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NJPW WRESTLE GRAND SLAM TOMORROW IN SAITAMA, SHO VS. YO, NOAH, DDT AND MORE FROM JAPAN

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan Pro Wrestling will hold the second night of Wrestle Grand Slam tomorrow in the MetLife Dome in Saitama.

The full card is:

• Lady C and Maika vs. Momo Watanabe and Saya Kamitani
• BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi vs. Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask
• SHO vs. YOH
• KOPW 2021 No Disqualification I Quit match: Chase Owens (c) vs. Toru Yano
• Jeff Cobb vs. Kazuchika Okada
• IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship: Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Kota Ibushi

Lady C and Maika will face Momo Watanabe and Saya Kamitani in a World Wonder Ring Stardom showcase match. The bout will air on NJPW World before the start of the show, similar to the KOPW 2021 New Japan Ranbo at the first Wrestle Grand Slam show on July 25 in the Tokyo Dome.

BUSHI and Hiromu Takahashi will face Robbie Eagles and Tiger Mask in the opening match, which will serve as the final preview before Eagles attempts his first defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Takahashi on the third night of Wrestle Grand Slam on Septemebr 5 in the MetLife Dome in Saitama.

SHO and YOH will collide in a grudge match after SHO betrayed YOH at New Japan’s fifteenth Summer Struggle tour show on August 16 in Korakuen Hall. Tomorrow’s match will be the fifty-second singles match between the two, but for the first team in nearly six years.

Since returning from excursion in 2017, SHO and YOH – better known as Roppongi 3K – were arguably one of the most dominant junior heavyweight tag team in modern history. The duo won the last three Super Junior Tag League tournaments and have also held the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championships five times (only topped by Matt Jackson and Nick Jackson’s seven reigns with the titles).

However, the team suffered a horrendous 0-3 start in this year’s Super Junior Tag League. On August 16, SHO opted not to save YOH at the climax of the show’s main event and watched from the outside as El Desperado picked up the victory.

SHO then hit Shock Arrow on YOH and announced backstage that his former partner is of no use to him anymore, putting an emphatic end on a nine-year partnership.

It remains to be seen what the future holds for SHO and YOH, but one has to imagine SHO might be migrating to a new faction in the near future.

United Empire’s hatchet Jeff Cobb and CHAOS leader Kazuchika Okada will face off in a rematch of the first Wrestle Grand Slam show.

Okada narrowly escaped with the victory on that night after catching Cobb off guard with a flash pinfall. Cobb announced afterwards he would travel back to America to regain his focus, but instead made a surprise appearance at the Summer Struggle tour show two days later to attack Okada.

Hiroshi Tanahashi will attempt his first defense of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship against Kota Ibushi in the main event.

Tanahashi defeated All Elite Wrestling’s Lance Archer to win the title at New Japan’s Resurgence show on August 14 in The Torch at L.A. Coliseum, Los Angeles, California. He soon issued a challenge to Ibushi via video message, which Ibushi quickly accepted. It will be the first singles match between the on-again, off-again partners in over two years and the first IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship match in Japan since last February.

It will also be Ibushi’s first match in over two months due to aspiration pneumonia. Ibushi was previously scheduled to challenge Shingo Takagi for the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at the first Wrestle Grand Slam show, but Tanahashi took his place.

New Japan has uploaded a new interview with Ibushi ahead of the match. It can be read here.

British promotion Revolution Pro Wrestling announced yesterday that Mark Davis and Shota Umino have tested positive for COVID-19.

Both competitors will miss RevPro’s shows tomorrow in Sheffield and September 5 in London, the same shows which will mark the beginning of Yota Tsuji’s excursion in England.

Umino left New Japan on excursion to England in September 2019 after that year’s Young Lion Cup. Needless to say, the ongoing COVID-19 global pandemic cut those plans short.

Umino mostly wrestled for RevPro while on excursion but also made appearances in ATTACK! Pro Wrestling, Fight Club: PRO and Over The Top Wrestling. He is best known for becoming Jon Moxley’s tag team partner throughout 2019’s G1 Climax tournament and unfortunately missed Resurgence and New Japan’s television taping on August 16 in Thunder Studio in Long Beach, California, due to international travel restrictions.

New Japan fans will remember Davis from the company’s Royal Quest show in August 2019 in London. He and his Aussie Open tag team partner Kyle Fletcher unsuccessfully challenged Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa for the IWGP Tag Team Championships. Aussie Open are one of the best tag teams in the world and would be a fantastic addition to New Japan’s roster one day.

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Pro Wrestling NOAH held a show today in Yokohama Radiant Hall.

The full results were:

• Haoh and Nioh def. Kai Fujimura and Yasutaka Yano
• Aleja def. YO-HEY
• Daisuke Harada def. Tadasuke
• Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara and Junta Miyawaki def. Seiki Yoshioka, Yoshinari Ogawa and Yuya Susumu
• Kaito Kiyomiya def. NOSAWA Rongai
• GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship: HAYATA (c) def. Kotaro Suzuki

HAYATA made his third successful defense of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Kotaro Suzuki in the main event. Daisuke Harada challenged HAYATA for the title after the bout.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling will hold a show tomorrow in Nagoya, highlighted by a one-night, four-team tournament.

The losers of each match will “advance” (used loosely) to the next stage of the tournament. The team which loses the last match will be forced to disband the stable it represents.

The stables competing in the tournament are:

• DAMNATION: Daisuke Sasaki, Soma Takao, Tetsuya Endo and Yuji Hino
• DISASTER BOX: HARASHIMA, Kazuki Hirata, Naomi Yoshimura and Toru Owashi
• Junretsu: Hideki Okatani, Jun Akiyama, Mizuki Watase and Yusuke Okada
• The37KAMIINA: Konosuke Takeshita, MAO, Shunma Katsumata and Yuki Ueno

The full card for tomorrow’s show is:

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

Konosuke Takeshita and Shunma Katsumata are scheduled to attempt their second defense of the KO-D Tag Team Championships against Danshoku Dieno and Yuki Iino at DDT’s show on September 12 in Fukuoka. However, the titles will be vacated if The37KAMIINA are forced to disband.

All Japan Pro Wrestling

All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Atsuki Aoyagi will substitute for an injured Soma Watanabe at GLEAT’s show on September 11 in Osaka, teaming with Issei Onitsuka against CIMA and Kaz Hayashi.

The updated card for the show is:

• Eisa8 vs. T-Hawk
• Drake Morimatsu and Hibisus Mii vs. Michiko Miyagi and Momoka Hanazono
• Daijiro Matsui vs. El Lindaman
• Atsuki Aoyagi and Issei Onitsuka vs. CIMA and Kaz Hayashi
• Daimonji So, Hayato Tamura and Ryuichi Kawakami vs. Minoru Tanaka, Takanori Ito and Yu Iizuka

All Japan’s Akira Francesco will make his Belgium debut at BodyZoï Wrestling’s show on October 9 in Frameries, Belgium. Tickets are available here.

Pro Wrestling ZERO1

Pro Wrestling ZERO1 will hold a show tomorrow in Nagoya.

The full card is:

• Genta Hiriki vs. Shoki Kitamura and Takumi Baba
• Chris Vice and Yoshikazu Yokoyama vs. Junya Matsunaga and Satsuki Nagao
• Hartley Jackson, Shinjiro Otani and Takafumi vs. Masato Tanaka, Takuya Sugawara and Yasu Kubota
• Tenka-Ichi Junior second round: Andy Wu vs. Junta Miyawaki
• Tenka-Ichi Junior second round: Hide Kubota vs. Keo Isaka

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