paul by Naya, Naya by Higuchi, Ihashi by Higuchi.
Match 3: Yuki Iino & Yuki “Sexy” Iino (Rukiya I believe, based on photos) vs. Danshoku Dieno & Danshoku “Dandy” Dieno (Takeshi Masada) went to a no contest. Out of control. Apparently a one-day-only return for those deplorable Pheromons. Sort of.
Match 4: In a Special Rules Mixed Tag Match with 3 Minute Rounds (no limit), Akito Nishigaki (Akito) & Hayabucha (HARASHIMA) beat Tetsuya Endo & Yuya Koroku at 2:59 of Round 3. Hayabucha pinned Koroku after Firebird Splash.
Match 5; Tyrannosaurus Inoue (MAO), Super Hardcore Katsumata (Shunma Katsumata) & To-y vs. Sanshi Takagi Robo (Sanshiro Takagi), Ripoff Musou (?) & Super Hardcore Chris (Chris Brookes) went to a double countout.
Main Event: Yuki Ueno & 3 other Yuki Uenos (MAO, Shunma Katsumata, Yo-y) beat Kazuki Hirata, Antonio Honda, another Kazuki Hirata (can’t tell who it really was yet) & another Antonio Honda (Kazusada Higuchi). The real Ueno pinned the real Hirata & Honda.
The next event is DDZT, a special 3-day collaboration event with Zeekstar Tokyo, a professional handball team in Tokyo, beginning Friday at Sumida City Gym in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET but may begin earlier as there is a pre-show match scheduled 15 minutes before the event.
All-Japan ran Day 3 of the Champions Carnival 2024 today.
Today’s event was held at Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 4 (last-second move from Hall 7 apparently) in Chiba and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 758.
Match 1: Hikaru Sato, Dan Tamura, Road Crew & Daiki Wakamatsu beat Ryo Inoue, MUSASHI (MIchinoku Pro), Ayako Yoshida (Independent/Freelancer) & Chicharito Shoki (Independent/Freelancer). Crew pinned Shoki.
Champions Carnival:
Match 2: Block B-Jun Saito beat Hartley Jackson.
Match 3: Block A-Kuroshio TOKYO Japan beat Cyrus.
Match 4: Block A-Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Shotaro Ashino.
Match 5: Block B-Rei Saito beat Hideki Suzuki.
Match 6: Suwama, Kaz Hayashi & Masayuki Kono (KONO) beat Dan Tamura, Hokuto Omori & Ren Ayabe. Suwama pinned Omori after a lariat.
Champions Carnival:
Match 7: Block A-Kento Miyahara beat Yuma Aoyagi.
Main Event: Block B-Ryuki Honda beat Yuma Anzai.
The next event is Wednesday at Shinagawa Prince Hotel Stellar Ball in Tokyo. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
New Japan continued the Road To WRESTLING DONTAKU Tour today with a house show in Nagano.
Today’s event was held at Chino Civic Center Multi Hall in Nagano. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 738.
Match 1: Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens & KENTA beat Shoma kato, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto. Ishimori beat Kato with Bone Lock.
Match 2: Callum Newman & Jeff Cobb beat Tomoaki Honma & Tomohiro Ishii. Cobb pinned Honma after Tour of the Islands.
Match 3; Sho & Yujiro Takahashi beat TAKA Michinoku & DOUKI. Takahashi pinned TAKA after Big Juice.
Match 4: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Jado, El Desperado, El Phantasmo & Hikuleo. Fujita beat Jado with a chicken wing.
Match 5: Boltin Oleg, Shota Umino, Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Ren Narita & EVIL. Umino beat Togo with STF.
Match 6: Yuya Uemura, Taichi & SANADA beat Francesco Akira, TJP & Great-O-Khan. Taichi pinned TJP after Tensho Cross Fang.
Main Event: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Gedo, Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Gabriel Kidd & David Finlay. BUSHI pinned Gedo after Fable.
The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on New Japan World will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
Stardom has their second event of the weekend coming up today in Osaka, this one with 6 matches and also a title match. The title match is for the Goddesses Of Stardom Championship as Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira defend against Risa Sera & Kurumi Hiragi from the Prominence promotion, both challengers clearly going after former partner Suzuki. Elsewhere, this is the last event before their last major event so there could be some final build for next weekend.
Today’s event will be held at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka and can be watched LIVE on Stardom World for paid subscribers (currently around $6.25/month) and also as a PPV via Pia Stream for 2200 Japanese yen (around $15 US). Both streams will be the same. You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube. There will be no commentary for all broadcasts. Yesterday’s event went 2 hours with 5 matches so with a 6th match and title matches normally having a 30 minute time limit I anticipate this event will go closer to 2 1/4 hours.
Today’s lineup:
Saya Kamitani, AZM, Lady C & Miyu Amasaki vs. Tam Nakano, Yuna Mizumori, Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara
Saki Kashima vs. Saya Iida & Rian in a 3-way
Syuri, Ami Sohrei & Ranna Yagami vs. Hazuki, Koguma & Momo Kohgo
Mina Shirakawa, Waka Tsukiyama, Gina & HANAKO vs. Natsuko Tora, Starlight Kid, Ruaka & Fukigen
Maika, Saori Anou & Mayu Iwatani vs. Momo Watanabe, Hanan & Natsupoi
Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira vs. Risa Sera & Kurumi Hiragi for the titles
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. The live stream has begun and is currently in pre-show mode.
8:55 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.
We are LIVE from Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka, Japan. There is no commentary.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The venue can normally hold at least 1300 but has been set up for smaller since the pandemic, but whatever the setup is looks close to full. As it’s what they seem to be doing since full crowds were allowed all over the country again I’m guessing it’ll be much smaller than that, probably around 550. (Actually as we see the second angle hard camera, much higher up than yesterday, I see front rows of empty seats so I’m revising my estimate to 500) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 389)
The matches should begin shortly. The match card rundown starts the show, except for the 3-way and main event all matches today are 20 minute time limit. 15 minutes for the 3-way and 30 minutes for the title match. Order is as listed above.
Match 1: Saya Kamitani, AZM, Lady C & Miyu Amasaki vs. Tam Nakano, Yuna Mizumori, Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara. 20 minute time limit
Result: Saya Kamitani, AZM, Lady C & Miyu Amasaki beat Tam Nakano, Yuna Mizumori, Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara. AZM pinned Kurara.
The YouTube broadcast ends here.
Match 2: Saki Kashima vs. Saya Iida & Rian in a 3-way. 15 minute time limit
Result: Saya Iida beat Saki Kashima & Rian in a 3-way by pinning Kashima. Afterwards, Iida with microphone. High Speed Championship shot called. Kashima asked the down Rian about it but instead Saya Kamitani came out. Then they were joined by Fukigen. That gave Kashima an idea…4-way! We’ll see what happens, might be a late add to the PPV next weekend.
Match 3: Syuri, Ami Sohrei & Ranna Yagami vs. Hazuki, Koguma & Momo Kohgo. 20 minute time limit
Result: Hazuki, Koguma & Momo Kohgo beat Syuri, Ami Sohrei & Ranna Yagami. Hazuki pinned Yagami after a diving senton.
Match 4: Mina Shirakawa, Waka Tsukiyama, Gina & HANAKO vs. Natsuko Tora, Starlight Kid, Ruaka & Fukigen. 20 minute time limit
Result: Natsuko Tora, Starlight Kid, Ruaka & Fukigen beat Mina Shirakawa, Waka Tsukiyama, Gina & HANAKO. Ruaka pinned HANAKO after a diving body press onto Ruaka’s suitcase on top of HANAKO.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Match 5: Maika, Saori Anou & Mayu Iwatani vs. Momo Watanabe, Hanan & Natsupoi. 20 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw
Main Event: Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira vs. Risa Sera & Kurumi Hiragi for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira beat Risa Sera & Kurumi Hiragi to retain the titles. Suzuki pinned Hiragi with a German suplex hold. V1 for the champs. Next up…well, no fewer than 3 teams came out: Koguma & Hazuki, AZM & Seira and Ruaka & Kid. 4-way?
The next event is STARDOM GRAND QUEENDOM 2024 Saturday at Yokohama Buntai in Yokohama. Live streaming as a PPV via Pia Stream will begin Friday at 11 PM PT/2 AM ET. It will be available on demand on Stardom after the PPV viewing window ends, which should be sometime next week.
UPDATE: The full Saturday card was announced soon after the event:
Pre-show:
Momo Kohgo vs. Ranna Yagami
Yuna Mizumori & Aya Sakura vs. Lady C & Rian
PPV:
Konami Return Match: Konami, Syuri & Ami Sohrei vs. Gina, Waka Tsukiyama & HANAKO
High Speed Champion Saki Kashima vs. Saya Kamitani, Saya Iida & Fukigen in a 4-way for the title
Mina Shirakawa vs. Natsuko Tora
Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Mei Seira & Suzu Suzuki vs. Hazuki & Koguma, AZM & Miyu Amasaki and Starlight Kid & Ruaka in a 4-way for the titles
Future Of Stardom Champion Rina vs. Sayaka Kurara for the title
Aja Kong & Kaoru Ito (OZ Academy) vs. Tam Nakano & Natsupoi
IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani vs. Sareee (Independent/Freelancer) for the title
Wonder Of Stardom Champion Saori Anou vs. Hanan for the title
World Of Stardom Champion Maika vs. Momo Watanabe in a 3 Falls Match for the title. Fall 1 is a normal match, 30 minute time limit. Fall 2 is a Hardcore Falls Count Anywhere match, 30 minute time limit. Fall 3 if needed is a Last Woman Standing Match, no time limit, win only by KO (10 count after down)
The pre-show matches are scheduled to begin at 10:15 PM PT/1:15 AM ET, 45 minutes before the PPV.
Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Collusion and LIVE Rampage from Peoria, IL (Rampage was moved from last night due to NBA Playoffs on TNT):
Collision:
Adam Copeland, Eddie Kingston & Mark Briscoe beat Top Flight & Action Andretti.
Powerhouse Hobbs beat CJ Esparza. Squash.
Gunn Club beat The Acclaimed.
Bryan Danielson promo.
Toni Storm promo.
In a Bunkhouse Brawl, Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli beat Konosuke Takeshita & Kyle Fletcher.
Skye Blue beat Leyla Hirsch by submission.
Pac & FTR beat Kazuchika Okada & The Young Bucks.
Rampage:
Jon Moxley promo. His match next week on Dynamite vs. Powerhouse Hobbs is now for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.
Rob Van Dam beat Isaiah Kassidy, Komander & Lee Johnson in a 4-way elimination match.
Yuka Sakazaki beat Emi Sakura.
Angelo Parker promo. He & Ruby Soho have a pregnancy angle going…
Kyle O’Reilly, Matt Menard & Rocky Romero beat Roderick Strong, Matt Taven & Mike Bennett.
Next up is Dynasty tomorrow on PPV, including on Triller TV/FITE in the US (not just Bleacher Report).
Next week: Looks like another doubleheader with Rampage probably bumped to Saturday again. It’s a house show week as all 3 shows will be at Daily’s Place in Jacksonville, FL before they head back to Canada.