News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
Amidst questions regarding his status when Jake Lee entered the G1 CLIMAX 34 after “defecting” from Pro Wrestling NOAH, Lee officially signed with New Japan today. He held a press conference to make the announcement and was in full heel character mode as he will remain a part of Bullet Club.
You can watch the presser below, which was livestreamed on New Japan World YouTube channel in Japanese:
All-Japan wrapped up the Summer Action Wars 2024 Tour today with a major event in Fukuoka.
Today’s event was held at Fukuoka Island City Forum in Fukuoka and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 1013.
Match 1: All-Asia Tag Team Champions MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka beat Fuminori Abe & Seigo Tachibana to retain the titles. MUSASHI pinned Tachibana after Niten No. 1. V3 for the champs.
Match 2: Shotaro Ashino & Kutoshio TOKYO Japan beat Hartley Jackson & Jack Kennedy. Ashino beat Kennedy with an ankle lock.
Match 3: Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato & Yuko Miyamoto beat Hokuto Omori, Kumaarashi & Cyrus. Suzuki pinned Omori with a backdrop hold.
Match 4: Yuma Anzai & Rising Hayato beat Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Dan Tamura. Anzai pinned Tamura after Gimlet.
Match 5: All-Japan World Junior Heavyweight Champion Naruki Doi beat Ryo Inoue to retain the title. V2 for Doi.
Match 6: All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Jun & Rei Saito beat Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe to retain the titles. Jun Saito pinned Honda after Psycho Break. V4 for the champs.
Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Yuma Aoyagi beat Kento Miyahara to retain the Triple Crown. V1 for Aoyagi. They went over 30 minutes.
The next event is the Royal Road Tournament starting on 9/14 at Nagoya Congress Center in Nagoya. This is a single-elimination singles tournament. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 1 AM PT/4 AM ET.
Pro Wrestling NOAH wrapped up the N-1 VICTORY Tournament today with the Finals, which in a first-time twist was also for the GHC Heavyweight Championship.
Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE and ABEMA Live (the live broadcast was free on both). You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 1537. Not sure how much it may have been affected by weather (hurricane/typhoon-the promotion decided Friday the event would go on as scheduled).
Match 1: Alejandro beat Tadasuke, Hajime Ohara & Super Crazu in a 4-way by pinning Crazy.
Match 2: Masa Kitamiya beat Junta Miyawaki.
Match 3: Titus Alexander, Ryohei Oiwa & Kai Fujimura beat Jack Morris, Ulka Sasaki & Yu Owada. Alexander pinned Owada after Big Ugly.
Match 4: Manabu Soya & Tavion Heights (WWE) beat Kazuyuki Fujita & Yoshitatsu (Independent/Freelancer). Heights pinned Yoshitatsu after Heights Bomb.
Match 5: Takumi Iroha, Great Sakuya, Miyuki Takase & Sandra Moon beat Miku Aono, Kouki Amarei, Bozilla & Kizuna Tanaka. Iroha pinned Tanaka after a running knee.
Match 6: Josh Briggs (WWE) beat Yoshiki Inamura.
Match 7: Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Galeno Del Mal & Luis Mante (Dragon Gate) beat Shun Skywalker (Dragon Gate), Dragon Bane & Alpha Wolf. Mante pinned Bane after Vuelta Finale.
Match 8: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Naomichi Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura beat Akitoshi Saito & Mohammed Yone by ref stoppage to retain the titles. Sugiura beat Saito with a front neck lock. V2 for the champs.
Match 9: Daga beat GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA to win the title. Daga becomes the 56th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.
Match 10: HAYATA & YO-HEY beat GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Shuji Kondo & Eita to win the titles. HAYATA & YO-HEY become the 61st GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. HAYATA pinned Eita after Hedeck.
Main Event: N-1 VICTORY 2024 Finals: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat Kenoh to win the tournament and retain the title. V3 for Kiyomiya. Next up: Since Kiyomiya won the tournament, TBA.
Post-event news/fallout:
Ryohei Oiwa’s training excursion from New Japan to NOAH will end this month. His final NOAH match will be on 9/14 at Korakuen Hall against Kiyomiya in a NON-TITLE match. 9/14 will also have a GHC National Championship match as Ulka Sasaki defends against Manabu Soya.
The next event is NOAH UK TOUR 2024 starting Friday at O2 Academy in Edinburgh, England. The tour is being co-promoted with and tickets sales handled by Progress Wrestling. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.
UPDATE: It has been announced that Kiyomiya will defend the GHC Heavyweight Championship on 9/8 against Ricky Knight Jr. on the final event of the UK tour.
Stardom wrapped up the 5STAR GP today with a major event in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza Main Arena in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on Stardom World as a PPV for 4400 Japanese yen (around $30 US) until Wednesday morning. It will be available on demand for all monthly subscribers shortly after that. You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube. Saori Anou & Ami Sohrei were guests on commentary.
The announced paid attendance was 2108.
Pre-show match: Waka Tsukiyama beat Rian.
Match 2: Hazuki & Koguma beat Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara. Koguma pinned Sakura after a diving body press.
Match 3: 5STAR GP Semifinals: Maika beat Mayu Iwatani.
Match 4: 5STAR GP Semifinals: Saya Kamitani beat Hanan.
Match 5: Anna Jay beat Momo Kohgo by submission. This is Anna’s last match in Stardom for now as she is headed back to All Elite Wrestling, but there are many hoping she will be back (and soon).
Match 6: Gina beat Saya Iida.
Match 7: Starlight Kid, AZM, Suzu Suzuki, Mei Seira & Miyu Amasaki beat Syuri, Saki Kashima, Ranna Yagami, Lady C & Risa Sera. Kid pinned Yagami after a moonsault press.
Match 8: Natsupoi, Saori Anou & Yuna Mizumori beat Thekla, Konami & Ruaka. Mizumori pinned Ruaka after Supergirl.
Match 9: Future Of Stardom Champion Rina beat Hina to retain the title. V11(!) for Rina. That’s a new record, so not only did Rina beat her twin sister today, she has broken her big sister Hanan’s title defense record. This match almost went the full 15 minutes.
Match 10: Tam Nakano beat World Of Stardom Champion Natsuko Tora to win the title. Nakano becomes the 19th World Of Stardom Champion. This has “WTF” booking all over it and in my opinion completely devalued the 5STAR GP. How the f+++ does Nakano start 0-4, get the title shot out of nowhere, finish 0-6 and now win the title? The only logical explanation would have been her vacating the belt last year due to injury, but they didn’t seem to do that. I really thought Stardom would be better off under a new regime after Rossy Ogawa was fired. I was apparently wrong.
Main Event: 5STAR GP Finals: Maika beat Saya Kamitani to win the tournament. As a result, Maika also gets a World Of Stardom Championship shot. That match will happen on 9/14 at Osaka Prefectural Gym. Ironically, Maika won the title after Nakano vacated it.
The next event is 9/8 at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin on 9/7 at 7:30 PM PT/10:30 PM ET.
All-Japan continued the Summer Action Series 2024 Tour today in Hiroshima.
Today’s event was held at Hiroshima Marine Hop in Hiroshima and will be available on demand on AJPW.TV later today. There was no live broadcast.
The announced paid attendance was 435.
Match 1: Ryuki Honda beat Jack Kennedy.
Match 2: MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka vs. Hikaru Sato & Yuko Miyamoto went to a 15 minute time limit draw.
Match 3: GAORA TV Champion Fuminori Abe beat Rey Paloma to retain the title. V2 for Abe.
Match 4: Yuma Anzai, Ren Ayabe & Rising Hayato beat Hokuto Omori, Cyrus & Hartley Jackson. Anzai pinned Omori after Gimlet.
Match 5: Jun & Rei Saito & Naruki Doi beat Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue. Doi pinned Inoue.
Main Event; Kento Miyahara & Davey Boy Smith Jr. beat Yuma Aoyagi & Hideki Suzuki. Miyahara pinned Aoyagi with a shutdown suplex hold.
The tour-ender is tomorrow at Fukuoka Island City Forum in Fukuoka. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin TONIGHT at 10 PM PT/1 AM ET.
After their scheduled events in Gifu were cancelled due to concerns about an impending hurricane making landfall in Japan (they call them typhoons), DDT went ahead with a Beer Garden Pro Wrestling event today in Tokyo.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 419, a super full house/very near sellout.
Before the matches began, Yuki Ishida appeared and announced he would be participating full-time in DDT going forward.
Match 1: Toru Owashi & beat Yuni & Keigo Nakamura. Owashi pinned Nakamura with La Magistral. As a result, Owashi wins the “Money In The Bank” title shot opportunity held by Nakamura.
Match 2: In a Rock & Roll Death Match, A.YAZAWA beat Kazuma Sumi, AKito & To-y in a 4-way by pinning Sumi.
Match 3: In a Handicap Match, Daisuke Sasaki, MJ Paul, KANON & Motaro Suzuki beat Masa Takanashi, Takao Soma & Yuya Koroku. KANON beat Kotoku with a ground cobra twist.
Match 4: In a GM Imabayashi New Series Kaidan Shin Numabukuro Death Match, Shunma Katsumata & Jun Akiyama vs. Danshoku Dieno & Makoto Oishi went to a no contest. Apparently Imabayashi got laid out.
Match 5: Chris Brookes beat Illusion. Afterwards, Illusion joined Schadenfreude International.
Main Event: In a match with teams determined by random customer lottery, Tetsuya Endo, Yuki Ueno, Yuki Iino & Takeshi Masada beat MAO, HARASHIMA, Kazuki Hirata & Yukio Naya. Endo pinned Hirata after Burning Star Press.
The next event is Wednesday. There will be no live broadcast.
All-Japan has announced several last-minute changes to tomorrow’s (tonight US time) Hiroshima event because Suwama is now off the event. Ear vertigo. Out indefinitely. He was to have teamed with Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue to face Jun & Rei Saito & Naruki Doi. Shotaro Ashino is the replacement and has been removed from match 2 as he was to have teamed with Hikaru Sato to face MUSASHI & Seiki Yoshioka. Yuko Miyamoto is the replacement for Ashino. It’s not known how long Suwama will be out, and also there is a chance tonight’s event is a last-minute postponement due to weather conditions (approaching hurricane).
More as it becomes available.
Tokyo Joshi Pro just announced that SKE48 member Shiori Aoki, one of TJPW wrestler Yuki Arai’s “teammates” in SKE48, will return as a special referee for the 3rd time at WRESTLE PRINCESS 5 on 9/22. Following this, SKE48 uploaded the video of Aoki’s referee debut from September 18, 2023 for a match of Arai & HIMAWARI vs. Shoko Nakajima & Hyper Misao. You can watch the video below, it is also available on WRESTLE UNIVERSE for paid monthly subscribers:
Video courtesy of the SKE48 official YouTube channel. This match has Japanese commentary.
Stardom continued the 5STAR GP today with the Quarterfinals, including some tiebreaker matches beforehand.
Today’s event was held at Shinjuku Face in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on Stardom World. You can also watch the first 3 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.
The announced paid attendance was 508, a legit advance sellout. In fact, that’s over full capacity as they sold standing room only tickets today (the venue’s normal maximum capacity is 500).
Match 1: 5STAR GP Red Block B Tiebreaker: A series of single matches among the 3 participants where the first to win 2 straight matches would advance:
1-Mei Seira beat AZM.
2-Tomoka Inaba beat Mei Seira.
3-AZM beat Tomoka Inaba.
4-AZM beat Mei Seira. As a result, AZM advances to the Quarterfinals.
Match 2: 5STAR GP Blue Block B Tiebreaker: Hanan beat Suzu Suzuki. As a result, Hanan advances to the Quarterfinals.
Match 3: Tam Nakano & Hina beat Natsuko Tora & Rina. Nakano pinned Tora after Andromeda. (Side thought: When the rematch happens Saturday for the World Of Stardom Championship, Tora must win or else the entire 5STAR GP and more is devalued beyond repair. The only possible explanation for Nakano getting the shot after starting 0-4 and finishing 0-6 is because when she lost the title at the end of 2023, she had to vacate it due to injury)
Match 5: 5STAR GP Red Block Quarterfinals: Mayu Iwatani beat Natsupoi. As a result, Iwatani advances to the Semifinals.
Match 6: 5STAR GP Blue Block Quarterfinals: Saya Kamitani beat Starlight Kid. As a result, Kamitani advances to the Semifinals.
Match 7: 5STAR GP Blue Block Quarterfinals: Hanan beat Syuri. As a result, Hanan advances to the Semifinals.
Main Event: 5STAR GP Red Block Quarterfinals: Maika beat AZM. As a result, Maika advances to the Semifinals.
The Semifinals will be Iwatani vs. Maika and Hanan vs. Kamitani.
The Semifinals and Finals are Saturday at Musashino Forest Sports Plaza Main Arena in Tokyo. Live streaming on Stardom World as a PPV for 4400 Japanese yen (around $30 US) will begin Friday at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET. Purchase includes the live broadcast and unlimited replays until Tuesday morning US time. It should be available to all monthly Stardom World subscribers soon after that (at worst it may not be until Wednesday).
In what could be very disappointing news for a potential newlywed couple, DDT has announced this Saturday’s event in Gifu, which was to feature an actual wedding if a couple applied and paid the 100,000 yen fee (around $650 US), along with a second scheduled event in Gifu, has been POSTPONED. Weather concerns-the forecast calls for the potential of a hurricane (Japan calls them typhoons) and the decision was made out of concerns for safety. No new date announced yet and refunds will be given for tickets purchased. If there is no wedding, it will be a regular event instead.