Tag: pro wrestling

DEVELOPING: Another Longtime New Japan Icon To Retire In 2026

Hiroshi Tanahaahi isn’t the only face of New Japan retiring in 2026. It was revealed today via backstage comments from yesterday that Tiger Mask 4, the longest-lasting incarnation of the iconic masked wrestler, will retire in July 2026 after what will then be a 31-year career as one of the longtime anchors of New Japan’s Junior Heavyweight division. TM 4 followed Satoru Sayama, Mitsuharu Misawa & Koji Kanemoto as those who assumed the iconic comic book-themed persona, and there also was at least one more recent incarnation outside of New Japan.

More as it becomes available.

Dragon Gate 7/6/25 Results

Dragon Gate continued the Aggressive Gate 2025 Tour today with an event in Osaka..

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka and can be watched on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK.

The announced paid attendance was 773.

Match 1: Yuki Yoshioka, Ryoya Tanaka & Dragon Dia beat JACKY KAMEI, Riiita & Mochizuki Junior. Tanaka pinned Junior after Cross Saber.

Match 2: Jason Lee & KAI beat Hyo & Ben-K. Lee pinned Hyo.

Match 3: YAMATO, BxB Hulk & Susumu Yokosuka beat Ultimo Dragon, Don Fujii & Problem Dragon by ref stoppage. YAMATO beat Dragon. Towel thrown in by Fujii.

Match 4: Naruki Doi (Independent/Freelancer) & Kzy beat Takashi & Masaaki Mochizuki. Kzy pinned Takashi.

Match 5: Strong Machine J, U-T, Flamita, Luis Mante & Bendito beat Madoka Kikuta, Kota Minoura, ISHIN, Yoshiki Kato & Homare. U-T pinned Kato.

Main Event: Shun Skywalker beat Dragon Kid.

The next event is Tuesday at Rukobashi Sports Center in Nagoya. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

DDT 7/6/25 Results

DDT promoted and participated in a special Japan Wrestling Federation for People With Disabilities charity event today for the organization, which helps raise funds to support the organization’s efforts.

Today’s event was held at Odawara Arena Sub Arena in Kanagawa and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Wednesday. There was no live broadcast.

The paid attendance was not announced.

Match 1: Illusion beat Kazuma Sumi.

Match 2: Daichi Sato & Munetatsu Nakamura beat Tomomitsu Matsunaga & Yuki Ishida. Sato pinned Matsunaga after Mad Splash.

Match 3: Danshoku Dieno & Pocotan beat Kazuki Hirata & Antonio Honda. Pocotan pinned Honda.

Match 4: HARASHIMA, Takao Soma & Yukio Naya beat Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & MJ Paul. HARASHIMA pinned Paul after Blue Sword.

Intermission here was followed by a special traditional Japanese music performance and a second performance by a blues band.

Match 5: KANON beat Yuya Koroku.

Match 6: Tatsumi Fujinami (Dradition), Yoshiaki Yatsu & Jun Akiyama beat Yukio Ueno, To-y & Akito. Fujinami beat To-y with a dragon sleeper.

Main Event: Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Iino beat Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada. Higuchi pinned Masada after Brain Claw Slam.

The next event is Tuesday at Ueno Park Outdoor Stage in Tokyo. There will be no live broadcast.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 7/6/25 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2025 Tour today in Shizuoka.

Today’s event was held at Shimada City General Sports Center Sub Arena in Shizuoka and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Wednesday. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 409.

Match 1: AMAKUSA, Eita & Junta Miyawaki beat Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf & Caribbean. Eita pinned Caribbean after Imperial Uno.

Match 2: Atsushi Kotoge & Super Crazy beat Shuhei Taniguchi & Black Menso-re. Crazy pinned Menso-re.

Match 3: Tetsuya Endo & Will Kroos (I’ve been mistakenly calling him Will Cross based on the website’s English translations) beat Naomichi Marufuji & Daiki Odashima. Kroos pinned Odashima after Kroos Control.

Match 4: Daga beat Daiki Inaba.

Match 5; Kenoh, KENTA & Ulka Sasaki beat OZAWA, Tadasuke & Owadasan. Sasaki pinned Owadasan.

Main Event: Manabu Soya, Saxon Huxley, YO-HEY & HAYATA beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Galeno, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura. Soya pinned Fujimura after Ballistic.

The next event is Saturday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 12:30 AM PT/3:30 AM ET.

Additionally, 2 upcoming title matches were announced today: The previously-announced GHC National Championship match between Galeno & Kroos now has a date. That match will happen on 7/13 at G Messe Gunma in Gunma. Also announced today was the next defense for GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba, which will be against Takashi Sugiura & Daga. That match will happen on 7/26 at Kyoto KBS Hall in Kyoto. Unfortunately there will be no live broadcast for both events. On demand is usually 3 days after the event.

New Japan 7/6/25 Results

New Japan wrapped up the New Japan Soul 2025 Tour today with another event in Tokyo.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 1489, a legit sellout.

Pre-show:
Match 1: Tatsuya Matsumoto vs. Zane Jay went to a 10 minute time limit draw.
Match 2: Daiki Nagai & Katsuya Murashima beat Masatora Yasuda & Shoma Kato. Nagai pinned Yasuda.

Match 1: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita, SANADA & EVIL beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Tomnoaki Honma, Boltin Oleg, Yuya Uemura & Shota Umino. EVIL pinned Honma after EVIL.

Match 2: Hiromu Takahashi, Yota Tsuji & Shingo Takagi beat Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Takagi pinned Jackson after Pumping Bomber. Afterwards, Daiki Nagai came out and asked to join Los Ingobernables de Japon. Seemingly accepted.

Match 3: Tiger Mask 4 30th Anniversary Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Tiger Mask 4.

Match 4: A Gauntlet Match played out as follows:
1-Chase Owens beat Satoshi Kojima.
2-Taichi beat Chase Owens.
3-Taichi beat Tomohiro Ishii.
Taichi wins. As a result, Taichi will replace the injured Hirooki Goto in the G1 CLIMAX 35 Tournament.

Match 5: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions DOUKI & Sho beat Master Wato & Yoh to retain the titles. DOUKI pinned Wato after Suplex De La Luna. V1 for the champs.

Main Event: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion El Desperado beat Kosei Fujita by submission to retain the title. V7 for Desperado.

The next event is the G1 CLIMAX 35, the promotion’s biggest annual tournament that unofficially begins the Road To Tokyo Dome, starting on 7/18 at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kita Yell in Hokkaido. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET. This will be a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan. As in recent years, every tournament event will be available live & on demand on New Japan World.

Dragon Gate 7/5/25 Results & News

Dragon Gate continued the Aggressive Gate 2025 Tour today in Gifu, with one week to go until their biggest weekend of the year.

Today’s event was held at Juroku Plaza in Gifu. There is/was no live or on demand broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 319.

Match 1: Strong Machine J, Kzy & U-T beat Madoka Kikuta, KAI & Yoshiki Kato. Kzy pinned Kayo with Skayde Schoolboy.

Match 2: Ryoya Tanaka beat Ryu Fuda.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon, YAMATO & Susumu Yokosuka beat Luis Mante, Bendito & Yasushi Kanda. YAMATO pinned Kanda after Omniscient & Omnipotent Frankensteiner.

Match 4: ISHIN beat Flamita by DQ.

Match 5: Yuki Yoshioka & Dragon Dia beat Dragon Kid & Kagetora. Dia pinned Kagetora after DDDDT.

Main Event: Kota Minoura, Jason Lee & Shun Skywalker beat Hyo, Ben-K & Riiita. Minoura pinned Ben-K after Golden Rose.

The next event is tomorrow at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 2 AM PT/5 AM ET.

In other news, apparently Osaka Prefectural Gym, which is also known in Japan as Edion Arena Osaka, is either closed or will soon be closing temporarily for repairs, which is forcing a change of plans for THE GATE OF DESTINY 2025, their major November event there at the start of November. It has now been moved to the smaller Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 and will now take place over 2 days, November 2 & 3. Tickets had not yet gone on sale so no need for refunds-the current on-sale date is 7/20.

Stardom 7/6/25 NEAR LIVE Results

Stardom continues their early July schedule and build to this year’s 5STAR GP, the field for which was announced earlier today, with an event in Tokyo. Below are NEAR LIVE results which will be updated as they become available.

Today’s event is being held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE and on demand on Stardom World. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.

The paid attendance will be announced later. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1476)

There were last-minute changes to the event due to Rina being pulled off the card. Potential concussion suffered Friday at the NEW BLOOD event. Out indefinitely. She was to have challenged for the Artist Of Stardom Championship in the main event. That match is now off and no title defense.

Pre-show match: Momo Kohgo beat Kikyo Furusawa.
After this match there was a contract signing for the next Future Of Stardom Championship match which will be Hina defending against Akira Kurogame. That match is later today.

Match 1: Suzu Suzuki, Itsuki Aoki & Bozilla beat Ami Sohrei, Lady C & Kiyoka Kokatsu. Bozilla pinned Sohrei after a sitout powerbomb.

Match 2: Saki Kashima, Yuna Mizumori, Aya Sakura, Sayaka Kurara & Yuria Hime beat Hazuki, Koguma, Waka Tsukiyama, HANAKO & Rian. Kashima pinned Rian after a Kurara Tokimeki Spear.

Match 3: Mei Seira & Miyu Amasaki beat Ema Maishima & Honoka (WAVE). Seira pinned Maishima after a dropkick.

Match 4: Syuri beat Ranna Yaami. Syuri is now leaving Stardom indefinitely to go overseas but will be back at some point.

Match 5: Future Of Stardom Champion Hina beat Akira Kurogame to retain the title. V4 for HIna.

Main Event: Hanan, Saya Iida, Natsupoi, Saori Anou, Starlight Kid & AZM beat Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora, Konami, Ruaka, Momo Watanabe & Fukigen. Natsupoi pinned Kamitani after Fairy Real Gift.

The next event is 7/13 at Parse Izaka in Fukushima. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin on 7/12 at 9 PM PT/midnight ET.

Stardom News: 5STAR GP 2025 Field Announced

At a press conference earlier today, Stardom announced the entire field for the 2025 5STAR GP, the promotion’s signature annual tournament. This year it’s a massive field of 32 divided into 4 blocks, which are as follows:
Red A: Saya Kamitani, Lady C, Mei Seira, Waka Tsukiyama, Azusa Inaba, Hanan, Yuna Mizumori, Bea Priestley (most recently was Blair Davenport in WWE)
Red B: Starlight Kid, Tomoka Inaba, Rian, Rina*, AZM, Natsuko Tora, Natsupoi, Sayaka Kurara
Blue A: Saya Iida, Saori Anou, Miyu Amasaki, Ami Sohrei, Aya Sakura, Bozilla, Ruaka, TBA**
Blue B: Momo Kohgo, Momo Watanabe, Sareee, Konami, Hina, Suzu Suzuki, HANAKO, Ranna Yagami
*-Subject to change due to injury suffered yesterday
**-Will be Yuria Hime or Akira Kurogame via determination match on TBA.

The tournament is round-robin format, 15 minute time limit for all matches. 2 points for win, 1 point for draw, 0 points for loss. The top 3 in each block will advance with the winner of each block going directly to the Quarterfinals and the other 2 going into elimination matches. Tiebreakers likely will be head-to-head results.

The tournament starts on 7/27 and ends on 8/23. Those two events will be PPVs and all other events will be live on Stardom World.

DDT 7/5/25 Results

DDT ran an event in Yohokama today as part of another doubleheader with Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.

Today’s event was held at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. DDT’s website incorrectly stated there would be no live broadcast and on demand would not be available until Wednesday. It did stream live and is thus available on demand already.

The paid attendance was not announced.

Before the event began there was a public signing ceremony for the KO-D Openweight Championship match between Kazusada Higuchi & HARASHIMA on 7/13. After that, Hikaru Sato appeared and issued a DDT Extreme Championship challenge to To-y.

Match 1: KANON beat MJ Paul by submission.

Match 2: Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito, Kazuki Hirata, Naomi Yoshimura & Yuya Koroku in a 5-way went to (somehow) a 30 minute time limit draw.

Match 3: Yuki Ueno & Kazuma Sumi beat Ryota Nakatsu & Yuki Ishida. Ueno pinned Ishida after a frog splash.

Match 4: Jun Akiyama, Hikaru Sato & Daichi Sato beat Yuki Iino, To-y & Tomomitsu Matsunaga. Akiyama pinned Matsunaga after Exploder.

Match 5; Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya beat HARASHIMA & Takao Soma. Naya pinned Soma after The World’s Largest Backdrop.

Main Event: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & Illusion beat Chris Brookes, Antonio Honda & Takeshi Masada to retain the titles. Illusion pinned Honda. V3 for the champs.

The next event is a Japan Wrestling Federation Presents Charity Pro Wrestling Festival event tomorrow at Odawara Arena Sub Arena in Kanagawa. There will be no live broadcast.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 7/5/25 Results (Updated x3)

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2025 Tour today in Tokyo, an event that began a month-long 20th Anniversary celebration for host venue Shinjuku Face. The roughly 600-seat music & entertainment hall opened in summer 2005 after a remodeling & rebranding.

Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The announced paid attendance was 403.

Match 1: Eita, Shuji Kondo & Caribbean beat Mohammed Yone, Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara. Kondo pinned Ohara after a King Kong lariat.

Match 2: Tetsuya Endo beat Super Crazy & Black Menso-re in a 3-way by pinning Menso-re.

Match 3: Daiki Inaba beat Daiki Odashima.

Match 4: Naomichi Marufuji, Will Cross, AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Galeno, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura. Cross pinned Alejandro after Cross Control. Afterwards, Cross immediately challenged Galeno for the GHC National Championship. Accepted. It’s now official, date TBA.

Match 5: HAYATA & Saxon Huxley beat YO-HEY & Manabu Soya. HAYATA pinned YO-HEY.

Match 6: OZAWA, Takashi Sugiura & Daga beat Kenoh, KENTA & Ulka Sasaki. OZAWA pinned Kenoh after Real Rebel.

Main Event: GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Tadasuke & Owadasan to retain the titles. Bane pinned Owadasan after Santa Maria. V2 for the champs.

The next event is tomorrow at Shimada City General Sports Center Sub Arena in Shizuoka. There will be no live broadcast.

UPDATE: After the event it was announced that GHC Women’s Champion Takumi Iroha would be defending the title today in Spain along with the RCW Women’s Championship she holds. Results when they become available. This event will also be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date.

UPDATE 2: Iroha won her match to retain the title. V2 for Iroha.

UPDATE 3: GHC National Championship match update: That match will happen on 7/13 at G Messe Gunma in Gunma.