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IBUSHI-NEW JAPAN UPDATE, ZERO1 FIRE FESTIVAL, DDT UPDATES AND MORE FROM JAPAN

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced that Kota Ibushi has been diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia, just four days before he is scheduled to challenge Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship in the main event of Wrestle Grand Slam on July 25 in the Tokyo Dome.

New Japan has clarified that Ibushi’s illness is unrelated to receiving his COVID-19 vaccine. Initially, the company reported his illness (which caused him to miss the company’s last six shows) as side effects of the vaccine.

Aspiration pneumonia is a type of pneumonia that can occur when a foreign entity – solid, liquid or gas – enters a person’s lungs. Common examples can include accidentally breathing in food or vomit instead of swallowing it or inhaling a harmful smoke or chemical.

If Ibushi is unable to compete at the show and the main event is changed, it would mark the second time that the planned main event of Wrestle Grand Slam has been disrupted by illness or injury before the show even took place.

Previously, Wrestle Grand Slam was scheduled to take place over two nights on May 15 in Yokohama Stadium and May 29 in the Tokyo Dome. While both shows were ultimately postponed (with Yokohama Stadium show eventually being cancelled), the original Tokyo Dome main event of Will Ospreay attempting his first defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada was cancelled after Ospreay vacated the title due to a neck injury.

Ibushi has been taken off New Japan’s upcoming Summer Struggle in Osaka shows on July 22 and 23 as well as Summer Struggle in Nagoya on July 24. Tomoaki Honma will replace Ibushi on all three shows.

A final decision on Ibushi’s participation at Wrestle Grand Slam will be made after Ibushi’s recovery is assessed further.

New Japan has uploaded a new interview with Robbie Eagles ahead of his match against El Desperado for the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Grand Slam. The interview can be read here.

Elsewhere, New Japan has announced two new matches for its Resurgence show on August 14 in The Torch at L.A. Coliseum in Los Angeles, California.

First, Alex Coughlin will face Karl Fredericks. Second, Clark Connors, Ren Narita and TJP will face Fred Rosser, Rocky Romero and Wheeler Yuta in a six-man tag team match.

Additionally, Matt Morris (formerly known as Aiden English in WWE) will make his commentary debut for the company alongside Alex Koslov and Kevin Kelly at the show.

New Japan will hold the first night of its two-night Summer Struggle in Osaka event tomorrow in EDION Arena Osaka.

The full card is:

• DOUKI, El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru vs. Robbie Eagles, SHO and YOH
• EVIL, KENTA and Yujiro Takahashi vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi, Tomohiro Ishii and YOSHI-HASHI
• Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. Hirooki Goto and Kazuchika Okada
• BUSHI and Shingo Takagi vs. Master Wato and Tomoaki Honma
• SANADA vs. Zack Sabre Jr.
• Taichi vs. Tetsuya Naito

Pro Wrestling ZERO1

Pro Wrestling ZERO1 held its fifth Fire Festival show today in Aichi.

The full results were:

• Yoshikazu Yokoyama def. Genta Hiriki & Takumi Baba
• Fire Festival A block: Yoshiki Inamura def. Tsugutaka Sato
• Fire Festival B block: Chris Vice def. Takafumi
• Fire Festival B block: Shogun Okamoto def. Ayato Yoshida
• Fire Festival B block: Takuya Sugawara def. Shigehiro Irie
• Fire Festival A block: Hartley Jackson def. Fuminori Abe
• Hide Kubota, Masato Tanaka and Yasu Kubota def. Junya Matsunaga, Shinjiro Otani and Shoki Kitamura

Following today’s show, the updated Fire Festival standings are:

A block
1. Shinjiro Otani (2-1 record): 10 points
-. Yoshiki Inamura (2-1 record): 10 points
3. Hartley Jackson (2-2 record): 10 points
4. Masato Tanaka (2-1 record): 9 points
5. Fuminori Abe (1-2 record): 5 points
6. Tsugutaka Sato (1-3 record): 5 points

B block
1. Ayato Yoshida (2-1-1 record): 13 points
-. Chris Vice (2-1-1 record): 13 points
3. Shogun Okamoto (2-2 record): 10 points
-. Takuya Sugawara (2-2 record): 10 points
5. Takafumi (2-3 record): 10 points
6. Shigehiro Irie (1-2 record): 5 points

ZERO1 will hold its sixth Fire Festival show tomorrow in Niigata. The full card is:

• Ryo Hoshino vs. Shoki Kitamura
• Andy Wu and Takuya Sugawara vs. Genta Hiriki and Junya Matsunaga
• Chris Vice and Yoshikazu Yokoyama vs. Takafumi and Takumi Baba
• Fire Festival B block: Ayato Yoshida vs. Shigehiro Irie
• Fire Festival A block: Fuminori Abe vs. Yoshiki Inmura
• Fire Festival A block: Shinjiro Otani vs. Tsugutaka Sato
• Fire Festival A block: Hartley Jackson vs. Masato Tanaka

Masahiro Chono has suggested Japanese musician Keigo Oyamada, who recently resigned from the creative team for the opening ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics after admitting to bullying disabled classmates, should join ZERO1 and help the company’s anti-bullying work led by Shinjiro Otani.

An article from Yahoo (in Japanese) covering the news can be read here.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling has announced El Unicorn, HARASHIMA, Naomi Yoshimura, Raimu Imai and Yusuke Okada will face Ilusion, Mizuki Watase, TAMURA, Yuji Okabayashi and Yuki Iino at Wrestle Peter Pan 2021 on August 21 in Fujitsu Stadium.

DDT has also announced the full card for its show on August 9 in Morioka.

The full card is:

• Toru Owashi vs. Yuya Koroku
• Antonio Honda and Chris Brookes vs. Naomi Yoshimura and Saki Akai
• Kazusada Higuchi, Yukio Naya and Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Soma Takao, Tetsuya Endo and Yuji Hino
• Akito and Danshoku Dieno vs. HARASHIMA and Kazuki Hirata
• Daisuke Sasaki and Mad Paulie vs. MAO and Yuki Ueno
• Hideki Okatani, Jun Akiyama and Yusuke Okada vs. Keigo Nakamura, Konosuke Takeshita and Shunma Katsumata

Real Japan Pro Wrestling

Real Japan Pro Wrestling has announced Itsuki Aoki and Madeline will face Jaguar Yokota and Yuu at its show on July 29 in Korakuen Hall.

Yokota was previously appointed as the mentor of Tiger Queen, the new female iteration of the legendary Tiger Mask character portrayed by various wrestlers over the last 30 years.

All Japan Pro Wrestling

All Japan Pro Wrestling will hold a show tomorrow in Korakuen Hall.

The full card is:

• Jun Saito, Rei Saito and Ryoma Tsukamoto vs. Osamu Nishimura, Ryuji Hijikata and Takao Omori
• Atsuki Aoyagi and Rising HAYATO vs. Dan Tamura and Ryuki Honda
• All Asia Tag Team Championships: Izanagi and Zeus (c) vs. El Lindaman and Issei Onitsuka
• Kento Miyahara vs. Koji Iwamoto
• Hikaru Sato, Shuhei Taniguchi and SUWAMA vs. SUSHI, Takuya Wada and Yuma Aoyagi
• AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Team Championships: Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI and Yusuke Kodama (c) vs. Carbell Ito, Seigo Tachibana and Yoshitatsu
• World Junior Heavyweight Championship: Francesco Akira (c) vs. SUGI
• Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship: Jake Lee (c) vs. Shotaro Ashino

All Japan’s newest rookie Ryoma Tsukamoto will making his wrestling debut teaming with Jun Saito and Rei Saito against Osamu Nishimura, Ryuji Hijikata and Takao Omori in the opening match.

Izanagi and Zeus will attempt their sixth defense of the All Asia Tag Team Championships against El Lindaman and Issei Onitsuka.

Hikaru Sato, Shuhei Taniguchi and SUWAMA will face SUSHI, Takuya Wada and Yuma Aoyagi in the company’s Atsushi Aoki memorial match.

Hokuto Omori, TAJIRI and Yusuke Kodama will attempt their first defense of the AJPW TV 6-Man Tag Team Championships against Carbell Ito, Seigo Tachibana and Yoshitatsu.

The bout will be Tachibana’s in-ring return, who has not wrestled since last September due to an ankle injury, as well as TAJIRI’s return after missing four shows due to being in close contact with Black Menso~re and/or Shuji Ishikawa (both of whom tested positive for COVID-19 two weeks ago).

Francesco Akira will attempt his first defense of the World Junior Heavyweight Championship against SUGI.

In the main event, Jake Lee will attempt his first defense of the Triple Crown Heavyweight Championship against Shotaro Ashino.

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Pro Wrestling NOAH will hold a show tomorrow in Korakuen Hall.

The full card is:

• Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Junta Miyawaki, Kai Fujimura, Kinya Okada and Yasutaka Yano
• Haoh, Nioh and Tadasuke vs. Kotaro Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY
• Kazushi Sakuraba and Takashi Sugiura vs. Naomichi Marufuji and Yuko Miyamoto
• Daisuke Nakamura vs. Kenoh
• Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara vs. Seiki Yoshioka, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yuya Susumu
• GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (c) vs. Ikuto Hidaka
• GHC Tag Team Championships: Kaito Kiyomiya and Masa Kitamiya vs. Katsuhiko Nakajima and Manabu Soya

HAYATA will attempt his first defense of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Ikuto Hidaka.

Dragon Gate

Dragon Gate will hold its tenth Hopeful Gate 2021 tour show tomorrow in Kobe Sambo Hall.

The full card is:

• BxB Hulk, Eita and KAI vs. Funky Jacky Kamei, Masaaki Mochizuki and U-T
• Don Fujii and Ryo Saito vs. Konomama Ichikawa and Shachihoko Boy
• SB KENTo vs. Takashi Yoshida
• Royal Sambo Battle Royal: Dia Inferno vs. Diamante vs. H.Y.O vs. Ho Ho Lun vs. Kaito Ishida vs. KAZMA SAKAMOTO vs. Kagetora vs. King Shimizu vs. Problem Dragon vs. Super Shisa vs. Susumu Yokosuka vs. Yasushi Kanda
• Ben-K and YAMATO vs. Genki Horiguchi and Kzy
• Dragon Dia, Jason Lee, Kota Minoura and La Estrella vs. Dragon Kid, Keisuke Okuda, Masato Yoshino, Naruki Doi and Punch Tominaga

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling will hold two shows tomorrow in Yokohama Radiant Hall.

The full card is:

Afternoon
• Daichi Hashimoto vs. Masaki Morihiro
• Jaki Numazawa and Ryuji Ito vs. Quiet Storm and Takuho Kato
• Drew Parker vs. Kazuki Hashimoto
• Chicharito Shoki, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuji Okabayashi vs. Kazumi Kikuta, Kosuke Sato and Takuya Nomura
• Akira Hyodo and Yuki Ishikawa vs. Tatsuya Hanami and Yuya Aoki
• BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship: Isami Kokada (c) vs. Kota Sekifuda

Evening
• Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Ryuji Ito
• Drew Parker and Yuki Ishikawa vs. Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto
• Akira Hyodo and Kankuro Hoshino vs. Quiet Storm and Takuho Kato
• Kazumi Kikuta and Takuya Nomura vs. Kohei Sato and Ryota Nakatsu
• Alejandro, Kazuki Hashimoto and Kosuke Sato vs. Kota Sekifuda, Nobuhiro Shimatani and Takato Nakano
• Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Championships: Daichi Hashimoto, Hideyoshi Kamitani and Yuya Aoki (c) vs. Chicharito Shoki, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuji Okabayashi

Isami Kodaka will attempt his fifth defense of the BJW Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kota Sekifuda in the main event of the afternoon show.

Daichi Hashimoto, Hideyoshi Kamitani and Yuya Aoki will attempt their fifth defense of the Yokohama Shopping Street 6-Man Tag Team Championships against Chicharito Shoki, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuji Okabayashi in the main event of the evening show.

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