Puro Report (25/11/2023 — 1/12/2023)

By Eli

As the final month of the year begins, most wrestling companies are beginning to wind down. Many are embroiled in some of their smaller tournaments while others are simply working up towards bigger shows. This week we had a few new matches announced, one  title change and a couple surprises along the way:

New Japan Pro Wrestling:
New Japan has been largely preoccupied with their ongoing World Tag League this week. As of speaking, A block is tied for first place between the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita and Australia’s own TMDK on 6 points. The B Block has surprisingly been overtaken by the odd couple of Monstersauce, Lance Archer and Alex Zayne, who remain undefeated on 8 points with J5G’s Taichi and Yuya Uemura following close behind on 6. It’s been a very unexpected outcome so far. Speaking of unexpected… During the tournament, AEW’s Toa Liona and Bishop Kaun surprisingly aligned themselves with House of Torture, becoming the group’s first foreign members. This is certainly the most unique tournament in a while.

Pro Wrestling NOAH: Elsewhere, NOAH’s Yoshiki Inamura made his first appearance on his UK excursion, appearing for Progress with a new look and now going under the name “Yoichi”. Back on the mainland, Monday Magic continues to be the most interesting thing NOAH has going, with Ninja Mack becoming the new GHC Openweight Hardcore Champion by defeating both Masato Tanaka and Super Crazy for the belt. He has since claimed that he will be defending the belt when he returns back to America, most notably in GCW. Also on that show, the Great Muta’s daughter who had been alluded to in a series of vignettes finally made an appearance, revealing her name to be the Great Sakuya and allying herself with the returning Nagisa Nozaki. The pair will team on January 2nd to take on Haruka Umesaki and Miyuki Takase.

All Japan Pro Wrestling:
While NJPW’s World Tag League is going on, All Japan is also running their annual Real World Tag League with the new Triple Crown Heavyweight Champion, Katsuhiko Nakajima, leading the tournament with partner Hokuto Omori on 10 points. Closely behind them on 9 points is the team of Kento Miyahara and former champion Yuma Aoyagi, making the final stretch of this tournament very interesting. At the same time, AJPW has also been running their annual Junior Battle of Glory Tournament, with Fuminori Abe emerging as the clear standout on 7 points, while Dan Tamura nod Naruki Doi trail behind him on 6 each.

DDT: Continuing tournament season, DDT has just begun their second yearly tournament, the D-Oh Grand Prix. No front runners have emerged yet, but new KO-D Openweight Champion, Yuji Ueno, did begin with a victory over Kazusada Higuchi in the main event. Shunma Katsumata has also finally announced his return to the ring, having previously been forced to vacate both the Tag Team and Extreme Championships following an injury back in May. He’s scheduled to return on January 3rd.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling: In BJW news, after a successful defence against Ender Kara and Leyton Buzzard, Astronauts continue their monolithic reign as BJW Tag Team Champions. With an ongoing reign of over 570 days, Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura are close to breaking the 595 day record held by Men’s Teioh and Daisuke Sekimoto’s, as well as Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto’s record for 992 combined days as champions. In a couple of months they may very well be the most accomplished tag team in company history, which at this point is very well deserved.

Joshi: In Joshi news, former WWE wrestler and current Beyond the Sea Singles Champion, Sareee, announced she’ll be involved with the upcoming “ARSION the Final” event in January next year.” Sareee will also be appearing for Zero1’s first show of 2024 in a match against Marvelous’ Mio Momono.

Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling: TJPW has also announced the final date of Yuka Sakazaki’s farewell tour before her move to America. It will be held on December 6 against Miyu Yamashita and Shoko Nakajima, the three original members of the TJPW roster facing off for what very well might be the last time.

World Wonder Ring Stardom:And finally, for one last tournament: after the World of Stardom Champion, Tam Nakano, was forced to vacate her title due to injury, a match will be decided to crown a new Champion. A one night tournament was held between Maika, Mina Shirakawa, Ami Sourei and Momo Watanabe to determine who would compete for the vacant belt. As the dust settled, Maika stood victorious after defeating Momo in the finals and now looks set to face the winner of Hazuki and the 2023 5*Star GP winner Suzu Suzuki at Stardom Dream Queendom 2023 on December 29th. Whether Suzu or Hazuki meet her there will be determined on the 2nd.