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NEW JAPAN WRESTLE KINGDOM EXPANDS TO THREE DAYS, WRESTLE GRAND SLAM AND MORE FROM JAPAN

New Japan Pro Wrestling

Wrestle Kingdom 16 will be a three-day event to celebrate New Japan Pro Wrestling’s fiftieth anniversary, the company announced during today’s second Wrestle Grand Slam show in the MetLife Dome.

The first two nights of Wrestle Kingdom 16 will take place on January 4 and 5 in the Tokyo Dome, the same format as the past two years. The third night, however, will take place on January 8 in Yokohama Arena.

The full results from today’s show were:

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

After SHO defeated YOH, Bullet Club’s Dick Togo, EVIL and Yujiro Takahashi came to the ring – marking their first appearances since New Japan’s fourteenth Summer Strugle tour show in three weeks due to COVID-19 protocols – and offered SHO a Bullet Club shirt.

The gesture was accepted and SHO is now the sixteenth member of the stable. Notably, the shirt had a new “House of Torture” design and it appears House of Torture will be new Bullet Club subgroup moving forward.

Backstage, EVIL said SHO is now the “Murder Machine” and he will make a pile of corpses.

Bullet Club leader Jay White did not seem particularly thrilled by the new developments within his own stable, posting three laughing emojis on Twitter.

In the biggest victory of his career, Jeff Cobb defeated Kazuchika Okada in the fourth match. It is the first time Cobb has defeated Okada.

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

New Japan will hold its third Wrestle Grand Slam show tomorrow in the MetLife Dome. The full card is:

• Great-O-Khan and Jeff Cobb vs. Kazuchika Okada and Tomohiro Ishii
• IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships: El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori (c) vs. El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru
• IWGP Tag Team Championships: Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. (c) vs. Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI vs. SANADA and Tetsuya Naito
• IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles (c) vs. Hiromu Takahashi
• IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi (c) vs. EVIL

El Phantasmo and Taiji Ishimori will attempt their second defense of the IWGP Junior Tag Team Championships against Super Junior Tag League tournament winners El Desperado and Yoshinobu Kanemaru in the second match.

Taichi and Zack Sabre Jr. will attempt their first defense of the IWGP Tag Team Championships against Hirooki Goto and YOSHI-HASHI as well as SANADA and Tetsuya Naito in a three-way tag team match in the third match..

The odds might be stacked against the current champions, as five of the last seven IWGP Tag Team Championships reigns have ended without a single successful defense of the titles.

Robbie Eagles will attempt his first defense of the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship against Hiromu Takahashi in the fourth match.

Eagles defeated El Desperado, a man who Takahashi has no shortage of history with, to win the title at the first Wrestle Grand Slam show on July 25 in the Tokyo Dome. Takahashi announced he intended to challenge the winner of the match, and the stage for Eagles’ first defense was set.

The opponents have only ever faced off in a singles match on one occasion, when Takahashi defeated Eagles in last year’s Best of the Super Juniors tournament. If history repeats itself, Eagles’ title reign will be over before it even started and Takahashi will regain the title he never lost (Takahashi was forced to vacate the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in February due to a left pectoral injury).

It is also worth remembering that when Takahashi returned from his neck injury in 2019, he lost his first match back – teaming with BUSHI against Eagles and his partner – after Eagles caught him off guard with an O’Connor roll pin. While Takahashi has already made his in-ring return, defeating DOUKI in a singles match at the twentieth and final Summer Struggle tour show on August 27 in Korakuen Hall as well as teaming with BUSHI against Eagles and Tiger Mask today, Eagles has benefited from Takahashi’s ring rust before.

Shingo Takagi will attempt his second defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship against EVIL in the main event.

As Takagi was celebrating his first successful defense of the title against Tanahashi at the first Wrestle Grand Slam show, darkness shrouded the arena and EVIL announced his intention to challenge Takagi for the title before launching a surprise attack. However, EVIL and Takagi’s budding rivalry was cut short last month when BUSHI and Takagi tested positive for COVID-19, meaning tomorrow’s main event will be both man’s first match in three weeks and Takagi’s first since recovering from COVID-19.

Takagi defeated EVIL in the New Japan Cup semifinals in March, which remains the lone singles match between the two. Tomorrow’s victor will carry the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship into the upcoming G1 Climax tournament, and pending a likely title defense at Power Struggle in November, will be primed to defend the title at Wrestle Kingdom 16.

Elsewhere, Satoshi Kojima will face Jon Moxley at All Elite Wrestling’s All Out pay-per-view tomorrow in the NOW Arena.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

DDT Pro-Wrestling held a show today in Nagoya, highlighted by a one-night, four-team tournament.

The full results were:

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

The losers of each match “advanced” (used loosely) to the next stage of the tournament. The team which lost the last match was be forced to disband the stable it represented, meaning DAMNATION is no more.

Soma Takao, Tetsuya Endo and Yuji Hino have vacated the KO-D 6-Man Tag Team Championships due to DAMNATION disbanding.

DDT will hold a show tomorrow in Osaka. The full card is:

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

Dragon Gate

Dragon Gate held its first Storm Gate 2021 tour show today in Fureai Cube Kasukabe.

The full results were:

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

Dragon Gate will hold its second Storm Gate 2021 tour show tomorrow in Mercure Hotel Yokosuka. The full card is:

• Dragon Dia, Jason Lee and Kota Minoura vs. Kagetora, Naruki Doi and Strong Machine J
• Genki Horiguchi and Ho Ho Lun vs. Ultimo Dragon and Yasushi Kanda
• Dia Inferno and Diamante vs. La Estrella and Shun Skywalker
• Ben-K, KAI and Masaaki Mochizuki vs. Dragon Kid, Keisuke Okuda and YAMATO
• BxB Hulk, Eita, H.Y.O and Kaito Ishida vs. Funky Jacky Kamei, King Shimizu, Susumu Yokosuka and U-T

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Pro Wrestling NOAH has confirmed HAYATA will attempt his fourth defense of the GHC Junior Heavyweight Championship against Daisuke Harada at its show on October 10 in EDION Arena Osaka.

Before then, however, Harada and HAYATA will face off in a non-title singles match at NOAH’s empty arena show on September 15. The full card for the show is:

• Kai Fujimura and Kinya Okada vs. Mohammed Yone and Shuhei Taniguchi
• Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara vs. Junta Miyawaki and Yasutaka Yano
• Daisuke Harada vs. HAYATA

Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu will attempt their second defense of the GHC Junior Tag Team Championships against Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara at NOAH’s show on September 12 in Korakuen Hall. The updated card is:

• Aleja, Haoh and Tadasuke vs. Junta Miyawaki, Kai Fujimura and Yasutaka Yano
• N-1 Victory D block: Kazuyuki Fujita vs. Masa Kitamiya
• N-1 Victory B block: Kendo Kashin vs. Kenoh
• GHC Junior Tag Team Championships: Seiki Yoshioka and Yuya Susumu (c) vs. Atsushi Kotoge and Hajime Ohara
• N-1 Victory C block: Katsuhiko Nakajima vs. Masato Tanaka
• N-1 Victory A block: Keiji Mutoh vs. Takashi Sugiura

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling will hold its Death Mania IX 2021 show tomorrow in Nagoya.

The full card is:

• Hiroyuki Suzuki and Takuho Kato vs. Kazumi Kikuta and Takuya Nomura
• Akira Hyodo and Kankuro Hoshino vs. Jaki Numazawa and Masaya Takahashi
• Abduallah Kobayashi and Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Brahman Kei and Brahman Shu
• Intelligent Sensational Grand Passion Mask No. 4, Shinya Ishida and Yusaku Ito vs. Kazuki Hashimoto, Kosuke Sato and Kota Sekifuda
• Shigehiro Irie vs. Yuya Aoki
• Kengo Takai vs. Yuji Okabayashi
• Deathmatch: Michio Kageyama and Takumi Tsukamoto vs. Ryuji Ito and Yuki Ishikawa
• BJW Tag Team Championships: Daichi Hashimoto and Hideyoshi Kamitani (c) vs. Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Hino
• BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship: Yasufumi Nakanoue (c) vs. Fuminori Abe
• BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship: Drew Parker (c) vs. Yuko Miyamoto

Daichi Hashimoto and Hideyoshi Kamitani will attempt their first defense of the BJW Tag Team Championships against Daisuke Sekimoto and Yuji Hino.

Yasufumi Nakanoue will attempt his sixth defense of the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship against Fuminori Abe.

Drew Parker will attempt his second defense of the BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Championship against Yuko Miyamoto in the main event. Then, the winner will defend the title against Ryuji Ito at Big Japan’s show on September 20 in Sapporo while the loser will team with Yuki Ishikawa against Jaki Numazawa and Jun Kasai.

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