Tag: pro wrestling

All-Japan is scheduled to run the second half of their New Year doubleheader today, amidst what has become a very difficult start to 2024 in Japan with the major earthquake off the western coast and now a tragic and deadly plane collision at Haneda Airport in Tokyo that killed 5 Japan Coast Guard service members (thankfully the roughly 380 aboard the passenger jet involved survived and got off before it caught fire). I join those all over the world in sending condolences and support to those in Japan affected by these disasters.

The event today is currently on as planned but refunds will be offered for those with tickets who cannot travel to the event from affected areas (the earthquake was centered in Ishikawa Prefecture, northwest of Tokyo and northeast of Osaka). The headliner is Katsuhiko Nakajima defending the Triple Crown against Charlie Dempsey, who is getting this chance mainly as a favor from WWE towards William Regal as Dempsey is his real-life son and very few people are more respected in pro wrestling than Regal, who I can listen to talk about wresting for all eternity (he is a walking encyclopedia when it comes to the sport). As for what may happen, let’s just say, as always in wrestling, you never know.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV, presumably in Japanese. Yesterday’s event went shorter than I predicted and with one fewer match today, and just one title match, I anticipate this event having a running time of around 2 1/2 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Dan Tamura, Rising Hayato, Black Menso-re & Ryo Inoue vs. Hikaru Sato, Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Fuminori Abe
Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori
Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai
Actress Girls Provided Match
Shotaro Ashino & Ren Ayabe vs. Jun & Rei Saito
Suwama & Hideki Suzuki vs. Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr.
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Charlie Dempsey for the Triple Crown

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

6:28 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. We come in during pre-event announcements. Commentary will start shortly. It sounds like this is another Samurai! TV simulcast in Japan.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Already a super full house so potentially a sellout. Easy 1300. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1331, a super full house/very near sellout)

Muted a moment for opening music.

The matches begin at 6:33 PM PT/9:33 PM ET. I didn’t see the advertised Actress Girls match in the opening lineup video so we’ll see what happens.

Match 1: Dan Tamura, Rising Hayato, Black Menso-re & Ryo Inoue vs. Hikaru Sato, Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer), Koji Iwamoto & Fuminori Abe. 30 minute time limit
Result: HIkaru Sato, Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Fuminori Abe beat Dan Tamura, Rising Hayato, Black Menso-re & Ryo Inoue. Iwamoto pinned Inoue. Iwamoto was/is angling for the next shot at the All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Championship held by Tamura. We’ll see what happens.

Match 2: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Minoru Suzuki & Holluto Omori beat Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana. Suzuki pinned Tachibana after a Gotch-style piledriver. Largely a comedy match, the first 5 minutes or so were them brawling all throughout the crowd.

Match 3: Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai. 30 minute time limit
Result: Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai beat Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Honda pinned Atsuki Aoyagi after Final Vent.

Actress Girls performance.

Match 4; Actress Girls Provided Match: Chika Goto & Koki (?) vs. Natsuki & Miku Aono. Unknown time limit
Result: Chika Goto & Koki beat Natsuki & Miku Aono. Koki pinned Natsuki. Some of these girls were in their debut match here.

Video revealing the 1/14 card. It will include NEW GAORA TV Champion Black Menso-re vs. Seigo Tachibana for the title, All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori for the titles (this is the challengers’ reward for winning the 2023 Real World Tag League) and a Masanobu Fuchi 50th Anniversary & 70th Birthday Match-Masanobu Fuchi vs. the winner of an 8 man battle royal before that. Then on 1/27 at Esforta Arena Hachioji in Tokyo, AEW & DDT’s Konosuke Takeshita makes his AJPW debut teaming with Hideki Okatani vs. Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi.

Match 5: Shotaro Ashino & Ren Ayabe vs. Jun & Rei Saito. 30 minute time limit
Result: Jun & Rei Saito beat Shotaro Ashino & Ren Ayabe. Rei Saito pinned Ayabe after a divng body press.

Match 6: Suwama & Hideki Suzuki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) vs. Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr.. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Suwama & Hideki Suzuki. Miyahara pinned Suwama with a rollup after reversing Last Ride.

Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Charlie Dempsey for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Charlie Dempsey to retain the Triple Crown. V2 for Nakajima. Next up: Possibly Shotaro Ashino, who still has never gotten the title match he earned for winning the Champions Carnival last year. He lost that opportunity due to injury. After the challenge is issued, Nakajima leaves first in an odd spot, leaving Ashino to finish the post-match promo. I’ve been waiting for Ashino to hopefully get his chance since he just came back and now it seems it’ll be sooner rather than later. Only question is when.

The next event is 1/14. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin on 1/13 at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. Live results are scheduled. The promotion is also sponsoring/co-promoting a Sayaka Unagi Produced event Sunday but that event will not be broadcast, at least not on AJPW.TV.

All-Japan kicks off 2024 today with the start of the New Year’s Series 2024. This is the first half of a doubleheader. It should be noted that, at this time, this and all other events this week I am aware of are set to go on as planned despite the major 7.5 earthquake that struck western Japan today (centered in Ishikawa prefecture, northwest of Yokyo). Today’s event features 2 title matches-first up is a GAORA TV Championship match as Minoru Tanaka defends against Black Menso-re, then NEW All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura defends against former partner Hikaru Sato. The main event will be a battle royal with participants TBA later today, so we may not know everyone in it until match time.
The promotion also has announced Shuji Ishikawa is off today’s and tomorrow’s events. Illness. This comes amidst reports from Tokyo Sports that he will leave the promotion at the end of the month amidst apparent disputes with the President of All-Japan.

Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV, probably in Japanese. Depending on how long some of the matches go, and there is also an “Actress Girls Wrestling” segment planned, it’s hard to predict a potential running time for this event but I’ll guess it’ll be close to 3 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue vs. Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori
GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka vs. Black Menso-re for the title
Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio Tokyo Japan & Seigo Tachibana
ActWres Girls Provided Segment
Suwama, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuya Nagai vs. Minoru Suzuki, Hokuto Omori, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Jun & Rei Saito
Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hideki Suzuki vs. Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey
All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura vs. HIkaru Sato for the title
New Year’s Battle Royal

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

6:22 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…

We are LIVE from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Didn’t hear who is on commentary as it started a couple minutes before I jumped on but it sounds like Kagehiro Osano is one of the hosts today. This may be another Samuraii! TV simulcast in Japan. As I Join in the roster comes out for New Year’s greetings from the President of the promotion.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. It’s a Tuesday morning event but I think ti’s a holiday and it looks like a decent crowd so far although most of the bleacher seats aren’t full. I’m going to guess it’ll be in the 800-850 range. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1008, but the promotion has announced that, in the wake of the earthquake, refunds will be offered for fans affected by the disaster who were unable to attend the event and who also cannot make tomorrow’s event)

The matches should begin in a few minutes.

The matches begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

Match 1: Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue vs. Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer), Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Naruki Doi, Koji Iwamoto & Takahiro Katori beat Rising Hayato, Fuminori Abe & Ryo Inoue. Iwamoto pinned Inoue.

After this, Hayato returned to the ring. With micorphone. He said a few words then walked off.

Match 2: GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka vs. Black Menso-re for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Black Menso-re beat GAORA TV Champion Minoru Tanaka to win the title. Menso-re becomes the 24th GAORA TV Champion. That ends what had been the 3rd-longest title reign to date as Tanaka came just 3 weeks short of reigning for a year.

Match 3: Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio Tokyo Japan & Seigo Tachibana. 30 minute time limit
Reslut: Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana beat Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi. Ashino pinned Atsuki Aoyagi.

An ActWres Girls segment is happening now (starts at 7:23 PM PT/10:23 PM ET). I believe they are a promotion featuring former idols/actresses turned wrestlers. A song/dance number leads to a face-painted girl (Great Asako) coming out slowly, then it leads to a tag match involving some of the girls. There is no commentary for this segment. Asako was pinned and slowly crawled to the back weirdly afterwards. Weird…

Commentary returns for the next match.
Match 4: Suwama, Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe, Osamu Nishimura & Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition) vs. Minoru Suzuki, Hokuto Omori, Davey Boy Smith Jr., Jun & Rei Saito. 30 minute time limit
Result: No Contest. Out of control outside the ring and became a brawl all over the place.

Match 5: Katsuhiko Nakajima (Independent/Freelancer) & Hideki Suzuki (Pro Wrestling NOAH) vs. Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey (WWE). 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuma Anzai & Charlie Dempsey beat Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hideki Suzuki. Dempsey pinned Nakajima.

Match 6: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura vs. HIkaru Sato for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Dan Tamura beat Hikaru Sato by submission to retain the title. V1 for Tamura.

Main Event: New Year’s Battle Royal. Everyone participating including Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato despite just finishing their match, with a few exceptions (Nakajima, Dempsey, Nishimura, Nagai, Smith, Minoru Suzuki, Tanaka, Menso-re) Everyone in the ring to start. Eliminations by pinfall, submission or over the top rope unless otherwise noted. No time limit
Order of elimination: Kento Miyahara, Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi, Shotaro Ashino, Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, Black Menso-re, Seigo Tachibana, Hideki Suzuki, Fuminori Abe, Suwama, Dan Tamura, Koji Iwamoto, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai DQ’d, Takahiro Katori, Rei Saito, Jun Saito, Naruki Doi, Tuma Anzai, Rising Hayato.
Result: Ryo Inoue wins. He gets a nice little bonus to start 2024.

The next event is tomorrow with Nakajima-Dempsey for the Triple Crown. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET and live results will be posted.

All-Japan wraps up 2023 with their annual New Year’s Eve blowout event, and it’s definitely blowout in terms of magnitude. That’s largely because of the main event, which will see Katsuhiko Nakajima, who showed up in All-Japan a couple months ago after leaving Pro Wrestling NOAH, defend the triple crown against his eternal rival, Kento Miyahara, in what should be nothing short of an instant classic. Other highlight matches include All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman defending against Dan Tamura, who earned his chance by winning the recent Jr. Battle Of Glory, the return of Davey Boy Smith Jr. to the promotion and the All-Japan debut of Charlie Dempsey, the son of the legendary William Regal, before he gets a Triple Crown opportunity against today’s main event winner. Early on will also see Takao Omori’s last match before he departs the promotion for a second time, but likely isn’t retiring, and a top rookie final that’s a family affair because it will be Jun & Rei Saito facing each other.

Before the event begins, there will be a memorial ceremony in the ring for former Japanese wrestler Killer Khan. Word broke from New Japan and All-Japan that Khan died yesterday (US time) at age 77. This is scheduled for 15 minutes before the event is to start.

Today’s event will be held at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV, presumably in Japanese. AND, for the first time ever, I think, it will be LIVE on Triller TV, fka FITE, for TrillerTV+ subscribers, also in Japanese and available worldwide except in Japan. That service is $7.99/month of $79.99/year. It’s not yet known if the Khan memorial ceremony will be broadcast. As a blowout event and with a main event that would not shock me if it goes the full 1 hour, prepare for a potential all-nighter as I anticipate the event’s total running time will be close to 4 hours.

Today’s lineup (in order):
Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Minoru Tanaka, Naruki Doi & Koji Iwamoto
Takao Omori Final All-Japan Match: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue vs. Mitsuya Nagai, Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi
Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe
Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito
Shotaro Ashino Return Match: Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk vs. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana
Charlie Dempsey & Yuma Anzai vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA (Dradition)
Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima (DDT)
All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Dan Tamura for the title
Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Hikaru Sato vs. Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 8:45 PM PT/11:45 PM ET. If the Killer Khan memorial is not broadcast, then updates will begin 15 minutes later or once the live stream begins. The Triller+ broadcast is to begin at 9 PM PT/midnight ET so that part likely will not be seen there. I will be watching on AJPW.TV.

8:44 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 in Tokyo, Japan. Audio muted to start.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. All the lower level seating is sold out so we’ll see how the upper level seating sold. IT sounds like the final number should be between 2500-3000. A legit full capacity sellout would be approx. 3202. (Based on how upper level seating looked once the event got going I think it’s going to be around 2500) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2687. About 85% of full capacity, a good number although despite being sold out there were notable lower level seats empty. The opposite hard-camera upper level area was notably empty, maybe because that’s where the in-arena monitor screen was)

The in-ring memorial ceremony for Killer Khan, who died yesterday, will begin shortly. The roster and wrestlers all stood around the ring for a ceremonial 10 bell salute and customary final announcement which is usually done to signify a wrestler’s retirement.

Ceremony concludes at 8:52 PM PT/11:52 PM PT. Audio muted again afterwards and will probably stay that way until the event officially starts in about 10 minutes. Updates will resume then.

Japanese TV & commentary join in at 9 PM PT/midnight ET. This is a Samurai! TV broadcast in Japan. Not sure who the host is but Kagehiro Osano is also on commentary.

The matches begin at 9:07 PM PT/12:07 AM ET.

Match 1: Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe vs. Minoru Tanaka (GLEAT), Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Koji Iwamoto. 20 minute time limit
Result: Minoru Tanaka, Naruki Doi & Koji Iwamoto beat Black Menso-re, Takuya Nomura & Fuminori Abe. Tanaka pinned Menso-re with a rollup.

Match 2: Takao Omori Final All-Japan Match: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue vs. Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition), Koji Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Kuma Arashi (Independent/Freelancer). 20 minute time limit
Result: Takao Omori, Ryuki Honda & Ryo Inoue beat Mitsuya Nagai, Koji Doi & Kuma Arashi. Omori pinned Arashi after Ax Bomber. (Considering departing/retiring wrestlers are typically losers in their final match, this was a very classy move by All-Japan to put Omori over)

Match 3: Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu vs. Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuma Aoyagi & Yoshitatsu beat Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe. Aoyagi pinned Ayabe with a bridge rollup. The winners get some kind of prize from sponsor LEC Cleaning Products. Afterwards, Yoshitatsu with microphone. Brief comments thanking the crowd, then his music hit too early because then Aoyagi with microphone. He added a few words.

Match 4: New Rookie King Final Match: Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito. No time limit
Result: Jun Saito beat Rei Saito

Match 5: Shotaro Ashino Return Match: Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk vs. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana. 30 minute time limit. During his entrance through the crowd, Kuroshio botched leaping over guardralis between the seats and ring areas, but after a few seconds leapt up like it was nothing. Very funny spot nonetheless. And yes, Kuroshio/Tachibana’s entrance will probably wing up going longer than the actual match. Kuroshio gets all he can out of that “former WWE superstar” rub.
Result: Kuroshio TOKYO Japan & Seigo Tachibana beat Shotaro Ashino & T-Hawk. Kuroshio pinned Ashino.

Match 6: Charlie Dempsey (WWE) & Yuma Anzai vs. Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA (Dradition). 30 minute time limit
Result: Charlie Dempsey & Yuma Anzai beat Tatsumi Fujinami & LEONA. Dempsey beat LEONA with a modified rear naked choke.

Match 7: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima (DDT). 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno & Toi Kojima beat Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato. Ueno pinned Hayato after WR.

Jun Saito joins commentary for the next match.

Match 8: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Dan Tamura for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: Dan Tamura beat All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman to win the title. Tamura becomes the 67th All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion.

Match 9: Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & Hikaru Sato vs. Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori. 30 minute time limit
Result: Minoru Suzuki, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Hokuto Omori beat Suwama, Hideki Suzuki & HIkaru Sato. Smith pinned Sato after a powerbomb.

Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Kento Miyahara for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima beat Kento Miyahara by submission to retain the Triple Crown. V1 for Nakajima. I thought it might go the distance, but went “only” about 26 minutes. Next up: As previously announced, whether the champ likes it or not, Charlie Dempsey on Wednesday at Korakuen Hall. Of note-instead of his usual music Nakajima came out to “Inoki Bom-Ba-Ye”, the late Antonio Inoki’s entrance theme. He closed with Inoki’s signature “3, 2, 1, DA” shout to end the event. He was also accompanied by who might have been Inoki’s relatives as they were wearing suits with the New Japan logo.

The next event, the promotion’s 2024 opener, is Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin Monday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET. Live results are tentatively scheduled pending resolution of payment issues with my subscription (credit card expired and new one is the same but changed that pesky CVV which is causing payment issues).

UPDATE: Quite a bit of post-event news to pass along:
Yoshitatsu is now finished with the promotion. Contract expired and will not be renewed. Sounds like he will be a freelancer for now.
Shuji Ishikawa is now off the coming week’s events (Tuesday & Wednesday). Illness.
Next up for Dan Tamura: Hikaru Sato. That match will happen Tuesday.

UPDATE 2: Tokyo Sports is now reporting Ishikawa will also leave the promotion at the end of January. Rumors from the newspaper are he has issues with the President of the promotion, and that other wrestlers may soon follow suit. Tokyo Sports is a bit more “gossipy/dirt sheet” than the more reliable sources like Weekly Pro, Nikkan Sports and others so take this as 50-50 until official word comes from All-Japan.