Tag: wrestling

BREAKING: KENTA Returns To NOAH (Updated)

Pro Wrestling NOAH just wrapped up a live emergency press conference right now (which can be watched FOR FREE on YouTube) and the big announcement seemed to be what I thought it would be given he was appearing: KENTA has returned to the promotion. That means his contract with New Japan expired in January (almost all of them are renewed annually, or not, after Tokyo Dome & New Year Dash!!) and he became a free agent before appearing in NOAH again yesterday at Korakuen Hall.
And not to be outdone, Kenoh is also livestreaming this and more on his YouTube channel.

More as it becomes available.

UPDATE: For the rest of this month and 3/2 he will be competing on all events, teaming with Kenoh on each event.

An English translation of Q&A at the presser is available on NOAH’s official website:
https://www.noah.co.jp/news/6680/

Stardom 2/11/25 & 2/12/25 Results

Stardom ran a pair of rare weekday events yesterday & today.

There were late changes to both events due to no Saki Kashima again. Illness.

Yesterday’s event was held at Hiroshima Industrial Hall East Exhibition Hall in Hiroshima and can be watched on demand on Stardom World.

The announced paid attendance was 437.

Match 1: AZM & Suzu Suzuki beat Maika & Yuria Hime. AZM pinned Hime after a diving foot stomp. After the match, Takashi Sasaki (Freedoms) appeared to promote the Freedoms event at the venue on 4/20 and to invite Suzuki to the event.

Match 2: Hanan & Koguma beat Saori Anou & Ranna Yagami. Hanan pinned Yagami after 17.

Match 3: Yuna Mizunori & Aya Salura beat Mei Seira & Akira Kurogame. Sakura beat Kurogame with a triangle.

Match 4: Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki & Momo Kohgo beat Tam Nakano, Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara. Iwatani beat Kurara with a standing dragon sleeper.

Match 5: Starlight Kid & Miyu Amasaki beat HANAKO & Rian. Amasaki pinned HANAKO after Tensei.

Main Event: Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora & Konami beat Syuri, Lady C & Kiyoka Kokatsu. Konami pinned Kokatsu after a buzzsaw kick.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym 2 in Osaka and can be watched on demand on Stardom World. You can also watch the first match FOR FREE on YouTube.

The paid attendance has not yet been announced. (UPDATE; The announced paid attendance was 461)

Match 1: Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora & Konami beat Tam Nakano, Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara. Kamitani pinned Kurara after Star Crusher.

Match 2: Saori Anou & Ata Salura beat Hanan & Momo Kohgo. Sakura pinned Kohgo after a high kick.

Match 3: In a handicap match, Mayu Iwatani, Hazuki & Koguma beat Maika, Rian, Akira Kurogame & Yuria Hime. Koguma pinned Kurogame with 120% Schoolboy.

Match 4: Fukigen beat Yuna Mizumori. Post-match happenings led to Fukigen getting a shot at High Speed Champion Mei Seira for the title. That match will happen on 3/3 at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo.

Match 5: Syuri, Lady C, Ranna Yagani & Kiyoka Kokatsu beat AZM, Starlight Kid, Mei Seira & Suzu Suzuki. C pinned AZM after a big boot. Afterwards, C made an Artist Of Stardom Championship challenge. Accepted by AZM. More to come there.

Main Event: Future Of Stardom Champion Miyu Amasaki vs. HANAKO went to a 15 minute time limit draw. As a result, Amasaki retains the title. V3 for Amasaki. Next up: Hina. That match will happen on 2/24 at Light Cube Utsunomiya in Tochigi. That event will be a PPV.

The next event is Saturday at G Messe Gunma in Gunma. There will be no live broadcast.

New Japan News: New Japan Cup Field Set

With THE NEW BEGINNING now in the books, it’s time to look forward to the New Japan Cup, New Japan’s first annual tournament. The promotion announced the field and matchups today.

The New Japan Cup is a single-elimination bracket-style tournament and is an openweight tournament, meaning Junior Heavyweights participate along with Heavyweights. This year’s event has a field of 24, here is the bracket:

Yota Tsuji is the defending tournament winner. The winner will get an IWGP World Heavyweight Championship shot at SALURA GENESIS in April. Notably absent are NEW IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Hirooki Goto & Hiroshi Tanahashi-their hinted-at 3/6 title match is now official. Goto has promised to defend against Yuji Nagata after that if victorious but whoever wins the Cup may be next.

The tournament begins on 3/8.

Injury Report: Constantly DDT’d

Pun intended because the hits keep coming for DDT. Unfortunately the injury/illness issues keep piling up and now they have announced Yuki Ueno is the latest casualty. Potential hematuria, which is blood in urine. It can be serious. However medical scans (kidneys) revealed no abnormalities but for now he can’t do any “serious exercise” until further test results come back. Out indefinitely because of that. However, he will be appearing at the next 2 events (Friday at Shinjuku Face & Sunday at Rembrandt Hotel Ebina in Kanagawa) and will speak in the ring Friday. Right now the biggest concern after his health may be 3/20 when he is to defend the DDT Universal Championship against Minoru Suzuki.

More as it becomes available

Tokyo Joshi Pro 2/11/25 Results

Tokyo Joshi Pro ran a unique outdoor event in Tokyo today, a combination of wrestling and the wrestlers doing solo music performances (not just Up Up Girls).

Today’s event was held at Hibiya Open Air Concert Hall in Tokyo and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast.

The announced paid attendance was 202.

There was a last-minute change to the card due to no HIMAWARI. Shoulder injury apparently suffered last week at the Korakuen Hall event. Out indefinitely including this coming weekend. She was to have teamed with Kira Summer to face Suzume & Mahiro Kiryu. That match became a 3-way instead.

The event began with several solo music performances by various wrestlers.

Match 1: Arisu Endo beat Chika Nanase by submission.

Match 2: Neko Haruna, Yoshiko Hasegawa & Kaya Toribami beat Yuki Kamifuku, Toga & Mifu Ashida. Toribami beat Ashida with Birdcage.

Match 3: Suzume beat Mahiro Kiryu & Kira Summer in a 3-way by pinning Summer.

Match 4: Mizuki & Jada Stone beat Shoko Nakajima & Haru Kazashiro. Stone pinned Kazashiro after Spark Stunner.

Main Event: Rika Tatsumi, Yuki Aino, Max The Impaler, Pom Harajuku & Wakana Uehara beat Hyper Misao, Raku, Miu Watanabe, Shino Suzuki & Uta Takami. Tatsumi beat Suzuki with a dragon sleeper. Afterwards, the entire roster came back out for one final musical performance together. Well, almost the entire roster…unfortunately, much to the dismay of fans like myself, Max did not sing even though Pom did.

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

New Japan 2/11/25 Results (Updated)

New Japan’s first official (post-Tokyo Dome) blowout event of the year, THE NEW BEGINNING, is now in the books.

Today’s event was held at Osaka Prefectural Gym in Osaka and can be watched on demand OUTSIDE JAPAN ONLY on New Japan World. This event aired in Japan as part of WORLD PRO WRESTLING LIVE 2025 exclusively on TV Asahi.

The announced paid attendance was 5502, a legit advance sellout. If indeed legit that’s maximum capacity and then some as the venue’s normal full capacity, which is primarily for sumo, is roughly 5000.

Pre-show match: Jeff Cobb & Francesco Akira beat Katsuya Murashima & El Desperado. Akira pinned Desperado.

Match 1: Hiroshi Tanahashi beat Togi Makabe.

Match 2: Drilla Moloney beat Shingo Takagi.

Match 3: Great-O-Khan beat Shota Umino. Afterwards, Umino cut off his hair.

Match 4: SANADA beat Taichi. Afterwards, a post-match Bullet Club beatdown on Taichi occurred until Yuya Uemura returned from injury to make the save.

Match 5: IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Kosei Fujita & Robbie Eagles beat Rocky Romero & Yoh to retain the titles. Fujita pinned Romero after Abandon Hope. V1 for the champs. Next up: Taiji Ishimori & Robbie X.

Match 6: NEVER Openweight Champion Konosuke Takeshita beat Boltin Oleg to retain the title. V3 for Takeshita. Next up: Ryohei Oiwa.

Match 7: Hiromu Takahashi & Tetsuya Naito beat IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Matt & Nick Jackson to win the titles. Takahashi & Naito become the 107th IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Naito pinned Nick Jackson after Destino. This may be the first time, or first time in a long time, a Junior Heavyweight (Takahashi) holds half of the Heavyweight Tag Team Championship.

Match 8: IWGP Global Champion Yota Tsuji vs. Gabriel Kidd went to a Double KO. As a result, Tsuji retains the title.V2 for Tsuji. Afterwards, EVIL made a surprise return after vanishing following the 1/11 event in the US and, after a beatdown on Kidd, announced that Kidd and the rest of the War Dogs sub-faction are out of Bullet Club. It’s almost all about House Of Torture now outside of maybe Ishimori & Gedo.

Main Event: Hirooki Goto beat IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Zack Sabre Jr. to win the title. Goto becomes the 12th IWGP World Heavyweight Champion. The one New Japan title that has eluded him for 23 years and 8 prior tries no longer does…Bridesmaid no more. Goto celebrated with his children in the ring afterwards and dedicated the victory to his late father. Next/first up: Based on backstage comments/happenings, Goto wanted to give Tanahashi one last shot at the title before President Ace retires at Tokyo Dome 2026. If what they said proves true, that match will happen on 3/6. And if Goto retains, he then vowed to defend against the oldest at 56 years old, Yuji Nagata, who will do his best to defy father time and the odds yet again like he did a few years ago when he won the All-Japan Triple Crown. What’s New Is…Old Again? However, the New Japan Cup is right around the corner too so plans could change.

The next event is CMLL FANTASTICAMANIA 2025, the (usually) annual crossover showcase featuring wrestlers from Mexico’s CMLL promotion (which is a partner of New Japan), starting on 2/19 at Kadoma Sports Center in Osaka. There will be no live or on demand broadcast. This year’s series consists of 8 events total but only the last 2 (both at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo) will be available on New Japan World.

UPDATE: It’s now official. Goto-Tanahashi will happen on 3/6 for the title. Also added to 3/6 is El Desperado vs. Francesco Akira for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship & NJPW WORLD TV Champion El Phantasmo vs. TBA for the title with TBA being an open challenge.

Pro Wrestling NOAH 2/11/25 Results (Updated x2)

Pro Wrestling NOAH ran a STAR NAVIGATION PREMIUM event today in Tokyo, a weekday matinee for a holiday in Japan. The event just concluded and also featured the start of the NOAH Jr. Tag League.

Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese & English. This was an exclusive ABEMA broadcast in Japan and the English version is edited as a result. I had planned to do live results but was unable to because of last-minute schedule conflicts. You can also watch the first 2 matches FOR FREE on YouTube.

The announced paid attendance was 1560, a legit sellout.

Match 1: AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki beat Anthony Greene & Zozaya. Miyawaki pinned Zozaya.

Match 2: Harutoki beat Owadasan.

Match 3: Naomichi Marufuji, Takashi Sugiura & Kazuyuki Fujita beat Masa Kitamiya, Ulka Sasaki & Shuji Kondo. Marufuji pinned Sasaki with a triangle hold counter.

Match 4; NOAH Jr. Tag League Block B: Tadasuke & Yuto Kikuchi beat Atsushi Kotoge & Hajime Ohara. Tadasuke pinned Kotoge. Borderline squash that wwent only about 2 1/2 minutes.

Match 5; NOAH Jr. Tag League Block A: Mark Trew & Kieron Lacey beat HAYATA & YO-HEY. Trew pinned YO-HEY after True Star Press.

Match 6: Manabu Soya beat GHC National Champion Tetsuya Endo to win the title. Soya becomes the 15th GHC National Champion.

Match 7: NOAH Jr. Tag League Block A: Alejandro & Kai Fujimura beat Eita & Daiki Odashima. Alejandro pinned Eita after a huracanrana.

Match 8: Kenoh & KENTA (New Japan) beat Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi. KENTA pinned Taniguchi after GO 2 SLEEP.

Main Event: GHC Heavyweight Champion OZAWA beat Galeno to retain the title. V1 for OZAWA. Next up: Despite just winning the GHC National Championship back, Soya was out quickly to make the challenge. More to possibly come later today.

The next event is Saturday at Yokohama Radiant Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Friday at 11:30 PM PT/2:30 AM ET. As far as upcoming events go, all remaining February and all March events will be live and immediately on demand afterwards except for 3/20. 3/2 is TBD because of likely being an ABEMA exclusive (might be live outside Japan in English only).

UPDATE: It’s now official. DOUBLE TITLE MATCH! OZAWA-Soya for both titles. That match will happen on 3/2 at Yokohama Budokan in Yokohama. Also announced for 3/2 are Naomichi Marufuji vs. Masa Kitamiya and the NOAH Jr. Tag League Finals. No outside Japan broadcast plans are set for 3/2 yet because it looks like an ABEMA exclusive. Hopefully we’ll be able to get an English only live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE. We’ll find out as the event gets closer.

UPDATE 2: An emergency press conference has been announced for 2/12 at 7 PM PT/10 PM ET with Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA in attendance. This has me thinking KENTA could be possibly headed back to NOAH after a long time (he started with the promotion before going to WWE, then to New Japan after his WWE run ended). We shall see.

Injury Report: Bad Hair Day

Tokyo Joshi Pro wrestler HIMAWARI has built herself around having long hair styled similar to WWE wrestler Bianca Belair, albeit much thinner, but doing similar hair twirling pre-match and on occasion during matches. That’s on hold for a bit as she was injured in a recent match, maybe at Korakuen Hall this past weekend. Shoulder. Out indefinitely and off tomorrow. She was to have teamed with Kira Summer to face Suzume & Mahiro Kiryu. It’s now a 3-way. While it doesn’t sound serious it’s known how long HIMAWARI may be out.

More as it becomes available.

Injury Report: Not Sexy, Not Healthy

DDT has just announced another injury as the list grows long again-Yuki Iino was injured today. Fractured right orbital bone (eye). Out indefinitely but it sounds like at least 2 months because he was scheduled to challenge Danshoku Dieno for the DDT Extreme Championship on 3/20, but that match is now off. No replacement at this time as the match has been cancelled.

Stardom 2/9/25 Results (Updated)

Stardom ran a Mayu Iwatani hometown event today in her hometown of Yamaguchi.

Today’s event was held at KDDI Ishin Hall In Yamaguchi and can be watched on demand on Stardom World.

The announced paid attendance was 557.

There was a last-minute change to the event because of Saki Kashima being off today’s event as well as yesterday’s. Illness. She was to have teamed with Mayu Iwatani to face AZM & Momo Watanabe in the main event. Tam Nakano was the replacement.

Before the event, Iwatani joined comedian Taizo Kimura in the ring for a comedy performance.

Match 1: Starlight Kid, Suzu Suzuki & Akira Kurogame beat Tam Nakano, Natsupoi & Yuria Hime. Suzuki beat Hime.

Match 2: Yuna Mizumori beat Rian & Azusa Inaba in a 3-way by pinning Rian.

Match 3: Mei Seira & Miyu Amasaki beat Hanan & Momo Kohgo. Seira pinned Kohgo after Shooting Star.

Match 4: Maika & HANAKO beat Aya Sakura & Sayaka Kurara. HANAKO pinned Sakura after JP Coaster.

Match 5: Syuri, Lady C, Ranna Yagami & Tomoka Inaba beat Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora, Konami & Ruaka. Syuri beat Ruaka with White Tiger.

Main Event: Mayu iwatani & Tam Nakano beat AZM & Momo Watanabe. Iwatani pinned AZM after a moonsault press.

The next event is Tuesday at Hiroshima Sangyo Kaikan in Hiroshima. Live streaming on Stardom World will begin Monday at 8 PM PT/11 PM ET.

UPDATE: Saki Kashima is now off the next 2 events as well. Illness.

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