Category: New Japan Pro Wrestling

NJPW Power Struggle Results 11/6/2021

DOUKI and Yoshinobu Kanemaru defeated Kosei Fujita and Ryohei Oiwa

Jado, Gedo, and Tanga Loa defeated Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, and Togi Makabe

BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, and SANADA defeated Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, and Yuji Nagata

NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, and EVIL defeated YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii, and Hirooki Goto (c) to win the NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship

PROVISIONAL KOPW 2021 (AMATEUR WRESTLING MATCH)
Toru Yano (c) defeated Great-O-Khan

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
El Desperado defeated Robbie Eagles (c) to win the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Championship

IWGP US CHAMPIONSHIP
KENTA defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) to win the IWGP US Championship

RIGHTS TO TOKYO DOME CONTRACT
Kazuchika Okada (holder) defeated Tama Tonga

IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Shingo Takagi (c) defeated Zack Sabre Jr.

NJPW Power Struggle 11/6/2021

DATE: November 6, 2021 4:00 am
LOCATION: Osaka Prefectural Gym, Osaka, Japan
AVAILABLE ON:NJPW World

CARD

IWGP WORLD HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Shingo Takagi (c) vs. Zack Sabre Jr.

RIGHTS TO TOKYO DOME CONTRACT
Kazuchika Okada (holder) vs. Tama Tonga

IWGP US CHAMPIONSHIP
Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. KENTA

IWGP JR. HEAVYWEIGHT CHAMPIONSHIP
Robbie Eagles (c) vs. El Desperado

PROVISIONAL KOPW 2021 (AMATEUR WRESTLING MATCH)
Toru Yano (c) vs. Great-O-Khan

NEVER OPENWEIGHT 6-MAN TAG TEAM CHAMPIONSHIP
YOSHI-HASHI, Tomohiro Ishii, and Hirooki Goto (c) vs. SHO, Yujiro Takahashi, and EVIL

Master Wato, Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuji Nagata vs. BUSHI, Hiromu Takahashi, and SANADA

Tiger Mask, Tomoaki Honma, Togi Makabe vs. Jado, Gedo, and Tanga Loa

Kosei Fujita and Ryohei Oiwa vs. DOUKI and Yoshinobu Kanemaru

“Filthy” Tom Lawlor Leaving MLW

Top MLW star “Filthy” Tom Lawlor is leaving the company.

Lawlor’s two year contract is expiring soon, and he is finishing up with the company, according to Fightful Select. MLW sources confirmed the departure and spoke very highly of the veteran talent.

Lawlor is done with MLW as of now as the recent Casket Match was a way to effectively write him out of the storylines. That match saw Lawlor lose to MLW Caribbean Heavyweight Champion King Muertes at the Fightland taping in Philadelphia earlier this month. There was still some time left on Lawlor’s contract, but it will expire before MLW’s next set of TV tapings in November.

The leader of Team Filthy first started working with MLW in 2017 and is a one-time MLW World Heavyweight Champion. He won the Battle Riot match in 2018, and won the Opera Cup Tournament in 2020.

Lawlor is currently working for NJPW after making his debut for the promotion in July 2020. He became the first-ever NJPW Strong Openweight Champion back in April after winning the New Japan Cup USA tournament, defeating Brody King in the finals.

Lawlor has expressed interest in returning to MMA, and said while he left his gloves in the ring after his last bout, he is not officially retired. Lawlor remains under contract to the PFL (Pro Fighters League). The former UFC star last fought on June 17 of this year, defeating Jordan Young by unanimous decision at the PFL 5 event in Atlantic City. He currently has a MMA record of 11-8-1.

There is no word on if the 38 year old Lawlor has interest from AEW or WWE, or what his contract status is with NJPW.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Minoru Suzuki Coming Soon To Impact Wrestling

New Japan Pro-Wrestling icon Minoru Suzuki is coming soon to Impact Wrestling.

Impact announced his soon-to-be arrival through a career highlight video package. This will be the first time Suzuki has worked for the company.

Known for his vicious poise in the ring, the “King of Pro Wrestling” has made his rounds in America recently by competing New Japan Strong, PWX, West Coast Pro, GCW, and AEW.

Tonight, Suzuki will return to AEW to face Bryan Danielson on Rampage‘s Buy-In event at 9 pm ET on YouTube.

Suzuki is the fifth member of the New Japan roster to have worked with Impact this calendar year. He follows Juice Robinson, David Finlay, Jay White, Satoshi Kojima and El Phantasmo.

Tetsuya Naito Out Of NJPW G1 Climax Due To Injury

NJPW announced Tetsuya Naito is out of the G1 Climax 31 tournament due to a knee injury.

The injury was sustained in his opening match on September 18 against Zack Sabre Jr. where Naito’s left meniscus and MCL were damaged. There is no timetable for his return to the ring.

As for the tournament, there won’t be a replacement for him, but rather, Naito’s matches will be counted as losses via forfeit and his opponents get an automatic two points.

His remaining opponents will instead have “special singles matches” that won’t count towards the ongoing tournament.

The G1 Climax continues on Thursday with the following A block matches:

* Shingo Takagi vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
* Kota Ibushi vs. Tomohiro Ishii
* KENTA vs. Yujiro Takahashi
* Toru Yano vs. Great-O-Khan

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Kenny Omega Tops 2021’s PWI 500, Top 10 Revealed

Kenny Omega has topped the PWI 500 for the second time in his career, beating Roman Reigns to number one.

Kenny Omega has topped the PWI 500 for only the second time in his career, knocking Jon Moxley off the top spot and all the way down to number six.

Pro Wrestling Illustrated has been ranking the 500 best male wrestlers in the business since 1991. Who deserves to be number one each year is heavily debated, with the likes of Hulk Hogan, Stone Cole, CM Punk, and AJ Styles all having clinched the top spot in the past. This year’s top ten has been revealed, and PWI has declared Kenny Omega 2021’s best male wrestler.

This is actually the second time Omega has topped the PWI 500. The Cleaner was named the publication’s best wrestler in 2018 as well. It was hard to argue with the decision to place him first then, and maybe even more difficult to make a case against him in 2021. During PWI’s assessment period, Omega won World Titles in three different promotions, holding them simultaneously.

The rest of the top ten has been revealed too, with Universal Champion Roman Reigns claiming the number two spot. That’s the highest Reigns has placed since he took the number one spot in 2016, bouncing back from dropping out of the top ten completely in 2020 when he missed a chunk of the year due to the pandemic.

Bobby Lashley, Drew McIntyre, and Finn Balor also make the top ten, as does Will Ospreay. However, the New Japan star appears to be a little miffed with only making it as high as seventh. It’s actually the highest Ospreay has ever placed, only cracking the top ten one time before this in 2019. The British star tweeted that he could beat Omega any night of the week in response to the top ten being posted on Twitter.

SouOmega responded that New Japan has been “ice cold” since he left, to which Ospreay replied by pointing to a sold-out MSG show and the best-selling Tokyo Dome show in the promotion’s history. Ospreay closes by challenging Omega to a match. The forbidden door between AEW and New Japan is wide open right now, so it could happen. Just last night on Dynamite Moxley defeated Minoru Suzuki.

Source: TheSportster

NJPW Announces Wrestle Kingdom 16 To Be Three Nights

During today’s NJPW Wrestle Grand Slam, it was announced Wrestle Kingdom 16 will be a three-night event on January 4, January 5, and January 8, 2022.

The first two show are set to take place in the Tokyo Dome and the third night happens in Yokohama Arena. This is in celebration of NJPW’s 50th anniversary with the company being founded in 1972 by Antonio Inoki.

Typically, New Year Dash is right after Wrestle Kingdom, but no word yet on if that event is still going to happen in 2022.

Up until 2020, Wrestle Kingdom has been a one-night event where it then jumped to two nights.

You can check out the video announcement below:

Source: Wrestling Inc.

Awesome Kong Announces Her Retirement From Pro Wrestling At NWA EmPowerrr

During Saturday night’s NWA EmPowerrr pay-per-view, Awesome Kong announced that she is retiring from pro wrestling.

She made a surprise appearance at the event during a Gail Kim promo. Awesome Kong saved Gail Kim before an attack by Taryn Terrell, Jennacide, and Paola Blaze.

After that according to F4Wonline, she grabbed a microphone and told Gail Kim that she was her greatest foe and there was no other way to end her career than being in the ring with Kim. She then announced that she was done.

Awesome Kong is a former NWA Women’s Champion and a two-time Impact Knockouts Champion. She’s wrestled in several promotions such as Impact Wrestling, AEW, WWE, ROH, Shimmer, and All Japan Women’s Pro Wrestling.

Source: Wrestling Inc.

NJPW Resurgence Results 8/14/21

– Dark Match: Barrett Brown, Bateman, & Misterioso def. Jordan Clearwater, The DKC, & Kevin Knight

– Karl Fredericks def. Alex Coughlin

– Ren Narita, Clark Connors & TJP def. Fred Rosser, Wheeler YUTA & Rocky Romero

– Lio Rush, Adrian Quest, Chris Dickinson, Fred Yehi, & Yuya Uemura def. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Jorel Nelson, Royce Isaacs, & Danny Limelight

– Katsuyori Shibata welcomes Uemura to the LA Dojo.

– Juice Robinson def. Hikuleo

– Tomohiro Ishii def. Moose

– Will Ospreay returned and announced he is cleared.

– The Good Brothers (Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson) def. Jon Moxley & Yuji Nagata

– Guerrillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa) confront Good Brothers.

– NEVER Openweight Championship: Jay White (c) def. David Finlay

– Tomohiro Ishii confronted Jay White after the match.

– IWGP United States Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi def. Lance Archer (c) to win the title.

– Archer cuts a promo saying he respects Tanahashi and wants him to “bring his ass” to AEW.

NJPW Resurgence 8/14/21

NJPW Resurgence 8/14/2021 – Los Angeles, California at The Torch at LA Coliseum

8 pm ET on FITE and NJPW World

NJPW announced due to unforeseen circumstances, Brody King is off tonight’s show and is replaced by Adrian Quest in the ten-man tag match.

Card

* Lance Archer (c) vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi (IWGP United States Championship)
* Jay White (c) vs. David Finlay (NEVER Openweight Championship)
* Tomohiro Ishii vs. Moose
* Lio Rush, Adrian Quest, Chris Dickinson, Fred Yehi, and Yuya Uemura vs. Tom Lawlor, JR Kratos, Danny Limelight, Jorel Nelson, and Royce Isaacs
* Juice Robinson vs. Hikuleo
* Jon Moxley and a mystery partner vs. Doc Gallows and Karl Anderson
* Fred Rosser, Rocky Romero, and Wheeler Yuta vs. TJP, Clark Connors, and Ren Narita
* Karl Fredericks vs. Alex Coughlin
* Kevin Knight, The DKC, and Jordan Clearwater vs. Bateman, Misterioso, and Barrett Brown (Dark Match)

NJPW also announced Strong Openweight Champion Tom Lawlor will defend his title against Lio Rush at the upcoming Strong tapings on Monday at Thunder Studio in Long Beach, California. The match will air at a later date.

Lawlor’s last title defense came on a July 23 episode of Strong, where he defeated Satoshi Kojima.

Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii have also been advertised for Monday’s tapings, which will also feature a live crowd for the first time in the show’s history.