Tag: pro wrestling

Stardom 6/4/25 Results

Stardom ran their latest NEW BLOOD event today, the 22nd event of the developmental series for younger & less experienced wrestlers.

Today’s event was held at Tokyo Square in Tokyo and can be watched on demand FOR FREE on YouTube.

The announced paid attendance was 153, a legit advance sellout.

Match 1: Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kyrara beat Ema Maishima & Kikyo Furusawa. Sakura pinned Maishima after Cherry Blossom.

Match 2: Asuka Goda beat Yuria Hime.

Match 3: Debbie Keitel beat Akira Kurogame.

Match 4: Hina & Ranna Yagami beat Honoka & Saki-ran and Azusa Inaba & Fukigen in a 3-way when Hina pinned Honoka.

Match 5: Nanami Hatano beat Rian.

Main Event: New Blood Tag Team Champions Waka Tsukiyama & HANAKO beat Himiko & Makoto Yume to retain the titles. Tsukiyama pinned Yume after Smelt. V3 for the champs.

The next event is Sunday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin Saturday at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET.

News: TAKAYAMANIA Returns In 2025

Once one of Japanese pro wrestling’s most legendary big men and a mountain of a man in the ring (especially in terms of height), Yoshihiro Takayama has been paralyzed and bedridden since a cervical cord injury suffered in May 2017. But he continues to progress in rehabilitation and as has been the case the last few years, TAKAYAMANIA, a special annual event put on to support Takayama, will return in 2025. The wrestler’a official Japanese-language blog announced that TAKAYAMANIA EMPIRE 4 will be held on 9/3 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Ticket sales and wrestler participation will be announced as it gets closer but it will be a free live broadcast on ABEMA in Japan. All proceeds after necessary expenses will be donated to help cover Takayama’s medical expenses, and a number of banks have accounts set up allowing fans to make donations to Takayama’s wife to help with his ongoing care. I would at the very least expect Minoru Suzuki to be a featured wrestler at the event.

New Japan News: Tokyo Dome 2026 Event Official

Amidst a flood of New Japan news items yesterday was this item which I missed until just now-start making holiday travel plans because WRESTLE KINGDOM 20, the biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and maybe biggest in the world after WWE WrestleMania, has been officially announced. It will be held on its traditional date of January 4 (a Sunday) at the Tokyo Dome in Tokyo. Already set for the event is Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement but everything else is TBA.

More details including ticket information will be announced closer to the event.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 6/3/25 Results (Updated)

Pro Wrestling NOAH finished off a long weekend stretch of events today with this month’s STAR NAVIGATION 2025 event.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The live broadcast was English only due to being an ABEMA exclusive broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 1233.

Match 1: Masa Kitamiya, AMAKUSA & Shuhei Taniguchi beat Eita, Shuji Kondo & Black Menso-re. AMAKUSA pinned Menso-re after Opening Of The Country.

Match 2: Saxon Huxley, HAYATA & Yuto Kikuchi beat KENTA, Super Crazy & Daiki Odashima. Huxley pinned Crazy after a neck hanging bomb.

Match 3: Naomichi Marufuji, Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura and Daga, Tadasuke & Owadasan in a 3-way by DQ. Owadasan DQ’d. Removing Bane’s mask.

Match 4: Atsushi Kotoge 20th Anniversary Match: Atsushi Kotoge beat Super Delfin.

Match 5: Manabu Soya & Daiki Inaba beat GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki to win the titles. Soya & Inaba become the 71st GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Inaba pinned Kenoh.

Match 6: GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion YO-HEY beat Junta Miyawaki to retain the title. V2 for YO-HEY. Next up; Kotoge. That match will happen on 6/21 at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka.

Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion OZAWA beat Tetsuya Endo & Takashi Sugiura in a 3-way elimination match by eliminating both to retain the title. V6 for OZAWA. Afterwards, Sugiura apparently defected to Team 2000X.

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.

The promotion has also announced viewership for yesterday’s MONDAY MAGIC Prime Time Episode 2 actually topped last week’s record and now ranks in the all-time top 10 for viewership of ANY event/program on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. A break next week before Episode 3 on 6/16.

UPDATE: You can now watch the English commentary version of today’s YO-HEY vs. Miyawaki match FOR FREE on YouTube via the Pro Wrestling NOAH Official English channel.

News: Another Wrestler Trying To Turn Politician

This one is a little hard to take seriously because of who it is. But anyway, Weekly Pro reports that wrestler is Sakura Hirota, who is leaving WAVE to run for a seat in the House Of Councilors in Aichi Prefecture. Hirota debuted in GAEA Japan in 1996 then retired in 2005 when the promotion closed, but unretired in 2009 and in recent years has been a comedy wrestler, often impersonating various wrestlers-male and female-under the ring bane Shin Sakura Hirota, but has been based in WAVE. She is now leaving that promotion but it’s not known if she is retiring again.

Wrestlers do have a track record of becoming politicians in Japan, most notably Hiroshi Hase who served in the upper house of the Diet (Japan’s version of Congress in the US) while wrestling in All-Japan, the late Osamu Nishimura who served in various local and national roles, and also Shinichiro Kawamatsu who reversed the roles as a politician in Tokyo who has appeared a few times in DDT over the last couple years. And let’s not forget Atsushi Onita double-dipping.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 6/2/25 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH ran Episode 2 of MONDAY MAGIC Prime Time today, looking to build on last week’s episode which was the most-watched MONDAY MAGIC to date on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

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

The paid attendance has not been announced.

Match 1: Junta Miyawaki beat HAYATA & Kai Fujimura in a 3-way by pinning Fujimura.

Match 2: AKIRA & Danny Duggan beat Masa Kitamiya & Daiki Odashima. Duggan pinned Odashima after a tombstone piledriver.

Match 3: Dragon Bane, Titus Alexander & Archie Cole beat Alpha Wolf, Robert Marter & Saxon Huxley. Bane pinned Marter after Twisterbane.

Match 4: Takumi Iroha beat GHC Women’s Champion Kouki Amarei to win the title. Iroha becomes the second GHC Women’s Champion.

Match 5: Kaito Kiyomiya & Naoya Nomura beat Ulka Sasaki & Hikaru Sato. Kiyomiya pinned Sato.

Main Event: GHC Hardcore Champion Shuji Kondo beat Manabu Soya to retain the title. V2 for Kondo. In a 3-day stretch of title matches Soya is now 0-2.

The next event is tomorrow at Korakuen Hall with 3 title matches including a 3-way for the GHC Heavyweight Championship and Soya trying AGAIN for the GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Championship after failing yesterday. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 2:30 AM PT/5:30 AM ET. The live broadcast will be in English only because of being an exclusive ABEMA live broadcast in Japan.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 6/1/25 Results

Pro Wrestling NOAH continued the SUNNY VOYAGE 2025 Tour today in Saitama, the start of June which is designated as Mitsuharu Misawa Memorial Month in the promotion in memory of the legendary wrestler who also was the promotion’s founder. Misawa would have turned 63 on 6/18.

Today’s event was held at Westa Kawagoe Multipurpose Hall in Saitama and will be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE Wednesday. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 359.

Match 1: Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf & Eita beat Mohammed Yone, Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara. Bane pinned Ohara.

Match 2: Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Black Menso-re went to a double pinfall. Which led to…
Match 2 (again): Shuhei Taniguchi beat Black Menso-re in 51 seconds.

Match 3: Daiki Inaba & HAYATA beat Shuji Kondo & Super Crazy. HAYATA pinned Crazy.

Match 4: Manabu Soya, Saxon Huxley & YO-HEY beat Masa Kitamiya, AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki. Soya pinned AMAKUSA after Ballistic.

Match 5: Kenoh, Ulka Sasaki & KENTA beat Kaito Kiyomiya, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura. KENTA beat Alejandro with Game Over.

Main Event: OZAWA, Daga, Tadasuke & Owadasan beat Takashi Sugiura, Tetsuya Endo, Naomichi Marufuji & Daiki Odashima. OZAWA pinned Odashima after Big Ben Edge.

The next event is MONDAY MAGIC Prime Time Episode 2 tomorrow at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

DDT 6/1/25 Results (Updated)

DDT ran their latest event in Nagoya today as part of a doubleheader with Tokyo Joshi Pro.

Today’s event was held at Chunichi Hall in Nagoya and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The paid attendance was not announced.

Match 1: HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano beat Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ishida. HARASHIMA pinned Ishida after Blue Sword.

Match 2: Antonio Honda beat Toru Owashi, Kazuki Hirata & Danshoku Dieno in a 4-way by beating Hirata.

Match 3: Akito beat Yuya Koroku.

Match 4: Jun Akiyama & Yuni beat Daichi Sato & Kazuma Sumi. Yuni pinned Sumi after Messiah DDT.

Match 5: KANON beat Takeshi Masada by submission.

Match 6: Chris Brookes & Minoru Suzuki beat Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya. Brookes pinned Higuchi after Praying Mantis Bomb.

Main Event: KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Champions Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & Illusion beat Yuki Ueno, Shunma Katsumata & To-y to retain the titles. Okatani pinned Katsumata after a vertical drop brainbuster. V2 for the champs. Next up: Brookes, Masada & Honda. That match will happen on 7/5 at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama.

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

UPDATE: On the heels of DDT announcing the third career match for O-MENZ Kumadori after the event, now comes word that a press conference regarding upcoming wrestling activities for “The Rampage” Kaisei Takechi, who has packed Korakuen Hall with female fans for his first two matches, will be held Thursday. This will be streamed LIVE FOR FEEE on DDT’s official YouTube channel beginning Wednesday at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET

New Japan 6/1/25 Results (Updated 6/2/25 x4)

New Japan wrapped up the Best Of The Super Junior 32 Tournament today with the Finals.

Today’s event was held at Ota City General Gym in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on New Japan World.

The announced paid attendance was 3044.

Pre-show match: Robbie X beat Shoma Kato.

Match 1: Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Sho, Yujiro Takahashi, Ren Narita & SANADA beat Kevin Knight, KUSHIDA, Master Wato, Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano. Kanemaru beat Wato with a figure 4.

Match 2: Francesco Akira, Callum Newman & Great-O-Khan beat Tomoaki Honma, YOSHI-HASHI & Taichi. Khan pinned Honma after a wrist clutch Eliminator.

Match 3: Nick Wayne, MAO, El Phantasmo & Shota Umino beat Robbie Eagles, Hartley Jackson, Ryohei Oiwa & Zack Sabre Jr. Phantasmo pinned Jackson after CR2.

Match 4: Titan & Yota Tsuji beat Clark Connors & Taiji Ishimori. Tsuji pinned Connors after Gene Blaster.

Match 5: EVIL beat Gedo by submission. Borderline glorified squash.

Match 6: Ninja Mack, Dragon Dia & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat TAKA Michinoku, El Desperado & Yuya Uemura. Tanahashi pinned TAKA after High Fly Flow. Afterwards, Jun Kasai appeared and challenged Desperado to a match on 6/24.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & Shingo Takagi beat Ryusuke Taguchi & Hirooki Goto. Takagi pinned Taguchi after Burning Dragon.

Main Event: Best Of The Super Junior Finals: Kosei Fujita beat Yoh to win the tournament. Fujita becomes the youngest BOSJ winner in history. As a result, Fujita also gets an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship shot in the near future.

The next event is DOMINION, the annual June blowout event, on 6/15 at Osaka-jo Hall in Osaka. Live streaming on New Japan World OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY will begin at midnight PT/3 AM ET. This will be a live & exclusive TV Asahi broadcast in Japan.

Also coming up before then is a New Japan/DDT crossover event focused on a Toru Yano vs. Super Sasadango Machine match on 6/9 at Korakuen Hall. That event will be a live PPV on both New Japan World and WRESTLE UNIVERSE for 2500 Japanese yen (around $17 US) beginning at 3 AM PT/6 AM ET.

6/2/25 UPDATE: At today’s customary post-tournament presser, it was confirmed the title match between Desperado & Fujita will not happen at DOMINION. There is a chance of it happening on 6/24 at Korakuen Hall at an El Desperado Produced event although Desperado wants to defend the title against Jun Sakai that day. That is not yet official so officially the date is TBA. I’m thinking either 7/4 at Tokyo Budokan (Nippon Budokan?) or 7/6 at Korakuen.

Also announced today by Stardom were upcoming IWGP Women’s Championship matches: Syuri will make her first title defense Friday (6/6/25) vs. Alex Windsor at a Pro Wrestling EVE event in England. You may be able to watch that match on YouTube although it will likely be paywalled. Whoever comes out as champion will defend in Stardom on 6/21/25 at Yoyogi National Stadium Gym 2 vs. Sareee. That will, while not yet announced, almost definitely be a PPV on Stardom World.

UPDATE 2: DDT has now announced Fujita will make his first appearance in the promotion on their 7/13 event. He will be in a tag match with TBA, billed as his “friend”, as his partner.

UPDATE 3: It’s now official-El Desperado vs. Jun Kasai on 6/24 will be for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship.

UPDATE 4: Following up on Update 2 above, said “friend” teaming with Fujita on 7/13 in DDT is Takeshi Masada. They will face To-y & Yuya Koroku.

All-Japan Pro Wrestling 6/1/25 LIVE Results (Updated x2)

All-Japan kicks off their June tour, the Super Power Series 2025, today with a major event in Sendai. 3 title matches headline the event starting with an All-Japan World junior Heavyweight Championship match as new champion Seiki Yoshioka defends for the first time against Dan Tamura. The second title match sees All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi, the landmark 100th champions, make their first defense against Shotaro Ashino & Xyon. Finally, in the main event, it’s a brotherly affair as Jun Saito defends the Triple Crown against his brother Rei Saito, this year’s Champions Carnival winner. Two things for sure-I’ll be happy no matter how this match ends and afterwards, it will be all about DOOM!!!

There has been a last-minute change to the card because Taishin Nagao is now off the event. Unspecified injury. He was to have faced Hideki Suzuki. Takashi, the former Takashi Yoshida who is now using just his first name as announced recently by home promotion Dragon Gate, is the replacement.

Today’s event will be held at Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai and can be watched LIVE on AJPW.TV in Japanese. It will also be taped for broadcast on GAORA SPORTS in Japan at a later date. There will be an intermission before the title matches (the last 3) so it’s going to be a long event, based on the later TV broadcast schedules I’d anticipate it running about 3 1/2 hours so I may not make it all the way through. And you never know because of that Kuroshio TOKYO Japan guy being on the card with his unpredictable entrance antics.

Today’s lineup:
Hideki Suzuki vs. Takashi (Takashi Yoshida)
Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan vs. Jack Kennedy & Aizawa No. 1
MUSASHI, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue vs. Atsuki Aoyagi, Fuminori Abe & Seigo Tachibana
Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe vs. Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & TBA (only being called XXL)
Intermission
All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura for the title
All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino & Xyon for the titles
All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito for the Triple Crown

Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.

Updates below will begin at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET. The live stream is scheduled to begin 5 minutes before the event.

9:57 PM PT UPDATE: Live updates begin now.

We are LIVE from Sendai Sun Plaza in Sendai, Japan. Commentary will begin later.

The paid attendance will be announced after the event. Advance tickets sales were strong and a legit sellout is possible, the venue’s listed capacity is just over 2700 but looks a setup closer to 2500 and that will be my prediction. (UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 2239)

Opening announcements begin the broadcast.

The matches begin at 10:07 PM PT/1:07 AM ET. Commentary starts now. Not sure who the host is but Kagehiro Osano is also on commentary.

Match 1: Hideki Suzuki vs. Takashi (Takashi Yoshida). 15 minute time limit
Result: Hideki Suzuki beat Takashi by submission. Largely a comedy match including brawling through the building at one point, leaving us thinking maybe it got thrown out.

Match 2: Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan vs. Jack Kennedy & Aizawa No. 1. 20 minute time limit
Result: Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan beat Jack Kennedy & Aizawa No. 1. Smith pinned 1 after Bulldog Bomb.

Match 3: MUSASHI, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue vs. Atsuki Aoyagi, Fuminori Abe & Seigo Tachibana. 30 minute time limit
Result: Atsuki Aoyagi, Fuminori Abe & Seigo Tachibana beat MUSASHI, Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue. Aoyagi pinned Inoue after Firebird Splash.

Match 4: Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe vs. Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & TBA (only being called XXL). 30 minute time limit. After everyone else enters, Omori reveals XXL is, well, XXL. Big man foreigner (tall, maybe legit 7 feet). I think they call him Taros.
Result: Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & Taros beat Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe. Taros pinned Ayabe after a chokeslam.

Intermission.

The matches resume at 11:47 PM PT. Longer than usual intermission (20 minutes). The Sendai return date is 10/13 at Nikko Arena. (Kakuda City General Gym in Miyagi, it will be a Saito Brothers hometown event)

Match 5: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion Seiki Yoshioka vs. Dan Tamura for the title. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion Seiki Yoshioka beat Dan Tamura to retain the title. V1 for Yoshioka. (UPDATE: Next up: If Yoshioka gets his wish, either Naruki Doi or possibly Tamura again. Most likely Doi)

Match 6: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi vs. Shotaro Ashino & Xyon for the titles. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi beat Shotaro Ashino & Xyon to retain the titles. Miyahara pinned Xyon with a shutdown suplex hold. V1 for the champs. (UPDATE: Next up: Madoka Kikuta and TBA, at least that’s what Aoyagi wants. Miyahara said that match will happen on 6/18 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo).

Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Jun Saito vs. Rei Saito for the Triple Crown. 1 Hour time limit
Result: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Jun Saito beat Rei Saito to retain the Triple Crown. V4 for Jun Saito. Next up: Hideki Suzuki.

The next event is 6/14 at Juroku Plaza in Gifu. There will be no live broadcast. On demand later that day.

UPDATE 2: More post-event news:
The new Hokuto army member’s name is Talos according to a more accurate translation (not Taros as I thought). And because Hokuto Omori is so obsessed with keeping the titles, Talos will team with Omori & Aizawa No. 1 for an All-Japan AJPW.TV 6-Man Tag Team Championship match on 6/14 against champions Omori, Kumaarashi & Takashi. Inter-faction warfare!

As far as the other title matches above, the All-Japan World Tag Team Championship match is now official for 6/18. TBA teaming with Madoka Kikuta will be KAI. Also set for 6/18 is Jun Saito-Hideki Suzuki fro the Triple Crown and Yoshioka vs. Naruki Doi for the All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Championship. Other matches TBA.