Tag: pro wrestling

DDT News: He’s Training! As A Father!

In DDT, the popular catchphrase of promotion icon HARASHIMA is, loosely in English, “I’m training!” It went to a new level today with the wonderful news that he is now a father. He posted a picture on social media of the new baby holding the new father’s finger. This is his first child. It’s a boy, but we don’t know the name yet.

Many DDT wrestlers, broadcast commentators and others have posted well-wishes & congratulations in Japanese and I join them in congratulating HARASHIMA on the birth of his first child. He’s Really Training!

New Japan News: KOPW Match Set For 11/17, More

New Japan has announced a KOPW 2023 Title match for 11/17 at Yamagata Big Wing in Yamagata (the first event of the 2 event New Japan Road tour). Current champion Sho will defend against Taichi, who Sho beat to win the title, with proposed rules TBA. They should be made available soon for the prerequisite 3 days of online fan voting to determine the rules.

It will be the main event of a 7-match card, which has been announced in full by New Japan’s Japanese website:
Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima vs. Boltin Oleg & Oskar Leube
Toru Yano & Master Wato vs. Gedo & Taiji Ishimori
Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & Yoh vs. Callum Newman, HENARE & Great-O-Khan
Yuji Nagata, Minoru Suzuki, Shota Umino & Tiger Mask vs. BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi
TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yuya Uemura & SANADA vs. Dick Togo, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL
Tomoaki Honma Produced Match-Tonoaki Honma, Ren Narita & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Tomohiro Ishii, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada
KOPW 2023 Champion Sho vs. Taichi for the title

The event will be a live broadcast on New Japan World on 11/17 at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. The other tour event on 11/19 will not be televised (this may be the last non-televised event of the year).

In other news, Takahashi recently fended off attempts by Kazuki Hirata to reclaim the DDT Iron Man Heavymetalweight Championship ahead of their Sunday match in DDT for the title (but apparently not for Hirata’s DDT Extreme Championship). There will be some kind of undetermined comedy rules for the match per Hirata. That event can be seen live in the US on WRESTLE UNIVERSE beginning Saturday at 9 PM PT/midnight ET and the match may be added to New Japan World at a later date.

Speaking of New Japan World, the updated version of the service will be launched Thursday at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET. You can still access the service as normal, but you can’t subscribe, cancel subscriptions, change your email or purchase PPV content until then. After the launch you’ll have to reset your password via the email used to sign up and new pricing takes effect. If you preciously signed up via the website, it will be 1299 Japanese yen per month or equivalent in your area (right now that will be around $8.75/month in the US). If you sign up via the website going forward or cancel and resubscribe, it will be $9.99/month. You can also sign up via the new mobile/smart TV apps when they launch via the App Store & Google Play (and Amazon for Fire TVs), but you may pay more (could be up to $12.99/month).

DEVELOPING: IWGP US Title To Be Replaced

At a 1/4/24 Tokyo Dome press conference today, New Japan executive President Naoki Sugabayashi announced that, following David Finlay destroying the IWGP US (UK) Heavyweight Championshop belt at Power Struggle, a new title will be created to replace it. Current champion Will Ospreay was announced as defending on 1/4 against Finlay & Jon Moxley in a 3-way.

More as it becomes available.

Dragon Gate 11/3/23-11/5/23 Results

Dragon Gate began their November tour, The Gate Of Evolution 2023, this weekend with 2 house shows Friday & yesterday and also ran their latest major event, THE GATE OF DESTINY 2023, today.

Friday’s event was held at Takaoka Ecole in Toyama. There was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 280.

Match 1: Kota Minoura, BxB Hulk & Minorita beat Strong Machine J, Mochizuki Jr. & Yoshiki Kato. Minoura pinned Jr. after Golden Rose.

Match 2: Dragon kid beat Takashi Yoshida.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon & Luis Mante beat YAMATO & unch Tominaga. Mante pinned Tominaga after MOK.

Match 4: Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Ryoya Tanaka vs. Shun Skywalker, KAI, H-Y-O & ISHIN went to a double countout.

Main Event; Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & Jason Lee. Dia pinned Lee after DDDDT.

Yesterday’s event was held at Kobe Sambo Hall in Kobe and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.

The announced paid attendance was 368.

Match 1: Dragon Kid, Naruki Doi, Kagetora & Ryoya Tanaka beat Shun Skywalker, kAI, H-Y-O & ISHIN. Kagetora pinned H-Y-O after Kagenui.

Match 2: Kzy won a 9 man battle royal, last eliminating BxB Hulk.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon, Masaaki Mochizuki & Luis Mante beat Jason Lee, Ho Ho Lun & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI. Mante pinned KAMEI after Vuelta Finale.

Match 3: Yasushi Kanda beat Yuki Yoshioka.

Match 4: Dragon Dia beat Susumu Mochizuki.

Main Event: BIGBOSS Shimizu, Don Fujii & Takashi Yoshida beat Madoka Kikuta, YAMATO & Punch Tominaga. Yoshida pinned Tominaga after Cyber Bomb.

Today’s event-THE GATE OF DESTINY 2023-was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. It is also available on PPV in Japan.

The announced paid attendance was 2408. That’s just under 50% capacity for the venue.

Match 1: Kota Minoura, Ben-K & BxB Hulk beat Genki Horiguchi, Kagetora & Problem Dragon. Ben-K pinned Dragon after Masukari.

Match 2: Open The Brave Gate Champion ISHIN beat Ryoya Tanaka to retain the title. V1 for ISHIN.

Match 3: Shun Skywalker, KAI & H-Y-O beat Masaaki Mochizuki, Mochizuki Jr. & Yoshiki Kato. Skywalker pinned Jr. after a moonsault double knee drop. Kato potentially turned on Jr./misfired on a move to set up the finish.

Match 4: Ultimo Dragon, Naruki Doi, Luis Mante, Shuji Kondo & Eita beat Kzy, Strong Machine J, Jason Lee, U-T & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI. Mante pinned U-T after Vuelta Finale.

Match 5: Open The Triangle Gate Champions YAMATO, Dragon Kid & Punch Tominaga beat Don Fujii, Takashi Yoshida & The Bodyguard to retain the titles. Tominaga pinned Fujii with Punch Clutch. V2 for the champs.

Match 6: Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Open The Twin Gate Champions Susumu Mochizuki & Yasushi Kanda to win the titles. Yoshioka & Dia become the 64th Open The Twin Gate Champions. Dia pinned Kanda after Reptilian.

Main Event: Open The Dream Gate Champion Madoka Kikuta beat BIGBOSS Shimizu to retain the title. V3 for Kikuta.

The next event is Wednesday at Suzaka City Gym in Nagano. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

The promotion has also announced the early January & February 2024 Tours. January will be New Year Gate 2024 as their new year begins on 1/6 at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. Their first Tokyo events are 1/10 & 1/11 at Korakuen Hall. The tour is headlined by THE GATE OF BAYSIDE 2024 on 1/27 at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama. Announced for February 2024 are MEMORIAL GATE 2024 in Wakayama, their annual early-year blowout event at Wakayama Prefectural Gym in Wakayama, That will be followed by Korakuen on 2/7. Other dates already announced are 3/16 in Okayama and the annual Naruki Doi hometown event on 8/25 at Nara 100 Year Hall in Nara.

All-Japan 11/5/23 Results (Event 2) (Updated)

All-Japan’s second event of their Hokkaido weeklong tour-ending doubleheader featured a Triple Crown main event with the debut of former Pro Wrestling NOAH star Katsuhiko Nakajima in the promotion.

Today’s event was held at Hotel Emisia Sapporo in Hokkaido and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.

The announced paid attendance was 797.

Match 1: Match 1: Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu beat Hikaru Sato & Shota Sidney Stevens (?). Omori pinned Stevens after Ax Bomber.

Match 2: Koji Yoshida & Kumagoro Hokkai beat Black Menso-re & Takyua Dou (?). Yoshida pinned Menso-re after Certified Inazuma Leg Roll.

Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori beat Suwama & Ryo Inoue. Suzuki pinned Inoue after a Gotch-style piledriver.

Match 4: Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe beat Jun & Rei Saito. Ayabe pinned Jun Saito after Last Shooting. This had me thinking future rematch for the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship, but their annual year-end tag team tournament is next, so not happening. Yet. They are both in the tournament though, so it could still happen.

Match 5: Dan Tamura, Rising Hayato & Jonathan Gresham beat Atsuki Aoyagi, El Lindaman & Fuminori Abe. Hayato pinned Abe after Sid Vicious.

Match 6: Kento Miyahara & T-Hawk beat Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai. Miyahara pinned Honda with a shutdown suplex hold.

Main Event: Katsuhiko Nakajima beat All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Yuma Aoyagi to win the Triple Crown. Nakajima becomes the 71st All-Japan Triple Crown Champion. Not with one of his usual NOAH finishers though…Northern Lights bomb. Immediate impact though, went from crashing a press conference and demanding a title shot as an “invasion” to backing it up. Sounds like All-Japan will be his new home, at least for now.

Next up is the Real World Tag League, the promotion’s annual year-end tag team tournament, starting on 11/12 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. This year’s tournament has 10 teams competing in a traditional round-robin format, with the finals being held on 12/12 at Korakuen. After the 12/12 matches, the team with the most points wins. If there is a tie atop the standings, a tiebreaker match will be held to determine the winners.
The entered teams: Jun & Rei Saito (current All-Japan World Tag Team Champions), Yuma Aoyagi & Kento Miyahara, Shuji Ishikawa & Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai, Suwama & Hideki Suzuki, Yukio Sakaguchi & Hideki Okatani (DDT), Hayato Tamura & Galeno Del Mar (GLEAT), Kuroshio Tokyo Japan (Jiro Kuroshio/Ikemen Jiro) & Seigo Tachibana, Cyrus & Ryan Danielson (this is not a typo and not Bryan Danielson), TBA & TBA.

For the 11/12 event, live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin Saturday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET and live results will be posted here.

UPDATE: Next up for the Triple Crown…OH. SNAP. Miyahara. That match will happen on 12/31. Explosive closing out to 2023!

Tokyo Joshi Pro 11/5/23 Results

Tokyo Joshi Pro continued the CITY CIRCUIT Tour today with a hometown event for Shino Suzuki.

Today’s event was held at Shimizu Marine Building in Shizuoka and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 224, a full house/near sellout.

Match 1: Arisu Endo beat Haru Kazashiro by submission.

Match 2: Pom Harajuku beat Kaya Toribami & Suzume in a 3-way by pinning Toribami.

Match 3: Hyper Misao beat Runa Okubo by submission.

Match 4: Mizuki & Toga beat Yuki Aino & HIMAWARI. Mizuki beat HIMAWARI with a crossface.

Match 5: Miu Watanabe beat Shino Suzuki.

Match 6: Miyu Yamashita & Moka Miyamoto beat Rika Tatsumi & Wakana Uehara. Yamashita pinned Uehara after Attitude Adjustment.

Main Event: Hikari Noa, Nao Kakuta & Yuka Sakazaki beat Yuki Kamifuku, Raku & Mahiro Kiryu. Sakazaki pinned Kiryu after Magical Merry-Go-Round.

The next event is “The Mountain Top ’23” on 11/19 at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka, with a scheduled International Princess Championship match of Max The Impaler defending vs. Shoko Nakajima. This is subject to change pending upcoming title matches before then. Miyu Yamashita will miss the event due to an international excursion. Unless plans change, there will be no live broadcast.

AEW Collision 11/4/23 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Collision in Wichita, KS:

Swerve Strickland beat AR Fox.

Darby Allin beat Lance Archer.

The Acclaimed 69-Day Championship Celebration was interrupted by Dalton Castle & The Boys. Which led to…
The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn beat Dalton Castle & The Boys.

The Kingdom beat 2 jobbers. Squash.

Mark Briscoe, Dustin Rhodes & Keith Lee beat Kip Sabian & The Workhorsemen.

Willow Nightingale beat Emi Sakura.

LFI & FTR beat Ricky Starks, Big Bill & Gates Of Agony.

Wednesday on Dynamite: ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe vs. Keith Lee for the title, Swerve Strickland vs. Penta El Zero M, Mark Briscoe vs. Jay White for White’s AEW World Championship shot at Full Gear, Red Velvet vs. Julia Hart and AEW World Champion MJF vs. Daniel Garcia for the title.

All-Japan Pro Wrestling 11/5/23 Results (Event 1)

All-Japan wraps up their weeklong Hokkaido tour with a doubleheader of major events today. The first event is a matinee headlined by 2 title matches-first, El Lindaman defends the All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Jonathan Gresham, looking to win the title to finish his first tour with the promotion. In the main event, All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito defend the titles against the odd but dangerous team of Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori.

Today’s events will be held at Hotel Emisia Sapporo in Hokkaido and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV. It’s not yet known if there will be any commentary. The second event coming up after he first one will keep this first event from running too long, probably will go around 2 1/2 hours.

Today’s lineup:
Yoshitatsu vs. Ren Ayabe
Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue
Takao Omori, Takaya Doi (?) & Koji Yoshida vs. Black Menso-re, Fuminori Abe & Kumagoro Hokkai
Dan Tamura vs. T-Hawk
Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Suwama, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai
All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Jonathan Gresham for the title
All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori for the titles

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET. (The second event will begin at 1 AM PT/MT/2 AM CT/3 AM ET-remember the time change-back 1 hour-is overnight tonight! There will be no live results for the second event)

8:01 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now…

We are LIVE from Hotel Emisia Sapporo in Hokkaido, Japan. Audio muted at start for a few seconds. There is Japanese commentary for this event. No videos tonight as there is no TV/monitor setup in the venue.

The paid attendance will be announced at the event. Looks like the setup is for 400-500 and looks to be 90-95% full so I’m thinking it’ll be around 450 depending on capacity. (Seemed like the crowd thinned out some during intermission. Revising my estimate down to maybe 400) (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 596)

Match 1: Yoshitatsu vs. Ren Ayabe. 10 minute time limit
Result: Ren Ayabe beat Yoshitatsu

Match 2: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato vs. Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue. 15 minute time limit
Result: Atsuki Aoyagi & Rising Hayato beat Hikaru Sato & Ryo Inoue. Hayato pinned Inoue after Sid Vicious.

Match 3: Takao Omori, Takaya Doi (?) & Koji Yoshida vs. Black Menso-re, Fuminori Abe & Kumagoro Hokkai. 20 minute time limit
Result: Takao Omori, Takaya Doi (?) & Koji Yoshida beat Black Menso-re, Fuminori Abe & Kumagoro Hokkai. Omori pinned Menso-re after Ax Bomber. A bit of a comedy match.

Intermission. Almost 20 minute break.

The matches resume at 9:02 PM PT.

Match 4: Dan Tamura vs. T-Hawk. 30 minute time limit
Result: T-Hawk beat Dan Tamura

Match 5: Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi & Shuji Ishikawa vs. Suwama, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai. 30 minute time limit
Result: Kento Miyahara, Yuma Aoyagi & Shuji Ishikawa beat Suwama, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai. Ishikawa pinned Anzai after Splash Mountain.

Match 6: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman vs. Jonathan Gresham for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion El Lindaman beat Jonathan Gresham to retain the title. V4 for Lindaman. Show of respect from Gresham afterwards, coming up just short in a very competitive match.

Main Event: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito beat Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori to retain the titles. Jun Saito pinned Omori after Doomsday Device. V2 for the champs.

The next event is later today. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 1 AM PT/MT/2 AM CT/3 AM ET (all time zones except PT have their start times affected by the time change back 1 hour).

Pro Wrestling NOAH 11/4/23 Results

DEMOLITION STAGE in NIIGATA, the second of Pro Wrestling NOAH’s 2 major fall events in about a week, is in the books.

Today’s event was held at Niigata City Gym in Niigata and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Tuesday. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 1024.

Match 1: Eita beat Yu Owada.

Match 2: Saxon Huxley & Shuhei Taniguchi beat Stallion Rogers & Taishi Ozawa. Huxley pinned Ozawa after a neck hanging bomb.

Match 3: Ninja Mack, Alejandro, Extreme Tiger & Terry Yaki beat Atsushi Kotoge, Hi69, Hajime Ohara & Kai Fujimura. Mack pinned Fujimura after Ninja Bomb.

Match 4: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. beat LJ Cleary.

Match 5: Toshinari Ogawa & Super Crazy beat Shuji Kondo & Junta Miyawaki. Crazy beat Miyawaki with a camel clutch.

Match 6: Masa Kitamiya, Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba beat Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Go Shiozaki. Soya pinned Shiozaki after a jumping DDT.

Match 7: Kenoh, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Jake Lee, YO-HEY & Tadasuke. Kenoh pinned YO-HEY after Kenoh Special.

Match 8: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Jack Morris & Anthony Greene beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa to retain the titles. Greene pinned Oiwa after M-83. V1 for the champs. Next up: Kitamiya & Inaba. That match will happen on 11/24 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Main Event: Daga beat GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion HAYATA to win the title. Daga becomes the 54th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion. Next up: Kondo. That match will happen on 11/24 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

The next event is 11/11 at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka. There will be no live broadcast.

All-Japan 11/4/23 Results

All-Japan ran the penultimate event of their weeklong Hokkaido blitz, the 5th of 6 straight days of events.

Today’s event was held at Iwamizawa City Event Hall in Hokkaido and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.

The announced paid attendance was 545.

Match 1: Hikaru Sato & ? (Domoya? Can’t quite get it from translations) beat Atsuki Aoyagi & Black Menso-re. ? pinned Menso-re after SOD.

Match 2: Jun & Rei Saito beat Shuji Ishikawa & Ryo Inoue. Jun Saito pinned Inoue after Psycho Break.

Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori beat Takao Omori & Yoshitatsu. Hokuto Omori beat Takao Omori with Narcissist Lock.

Match 4: Suwama, Dan Tamura & Kumagoro Hokkai beat Ryuki Honda, Yuma Anzai & Koji Yoshida. Hokkai pinned Yoshida after a reverse splash.

Match 5: Yuma Aoyagi beat Ren Ayabe.

Main Event: Kento Miyahara, Rising Hayato & Jonathan Gresham beat T-Hawk, El Lindaman & Fuminori Abe. Gresham beat Abe with Octopus.

The tour-ender is tomorrow at Hotel Emilia Sapporo in Hokkaido with Lindaman-Gresham for the All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Championship and the Saito Bros vs. Minoru Suzuki & Hokuto Omori for the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin TONIGHT at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET with live results posted here. And a reminder for those watching on the US east coast: Set your clocks back 1 hour at 2 AM!