Asia & Oceania

When OZAWA challenged both Takashi Sugiura and Tetsuya Endo to a survival 3 way at the end of the last Korakuen Hall show, you had to figure that the GHC Heavyweight Champion had a plan; after all, this is not a guy who goes into anything with a disadvantage. And so it proved, as Takashi Sugiura turned on Tetsuya Endo after months of trying to get him away from the clutches of Team 2000X only to join the group himself.

OZAWA’s 6th defense of his GHC belt started out in much different fashion, as Endo entered the ring calm and confident, even cupping his ear to illustrate to the Champion that the crowd were cheering for him. Suguira, aiming for a 5th GHC Title reign, also appeared focused with no signs of what was to come. OZAWA attempted to leave them to it at the start, leaving the ring in order to get the other 2 wrestlers to focus on each other and hopefully burn themselves out, leaving him to take advantage. Both babyfaces realised what was going on and turned their attention to the heel. It is nice to see babyfaces looking smart once in a while.

OZAWA continued to try and evade whenever he could, only returning to the ring when he felt there was an easy opportunity and/or some time for breakdancing. There was one escapade too many, though, as he was caught by Suguira. He had locked him by the legs and began attempting to turn him over into a submission. Endo took great joy in the situation, flipping down to the mat to mock the Champion’s signature pose before putting some of his nasal material in OZAWA’s face. The distraction was enough to allow Suguira to finally flip OZAWA into a Boston crab that Endo then attempted to add extra leverage to, but “the Real Rebel” made it to the rope.

The next part of the match felt a little strange before the betrayal, with OZAWA breaking up the pins that could potentially eliminate either competitor, in what was essentially a gauntlet, but all would be revealed after Endo had been thrown into the referee, allowing Team 2000X to swarm the ring. Sugiura wrestled a chair off of them, held it in the air for a moment, then turned around and struck Endo over the head with it.

The English commentary team wondered if it was a ruse, but Takashi Sugiura set that to bed pretty quickly, donning the Team 2000X shirt given to him and joining OZAWA in laying the boots in on the former DDT man. The crowd broke out in “Endo! Endo!” chants, as he began his fight back into what was now essentially a handicap match, culminating in him launching the elder man into his new group leader, knocking him off of the apron. The disorientation allowed Endo to roll Sugiura up for the pin, eliminating him from the match.

OZAWA, realising the threat, attacked right after the pin with a series of dropkicks but was caught by a massive knee strike (which had a great noise). It looked like his reign would be over for just one moment, but the referee was pulled out by Sugiura at the last minute. He then pulled Endo out, allowing Team 2000X to put the boots into him whilst the referee was down. They shouted about how he was a ‘betrayer’ but in such funny voices that the Korakuen crowd could only laugh after the initial beatdown had led to boos.

Endo was thrown back to the ring but was up quickly, flying back across the ring in order to hit a Tornillo onto the group on the outside. Once he had the crowd, the chants became raucous. With OZAWA back in the ring, Endo was quickly on him, hitting a torture rack bomb for a narrow 2 count before going up top for his shooting star press. OZAWA was able to get the knees up to stop it but Endo kept up the momentum with a rolling lariat, to the sound of louder “Endo!” chants.

Endo went to the top again but OZAWA popped up, chasing him up the turnbuckle. They fought at the top, with the Champion gaining the advantage through biting Endo, before hitting Tetsuya In The Sky With Diamonds on Endo. That left the challenger in position for a shooting star press, but it wasn’t enough to put him away. “Ozawa!” chants began competing with the “Endo!” ones at this point, just as Endo was running out of steam after battling 1 on 2 for most of the match. The “Real Rebel” was enough for the pin, just as Takashi Sugiura stared on from the outside.

Ozawa would refer back to Endo being knocked out by Katsuhiko Nakajima in his post-show comments, stating that Team 2000X didn’t need “a lame guy who can be defeated with one slap”. It was an interesting aside that certainly caught attention.

With the setup of 2 potential foes, and the crowd reacting well to Endo in a way they haven’t with some of the other babyfaces OZAWA has faced, it now feels like Tetsuya Endo has to be seen as the favourite for the upcoming N1, as well as to take the belt eventually from OZAWA. There have been many discussions on Team 2000X and whether this whole thing is jumping the shark, but what the last 2 Korakuen Hall shows have done is give him 2 viable opponents who could eventually end his reign, as well as potential career long rivals. The reign now feels in a healthier place than it did coming out of Ryogoku.

Outside of the Heavyweight Title match, the highlight of the show was the triumph of Passionate RATEL’S, as Daiki Inaba & Manabu Soya stunned everyone by defeating Kenoh and Ulka Sasaki in only their 2nd defense of the GHC Tag Team Championships.

This match was all about Daiki Inaba: the recently returned wrestler had been mocked by Kenoh when he had initially issued the challenge for the tag belts last month and we saw plenty of it on the night, with Ulka Sasaki seemingly not wanting to face off with him in ring and Kenoh moving out of the way of an Inaba splash on the outside, leaving him to crash to the floor. Kenoh would add insult to injury, launching him into and over the guardrail before rattling it in a very RATEL like way.

Inaba was not one to give up, though, staying alive in a Kenoh special back in the ring until Manabu Soya was able to make the save and walking through some of Kenoh’s brutal kicks before he was finally suplexed to the apron. Kenoh attempted to go for one more strike but it was countered by a sunset flip, as Daiki Inaba pinned Kenoh, to the complete shock of the former GHC Champion.

Soya embraced his teammate immediately on the apron, with Saxon Hurley soon embracing them both from behind as they celebrated their first Tag Team Title run together, as well as the first of Manabu Soya’s career. Daiki Inaba ended up triumphant in his return, much to the joy of the Korakuen crowd.

Elsewhere on the card, YO-HEY made a successful 2nd defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Title against the plucky Junta Miyawaki. Miyawaki thought a Sunshine driver was going to be enough to secure his 2nd championship of the year, but it wasn’t to be. YO-HEY was challenged after the match’s conclusion by Atsushi Kotege, who had defeated mentor and trainer Super Delfin earlier in the night as part of his 20th anniversary celebrations.

There was also mega heat for Team 2000X, who responded to being outclassed throughout their match with All Rebellion by removing the mask of Dragon Bane to ensure they were only defeated by means of disqualification. The crowd was almost molten when Daga strutted around ringside with Bane’s mask on thereafter, before throwing it away.

Perhaps the highlight of this match though was not the in ring action itself, but the reaction of the crowd to Kaito Kiyomiya, who even seemed to stop on entrance at the cheers he heard in Korakuen. The OZAWA match clearly yielded positive results for him on his return to the same building.

Full Results

AMAKUSA, Masa Kitamiya & Shuhei Taniguchi defeat Black Menso-re, Eita & Shuji Kondo (6:57)

Passionate RATEL’S (HAYATA, Saxon Huxley & Yuto Kikuchi) defeat Daiki Odashima, KENTA & Super Crazy (9:20)

Alpha Wolf, Dragon Bane & Naomichi Marufuji defeat All Rebellion (Alejandro, Kai Fujimura & Kaito Kiyomiya) defeat Team 2000X (Daga, Owadasan & Tadasuke) (8:23)

Atsushi Kotoge defeats Super Delfin (9:53)

GHC Tag Team Titles: Passionate RATEL’S (Daiki Inaba & Manabu Soya) defeat Kenoh & Ulka Sasaki (c) (13:47)

GHC Junior Heavyweight Title;

YO-HEY (c) defeats Junta Miyawaki (13:33)

GHC Heavyweight Title Three Way Elimination Match: OZAWA (c) defeats Takashi Sugiura and Tetsuya Endo (24:38)

Tetsuya Endo pins Takashi Sugiura (15:20)

Monday Magic Episode 2
03.06.2025
Shinjuku FACE,Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

NOAH continued their “Monday Magic” series on 2nd June at Shinjuku FACE. With a runtime of 2 hours, a mix of comedy, good workrate, surprise matches and even title changes, it was an easy, fun watch. There is a certain charm about “Monday Magic”. The crowd is hot and there to have fun, with the wrestlers looking like they are enjoying the novelty of the show and feeding off the crowd.

In the first match we saw a continuation of NOAH storylines as HAYATA, Junta Miyawaki and Kai Fujimura competed in a “nothing happening” three-way. This match was to give Miyawaki another win heading into his Junior Title match versus YO-HEY at Korakuen Hall the day after on 3rd June.

“Monday Magic” then gave its viewers whiplash as it went from the most standard of NOAH openers into a mind-bogglingly interesting tag match. Daiki Odashima and Masa Kitamiya teamed up against AKIRA, who wrestled in New Japan in the 90s and… British independent wrestler Danny Duggan? There were a lot of questions here. AKIRA made sense. NOSAWA had faced AKIRA a large handful of times in AJPW and WRESTLE-1, but what was the Duggan connection? How did that come about? The funniest part was knowing that we weren’t alone in our confusion, as we saw that this match was initially attributed to Canadian independent wrestler Danny Duggan on Cagematch. When we refreshed a bit later, it had been switched to the British wrestler. It turns out that, according to translated backstage comments, AKIRA had been training catch wrestling with Duggan in Japan. That tied up the loose ends. Duggan mentioned that he wanted to go for the N-1, so we will see if he is one of the surprise entrants.

Even though Duggan was an unknown quantity, this match was actually good. AKIRA, 59, looked good for his age, even doing a splash off the top rope. Duggan looked great in this setting and was the star of the match. He looked ripe for a tour in Japan. He had stiff strikes and went toe to toe with Kitamiya. He kicked out of a small package at 2.99 seconds and then absolutely destroyed Odashima with a fierce lariat and a disgustingly good looking Tombstone Piledriver, which is rare to see. It really felt that Duggan was trying to prove a point. If he gets booked in the N-1, he could end up surprising people.

As in Episode 1, we saw Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane) against each other, but this time in a trios match. Alpha Wolf, Robert Martyr and Saxon Huxley took on Archie Cole, Dragon Bane and Titus Alexander in a great match. Alexander had been quite over on “Monday Magic shows” as he had wrestled in NOAH before, so the Shinjuku FACE crowd were familiar with him. A large portion of the match was Alexander and Alpha Wolf having an excellent singles bout. It was Martyr’s first NOAH match and he said that it was his dream since he was 14 years old. He thanked Marvelous’ Chigusa Nagayo for bringing him over on tour.

Speaking of Marvelous, their ace who holds every title, Takumi Iroha, added another title to her collection as she beat the GHC Women’s Champion, Marigold’s Kouki Amarei, in 13:40 with the Running Three. The match itself was not noteworthy. It is clear that Kouki is still a work in progress.

Kaito Kiyomiya teamed with Naoya Nomura to take on Hikaru Sato & Ulka Sasaki. Former AJPW wrestler Nomura returned from a lengthy two year injury-related absence in NOAH on 29th March. Nomura looked like he had not missed a beat. In backstage comments, Nomura and Kiyomiya mentioned wanting to face each other in a match.

The GHC Hardcore Openweight Championship was on the line in the main event, with defending champion Shuji Ishikawa beating Manabu Soya in 20:06 with the Giant Slam. This title is a “Monday Magic” exclusive and doesn’t get defended on other NOAH shows. Ishikawa spent the first 10 minutes beating up Soya with a wide variety of weapons: trash cans, chairs and ladders. The fight picked up pace when Ishikawa crashed Soya through a table with the Giant Driver. The second half of the fight was even better – with several near falls, stiff lariats and big moves. Ishikawa hit a Dragon Suplex into a Giant Driver for a 1 count. Ishikawa hit a Kamigoye and running knee for a 2 count. Ishikawa finally put Soya away with the Giant Slam. This match was great and capped off another good episode of “Monday Magic”.

Full Results

Three Way Match: Junta Miyawaki defeats HAYATA and Kai Fujimura (7:24)

Tag Team Match: AKIRA & Danny Duggan defeat Daiki Odashima & Masa Kitamiya (14:15)

Six Man Tag Team Match: Archie Cole, Dragon Bane & Titus Alexander defeat Alpha Wolf, Robert Martyr & Saxon Huxley (15:06)

GHC Women’s Title Match: Takumi Iroha defeats Kouki Amarei (c) (13:40)

Tag Team Match

Kaito Kiyomiya & Naoya Nomura defeat Hikaru Sato & Ulka Sasaki (16:25)

GHC Hardcore Openweight Title Match: Shuji Ishikawa (c) defeats Manabu Soya (20:06)

NOAH House Show Notes

On 31st May at Shinjuku FACE, Calibus, a masked wrestler from the Mexican independent scene, made his debut replacing Super Crazy in the opening match. KENTA came to the ring with 4 young trainees to protect him, after the incident of a fan spraying “oolong tea” in his face. KENTA is incorporating the incident into his current act and the crowd are very into it. He sprayed “tea” into Black Menso-re’s face so his partner could roll him up for the win.

KENTA continued the antics on the 1st June show in Kawagoe where he once again came out with the bodyguards to protect him from fans. During his match, KENTA held Alejandro and pleaded with his tag partner Kenoh to spray water in his face. Kenoh obliged, but Alejandro ducked, spraying KENTA in the eyes. The crowd loved this spot. Also on this show, rookie Daiki Odashima was given a rare main event appearance and was really gaining momentum with the crowd. He was put into the spotlight with OZAWA and fought valiantly before being pinned by the GHC Heavyweight Champion.

On the next house show on 7th June, Owadasan was sent in to deal with Daiki Odashima in a great semi-main event with a hot crowd. In a way, this felt like Odashima’s coming out party. Odashima started the match telling Owadasan to bring it, launching a drop kick into a tope suicida. Owadasan regained control of the match brawling on the outside, hitting him with chairs in typical Team 2000X fashion. Odashima fought back, almost finishing Owadasan with a gutwrench suplex, but ultimately Owadasan won with a T-bone suplex. Odashima is connecting strongly with the audience, which is exactly what a promotion wants their rookies to do. In the main event, the newly turned “Godfather” Takashi Sugiura teamed with OZAWA versus freelancer Shuji Kondo and Tetsuya Endo. After the match, OZAWA explained the power structure of Team 2000X, that above him it’s the Godfather, and then above the Godfather it’s “God” Masahiro Chono (leader of the original Team 2000). OZAWA said that even further above is Owadasan, a being from another dimension. Owadasan agreed. OZAWA finished by saying Team 2000X will continue defeating the bad guys and protecting NOAH to a round of applause. That’s the top “heel” faction in NOAH, by the way.

NOAH News

On the 2nd June episode of “Monday Magic”, NOSAWA announced that NOAH, DDT, Dragongate and NJPW would participate in the series finale, “Wrestle Magic”, on 30 June.

This season’s “Monday Magic” episode 2 broke the Wrestle Universe all-time viewership record for the series, beating the previous record set by this season’s episode 1. The next episode will be held on June 16th at Shinjuku FACE.

Atsushi Kotoge will challenge YO-HEY for the NOAH Junior Heavyweight Championship in Osaka on 21st June. Kotoge celebrated his 20th anniversary with a match versus his mentor Super Delfin at Korakuen Hall on 3rd June, while YO-HEY successfully defended his title against Junta Miyawaki in a great match. It will be a homecoming match for both Kotoge and YO-HEY. The winner of the match will face OZAWA in the main event in Nagoya on 22nd June; the loser will face Kaito Kiyomiya in the opener. Also on this show: British independent wrestler Will Kroos, most recognised for his work in Progress, will make his NOAH debut. Kroos will face Daiki Odashima, having impressed whilst working NOAH’s UK Tour last autumn.

NJPW

New Japan Pro Wrestling

News

June 15th at Osaka-Jo Hall will see the 2nd biggest event of the New Japan year, with Hirooki Goto defending the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Shingo Takagi at “Dominion”. Goto will be looking to make a 7th defense against a somewhat regular opponent in recent years, whilst Takagi has made it clear that the end of LIJ represents a new start for the “Rampage Dragon”. Could he come to lead a group of his own?

Under the Heavyweight Title clash are 2 rematches from “New Beginning in Osaka”, as Gabe Kidd attempts to capture the Global Title from Yota Tsuji at the 2nd time of asking, and Oleg Boltin takes on Konosuke Takeshita for the NEVER belt. Both feel like they could change hands here, freeing up both Tsuji and Takeshita ahead of the G1.

Much has been made of Gabe Kidd’s recent AEW excursion and the potential impact of his character, particularly amongst the western fanbase. There are no expectations in Japan that it will have an effect across multiple markets, with Osaka perhaps the most potentially in tune with events outside.

The newly formed team of Tomohiro Ishii and Taichi are also chasing gold, with the momentum gained from the Dontaku tour earning them a shot at the IWGP Tag Titles currently held by the United Empire pair of Great O-Khan and Callum Newman. This definitely feels like another set of titles that could change hands.

Sunday’s show will also be notable for House of Torture, who plan to unveil a new member in their tag against the War Dogs before leader EVIL battles David Finlay in a Dog Collar Chain match, in what everyone hopes is the wrap to the program between the factions.

There is also an expectation that we will get G1 announcements on this show, as well as the number of places which will be determined by qualifiers on the upcoming “Soul” tour. New Japan talent are already aware of their status/schedule for the year’s biggest tour, with Hiroshi Tanahashi pencilling himself in for one final tournament.

There is no place on the show for the IWGP Junior Title on the card, with a match between Jun Kasai and El Desperado to take place before the Champion can meet “Best of the Super Juniors” winner Kosei Fujita. The Junior Title has been regularly moved away from the major shows this year, instead headlining a secondary show on each tour. It does feel a little disappointing for it not to be included here, though, considering the title headlined last year’s event.

Full Card

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Hirooki Goto © vs. Shingo Takagi
IWGP Global Heavyweight Championship: Yota Tsuji © vs. Gabe Kidd
Dog Collar Chain Deathmatch: David Finlay vs. EVIL
NEVER Openweight Championship: Konosuke Takeshita © vs. Oleg Boltin
IWGP Tag Team Championship: Great O-Khan & Callum Newman (c) vs. Taichi & Tomohiro Ishii
IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Master Wato & YOH (c) vs. SHO & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Yuya Uemura
El Phantasmo & Shota Umino vs. Zack Sabre Jr. & Ryohei Oiwa
SANADA, Ren Narita, Yujiro & X vs. Taiji Ishimori, Chase Owens, Clark Connors & Drilla Moloney
Katsuya Murashima & Shoma Kato vs. Daiki Nagai & Masatora Yasuda

Hiroshi Tanahashi will wrestle for the last time in the UK at the O2 Arena on August 24th, as the co-branded “Forbidden Door” event with AEW. The decision means that he will wrestle in front of a near capacity (at the least) arena crowd in London but also casts doubt on a “Royal Quest” show in the English capital later on in the autumn.

Tanahashi was one of the first New Japan talents to work regularly for Revolution Pro Wrestling and held the top belt in the UK promotion in September 2019 after defeating Zack Sabre Jr. at “Royal Quest”.

Tanahashi made an appearance at AEW’s “Double or Nothing” show in Glendale, Arizona, late last month, seeing off the Don Callis Family.

Tanahashi also continues to announce matches for his produce show, “Tanahashi Jam”, at the Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium on June 29th. Yuji Nagata vs Oleg Boltin is the latest matchup to be added to New Japan’s farewell event to the famous arena.

Bushiroad held an earnings call after releasing their Q3 results last month. The gaming website, gamebiz, provided some notes from the call in English. The overall company has increased revenue to 53.5 billion yen over the current fiscal year, an increase over 2024 of 15.6%.

When commenting on the sports sector, which covers both Stardom and New Japan, CEO Takaaki Kidani expressed promise for the remainder of the calendar year. He made an individual note on New Japan going through transition of the company to more younger wrestlers, as well as how the remainder of Hiroshi Tanahashi’s retirement tour will play a part in their ascension.

On Stardom, Kidani noted that they have been able to not only sustain momentum but also continue increasing it, despite a number of departures, injuries and the retirement of Tam Nakano.

Former NJPW talent Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI have named their new group “Los Tranquilos de Japon”.

Naito claimed that the pair had lost the rights to “Los Ingobernables de Japon” upon leaving New Japan, as well as the usage of their theme music, in what is a somewhat unusual move for domestic departing talent. He also stated this past week that the major issue involved in his departure was the expectation that he work a much heavier schedule than the younger talent, wanting to see parity across the board.

Naito and BUSHI will make their first public appearance on June 22nd, when they hold a talk show in Ariake, Tokyo.

STARDOM

Stardom

Natsupoi & Saori Anou Produce Natsu & Saory 10th Anniversary ~Our Footprints~

31/05/2025
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 2,837
Watch On: Stagecrowd Live

Thoughts by Tim Hunter

What at first glance just looked like a fun, lighthearted produce show with a lot of song and dance and celebration mixed in with some excellent wrestling, was actually a very thoughtfully crafted event with important historic moments and returns.

The show put together by the two STARDOM wrestlers and members of the Cosmic Angels, Saori Anou and Natsupoi, has to be considered a huge success. Not only did they crowdfund almost 15 million yen (over 100,000 USD) for the event, overshooting their initial goal of 3 million Yen by 493%, but the 2,837 people in attendance also meant that they outdrew several other promotions’ last visits at the Ota Ward Gymnasium. They used the crowdfunded money very well, turning Ota Ward into a beautiful place with a grand stage and high production value.

The show started with a very theatrical intro between the two hosts telling their story about their start in pro wrestling, as both of them wanted to be actresses who never had wrestling on their mind until they fell into it. The number turned into the trademark song and dance of Actwres girl’Z, the promotion that Natsupoi and Saori both came up in at the start of their careers. The first two matches were fun showcases of AWG wrestlers and friends, but the wrestling and results were almost secondary to the two big appearances of Act Yasukawa and Aina Aiba in their respective matches. It would be the first time that Act wrestled on a STARDOM adjacent event since 2015 when the infamous “ghastly match” effectively ended her career and she left the company a few months later. Aina Aiba, wrestling on the show under pseudonym Yuuki Harima, who left wrestling in 2016 to pursue a career in singing and voice acting under the Bushiroad umbrella, had her first match since then, period. She was in phenomenal shape and you would not have been able to tell that this was her first match in almost a decade from her in ring performance whatsoever. Aiba would also display her popstar skills after the main event, when she performed a mini concert and sang two songs in the ring.

Third on the card, we had a veteran-rookie tag team match where Miku Kanae teamed with Yumiko Hotta to face Rian and Kaoru Ito. Miku Kanae graduated from AWG last year and has since been busy wrestling on many produce shows and Ice Ribbon shows. She was supposed to wrestle Natsupoi on the last Sareee ISM event, but due to Natsupoi’s injury Saori replaced her, so Miku naturally had interactions with both hosts already. Rian is a rookie who started in STARDOM at the end of 2024. Rian and Miku are both rather undersized wrestlers who have to convince in their matches through selling the natural struggle that comes with that, while their veteran partners are both on the bigger side. This gave the match a fun symmetry. The rookies would be completely ineffective when going against the veterans towering over them, which created a fun dynamic with good hot tags whenever a wrestler faced their actual counterpart. Miku managed to get the pin over Rian in the end, which was a welcome result opposed to the expected finish of one of the veterans pinning a rookie. Miku is a prospect on the freelancer scene that I would keep my eyes on and would expect to get signed by a bigger company soon. She has already appeared on STARDOM’s rookie showcase “New Blood” before.

Concluding the undercard was a rambo which essentially hinges entirely on your enjoyment of Sakura Hirota style comedy. She started the match as Shin Saori Anou, later came back into the match as Shin Natsupoi, and after being eliminated for a second time, entered again as Shin Kuro Saori Anou, Saori’s dark gimmick she mostly uses in Oz Academy and other indies, to win the match. If nothing else it was a very fun and wholesome tribute to the hosts by Hirota.

The business end of the card was crafted as a journey through history and a showcase for STARDOM and the Cosmic Angels. The unit’s young rookies Aya Sakura and Sayaka Kurara were sent into trials against Mayumi Ozaki and Sareee. Saori had brutal and bloody wars against Ozaki in their never ending feud in Oz Academy, so the thought was for Kurara, who she recently adopted after Tam Nakano’s demise, to live through the same punishment that molded Saori into the ruthless competitor she is today. In a similar vein, Sareee is one of Natsupoi’s closest friends and was essentially sent by her to teach Aya Sakura a lesson in brutality. And that, they did.

Ozaki destroyed Kurara with her signature chain attacks and brutal double fists. She would lift the barely conscious Kurara up multiple times at the count of two to continue her beatdown, which almost cost her in the end, as Kurara was able to trap her in a chokehold out of nowhere, which sent the crowd into a frenzy. It is incredible how well Sayaka Kurara knows how to manipulate the crowd in this way for her level of experience. Unfortunately, not even her Tokimeki Spear was enough for Kurara to get the win and she ultimately fell to the legend.

In round 2 of this rookie hazing ritual, Aya Sakura didn’t have much more luck. Quite the opposite. While Kurara miraculously avoided gushing blood while getting brutalised with a chain, Aya wasn’t so lucky as a nasty scrape on the side of her cheek transpired from Sareee’s punishment. Aya did look impressive, and for a moment it seemed like she would be able to overcome Sareee with her trademark savage karate kicks, but in the end her efforts were to no avail as Sareee put her away with a single one of her overhead Uranages.

In between these two matches, Cosmic Angels member Yuna Mizumori faced long time tag team partner and opponent, honorary member of the Cosmic Angels, SAKI. The two formed the tag team Tropikawild between 2019 and 2022 and faced each other a multitude of times throughout their careers, with SAKI coming out on top historically. So this was once again a match loaded with history. They had fun chemistry as you’d expect from two people who are so deeply familiar with each other, but in the end Yuna still couldn’t manage to overcome her more experienced friend.

Also wedged in between the two rookie trials was a STARDOM showcase match, which saw the tag team champions Saya Iida and Hanan (wing*gori) go up against long term rivals turned friends, AZM and Starlight Kid, who are two thirds of STARDOM’s trios champions, as well as New Japan Strong champion (AZM) and the Wonder of STARDOM champion (Starlight Kid). If you knew anything about these wrestlers, you knew where this was gonna go immediately and it was everything you’d expect, just 15 minutes of breathtaking, non-stop, high speed action flawlessly executed – but ultimately leading to a draw, as it will often happen when you have so many high profile champions in the match. Unless they were angling for a future tag title match, which wouldn’t make too much sense since AZM and Kid already have so many belts, this outcome was unfortunately inevitable. It was still an excellent showcase for all participants involved.

Finally, after a show packed full of history and beautiful moments, we arrived at the main event. A main event which would turn out to be far from the end of the show, however. The match saw the two hosts, Saori and Natsupoi themselves, step into the ring in beautiful specially manufactured gear to take on long time rivals and serious ass kickers Mika Iwata and Chihiro Hashimoto. Iwata having a rivalry with Anou that will seemingly last forever and Chihiro having had a classic match with Natsupoi before and infiltrating the STARDOM promotion on multiple occasions to battle some of Natsupoi’s closest friends made for the perfect opponents for this occasion. It was a great back and forth with a lot of hard hitting action and the real struggle personified by Natsupoi’s heart wrenching selling. Just when it looked like the two invading forces ultimately got the upper hand and it was only a matter of time until Natsupoi would finally stay down for a three count, the Cosmic Angel managed to reverse a pin attempt from Iwata into a roll up for the win. In the end Mika Iwata taking the fall was probably the most obvious outcome, but they designed the match in a way to make it as doubtful as it could get.

After the match, we got started with the ceremony celebrating 10 years of Saori Anou and Natsupoi. In another historic moment, TJPW president Tetsuya Koda and STARDOM president Taro Okada stood side by side to present the two with flowers. Natsupoi left her footprints in TJPW between 2019 and 2020 before ultimately jumping to STARDOM.

They also had the two comedians Teppei Arita and Mitsunori Fukuda, who watched the main event at ringside, enter the ring to challenge Saori and Natsupoi to have an impromptu match just between the two. Of course they would not back down from the challenge and after having a hard hitting 20 minute affair with Hashimoto and Iwata, the two got ready to go again for another high speed, all action bout, one of the most fun impromptu 5 minute draws you will ever see.

If you thought this show was over after another surprise match, however, you were sorely mistaken! We still have a whole concert portion to go! This is when Aina Aiba made her second entrance of the night onto the grand and beautiful stage to perform two of her songs, as she sang herself to the ring. The ring at this point was surrounded by bouncing lights in quite a magnificent set up.

Alright. Time to go home? No! After the Aiba concert, Natsupoi and Saori made their third big entrance of the night to perform a song of their own. They entered what appeared to be floating platforms flying through the arena while singing and throwing presents into the audience. On a closer look, the platforms were just put on wheels and pushed by a bunch of stage helpers, but at first glance it looked magical.

Well over an hour after the bell rung to end the main event, it was finally time for the celebrants to say goodbye to the almost 3,000 people in attendance and for the lights to come up to signify the end of a magnificently put together show with a lot more meaning and history to it than one might glean at first glance.

Full Results

Natsuki & Yukina Uehara defeats Act & Mari (7:56)

Tae Honma & Yuna Manase defeats Maika Ozaki & Yuuki Harima (8:54)

Miku Kanae & Yumiko Hotta defeat Kaoru Ito & Rian (8:52)

Rumble Match: Shin Kuro Saori Anou (Sakura Hirota) defeat AKINO and Hiroyo Matsumoto and Kakeru Sekiguchi and Kyusei Ninja Ranmaru and Rina Amikura and Ryo Mizunami and Shin Natsupoi (Sakura Hirota) and Shin Saori Anou (Sakura Hirota) and Sonoko Kato and Yuko Sakurai (23:49)

Shin Kuro Saori Anou eliminates Kakeru Sekiguchi
Mayumi Ozaki defeats Sayaka Kurara (12:32)

SAKI defeats Yuna Mizumori (14:03)

Neo Genesis (AZM & Starlight Kid) vs. STARS (Hanan & Saya Iida) – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

Sareee defeats Aya Sakura (12:25)

Cosmic Angels (Natsupoi & Saori Anou) defeat Chihiro Hashimoto & Mika Iwata (19:52)

Natsupoi vs. Saori Anou – Time Limit Draw (5:00)

STARDOM in Korakuen

08/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 1,405
Watch On: Stardom World

Thoughts by Tim Hunter

The main takeaways from this rather uneventful card were that the vibes are as splendid as ever despite all the turmoil the company has been in. The matches – which were mostly without any stakes – were just extremely fun to watch because you can tell that all the wrestlers were just having a great time and spirits in the company seemed high.

The talent has been featured on various TV shows lately, in an attempt to further increase their peak popularity, which seems to be working as they drew another 1,405 people to Korakuen, on a card with zero title matches and headlined by an 8-woman tag match. Credit for the strong number probably also has to go to Sareee, who had a singles match against Syuri’s personal protege Ranna Yagami on the show in the build up for their IWGP title match at “The Conversion” on 21/06. Having Sareee on the show, in a singles match no less, is a rarity for the promotion.

The undercard was once again a great time to watch the rookies develop. It’s not all sunshine yet, as Ema Maishima had a scary botch on an attempted springboard when she slipped off the top rope in her opening match with Yuna Mizumori. Yuna would punish her for it and beat her clean soon after. Other than the botch, Ema continues to look way ahead of her experience curve.

Big news for Rian, who was able to celebrate her first singles match victory against Akira Kurogane in a match that was way beyond expectations, considering the level of both competitors. We’re not talking about the smoothest transitions you’ll ever see, but their scrapping on the mat is already rather high level. Rian won with a somewhat convoluted but innovative move that I can only describe as a sideways Code Red. Rian was promptly challenged to a Future Title match by champion Hina. The match will take place on “The Conversion” as well.

Healthy, Amazing, Trendy, Entertain! ..is apparently NOT what H.A.T.E. stands for, which is why the leaders of the stable (Natsuko Tora and Saya Kamitani) invaded the headquarters of beverage company “Mizkan”, which advertised with this slogan in a funny vignette. Mizkan and STARDOM have a partnership deal. There was also an attempt to advertise the beverage on the 6/10 press conference where Saya Iida corpsed and failed hilariously to get her ad read over.

God’s Eye defeated the rag tag team of factionless wrestlers FWC, Kikyo and Yuria Hime when Tomoka Inaba got the tap out from Kikyo. Suzu Suzuki defeated Lady C and Azusa Inaba in a fast paced threeway and H.A.T.E. defeated the remnants of ExV in a tag match after a bunch of cheating. The midcard matches were rather uneventful, but perfectly fine and entertaining throughout. There’s not a boring second usually on a STARDOM Korakuen besides the Intermission. HANAKO, on the losing team on this show, will face the soon retiring Risa Sera at “The Conversion”, which is somewhat of a special match as HANAKO was cosplaying Risa Sera in the early stages of her career in a wrestling club at her college, calling herself “Fella Risa”. When Risa Sera got wind of the story, she invited HANAKO to her freelancer group “Prominence” and basically kickstarted her career.

God’s Eye member Ami Sourei, who suffered an injury almost a full year ago and has been off the shows ever since besides some commentary gigs, came to the ring between matches to officially announce her comeback. She was met with great appreciation from the Korakuen crowd. She will be in an 8-man tag at “The Conversion” with fellow God’s Eye teammates against H.A.T.E.

Business seriously picked up when the Cosmic Angels group of Natsupoi and Saori Anou coming fresh off their successful produce show alongside Aya Sakura, faced the STARS trio consisting of Hanan, Saya Iida and Momo Kongo. Well, in the case of STARS, there’s not much more of an option for a trio at this point, is there? This trios match was an outstanding sprint, highlighted by the stiff and hard hitting duel between Saya Iida and Natsupoi. Saya chopped Natsupoi to bits, with strikes that can only be described as gunshots echoing through the arena. After a long back and forth between the two with several extremely close nearfalls, Natsupoi managed to get the pin over one half of the tag team champions after the Fairial Gift, a cartwheel splash off the top rope. This set up a match for the Goddesses of STARDOM titles between the Cosmic Angels and wing*gori (Hanan & Saya Iida), which promises to be an absolute classic judging from this tune up bout.

After the intermission it was time for Ranna Yagami’s biggest test of her young career, going up against world class pro wrestler Sareee in the semi-main event at Korakuen Hall. Ranna wasted no time whatsoever, attacking Sareee during her entrance with a great dropkick out of nowhere, sending her to the outside where she rained down on Sareee with more kicks. Back inside the ring, Syuri’s most promising rookie soon found herself on the backfoot, however, as Sareee trapped her in a brutal Boston Crab and transitioned into her signature bridging Indian Deathlock. Ranna would be able to fight back with stiff kicks to the thighs and upper body and trapping Sareee in an armbar that forced her to get a rope break. This would prove to be Ranna’s last uprising, as Sareee soon had enough and killed her opponent with a missile dropkick, her devastating dropkick through the ropes and two consecutive top rope double foot stomps. The result of this match was never in doubt as this was just a setup for Sareee’s big IWGP championship match at “The Conversion” against Ranna’s master Syuri, who surprisingly showed up after the match when Sareee continued to slap her opponent around. Syuri had defended her championship in Pro Wrestling EVE in the UK the day before and still appeared to post pictures from London on social media, which made her appearance here so surprising. She must have had a strict travel schedule. Her and Sareee continued to build their match on the microphone.

The main event of the show saw Neo Genesis battle it out with another crew from H.A.T.E. consisting of Saya Kamitani, Momo Watanabe, Konami and Rina in an 8-man tag match. The match basically took place all over Korakuen Hall as Saya Kamitani and AZM beat each other through the stands while the action in the ring continued. This should serve as somewhat of a preparation for the red belt champion, who is booked in another 8-man for the pay per view next week (in fact, neither the red belt nor the white belt champion are booked for a title match on the big show at the point of writing). It’s probably not a negative, however, as white belt champion Starlight Kid’s shoulder is wrapped up heavier than Tutenchamun’s was. This didn’t seem to bother Kid in this match at all, as she still went full throttle in all her tremendous exchanges with Kamitani. The other outstanding pairing in the match were AZM and the recently returned Momo Watanabe, who seemingly has fully recovered from the ankle injury she suffered against Mercedes Mone back in March. Momo and AZM have long been enemies, as it was AZM who Momo ultimately turned on when she turned heel in 2021. Since then, exchanges between the two have always felt extra vitriolic and brutal, and this match was no different. After a flurry of moves back and forth, double teams, triple teams, weapon shots and incredibly close nearfalls, Momo managed to put AZM away with her Peach Sunrise.

The action in this match was exceptional throughout. It is still incredible to me how these Stardom multi-man matches are laid out and executed. It is extreme chaos and full speed action at all times, and not once is any part of the puzzle failing to fall into place at the exact right moment. These types of matches are almost a different art in itself and something the STARDOM roster has mastered over the past years. It is breathtaking to watch and so much fun. I implore everyone who loves wrestling to check this one out.

Full Results

Yuna Mizumori defeats Ema Maishima (5:59)

Rian defeats Akira Kurogane (9:29)

God’s Eye (Hina, Kiyoka Kotatsu, Saki Kashima & Tomoka Inaba) defeat FWC (Hazuki & Koguma), Kikyo Furusawa & Yuria Hime (11:58)

Suzu Suzuki defeats Azusa Inaba and Lady C (6:20)

HATE (Natsuko Tora & Ruaka) defeat Empress Nexus Venus (HANAKO & Waka Tsukiyama) (10:11)

Cosmic Angels (Aya Sakura, Natsupoi & Sayaka Kurara) defeat STARS (Hanan, Momo Kohgo & Saya Iida) (13:59)

Sareee defeats Ranna Yagami (9:20)

HATE (Konami, Momo Watanabe, Rina & Saya Kamitani) defeat Neo Genesis (AZM, Mei Seira, Miyu Amasaki & Starlight Kid) (18:58)

Retirement merchandise for Tam Nakano is currently in production and will soon be available on the Stardom online store.

TJPW

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

Spring Tour 2025 In Shinagawa Vol. 2

07/06/25
Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 307
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Shoko Nakajima made her first (or 2nd if you view taped matches as having already occurred) defense of the MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title in Shinagawa. She faced off against usual ally Kaya Toribami in the show’s main event. Toribami was not in a friendly mood in this match, though, as the shot at the title meant she went hard after Nakajima’s left arm, throwing her into the ring post early on and targeting it with a series of offense and submission attempts. Nakajima was able to withstand the onslaught and fight back, following up on a double arm DDT with her diving senton finisher to get the victory.

Nakajima welcomed her tag team partner and fellow Princess Tag Team Title holder, Hyper Misao, to the ring after the finish. Misao has been out with an elbow ligament injury for much of the last month but is set to return to the ring on June 21st. Their reunion was cut short, though, by the arrival of Rika Tatsumi and Miu Watanabe, who tag under the name “Daydream.” The new arrivals to the ring challenged the Tag Team Champions to a title match, which left Misao somewhat confused as she thought the pair had disbanded last summer. Nakajima was unfazed by the dynamic between Rika and Miu and accepted the challenge. The match will take place at “Summer Sun Princess 2025” on July 21st.
Another match now set for the July 21st show is Moka Miyamoto challenging Suzume for the International Princess Title, after Miyamoto pinned Suzume in a 6 man match on this show. Miyamoto is seeking the title, additionally, in order to achieve automatic qualification for this year’s Tokyo Princess Cup. It will be her 3rd attempt at landing the International Princess belt. The 2 additional title matches join Yuki Arai challenging Mizuki for the Princess of Princess Championship, after Arai ended up the sole survivor in the tag elimination match on June 1st.

Full Results

Tokyo Princess Cup 2025 Qualifying Match:
HIMAWARI defeats Mifu Ashida (8:17)

Mahiro Kiryu & Shino Suzuki defeat Chika Nanase & Maki Itoh (9:12)

Haru Kazashiro & Yuki Aino defeat Ren Konatsu & Rika Tatsumi (11:47)

Ober Eats (Wakana Uehara & Yuki Kamifuku), Pom Harajuku & Raku defeat Ivy Steele, Mizuki, Toga & Yoshiko Hasegawa (10:16)

Miu Watanabe, Moka Miyamoto & Yuki Arai defeat Daisy Monkey (Arisu Endo & Suzume) & Jada Stone (11:51)

MLW Women’s World Featherweight Title:
Shoko Nakajima (c) defeats Kaya Toribami (16:53)

Kira Summer and Haruna Neko are both missing time currently due to injury. Kira Summer has a thigh injury and is hoping to be back at the end of June, with her Tokyo Princess Cup qualifying matchup with Wakana Uehara being held off until her return.

Sadly, Haruna Neko’s injury is much more serious, with a torn ACL requiring surgery in the coming weeks. Neko suffered the blow back on May 24th but only learnt the extent of the injury after further medical examinations took place. She will appear at the June 21st event in her hometown before undergoing the knife.

Yuka Sakazaki will return to TJPW for the July 13th show in Dallas, Texas. The former Princess of Princess Champion is joining a single date of the 3 night Texas tour, which also visits the Houston area. Sakazaki joins Miyu Yamashita, Maki Itoh, Yuki Arai, Mizuki, Shoko Nakajima, Hyper Misao, Suzume, Miu Watanabe, Yuki Kamifuku, Raku, Pom Harajuku, Arisu Endo, Moka Miyamoto, and Shino Suzuki in being part of the US Tour.

Also returning to TJPW action will be Max the Impaler, who will head to Tokyo for the July 21st event at Ota City Gymnasium.

Sayuri Namba will have Miu Watanabe, Raku, Pom Harajuku, Yuki Arai and Arisu Endo dressed in gear from across her career as they try their hand at ring announcing on Namba’s special show on June 14th.

Maki Itoh provided the voice for Mika for a single episode of Youtube anime “PUNCH PUNCH FOREVER!”

DDT

Nagoya Fight Fever 2025
01/06/2025
Aichi Chunichi Hall, Aichi, Japan
Watch On Wrestle Universe

DDT held a show in the capital of the Nagoya prefecture, Aichi, on 1st June. The best part about DDT is how they can flip a switch and have great workrate shows. This show was the type of B-level show that has more workrate packed into the 2 hour runtime than comedy, aside from the four way containing all the comedy wrestlers (obviously).

Naomi Yoshimura teamed up with stablemate Yuki Ishida, for only his 3rd DDT match since returning from a 2 year absence.

There was a “Thank You Toru Owashi 20th Anniversary” match, where DDT comedy icons, Antonio Honda, Danshoku Dino, Kazuki Hirata and Toru Owashi competed in a four way. Honda, Dino and Hirata entered the ring first and huddled up, and they said that because it’s a match to “thank Toru Owashi,” they should try to make him feel good. They concocted a plan to get the crowd to chant Owashi’s name and cheer like crazy when Hirata raised his hand. Owashi came out for his entrance and was taken aback by the response but clearly liked it. Owashi saw Hirata raise his hand, and Hirata quickly lowered it. Owashi was suspicious and raised Hirata’s hand up and down and the crowd kept reacting when it went up. Hirata pleaded with them to stop as they were giving the game away. Owashi was very sad when he found out. They repeated this act on the 3rd June show in Ueno Park.

Akito and Yuya Koroku had a tune up singles match against each other ahead of their tag title challenge against the KO-D Tag Team Champions, the Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura), on 7th June. There was a lot of great grappling in this match and no strikes at all. Akito countered a Triangle Lancer attempt and won with a clever pin. Akito said backstage that they wouldn’t do that type of match all the time, but that it’s the type of match that makes DDT unique and so, inspired by MAO in Best of Super Juniors, and Tetsuya Endo in NOAH, he wants to show the outsiders, the Astronauts, his idea of the DDT style.

Off the back of his brutal war with Kazusada Higuchi in the King of DDT final, KANON returned to singles action against Takeshi Masada. KANON kept his shirt on, so there were no chops for him this time. KANON is currently in the middle of a push, so he expectedly tapped out Takeshi Masada.

Minoru Suzuki teamed with KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes against King of DDT winner Kazusada Higuchi and Yukio Nayo to build up the title match at Korakuen Hall on 29th June. It probably should have been Shinya Aoki instead of Yukio Nayo to build up the DDT Universal title match against Suzuki on 13th July, but maybe he was busy. This match was super fun and Suzuki had never looked so happy before. His DDT run this year has been great. While KANON took a break from chops, Higuchi certainly didn’t and had some stiff exchanges with Brookes. Brookes pinned Higuchi after hitting the safest Praying Mantis Bomb you’ll see. Brookes can’t be blamed for being overprotective following the accidental injury to best friend Masahiro Takanashi on 20th March. Suzuki warned Brookes backstage that although they teamed today, he’s always hungry and wants more titles.

The main event was for the KO-D Six Man Tag Team Championship with champions DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & Ilusion) defending against 37KAMIINA (Shunma Katsumata, To-y & Yuki Ueno). The veterans, Sasaki, Ueno and To-y gave way to the younger guys to be highlighted. This match had great action between Okatani and Katsumata. The match ended when DAMNATION T.A. distracted the referee and Ilusion hit a low blow on Ueno to take him out of the match. Katsumata tried to roll up Okatani twice to sneak the win. He failed, and went for a buzzsaw kick for another 2 count. Okatani hit a great running crucifix bomb for a close nearfall. Okatani then delivered the brainbuster in 18:31 for the win. Schadenfreude International (Brookes, Honda & Masada) challenged DAMNATION T.A. after the match, as Honda pinned Ilusion at the King of DDT Finals. The match is set for 5th July.

Full Results

HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano defeat Harimao (Naomi Yoshimura & Yuki Ishida) (8:54)

Antonio Honda defeats Danshoku Dino and Kazuki Hirata & Toru Owashi (6:58)

Akito defeats Yuya Koroku (9:59)

Jun Akiyama & Yuni defeat Daichi Sato & Kazuma Sumi (8:46)

KANON defeats Takeshi Masada (7:56)

Chris Brookes & Minoru Suzuki defeat Kazusada Higuchi & Yukio Naya (13:22)

KO-D Six Man Tag Team Titles:
DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & Ilusion) (c) defeat The 37KAMIINA (Shunma Katsumata, To-y & Yuki Ueno) (18:31)

A Love Letter From Me 2025
07/06/2025
Club eX at Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Wrestle Universe

On 7th June, DDT held another live show with a lot of good action. In the main event, the frontrunner for Best Tag Team of the Year, the Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura) took on Akito & Yuya Koroku. Akito and Koroku brought a grappling-heavy strategy into their tag match against Astronauts, clearly building off the groundwork they had laid in their submission-focused singles tune-up bout on 1st June. The early portion of the match saw Akito and Abe jockey for control on the mat, while Koroku held off against Nomura until the Astronauts began targeting his arm. Abe carried out his signature combos on Koroku, but Koroku retaliated by attempting an armbar on Abe which Nomura frantically broke up. This wasn’t the usual Astronauts match as you could sense some panic as they tried to figure out how to fend off Akito & Koroku’s strategy. Akito & Koroku had known going into the match that they were not going to beat the Astronauts without a plan.

Koroku locked Abe in a Kimura while Akito trapped Nomura in an ankle lock. It looked like a sure tap-out, but Abe managed to reverse the Kimura into a clever pin for the win, narrowly escaping defeat. The match told a great story of one of the best teams, the Astronauts, barely surviving rather than dominating. After the match, Abe had an exchange with Yukio Naya, before he introduced the returning Yuki Iino as his tag partner. Abe mocked Iino’s cross around his neck and slapped Iino in the face before he could finish his catchphrase. Iino ran back to the entrance and said his catchphrase at least six times to taunt Abe. Iino and Naya will challenge the Astronauts on 29th June at Korakuen Hall.

Elsewhere, a press conference was held between KO-D Openweight Champion Chris Brookes and his challenger on 29th June, King of DDT winner Kazusada Higuchi. Both signed the contract and declined to comment further, with no words exchanged between the two. Brookes and Higuchi later had a great action-packed preview tag, each teaming with their own stablemates, Takeshi Masada and Yuki Ishida, respectively. Higuchi pinned the champion with the Brain Claw Slam.

Antonio Honda held his 20th anniversary match against Daisuke Sasaki. Sasaki started the match with his shirt off, signalling business. This match was Honda’s second serious match of 2025, even though Gon the Little Fox made an appearance in the second half of the match, poking Sasaki in the eyes. Honda followed up the Gon promo with an actual suicide dive to a large crowd reaction. The crowd roared Honda on, and fell for the O’Connor roll nearfall on Sasaki. However, shortly after, Sasaki then tapped out Honda.

Kazuki Hirata continued to celebrate Toru Owashi’s 20th anniversary, this time by coming out for matches as several different previous characters, including Rookie Hirata, the masked Hiratimo Dragon, his 2017 gimmick Hirata AT Collection, and then finally his usual self.

Full Results

DAMNATION T.A. (Hideki Okatani, Ilusion & MJ Paul) defeat NWA Jr. (Kazuma Sumi & Shunma Katsumata) & Yukio Naya (6:56)

HARASHIMA & Shinya Aoki defeat Daichi Sato & Soma Takao (10:13)

Toru Owashi defeats Kazuki Hirata (0:36)

Toru Owashi defeats Hiratimo Dragon (0:33)

Hirata Collection AT defeats Toru Owashi (1:12)

The 37KAMIINA (To-y & Yuki Ueno) defeat Strange Love Connection (KANON & MAO) and Danshoku Dino & Jun Akiyama (7:22)

Harimao (Kazusada Higuchi & Yuki Ishida) defeat Schadenfreude International (Chris Brookes & Takeshi Masada) (11:18)

Daisuke Sasaki defeats Antonio Honda (17:19)

KO-D Tag Team Titles:
Astronauts (Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura) (c) defeat Akito & Yuya Koroku (15:11)

DDT News

DDT held a joint show at Korakuen Hall with New Japan Pro Wrestling on 9th June. One of the highlights of the show include the reunion of Tanahashi and HARASHIMA following their previous interaction 10 years ago, when Tanahashi made comments that HARASHIMA and DDT perceived as insulting. Their relationship has become much better in recent years with talent appearing on each others’ shows. Backstage after the show, Tanahashi said that he was very happy he could have that moment before his retirement, and felt remorse over the comments he made in 2015. Tanahashi added that he feels he has grown during his time as a president. This show effectively buried the hatchet between the two companies and reset the relationship. A lot of this show was also about making YOH a “star”, with several segments discussing how to make him a star, and taking the win in two separate matches, including one over DDT founder Sanshiro Takagi. YOH said that he feels he has become a bit of a star in his 13th year of wrestling. Takagi said that he returned to the ring just to help NJPW and DDT’s relationship improve, but he will be only doing light exercise on doctor’s orders. He aims to return before the end of the year.

Daisuke Sasaki’s produce show, “CHARISMANIA”, returns for its second installment on 18th June. The main event will be Daisuke Sasaki versus the “Wrestling Master” Dick Togo. Other members of DAMNATION T.A. will be on the show.

Poison Sawada JULIE will be unveiling a new DDT Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship belt on June 29th in Korakuen Hall, on the anniversary of its creation 25 years ago. The title is DDT’s version of a “24/7” championship. Poison Sawada JULIE won the title by pinning the decapitated head of loveable mascot Pokotan on 31st May.

Kaisei Takechi, part of J-pop group “THE RAMPAGE” held a press conference on June 5th discussing his upcoming DDT activities. It was announced that he has officially joined the DDT roster. Takechi has made 3 appearances in DDT, at the Korakuen Hall shows in February and September 2024, and a Shinjuku FACE appearance in October 2024. In terms of ability, he showcased one of the better “celebrity” performances seen, so this is a very exciting prospect for DDT going forward given his popularity. His first match as a member of the roster will involve him teaming up with 37KAMIINA (Shunma Katsumata & Yuki Ueno) versus DAMNATION T.A. (Daisuke Sasaki, Hideki Okatani & MJ Paul) on July 13th.

Kosei Fujita will appear in DDT on the same show on 13th July, teaming with friend Takeshi Masada against To-y and Yuya Koroku. With Fujita, Takechi and Jpop group S/TEAM BLOOD’s Haruto Sakuraba making appearances, the 13th July Korakuen Hall show is lining up to be one of the most anticipated DDT Korakuen shows of the year.

Emi Sakura has set up a fundraiser for Masahiro Takanashi. Takanashi was injured on 20th March in a title match with best friend Chris Brookes. He suffered a cervical spinal cord injury and C5 and C6 cervical vertebrae fractures. DDT announced they were opening an online store for his personal merchandise in conjunction with Sakura’s promotion, ChocoPro. DDT provided an update on Takanashi stating that he is currently undergoing treatment and has successfully completed surgery aimed at repairing his damaged cervical spinal cord. He will be transferred to a hospital specialising in rehabilitation.

AJPW

All Japan Pro Wrestling

Super Power Series 2025

01/06/2025
Company Announced Attendance: 2,259
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, Japan
Watch On ajpw.tv

AJPW held a big show in Sendai headlined by hometown twins Jun and Rei Saito, as Rei, fresh off winning the Champion Carnival, challenged Jun for the Triple Crown Championship in the main event. All Japan last ran this building in 2024 with Rei Saito challenging Yuma Anzai for the Triple Crown in the main event. They drew 1,503 for that show. The announced attendance for this show was 2,259. The last time a show by any promotion drew larger in this building was New Japan Pro Wrestling on 30th January 2019 with an attendance of 2,345. It was the biggest crowd in Sendai for All Japan since the Real World Tag League on 2nd December 2003. By all accounts, this was a very successful show for All Japan. In terms of match quality, it was good, but nothing outstanding.

In the main event of the Battle of the Brothers, Jun retained by pinning Rei with Dying Light in 23:07. This was a solid match with good intensity, though it was not a match you’ll remember in a few months. Rei and Jun opened with shoulder tackles testing each other’s strength before the match quickly spilled outside, where both men used fans’ Saito Brothers towels to choke each other. Back in the ring, Rei controlled the pace with chops and a superplex, but Jun kept fighting back, landing a big boot and a spear.

Momentum swung back and forth in the closing stretch. Rei hit the BBQ Bomb for a very close near fall that caught the crowd. Jun answered with a brainbuster and Dying Light. Jun blocked Rei’s Eisbein with a second Dying Light to score the win. Hideki Suzuki came out after the match to announce he is the next challenger for the Triple Crown Championship.

There were two other title matches on this card, one of which was for the World Junior Heavyweight Championship where new champion Seiki Yoshioka successfully defended against Dan Tamura, with a Buzzsaw Kick in 15:37. This was a really good match in a vacuum, although just like Yoshioka’s match against MUSASHI two weeks ago, it suffered from a lack of heat. Yoshioka called out Naruki Doi in backstage comments.

The team of main-eventers, Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi defended their World Tag Team Championship against new tag team, Havoc (Shotaro Ashino & XYON). XYON, the former Xyon Quinn in WWE, is coming off a Champion Carnival performance that was above expectations, albeit still just “fine” with no standout matches. That same theme followed here, as XYON did not look out of place and put in a fine performance. If you wrote down what you thought the finish to this match would be before the match, you’d be right. Miyahara pinned XYON with the Shutdown Suplex Hold in 21:52. This match was good but perhaps flew past its peak and went too long. It started off quite hot and frantic and slowed down dramatically in the middle third.

In other news on the card, Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) unveiled a new member, Talos, when taking on ELPIDA (Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai). Talos is a US-based wrestler working in NWA. He was signed to WWE in 2020 and released in 2021. He’s bigger than Ayabe, so presumably they are giving Ayabe someone meaningful to beat to help get him over. It is admirable that they keep trying. Japan loves their big wrestlers, as seen with Omos’ brief excursion to NOAH. When Talos tagged in, he cleaned house and then had a striking exchange with Ayabe where Ayabe’s forearms actually looked worse than Talos’. He pinned Ayabe with a chokeslam in 15:24.

Full Results

Hideki Suzuki defeats Takashi (11:48)

Davey Boy Smith Jr. & Kuroshio TOKYO Japan defeat Aizawa NO. 1 & Jack Kennedy (9:27)

Atsuki Aoyagi, Fuminori Abe & Seigo Tachibana defeat MUSASHI, Rising HAYATO & Ryo Inoue (12:26)

Hokuto-gun (Hokuto Omori & Kuma Arashi) & Talos defeat ELPIDA (Ren Ayabe, Ryuki Honda & Yuma Anzai) (15:24)

AJPW World Junior Heavyweight Title:
Seiki Yoshioka (c) defeats Dan Tamura (15:37)

AJPW World Tag Team Titles:
Business Tag Team (Kento Miyahara & Yuma Aoyagi) (c) defeat Shotaro Ashino & Xyon (21:52)

Triple Crown Title: Jun Saito (c) defeats Rei Saito (23:07)

AJPW News

The next show is on 14th June in Gifu where there will be a Hokuto-gun civil war, as current AJPW TV Six Man Tag Team Champions Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Takashi defend against newcomer Talos, Jack Kennedy and Aizawa NO. 1. Additionally, there will be some preview tag matches when ELPIDA (Rising HAYATO, Yuma Anzai, Ryuki Honda & Ren Ayabe) take on Atsuki Aoyagi, Kento Miyahara, Davey Boy Smith Jr. & MUSASHI and in the main event the Saito Brothers & Naruki Doi will face Hideki Suzuki, Yuma Aoyagi and Seiki Yoshioka.

AJPW are in KBS Hall, Kyoto, on 15th June, where the All Asia Tag Team championships will be on the line as ELPIDA (Rising HAYATO & Yuma Anzai) defend against the brother duo of Atsuki & Yuma Aoyagi. Yuko Miyamoto will defend his GAORA TV Championship against Takashi, where if Takashi wins, he will defend it in Dragongate at Kobe World on 13th July.

Madoka Kikuta, of Dragongate, showed up backstage on the Sendai 1st June show, reminding Aoyagi that he beat him in Korakuen Hall in the Champion Carnival, and so he should get a tag title shot. Miyahara and Aoyagi mull it over before accepting for 18th June in Korakuen Hall. Kikuta’s partner will be Z-Brats stablemate, KAI. Additionally, Jun Saito will defend the Triple Crown against Hideki Suzuki, and Seiki Yoshioka will defend his World Junior Heavyweight Championship against Naruki Doi.

AJPW will be at Shin-Kiba 1st RING on 24th June for the show where only Baka No Jidai and Hokuto-gun members can participate. The main event will see Hokuto Omori versus Yuma Aoyagi in singles action.

AJPW returns to Miyagi on 13th October with a show in Kakuda, the hometown of the Saito Brothers. As with the 1st June show, expect one or both of the Saito brothers in the main event.

AJPW announced that rookie Taishin Nagao was hit by a bus on 31st May. He was immediately transferred to hospital and remains there in order to undergo further treatment. The 21 year old made his ring debut in October 2024 and has been training with the company since December 2023.

Dragongate

Rainbow Gate 2025

04/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 1,186
Watch On: dragongate.live

Dragongate kicked off the run to their biggest show of the year in style. This was the first of back-to-back nights at Korakuen Hall and it set the tone for an exciting Kobe World season, which will be held on 13th July. If anyone has been on the fence about trying out Dragongate, this show is an excellent starting point. English commentary in particular was exemplary for onboarding new viewers and making the product accessible.

Much of the show centred around the heel stable Z-Brats establishing their dominance as they destroyed PARADOX in the undercard, won the Open The Triangle Gate Championship from Natural Vibes and retained the Open The Twin Gate Championship. It didn’t stop there, as after obliterating PARADOX, the charismatic Z-Brats leader, Shun Skywalker, left his mark on the show by challenging YAMATO for his Open The Dream Gate Championship at “Kobe World”.

The focal point of all major Dragongate storylines, psychopath Shun Skywalker, made his return to the Open The Dream Gate title picture, despite having dismissed the title entirely back in January when he beat current champion YAMATO. Without even looking at YAMATO, Shun made his declaration that he would challenge, but not because he wants the title; he still doesn’t care about that. Shun said it best himself, he is a being who is on a level so much higher than the Dream Gate title. Instead, he wants to erase any illusion that YAMATO is anywhere near his level. He wants to establish himself at the top of the mountain with no contention. He went one step further to display his confidence in beating YAMATO. Shun added that if he loses, if by some chance a “natural disaster occurs”, he’ll leave Dragongate altogether. GM Ryo Saito was on his way to the ring to speak with Korakuen Hall in a shocked silence of sorts. The GM warned Shun to be careful what he wished for and then made it official.

The arrogant Shun finally turned to look at YAMATO as he spoke. YAMATO mentioned how embarrassed he was to lose to Shun in January, but that he didn’t offer a title challenge to Shun as Shun wouldn’t have accepted anyway. YAMATO claimed that he is the current standard bearer, the best in Dragongate and that’s why he holds the title, but whoever beats him is the one meant to carry Dragongate forward, and Shun isn’t that person.

As YAMATO himself acknowledged after that explosive segment, you wouldn’t be blamed for forgetting that he had just put on a Match of the Year contender with Masaaki Mochizuki. In the main event, YAMATO survived the legendary Mochizuki by the skin of his teeth. It was a gripping, hard-hitting title match that saw Mochizuki, now 55 years old, push YAMATO to his limit in what may be one of Mochizuki’s final Dream Gate challenges. Overarching this match was the generational dynamic. Mochizuki first held the title in 2004, when YAMATO had yet to debut in Dragongate. YAMATO, 43, now leads his own stable of veterans, PARADOX. After the main event, YAMATO even remarked that he would not be surprised if in 5 years Mochizuki is champion at 60 years old defending against YAMATO.

Mochizuki started aggressively, hitting YAMATO with his trademark kicks. YAMATO eventually slowed the pace, catching one of the kicks and transitioning it into a leg lock. This was the beginning of YAMATO targeting Mochizuki’s leg. Mochizuki fired back with a barrage of offense, including two Twisters and a devastating Reverse Twister. The crowd roared when Mochizuki almost put YAMATO away with his patented kick combo. The match launched into top gear when Mochizuki kicked out at 1 and began a stiff slap exchange. Mochizuki finished that exchange with one of the hardest slaps Korakuen Hall has heard.

The finishing stretch was incredible. After reversing each other’s inverted driver attempts, Mochizuki nearly put YAMATO out with a rear naked choke, but YAMATO clawed at the injured leg to escape, in one of the rare examples of limb targeting done correctly. Realizing that he couldn’t outlast Mochizuki in a striking battle, YAMATO dragged him into the centre of the ring and locked in a deep cloverleaf. When Mochizuki refused to quit, in a great callback, YAMATO transitioned to the brutal single-leg crab that won him his Open The Brave Gate defence in Korakuen Hall against Mochizuki Dojo member, Daiki Yanagiuchi. It was in that defence that Mochizuki threw in the towel to protect young Yanagiuchi. There was no other way to end this incredible match than for Yanagiuchi to throw in the towel to protect his mentor. YAMATO retains, but only just.

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The Triangle Gate title match was a heat-heavy match with Z-Brats (Homare, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato) overwhelming Natural Vibes (Flamita, Kzy & Strong Machine J) for most of the bout. Natural Vibes fought from underneath for most of the match, and when they rallied, they were constantly cut off by Z-Brats. This match also served to highlight Homare’s almost undeniable case for best rookie in the world today. Homare, just nine months into his career, stood out with his amazing superkicks and great heel instincts, including cutting off Flamita’s handspring, choking SMJ with his shirt, and going after his mask. ISHIN also had some standout moments including a scary looking avalanche brainbuster. After Flamita’s mask was ripped off and the referee was taken out, Homare capitalised with a chair shot to SMJ’s head and landed the Fire Bird Splash for the win. Post-match, Kikuta mocked Strong Machine J for losing to a 20-year-old rookie, questioning whether he belongs in Dragongate at all.

Z-Brats (Jason Lee and Kota Minoura) retained the Twin Gate titles against Naruki Doi and Dragon Kid. The match started slow but ramped up fast, with Dragon Kid’s springboard frankensteiner turning the tide. Minoura’s Golden Rose on Dragon Kid sealed the win after a frantic back-and-forth.

U-T and Mochizuki Jr. delivered a strong Brave Gate match earlier in the night, with Jr. trying to claim the title his father never won. Despite a spirited effort and some kick combinations reminiscent of his father, U-T made him tap to the Perfecto. The crowd gave hometown hero Jr. strong support throughout. Despite both losing in their title matches, it will be a memorable night for the Mochizukis.

Elsewhere, Takashi voiced frustration over his lack of opportunities in Dragongate compared to his “great” run in All Japan. The GM reminded him he only got 1 win in the Champion Carnival, but that he’ll give Takashi the opportunity to defend the GAORA TV Championship at “Kobe World”, if he can capture it from Yuko Miyamoto in AJPW on 15th June.

In the opener, Gold Class (Ben-K, Hyo, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) came out for potentially the last time as Gold Class and delivered an athletic showcase, and win, against Luis Mante & D’Courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka). On the Korakuen Hall show the day after, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita take on Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr., where if Ben-K & Jr. win, they will become Love & Peace, otherwise they stay as Gold Class.

There was a brief injury scare in the PARADOX versus Z-Brats trios match when Shun Skywalker delivered an SSW to Kagetora and the referee stopped counting at 2. The referee checked on Kagetora, who laid motionless before calling the match. Kagetora was carried out of the arena by the seconds outside the ring. Kagetora later tweeted that he was fine and landed correctly. He was also out at ringside for the Twin Gate title match later in the night, so it appears the referee might have just made a mistake and got swindled by Kagetora’s selling, as he was on subsequent house shows later that week.

Full Results

D’courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka, Yuki Yoshioka) & Luis Mante defeat GOLD CLASS (Ben-K, Hyo, JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) (7:26)

Bendito, Don Fujii, Gurukun Mask & Ultimo Dragon defeat Daiki Yanagiuchi, Mondai Ryu, Punch Tominaga & Toru Owashi (9:27)

Z-Brats (KAI, Madoka Kikuta & Shun Skywalker) defeat PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Kagetora & Susumu Yokosuka) by referee’s decision (3:42)

Open The Brave Gate Title:
U-T (c) defeats Mochizuki Jr. (11:35)

Open The Triangle Gate Title:
Z-Brats (Homare, ISHIN & Yoshiki Kato) defeat Natural Vibes (Flamita, Kzy & Strong Machine J) (c) (17:56)

Open The Twin Gate Title:
Z-Brats (Jason Lee & Kota Minoura) (c) defeat Not Hug (Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi) (14:18)

Open The Dream Gate Title:
YAMATO (c) defeats Masaaki Mochizuki (22:31)

Rainbow Gate 2025

05/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On dragongate.live

While the follow-up to the previous night’s show lacked major stakes, it still moved several key stories forward. With no titles on the line, the card gave space for angles and shifting dynamics across multiple units.

The night opened with a continuation of the tension between Strong Machine J and the Z-Brats. In six-man action, Strong Machine J couldn’t hold back his frustration after Z-Brats’ Madoka Kikuta humiliated him the night before, and he hit Kato over the head with a chair post-match before needing to be restrained by his teammates. He declared that he’s done with Kato and now has Kikuta in his sights, vowing to take down all of Z-Brats with him.

The main event saw D’Courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka) reunite for the first time since “Dead or Alive”, taking on Z-Brats (Madoka Kikuta, Kota Minoura, & Homare). Strong Machine J ambushed Kikuta during his entrance, setting the tone for the intense main event. Ryoya Tanaka impressed early with a clean dive to the outside, as D’Courage briefly gained the upper hand and isolated Kikuta. But the tide turned when Homare pulled Yoshioka out of the ring and brawled with him in the crowd. Z-Brats controlled the pace from there, dishing out a prolonged beatdown that included strangling Dragon Dia with a shirt and cutting off his comeback spots, which only fired up the crowd in his favour.

The closing stretch was great. Dragon Dia sparked a turnaround with an Astro Scissors on Minoura, followed by Tanaka trading stiff chops with Homare, two wrestlers with less than three years of experience between them working as if they were vets. After a barrage of offense including Dia’s DDT, Tanaka’s handspring cutter, and Yoshioka’s Battle Hook for a near fall, Z-Brats responded with a sharp Homare superkick on Yoshioka into a wheelbarrow German suplex from Minoura. Yoshioka refused to stay down, shrugging off Kikuta’s first hip attack, but a second followed by a brutal lariat set up the Burning Lariat finish. The crowd reached their loudest point during Yoshioka’s final stand, but it was Kikuta who walked away with the win in a match that kept D’Courage firmly cast as the underdogs chasing redemption.

The post-match angle pointed towards Kikuta taking out each of the remaining Reiwa Six that he anointed, one by one. The only members of the Reiwa Six not in the same Z-Brats stable as Kikuta are Ben-K, Yoshioka and Strong Machine J. Kikuta mocked Yoshioka and Strong Machine J as “failed” future stars of Dragongate, stepping over D’Courage, literally, on his way out. GM Ryo Saito entered to encourage the group, reminding Yoshioka that his comeback from his 1-year absence would take time. He announced a “Kobe World” match: Dia and Yoshioka will team with Dragon Kid and a mystery partner, someone Saito promises will reignite Yoshioka’s fire. Yoshioka closed the show with a determined promo, acknowledging how far he’s fallen since “Dead or Alive”, but vowing to rise again. Yoshioka is positioned well for a strong second half of 2025 with an obvious collision with Kikuta again down the line.

Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr. faced JACKY KAMEI & Riiita for the right to name the faction “Gold Class” or “Love and Peace”. Mochizuki Jr. respectfully kicked Ben-K in the face with Riiita to hand the “Gold Class” duo the win so that they would remain “Gold Class”. Kota Minoura then came out to declare that Gold Class was created for him, so he’ll only allow it if Riiita goes forward as “Miniiita” going forward. Riiita replied that he’d rather be in “Love and Peace” than be called “Miiinita” ever, and declared they would be “Love and Peace” going forward. Ben-K was ecstatic and told the audience that if they don’t give up, they too can have their dreams come true! Ben-K declared they’d be coming for Minoura’s Twin Gate titles. Ben-K anointed Hyo the new leader, while mentioning he’d stay the “boss”. Their new music played them out.

In trios action, the Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane) from NOAH impressed again, but the match was cut short by a scary injury to Dragon Bane, whose head appeared to bounce off the mat attempting a Frankensteiner counter to Flamita’s Tiger Driver. The match was stopped immediately, and Dragon Bane was stretchered out. Dragon Bane later tweeted that he suffered a severe concussion.

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El Desperado teamed with Dragon Kid in a fun tag match against ISHIN & Shun Skywalker. Starlight Kid was also at ringside with a special half-and-half mask. Dragon Kid hit a great top-rope frankensteiner on Shun, followed by the Ultra Hurricanrana on ISHIN for the win. Afterward, Dragon Kid thanked Starlight Kid. She teased the possibility of a trios match in the future.

Over two nights at Korakuen Hall, Dragongate laid the groundwork for their biggest show of the year, “Kobe World”. The shows were rich in story progression, unit drama, the continuing rise of their young stars, with a Match of the Year candidate involving a 55-year-old to boot. Z-Brats continue to assert dominance, while perennial protagonists of the last few years, D’Courage, find themselves at their lowest point. With big matches set and clear storyline directions laid out, the road to “Kobe World” feels well underway.

Full Results

Z-Brats (Jason Lee, KAI & Yoshiki Kato) defeat Natural Vibes (Kzy, Strong Machine J & U-T) by DQ (8:03)

Takashi defeats Hyo and Punch Tominaga (4:18)

PARADOX (BxB Hulk, Kagetora, Naruki Doi, Susumu Yokosuka & YAMATO) defeat Mochizuki Dojo (Daiki Yanagiuchi, Masaaki Mochizuki & Ryu Fuda), Don Fujii & Toru Owashi (8:24)

Tag Team Match (Special Referee: Hyo):
GOLD CLASS (JACKY KAMEI & Riiita) defeat GOLD CLASS (Ben-K & Mochizuki Jr.) (11:10)

Flamita, Luis Mante & Ultimo Dragon defeat Los Golpeadores (Alpha Wolf & Dragon Bane) & Bendito by referee’s decision (13:14)

Dragon Kid & El Desperado defeat Z-Brats (ISHIN & Shun Skywalker) (15:52)

Z-Brats (Homare, Kota Minoura & Madoka Kikuta) defeat D’courage (Dragon Dia, Ryoya Tanaka & Yuki Yoshioka) (18:36)

Dragongate News

Flamita picked up an injury on the 28th May show. Dragongate announced that it was a minor injury.

Madoka Kikuta and KAI will be taking on Kento Miyahara and Yuma Aoyagi for their AJPW World Tag Team Championship on June 18th at Korakuen Hall.

Dragongate will be back in Korakuen Hall on July 3rd, 10 days before “Kobe World”.

Marigold

Dream Star Fighting Marigold

News

Mayu Iwatani retained her Superfly Championship on June 5th, defeating Misa Matsui in the main event of Night 3 of the “Burning Desire” Tour. This was her 1st defense of the title. Iwatani relayed her desire to be part of the next Marigold vs Marvelous Korakuen Hall event in comments after the match. Chanyota and Mai Sakurai will challenge Magenta for the Twin Star Championships on the June 17th show as well.

MIRAI will be part of the Strong Style Pro-Wrestling Korakuen Hall show on June 12th, wrestling Soy from Pro Wrestling Evolution. The show is a memorial to Hisashi Shinma, who passed away in April.

Marigold’s Dream Star Grand Prix is confirmed for the summer. The tournament will begin on August 2nd in Osaka and run until September 14th for the finals at Korakuen Hall.

Japanese Indies

Marvelous Pro Wrestling

Hokkaido Day 1

31/05/2025
Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

Marvelous ran their annual two-day Hokkaido tour in Sapporo on 31st May and 1st June. In addition to the regular cast, the shows featured the same US wrestlers on the previous show, two Hokkaido-based wrestlers (Noriyuki Yoshida & Ryuto), and also some of the most prominent Japanese freelancers (Yuu & VENY). It was a breezy card with only 4 matches of a decent quality, but not outstanding. It is difficult to justify the cost of this show as a PPV on Zaiko, so it remains to be seen what the upload schedule is like for Wrestle Universe. For a more in-depth look at current storylines and roster members, please see our Marvelous article in issue 5 of the newsletter.

The show opened up with Yoshida & Ryuto versus the American duo Robert Martyr & Titus Alexander. This match was the Alexander show. Alexander got into a chop battle with Yoshida and sold it well. It’s rare to see chops be sold 10 minutes after they happen. There was a great spot where Yoshida inadvertently Irish whipped Alexander through the middle ropes for a dive on Ryuto, which popped the notoriously reserved Sapporo crowd. Alexander’s work in NOAH and Marvelous during his current excursion has been very enjoyable to watch.

Next up was Ai Houzan & Takumi Iroha versus Maria & Riko Kawahata. There were some really stiff slaps and forearms between Iroha and Kawahata. Evil Magenta won by burying Houzan under chairs outside the ring, leading to a countout. The new Magenta act has really yet to hit second gear.

Mio Momono came out and did a promo. It’s really important for Marvelous that she comes back at 100%. She indicated she has much better strength in her arms and demonstrated some back bumps.

Darling of the Japanese independent scene, VENY took on “Fancy” Ryan Clancy. Clancy struggled getting up the ropes and VENY sarcastically clapped to encourage him while waiting for him. VENY did a moonsault to the outside, so Clancy started working the leg. It was fun to see VENY play the underdog babyface for once. VENY superkicked the saliva out of Clancy’s mouth, which was gross and great at the same time. Clancy pushed the referee after he spotted Clancy using the ropes on a pin. VENY took advantage, low blowing Clancy and rolling him up.

In the main event we had West Coast Pro Women’s Champion Johnnie Robbie, Amira & Sadie Gibbs take on the team of Senka Akatsuki, Sora Ayame & Yuu. Yuu, with her Team 200kg tag partner, Sendai Girls World Champion Chihiro Hashimoto, has faced Amira and Gibbs in Sendai Girls in recent weeks. Yuu performed her usual spots, such as the double sidewalk slam and rolling underneath the bottom rope, squashing the opponents on the outside. Robbie understood the assignment here and beat up Ayame and Akatsuki to build heat for their comebacks. However, Robbie pinned Akatsuki with double knees to the back of Akatsuki’s head, which caused some gasps in the crowd. The finish looked brutal.

Robbie took the mic and said that she beat Akatsuki, “the best rookie around”. So at least they know it. Akatsuki asked for an opportunity for revenge on the next day’s show. Robbie pushed Senka and ran away laughing.

Full Results

Noriyuki Yoshida & Ryuto defeat Robert Martyr & Titus Alexander (16:27)

Magenta (Maria & Riko Kawahata) defeat Ai Houzan & Takumi Iroha by Count Out (13:58)

VENY defeats Ryan Clancy (11:08)

Amira, Johnnie Robbie & Sadie Gibbs defeat Senka Akatsuki, Sora Ayame & Yuu (13:59)

Hokkaido Day 2

01/06/2025
Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

The next day of the Hokkaido tour had 5 matches on the card. The show was another easy watch, but as with Hokkaido Day 1, it is difficult to justify the cost of it as a PPV on Zaiko.

It was another main event for super rookie Senka Akatsuki as she teamed with Takumi Iroha up against West Coast Pro Women’s Champion Johnnie Robbie & VENY. VENY last matched up against Akatsuki in the Tag Team Tournament on 5th May. It seems as though babyface VENY was a one-night thing, as she was back to her usual “Las Fresa de Egoistas”-self. This main event was the best match across both nights. Both veterans, Iroha & VENY, laid it in that night. Akatsuki had a great hot tag. Robbie is a good worker and fits in Marvelous like a glove. Somewhat surprisingly, Akatsuki picked up the win with her lateral press pin on Robbie.

Akatsuki challenged Robbie for the West Coast Pro Women’s Championship. Nagayo said she’d call Scott (promoter of West Coast Pro Wrestling) to set it up, Robbie said “maybe” and then stormed off.

In the opener, it was Yuu’s turn to do the rookie versus veteran match layout against Marvelous’ other rookie, Sora Ayame. In Ayame’s last rookie/veteran matchup, she was absolutely destroyed by Takumi Iroha last month. Ayame took some equally brutal chops in this match. Yuu crushed Ayame’s face with a cannonball for the win. Senka Akatsuki is rubbing off on Ayame, as Ayame attempted to keep beating up Yuu after the bell. Yuu returned the favour with another massive chop.

Full Results

Yuu defeats Sora Ayame (8:50)

Amira defeats Ai Houzan and Sadie Gibbs (7:02)

Two On One Handicap Match:
Magenta (Maria & Riko Kawahata) defeat Noriyuki Yoshida (11:19)

Ryuto & Titus Alexander defeat Robert Martyr & Ryan Clancy (13:01)

Senka Akatsuki & Takumi Iroha defeat Johnnie Robbie & VENY (13:25)

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First Impact

10/06/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

Marvelous held their first ever all-men’s card on 10th June that was advertised with the only man on their roster, Leo Isaka. However, Isaka was injured on a 2AW show on 6th May, so instead, this show turned out to consist of several freelancers and the US wrestlers currently on tour with Marvelous: Robert Martyr, Ryan Clancy and Titus Alexander. This card was mostly just filling time, although the main event was good. During intermission, promoter Chigusa Nagayo pitched her version of NOAH’s “Monday Magic” as a Marvelous show. It is clear Nagayo still has some work to do in figuring out an all-men’s card.

In the first match, Tochigi Pro Wrestling’s Takumi Baba beat Robert Martyr, in a match that had good moves but lacked urgency. Kuroshio TOKYO Japan took on Yosuke Santa Maria in a “match” centered around Kuroshio’s repeated 5 minute entrances, including two restarts initiated by Chigusa Nagayo. In the first two matches, Maria pinned Ikeman with her rear. They attempted to have a serious 3rd match, but the good will had already been sapped. This match is only enjoyable if you enjoy Kuroshio’s entrance music.

In the main event, Japanese independent legend Masato Tanaka controlled most of the match against Titus Alexander, who displayed good selling in this match. Alexander had some notable comeback moments, including a standing shooting star press and handspring back elbow, but he took a clothesline with a scary bump on the apron. Tanaka survived Alexander’s Big Ugly finisher, then secured the win with a lariat, brainbuster, and finishing Sliding D elbow.

Isaka was ringside in a wheelchair doing commentary for the show. After the show ended, Isaka walked to the ring with crutches and mentioned that he had surgery but really wants to wrestle again after seeing the main event.

Full Results

Takumi Baba defeats Ryan Clancy (11:17)

Yosuke Santa Maria defeats Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (1:30)

Yosuke Santa Maria defeats Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (1:13)

Yosuke Santa Maria defeats Kuroshio TOKYO Japan (5:44)

Kohei Sato defeats Robert Martyr and Shoji Ono (6:58)

Masato Tanaka defeats Titus Alexander (18:20)

Marvelous News

The Marigold-Marvelous interpromotional rivalry continues at Marigold’s next Korakuen Hall show on 17th June. Akatsuki looks set to continue the beginning of a career-long rivalry with Marigold contemporary Seri Yamaoka, as she teams with Takumi Iroha and Sora Ayame in an all-star trios match against Marigold’s World Champion Utami Hayashishita, their Superfly Champion Mayu Iwatani and Yamaoka. Marigold held a press conference on 6th June. As Yamaoka was talking, Akatsuki stripped down to her in-ring gear ready to fight Yamaoka then and there. Iwatani and Hayashishita began corpsing. Akatsuki then decided to rip off Yamaoka’s sweater as well before posing with bare feet.

Marvelous’ upcoming shows on the road to their anniversary on 8th August at Korakuen Hall are: 21st June in Kariya, 27th June and 13th July at Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, 20th July in Tochigi before returning to Shin-Kiba 1st RING on 30th July.

Shin-Kiba Series 2025 Vol. 3

30/05/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On seadlinnng.com

SEAdLINNNG held the 3rd installment in 2025 of their Shin-Kiba Series at “Shin-Kiba 1st RING” on 30th May. Thankfully, they seemed to have fixed the issues with their live shows having desynced audio. This was a really enjoyable show with one of the best post main event promos in a while from the Las Fresa de Egoistas duo, Makoto and VENY. It was the type of promo that rewards you as a fan for investing in a wrestler’s journey. In the main event, VENY successfully defended her Beyond The Sea Championship against Honori Hana in a gruelling, not-for-the-weak, stiff matchup: the type of matches VENY does best.

SEAdLINNNG have not had much luck with their rookies. Their last outstanding rookie, Riko Kaiju, announced a sudden indefinite hiatus in 2023. Hana herself had a prolonged absence following the pandemic, only recently returning. With Arisa Nakajima, their former ace, retiring in August 2024, SEAdLINNNG are really trying to make it work and build some stars while VENY holds the fort down and draws the crowd. Hana challenged VENY after losing a six-man tag on 1st May. VENY accepted, seeing a glimpse of SEAdLINNNG’s future in Hana and wanting to test her mettle. That’s exactly what VENY did.

After rocking Hana with an elbow, VENY took it to the outside and slapped Hana hard in the face. VENY then threw Hana into the chairs. Hana backdropped VENY onto the floor and ran into the ring. The countout began and Hana defended the ring. The count got to 19 and VENY barely made it in. VENY looked insulted and incredulous that Hana would even try that. Hana tried to work VENY’s leg, including headbutting it. She psyched herself up on the turnbuckle and headbutted it, and then gave VENY a disgusting, sickening, loud headbutt. You hate to see it, but they made it part of the story, since VENY accepted this challenge because of a headbutt in a previous match doing more damage than she anticipated. VENY tried to go for a moonsault but she fell off the turnbuckle selling exhaustion from the headbutt. There were some stiff exchanges, but ultimately, VENY hit the moonsault for the pin. Hana is clearly crying after the match, and you can see a hematoma on VENY’s forehead. A good, intense display from Hana, but not quite star-making. VENY says that she felt that Hana really wanted the belt just by the chops she gave. VENY thanked Hana for fighting with everything she had.

VENY’s stablemate, Makoto, comes out to the ring. Despite performing in SEAdLINNNG for 7 years, Makoto has never challenged for the title. Makoto said that the reason is because she never had the confidence to do so, because to compete for a singles title in SEAdLINNNG is a very high bar to reach, and she gave in to her mediocrity and just accepted it. Makoto says she has come to realise that she can’t run away from it forever. Makoto says that it’s obvious that VENY is the best tag team partner she’s ever had, but when people ask who VENY’s best ever tag team partner is, the answer is rarely Makoto. Makoto wants to change that. Makoto feels that the best way to change that is to take the title away from VENY. There’s a pause while Makoto’s words sink in. Makoto has immediately built up sympathy for her title challenge in one promo. VENY, as a true best friend does, says that she hates Makoto’s lack of confidence. VENY reiterates that Makoto is on her level, but if Makoto doesn’t believe that, VENY will give her that confidence by accepting the challenge.

In Japanese wrestling, you often only need one great post-match promo after a champion defends in the main event to build the next match, and Makoto and VENY nailed it here. This promo was one of the highlights in SEAdLINNNG so far this year. It wasn’t just about setting up the next match, it carried real emotion and gave the title challenge a sense of purpose. Makoto was in tears talking about her lack of confidence. Arisa Nakajima was also ringside in tears. VENY will give Makoto the confidence she’s looking for at Shinjuku FACE on 17th June.

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Elsewhere on the show, Mio Shirai pinned Natsu Sumire after landing several Buzzsaw Kicks. Sumire’s current gimmick is highly sexualised. She grinded on Shirai’s face multiple times. The set up for this match was on 15th April, after Shirai interrupted Sumire being unmasked following her mask versus mask loss. Shirai, IYO SKY’s sister, announced her return and desire to compete in SEAdLINNNG as a freelancer. Shirai took a five year break in 2015 and returned to Ice Ribbon, working there up until early 2025 when she started picking up work in other companies such as WAVE and now SEAdLINNNG. Sumire, after the match, said that Shirai had passed her assessment. Shirai will now wrestle as a regular in SEAdLINNNG.

Stardom’s Konami made another rare indie appearance, facing SEAdLINNNG’s rookie, Miria Koga. The crowd really got behind Koga in this match. Konami’s H.A.T.E. faction members were ringside, and Rina pulled Koga out of the ring. It was a typical rookie versus veteran match layout. Konami laughed off Koga’s forearm comebacks. Koga hit a scary looking German suplex into a bicycle kick and another German suplex, which looked great. Koga got caught with a Buzzsaw Kick and a German suplex, but Koga kicked out. Konami then tapped Koga out with an armbar. Konami attacked Koga after the match before storming away.

SEAdLINNNG head honcho Natsuki Taiyo wrestled an exhibition match with a new trainee, Seina, who will now debut against Stardom’s Koguma on June 17th. Koguma debuted in 2013 against Taiyo in Stardom. Seina said she’ll give it everything she’s got.

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The Beyond The Sea Tag Team Champions Ayame Sasamura and Itsuki Aoki faced Las Fresa de Egoistas duo Makoto & Nagisa Nozaki, as well as 17 year old newcomer from Denmark, Madison Marley. This match was mainly between Matsumoto and Makoto. Marley is clearly quite green but looked good in the spots she was highlighted in. After the match, Marley rejected Makoto and Nozaki’s invitation to join Las Fresa de Egoistas and walked off with the tag champions, Sasamura and Aoki. Makoto and Nozaki did not look happy.

Full Results

Mio Shirai defeats Natsu Sumire (7:40)

High Speed:
Ka Kedita & La Pidita defeat Miku Kanae & YuuRI (9:45)

Konami defeats Miria Koga (12:46)

Madison Marley, Makoto & Nagisa Nozaki defeat Ayame Sasamura, Hiroyo Matsumoto & Itsuki Aoki (13:46)

SEAdLINNNG Beyond The Sea Title:
VENY (c) defeats Honori Hana (14:47)

Sendai Girls

Show Reviews
By Chris Whitehead

SenJo ran two of their three June shows – and only their second and third shows in the post Satamura retirement era – with two easy to watch, if relatively inconsequential shows on back-to-back nights in Osaka and Tokyo, featuring a usual mix of their core roster and freelancers. Both shows featured plenty of well wrestled, good quality action but lacked stakes outside of the main event of the Tokyo show, which featured a tag team title defense. The crowd in Tokyo was bigger and more animated than in Osaka.

The main takeaways from these shows are for events in the future: Stardom’s Hazuki made a post-match cameo to challenge DASH Chisako to a hardcore match at the July 19th Sendai Girls show at Korakuen (continuing the ongoing Stardom/SenJo crossover matches) and Yuu announcing that she will retire on December 28th, 2025, presumably due to an accumulation of injuries/wear and tear.

If you only have time for one show, watch the Tokyo show from the 8th. If you only have time for one match, watch the Tag Title match from that show.

Given that lack of stakes and an absence of any other “happenings”, lets focus on some of the wrestlers featured on these shows:

ChiChi: After my feature on her in the last issue, it would be remiss of me not to talk about ChiChi as these shows featured her first matches to make tape since her return from injury (her return match for EVO on 6/1 where she defeated Miku Kanae did not stream anywhere). She appeared healthy and was moving well, hopefully not suffering any long-term effects from her neck injury. She had a pair of matches against veterans with a size advantage over her (Hiroyo Matsumoto in Osaka, DASH Chisako in Tokyo), giving her a chance to do what she does best, selling and bumping for her opponents offense while using her organic crowd connection as fuel for her comebacks. Despite losing both matches, she appeared to earn the respect of her opponents and the crowd on both nights and will have a rematch with Dash in July at the next Sareee-ism show. (Will she avenge this loss? Almost certainly not!)

Yurika Oka remains an engaging wrestler with a chaotic energy that I always enjoy, and who seems to shine best in tag matches, as her singles match on the Osaka show seemed to feel a little long and lacking in excitement, but her tag match in the main event of the Tokyo show was very good, even without regular opponent Mio Momono (who continues to rehab her injury). I would hope to see Bob Bob Momo Banana challenge (and maybe defeat) Red Energy for the Tag Titles later this year, perhaps at the SenJo “The Biggest” show in August, if Mio is ready by then.

Manami is a wrestler who, despite being a capable worker, I personally do not understand the appeal of (yet), but to whom the SenJo crowd always responds well. In Osaka, she made for good chum for the shark infested waters represented by Team 200kg and took a thorough beating from both Hashimoto and Yuu. In exchange, the next night in Tokyo, she put a (lighter, gentler) beating on YUNA and Yura.

Sadie Gibbs: Perhaps more than any other Western wrestler, of any gender, Sadie is someone who you see and wonder how they aren’t signed to a major league company. While some of that appears to be of her own volition, there are many wrestlers on American TV who are less impressive than Sadie in every facet of their skill sets. Both nights saw her paired against Team 200kg and I, for one, would not be against moving from that into a singles match against Hashimoto on a future show, especially as Gibbs did not lose the fall either night. Either way, I look forward to seeing more of her on this run in Japan.

Mika Iwata: Has any main event wrestler in Japan been treated more carelessly by their booker than Iwata, who is a true killer often booked as a loser? Under-rated is a term with a lot of meanings to a lot of people, but even while remaining rated highly by many keen observers of joshi wrestling – especially after the highs in 2024 of her rivalry with Saori Anou – Iwata remains under-rated, perhaps most of all by Meiko Satamura. Every part of her offense is effortlessly excellent, including some of the best kicks in the game. In addition, whilst usually playing the role of, for lack of a better expression, ‘the hard man’, she sells willingly and believably, and gave Oka some hope spots and an ever-escalating series of near falls in the tag title match on the Tokyo show that really allowed the crowd to get into the back end of a match with a very predictable outcome.

Overall, Sendai Girls remains an enjoyable and easy company to follow who are probably undercovered in English language wrestling media, as many podcasts and recappers choose instead to focus on Marigold, which has much less to offer its viewers, in this writer’s humble opinion. I look forward to what SenJo has to offer this summer and beyond in its post-Meiko new era.

Sendai Girls June 7th, 2025 from Azalea Taisho Hall in Osaka
Watch on Wrestle Universe

ZONES defeated YUNA via submission

Hiroyo Matsumoto defeated ChiChi via submission

Yurika Oka defeated Yura Suzuki via pinfall

Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) defeated Manami & Sadie Gibbs via pinfall

Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase) defeated Ryo Mizunami & DASH Chisako

Sendai Girls June 8th, 2025 from Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo
Watch on: Wrestle Universe

Manami & Ryo Mizunami defeat YUNA & Yura Suzuki via pinfall

ZONES defeats Hiroyo Matsumoto and Shin Sakura Hirota via submission

DASH Chisako defeats ChiChi via pinfall

Team 200kg (Chihiro Hashimoto & Yuu) defeated Debbie Kietel & Sadie Gibbs via pinfall

Red Energy (Mika Iwata & Miyuki Takase) defeated Yurika Oka & Unagi Sayaka via pinfall

Pro-Wrestling Evolution

Suwama’s 20th Anniversary Show
01/06/2025
Shonan Fujisawa Market Special Ring, Fujisawa, Japan

Suwama held his 20th Anniversary show in his hometown of Fujisawa, Japan. Unfortunately, this show does not appear to be taped and as of writing, is not uploaded on EVO’s website. It featured the long-awaited return of Chi Chi to action against Sareee’s protege, Miku Kanae. Chi Chi picked up the win in preparation for the tournament to crown the first Evolution Strong Women’s Champion, which kickstarts on 19th June at Shin-Kiba #35. Chi Chi will be taking on SEAdLINNNG regular Sumire Natsu in the first round.

The Violent Giants (Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama) beat Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto 17:11 when Suwama finished Miyamoto off with a backdrop. In backstage comments, Ishikawa said that he has set up a surprise “Suwama Challenge” match for Suwama at Shinjuku FACE on July 5th. This prompted Suwama to call out Naito for a singles match, saying that they’ve never had a singles match and would like Naito’s first post-NJPW match to be in EVO.

They later announced that Suwama’s opponent would instead be DDT’s MMA legend, Shinya Aoki. It’s unclear if Suwama was shooting from the hip or if Naito is coming to EVO for an appearance.

Other notable appearances on the show were AJW legends Aja Kong and Mayumi Ozaki.

The full card has been set for Shin-Kiba Tournament #35 which features the first round of the Evolution Strong Women’s Champion Tournament. In the A-block first round, Momoka Hanazono takes on Soy and Chi Chi looks to put away Sumire Natsu. In the B-block it’s Chika versus Chanyota and ZONES versus Aki Shizuku. Also on the card will be the Violent Giants taking on GLEAT regular Kentaro Hasu & Ganbare Pro Wrestling’s Tyson Maeguchi.

Full Results

Masato Kamino defeats Yuki Kanzaki (9:27)

Chi Chi defeats Miku Kanae (9:25)

Akira Raijin & Ichiba Shin Ichi defeat Andy Wu & Hiroshi Yamato (17:29)

Mayumi Ozaki defeats Soy (13:27)

Aja Kong & Makoto defeat Chika & ZONES (12:25)

Shuji Ishikawa & Suwama defeat Isami Kodaka & Yuko Miyamoto (17:11)

Miyuna has chosen to retire from wrestling after discussions with her family. The wrestler suffered an acute subdural hematoma on the right side of her brain during a match in December 2024. We wish her all the best for the future.

Ice Ribbon

Kamata Tournament

07/06/2025
Ota-ku Industrial Plaza PiO Small Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Ice Ribbon Live

Ice Ribbon regularly hold shows at their dojo in Saitama that they broadcast on their Youtube for their members. Outside of that, all of their shows are PPVs on Ice Ribbon Live and then uploaded a month later to their service. On 7th June, Ice Ribbon held their last of their non-dojo shows leading up to their big Korakuen Hall show on 21st June.

One of the hardest hitters in the scene right now and Ice Ribbon ace, ICExInfinity Champion Manami Katsu, teamed with Kaho Matsushita to take on Akane Fujita and Kaori Yoneyama in a preview tag match ahead of Fujita’s title challenge on 21st June. Katsu and Fujita exchanged some brutal forearms and a cringe-inducing headbutt. Fujita pinned Matsushita with a falcon arrow. In a post-match promo, Fujita said that she used to be scared of Katsu in 2016-17, and before her matches with Katsu she used to get sick of nerves, but she’s not afraid of Katsu anymore.

Backstage, Katsu spoke about improving attendances at Korakuen Hall, as their last one with her main eventing with Ibuki Hoshi on 29th March only had 263 people. She said it was a problem that cannot be resolved overnight and she wants to try to get the word out there on social media about her matches.

Ancham, fresh off of her win with Yappy for the Triangle Ribbon Tag Team championships on 25th May, teamed up with her Bad Butts stablemate Banny Oikawa to take on the PURE-J team of AKARI & Crea. This match was intense with both teams laying it in. In particular, Ancham and Crea had some great striking exchanges. The match slowed down slightly when Oikawa tagged in. Crea tapped out Oikawa and then challenged Ancham and Yappy for their titles.

Totoro Satsuki was injured, so ChocoPro’s Chon Shiryu stood in as a late replacement to take on British wrestler Blueshe who has been touring with Ice Ribbon since May. Shiryu sold a lot for Blueshe in a good example of a fun intergender match brawl.

Ice Ribbon announced more matches for their 21st June Korakuen Hall show, where they’ll hope to draw more than the 263 they managed last time. The International Ribbon Tag Team champions Bad Butts (Ancham & Yappy) defend against the PURE-J team of AKARI & Crea. Prime Link (Ibuki Hoshi & Kaho Matsushita) will take on Las Fresa de Egoistas (Makoto & VENY). Hoshi said that the last time they faced the pair was in May 2023, but she’s different now and will turn VENY’s chest bright red with chops. Rookie Kikari Wakana continues her 7 singles match trial, this time against Unagi Sayaka, Totoro Satsuki takes on Minoru Fujita, and the opener is Kiku, Miku Kanae & Riko versus Arisa Shinose, Mase Hiiro & Moe Hiiro.

Full Results

Kirari Wakana & Miku Kanae defeat Mase Hiiro & Moe Hiiro (9:25)

Cheerful Princess (Arisa Shinose & Misa Kagura) defeat Makoto & Riko (12:29)

AKARI & Crea defeat Ancham & Banny Oikawa (16:25)

Chon Shiryu defeats Blueshe (11:41)

Akane Fujita & Kaori Yoneyama defeat Kaho Matsushita & Manami Katsu (11:21)

Diana

Diana, owned by Kyoko Inoue, is another promotion run by an All Japan Women’s Pro-Wrestling legend. The Diana World Champion, Risa Sera, is retiring on 12th January 2026. Sera is currently doing an “outsider holding the gold” storyline in Diana. She successfully retained against Diana ace Haruka Umesaki at Korakuen Hall on 27th April, with Umesaki in a backstage promo vowing to win back the title for Diana. Diana’s next show is on 15th June, at their usual Post di Amistad building in Kawasaki and will have Sera in her second defense against Kaho Kobayashi.

Diana’s previous Korakuen Hall show fared much better than Ice Ribbon, drawing 892. While the number cannot be verified, the seats were definitely more filled than Ice Ribbon’s. Diana’s next Korakuen Hall show is in October.

Pro Wrestling WAVE

PHASE2 Reboot 6th/NAMI 1

01/06/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Confetti Web

The 2025 iteration of the “Catch the WAVE” tournament kicked off last month on 4th May. The winner of the tournament gets to challenge for the Regina Di WAVE title, currently held by Stardom’s World Of Stardom Champion, superstar Saya Kamitani. The rules of the tournament are 15-minute time limit matches, 3 points for a win and 0 for a loss. If there’s a draw, the wrestler with the shorter career (regardless of age) receives 2 points and the wrestler with the longer career receives 1 point. The tournament involves 36 wrestlers from various promotions, sorted into 9 blocks, the biggest iteration of the tournament so far. The winners of each block will be placed into three three-ways, which will lead to a final three-way at Korakuen Hall on 21st July. WAVE is one of the promotions that offers a PPV model for all of their shows on Confetti Web. They are available for purchase a few days after they take place for a window of 1 week, and then it’s at the mercy of WAVE’s YouTube when they are uploaded there, which is usually delayed by months. Here is an update on standings and the most recent matches.

On 1st June, WAVE held 5 more matches of the tournament at Shinjuku FACE. Mio Shirai and Mizuki Kato had a short bout, with Kato using her strength to power through Shirai’s offense, including squashing a casadora attempt by simply sitting on her, picking up the 3 points and tying with Shirai and Risa for the top spot in the Earth block. In a more eventful match, Stardom’s Ranna Yagami faced off against Sendai Girls’ World Tag Team Champion Miyuki Takase. Despite early aggression from Yagami, which she’d take into her match with Sareee 7 days later, Takase controlled much of the fight. However, Ranna adapted by using her ring awareness to bait Takase into a countout loss after a timely dropkick. Backstage, she reflected on learning from her opening loss and using the tournament’s rules to her advantage to pick up points. Maika Ozaki picked up a routine win against Yuuki Mashiro with the Torture Rack Bomb, although Mashiro did have a close nearfall with a bridging fallaway slam.

In the semi-main event, Stardom’s veteran Hazuki made her Catch the WAVE 2025 debut against Diana’s Nanami Hatano. As the biggest star in the tournament, there is little doubt that Hazuki is winning the Mercury block, so the only question is the quality of matches on the way to Osaka on 13th July, and Hazuki answered that question with a great match. Hazuki and Nanami packed a lot into a fast-paced nine-minute match, with Hazuki starting strong before Nanami turned the tide with a sleeper hold and a falcon arrow. The match escalated with Nanami hitting a Northern Lights suplex and Hazuki returning with a German suplex. There was a convincing near fall from Nanami’s prawn hold pin. Hazuki’s top rope offense, including a dropkick and a brutal codebreaker, kept the pressure on, while Nanami showed heart by surviving a punishing submission and repeatedly finding the ropes. In the end, Hazuki sealed the win with a top rope senton. Backstage, Hazuki made her motivation clear: she’s after the tournament’s one million yen prize.

In what turned out to be Shin Sakura Hirota’s final WAVE appearance for now, she faced Diana’s star Haruka Umesaki in a match filled with crowd brawling and shenanigans, as both wrestlers repeatedly tried to win by countout. Despite the antics, Hirota surprised with a tope suicida. Umesaki ultimately secured the win with La Magistral and declared her desire to finally win her block and challenge Kamitani who looms large over both Stardom and WAVE.

Full Results

Asuka Goda, Kohaku, Saran & Yuki Miyazaki defeat Honoka, Kaho Kobayashi, Natsu Sumire & Yumi Ohka (0:02)

Honoka, Kaho Kobayashi, Natsu Sumire & Yumi Ohka defeat Asuka Goda, Kohaku, Saran & Yuki Miyazaki (13:24)

Cherry, Itsuki Aoki, Rina Amikura & YuuRI defeat Kaori Yoneyama, Risa Sera, SAKI & Yuko Sakurai (14:10)

Catch The Wave 2025 Earth Block:
Mizuki Kato [3] defeats Mio Shirai [3] (5:19)

Catch The Wave 2025 Saturn Block:
Ranna Yagami [3] defeats Miyuki Takase [3] by Count Out (9:13)

Catch The Wave 2025 Jupiter Block:
Maika Ozaki [6] defeats Yuuki Mashiro [0] (6:36)

Catch The Wave 2025 Mercury Block:
Hazuki [3] defeats Nanami Hatano [0] (9:26)

Catch The Wave 2025 Venus Block:
Haruka Umesaki [3] defeats Shin Sakura Hirota [3] (8:12)

It’s Wave

07/06/2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Watch On: Confetti Web

WAVE returned to Post di Amistad on 7th June, a building run regularly by Diana and WAVE. This event showcased more of the younger talent in the Catch the WAVE tournament, allowing them to get more time in the ring in front of a smaller crowd than Shinjuku FACE.

In the first match, Honoka and Yuuki Mashiro went to a time limit draw, although neither had a chance of winning their block either way. Mashiro bullied the home promotion’s wrestler Honoka for the early part of the fight, with Honoka’s babyface comebacks getting cut short. The match was low stakes and lacked urgency, even when approaching the time limit.

In another time limit draw, WAVE’s 16-year-old Saran picked up 2 points against Ganbare Pro Wrestling’s YuuRI who gained 1 point, which keeps both alive in the Neptune block. This match followed a very similar structure to Honoka & Mashiro just before it, although it was a bit sloppier and felt like more of a fight that both wanted to win.

Nanami Hatano and Rina Amikura faced off in a Mercury block match, which is Hazuki’s block. Nanami and Amikura are the current Diana Tag Team champions and have had many matches together in this exact building, but they have only faced off against each other once in singles action, with Amikura winning in 2023. The match started with a lot of intensity – with forearms and shoulder tackles on each other, a big pick up of pace from the previous matches. Nanami, 18 years old, has been having great matches in this tournament. This was no different and Amikura worked great to put her tag team partner over in this match. However, it was yet another time limit draw, with Nanami picking up 2 points, and Amikura, 1 point.

In the main event, the underrated Ayame Sasamura took on WAVE’s Asuka Goda in the Pluto block. Sasamura has practically no visibility, with 2AW being her home promotion, while also wrestling in SEAdLINNNG, Diana and WAVE, promotions all with accessibility issues adopting the PPV ($20+/show) + 1-month-plus delay model. That being said, this was a routine win for Sasamura, beating Goda with a northern lights suplex into a double foot stomp. Sasamura goes top of the block with 5 points. After the match, Sasamura shared our feelings saying she was bored of waiting with all the draws and so wanted to put Goda away with a win.

Full Results

Cherry, Yuki Miyazaki & Yumi Ohka vs. Kohaku, Natsu Sumire & Risa Sera – Time Limit Draw (20:00)

Catch The Wave 2025 Jupiter Block: Honoka [2] vs. Yuuki Mashiro [1] – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

Catch The Wave 2025 Neptune Block: Saran [2] vs. YuuRI [4] – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

Catch The Wave 2025 Mercury Block: Nanami Hatano [2] vs. Rina Amikura [1] – Time Limit Draw (15:00)

Catch The Wave 2025 Pluto Block: Ayame Sasamura [5] defeats Asuka Goda [0] (11:09)

Current Standings of Catch the WAVE 2025 as of 07/06/2025

Mars Block

Yumi Ohka (WAVE)	3 points	1-0-0
Momoka Hanazono (Pro Wrestling Up Town)	3 points	1-0-1
Unagi Sayaka (freelance)	3 points	1-0-1
Yuma Makoto (Diana)	0 points	0-0-1

Mercury Block

Yuki Miyazaki (WAVE)	6 points	2-0-0
Hazuki (Stardom)	3 points	1-0-0
Nanami Hatano (Diana)	2 points	0-1-2
Rina Amikura (COLORS)	1 points	0-1-1

Venus Block

Haruka Umesaki (Diana)	3 points	1-0-0
Shin Sakura Hirota (WAVE)	3 points	1-0-2
Kaho Kobayashi (freelance)	3 points	1-0-0
Natsu Sumire (freelance)	0 points	0-0-1

Earth Block

Mizuki Kato (Diana)	3 points	1-0-0
Risa Sera (Prominence)	3 points	1-0-1
Mio Shirai (freelance)	3 points	1-0-1
Kohaku (WAVE)	0 points	0-0-1

Jupiter Block

SAKI (COLORS)	6 points	2-0-0
Maika Ozaki (freelance)	6 points	2-0-0
Honoka (WAVE)	2 points	0-1-2
Yuuki Mashiro (freelance)	1 points	0-1-2

Pluto Block

Ayame Sasamura (2AW)	5 points	1-1-0
Kaori Yoneyama (Gokigen Pro-wrestling)	4 points	1-1-0
Marika Kobashi (freelance)	3 points	0-2-0
Asuka Goda (WAVE)	0 points	0-0-2

Saturn Block

Ranna Yagami (Stardom)	3 points	1-0-1
Miyuki Takase (freelance)	3 points	1-0-1
Tae Honma (freelance)	3 points	1-0-1
Yura Suzuki (Alma Libre)	0 points	0-0-0

Uranus Block

Kakeru Sekiguchi (freelance)	5 points	1-2-0
Mari Manji (Yanagase Pro Wrestling)	2 points	0-1-0
Akira Kurogane (Stardom)	2 points	0-1-0
Itsuki Aoki (freelance)	0 points	0-0-1

Neptune Block

YuuRI (Ganbare Pro Wrestling)	4 points	1-1-0
Cherry (freelance)	3 points	1-0-1
Saran (WAVE)	2 points	0-1-1
Yuko Sakurai (COLORS)	0 points	0-0-0

WAVE News

Shin Hirota Sakura announced at a 2nd June WAVE press conference that she will be leaving the promotion with immediate effect to run for office in Japan’s House of Councillors this summer, representing Aichi Prefecture under the Japan Restoration Party. A former Regina Di WAVE champion, Hirota spoke candidly about her motivations trying to balance wrestling, single motherhood, and her desire to uplift others beyond the ring. WAVE representatives, wrestler Yumi Ohka and former wrestler GAMI, supported her decision, though they acknowledged the sudden departure would shake up ongoing plans. While Hirota emphasised that this is not a retirement and she will return to WAVE eventually, her final WAVE match took place on 1st June. Hirota reiterated that she will be a wrestler for life and continue as a freelancer, but for now, she would like to fully focus on her political campaign and subsequent election campaigns.

In the upcoming Catch the WAVE matches on 15th June at TOKYO SQUARE in Itabashi there will be: Akira Kurogane [2] versus Mari Manji [2] in the Uranus block, Kohaku [0] versus Mio Shirai [3] in the Earth block, Miyuki Takase [3] versus Yura Suzuki (tournament debut) [0] in the Saturn block and Hazuki [3] versus Rina Amirkura [1] in the Mercury block.

Actwres girl’Z

ACTwrestling Step 56

24/05/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Actwres girl’Z App

A recent spotlight on AWG on Natsupoi and Saori Anou’s 10th Anniversary show led us to check out the promotion’s latest “Step” show. Velkej Bracha has assisted us in providing an introduction to the promotion’s unique history and approach. AWG is more accessible than other smaller Japanese independent promotions, which usually charge PPV prices per show with a 1-month delay upload to a paid subscription (Marvelous, SEAdLINNNG, Ice Ribbon, Diana, WAVE). AWG has an all-inclusive subscription with a delay of a few days for shows, which is more in line with popular services such as Stardom World.

In 2022, AWG underwent a significant relaunch under the direction of owner Keiji Sakaguchi. Breaking away from the traditional wrestling model, Sakaguchi declared that AWG was no longer professional wrestling, but rather “performing arts.” His reasoning was that since match outcomes are predetermined, the focus should shift from athletic competition to theatrical performance. As a result, AWG positioned itself outside the usual wrestling ecosystem. In the typically collaborative world of Joshi where inter-promotional matchups are common, AWG remains an outlier. Many promotions are reluctant to let their wrestlers lose to performers who openly identify as “Actwres performers” rather than wrestlers.

This stance is especially notable given AWG’s impressive track record for developing talent. A number of top Joshi stars got their start there, including Tam Nakano (now retired), Saori Anou, Natsupoi, Miyuki Takase, Riko Kawahata, Tae Honma, Kakeru Sekiguchi, Maika Ozaki, Yoshiko Hasegawa, no fewer than nine members of Marigold’s current roster, and many more. Sakaguchi’s approach seems, in part, a response to that history. After repeatedly seeing his roster drawn away by better-funded promotions, he’s opted to build a self-contained identity, even if it comes at the cost of broader exposure.

The relaunch itself was designed to debut a backlog of trainees whose progress had been delayed by the pandemic. Early shows featured an inventive audience participation gimmick, where fans drew lots to place rookies into matches on the spot. Notably, this led to Marigold’s Kouki Amarei being thrust into main events. This initial relaunch phase culminated in the main event of Kouki and Natsuki vs. Mari and Miku Aono at Korakuen Hall on August 12, 2022.

In April 2024, AWG, which does not keep talent under contract, was hit hard by a talent raid from Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion, Marigold. The exodus included ace Miku Aono, as well as Kouki, CHIAKI, Misa Matsui, and Natsumi Showzuki, all part of the AWG main event scene. Still, key names like Natsuki and Mari remained, determined to rebuild the promotion once again. Sakaguchi’s isolationist model failed to prevent losses and likely will continue to fail as long as handshake agreements and limited financial backing remain an issue for AWG.
Since the relaunch, AWG uses a “Points System” to determine match outcomes, based on sales (merch/tickets), in-ring performance, and luck. Luck comes from an actual dice roll. For a while, they even showed the rolls using big fluffy dice on their YouTube channel, though that’s since been discontinued. “Points” matches are the designated matches where wrestlers with the highest total points will win, with their points totals being shown after the match. However, it is not known whether the points are accurate or worked as the calculations are not shown. From the audience’s perspective, the promotion bills these “Points” matches as matches where participants will pick up points for a win.

With that context in mind, we turn to our first AWG show review. If more of their shows are similar to “Step 56”, then look out for more coverage in future editions of the newsletter.
In the opener, Riko Fukunaga and Erisa Nagai delivered a solid match. Fukunaga is part of the 2022 class of “relaunch rookies,” whereas Nagai is a 32-year-old rookie. This was a short, decent opener. Erisa controlled early with forearms, but Riko fought back with bodyslams and sharp kicks to the legs. The submissions were highlights of the match as Erisa sold well for how little experience she has.

The second match on the show paired former champions Natsuki and Mari each with promising newcomers Anri and Hinata Senya, respectively. Mari, debuting in AWG in 2018, is the current trainer of AWG, who herself was trained by Stardom’s Syuri. Natsuki is one of the standouts from the “relaunch rookies” of 2022 and was the first champion of that generation of talent.

Mari set the tone early by bullying Anri with stiff strikes. Surprisingly for a rookie, Hinata seamlessly picked up right where Mari left off. Despite her limited experience, she carried herself with the confidence of a veteran, taking her time in beating Anri. Anri eventually turned the tide with a slick headscissors into an octopus stretch and showed her babyface fire.

Once Natsuki tagged in, the pace picked up. She went head-to-head with Mari in a sharp striking exchange, and their familiarity with each other was obvious. Evenly matched, both landed head kicks for a double down, before the rookies took centre stage once again. Hinata showed strong flashes but a few moments of inexperience crept in, including a rough-looking bulldog and missing the ropes when going for double knees from the turnbuckle. Still, the effort and potential were obvious. It took the Cutie Special (bridging fallaway slam) from Natsuki to finally put Hinata down. This match was excellent with a coherent structure and excellent pacing. It was difficult to believe that 16 minutes had passed.

Former AWG champion Act (f.k.a. Act Yasukawa in Stardom) faced Natsuki’s tag partner Nagisa Shiotsuki, in a physical match which ended up with Act taking the win but with a bruised chest from Shiotsuki’s double handed chops. Act carries the stereotype of a Joshi veteran and chooses her spots to work hard and put others over. Her current focus is shining a spotlight on rookie Yukina Uehara.
AWG currently has two titles, the AWG Championship, and the AWG KING Of Ring Entertainment Championship. The current AWG Champion is Marino Saihara, who beat Natsuki for the title. Saihara is someone who climbed from the bottom of the card; stuck with poor gimmicks, she took advantage of her ability to speak English to sell tickets to overseas fans, increasing her points and eventually getting more time. The current KING Of Ring Entertainment Champion is Sakura Mizushima, another of the 2022 “relaunch rookies.” Actwres 5, a faction led by Saihara also including Mizushima, was formed to counter the heel unit KillerZ – led by Mari, Act, and MARU.

Saihara & Mizushima took on rookies Rio and Yukina Uehara in the fourth match on the show. This match gave both champions a chance to assert their presence while allowing the newer talent to show fire. Saihara dominated early, throwing Rio into corners, landing dropkicks, and targeting the arm. After a brief flurry from the rookies, including a well-timed combo of Uehara’s rear view and Rio’s splash, Saihara locked in an armbar to submit Rio. There were some highlights such as Rio, a scriptwriter who is only 6 months into her career, gave the AWG champion Saihara a barrage of hard chops. A solid match that balanced giving the rookies shine while reinforcing the status of the two singles champions.

On 18th MAY, the “ACT GAME” tag team tournament for the new Tag Team titles started. The tournament will end at Korakuen Hall on 13th August and all of the matches in the tournament will be “Points” matches. Their previous plan to introduce tag team titles was scuppered by the aforementioned Marigold raid. There will be one tournament match on each show. Naru & Mizushima won the first match of the tournament. In the main event of this show, KillerZ members Haruka Ishikawa & Kyoka Iwai took on one of their leaders, MARU, and The Great Asako in an ACT GAME tournament match. MARU was working with AWG’s theatre division, Actring, before returning to their wrestling department with the relaunch.

This match was chaotic, with Iwai setting the pace early by dragging the fight outside and using her umbrella as a weapon, initially behind the ref’s back, then more blatantly in front of the referee. Asako had a rough match. MARU added to the disorder by accidentally spearing the referee before joining in on the umbrella attacks. Ishikawa stood out with strong moments, including a bridging fallaway slam and executing a Doomsday Device. MARU eventually secured the win with a submission.

ACTwrestling “Step 56” offered a strong look at the promotion’s current identity. While some matches had some rough moments, there were clear highlights throughout, particularly from newer talent like Hinata Senya and Anri who were in an excellent tag team match.

Full Results

Riko Fukunaga defeats Erisa Nagai (6:06)

Anri & Natsuki defeat Hinata Senya & Mari (16:37)

Act defeats Nagisa Shiotsuki (9:09)

Marino Saihara & Sakura Mizushima defeat Rio & Yukina Uehara (12:05)

ACT Game First Round Point Tag Team Match:
MARU & The Great Asako defeat Haruka Ishikawa & Kyoka Iwai (19:47)

ACTwrestling Shin-Kiba Special

01/06/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Actwres girl’Z App

In a 3 match ACTwrestling card, the secondary title in the promotion, the KING Of Ring Entertainment Championship, was successfully defended by Sakura Mizushima against Actwres 5 stablemate, and member of the same trainee class, Riko Fukunaga. This was a first ever singles match between the two. The early stages were defined by grounded grappling, when Fukunaga controlled the pace and repeatedly threatened with her roundhouse kicks, which Mizushima narrowly avoided.

As the match progressed, Mizushima targeted Fukunaga’s leg to counter her striking, while Fukunaga returned to mat work in search of an armbar. Both had bursts of offense, Fukunaga came close with a head kick and bridging tiger suplex. Mizushima shifted the match, and took it outside the ring after landing a 619 and a top-rope crossbody. Mizushima retained the title by hitting her Full Bloom Archhold, a double northern lights suplex combination, in an excellent title defense.

AWG Champion Marino Saihara and Naru faced off against regular tag partners Nagisa Shiotsuki and Natsuki in a good tag team “Points” match. Naru targeted Natsuki’s leg and nearly sealed the win with a crucifix bomb, but Shiotsuki fired back with a top-rope double handed chop and her finisher, a double underhook facebuster (i.e. Christopher Daniels’ Angel’s Wings), to score the victory. Post-match, Shiotsuki explained that her & Natsuki would start their Tag Team Tournament journey on the next show and go on to win it all, which had objections from Saihara, who said that MRC (Saihara & Riko Fukunaga) would win the whole thing. MRC are set to take on stablemates Sakuramochi (Naru & Sakura Mizushima) in Osaka on 22nd June in an all-“Actwres 5” Tag Team Tournament matchup.

Elsewhere, in a somewhat rough outing, Yukina Uehara and Rio defeated Asako Mia and Chii Aoba. Uehara had some mistimed spots that drew laughs from both the crowd and her opponent Mia, but in the end she secured the win with a jackhammer. Act has some work to do with Uehara.

It was ring announcer Yumi Agawa’s final appearance.

Full Results

Rio & Yukina Uehara defeat Asako Mia & Chii Aoba (8:48)

Tag Team Point Match:
Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki defeat Marino Saihara & Naru (13:31)

AWG KING Of Ring Entertainment Title:
Sakura Mizushima (c) defeats Riko Fukunaga (14:14)

ACTwrestling Shin-Kiba Special

07/06/2025
Ota City Industrial Plaza PiO Small Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Actwres girl’Z App

AWG continued their ongoing ACT GAME tournament on a show where the AWG Championship was successfully defended by Actwres 5’s Marino Saihara against KillerZ’s Haruka Ishikawa, continuing her battle against KillerZ. The match featured intense action, including a brawl outside the ring and Ishikawa using stablemate Kyoka Iwai’s umbrella to gain control. Despite taking a harsh backdrop suplex and suplexes, Saihara rallied, landing a judo takedown followed by double knees and a high-angle German suplex to secure the three count. This marked her second consecutive successful defense against KillerZ members, following her win over Kyoka Iwai last month.

Rookie Rio showed her darker side teaming up with KillerZ veteran MARU against Actwres 5’s Rico Fukunaga & Sakura Mizushima. MARU instructed Rio to use MARU’s chain to finish off Mizushima. Rio obliged by body slamming and then splashing Mizushima on top of the chain; unfortunately, the referee saw it and did not count the pin. A mis-timed punch from MARU signalled the end for Rio as Mizushima took the win. Rio said she wanted to join the KillerZ but MARU ignored her and walked off.

In an ACT GAME tag tournament match, rookie duo Toiro Hina and Yukina Uehara showed early control against Nagisa Shiotsuki and Natsuki, though the greenness of the rookies was on display as Hina forgot to sell a codebreaker. Once Natsuki tagged in, she dominated with sharp kicks, knees, and stomps, including a standout high kick from the top rope. Natsuki ultimately secured the win with her finishing move, the Cutie Special. Natsuki’s experience helped keep the match flowing smoothly despite working with less experienced rookies. With the win, Natsuki and Shiotsuki advance to face favorites Act and Mari in the next round.

Full Results

Ayano Irie defeats Chii Aoba (8:02)

Kyoka Iwai & Nene Arahata defeat Mari & Ninja Girl URAN (Naru) (11:12)

Riko Fukunaga & Sakura Mizushima defeat MARU & Rio (15:15)

ACT Game First Round Point Tag Team Match:
Nagisa Shiotsuki & Natsuki defeat Toiro Hina & Yukina Uehara (14:17)

AWG Title Point Match:
Marino Saihara (c) defeats Haruka Ishikawa (9:04)

ChocoPro

Mei Suruga’s 7th Anniversary Show “The Apple Film”

29/05/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Youtube

ChocoPro’s Super Asia Champion Mei Suruga held her 7th Anniversary Show, titled “The Apple Film” at Shinjuku FACE on 29th May. In the main event, Suruga successfully defended her title against long-time friend Mei Seira in a first-time ever singles match. The Meis spent time with each other in the first year of their career in SEAdLINNNG. Suruga came out in a beautiful, special, all-white outfit. Baliyan Akki on commentary was really excited about both of them being called “Mei” and made sure to let us know several times in the form of puns and repeat “who’s who?” jokes.

The match was excellent, with a story that played off their shared history. The opening sequence was light-hearted, with both doing their old “M” pose on each other, but the tone quickly shifted as the match picked up speed. Seira delivered her trademark consecutive dropkicks in the corner, while Suruga worked to slow things down with a bridging submission that had both grabbing at each other’s hair. Suruga followed up with a springboard double footstomp, then another on the top rope.

The second half of the match saw more back-and-forth exchanges, with Suruga taking out Seira’s legs on a springboard attempt and nearly winning with a sitout pin. Seira landed a powerbomb, one of the few power moves in the match, and followed with a dropkick to the face for a very close nearfall. A final roll-through sequence saw both wrestlers trading momentum, until Suruga used Seira’s own movement to roll her into a bridged pin for the three count. They teased a rematch in the future for Mei Seira’s high-speed championship.

Makoto and Sayaka successfully defended their Asia Dream Tag Team Championships in a lively and well-paced match against Miya Yotsuba and EVO’s Soy. Soy had more offense than usual, showcasing noticeable improvement and holding her own. Makoto took control with stiff strikes, including a high kick to the back, but the challengers responded with some fun tandem offense, locking in simultaneous single-leg crabs and chopping each other mid-hold to psych each other up. The finishing sequence saw Soy clearing out Sayaka with double chops and going for a double team on Makoto, only to get wiped out by Makoto’s double spear. Makoto tightened a sleeper hold on Yotsuba for the submission win. A good match that was arguably Soy’s best match of her young career.

Full Results

Antonio Honda, Hagane Shinnou & Minoru Fujita defeat Hiyori Yawata, Sayaka Obihiro & Tokiko Kirihara (7:30)

Kaori Yoneyama defeats Kaho Hiromi (3:48)

Chon Shiryu & Rina Yamashita defeat Chie Koishikawa & Chris Brookes (13:31)

Baliyan Akki defeats Munetatsu Nakamura (12:56)

Asia Dream Tag Team Titles:
Bellflowers (Makoto & Sayaka) (c) defeat Miya Yotsuba & Soy (14:48)

Super Asia Title:
Mei Suruga (c) defeats Mei Seira (14:19)

OZ Academy

Braze Of Honor

08/06/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 422
Watch On: GAORA SPORTS on 5th July

OZ Academy, AJW legend Mayumi Ozaki’s promotion, held a show at Shinjuku FACE main evented by an OZ Academy Tag Team Championship match, with Phantom Limit (Kohaku & Tsubasa Kuragaki) defending against the OZ Academy Openweight Champion Saori Anou and freelancer Unagi Sayaka. Kohaku endured heavy punishment from Anou & Sayaka and narrowly escaped multiple near falls before surprising Sayaka with a flash pin for the win after 17 minutes of fast-paced action.

After the main event, Gojizones Union (freelancer Hiroyo Matsumoto & EVO’s ZONES) came out and challenged Phantom Limit for the tag team titles at Korakuen Hall on 17th August. ZONES challenged Matsumoto to a singles tune-up match at Shinjuku FACE on 6th July.

Full Results

ZONES defeats Kaori Yoneyama (5:19)

AKINO & Yumiko Hotta defeat Hiroyo Matsumoto & Sonoko Kato (15:42)

Rina Yamashita defeats Kakeru (9:16)

Jaguar Yokota, Mayumi Ozaki & Ram Kaicho defeat Itsuki Aoki, Momoka Hanazono & Ryo Mizunami (19:22)

OZ Academy Tag Team Titles:
Phantom Limit (Kohaku & Tsubasa Kuragaki) (c) defeat Phantom Limit (Saori Anou & Unagi Sayaka) (17:24)

Other Independent News

Daisuke Sekimoto sustained a cervical spinal injury on 05/29. The 44 year old was wrestling for Big Japan when he was hurt, and the promotion were the first to give an update on the injured wrestler:

“After examination at a hospital in Tokyo, his CT and MRI scans showed no abnormalities, and there was no suspicion of spinal cord damage. Sekimoto is currently feeling numbness in his arms and neck, but all of his muscles are tense and the numbness appears to be temporary. He will return home today and will consult with a hospital in Yokohama about future treatment.”

Big Japan are expected to release an update in the upcoming days but have already removed him from all lineups for the upcoming month. The update also thankfully noted that he is not experiencing muscle weakness or symptoms of paralysis.

Harutoki announced last week that he will be leaving Osaka’s Doutonbori Pro in September. The young wrestler is tall and has good command of English. His most likely destination is Pro Wrestling NOAH.

506489954_1303373848458898_3892831742253042138_n (1)

Other News from Asia and Oceania

Real Global Threat was the story of the weekend across South East Asia on May 30th and 31st. At SPW “Mayhem” on May 30th, Malaysian Pro Wrestling’s Emman Azman, who had turned down the heel group’s offer to join earlier in the month, turned on partner Ho Ho Lun after they had lost a tag match against the Threat. That made Azman the 3rd man for the big 3 on 3 tag match in the main event of Setup Pro Wrestling’s “The Fallen Kingdom” show on May 31st. RGT faced off against Team SETUP, which consisted of Jonathan Johnson, Jake De Leon and Zack Sabre Jr. and triumphed, with Shivam pinning Johnson after Jake De Leon turned to join the group.

In the aftermath, Malaysian Pro Wrestling have announced that Malaysian Pro Wrestling’s South East Asia Champion Shivam will face Singapore Pro Wrestling’s South East Asia Champion Da Butcherman, in a winner-takes-all clash at the co-op show between SETUP and IWA in Thailand on June 28th in Bangkok.

The kayfabe behind the story is that Shivam and new Global Threat ally Emman Azman (previously a top babyface in MYPW) had threatened to never wrestle for the company again and to take their South East Asia Title with them unless the match was made and also given main event status. The group of 4 that now consists of Azman, Shivam, The Statement and Filipino wrestler Jake De Leon are now the dominant heel stable across 4 companies in South East Asia.

The other major occurrence across the weekend of shows was the return of the Women’s Titles from TJPW talent to the home promotions. Alexis Lee won the Queen of Asia Title from Yuki Kamifuku in a title vs SPW career match on May 30th, whilst MATCHA recovered the SETUP All Asia Women’s Championship from Raku in Thailand the following night.

PWS Korea has announced a partnership with British independent promotion Nebula, with the goals listed as talent exchanges, training seminars and travel sponsorship. The key to the new arrangement is wrestler Succubus, who was part of PWS’ “Wrestle Nation” event in Seoul last month.

Middle Kingdom Wrestling, fresh off a wave of global press (including with NBC in the US), have announced their next show for June 28th in Tianjin, China. “V1 Speedfest” is being held at the V1 Autoworld Racetrack and will present the first ever women’s match with all Chinese participants, on top of multiple title matches. Matches announced so far include Big Sam vs Lin DangXuan, whilst they will also host special guests Strong Machine J and KZY of Dragongate.

New Taiwan Pro Wrestling are back in operation after relocating their dojo in recent months, with their first show from the new venue on June 28th. The top attraction is the debut of Simon Xia, who wrestles using a fusion of aerial moves and Muay Thai and has broken out in Singapore’s Grapplemax promotion. The event will be a versus show between the 2 promotions.

Australia’s PCW have 2 gimmick matches announced for their upcoming “Carnage” show in Melbourne on May 28th, as tag teams Rapid Fire and the Black Diamonds will battle in a falls count anywhere match whilst Aysha will defend the PCW Women’s Title against Charlie Rose in a 2 out of 3 falls match.

Riot City Wrestling in Adelaide will hold RCW 300 on July 11th, their 300th show after 2 decades of history. The main event of the last show, “Key To the City” on June 1st, saw RCW Grand Champion Chris Basso retain his title against ACW Heavyweight Champion DOWNUNDER.

Southern Pro Wrestling in New Zealand will run a show about as south as it gets next Saturday, when they take “Battlelines” to Gore in Invercargill. SPW, now in their 10th year, are running the town for the first time.

Check out these other articles from this week!

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Best of the Super Juniors 2025

Connor McFall looks back on the Best of the Super Junior Final and what the tournament has shown us as a whole about NJPW’s Junior Division.

FRONTPAGE

A Wrestler You Should Know About: Nina Samuels

Chris Gannon introduces us to “Nina Ten Belts”, a stalwart of the UK scene in recent years.

FEATURES

Eve

Eve play host to the first ever defense of the IWGP Women’s Title in the UK, as Syuri defends against Alex Windsor.

EUROPE & AFRICA

WWE-_0008_089_MITB_06072025MM_29952--9fb9fa62576727ae6fd6b3424dedee5e

WWE Money In The Bank

David Hayter takes us through the ladder climbs, title changes and a shock return in Los Angeles.

AMERICAS

Recommendations From A History Man

Peter Edge is in a holiday mood this week, as he makes picks based on a Fathers Day theme.

RETRO

A Wrestler You Should Know About: Nina Samuels

Chris Gannon introduces us to “Nina Ten Belts”, a stalwart of the UK scene in recent years.

FEATURES

Recommendations From A History Man

Peter Edge is in a holiday mood this week, as he makes picks based on a Fathers Day theme.

RETRO

WWE Money In The Bank

David Hayter takes us through the ladder climbs, title changes and a shock return in Los Angeles.

AMERICAS

Eve

Eve play host to the first ever defense of the IWGP Women’s Title in the UK, as Syuri defends against Alex Windsor.

EUROPE & AFRICA

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Social Suplex Newsletter No. 6

Social Suplex Newsletter No. 6

Asia & Oceania

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Star Navigation 202503.06.2025Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanCompany Announced Attendance: 1, 233Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Full Results

Monday Magic Episode 203.06.2025Shinjuku FACE,Tokyo, JapanWatch On: Wrestle Universe

Full Results

NOAH House Show Notes

NOAH News

New Japan Pro Wrestling

News

Full Card

Stardom

Natsupoi & Saori Anou Produce Natsu & Saory 10th Anniversary ~Our Footprints~

31/05/2025Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, JapanCompany Announced Attendance: 2,837Watch On: Stagecrowd Live

Thoughts by Tim Hunter

Full Results

STARDOM in Korakuen

08/06/2025Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanCompany Announced Attendance: 1,405Watch On: Stardom World

Thoughts by Tim Hunter

Full Results

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling

Spring Tour 2025 In Shinagawa Vol. 2

07/06/25Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club, Tokyo, JapanCompany Announced Attendance: 307Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Full Results

DDT

Nagoya Fight Fever 202501/06/2025Aichi Chunichi Hall, Aichi, JapanWatch On Wrestle Universe

Full Results

A Love Letter From Me 202507/06/2025Club eX at Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo, JapanWatch On Wrestle Universe

Full Results

DDT News

All Japan Pro Wrestling

Super Power Series 2025

01/06/2025Company Announced Attendance: 2,259Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, JapanWatch On ajpw.tv

Full Results

AJPW News

Dragongate

Rainbow Gate 2025

04/06/2025Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanCompany Announced Attendance: 1,186Watch On: dragongate.live

Full Results

Rainbow Gate 2025

05/06/2025Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, JapanWatch On dragongate.live

Full Results

Dragongate News

Dream Star Fighting Marigold

News

Japanese Indies

Marvelous Pro Wrestling

Hokkaido Day 1

31/05/2025Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, JapanWatch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

Full Results

Hokkaido Day 2

01/06/2025Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, JapanWatch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

Full Results

First Impact

10/06/2025Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, JapanWatch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

Full Results

Marvelous News

Shin-Kiba Series 2025 Vol. 3

30/05/2025Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, JapanWatch On seadlinnng.com

Full Results

Sendai Girls

Show ReviewsBy Chris Whitehead

Sendai Girls June 7th, 2025 from Azalea Taisho Hall in OsakaWatch on Wrestle Universe

Sendai Girls June 8th, 2025 from Shinjuku FACE in TokyoWatch on: Wrestle Universe

Pro-Wrestling Evolution

Suwama’s 20th Anniversary Show01/06/2025Shonan Fujisawa Market Special Ring, Fujisawa, Japan

Full Results

Ice Ribbon

Kamata Tournament

07/06/2025Ota-ku Industrial Plaza PiO Small Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, JapanWatch On: Ice Ribbon Live

Full Results

Diana

Pro Wrestling WAVE

PHASE2 Reboot 6th/NAMI 1

Star Navigation 2025
03.06.2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 1, 233
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Monday Magic Episode 2
03.06.2025
Shinjuku FACE,Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

31/05/2025
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 2,837
Watch On: Stagecrowd Live

08/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 1,405
Watch On: Stardom World

07/06/25
Shinagawa Prince Hotel Club, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 307
Watch On: Wrestle Universe

Nagoya Fight Fever 2025
01/06/2025
Aichi Chunichi Hall, Aichi, Japan
Watch On Wrestle Universe

A Love Letter From Me 2025
07/06/2025
Club eX at Shinagawa Prince Hotel, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Wrestle Universe

01/06/2025
Company Announced Attendance: 2,259
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, Japan
Watch On ajpw.tv

04/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 1,186
Watch On: dragongate.live

05/06/2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On dragongate.live

31/05/2025
Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

01/06/2025
Sapporo ii-one Stadium, Sapporo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

10/06/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Wrestle Universe / Zaiko

30/05/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On seadlinnng.com

Show Reviews
By Chris Whitehead

Sendai Girls June 7th, 2025 from Azalea Taisho Hall in Osaka
Watch on Wrestle Universe

Sendai Girls June 8th, 2025 from Shinjuku FACE in Tokyo
Watch on: Wrestle Universe

Suwama’s 20th Anniversary Show
01/06/2025
Shonan Fujisawa Market Special Ring, Fujisawa, Japan

07/06/2025
Ota-ku Industrial Plaza PiO Small Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Ice Ribbon Live

01/06/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Confetti Web

07/06/2025
Post di Amistad, Kawasaki, Japan
Watch On: Confetti Web

24/05/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Actwres girl’Z App

01/06/2025
Shin-Kiba 1st RING, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Actwres girl’Z App

07/06/2025
Ota City Industrial Plaza PiO Small Exhibition Hall, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On Actwres girl’Z App

29/05/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Watch On: Youtube

08/06/2025
Shinjuku FACE, Tokyo, Japan
Company Announced Attendance: 422
Watch On: GAORA SPORTS on 5th July