News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
In a press release they put out today, GLEAT announced Masato Kamino is injured and off of Sunday’s G PROWRESTLING event in Hokkaido. Meniscus. Out indefinitely. He was to have teamed with Takanori Ito & Yusuke Kodama to face Minoru Tanaka, Kaz Hayashi & Noriyuki Yoshida. No replacement named yet.
More as it becomes available.
New Japan’s Zack Sabre Jr. was among those who appeared at this past weekend’s Ring Of Honor TV tapings in Orlando, FL and while it’s not known when it will air, there was an NJPW WORLD Tv Title match as part of the tapings. It could air as soon as Thursday (new episodes of ROH TV premiere Thursdays on HonorClub, available only in the US for $9.99/month). If you want to know what happened click below as this contains SPOILERS! (The match should also be available on New Japan World at a later date)
Continue reading “New Japan News: Upcoming Title Match in US (SPOILERS!)”Following up on the conclusion of the Champions Carnival, All-Japan has announced that Triple Crown Champion Yuji Nagata vs. Shotaro Ashino for the Triple Crown will happen on 5/29 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Ashino won the Champions Carnival in an upset, beating T-Hawk in the Finals to earn the opportunity.
This will be the second defense for Nagata, who has mostly stayed away from New Japan since winning the title and had made frequent appearances in All-Japan.
It seems that Tatsumi Fujinami, 69 with 52 years experience in the ring, is never really going to retire. Still remaining active mainly in his Dradition promotion, Hochi News reports (in a story shared by Dradition) that Fujinami is starting another new promotion, with translation indicating it will be called “Dragon Stadium” and it will feature young wrestlers who recently debuted hand-selected by Fujinami. They mainly will be selected from promotions he is currently active in, which would mean Dradition primarily and possibly others. Fujinami intends to apply training methods he learned from the late Antonio Inoki & Karl Gotch in the promotion and that is “a project to create a new stage for young people that conveys the Dragonism cultivated in the Showa era (which ended 5 years ago in the Japanese calendar) to the present in Reiwa”.
Original source (in Japanese):
https://hochi.news/articles/20230505-OHT1T51030.fhtml
At a press conference in Tokyo today, Tokyo Joshi Pro star Yuka Sakazaki made a major announcement: She is leaving the promotion after the 10th Anniversary Event on 12/1 at Korakuen Hall. Sakazaki will be leaving Japan to continue her career overseas. It was also announced her next excursion will run until after the 6/4 event, and the next Princess Tag Team Championship defense for Sakazaki & Mizuki will be on 6/11 vs. Rika Tatsumi & Miu Watanabe.
This most likely hints at Sakazaki going to All Elite Wrestling full-time as she has been a member of the roster since the early days of the promotion, but the coronavirus pandemic kept her away from 2020 until 2022.
More as it becomes available.
Dragon Gate continued the Hopeful Gate 20223 Tour today with another non-televised house show.
Today’s event was held at Yokkaichi Kusunoki Ryokuchi Gym in Mie. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 312.
Match 1: Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat BxB Hulk & Ben-K. Kanda pinned Hulk after Candy Magic.
Match 2: Jason Lee & Strong Machine J beat Genki Horiguchi & Kagetora. Lee pinned Horiguchi after Maximum Driver.
Match 3: Kota Minoura beat Kaito Nagano.
Match 4: Diamante, KAI & ISHIN beat Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid & Shachihoko BOY. Diamante pinned BOY after a tombstone piledriver.
Match 5: Don Fujii & Takashi Yoshida beat Shun Skywalker & H-Y-O. Fujii beat H-Y-O with Gedo Clutch.
Main Event: Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & U-T. Kikuta pinned U-T after a rolling lariat.
The next event is Thursday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET.
Tokyo Joshi Pro announced the full card for the 5/13 house show today (there will be no live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE) and several upcoming absences were mentioned:
Yuka Sakazaki is headed on another international excursion, which always beings a possibility of a return to All Elite Wrestling. It’s not known for how long yet.
Neko Haruna is off this next event. Knee injury. Out indefinitely.
Runa Okubo will miss this event for what the promotion is calling academic reasons. No word on how long this absence may be for.
For what it’s worth with Sakazaki, the next Korakuen Hall event is not until 6/10 so I would expect her back in no more than 3 weeks as that may be the next Princess Tag Team Championship match as there won’t be one at Summer Sun Princess in July because of Mizuki vs. Maki Itoh for the Princess Of Princess Championship.
on a side note, 6/10 right now is the earliest Miyu Yamashita may return from her international tour. Still no definite timeframe yet but I expect they want her back by July for Summer Sun Princess.
All-Japan wrapped up the Champions Carnival 2023 Tournament today with an incredibly unlikely Final, which would likely determine who gets the next shot at Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown.
Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 2437. They didn’t specifically say this but that probably was at least a full house/near sellout.
Match 1: Yuto Nakashima, Ryohei Oiwa & Kosei Fujita (New Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Ryuki Honda, Ryo Inoue & Oji Shiiba. Fujita beat Inoue with a chicken wing.
Match 2: Atsuki Aoyagi, Rising Hayato & El Lindaman (GLEAT) beat Kaito Ishida (GLEAT), Kotaro Suzuki & Yutani (GLEAT). Aoyagi pinned Suzuki after Firebird Splash.
Match 3: Sayaka Unagi, SAKI & Yoshitatsu beat Hikaru Sato, Kaori Yoneyama & Yuu. SAKI pinned Yoneyama after a diving knee drop.
Match 4: Shuji Ishikawa, Cyrus, Ren Ayabe & Oskar Leube (New Japan) beat Yuji Nagata (New Japan), Satoshi Kojima, Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition) & Black Menso-re. Ishikawa pinned Menso-re after Fire Thunder.
Match 5: Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori beat Yuma Aoyagi & Takao Omori. Suzuki pinned Omori after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 6: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Naruki Doi beat Dan Tamura to retain the title. V2 for Doi.
Match 7: KONO beat Manabu Soya (Pro Wrestling NOAH) by submission.
Match 8: Suwama, Jun & Rei Saito beat Kenoh, Hajime Ohara & Hi69 (Pro Wrestling NOAH). Suwama pinned Ohara after Last Ride.
Match 9: Tetsuya Naito & BUSHI (New Japan) beat Kento Miyahara & Yuma Anzai. Naito pinned Anzai after Destino.
Main Event: Champions Carnival Finals: Shotaro Ashino beat T-Hawk by submission to win the tournament. As a result, Ashino will face Triple Crown Champion Yuji Nagata for the Triple Crown. That match will happen on 5/29 at Korakuen Hall.
The next event is 5/13 at Volfert Toyama in Toyama, which likely will be headlined by a Jumbo Tsuruta Memorial Match in which all 6 participants are current or former Triple Crown Champions. Broadcast plans TBA.
Dragon Gate resumed the Glorious Gate 2023 Tour today, beginning a new chapter after Madoka Kikuta won the Open The Dream Gate Championship just 24 hours ago.
Today’s event was held at Tsushima City Cultural Center in Aichi. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 336.
Match 1: Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda beat Kzy & U-T. Mochizuki pinned U-T after Aqualiner.
Match 2: Ben-K beat Kagetora.
Match 3: Jason Lee & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat YAMATO & Punch Tominaga. Lee pinned Tomonaga after Maximum Driver.
Match 4: Diamante, H-Y-O & ISHIN beat Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid & Genki Horiguchi. ISHIN pinned Horiguchi after Capital Punishment.
Match 5: Shun Skywalker & KAI beat BIGBOSS Shimizu & Strong Machine J. Skywalker pinned J.
Main Event: Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Kota Minoura, BxB Hulk & Minorita. Kikuta pinned Minorita after a vertical drop high speed piledriver.
The next event is tomorrow at Yokkaichi Kusunoki Ryokuchi Gym in Mie. There will be no live broadcast.
DDT continues the KING OF DDT 2023 Tournament today with the Quarterfinals. 24 hours after narrowing the field from 16 down to 8, including some major upsets (Hideki Okatani pulled off a shocker against double champion Shunma Katsumata), it will be narrowed down to 4 after today. The Quarterfinals make up the second half of today’s event, with Okatani vs. Kazusada Higuchi as the main event. The Semifinals will be determined by random draw after the event, so it’s not necessarily going to be what the brackets online suggest. There will be 4 non-tournament matches first including a pre-show dark match.
Today’s event will be held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. There will likely be no commentary. It may also be a hard camera-only view due to venue size limitations. I was way over on my running time prediction yesterday as I guessed it would go 2 1/2 hours and it only went about 1 hour 45 minutes. Not counting the pre-show match I anticipate another 2 hour event today, so if you need a Saturday Night Live replacement due to the writers’ strike this should suffice. Note the pre-show match is scheduled to start 22 minutes before event time. Odd, I know, but it’s DDT after all.
Today’s lineup (in order):
Pre-Show Match: Yuni & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi
Main Show:
Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda
Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada
Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada vs. HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata
KING OF DDT Quarterfinals:
Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yuki Ueno
Jun Akiyama vs. MAO
Sanshiro Takagi vs. Chris Brookes
Kazusada Higuchi vs. Hideki Okatani
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET. The Pre-Show Match is scheduled to begin at 7:38 PM PT/10:38 PM ET.
7:20 PM PT UPDATE: Stream start time has been moved up 5 minutes to 7:25 PM PT/10:25 PM PT. Updates will begin shortly.
7:25 PM PT UPDATE: Stream has launched. We should be going to the venue in about 10 minutes.
7:38 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates start now…
We are LIVE from Shinjuku Face in Tokyo, Japan. There is no commentary. Hard camera view only again.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The crowd is still filing in as there’s 20 minutes until scheduled start time. Yesterday did roughly 235 so that suggests another crowd in the 225-250 range. (At start time it looks similar to yesterday so probably around 225 again)
The pre-show match starts a couple minutes later than planned at 7:40 PM PT.
Pre-show Match: Yuni & Yuki Ishida vs. Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi. 15 minute time limit
Result :Yuni & Yuki Ishida beat Yuya Koroku & Kazuma Sumi. Ishida pinned Sumi after a palm strike.
Updates will resume at 8 PM PT or when main show matches begin.
The main show matches begin at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET.
Match 1: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda. 30 minute time limit A ton of pre-match comedy stuff with Iino trying to be “Sexy” again but apparently he still has to be “NOT SEXY!”
Reslut: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno beat Akito & Antonio Honda. Iino beat Honda with a sleeper hold. Nonstop ridiculous Pheromones comedy match. Kept everyone laughing the whole way through.
Match 2: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON vs. Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada. 30 minute time limit
Result: Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul & KANON beat Shunma Katsumata, Toui Kojima & Takeshi Masada. KANON pinned Kojima after Sleepy Hollow.
Match 3: Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada vs. HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. 30 minute time limit
Result: Yuji Hino, Tetsuya Endo, Yukio Sakaguchi & Yusuke Okada beat HARASHIMA, Naruki Doi, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata. Sakaguchi pinned Hirata after PK following an Endo Torture Rack Bomb during Hirata’s comedy dancing with HARASHIMA. Hilarious ending.
Match 4: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Kotaro Suzuki vs. Yuki Ueno. No time limit
Result: Yuki Ueno beat Kotaro Suzuki. As a result, Ueno advances to the Semifinals.
Match 5: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Jun Akiyama vs. MAO. No time limit
Result: Jun Akiyama beat MAO. As a result, Akiyama advances to the Semifinals.
Match 6: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Sanshiro Takagi vs. Chris Brookes. No time limit
Result: Chris Brookes beat Sanshiro Takagi. As a result, Brookes advances to the Semifinals. Largely hardcore comedy outside the ring.
Quick break for ring cleaning.
Main Event: KING OF DDT Quarterfinals: Kazusada Higuchi vs. Hideki Okatani. No time limit
Result: Kazusada Higuchi beat Hideki Okatani. As a result, Higuchi advances to the Semifinals.
GM Imabayashi returns tot he ring to announce the Semifinal pairings, which are by a random draw once all 4 participants return to the ring. Colored balls will determine the matches. Higuchi draws first…red. Akiyama second…blue. Brookes third…blue. That means Ueno, who was last, got red. So the Semifinals are Higuchi vs. Ueno and Akiyama vs. Brookes. The Semifinals and Finals will be on 5/21 at Korakuen Hall.
The next event is 5/14 at TKP Garden City Chiba in Chiba for an ONLY WE/Yuji Hino 20th Anniversary Event. There will be no live broadcast.
Post-show note: The announced paid attendance was 206.
