NJPW on AXS TV includes matches from the 2022 Golden Series event in Hokkaido:
* IWGP Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Ryusuke Taguchi and Master Wato vs. Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask
* IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (c) vs. EVIL & Taiji Ishimori
Former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Jay White finally made his AEW debut on this week’s edition of Dynamite on TBS.
Leader of The Bullet Club, Jay White appeared on an AEW show for the first time during this week’s edition of Dynamite on TBS.
It all went down at the Jim Whelan Boardwalk Hall in Atlantic City, New Jersey. White made his AEW debut during a backstage segment featuring a confrontation between The SuperKliq and Roppongi Vice.
Trent Barretta and Rocky Romero were backstage discussing their upcoming Rampage match, in which they will face The Young Bucks in tag team action. The Bucks then approached Romero and Barretta and attempted to goad them into a fight then and there. Before Roppongi Vice could do anything, the dup was jumped from behind Adam Cole. Nick and Matt Jackson hit a BTE Trigger on Romero … and then “Switchblade” Jay White appeared.
White picked grabbed the already dazed Trent and launched him into the side of the truck that had served as the backdrop for the segment. Cole looked at White approvingly while The Bucks looked slightly confused. Later in the show, Cole attempted to convince The Bucks that they can trust White.
Jay White is a 28-year-old wrestler from Aukland, New Zealand who began his career in 2013. He began training as a Young Lion in 2015 before moving to the US to work for Ring Of Honor in 2016. On 5 November 2017, White returned to NJPW as the mysterious “Switchblade” character at Power Struggle. Last year, there were rumors that WWE was close to signing White, but it doesn’t look like he’ll be heading to the Performance Center any time soon.
The former IWGP Heavyweight Champion — who is currently under contract with New Japan Pro Wrestling — has already walked through one forbidden door when he made his IMPACT Wrestling debut and confronted Kenny Omega at the company’s Slammiversary pay-per-view in July 2021.
White hasn’t wrestled in Japan since last May and is currently based in the US. He lost the NEVER Openweight title to legendary veteran Tomohiro Ishii at NJPW Battle In The Valley last November.
Source: TheSportster
New Japan Pro-Wrestling has canceled or postponed all of its remaining shows scheduled for January. New Japan made the announcement early Monday.
“With a number of wrestlers presenting elevated temperatures or being in close contact with same, and in accordance with event protocols, New Japan Pro-Wrestling has arrived at the difficult decision to cancel or postpone remaining live events on the schedule for January.
“We deeply apologize to fans for the inconvenience, disappointment, and concern caused by this decision, and appreciate your understanding.”
New Japan canceled three shows. They were scheduled for Tuesday, January 25 at the Toyota Crown Arena in Fukushima, Saturday, January 29 at Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall, and Sunday, January 30 at Kamisu Bousai Arena in Ibaraki.
New Japan postponed and rescheduled the fourth show. It announced a new date on Monday. The show scheduled for Friday, January 28 will now be held on Monday, April 18 at Nagoya Congress Center Event Hall in Aichi.
Monday’s announcement came after New Japan pulled six wrestlers from a show last Friday. Toru Yano, Satoshi Kojima, Tomoaki Honma, Minoru Suzuki, Taichi, and TAKA Michinoku had participated in a 6-man tag team match on last Thursday’s New Japan show at Korakuen Hall. New Japan said one of the participants in the match was found to have a high temperature. It did not specify who that wrestler was.
New Japan held events over the weekend in Gunma and Tochigi. None of the wrestlers pulled from Friday’s card appeared on those shows.
All of the shows are part of the company’s Golden Series tour. It’s part of the celebration of the company’s 50th anniversary.
New Japan plans to resume live touring on Sunday, February 6 with its show in Chiba. Its next major show is at Xebio Arena Sendai on Friday, February 11. The scheduled main event for that card is El Desperado defending the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Master Wato.
Source: Wrestling Inc.
DATE: January 8, 2022 12:00 am
LOCATION: Yokohama Arena, Kanagawa, Japan
AVAILABLE ON: NJPW World
* Pre-show: Kosei Fujita vs. Yasutaka Yano
* Pre-show: Tencozy (Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima) and Yuji Nagata vs. Funky Express (King Tany, Muhammad Yone, Akitoshi Saito)
* NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Sho vs. Atsushi Kotoge
* The Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori, Gedo) vs. Stinger (Seiki Yoshioka, GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champion & GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion Hayata)
* Suzuki-gun (El Desperado, Douki) vs. Yo-Hey and Nosawa Rongai
* Chaos (NEVER Openweight Champion Tomohiro Ishii, Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi), Master Wato and Ryusuke Taguchi vs. Daisuke Harada, Hajime Ohara, Daiki Inaba, Akitoshi Saito and Kinya Okada
* Suzuki-gun (Yoshinobu Kanemaru, IWGP Tag Team Champion Zack Sabre Jr.) vs. Yoshinari Ogawa and GHC Tag Team Champion Naomichi Marufuji
* House of Torture (NEVER Openweight Six-Man Tag Team Champion Evil, Dick Togo) vs. Go Shiozaki and Masa Kitamiya
* IWGP Tag Team Champion Taichi, Minoru Suzuki and Taka Michinoku vs. Kazushi Sakuraba, Takashi Sugiura and TBA
* Kazuchika Okada and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kaito Kiyomiya and GHC Tag Team Champion Keiji Mutoh
*Los Ingobernables de Japón (IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, Sanada, Hiromu Takahashi, Bushi) vs. Kongo (GHC Heavyweight Champion Katsuhiko Nakajima, GHC National Champion Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke, Aleja)
New Japan Pro-Wrestling returns to AXS TV later this month with a weekly one-hour series that will air on Thursday nights at 10 p.m.
The new deal with AXS TV’s owner, Anthem Sports & Entertainment, was announced during the broadcast of Night 1 of Wrestle Kingdom 16 on Tuesday. New Japan had a weekly series on AXS TV from 2015-2019.
The new agreement gives AXS TV the option to re-air those past broadcasts. AXS TV will begin airing select episodes from New Japan’s first run on the network beginning on January 20. That episode will feature the IWGP United States Championship match between Kenny Omega and Chris Jericho from Wrestle Kingdom 12. New episodes will begin airing on March 3.
The agreement also puts New Japan’s weekly series on Anthem’s Fight Network. The network is available in Canada, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East.
New Japan’s new timeslot on AXS TV provides it with Impact Wrestling as a lead-in. Impact’s flagship show airs Thursday nights from 8-10 p.m.
New Japan and Impact Wrestling have been working together and sharing talent over recent months. The working agreement has brought Jay White, Minoru Suzuki, Juice Robinson, David Finlay, El Phantasmo, and other New Japan stars onto Impact’s broadcasts.
Impact wrestlers including Moose and Josh Alexander have appeared on recent New Japan shows. And Impact’s Chris Bey landed a spot in Bullet Club last summer after accepting an invitation from Jay White.
“There is a great deal of support and synergy between the two companies, and we could not be more proud to have them back on AXS TV as they prepare to celebrate an incredible milestone in NJPW history,” Impact Executive Vice President Scott D’Amore said in a news release. “We are excited to continue to build on our growing relationship with NJPW, and look forward to seeing what new opportunities arise from this partnership in the future.”
Source: Wrestling Inc.
IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
Flying Tiger (Robbie Eagles & Tiger Mask) (c) defeated Bullet Club (Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs. The Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero)
Tam Nakano & Saya Kamitani defeated Mayu Iwatani & Starlight Kid
PROVISIONAL KOPW 2022 TROPHY
Minoru Suzuki defeated Chase Owens, Cima, and Toru Yano
NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
House of Torture (Evil, Yujiro Takahashi & Sho) (c) (w/ Dick Togo) defeated Chaos (Hirooki Goto, Yoshi-Hashi & Yoh)
Sanada defeated Great-O-Khan
Tetsuya Naito defeated Jeff Cobb
NO DQ MATCH FOR THE IWGP UNITED STATES HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated KENTA (New IWGP United States Champion)
IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Kazuchika Okada (c) defeated Will Ospreay
Pro-Wrestling NOAH made its presence felt during New Japan Pro-Wrestling’s flagship event. Members of the NOAH roster briefly occupied the ring during Night 2 of Wrestle Kingdom 16 on Wednesday.
A large contingent of NOAH wrestlers was led to the ring by Keiji Mutoh. Speaking during the English language broadcast on New Japan World, Chris Charlton said it was Muto’s first time in Tokyo Dome since Wrestle Kingdom 8.
Keiji Mutoh is a former IWGP Heavyweight Champion from his years in New Japan. Early last year, Mutoh signed a contract with Pro-Wrestling NOAH, where he won the GHC Heavyweight Championship. Mutoh is currently one-half of the GHC Tag Team Champions alongside Naomichi Marufuji.
Kaito Kiyomiya and Kenoh took the microphone and addressed the crowd at the Tokyo Dome. They were eventually confronted by New Japan’s Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi, and BUSHI. The trio exchanged words with the NOAH wrestlers inside the ring but left without any physical interaction.
Keiji Mutoh took a picture while the NOAH wrestlers were in the ring. He later posted it on Twitter, along with words explaining that NOAH had occupied the ring at New Japan’s biggest event of the year.
Members of the Pro-Wrestling NOAH and New Japan Pro-Wrestling rosters are preparing to meet in matches on Night 3 of Wrestle Kingdom 16. That card will be held at Yokohama Arena on Saturday.
DATE: January 5, 2022 12:00 am
LOCATION: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World
CARD
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Tiger Mask & Robbie Eagles (c) vs. Rocky Romero & Ryusuke Taguchi vs. El Phantasmo & Taiji Ishimori
– Starlight Kid & Mayu Iwatani vs. Saya Kamitani & Tam Nakano
– KOPW 2022 Four Way
– NEVER Six-Man Tag Team Championship: SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & EVIL (c) vs. YOH, YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto
– SANADA vs. Great-O-Khan
– Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb
– IWGP US Heavyweight Championship: KENTA (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi in a No DQ Match
– IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada (c) vs. Will Ospreay
Yoh defeated Sho w/ Dick Togo
Bullet Club (KENTA, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi and The Mega Coaches (Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero)
United Empire (Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb) defeated Los Ingobernables de Japon (Tetsuya Naito, Sanada & Bushi)
Katsuyori Shibata defeated Ren Narita
NEVER OPENWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Evil (with Dick Togo) defeated Tomohiro Ishii (new NEVER Openweight Championship)
IWGP JUNIOR HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
El Desperado defeated Hiromu Takahashi
IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPION
Kazuchika Okada defeated Shingo Takagi (New IWGP Heavyweight Champion)
DATE: January 4, 2022 12:00 am
LOCATION: Tokyo Dome, Tokyo, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World
CARD
– New Japan Ranbo: Final Four Advance to KOPW 2022 Four-Way Match on Night Two
– YOH vs. SHO
– Rocky Romero, Ryusuke Taguchi & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. El Phantasmo, Taiji Ishimori & KENTA
– BUSHI, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito vs. Will Ospreay, Great-O-Khan & Jeff Cobb
– Katsuyori Shibata vs. X in a Catch Wrestling Rules Match
– NEVER Openweight Championship: Tomohiro Ishii (c) vs. EVIL
– IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Zack Sabre Jr. & Taichi (c) vs. YOSHI-HASHI & Hirooki Goto (World Tag League Winner)
– IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: El Desperado (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi (BOSJ Winner)
– IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Kazuchika Okada (G1 Climax Winner)
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