News, results & more from Japanese Pro Wrestling & Sumo
The biggest annual event in Japanese pro wrestling and one of the biggest in the world, New Japan’s WRESTLE KINGDOM 17 in TOKYO DOME, is in the books.
For those who have not watched yet and who want to avoid SPOILERS, do not click below until after watching even though spoilers are now all over the place. If you want to know what happened, click below.
Continue reading “New Japan 1/4/23 Results (Updated)”New Japan has just announced a US east coast doubleheader for later this year-On 4/15 they will return to Washington, DC for Capital Collision at Entertainment & Sports Arena. Then on 4/16 it’s Collision in Philadelphia at 2300 Arena (ECW Arena).
Tickets go on sale 1/13 for both events. Broadcast plans TBA but they likely will be live PPVs on FITE in English and New Japan World in Japanese.
More as it becomes available.
The biggest day of the year in Japanese pro wrestling kicks off today with Tokyo Joshi Pro running a matinee to begin their 2023 with their first major event of the year. The event has 8 scheduled matches and a bit of everything, starting with two new debuting wrestlers, then a mini battle royal to determine the next Princess Of Princess Championship challenger, and finally 3 title matches to close it out-first, International Princess Champion Miu Watanabe looks to overcome a huge size disadvantage once again as she defends the title against AEW’s Trish Adora. Second, Princess Tag Team Champions Saki Akai & Yuki Arai have another very tough task ahead as they defend the titles against Heidi Howitzer & Max The Impaler, which has me very worried for AA Eye Candy. Finally, it’s a showdown between the top 2 TJPW wrestlers of all time as Princess Of Princess Champion Yuka Sakazaki defends the title against Miyu Yamashita, who looks to become the first 4-time champion in history against the only other 3-time champion in Sakazaki. It should be another instant classic.
Today’s event will be held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched LIVE on WRESTLE UNIVERSE in Japanese and English. The opening video will be narrated by Japanese voice actress Yuko Minaguchi. The Japanese commentary team will be Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano, Sayoko Mita and SKE48 member Marika Tani. The English commentary team will be Chris Brookes & Drew Parker. The promotion has already mentioned the main event will take place roughly 2 hours in so the event should have a total running time of just over 2 1/2 hours. (Pre-show Update: TJPW is projecting the event will end around 2 PM JST, meaning a roughly 2 1/2 hour runtime and finishing about 80 minutes before New Japan’s Tokyo Dome event begins)
Today’s lineup:
HIMAWARI Debut Match: HIMAWARI vs. Yuki Aino
Wakana Uehara Debut Match: Wakana Uehara & Arisu Endo vs. Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano
Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu & Kaya Toribami vs. Raku, Pom Harajuku & Neko Haruna
Shoko Nakajima vs. Hyper Misao
6 Woman staggered entry battle royal. The winner will be the next challenger for the Princess Of Princess Championship. Participants-Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Rika Tatsumi, Yuki Kamifuku, Suzume, Hikari Noa
International Princess Champion Miu Watanabe vs. Trish Adora for the title
Princess Tag Team Champions Saki Akai & Yuki Arai vs. Heidi Howitzer & Max The Impaler for the titles
Princess Of Princess Champion Yuka Sakazaki vs. Miyu Yamashita for the title
Refresh this page occasionally for the latest results.
Updates below will begin at 9 PM ET/6 PM PT. The event is scheduled to begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT.
8:45 PM ET UPDATE: The opening announcements are scheduled to begin 10 minutes before the event at 9:20 PM ET/6:20 PM PT.
9 PM ET UPDATE: The live stream has just started. We should be going to the venue in about 15 minutes.
9:15 PM ET UPDATE: Live updates begin now…
We are LIVE deom Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Your Japanese hosts are Haruo Murata, Kagehiro Osano, Sayoko Mita & Marika Tani. Your English hosts are Chris Brookes & Drew Parker.
The paid attendance will be announced after the event. The bleachers on commentary’s side were mostly tarped off but the rest of the venue already looked close to full. So depending on whether or not vocal cheering is allowed, the number will be in flux but it looks like it is not. The available seating looks full or close to it so I’m guessing it’ll be in the 900-1000 range.
The matches should begin in about 20 minutes. During opening announcements they reveal that Miu Watanabe & Suzume will become part of the videogame “The Idolmaster: Cinderella Girls” as part of a special game/TJPW crossover promotion starting on 1/11. And…on 3/31…US DEBUT! TJPW’s first-ever US show! It will be at the Globe Theater in Los Angeles, CA
The matches begin at 9:50 PM ET.
Match 1: HIMAWARI Debut Match: HIMAWARI vs. Yuki Aino. 15 minute time limit
Result; Yuki Aino beat HIMAWARI. HIMAWARI has ponytails long enough to be a Japanese Bianca Belair in terms of appearance although it’s nowhere near as thick as Belair’s.
Match 2: Wakana Uehara Debut Match: Wakana Uehara & Arisu Endo vs. Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano. 20 minute time limit
Result: Moka Miyamoto & Juria Nagano beat Wakana Uehara & Arisu Endo. Miyamoto beat Uehara with Rashomon. Uehara almost looked like a nicer Maki Itoh.
Match 3: Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu & Kaya Toribami vs. Raku, Pom Harajuku & Neko Haruna. 20 minute time limit
Result: Nao Kakuta, Mahiro Kiryu & Kaya Toribami beat Raku, Pom Harajuku & Neko Haruna. Kakuta pinned Haruna after Shiden Kai.
Match 4: Shoko Nakajima vs. Hyper Misao. 15 minute time limit. This has become some kind of ladder match involving 3 stuffed animals hanging a few feet above the ring. Also apparently some kind of lumberjack match as Yuki Aino, HIMAWARI, Arisu Endo & Mahiro Kiryu came out wearing rabbit ears with blow-up mallets. This, of course as expected, is a comedy match.
Result: Draw. Apparently they both grabbed the last animal at the same time and referee Masayuki declared it a draw after some comedy stuff.
Quick break for ring cleaning and taking down the hanging wires after this last match..
Match 5: 6 Woman staggered entry battle royal. Eliminations by pinfall, submission or over the top rope. The winner will be the next challenger for the Princess Of Princess Championship. Participants-Mizuki, Maki Itoh, Rika Tatsumi, Yuki Kamifuku, Suzume, Hikari Noa. No time limit
Order of entry: Noa, Itoh, Kamifuku, Tatsumi, Mizuki, Suzume.
Order of elimination: Noa by Kamifuku (over the top rope), Kamifuku by Itoh (over the top rope), Tatsumi by Itoh/Mizuki/Suzume (pinfall), Suzume by Itoh (submission), Itoh by MIzuki (pinfall)
Result: Mizuki wins. As a result, Mizuki gets the next Princess Of Princess Championship shot after today. Which could mean facing her BFF Yuka Sakazaki perhaps…
Match 6: International Princess Champion Miu Watanabe vs. Trish Adora for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: International Princess Champion Miu Watanabe beat Trish Adora to retain the title. V2 for Watanabe.
Match 7: Princess Tag Team Champions Saki Akai & Yuki Arai vs. Heidi Howitzer & Max The Impaler for the titles. 30 minute time limit
Result: Heidi Howitzer & Max The Impaler beat Princess Tag Team Champions Saki Akai & Yuki Arai to win the titles. Howitzer & Max become the 11th Princess Tag Team Champions. Max pinned Arai. Nooooooooo…beyond heartbroken…
Main Event: Princess Of Princess Champion Yuka Sakazaki vs. Miyu Yamashita for the title. 30 minute time limit
Result: Princess Of Princess Champion Yuka Sakazaki beat Miyu Yamashita to retain the title. V2 for Sakazaki. Next up: Mizuki. Yamashita is now headed to England to defend the Pro Wrestling EVE Championship. Mizuki came out and a tense-sounding promo at first between the BFFs ahead of their upcoming title match turned more joyful to end the show.
The next event is Saturday at Kobe Art Center in Kobe, resuming the CITY CIRCUIT series. There will be no live broadcast.
UPDATE: The announced paid attendance was 1111, a super full house/very near sellout. Outside of the bleachers in the middle next to commentary, I saw only one or two empty seats. Also, Sakazaki-Mizuki is now official for GRAND PRINCESS ’23 at Ariake Arena on 3/18.
UPDATE 2: TJPW has announced on Twitter that Neko Haruna was injured during her match. Shoulder. Out 1-2 weeks and will miss this weekend’s events and 1/15 but hopes to return on 1/19.
DDT began their 2023 today with a mid-major event that would begin the path to their 26th Anniversary event in March as well as other major events this year.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 759, a legit sellout.
Match 1: Makoto Oishi & Shiori Asahi beat Hideki Okatani & Toui Kojima. Oishi pinned Kojima after Cactus Flower.
Match 2: Yuki Iino & Danshoku Dieno vs. Akito & Antonio Honda went to a No Contest. GM Imabayashi stoppage.
The promotion’s biggest events of the year were announced outside of the 26th Anniversary event on 3/21-5/3 will be MEGA MAX BUMP 2023 at Yokohama Arena in Yokohama, and 7/23 will be WRESTLE PETER PAN, the promotion’s biggest annual event, at Ryogoku Kokugikan.
Match 3: Yuji Hino, Yukio Naya, Toru Owashi & Kazuki Hirata beat New Year Pokotan, Yukio Sakaguchi, Saki Akai & Kazuma Sumi. Hirata pinned Sumi.
Match 4: Tetsuya Endo, Jun Akiyama, Kotaro Suzuki (Pro Wrestling NOAH), Yusuke Okada & Yuya Koroku beat Kazusada Higuchi, HARASHIMA, Rickey Shane Page, Takao Soma & Yuki Ishida. Endo pinned Ishida after Burning Star Press.
Match 5: Yuki Ueno & Cara Noir beat MJ Pawl & KANON. Noir beat Pawl with Blackout Sleeper.
Match 6: Konosuke Takeshita beat Takeshi Masada. Afterwards, Takeshita requested a match against Sanshiro Takagi. Takagi initially refused, but that match will happen on 3/21.
It was then announced that AEW duo Kip Sabian & Penelope Ford will appear on 2/18 & 2/26, and former WWE wrestler Kalisto/Samurai Del Sol will appear on 3/21.
Match 7: Naruki Doi vs. Daisuke Sasaki went to a 30 minute time limit draw. This was to have determined the next challenger for the DDT Universal Championship. As a result, the title match on 1/13 will be a 3-way survival, meaning it’s very likely an elimination match.
Main Event: MAO & Shunma Katsumata beat Chris Brookes & Masa Takanashi to win the vacant KO-D Tag Team Championship. MAO & Katsumata become the 76th KO-D Tag Team Champions. MAO pinned Takanashi after Our Madokasu.
The next event is Thursday at Itabashi Green Hall in Tokyo. The event is a legit advance sellout. There will be no live broadcast.
UPDATE: The next challengers for the KO-D Tag Team Championship have been announced: Oishi & Asahi. That match will happen on 1/29 at Korakuen Hall.
All-Japan ran the second of consecutive morning matinee events today to open 2023, today being a bigger show with 2 title matches planned.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV. (I had hoped to do live results but my cable/internet outage since the weekend was not resolved in time to watch, but it was restored after the event concluded)
The announced paid attendance was 1041. I believe that was a few more than yesterday.
Match 1: Dan Tamura & Hikaru Sato beat Rising Hayato & Ryo Inoue. Tamura pinned Inoue after Death Valley Bomb.
Match 2: Black Menso-re & Mitsuya Nagai beat Yusuke Kodama & Masao Hanabata. Nagai beat Hanabata with Stretch Plum.
Match 3: Naoya Nomura beat Ryuki Honda.
Match 4: Jun & Rei Saito & Suwama beat Yoshitatsu, Yuji Nagata (New Japan) & Yuma Anzai by ref stoppage. Suwama beat Yoshitatsu with Sleeper Vise.
Match 5: NOSAWA Rongai & Kendo Ka Shin beat All-Asia Tag Team Champions Masao Inoue & Takao Omori to win the titles. NOSAWA & Ka Shin become the 118th All-Asia Tag Team Champions. NOSAWA pinned Omori.
Match 6: Hokuto Omori, Minoru Suzuki & Naruki Doi beat Yuma & Atsuki Aoyagi & Shuji Ishikawa. Omori pinned Atsuki Aoyagi after Momentum Hardened.
Main Event: All-Japan Triple Crown Champion Kento Miyahara beat Takuya Nomura to retain the Triple Crown. V3 for Miyahara.
The next event is 1/11 at Hodogaya Public Hall in Yokohama. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET.
All-Japan kicked off their 2023 today with their first New Year’s series event, featuring a slightly different look as a few stars departed at the end of last year, most notably former 2-time Triple Crown Champion Jake Lee (who apparently showed up in Pro Wrestling NOAH yesterday).
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on AJPW.TV.
The announced paid attendance was 1055. That sounds close to a sellout depending on the layout.
Match 1: Ryuki Honda, Yusuke Kodama & Masao Hanabata beat Dan Tamura, Ryo Inoue & Yuma Anzai. Honda pinned Inoue after Final Vent.
Match 2: Takao Omori, Rising Hayato & Kaz Hayashi (GLEAT) beat Yoshitatsu, Black Menso-re & Mitsuya Nagai (Dradition). Hayashi pinned Menso-re after Final Cut.
Match 3: Minoru Suzuki & Naruki Doi beat Shuji Ishikawa & Hokuto Omori. Suzuki pinned Omori after a Gotch-style piledriver.
Match 4: Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura beat Jun & Rei Saito. Aoyagi pinned Jun with Staff Roll. As a result, Aoyagi & Nomura get the next All-Japan World Tag Team Championship match after today.
Match 5: All-Japan World Jr. Heavyweight Champion Atsuki Aoyagi beat Hikaru Sato to retain the title. V3 for Aoyagi.
Match 6: Kento Miyahara & Takuya Nomura beat All-Japan World Tag Team Champions Suwama & KONO to win the titles. Miyahara & Nomura become the 93rd All-Japan World Tag Team Champions. Nomura beat KONO with a sleeper hold. Next up: Because of their win earlier, Yuma Aoyagi & Naoya Nomura.
Main Event: Takuya Nomura won a 17-man New Year Battle Royal, last eliminating Ryo Inoue.
The next event is Tuesday with an All-Asia Tag Team Championship match and Takuya Nomura vs. Miyahara for the Triple Crown. Live streaming on AJPW.TV will begin at 9:30 PM ET/6:30 PM PT. Live results are scheduled here but that is dependent on the widespread cable/internet outage in my area being resolved in time (I’m not optimistic).
In other news, the promotion announced that Shotaro Ashino, who suffered an injury during the World’s Strongest Tag League, will return on 1/22.
Pro Wrestling NOAH kicked off 2023 with their annual New Year/year-opening mega-blowout event later today, and it’s legit mega to kick off the biggest annual week of pro wrestling in Japan. A massive 11-match event is headlined by 4 GHC Title matches including the latest chapter in the beyond white-hot Kaito Kiyomiya-Kenoh rivalry, with Kiyomiya defending the GHC Heavyweight Championship this time, and in the second half of the double main event it’s a one-time-only super dream match as current WWE superstar Shinsuke Nakamura returns home to Japan for the first time since before the coronavirus pandemic began for a match against The Great Muta, as Keiji Muto’s masked/face painted alter-ego makes his penultimate career appearance before saying goodbye ahead of Muto’s retirement next month.
Today’s event was held at Nippon Budokan in Tokyo and can be watched on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.
The announced paid attendance was 9500, a legit sellout. That indicates 100% capacity with no vocal cheering.
Match 1: Yasutaka Yano beat Taishi Ozawa.
Match 2: Masa Kitamiya, Daiki Inaba & Yoshiki Inamura beat Mohammed Yone, Akitoshi Saito & Shuhei Taniguchi. Inamura pinned Yone after Musou.
Match 3: Ninja Mack, Dante Leon & Alejandro beat Shuji Kondo, Tadasuke & Hi69. Alejandro pinned Hi69 after Casadora Con Hero.
Match 4: Masaaki Mochizuki, Susumu Mochizuki & Mochizuki Jr. beat Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr., Atsushi Kotoge & Seiki Yoshioka. Susumu pinned Yoshioka with Infinite Package.
Match 5: Kazuyuki Fujita, Kendo Ka Shin, NOSAWA Rongai & TBA-who turned out to be Hiroshi Hase, beat Masakatsu Funaki, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Manabu Soya & Hajime Ohara. Hase pinned Ohara with a Northern Lights suplex hold.
Match 6: Jack Morris beat Timothy Thatcher.
Match 7: GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion AMAKUSA beat Junta Miyawaki to retain the title. V1 for AMAKUSA.
Match 8: GHC Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Takashi Sugiura & Satoshi Kojima beat Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA to retain the titles. Kojima pinned Marufuji after Western Lariat. V3 for the champs.
Match 9: Yoshinari Ogawa & Etta beat GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions YO-HEY & Kzy to win the titles. Ogawa & Eita become the 54th GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. Eita pinned YO-HEY after Imperial Uno.
Match 10: GHC Heavyweight Champion Kaito Kiyomiya beat Kenoh to retain the title. V3 for Kiyomiya.
Main Event: Shinsuke Nakamura beat The Great Muta.
The next events are on 1/8 at Korakuen Hall, a same-day doubleheader featuring a scramble tag team tournament. 8 teams participating consist of a NOAH wrestler and a Kongo wrestler, making for very interesting pairings. The first event will have the Quartterfinals, the second event will have the Semifinals and Finals. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin Saturday at 10 PM ET/7 PM PT for the first event and next Sunday at 4 AM ET/1 AM PT for the second event.
In other news, it was announced that the Keiji Muto Retirement Event on 2/21 (that’s an early Tuesday morning event in the US). will be available live ONLY ON ABEMA AS A PPV. If available worldwide the cost will be around $40 US. There likely will be no live broadcast on WRESTLE UNIVERSE or anywhere else, and UNIVERSE subscribers will probably have to wait at least one week to watch on demand as ABEMA has PPV replays for 7 days included. But the Great Muta final event on 1/21 will be live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE and also available on FITE as a PPV for $19.99 (while that’s almost 3 times the cost of WRESTLE UNIVERSE you don’t have to deal with subscriptions. That will likely have only English commentary).
DDT wrapped up their 2022 with a New Year’s Eve event today featuring a one day 6-man tag tournament with many independent names as well as DDT participants and also an independent year-end awards ceremony by Japanese sports network Samurai! TV.
Today’s event was held at Korakuen Hall in Tokyo and should be available on demand on WRESTLE UNIVERSE at a later date. There was no live broadcast unless it was on Samurai! TV.
The announced paid attendance was 615, a full house/near sellout.
During the Japan Independent Awards Ceremony, DDT earned 2 prizes-Kazusada Higuchi was named MVP while the Best Unit award went to those deplorable Pheromons for a second straight year.
All 6-Man Tag Team Tournament Matches until the Semifinals had a 10 minute time limit.
Match 1: MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Yukio Naya, Hideyoshi Kamiya & Kikutaro. MAO pinned Kikutaro.
Match 2: Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka vs. Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI went to a 10 minute time limit draw. Which led to…
In a 1 Count Fall Overtime with No Time Limit, Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI beat Chris Brookes, Daisuke Sekimoto & Isami Kodaka. Higuchi pinned Brookes.
Match 3: Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Tetsuya Endo, Yasufumi Nakanoue & Brahman Shu. Aoyagi pinned Shu.
Match 4: HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda beat Takeshi Masada, Takuya Nomura (All-Japan Pro Wrestling) & Masato Tanaka (ZERO1). Takeda pinned Masada after a reverse U Crash.
Match 5: Ryuji Ito, Jaki Numazawa, Abdullah Kobayashi & Kankuro Hoshino (Big Japan Pro Wrestling) beat Danshoku Dieno, Antonio Honda, Kazuki Hirata & Shunma Katsumata. Ito pinned Hirata after Bilibili Dragon Splash.
Match 6: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto beat Kazusada Higuchi, Kota Sekifuda & MUSASHI. Aoki pinned ? (DDT’s website didn’t say exactly who won and lost but looked like Aoki beating either Sekifuda or MUSASHI. Definitely not Higuchi taking the loss).
Match 7: Tournament Semifinals (15 minute time limit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat HARASHIMA, Yuki Ishikawa & Masashi Takeda. Ueno pinned HARASHIMA with a rolling guillotine Ace Crusher.
Match 8: Konosuke Takeshita, Rickey Shane Page, Drew Parker & Cara Noir beat Yuji Okayabashi, Kazumi Kikuta, Takuho Kato & Kazumasa Yoshida. Takeshita pinned Yoshida after Zahi.
Main Event: Tournament Finals (No Time LImit): Yuki Ueno, Daichi Hashimoto & Yuma Aoyagi beat MAO, Yuya Aoki & Yuko Miyamoto to win the tournament. Hashimoto pinned MAO after a rising DDT. Afterwards, Ueno appeared to ask Hashimoto & Aoyagi to come back for potentially a KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championship challenge.
The promotion’s first event of 2023 is “Hatsuyume 2023” Tuesday at Korakuen Hall. Live streaming on WRESTLE UNIVERSE will begin at 1:30 AM PT/4:30 AM ET. Vocal cheering will be allowed and it’s trending towards being a legit sellout (only a few seats left in all but one section). After this event, DDT also announced that SKE48 member Marika Tani will be a guest on commentary Tuesday.
Here are the quick results from tonight’s AEW Rampage in Broomfield, CO (SPOILERS for west feed viewers!):
Continue reading “AEW Rampage 12/30/22 Results (SPOILERS!)”In a change from past events where it was a PPV, GLEAT streamed their major GLEAT Ver. 4 event live on YouTube earlier today from Tokyo Dome City Hall in Tokyo. If you missed it due to time differences (it was a 1 AM PT/4 AM ET start) you can watch below FOR FREE: