The Week in Japanese Wrestling (16/3/2024 — 22/3/2024):
New Japan Pro Wrestling:
The New Japan Cup has finally come to a conclusion, and after a tumultuous tournament, we have our winners. Hirooki Goto made it to the semifinals after David Finlay was forced to pull out due to illness — wishing him a speedy recovery — before beating SANADA to advance to the finals. Meeting him there was Yota Tsuji, who had beaten House or Torture’s Ren Narita and EVIL to earn his place. In the final match, Tsuji scored the decisive win, earning his first ever Cup victory, and will now challenge stablemate and leader Tetsuya Naito at Sakura Genesis.
Pro Wrestling NOAH:
In NOAH news, the company saw two successful titles defences. Daga defeated Yo-Hey for the Junior title, now holding victories over both halves of the GHC Jr Heavyweight Tag Team Champions. In an unfortunate turn of events, Victory Challenge Tag League winners, Ryohei Oiwa and Kaito Kiyomiya were forced to abdicate their Tag Team title shot after Kiyomiya suffered a last minute injury. In their place, the runners up, Saxon Huxley and Timothy Thatcher, faced GLG’s Anthony Greene and Jack Morris, with the champions retaining. Hopefully we see them get their title shot once Kiyomiya has recovered.
Dragon Gate Pro Wrestling:
Dragon Gate’s Rey De Parejas Tournament continues on into its seventh tag with new leaders emerging. A Block is currently tied with Natural Vibes, KAI & Gillani Valletta and Dragon Kid & Naruki Doi all locked at 4. Gold Class and Mozuku Tominaga & Shuri Joe frail behind on 1 point while Shuji Kondo and Toru Owashi take up last place without a single point. B Block looks much different. Susumu Mochizuki and Yamato have taken a decisive lead on 7 points with Natural Vibes again behind on 4. Third place is a tie between Z-Brats, D’Courage and Big Hug all on 3, while Kung-Fu Masters hold last place with 1 point.
DDT:
There’s a lot of news coming out of DDT this week after their big Judgement show. All Champions retained on the show, but we have new challengers incoming. NOAH’s Hiroki has emerged as the next challenger for Shunma Katsumata’s Extreme Championship while Ueno has nominated Akino as his next challenger for the KO-D Openweight Championship. Damnation T.A will take on Oishi, Dieno and Akiyama for the Six-Man belts while Akiyama has stepped up to challenge Iino and Endo for the KO-D Tag belts. Finally, MAO has elected AEW’s Billie Starkz as his opponent for the Universal title when DDT returns to Philly, and that show looks crazy. Konosuke Takeshita vs Shunma Katsumata, Mike Bailey vs Yuki Ueno, Brookes and Kid Lykos vs Shota and Bryan Keith and a handful of other very exciting matches. It looks like a very fun outing. DDT has also announced the entrants for the annual D-Oh Grand Prix beginning on May 5. This year’s lineup will feature Kazusada Higuchi, HARASHIMA, Daisuke Sasaki, Chris Brookes, Yuki Ueno, Tetsuya Endo, Sanshiro Takagi, Shuji Ishikawa, Yukiyo Naya, Poison Sawada Julie, Takeshi Masada, Danshoku Dieno, Yuki Iino, KANON and the winner of the D GENERATIONS CUP.
Big Japan Pro Wrestling:
BJW saw two successful defences when Yuki Ishikawa defeated Takumi Tsukamoto to retain his Deathmatch title and Yuya Aoki beat Takuya Nomura to retain his World Strong Heavyweight Championship. Daichi Hashimoto has accepted Aoki’s challenge following the match and their fight is set to go down at Endless Survivor on May 4th.
Joshi:
Mika Iwata has nominated VENY has her next challenger for the Sendai Girls Championship. The company has also crowned new Tag Team Champions with Ryo Mizunami and Manami defeating DASH Chisako and Hiroyo Matsumoto for the belts. Matsumoto is set to be taking a break from wrestling from the 22nd of April to recover from a minor injury, promising she won’t be long. SEAdLINNNG has also crowned new tag champs, coinciding with the supposed collapse of Las Fresa De Egoistas. At their most recent show, MAKOTO teamed with Nagisa Nozaki to win the vacant belts, defeating former stablemate and close friend VENY alongside her partner Maya Yukihi.
World Wonder Ring Stardom:
Stardom has had a very eventful week with 19-year old Hanan winning the 2024 Cinderella Tournament. Dressed in the traditional dress and crown, Hanan declared that she wanted to challenge Saori Anou for the Wonder of Stardom Championship. This show also saw Tam Nakano and Giulia square off for assumedly the last time, their final battle concluding in a draw as Giulia makes her way out of the company. The main event saw Maika defend her World of Stardom Championship against Utami Hayashishita. The tragedy of this is that Stardom just recently confirmed Hayashishita as well as MIRAI, Yuzuki and Mai Sakurai will be departing Stardom at the end of the month, assumedly to join Rossy Ogawa’s new promotion. A big shakeup is coming.
