News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
DDT is surely glad to see 2023 end when it comes to injuries and absences, and they had one more last-minute loss today-Yuya Aoki is now off tomorrow’s year-end event. Fever. He was to have been in a one-day 6-man tag team tournament with Takeshi Masada & Koji Iwamoto. Akira, who is not the former longtime wrestler AKIRA or New Japan’s Francesco Akira, is the replacement.
(Note that although the event is at Korakuen Hall, there will be no live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE)
Stardom wrapped up their 2023 with their final blowout event of the year, Stardom Dream Queendom 2023.
Today’s event was held at Ryogoku Kokugikan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on PPV via Pia (Japan). The last 2 matches have been uploaded to YouTube because the PPV feed was lost early and the end of the semifinal match and the entire main event were not shown due to network issues. The event will be available on Stardom World at a later date (probably in about a week).
The paid attendance has not yet been announced. There were some famous fans in attendance via posts on the socials including New Japan’s Yuji Nagata, who took his son to the event. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 3063)
Match 1: Miyu Amasaki, Yuzuki & Azusa Inaba beat Sayaka Kurara, Ranna Yagami & HANAKO. Yuzuki pinned Kurara.
Match 2: Saki Kashima & Ami Sohrei beat Lady C & Hina, Yuna Mizumori & SAKI and Thekla & Mai Sakurai in a 4-way when Sohrei pinned Mizumori.
Match 3: Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki, Saya Iida & Hanan beat Starkight Kid, Rina, Ruaka & Fukigen. Iwatani pinned Fukigen after a moonsault press.
Match 4: Nanae Takahashi, Yuu & AZM beat Mina Shirakawa, Mei Seira & Syuri. Takahashi pinned Shirakawa after Nanae Rocker.
Match 5: Goddesses Of Stardom Champions Utami Hayashishita & Saya Kamitani beat Natsuko Tora & Momo Watanabe to retain the titles. Hayashishita pinned Tora after a torture rack bomb. V1 for the champs.
Match 6: STRONG Women’s Champion Giulia beat Meghan Bayne by submission to retain the title. V7 for Giulia. Next up: Trish Adora. That match may happen on 1/13 at the next New Japan US event in San Jose, CA.
Match 7: Saori Anou beat Wonder Of Stardom Champion MIRAI to win the title. Anou becomes the 20th Wonder Of Stardom Champion.
Main Event: Maika beat Suzu Suzuki to win the vacant World Of Stardom Championship. Maika becomes the 17th World Of Stardom Champion.
The next event is Wednesday at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama. It will be available on demand on Stardom World at a later date.
UPDATE 2: After the PPV issues today it has been announced that all buyers will get a full refund after the new year begins and the entire event will be streamed free on YouTube for a limited time.
Confirming reports on various news sites today, AEW original Shawn Spears announced he is leaving the promotion. His contract is up this weekend and says it was a personal decision to leave. He hasn’t been featured much in AEW since the pandemic and last was seen at the All Out PPV in September. He also is expecting his second child with wife Cassie Lee (the former Peyton Royce in WWE) after their first child arrived earlier this year.
Spears was previously Tye Dillinger in WWE and NXT before AEW but there is no word on where he may go next. His Chairman gimmick in AEW involved, of course, chairs.
GLEAT held their last G PROWRESTLING event of the year this past Sunday, which also was a KAZMA SAKAMOTO 20th Anniversary event. The big man began his career as KAZMA in TAKA Michonoku’s old K-DOJO (Kaientai Dojo) promotion/wrestling school in Chiba Prefecture, then jumped to WWE where he had a stint as KAZMA SAKAMOTO, then kept that name when he returned to Japan following his WWE release.
Sunday’s event was held at Umeda Stellar Hall in Osaka and can now be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube. There was no live broadcast, but the full event was uploaded earlier today. You can also watch the full video below, video courtesy of the GLEAT Official YouTube Channel:
The announced paid attendance was 260.
Match 1: Issei Onitsuka, Masato Kamino & Tomoaki Honma (New Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Kotaro Suzuki, Keiichi Sato & Hartley Jackson. Onitsuka pinned Sato after a Frankensteiner.
Match 2: Fire Katsumi (Just Tap Out) beat Jun Tonsho.
Match 3: Minoru Tanaka & JD Lee beat Galeno Del Mal & Tommy Knight. Tanaka beat Knight with Minoru Leg Bar.
Match 4: Soma Watanabe & Yuya Susumu beat Takanori Ito & Tetsuya Izuchi. Watanabe pinned Ito after Firebird Splash.
Match 5: Kaito Ishida beat Seiichi Ikemoto.
Match 6: KAZMA SAKAMOTO 20th Anniversary Match: Tatsumi Fujinami (Dradition) & Kaz Hayashi beat KAZMA SAKAMOTO & TAKA Michinoku. Fujinami beat SAKAMOTO with a dragon sleeper.
Main Event: T-Hawk, El Lindaman & CIMA beat Ryuichi Kawakami, Hayato Tamura & Check Shimatani. CIMA pinned Shimatani.
The next event is GLEAT Ver. 7 Saturday at Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming FOR FREE on YouTube in Japanese will begin at 12:50 AM PT/3:50 AM ET. Bookmark/set a reminder for the live stream below:
Here are the quick results for tomorrow’s AEW Rampage in Orlando, FL (SPOILERS!):
Continue reading “AEW Rampage 12/29/23 Results (SPOILERS!)”Here are the quick results from tonight’s New Year’s Smash episode of AEW Dynamite in Orlando, FL:
Match 1: Continental Classic Gold Block Finals: Jon Moxley vs. Swerve Strickland & Jay White in a 3-way
Result: Jon Moxley beat Swerve Strickland & Jay White in a 3-way by pinning White. As a result, Moxley will face Eddie Kingston or Bryan Danielson in the Finals Saturday at the Worlds End PPV.
Strickland intervewed backstage. He will now face Keith Lee Saturday.
Mariah May interviewed. She plans to make her in-ring debut next week. Riho then interrupts and runs her off, Toni Storm tries to make the save but gets sent packing by Riho.
Top Flight & Action Andretti promo. Orange Casside interrupts with Trent Beretta & Rocky Romero. Trios match on Rampage. Andretti impressively chugs then crushes a small (12-16 oz) water bottle. Must-see.
Miro promo. He will face Andrade El Idolo Saturday.
The Callous Hand Of Don hosts a Boxing Week Celebration in the ring for his family, much to Tony Schiavone’s (hilarious) dismay. Sammy Guevara returns to try and crash the party and gets a beatdown until Chris Jericho makes the save, but then Ricky Starks & Big Bill hit the ring for a beatdown until the lights go out, but instead of House Of Black it was Darby Allin & Sting to make the save.
Match 2: Continental Classic Blue Block Finals: Bryan Danielson vs. Eddie Kingston
Result: Eddie Kingston beat Bryan Danielson
Match 3: Skye Blue beat Kris Statlander.
The Adam Copeland-Christian Cage interview started with Copeland no-showing, then storming in and it became a brawl.
Main Event: The Devil’s Masked Men beat ROH Tag Team Champions MJF & Samoa Joe (for Adam Cole) to become THE NEW ROH TAG TEAM CHAMPIONS! Essentially just MJF vs. both as Joe was taken out first thing. After The Devil appeared on screen post-match, Joe turned on MJF.
Due to receiving word of a death in my family I had to stop watching after Danielson-Kingston began, so everything from then on I was not able to watch live.
Friday on Rampage: Top Flight & Action Andretti vs. Best Friends and Ruby Soho vs. Marina Shafir.
No Collision this week because of the Worlds End PPV Saturday.
Although MAO is scheduled to defend the DDT Universal Championship next month in Tokyo, he may not make it there as champion. US independent promotion Circle 6, in a post by MAO in Japanese and translated to English by DDT on the socials, has announced MAO will defend the title against Nate Webb on Sunday in Hollywood, CA. MAO will also participate in the promotion’s 12/30 event in Los Angeles. Tickets may still be available on Circle 6’s website (this will be a 10 PM PT/1 AM ET event with no TV/streaming scheduled).
The final (and final annual) Ganbare Pro blowout event of the year, BAD COMMUNICATION ’23, is now in the books.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 603. They used a reduced capacity setup with the opposite-hard camera bleacher seating completely closed off and used as the entrance ramp area.
The opening start call was delivered by Moeka Haruhi, who is recovering from donating a kidney to her younger sister as life-saving treatment. Haruhi will return to competing when she is fully recovered acleared.
Match 1: KO-D Tag Team Champions Takao Soma & Shota beat Keisuke Ishii & Shigehiro Irie to retain the titles. Shota pinned Ishii with Gannosuke Clutch. V3 for the champs. Next up: Ken Ohka & HARASHIMA. That match may happen on 1/6.
Match 2: Makoto, HARUKAZE & Bunny Oikawa beat Sumire Natsu, YuuRI & Riara. HARUKAZE pinned Riara after Flame Spear.
Match 3: Yoshiko Hasegawa beat Arisu Endo (Tokyo Joshi Pro).
Match 4: Yuko Miyamoto beat Munetatsu Nakamura.
Match 5: In a GanPro vs. GLEAT elimination match with over the top rope elimination rules in effect, Yumehito Imanari, Takuya Wada, Mizuki Watase, Shinichiro Tominaga & Tyson Maeguchi beat Kaz Hayashi, Minoru Tanaka, Takanori Ito, Check Shimatani & Jun Tonsho. Order of elimination: Tominaga by Hayashi, Tonsho by Watase, Maeguchi by Ito, Ito by Imanari & Watase, Watase by Tanaka, Tanaka & Wada simultaneously, Shimatani by Imanari, Hayashi by Imanari. Imanari is the only one left, GanPro wins.
Match 6: Ken Ohka beat Kuma Arashi.
Main Event: Shuichiro Katsumura beat Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion Isami Kodaka to win the title. Katsumura becomes the 6th Spirit Of Ganbare World Openweight Champion. Next up: Ohka. That may happen on 1/4 although that card has been finalized already. Then perhaps a KO-D Tag Team Championship match 2 days later. The Landlord looking for lots of gold.
The next event, their first of 2024, is 1/4 at Itabashi Green Hall. Broadcast plans TBA but note they will be running opposite Tokyo Dome.
UPDATE: After the event, Yuna Manase announced on the socials that she will return on 2/23. She has been out most of this year due to injury.
UPDATE 2: Both Ohka title matches hinted at above are now official.
From 2012 until early 2020 when the pandemic put everything on hold, Dragon Gate ran a monthly series called PRIME ZONE that streamed on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. If you’ve never seen it before and want to check it out, you can now watch all 85 episodes FOR FREE on DRAGONGATE NETWORK, even if you are not a paying subscriber. Each episode ran for between 50-90 minutes and featured 2 or 3 matches and other content.
The free access is until 1/24/24 at 6:59 AM PT/9:59 AM ET. Click below to access the page:
https://dragongate.live/dragongate_studio/
This and much more content is part of DRAGONGATE NETWORK, available worldwide for 1650 yen/month (around $12 US).
Dragon Gate wrapped up their 2023 today with the final event of the Fantastic Gate 2023 Tour, a hometown event for the promotion.
Today’s event was held at Kobe Sambo Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.
The announced paid attendance was 726, which sounds like a legit sellout.
Match 1: Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & U-T beat Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Kaito Nagano. Shimizu pinned Tanaka after BIGBOSS Press.
Match 2: Takashi Yoshida beat Problem Dragon.
Match 3: BxB Hulk, Shachihoko BOY, Kagetora & Punch Tominaga beat Ultimo Dragon, Don Fujii, Genki Horiguchi & Shuji Kondo. Kagetora pinned Horiguchi.
Match 4: Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda vs. KAI, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato went to a double countout.
Match 5: YAMATO & Naruki Doi beat Dragon Kid & Eita. YAMATO pinned Kid after Gallaria.
Main Event: Shun Skywalker won a 9 man battle royal, last eliminating JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI. Participants included NEW Open The Dream Gate Champion Luis Mante
The 2024 schedule begins with the New Year Gate 2024 Tour, starting on 1/6 at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET.
Additionally, ahead of the coming return of the promotion’s old PRIME ZONE series all episodes of the prior iteration are available FOR FREE on DRAGONGATE NETWORK for a limited time, no registration required.
UPDATE; Apparently Skywalker got a nice reward for winning the battle royal today-the first shot at Mante for the Open The Dream Gate Championship. That match will happen at THE GATE OF BAYSIDE 2024 on 1/27 at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama.
UPDATE 2: Also added to 1/27 is NEW Open The Twin Gate Champions Kaito Kiyomiya & Alejandro vs. Jason Lee & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI for the titles. On 1/11 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo will be NEW Open The Triangle Gate Champions KAI, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato vs. Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda for the titles and Hyo vs. Shun Skywalker in a NON-TITLE matchz