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NEW JAPAN WRESTLE GRAND SLAM, BIG JAPAN, FREEDOMS AND MORE FROM JAPAN

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan Pro Wrestling held the first night of its three-night Wrestle Grand Slam event today in the Tokyo Dome.

The full results were:

• KOPW 2021 New Japan Ranbo: Chase Owens def. BUSHI, Dick Togo, DOUKI, Great-O-Khan, Hirooki Goto, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, KENTA, Master Wato, Minoru Suzuki, Satoshi Kojima, SHO, Tiger Mask, Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Tomohiro Ishii, Toru Yano (c), YOH, YOSHI-HASHI, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Yuji Nagata & Yujiro Takahashi
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori (c) def. Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles def. El Desperado (c)
• Kazuchika Okada def. Jeff Cobb
• IWGP Tag Team Championships: Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. def. SANADA and Tetsuya Naito (c)
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) def. Hiroshi Tanahashi

Hiromu Takahashi appeared at the start of the show and announced his intention to challenge the winner of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match.

El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori made their first successful defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships against Rocky Romero and Ryusuke Taguchi.

Robbie Eagles defeated El Desperado to win the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship for the first time in his career. One could reasonably expect Eagles to attempt his first defense of the title against Takahashi in the near future.

New Japan legend Masahiro Chono joined the Japanese commentary team for the last two matches.

Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. defeated SANADA and Tetsuya Naito to win the IWGP Tag Team Championships. After the match, Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI came to the ring to signal their intention to challenge for the titles.

In the main event, Shingo Takagi made his first successful defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against Hiroshi Tanahashi

Six hours before the start of the show, New Japan announced Kota Ibushi would be unable to compete at the show and Tanahashi would take his place in the main event challenging Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship.

It was previously announced on July 21 that Ibushi been diagnosed with aspiration pneumonia. Tanahashi appealed to take Ibushi’s place in the main event if needed at Summer Struggle in Nagoya yesterday, which turned out to be the case.

Today’s show marked Tanahashi’s eleventh Tokyo Dome main event.

After the main event, the lights went out and a video aired of EVIL (with Dick Togo) challenging Takagi for the title.

When the lights came back on, EVIL was stood in the ring and attacked Takagi.

The second and third nights of Wrestle Grand Slam are scheduled to take place on September 4 and 5 in the MetLife Dome in Saitama.

GLEAT

GLEAT held a show today in Osaka.

The full results were:

• CIMA and Shigehiro Irie def. Daijiro Matsui and Minoru Tanaka
• Michiko Miyagi def. Ayano Irie
• Atsuki Aoyagi and Yu Iizuka def. Jun Masaoka and Takanori Ito
• Issei Onitsuka def. CIMA
• El Lindaman and Soma Watanabe vs. Hayato Tamura and Ryuichi Kawakami

After the first match, El Lindaman challenged Daijiro Matsui to a singles match.

Additionally, Issei Onitsuka came to the ring and suggested CIMA should replace Kaz Hayashi as his opponent in the fourth match.

GLEAT announced Hayashi tested positive for COVID-19 two days ago, leaving Onitsuka without an opponent. CIMA accepted Onitsuka’s proposal but lost the subsequent match.

Takanori Ito’s mystery partner was revealed to be Jun Masaoka. However, Masaoka was pinned by Yu Iizuka.

GLEAT announce Hayato Tamura will face Ryuichi Kawakami at its show on August 4 in Shinjuku FACE.

Dragon Gate

Dragon Gate held its twelfth Hopeful Gate 2021 tour show today in Kariya Industrial Promotion Center.

The full results were:

• Kagetora and Keisuke Okuda def. Genki Horiguchi and U-T
• Kota Minoura and Naruki Doi def. King Shimizu and Yasushi Kanda
• BxB Hulk, Diamante and SB KENTo def. Punch Tominaga, Ryo Saito and Ultimo Dragon
• Ben-K, Dragon Kid and YAMATO def. Funky Jacky Kamei, Kzy and Susumu Yokosuka
• Dragon Dia, Jason Lee, La Estrella and Shun Skywalker def. Dia Inferno, Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida

Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS

Pro Wrestling FREEDOMS held a show today in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring.

The full results were:

• GENTARO and Tatsuhito Takaiwa def. Brahman Kei and Lekka
• Kengo and Yuya Susumu def. Dragon Libre and Takashi Sasaki
• Tomoya Hirata and Toru Sugiura def. Mammoth Sasaki and Takahiro Katori
• Deathmatch: Daisuke Masaoka def. Kamui
• Deathmatch elimination: Masashi Takeda, Takayuki Ueki, Toshiyuki Sakuda and Violento Jack def. Jun Kasai, Kenji Fukimoto, Minoru Fujita and Rina Yamashita

Pro Wrestling ZERO1

Pro Wrestling ZERO1 has announced the full card for its Fire Festival final show on August 1 in Korakuen Hall.

The full card is:

• Junya Matsunaga vs. Ryo Hoshino
• Genta Hiriki and Satsuki Nagao vs. Shoki Kitamura and Takumi Baba
• Carbell Ito and Naoshi Sano vs. Shogun Okamoto and Yoshikazu Yokoyama
• Ayato Yoshida, Chris Vice and Takafumi vs. Fuminori Abe, Hartley Jackson and Tsugutaka Sato
• Hide Kubota and Yasu Kubota vs. Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto
• Masato Tanaka vs. Shigehiro irie
• Fire Festival final: Shinjiro Otani vs. Takuya Sugawara

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling’s Drew Parker defeated Alex Colon to win the GCW Ultraviolent Championship at the first night of Game Changer Wrestling’s two-night Homecoming event last night in Atlantic City, New Jersey.

The bout was changed to a title-versus-title match after Parker defeated Takumi Tsukamoto to win the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship on July 23, meaning he also made his first successful defense of the title against Colon.

Parker is set to face Jimmy Lloyd at the second night of Homecoming tonight, although it is currently unclear if either title will be on the line.

Big Japan has announced the full cards for its shows on August 8 in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring and August 9 in Osaka.

The full cards are:

August 8 in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring
• Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Kazumi Kikuta
• Abdullah Kobayashi and Yuichi Taniguchi vs. Brahman Kei and Brahman Shu
• Deathmatch: Akira Hyodo and Kankuro Hoshino vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani and Masaya Takahashi
• Deathmatch: Drew Parker and Yuki Ishikawa vs. Jaki Numazawa and Ryuji Ito
• Kosuke Sato vs. Kota Sekifuda
• Kazuki Hashimoto, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuji Okabayashi vs. Keiki Suzuki, Takuho Kato and Yuya Aoki
• BJW Tag Team Championships: Fuminori Abe and Takuya Nomura (c) vs. Isami Kodaka and Yuko Miyamoto

August 9 in Osaka
• Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Yuichi Taniguchi
• Akira Hyodo and Kankuro Hoshino vs. Kazuki Hashimoto and Yusaku Ito
• Kazumi Kikuta and Hiroaki Taniguchi vs. Keiki Suzuki and Takuho Kato
• Kosuke Sato and Naoki Tanizaki vs. Kota Sekifuda and ‘X’
• UWA World Trios Championships: Andy Wu, HUB and Ultimate Spider Jr. (c) vs. Daiki Shimomura, Isami Kodaka and Minoru Fujita
• Fuminori Abe, Takuya Nomura and Yuya Aoki vs. Shigehiro Irie, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuji Okabayashi
• Deathmatch: Drew Parker, Hideyoshi Kamitani, Yuki Ishikawa vs. Abdullah Kobayashi, Jaki Numazawa, Ryuji Ito and Yuko Miyamoto

All Japan Pro Wrestling

All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Francesco Akira will participate in German promotion Westside Xtreme Wrestling’s Catch Grand Prix round-robin tournament in September.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling will hold a show tomorrow in Shinjuku FACE produced by DAMNATION.

The full card is:

• Chon Shiryu vs. Darkunesu K
• Hiroshi Yamato vs. Kikutaro
• Daiki Shimomura and Shigehiro Irie vs. Nobuhiro Shimatani and Soma Takao
• Leo Isaka vs. Tetsuya Endo
• Keizo Matsuda, Kengo Mashimo and Masashi Takeda vs. Kohei Sato, Mad Paulie and Yuji Hino
• Daisuke Sasaki vs. Minoru Fujita

 

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