Site News: 8/30 News/Results To Be Delayed

Just an early heads-up regarding 8/30 news & results: Due to my having an overdue eye exam early that day, and thus expecting to have dilated eyes and the usual stuff afterwards, news & results that day-including the Yuji Nagata Produced event results-are going to be DELAYED. Best-case is hopefully just a few hours, worst case is 1-2 days (I also have to fit in a final for my current college course). Depends on how long it takes my eyes to fully recover, or at least enough to go about my usual business, usually it takes 1-2 days to get back to 100%. I should be back up to speed by the following Thursday pending work schedule confirmation, which will come in a day or two.

Apologies in advance for the pending delays and inconvenience, but no soldier/finishing acknowledgment we ask may.

Official “Puroresu Open Discussion” Post

Another something new I’ve thought about recently that I’d like to try, especially since the commenting (and quality stuff at that) has picked up as of late-this post is for an “open discussion” of sorts. Feel free to offer comments or start discussions on anything puro-related (joshi-related discussions welcome too!), the only thing I ask is try to keep it related to fairly recent news (within the last 1-2 weeks). Usual commenting rules/guidelines apply, other than that the comment form is yours. Talk news, results, opinions, etc. Just be polite and have fun with it!

Video: New Japan Press Conference (8/25)

New Japan held their latest press conference today, this one featuring the contract signing for the upcoming Hiroshi Tanahahsi-Shinsuke Nakamura IWGP Heavyweight Title match. It was streamed live earlier on YouTube so it hasn’t really been edited much if any and only low-quality video is available right now. The video is below, it runs about 20 minutes but skip to about 4:15 for the actual start of the presser.

8/25 Dragon Gate Results

Dragon Gate ran their monthly Tokyo big show today, results from Korakuen via SportsNavi:
They claimed 1780 paid (overflow).
Super Shenlong beat Yusuke Watanabe in 4:24.

Dragon Kid & Super Shisa beat Tomahawk T.T. & Kzy in 9:29. Kid pinned ? after Bible. One of the losers, I believe it was Kzy, was a last-minute injury replacement for an outsider (I believe it was Metal Warrior. SportsNavi listed Kzy as “Tomahawk Kzy” for this match).

Don Fujii beat Kotoka in 8:55.

CIMA & Yasushi Kanda beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Rich Swann in 12:32. Kanda pinned Swann after Ryu’s.

Blood Warriors-recognized Open The Brave Gate Champion Naoki Tanisaki beat Gamma in 11:05 to retain the title. V2 for Tanisaki. Tanisaki only needed a 2 count to win.

K-ness Return Match: Ryo Saito & Genki Horiguchi beat Taku Iwasa & Kenichiro Arai and Susumu Yokosuka & K-ness in a 3-way elimination match in 17:41. Horiguchi pinned Arai in 14:38, Saito pinned K-ness in 17:41.

In a Naniwa-type Elimination Match, Naruki Doi, BxB Hulk, Cyber Kong & Akira Tozawa beat Masato Yoshino, Shingo Takagi, YAMATO & KAGETORA in 36:41. Order of elimination: Doi by KAGETORA at 23:42, KAGETORA by Hulk at 24:12, Kong by Yoshino at 27:16, ? by Hulk at 28:30 (SportsNavi says Doi, I doubt that’s true), Takagi by Tozawa via OTR at 30:44, Hulk by YAMATO at 33:03, YAMATO by Tozawa at 36:41. Tozawa survives and wins it for Blood Warriors. As a result, this type of match will now be known as a Yoshida-type elimination match.

Fallout:
Some likely upcoming matches resulting from today are Takagi & KAGETORA vs. Hulk & Kong and YAMATO vs. Tozawa & Takagi-Hulk.
An Open The Brave Gate Title Unification match between Tanisaki & Pac appears likely for the next Korakuen on 9/16.
An 8-man tag match will also be on 9/16, likely Yokosuka & K-ness and Iwasa & Arai vs. CIMA, Ricochet, Saito & Horiguchi. K-ness may have also issued an Open The Twin Gate Title challenge but considering there could be new champs by this event, this could be a fluid situation going forward.

Indy News: DDT Going Camping Next Month Again, More

DDT today announed the card for it’s annual Camp Place Pro Wrestling event, a special event held in an outdoor campsite in Japan. This year it’s on 9/4 in Yamanasi (sp?) Prefecture, this year’s match will be a 4-way tag match of Kota Ibushi & KUDO vs. Sanshiro Takagi & Munenori Sawa vs. Hikaru Sato & Michael Nakazawa vs. Isami Kodaka & Ken Ohka. The event is weather permitting-if it rains it will still be held but if the forecast calls for a typhoon (hurricane) or osmething causes national roads to be closed then the event will be cancelled.

DDT also announced Hiromu Takahashi (New Japan) participation in the next Monthly Young Communication event on 9/1 at Shin-Kiba 1st Ring. He’ll team with Kazuki Hirata to face Ryuichi Sekine & Hiro Tumaki. The rest of the 9/1 card:
Keisuke Ishii vs. Akito
Kotaro Nasu vs. Hiroshi Hukuda
Hiro Tonai vs. Rion Mizuki
Taishi Takizawa & Toru Sugiura vs. Takao Soma & Shigehiro Irie

(On a side note, DDT recently did a long-overdue update of their roster/profile pages so I now know the names of some of the wrestlers I didn’t before, especially the Union Pro newcomers. Thus event results should be more accurate going forward)

8/24 Dragon Gate Results

Dragon Gate continued their current tour today, results from Twin Messe Shizuoka:
They claimed 450 paid.
YAMATO & Gamma beat Ryo Saito & Naoki Tanisaki in 12:08. Gamma pinned Tanisaki.

Susumu Yokosuka beat Tomahawk T.T. in 9:33.

Genki Horiguchi beat Dragon Kid in 9:41.

CIMA & Naruki Doi beat Masaaki Mochizuki & Rich Swann in 12:41. Doi pinned Swann after Bakatare Sliding Kick.

Bxb Hulk, Cyber Kong & Akira Tozawa beat Masato Yoshino, Shingo Takagi & KAGETORA in 15:58. Tozawa pinned KAGETORA with a German suplex hold.

Tomorrow is the monthly Tokyo big show at Korakuen. After skipping it last month SportsNavi will be back to usual event coverage so if all goes as planned results will be up just after 11 AM ET.

More Joshi News: Various Card & Schedule Updates

A bit more joshi news, mostly upcoming cards & schedule updates:
JWP announced the first 2 matches for 9/11 today: Tomoko Morii vs. Toshie Uematsu & TLW World Women’s Tag Team Champions Hailey Hatred & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hanako Nakamori & Misaki Ohata for the titles.
Upcoming events announced:
9/18-JWP School
11/2-Yokohama
11/13-Tokyo Cinema Club

WAVE announced these new events:
10/24-Shin-Kiba 1st Ring
12/11-Shin-Kiba 1st Ring
12/25-Osaka Minami Move On Arena
They also will hold a special pre-Korakuen gathering Friday night at the Drop Kick bar in Tokyo from 9 PM-midnight. The WAVE roster will be there. Admission is 3000 yen, no reservations needed.
The promotion’s next DVD release happens Friday as well. “WAVE Maniacs 6” will focus on the January-March 2011 events. Bonus features include a WAVE vs. NEO match from 4/2/2010. The DVD runs just over 3 1/2 hours with 200 minutes of 2011 footage and 23 minutes of bonus content. Sale price is 3980 yen.

REINA announced 2 matches for Saturday’s event: The CMLL-REINA International Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament semifinals conclude with Sendai Sachiko vs. Zeuxis and the main event of Yumiko Hotta, Aki Kanbayashi & Saya vs. Mima Shimoda, La Commandante & Dama de Hierro. Zeuxis arrived in Japan today for the event, masked as always. The winner of that match advances to the tournament finals to face Ray.

Sayaka Obihiro will return to 19 Pro this week, the announced match for Friday’s broadcast is Obihiro & Kaori Yoneyama vs. Hikari Minami & Chii Tomiya.

Joshi News: Ice Ribbon Titles Vacated, Tournament Set

SportsNavi just reported that as expected, Ice Ribbon announced today that the International Ribbon Tag Team Championship is now VACANT. Previous champions Emi Sakura & Makoto have vacated the titles due to Makoto leaving Ice Ribbon for SMASH. They also announced that Yokohama Ribbon on 9/24 will feature a 1 day tournament to crown new champions. The entered teams:
Hamuko Hoshi & Mochi Miyagi
DASH Chisako & Sendai Sachiko
Tsukasa Fujimoto & Hikaru Shida
Hikari Minami & Riho
Ray & Kurumi
Kaori Yoneyama & Sayaka Obihiro
Manami Toyota & Tsukushi
A UMA Corps-designated tag team, nothing is known about them.

Matchups TBA.

8/24 All-Japan Results

The penultimate event of All-Japan’s SUMMER IMPACT 2011 tour is in the books, results from Kitami Municipal Gym:
They claimed 1150 paid (a Full House).
Ryota Hama beat Soshun in 7:08.

Kaz Hayashi & BLACK BUSHI beat Masanobu Fuchi & BUSHI in 10:39. BLACK pinned BUSHI after BB Driver.

KENSO beat Takumi Soya in 10:37.

Taiyo Kea & Takao Omori beat Manabu Soya & Yasufumi Nakanoue in 10:37. Omori pinned Nakanoue after Ax Bomber.

Akebono, Masakatsu Funaki & Lee Che Gyong beat Joe Doering, Rene Dupree & MAZADA in 13:02. Akebono pinned MAZADA after a body press.

Suwama, Shuji Kondo & Minoru beat Seiya Sanada, KAI & Hiroshi Yamato in 19:38. Suwama beat Yamato with an ankle hold.

The tour-ender is Sunday.

8/24 NOAH Results (Updated)

NOAH’s latest Weekday Navigation event is in the books, results from Korakuen:
They claimed 1400 paid.
Ricky Marvin beat Satoshi Kajiwara in 6:52.

Taiji Ishimori beat Zack Saber Jr. in 9:45.

Akitoshi Saito beat Takuma Sano in 11:10.

Kentaro Shiga, Jun Akiyama & Kenta Kobashi beat Masao Inoue, Yoshinari Ogawa & Akira Taue in 15:10. Kobashi pinned Inoue after a short range lariat.

Mohammed Yone, Takeshi Morishima & Takashi Sugiura beat Kento Miyahara, Katsuhiko Nakajima & Kensuke Sasaki in 12:35. Morishima pinned Miyahara after a backdrop.

Shuhei Taniguchi & Go Shiozaki beat Genba Hirayanagi & Yoshihiro Takayama in 11:50. Taniguchi beat Hirayanagi.

GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Champions Yoshinobu Kanemaru & KENTA beat Atsushi Aoki & Kotaro Suzuki in 31:29 to retain the titles. KENTA pinned Aoki after rapid-fire GO 2 SLEEP. V1 for the champs.

Next event is 9/3 at Tsukuba Kapio.

UPDATE Fallout from the event via SportsNavi’s report:
After the main event, KENTA announced he planned to take over the promotion’s GM position in the future. That means one of his main targets is the currently-injured Naomichi Marufuji.

Shiozaki designated Takayama as the next GHC Heavyweight Title challenger. Challenge accepted by Takayama. That match will happen on 9/23 at Korakuen.

8/25 UPDATE: NOAH has added GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Kotaro Suzuki vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima for the title to 9/23.

Joshi News: 8/24 Stardom Presser News/Notes

Stardom held their usual pre-event press conference today, notes ahead of this weekene’d event:
Injury Report: It’s a tough double whammy as 2 girls will have to miss this weekend’s event-Mayu Iwatani and…sorry guys, again…Yuzuki Aikawa. Iwatani is out due to physical condition defectiveness, Aikawa is out as she is recovering from the vicious beating she took from Dump Matsumoto at Yuzupon Matsuri 4 and told Rossy Ogawa there was no way she could compete this weekend. Iwatani is recovering at home. No word on how long either is out but they have a little over 2 weeks before the next event, which is 9/10.  Yuzuki did not attend the presser.

The biggest change to the card as a result is the addition of Hiroyo Matsumoto to the card, who will team with Nanae Takahashi in the main event. As a whole there appeared to be quite a bit of card shuffling due to the injuries. Matsumoto, Nanae & Yoshiko did most of the talking at the presser and of course there was a brief scuffle between all involved as well as Natsuki*Taiyo. Just another case of Yoshiko Being Yoshiko, especially considering she’s not even in the match. In another “Beauty & The Beast” type matchup, she’s The Beast that will face Haruka in the usual 3 minute match. Quite the size difference too:

Matsumoto attended as well and naturally was sporting one of the Nanae Takakashi t-shirts and playing it up for the photos:
Maybe she’s just jealous of Nanae getting to be on the cover of another Japanese magazine next week…and the fact that Nanae gets to share it with NOAH star Taiji Ishimori. Stardom’s website has a photo in their news section, it hits Japanese newsstands next week.

The full Sunday card:
Arisa Hoshiki vs. Eri Susa vs. Saki Kashima in a 3-way. First to get 2 consecutive pinfalls/submissions wins
Haruka vs. Yoshiko. Usual 3 minute match
Yoko Bito vs. Io Shirai
Nanae Takahashi & Hiroyo Matsumoto vs. Natsuki*Taiyo & Yoshiko

(Photos-Stardom’s official website)

Indy News: IGF Finds Title Challenger For Saturday

Following up on the ongoing soap opera that is IGF, they found their challenger for NEW IGF Super Luxurious 200 Million Yen Belt Champion Jerme LeBanner…it’s not Bobby Lashley. It’s not anyone else who was in the tournament. They went out and found…Kazuyuki Fujita. Basically this is a match that was supposed to happen 10 years ago at INOKI BOM-BA-YE 2001 but didn’t happen due to a Fujita injury. Now it’s a matchup between, based on a SportsNavi photo taken today, a well-dressed Japanese MMA fighter and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion (during the Inoki MMA Push days of New Japan) and a very tall freak of nature.
PS-still no word on if Atsushi Sawada will get Naoya Ogawa Saturday. He apparently didn’t crash the presser today or if he did, SportsNavi made no mention of it. Only other card additions today were kickboxing matches.