Tag: wrestling

New Japan 2/1/23 Results

New Japan wrapped up the first part of the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today amidst fallout from the departure of Kota Ibushi from the promotion (contract expired) and potential concerns about Yoh, who missed a second straight event today due to a fever. He should be fine for the weekend.

Today’s event was held at Aomori Budokan in Aomori. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 1216.

Match 1: Aaron Henare beat Ryohei Oiwa.

Match 2: Toru Yano & Togi Makabe beat Oskar Leube & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Yano pinned Leube.

Match 3: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo beat Master Wato & Tiger Mask. Phantasmo pinned TM 4 after Sudden Death.

Match 4: Jado & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo & KENTA. Tanahashi beat Gedo with a Texas Cloverleaf.

Match 5: Yuto Nakashima, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto beat Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. YOSHI-HASHI beat Fujita with Butterfly Lock.

Match 6: Francesco Akira, TJP, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned TAKA after Hidden Blade.

Main Event: Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Tomoaki Honma & Kazuchika Okada. Takagi pinned Honma after Pumping Bomber. During the match, BUSHI interfered against Umino and Naito attacked Umino’s father, referee Red Shoes Unno, potentially setting up the next big rivalry for Naito…after his match against Keiji Muto in The Living Legend’a retirement match, presumably.

The next events are as follows:

TAMASHII returns for its second installment with 2 events this weekend. The first one is Friday in Sydney, Australia and the second one is Saturday in Melbourne, Australia. There will be no live broadcast for both.

On the Japan side. Next up is THE NEW BEGINNING in SAPPORO, a doubleheader Saturday US time at Hokkaido Prefectural Sports Center Hokkai Kitayell in Hokkaido. Live streaming on New Japan World in Japanese and English will begin Saturday at midnight PT/3 AM ET for the first event and Saturday at 9 PM PT/midnight ET for the second event. Live results are scheduled for the second event.

Also, announced after the event were a Hirooki Goto 20th Anniversary event on 4/22 in Mie and WRESTLING DONTAKU 2023, the annual Golden Week blowout event in Fukuoka, on 5/3 back at its regular home, Fukuoka International Center. Last year’s event was held at the much larger Fukuoka PayPay Dome for the 50th Anniversary celebration.

TJPW News: Injury Forces Wrestler Off 2/11 Event

In announcing the full card for the Korakuen Hall event on 2/11 (the Futari-wa Princess Max Heart Tournament Finals), Tokyo Joshi Pro also announced a forced change of plans-Juria Nagano, who was scheduled to participate, is now off. Hand injury suffered in her match with Moka Miyamoto against Miyu Yamashita & Maki Itoh. Out indefinitely but to be off this event means at least 2 weeks. They have about 6 weeks until GRAND PRINCESS ’23, which she has been announced for, so hopefully it’s not serious and she will be back in time for that.

More as it becomes available.

BREAKING: Kota Ibushi Comeback (Updated x2)

He’s back…Game Changer Wrestling has announced on Twitter that Kota Ibushi will return to action at GCW Collective 2023 as part of events on 3/30 & 3/31. Both events will stream live on FITE as part of FITE+, a subscription package available for $4.99/month or $49.99/year (and if you go annual, each year they give you enough credits to watch up to $24 worth of PPV content FOR FREE). It’s not known what this means for his status in Japan as his New Japan contract has presumably expired and he had been out since October 2021 due to injury and personal issues.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: There are reports Ibushi’s New Japan contract expired today (yesterday Japan time). Also, the original post has been corrected to reflect that the injury occurred in October 2021, not August 2021.

UPDATE 2: New Japan has announced on their Japanese website that Ibushi has left the promotion, confirming his contract expired today (yesterday Japan time).

New Japan 1/31/23 Results (Updated)

New Japan continued the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING Tour today with the last event of the month.

There were last-second changes to the event as Yoh was a late removal from the card. Fever. Coronavirus rapid test was negative. Status beyond today is uncertain. The main event also saw BUSHI removed as a result.

Today’s event was held at Akita Furusato Village Dome Theater in Akita. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 659.

Match 1: Great-O-Khan beat Yuto Nakashima by submission.

Match 2: Tiger Mask & Tomoaki Homna beat Oskar Leube & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Honma pinned Leube after Kokeshi.

Match 3: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo beat Jado & Master Wato. Phantasmo pinned Jado after Sudden Death.

Match 4: Toru Yano & Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Gedo & KENTA by DQ. Gedo DQ’d.

Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Ryohei Oiwa, YOSHI-HASHI, Hirooki Goto & Tomohiro Ishii. Nicholla pinned Oiwa after a siding lariat.

Match 6: Francesco Akira, TJP, Aaron Henare & Will Ospreay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned TAKA after Hidden Blade.

Main Event: Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Togi Makabe & Kazuchika Okada. Takagi pinned Makabe after Last of the Dragon.

The next event is tomorrow at Aomori Budokan in Aomori. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

UPDATE: Yoh is now off tomorrow as well. Precautionary due to fever. BUSHI is now off again as well to change their match from a 10-man tag to 8-man.

DEVELOPING: TJPW Adds New GRAND PRINCESS ’23 Match

A short time ago on Twitter and DDT’s website, Tokyo Joshi Pro announced a new match for GRAND PRINCESS ’23 on 3/18 at Ariake Arena…and this one more than blew my mind as Yuki Arai will be in, literally and figuratively, her biggest single match yet against…AJA KONG! The Hall Of Famer and living legend of Japanese women’s wrestling! This is the second official match for the event.

New Japan 1/30/23 Results

New Japan continues the Road to THE NEW BEGINNING tour today with another non-televised house show. Coming amidst reports that, following government loosening of coronavirus guidelines, Bushiroad may be returning to full capacity for all NJPW & Stardom events.

Today’s event was held at Iwate Prefectural Gym in Iwate. There was no live broadcast and no on demand video will be available.

The announced paid attendance was 1150.

Match 1: Aaron Henare beat Ryohei Oiwa.

Match 2: Tiger Mask & Togi Makabe beat Yuto Nakashima & Hiroyoshi Tenzan. Makbe pinned Nakashima after a King Kong kneedrop.

Match 3: Jado & Master Wato beat Gedo & Taiji Ishimori. Wato pinned Gedo after RPP.

Match 4: El Phantasmo & KENTA beat Tomoaki Honma & Hiroshi Tanahashi. Phantasmo pinned Honma after Sudden Death.

Match 5: Kosei Fujita, Shane Haste, Mikey Nicholls & Zack Sabre Jr. beat Oskar Leube, YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii & Hirooki Goto. Nicholls pinned Leube after a sliding lariat.

Match 6: Francesco Akira, TJP, Great-O-Khan & Will Ospreay beat TAKA Michinoku, DOUKI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Taichi. Ospreay pinned TAKA after Hidden Blade.

Main Event: BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & Tetsuya Naito beat Yoh, Ryusuke Taguchi, Shota Umino, Toru Yano & Kazuchika Okada. Takagi pinned Taguchi after MADE IN JAPAN.

The next event is tomorrow at Akita Furusato Village Dome Theater in Akita. There will be no live or on demand broadcast.

Tokyo Joshi Pro 1/30/23 Results (PPV)

Tokyo Joshi Pro held a special 10th Anniversary event today dubbed “Beyond the origin, to the future”, a one-day tournament following the format of the promotion’s very first event. 19 of the roster’s members participated as the rest were unavailable for various reasons (Yuka Sakazaki & Yuki Kamifuku are on international excursions, Wakana Uehara had scheduling issues and Juria Nagano & Yuki Arai were not scheduled to participate). Every match was held on floor mats and not a ring, there was a 5 minute time limit and only 2 count pinfalls. Time limit draws used rock-paper-scissors games as tiebreakers except the Finals, which would continue with no time limit and 1 count pinfalls.

Today’s event was held at Twin Box Akihabara in Tokyo (the venue that hosted the inaugural event) and can be watched on demand as a PPV on WRESTLE UNIVERSE until February 6. After that it hopefully will be available for all subscribers.

This was a closed venue event with no fans in attendance. All matches were tournament matches.

Round 1:
Match 1: Moka Miyamoto beat HIMAWARI.

Match 2: Suzume beat Kaya Toribami.

Match 3: Hyper Misao vs. Miu Watanabe went to a 5 minute time limit draw. Misao wins tiebreaker.

Round 2:
Match 4: Rika Tatsumi beat Pom Harajuku.

Match 5: Hikari Noa beat Moka Miyamoto.

Match 6: Mahiro Kiryu vs. Maki Itoh went to a 5 minute time limit draw. Kiryu wins tiebreaker.

Match 7: Neko Haruna beat Yuki Aino.

Match 8: Nao Kakuta beat Arisu Endo.

Match 9: Miyu Yamashita vs. Raku went to a 5 minute time limit draw. Yamashita wins tiebreaker.

Match 10: Shoko Nakajima beat Suzume.

Match 11: Mizuki beat Hyper Misao.

Quarterfinals:
Match 12: Rika Tatsumi beat Hikari Noa.

Match 13: Mahiro Kiryu beat Miyu Yamashita.

Match 14: Shoko Nakajima beat Neko Haruna.

Match 15: Nao Kakuta beat Mizuki.

Semifinals:
Match 16: Rika Tatsumi beat Mahiro Kiryu by submission.

Match 17: Shoko Nakajima beat Nao Kakuta.

Finals: Rika Tatsumi vs. Shoko Nakajima went to a 5 minute time limit draw. Which led to…
Continuation (1 Count, no time limit): Rika Tatsumi beat Shoko Nakajima to win the tournament.

Afterwards, Tatsumi did the show-ending promo then, as is their post-major event custom, all the participants gathered for a group photo. You can see it on the results page of DDT’s website.

The next event is Saturday at Osaka Azalea Taisho in Osaka for a CITY CIRCUIT event. There will be no live broadcast.

DEVELOPING: New Japan Re-Brands US Events, TV Show (Updated)

New Japan has announced a rebranding/repackaging of their US product for 2023 amidst rumors of the end of NJPW STRONG…they may have been greatly exaggerated. Going forward, all New Japan US events will be held under the NJPW STRONG label, to include PPVs, which as live events will become known as “STRONG LIVE” starting with Battle In The Valley on 2/18. Then in March the weekly show will become known as “STRONG On Demand” and will feature all the PPV matches over 4 weeks of episodes, 2 or 3 matches per week. This will continue with the WrestleCon weekend event in March and the Washington DC and Philadelphia events in April.

So to summarize, live PPVs in the US will continue but they will now also be called STRONG LIVE and will later be available on the weekly TV show spread out over 4 weeks’ worth of shows a few weeks later. The weekly shows will continue to be available every weekend on New Japan World and presumably FITE. Live events will continue to be available on FITE in English and as PPVs on New Japan World in Japanese. But no more monthly TV tapings like they had been doing since the brand launched in 2020.

UPDATE: On New Japan’s Japanese website, they confirmed the April events will be available as live PPVs. STRONG On Demand also will continue to be available on FITE.

Dragon Gate 1/29/23 Results

Dragon Gate wrapped up the Open The New Year Gate 2023 Tour today with their final event of the month.

Today’s event was held at Heartful Mikumo Sports Culture Center in Mie and may be available on demand on DRAGONGATE NETWORK. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 305.

Match 1: Kota Minoura & Minorita beat Jason Lee & Punch Tominaga. Minorita pinned Tominaga after Minoritanic.

Match 2: Yasushi Kanda & Mochizuki Jr. beat Kagetora & Ho Ho Lun. Kanda pinned Kagetora after Candy Magic.

Match 3: Ultimo Dragon, Dragon Kid & Eita beat Kzy, BIGBOSS Shimizu & JACKY ‘FUNKY” KAMEI. Kid pinned KAMEI after Christo.

Match 4: Ben-K & BxB Hulk beat Susumu Mochizuki & Takashi Yoshida. Hulk pinned Yoshida after a spear.

Main Event: Yuki Yoshioka, Dragon Dia & Madoka Kikuta beat Shun Skywalker, KAI & H-Y-O. Kikuta pinned H-Y-O after a rolling lariat.

The next event is the Rey De Parejas 2023 Tournament opener Friday at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo. Live streaming on DRAGONGATE NETWORK will begin at 1:15 AM PT/4:15 AM ET.