NOAH AT KORAKUEN, BIG JAPAN STAR TESTS POSITIVE FOR COVID-19, NEW JAPAN STRONG IN THE STATES AND MORE FROM JAPAN

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Pro Wrestling NOAH held the first night of its two-day Departure event today in Korakuen Hall.

The full results were:

• Masa Kitamiya def. Kinya Okada
• Masaaki Mochizuki, Masato Tanaka and Yuko Miyamoto def. Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi
• Yoshinari Ogawa def. Yasutaka Yano
• Eita, NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY def. Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Junta Miyawaki
• Katsuhiko Nakajima def. Hajime Ohara
• Aleja, Haoh and Tadasuke def. HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu
• Kazushi Sakuraba and Kazuyuki Fujita def. Kenoh and Manabu Soya
• Naomichi Marufuji and Takashi Sugiura def. Kaito Kiyomiya and Kotaro Suzuki

Aleja and Tadasuke challenged Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu for the GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships after Aleja pinned Yoshioka to win the sixth match. The bout will officially take place at NOAH’s show on August 15 in Kawasaki.

NOAH will hold the second night of Departure tomorrow in Korakuen Hall. The full card is:

• Junta Miyawaki and Kinya Okada vs. Kai Fujimura and Yasutaka Yano
• Aleja, Haoh and Tadasuke vs. Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara
• Akitoshi Saito, Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Daiki Inaba, Kaito Kiyomiya and Masa Kitamiya
• Eita, Kotaro Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY vs. HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yuya Susumu
• Kazushi Sakuraba and Takashi Sugiura vs. Masaaki Mochizuki and Masato Tanaka
• Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh and Manabu Soya vs. Keiji Mutoh, Masakatsu Funaki and Naomichi Marufuji

NOAH will announce the full field for this year’s N-1 Victory at tomorrow’s show.

For more reading on tomorrow’s show, check out Aiden O’Brien’s article covering the subject on the Chops, Kicks And Nearfalls website here.

Elsewhere, luchadores El Hijo del Alebrije and El Hijo del Espectro Jr. will seemingly not be traveling to Japan to compete for NOAH, per lucha libre expert @luchablog on his website: “NOAH has no plans to bring them in, had no idea who these guys were, and couldn’t get the paperwork to bring them in if they wanted anyway.”

For context, both men had announced they would soon travel to Japan to compete for NOAH at separate lucha libre shows in recent days.

NOAH has announced the full cards for its shows on August 15 and August 28 in Takaoka. The full cards are:

August 15 in Kawasaki
• Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue, Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Kai Fujimura, Kinya Okada, Junta Miyawaki and Yasutaka Yano
• Daiki Inaba vs. Masa Kitamiya
• Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara vs. Ikuto Hidaka, Kotaro Suzuki and YO-HEY
• Kaito Kiyomiya vs. NOSAWA Rongai
• GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships: Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu (c) vs. Aleja and Tadasuke
• Daisuke Nakamura, Kazushi Sakuraba, Kazuyuki Fujita and Kendo Kashin vs. Haoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh and Manabu Soya
• Great Muta and Marufuji vs. HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa

August 28 in Takaoka
• Kai Fujimura vs. Yasutaka Yano
• Akitoshi Saito vs. Kinya Okada
• Aleja and Tadasuke vs. Hajime Ohara and Junta Miyawaki
• Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi vs. Naomichi Marufuji vs. Takashi Sugiura
• HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka and Yoshinari Ogawa vs. Kotaro Suzuki, NOSAWA Rongai and YO-HEY
• Atsushi Kotoge, Daiki Inaba, Daisuke Harada, Kaito Kiyomiya and Masa Kitamiya vs. Haoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya and Nioh

Naomichi Marufuji will team with Great Muta against HAYATA and Yoshinari Ogawa on August 15 using his mythical alter ego.

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced it will hold television tapings for its STRONG brand in September and October, which also appears to rule Jay White out of this year’s G1 Climax.

The tapings will occur on September 25 and 26 in the Curtis Culwell Center in Fort Worth, Texas, as well as October 16 and 17 in the legendary 2300 Arena in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

White is advertised to appear on all four nights. The G1 Climax will start on September 18 and conclude on October 21.

David Finlay, Juice Robinson and Karl Fredericks are all also advertised to appear at both tapings, ruling out another three wrestlers contracted to New Japan based in America. It remains to be seen if New Japan keeps the same tournament as last year’s G1 Climax – two blocks of 10 competitors – and who will compete in the tournament.

Additionally, New Japan has confirmed Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii will compete at its STRONG television taping on on August 16 in Thunder Studio in Long Beach, California.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling’s Yuji Okabayashi has tested positive for COVID-19, he announced on Twitter today.

He will miss Big Japan’s shows on August 8 in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring and August 9 in Osaka.

The updated cards are:

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

August 9 in Osaka
• Kazuki Hashimoto and Yusaku Ito vs. Kazumasa Yoshida and Kazumi Kikuta
• Hiroyuki Suzuki and Takuho Kato vs. Jaki Numazawa and Yuichi Taniguchi
• Akira Hyodo and Kankuro Hoshino vs. Brahman Kei and Brahman Shu
• Daichi Hashimoto and Kota Sekifuda vs. Kosuke Sato and Naoki Tanizaki
• 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. Hiroaki Taniguchi, Shigehiro Irie and Yasufumi Nakanoue
• Deathmatch: Abdullah Kobayashi, Masaya Takahashi and Yuki Ishikawa vs. Hideyoshi Kamitani, Ryuji Ito and Yuko Miyamoto

Elsewhere, Pro Wrestling ZERO1’s Takafumi has tested positive for COVID-19 and Active Advance Pro Wrestling, Big Japan and Pro Wrestling ZERO1’s co-promoted show on August 10 in Shin-Kiba 1st Ring has been postponed.

The rescheduled show will take place on December 24.

GLEAT

GLEAT has announced Daimonji So, Hayato Tamura and Ryuichi Kawakami will face Minoru Tanaka, Takanori Ito and Yu Iizuka at its show on September 11 in Osaka.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling has announced Daisuke Sasaki tested negative for COVID-19 and will return to in-ring action at its show on August 15 in Korakuen Hall.

Sasaki will miss DDT’s show on August 9 in Morioka due to being in close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19.

 

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