Tag: pro wrestling

Injury Report: I Am A Wounded Hero

The injury bug strikes Japan again, this time Tokyo Joshi Pro and, in particularly bad timing for their hero, it’s gotten Hyper Misao. Fractured right ankle. Out indefinitely. This also means a planned return to the US on 4/27 is now off. For Saturday’s event she was to have faced Yuki Kamifuku & Uta Takami in a 3-way. It’s now a single match. On Sunday she was to have teamed with Rika Tatsumi to face Arisu Endo & Mahiro Kiryu. Nao Kakuta is the replacement, meaning a 3-way of Mizuki vs. Kakuta & Pom Harajuku in a 3-way is now Mizuki vs. Harajuku.

More as it becomes available.

BREAKING: Former Japanese Wrestler & Yokozuna Akebono Dies

Very sad news out of Japan via the official Twitter accounts of New Japan’s Yuji Nagata and also Nikkan Sports: Akebono Taro, the former Yokozuna Akebono who went on to a successful pro wrestling career after retiring from sumo and becoming a Japanese citizen, has died. He was 54. He had been battling heart disease for the last 7 years.

Originally born Chad Rowan in Hawaii, Akebono became a sumo wrestler in Japan in 1983, reaching the highest rank of Yokozuna (grand champion) in 1990 and competed in sumo until 2003, when he transitioned into kickboxing and later into pro wrestling. In wrestling, he primarily competed in All-Japan Pro Wrestling and is a former Triple Crown Champion. After retiring from sumo, he obtained Japanese citizenship and changed his legal name to Akebono Taro in order to continue living in Japan, first trying his hand at kickboxing in K-1 before transitioning to pro wrestling and become a major attraction and champion for another decade.

We pray for the peace of Akebono’s soul in the other world and send deepest condolences to his family, friends and fans. RIP, GOD BLESS and E Ho’omaha I Ka Maluhia.

AEW Dynamite 4/10/24 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Charleston, WV:

Match 1: AEW World Champion Samoa Joe vs. Dustin Rhodes in a NON-TITLE match
Result: Never happened. Swerve Strickland ambushed Joe as he came out first. No word on if match will still happen tonight.

Match 2: AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland vs. Penta El Zero M for the title
Result: AEW TNT Champion Adam Copeland beat Penta El Zero M to retain the title.

The Young Bucks talk All In London and show the backstage footage. Quick clip and a massive letdown. Mostly shots at FTR. Afterwards, FTR immediately storm out to the ring to respond. Ultimately this came off as little more than an EPIC FAIL of a Dynasty promo.

Will Ospreay promo.

Julia Hart promo. Excellent video.

Match 3: Hook, Chris Jericho & Katsuyori Shibata vs. Shane Taylor Promotions
Result: Shane Taylor Promotions beat Hook, Chris Jericho & Katsuyori Shibata. Lee Moriarty pinned Shibata after Fang. Shane Taylor interference set it up while Jericho & Hook argued outside the ring.

Joe-Rhodes is still on for tonight per onscreen graphics before commercial in the prior match.

Match 4: Kazuchika Okada vs. TBA. TBA is Cristiano Argento
Result: Kazuchika Okada beat Cristiano Argento. Squash. Afterwards, Okada accepted Pac’s challenge for the AEW Continental Championship at Dynasty. Pac came out but The Bucks followed for a beatdown until FTR made the save, but Okada came back with a chair to punctuate the heel beatdown.

Match 5: Mariah May vs. Anna Jay
Result: Mariah May beat Anna Jay. Anna choked out Mariah with Queenslayer afterwards until Mina Shirakawa from Stardom ran out to make the save, then celebrate with Champagne and a little HLA with May.

Mercedes Mone interview. But when asked who she would rather face for the AEW TBS Championship between Julia Hart & Willow Nightingale, the lights go out and we hear the beatdown on Mone.

Main Event: AEW World Champion Samoa Joe vs. Dustin Rhodes in a NON-TITLE match. Take 2
Result: Samoa Joe beat Dustin Rhodes

I learned about the death of former All-Japan Triple Crown Champion and Yokozuna in sumo Akebono in the second hour and that further depleted the wind from my already-depleted sails, but this show was a bad dumpster fire. Even some Japanese hotties HLA couldn’t save it. As WWE now seems poised to begin a shift away from sports entertainment AEW is poised to take the mantle, which is a big mistake waiting to happen. If you missed the live show, skip the replay.

Friday on Rampage: Angelo Parker vs. Zak Knight, Orange Cassidy vs. Alex Reynolds and AEW TBS Champion Julia Hart vs. Leyla Hirsch for the title.

Saturday on Collision: Toni Storm vs. AZM (Stardom) and Bryan Danielson & Claudio Castagnoli vs. Powerhouse Hobbs & Kyle Fletcher.
On BOTB 10: FTW Champion Hook vs. Shane Taylor for the title.

Dragon Gate 4/10/24 Results (Updated)

Dragon Gate wrapped up the Rey De Parejas 2024 today with the Semifinals and Finals.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.

The paid attendance has not yet been announced. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1374, a super full house/very near sellout)

Match 1: Rey De Parejas Semifinals: YAMATO & Susumu Yokosuka (Susumu Mochizuki) beat BIGBOSS Shimizu & Strong Machine J. YAMATO pinned Shimizu after Omniscient & Omnipotent Frankensteiner. Yokosuka changed back from his real name to his longtime ring name effective today.

Match 2: Rey De Parejas Semifinals: Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi beat Luis Mante & Hyo. Kid pinned Hyo after countering Sansom Driver.

Match 3: Masaaki Mochizuki, Don Fujii & Kagetora beat Yasushi Kanda, Shuji Kondo & Punch Tominaga. Kagetora pinned Tomonaga after Gurumakakari.

Match 4: Madoka Kikuta, Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Daiki Yanagiuchi beat Kota Minoura, Ben-K, BxB Hulk & Ryu Fuda. Dia pinned Fuda after DDDDT.

Match 5: Ultimo Dragon & Toru Owashi (DDT) beat KAI & Gianni Valetta by DQ. Valetta DQ’d. Mask removal from Dragon.

Match 6: Kzy, U-T & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI vs. Shun Skywalker, ISHIN & Jason Lee went to a double countout. Which led to…
Match 6 (again): In a No Countouts Match, Shun Skywalker, ISHIM & Jason Lee beat Kzy, U-T & JACKY “FUBKY” KAMEI by DQ. KAMEI DQ’d. Chair use.

Main Event: Rey De Parejas Finals: Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi beat YAMATO & Susumu Yokosuka to win the tournament. Kid pinned Yokosuka after Ultra Huracanrana. As a result, Kid & Doi will probably get an Open The Twin Gate Championship shot in the future, maybe at DEAD OR ALIVE 2024 on 5/5. (Post-script thought: 5/5 is a toss-up because the titles are held by Pro Wrestling NOAH wrestlers Kaito Kiyomiya & Alejandro and NOAH has a PPV on 5/4 in Tokyo. The 5/5 event is in Nagoya and it’s also 24 hours before ALL TOGETHER, which will feature Kiyomiya and also Shun Skywalker on opposite sides in a 6-man tag match. We’ll see what happens. I think 5/4 is more likely, but nothing has been announced yet for either event).

Next up is The Gate Of Passion 2024 Tour beginning Saturday at Oro City Hall in Kagoshima. There will be no love or on demand broadcast. That will be followed that night (Sunday Japan tome) by a doubleheader at Acros Fukuoka in Fukuoka with both events live on DRAGONGATE NETWORK beginning at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. I may be able to do live results for the first event.

UPDATE: With regards to the Twin Gate title match, it’s now official for 5/5. Also set for 5/5 is a 5-way Hair vs. Mask cage match with Kzy, JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI, Shun Skywalker, Hyo & Jason Lee (I think he’ll be JACKY “BALDY” KAMEI afterwards) and Open The Dream Gate Champion Luis Mante vs. Gianni Valetta for the title. I think Mante’s fairy tale story that began last year after he lost his own mask in said Hair vs. Mask Cage Match (when he was Diamante) is coming to an ugly end.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 4/8/24 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH held Episode 2 of MONDAY MAGIC Season 2 today, promising more unpredictable happenings after last week’s season premiere.

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: Jake Lee beat Yu Owada.

Match 2: Shuhei Taniguchi & HAYATA beat Daiki Inaba & Junta Miyawaki. HAYATA pinned Miyawaki after a tiger driver.

Match 3: Miyuki Takase beat Great Sakuya by DQ. Deadly weapon use.

Match 4: Alpha Wolf beat Daga, Ninja Mack & Alejandro in a 4-way by pinning Mack.

Match 5: Kaito Kiyomiya, Ryohei Oiwa & Masa Kitamiya beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Takashi Sugiura & Kazunari Murakami (Big Mouth Loud). Kiyomiya pinned Sugiura after Transformed Shining Wizard.

Main Event: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Tadasuke beat Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto to retain the titles.YO-HEY pinned Miyamoto after a dropkick. V5 for the champs.

Episode 3 is next Monday with GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene vs. TBA in an Open Challenge for the titles and GHC Hardcore Champion Ninja Mack vs. Alpha Wolf for the title.

The next event is Thursday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. This will be a live Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan.

Injury Report: Akitoshi Saito is now off Thursday. Lower back contusion. He was to have teamed with Mohammed Yone & Atsushi Kotoge to fave Anthony Greene, YO-HEY & Tadasuke. Hi69 is the replacement.

Dragon Gate 4/6/24 & 4/7/24 Results (Updated)

Dragon Gate ran the penultimate days of the Rey De Parejas 2024 tournament this weekend.

Yesterday’s event was held at Act City Hamamatsu in Shizuoka and today’s event was held at Mercure Hotel Yokosuka in Kanagawa. There are/were no live or on demand broadcasts for both events.

Yesterday:
The announced paid attendance was 289, a full house/near sellout.

Match 1: Luis Mante & Hyo beat BxB Hulk & Daiki Yanagiuchi. Mante pinned Yanagiuchi after MCK.

Match 2: Masaaki Mochizuki beat Ryu Fuda.

Match 3: Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi & Yasushi Kanda beat Takashi Yoshida, Problem Dragon & Punch Tominaga. Horiguchi pinned Tominaga after Backslide From Heaven.

Match 4; Jason Lee & ISHIN vs. U0T & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI went to a no contest. Natural Vibes & Z-Brats interference.

Match 5: Susumu Mochizuki, Kagetora & Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) beat Madoka Kikuta, Dragon Dia & Ryoya Tanaka. Mochizuki pinned Tanaka after Yokosuka Cutter.

Main Event: Rey De Parejas Block A; BIGBOSS Shimizu & Strong Machine J beat KAI & Gianni Valetta. J pinned KAI with Genie Clutch. As a result, Shimizu & J finish 2nd in Block A and advance to the Semifinals.

Today:
The paid attendance has not yet been announced. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 357, a super full house/very near sellout).

Match 1: Susumu Mochizuki vs. Masaaki Mochizuki went to a 10 minute time limit draw.

Match 2: Ryu Fuda & Ryoya Tanaka beat Kagetora & Punch Tominaga. Tanaka pinned Tominaga after Spanish Fly.

Match 3: Gianni Valetta beat Problem Dragon.

Match 4: BIGBOSS Shimizu, Strong Machine J, U-T & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi, Yasushi Kanda & Takashi Yoshida. J pinned Horiguchi after Diamond Frame.

Match 5: Rey De Parejas Block B: Luis Mante & Hyo vs. Madoka Kikuta & Dragon Dia went to a 20 minute time limit draw. As a result, Mante & Hyo finish 2nd in Block B and advance to the Semifinals.

Main Event: Susumu Mochizuki, BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi beat KAI, Jason Lee & ISHIN. Mochizuki pinned KAI with Jumbo Pin.

The tournament Semifinals and Finals are Wednesday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.

UPDATE: After today’s event, Susumu Mochizuki announced that, starting Wednesday, his name is changing back to Susumu Yokosuka, his prior name (Susumu Mochizuki is his real name, no known relation to Masaaki Mochizuki or Mochizuki Junior).

Pro Wrestling NOAH 4/7/24 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2024 today in Osaka, headlined by a GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Title match.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date (probably Wednesday). There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 448.

There were last-minute changes because Dragon Bane was off the event due to a broken nose. Currently out at least 1 week.

Match 1: Tadasuke beat Yu Owada.

Match 2: Hajime Ohara beat Alejandro & Junta Miyawaki in a 3-way by pinning Miyawaki.

Match 3: Yo-HEY beat Atsushi Kotoge.

Match 4: HAYATA & Shuji Kondo beat Daga & Yoshinari Ogawa. HAYATA pinned Ogawa.

Match 5: Alpha Wolf beat Ninja Mack.

Match 6: Kenoh, Takashi Sugiura, Masa Kitamiya & Shuhei Taniguchi beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Naomichi Marufuji, Daiki Inaba & Ulka Sasaki. Kenoh pinned Inaba after PFS.

Match 7: Jake Lee beat Go Shiozaki.

Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa to retain the titles. Morris pinned Oiwa after a tiger driver. V5 for the champs.

The next event is MONDAY MAGIC Season 2 Episode 2 tomorrow at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, which will feature a GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship match. It is a legit advance sellout. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

Injury Report: The Dragon’s Bane

Pro Wrestling NOAH has just announced a breaking njury change for today’s event in Osaka: Dragon Bane is now off. Broken nose. Out at least 1 week. For today, he was to have teamed with Alpha Wolf to face Ninja Mack & Alejandro, but now it means Alpha Wolf will now face Ninja Mack and Alejandro will face Junta Miyawaki & Hajime Ohara in a 3-way instead of original plans. For Thursday at Korakuen Hall, the first match is now Ninja Mack vs. Junta Miyawaki & Alejandro in a 3-way. For 4/14, match 2 is now Ninja Mack vs. Alpha Wolf & Hajime Ohara in a 3-way.

DDT Pro Wrestling 4/7/24 Results (Updated)

After once again being part of “The Collective” in the US ahead of WWE WrestleMania, DDT is back in Japan for a short-turnaround event, their monthly tentpole tour beginner/ender in Tokyo-APRIL FOOL 2024. It sounds like everyone made it back safely ahead of today’s event, which has 2 title matches scheduled: First up is DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69, coming over from Pro Wrestling NOAH, for the title in a “Lucky Draw! Calling for Pain Survival Kuji Great Battle!” (or something like that), which is no rope escapes or countouts, win only by pinfall or submission and various weapons will be available. In the second title match, KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino defend the titles against Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga. The main event will feature a couple of Englanders teaming up as Zack Sabre Jr. comes over from New Japan Pro Wrestling to team with Chris Brookes against Yuki Ueno & MAO, just back from the US. Additionally, this will be the last time Hideki Okatani will be seen for a while as after today, he will be having ACL/knee surgery and will be out at least several months.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese. Actor Takumi Momose will be a special guest on commentary. There is now a pre-show match scheduled for 30 minutes before the event’s planned start time, so adding that in I anticipate this will be a “normal” Korakuen event with a total running time of about 3 hours. It will be going up against the last hour or two of WrestleMania Night 1 so I might be a little behind early on with updates.

Today’s lineup:
Pre-show:
Unpaid RUMBLE FINAL! aka Battle Royal

Main show:
Yuni & Yuya Koroku vs. Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura
Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way
D GENERATIONS CUP Final: To-y vs. Rukiya
Shinya Aoki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto
DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69 for the title
KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino vs. Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga for the titles
Chris Brookes & Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:45 PM PT/9:45 PM ET. The pre-show match is scheduled to begin at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET.

6:45 PM PT UPDATE: The live stream has begun. We should be going to the venue in 15 minutes for the pre-show match.

6:57 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano and special guest Takumi Momose.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd will still be filing in over the next 30+ minutes but it looks like it’s set up for their usual 1000-1100. Based on advance ticket sales they’re probably trending for in the 700s. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1334, a super full house/very bear sellout. Unusually late arriving crowd, maybe due to WrestleMania? Night 1 ran against the first half of today’s event)

Pre-show match: Unpaid Fighter Battle Royal. Entrants are Sanshiro Takagi, Toru Owashi, Akito and a ridiculous(ly long) list of comedy characters
Result: Sayaka Unagi won. She was the last entrant and eliminated Takagi. All the other participants were comedy impersonations of wrestlers or people who probably were extras, interns, etc. Even a teenage boy was in it. Afterwards, A Takagi-Unagi match for the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship currently held by Unagi was made for the future. Takagi then had all the participants come back in and crowd into and around the ring for the group photo op.

Main show:
Coming up momentarily as the pre-show went just over 30 minutes.

The matches begin at 7:35 PM PT/10:35 PM ET.

Match 1: Yuni & Yuya Koroku vs. Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuni & Yuya Koroku beat Illusion & Munetatsu Nakamura. Koroku beat Illusion with a cross armbar/wrist lock.

Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way. 30 minute time limit. At the start, all 4 teams each were placed in a different corner of the venue and when the bell rang, they all rushed to the ring to begin the match.
Result: Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya & Hideki Okatani beat Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON,. HARASHIMA, Yoshitatsu & Takeshi Masada and Danshoku Dieno, Kazuki Hirata & Kazuma Sumi in a 4-way when Okatani pinned Sumi.

Match 3: D GENERATIONS CUP Final: To-y vs. Rukiya. No time limit
Result: To-y beat Rukiya to win the tournament. As a result, Yo-y gets into KING OF DDT 2024. They then announce the Round 1 matches for the tournament, so To-y’s “reward” is KANON. Round 1 is 5/5 at Korakuen.

Quick break for the opening announcements. During them, it was announced that Unagi-Takagi will be on 4/26 at Sumida City Gym in Tokyo along with a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship match and KO-D Openweight Champion Yuki Ueno vs. Akito for the title. UPDATE: Yuki Ishida also came out here and announced he will return on 5/16.

Match 4: Shinya Aoki vs. Chihiro Hashimoto (Sendai Girls). 15 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw

Match 5: DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata vs. Hi69 (Pro Wrestling NOAH) in a Great Kuji Survival Match for the title. No rope escapes, no countouts, lucky weapons are in each corner that can be used. 1 Hour time limit
Result: DDT Extreme Champion Shunma Katsumata beat Hi69 to retain the title. V2 for Katsumata.

Quick break for ring cleaning.

Match 6: KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino vs. Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: KO-D Tag Team Champions Tetsuya Endo & Yuki Iino beat Jun Akiyama & Tomomitsu Matsunaga to retain the titles. Iino pinned Matsunaga after a lariat. V2 for the champs.

Main Event: Chris Brookes & Zack Sabre Jr. (New Japan) vs. Yuki Ueno & MAO. 30 minute time limit
Result: Time Limit Draw

The next event is Saturday at Nishitetsu Hall in Fukuoka. There will be no live broadcast.