Tag: pro wrestling

Regarding New Japan Lonestar Shootout Broadcast Plans (Updated x2)

After originally planning to air it live, the New Japan World Twitter account hd announced that, due to issues with the relaunch of the updated service, the live broadcast in Japanese tomorrow will not happen. It now will be ON DEMAND ONLY. That means the only way to watch live will be in English on FITE for $19.99. On the flip side, it does mean 4-5 hours more of the illustrious (and just awesome) Veda Scott on commentary!

The broadcast begins with a FREE pre-show at 4:30 PM Pt/7:30 PM ET with the PPV beginning 30 minutes later.

UPDATE: For now at least the event is back on New Japan World as live in Japanese. A couple hours ago it was not on any version I used (web, mobile app, Apple TV app, Roku app. Haven’t tried Android app yet on my Kindle Fire HD but that may not yet be working properly) We’ll see what happens.

UPDATE 2: More clarification from the official Japanese New Japan account and that of President Takami Ohbari: Originally the live broadcast was going to be a PPV, although I never saw such an option to purchase it on New Japan World. That is no longer the case. It will be live on the service in Japanese only with no additional purchase required, you just have to be a subscriber to the service. If you purchased the PPV on World already, you will get a full refund.

Dragon Gate 11/9/23 Results

Dragon Gate continued The Gate Of Evolution 2023 Tour today with their monthly Tokyo event.

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

The announced paid attendance was 1353, a legit sellout.

Match 1: Punch Tominaga beat Daiki Yanagiuchi.

Match 2: BIGBOSS Shimizu & U-T beat Genki Horiguchi & Takashi Yoshida. Shimizu pinned Horiguchi after Power BOSS.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon, Don Fujii & Kagetora beat Susumu Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Kenichiro Arai. Kagetora pinned Kanda after Kagenui.

Match 4: YAMATO, Dragon Kid, Shuji Kondo & Eita beat Kota Minoura, Ben-K, BxB Hulk & Naruki Doi. YAMATO pinned Ben-K after Onmipotent & Luminescent Frankensteiner.

Match 5: Yoshiki Kato beat Masaaki Mochizuki by DQ.

Match 6: Kzy, Strong Machine J, Jason Lee & JACKY “FUNKY” KAMEI beat Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Ryoya Tanaka. KAMEI pinned Tanaka after JFK.

Main Event: In a handicap match, Luis Mante beat Shun Skywalker, KAI, H-Y-O & ISHIN by pinning ISHIN.

The next event is Saturday at Matsuyama Community Center in Ehime. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

After the event, according to the Dragon Gate Official English Twitter, H-Y-O left the Z-Brats faction and changed his ring name to 豹, pronounced “Hyo” like his prior ring name and is the Japanese kanji for “Panther”. For now I likely will refer to him as Hyo in future posts. Hyo also will get the next shot at Open The Brave Gate Champion ISHIN. That match will happen on 12/5 at Korakuen.

Injury Report: Temporarily Blind Destino

According to a Twitter post liked by New Japan’s Japanese account, Tokyo Sports reports New Japan’s Tetsuya Naito was recently hospitalized but discharged today. Right eye surgery. Upper muscle paralysis that causes double vision. It’s the second time this year he’s had surgery there. Out indefinitely. He will not be part of the upcoming World Tag League this year and, since this is partly why Naito got it done now, he should be 100% in time for Tokyo Dome on 1/4. Translation made it sound like best-case for a return post-surgery is as little as 2 weeks.

More as it becomes available.

AEW Dynamite 11/8/23 Results

Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Dynamite in Portland, OR:

MJF interviewed backstage before the opening. Adam Cole calls MJF then Daniel Garcia stares down MJF before heading to the ring, then Roderick Strong & The Kingdom interrupt.

Match 1: AEW World Champion MJF vs. Daniel Garcia for the title
Result: AEW World Champion MJF beat Daniel Garcia by submission to retain the title.

Match 2: Darby Allin & Sting vs. The Outrunners
Result: Darby Allin & Sting beat The Outrunners. Squash.

Toni Storm & Hikaru Shida interview with Tony Schiavone. Pre-recorded and in black & white per Strom’s demand. Contract signed for Full Gear.

Match 3: Swerve Strickland vs. Penta El Zero M. During entrances commentary announced Adam Page is banned from ringside
Result: Swerve Strickland beat Penta El Zero M. Afterwards, Adam Page came out and attacked Strickland with a chair, also using it on security as they intervened before sending Strickland off the stage and through a table with Deadeye.

Don Callis-Kenny Omega promo. They incorporated footage from the video game “Yakuza: Like A Dragon”, which elevated the typically high promo video quality even further.

Renee Paquette interviews Chris Jericho & Kenny Omega but The Young Bucks interrupt quickly. They eventually talk into a tag match at Full Gear-if Jericho & Omega win, The Bucks lose their guaranteed future AEW Tag Team Championship opportunity. If The Bucks win, Jericho & Omega must split up. Renee REALLY enjoyed this.

Match 4: ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe vs. Keith Lee for the title
Result: ROH TV Champion Samoa Joe beat Keith Lee by ref stoppage (technical submission) to retain the title. Afterwards, Joe announced the ROH TV Championship is now VACANT. He’s giving it up to go after the AEW World Championship.

Orange Cassidy promo.

Match 5: Gunn Club vs. Bollywood Boyz
Result: Gunn Club beat Bollyeood Boyz. Squash. Lasted just a few seconds.

Jon Moxley promo.

Match 6: Julia Hart vs. Red Velvet
Result: Julia Hart beat Red Velvet

Mariah May is introduced backstage. She signed with AEW after recently leaving Stardom (Japan). She says she’s here because of Toni Storm so RJ City says he’ll introduce May to Storm next week.

Main Event: Jay White vs. Mark Briscoe for White’s AEW World Championship shot at Full Gear
Result: Jay White beat Mark Briscoe to keep his title shot. MJF cleaned house afterwards until White bailed. After this, masked assailants attacked The Acclaimed & Billy Gunn backstage as “The Devil” appeared again to close this clip. MJF ran to the back and found The Acclaimed & Gunn laid out (Anthony Bowens got thrown through a window here) as Samoa Joe walked in on cue, smirked and walked off to end the show.

Next week: Jon Moley & Wheeler Yuta vs. Orange Cassidy & Hook.

Friday on a LIVE Rampage from Oakland, CA: FTR vs. El Hijo Del Vikingo & Komander. Saturday’s Collision will be TAPED after the show. Spoilers to follow Saturday morning.

As the show wound down, Mariah May got the #AllElite graphic on social media. Those who don’t follow Stardom or the international scene closely probably haven’t heard of her. Understandable.

A better show than last week, everything was consistently at or above average with nothing bad or that you need to skip. Strickland-Penta and Joe-Lee were really good matches. Right between C+ & B- but no real complaints.

Dragon Gate 11/8/23 Results

Dragon Gate continued The Gate Of Evolution 2023 Tour today with a house show in Nagano, also a 5th Anniversary event for Dragon Dia.

Today’s event was held at Suzaka Municipal Gym in Nagano. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The paid attendance has mot yet been announced. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 404, a full house/near sellout)

Match 1: Kota Minoura, Ben-K & BxB Hulk beat Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T. Ben-K pinned U-T after Golden Rose.

Match 2: ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato beat Genki Horiguchi & Kagetora. ISHIN pinned Horiguchi after Death Penalty.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid, Luis Mante & Don Fujii beat Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki, Yasushi Kanda & Ho Ho Lunz Mante pinned Lun after MCK.

Match 4: YAMATO & Punch Tominaga beat BIGBOSS Shimizu & Jason Lee. YAMATO pinned Lee after Gallaria.

Main Event: Madoka Kikuta, Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Shun Slywalker, KAI & H-Y-O. Dia pinned H-Y-O after DDDDT.

The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.

All-Japan News: Final Real World Tag League Team Revealed

When All-Japan announced the 10 teams for this year’s Real World Tag League last weekend in Hokkaido, only 9 were revealed as one team was TBA. That 10th entry was revealed today…Katsuhiko Nakajima & Hokuto Omori. For those looking forward to the very intriguing matchup against Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi-who Nakajima next defends the Triple Crown against and who he beat to win the Triple Crown, respectively-you’re waiting a while. It’s not until the final day on 12/6. But they have a potential teaser of what could follow on 11/23 when they face Jun & Rei Saito-if Nakajima & Omori win the tournament they should get a rematch against the Saito Bros for the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship.

The tournament begins Sunday (Saturday night US time) at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and will be streamed LIVE on AJPW.TV Saturday at 6:30 PM PT/9:30 PM ET.

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.