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fagcrisis · 1 year

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my friend ellis @jonny-dykeville wants to get into njpw, and i thought id write her a little summary of whats been going on lately! im posting it here in case its useful for anyone who wants to get into nooj but finds it a little too confusing (understandable) or has stopped watching in the last couple years and now wants to get back into it

this will include a list of matches at the end from 2023 that i think were good and/or are important to storylines! this is accurate to the day im writing it which is 2023/05/15

LINKS TO BE UPDATED

The landscape of New Japan Pro Wrestling has changed enormously in the past couple of months. For example if you told someone a year ago that Kazuchika Okada would hold a non singles belt, theyd laugh in your face.

So how did we get here?

google doc version

Your current champions

Sanada beat Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP heavyweight championship at Sakura Genesis, and has since defended it against Hiromu Takahashi, the current junior heavyweight champion.

Hiromu won the belt at Wrestle Kingdom in a four-way match against Master Wato, El Desperado, and former champion Taiji Ishimori.

The IWGP women’s title was created last year and won by Kairi at Historic X-over. She lost the belt to Mercedes Moné, who was champion until Mayu Iwatani dethroned her recently.

Aussie Open hold the tag titles after defeating Bishamon, and they’ve gone on to win the Strong openweight tag team championships from the Motor City Machine Guns.

David Finlay is the NEVER openweight champion, bringing the belt back in to Bullet Club after Tama Tonga defeated Karl Anderson for it at Wrestle Kingdom.

Intergalactic Jetsetters (Kushida And Kevin Knight) finally ended the reign of Catch 2/2 (Tjp And Francesco Akira) as junior heavyweight tag team champions during the road to Wrestling Dontaku tour, thank god.

Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi and Tomohiro Ishii are the NEVER openweight six man champions winning the titles from Strong Style (El Desperado, Minoru Suzuki And Ren Narita). If you think that sentence is insane, don’t worry I’ll explain whats happening.

Zack Sabre Jr became the inaugural NJPW World TV champion, winning the tournament at Wrestle Kingdom by defeating Ren Narita, and he’s had some incredible defenses since (you might’ve seen him on ROH).

the KOPW trophy graduated to a belt after El Phantasmo broke it, and Taichi is the current provisional champion having defeated Shingo Takagi for it.

Kenta lost the strong openweight championship to Hikuleo in the first defense of the belt in Japan, after winning it from Fred Rosser (with Juice interference).

at the time of writing this the Strong women’s title does exist but the tournament to decide its first owner has yet to be held (Resurgence may 21st).

Karl Anderson will pay for his crimes

Those who have been following me since november last year know that Suzuki-gun, a heel faction in NJPW led by Minoru Suzuki, has come to an end. I was inconsolable. There are multiple reasons for this happening, but the main one is Karl Anderson.

While Anderson is a member of Bullet Club, and in fall of last year was still the NEVER openweight champion, he is contracted to WWE and was on a handshake deal with NJPW, essentially promising he’ll appear at shows they book him for. There was a scheduling conflict with one of WWE’s saudi shows, and Anderson essentially ghosted the company not appearing for his title defense against Hikuelo, which meant I had to watch Yujiro Takahashi wrestle. anyway this all meant that New Japan lost faith in their freelancers, and because the majority of Suzuki-gun were on handshake deals, this meant the faction had to go. Their last match was on december 23rd (njpwworld) (bilibili link) and it was very emotional and beautiful, and I was incredibly sad.

Shota came back!

Shota Umino, who you may know as the protege of Jon Moxley, returned from excursion in the fall of last year. Young lions (NJPW trainees) are sent abroad to foreign promotions by the company to train and gather experience in different environments to Japan. Shota was in Britain for a time and he returned, challenging Will Ospreay for the US title he still held at the time. He lost but with this high profile title shot he joined the ranks of the young stars NJPWhas much faith vested in.

This also includes Ren Narita, who you may not know because he was never adopted by a mean american man. he was trained by Katsuyori Shibata, earning the nickname Son of Strong Style and wearing similar gear to Shibata as well. The company seems to be trying to set him up to be Shibata’s successor, and he wrestles a similarly, clean technical style.

A recent addition to their ranks is Yota Tsuji, whose return I will explain later.

The IWGP women’s title

Women’s wrestling promotion Stardom and NJPW are both owned by Bushiroad. Because of this last year there was a crossover between the two promotions, which saw the first mixed tag matches in an NJPW ring. Great show, you should watch it. (njpwworld link) (bilibili link)

For this event, the IWGP women’s championship was created and won by Kairi. Now I have some thoughts about how Stardom is already full of accomplished talented women, and putting a women’s match on the card once in a blue moon isn’t a win for women in wrestling and you should maybe try watching Stardom instead (guide on how to do that). But I digress. Regardless of whether or not this is pandering, every match for the belt was undoubtedly incredible and I will be linking them all in the rec section.

A brief Wrestle Kingdom aside

You fucking know what happened at Wrestle Kingdom I shouldn’t have to explain this to you. Kenny Omega returned and defeated Will Ospreay for the US title, and Okada won his beloved IWGP belt back from Jay White, starting him down the path of leaving NJPW.

What you might not know is what happened at Wrestle Kingdom Night 2, which confusingly was held some weeks later. Wrestle Kingdom traditionally is a show between NOAH and NJPW, so Night 2 saw the two promotions pitch their most popular wrestlers against each other. Okada was set to fight Kaito Kiyomiya in a tag team match, but he thought this challenge beneath him and attempted to murder Kiyomiya ruling the match a no contest.

Later in february, at Keiji Muto’s retirement show, Okada did have to face off Kiyomiya in a singles bout, despite his protests that he is not some cheap whore (his words not mine). That entire show is incredibly good but not extremely relevant to NJPW storylines, as crossover events usually are not. (njpwworld) (unoffical link)

After Wrestle Kingdom, New Japan holds New Year’s Dash and the New Beginning shows where they set up new storylines that will likely last the whole year. Jay White challenges Hikuleo to a loser leaves Japan match, because he blames him and his brothers (Guerillas of Destiny) for Bullet Club weakening and his loss at Wrestle Kingdom. He promptly loses this match. Bummer.

El Desperado refuses to accept that Suzuki-gun is over and joins Minoru Suzuki in defending Ren Narita from House of Torture’s dastardly attack, leading to the formation of their trios team; Strong Style. They then go on to defeat House of Torture for the NEVER openweight six man tag team titles. Now this is crazy but we dont have time to dwell on it because the other remnants of Suzuki-gun are also making moves that are considerably more insane.

Its time for: faction madness

There are a lot of factions in New Japan Pro Wrestling. like a lot. Every storyline is heavily driven by who is in what faction and where their allegiences lie. This might be confusing to you if you only watch AEW, a promotion where factions matter less than what Tony adds to commentary.

TMDK

Naturally ex-Suzuki-gun member and best technical wrestler in the known universe Zack Sabre Jr couldn’t simply remain in Hontai, the main body of New Japan where factionless members of the roster belong. Luckily he was a free agent for all of five seconds before his old australian buddies snatched him and his fresh tv championship up. TMDK, known as an australian faction despite a solid half not being from Australia, has suffered some losses in the past year. Jonah, their strongest member, a man who defeated even Kazuchika Okada, left Japan for WWE. Shane Haste and Mikey Nicholls, founding members of the faction and a tag team under the same name, have failed to succeed in winning Tag League in fall of last year. Safe to say, they needed a win. Zack has teamed with them during his time in NOAH, so it was only logical that he would return to his old friends. They even recruited a young lion, Kosei Fujita, who became the first young lion in a faction if you don’t count Hikuleo which was a slightly different situation. TMDK also includes Bad Dude Tito (or Big Teets) over in the States.

The addition of Zack really reinvigorated the faction. Shane and Mikey challenged and failed to defeat Aussie Open for the tag titles, and Robbie Eagles left Chaos for more australian pastures, joining the faction when he challenged Hiromu Takahashi for his championship. Robbie also lost but TMDK didn’t let these setbacks stop them from cutting the weirdest promos after every match and staunchly insisting Fujita (who they’ve nicknamed Big Fooj) will be the first young lion to win a championship.

United Empire

Will Ospreay is no longer the IWGP US heavyweight champion. After losing to Kenny Omega he threw a hissy fit and declared that he would give professional wrestling one more year. He also entered the New Japan Cup, a tournament for the right to challenge for the IWGP championship. Unfortunately in a match against his friend and stablemate Mark Davis (of Aussie Open and ass size fame) he injured his shoulder which put him out of action until about last week. He won the 1pw world title though, so he’s fine.

Other than that, the faction has been doing fairly well for themselves. After a titanic struggle against Bishamon, Aussie Open won the tag titles and have gone on to defend them against TMDK and somehow, Best Friends on AEW television. They also won the Strong tag titles, and Kyle Fletcher managed to botch a moonsault in both matches. You’ve definitely seen them even if you don’t watch NJPW, their schedule is insane and they have a banger of a match practically on a weekly average.

Also tag champions in the faction were Catch 2/2, who held the junior titles until fairly recently. They’ve had great defenses against YOH and his new tag partner, Lio Rush (more on that in a second) and Douki and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. What you need to know about Catch 2/2 is that TJP is a PragerU weirdo and Akira is good albeit italian.

UE also includes Jeff Cobb, who you might’ve seen challenging for Kenny Omega’s US title on Dynamite. He is incredible I don’t have anything else to say. He also kind of thinks flat earthers have a point. He’s really good though.

Also in the faction are Aaron Henare, men’s rights weirdo who challenged and lost to Shingo Takagi for the KOPW belt and Great O Khan who is somehow the Revpro champion. He is notable for having a nice bow in his hair and screeching. The most recent recruit to the faction is Dan Moloney, who unfortunately is fairly unknown to me. He joined the faction as a junior heavyweight and subsequently entered the Best of Super Juniors Tournament, which I will explain later.

Chaos

I’ve previously described Chaos as Hontai 2.0, because that’s really what it is. Lead by Kazuchika Okada, Chaos was the original heel faction in NJPW, founded by Shinsuke Nakamura. Nowadays it is a loose collection of allegiances that confusingly includes the entire Best Friends faction in AEW. Yes, that includes Trent’s mum Sue. Since becoming faces, Chaos members regularly team with Hontai because it all doesn’t really matter.

Kazuchika Okada defeated Hiroshi Tanahashi at Battle in the Valley, and then asked him to tag together. They named themselves the Dream Team, and I only briefly pondered how well it ended the last time Tana teamed with a younger star. Anyways I’m sure this will go fine. They challenged Okada’s fellow Chaos members Bishamon for their tag titles they still held at that time, and sadly lost that match. They defeated the team of Shota Umino and Ren Narita, and then once again failed to obtain gold in a 3-way match against the Motor City Machine Guns and Aussie Open (who won). After Okada lost his belt, they recruited Tomohiro Ishii, who doesn’t like Tanahashi and doesn’t want to team with him because he isn’t in Chaos. Despite this, they managed to defeat Strong Style for the NEVER openweight six man championships.

Bishamon I’ve covered sufficiently enough I think, they are the team of Hirooki Goto who recently celebrated his 20th anniversary in professional wrestling and YOSHI-HASHI who used to be incredibly horrible and is less bad recently. They are fun and I like them.

YOH and SHO were a junior tag team in Chaos until SHO turned heel, joining Bullet Club. This left YOH in a sort of strange limbo, where he contemplated quitting wrestling and pursuing his more artistic ambitions (he is a musician and an artist). Rocky Romero, also a member of Chaos, got him and Lio Rush together to team for Junior Tag League, and they ended up winning the tournament! Although they failed to defeat catch 2/2 at Wrestle Kingdom, and Lio got injured, teaming with him seemed to bring YOH’s confidence back. He’s been wrestling slightly differently and with more self-assurence. The pair both separately challenged and lost to Hiromu Takahashi, two incredible matches that I will link below. Not even these losses brought YOH’s confidence down though, and he’s entered BOSJ alongside Lio although they are in different blocks.

Also members of Chaos are Rocky Romero, Best Friends (including Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy, Sue, and I think quite possibly Danhausen), Toru Yano who is kind of a funny little man, and Tomohiro Ishii.

Los Ingobernables de Japon

Led by Tetsuya Naito, the tweener group is more of a loose collection of talented individuals than your regular faction. LIJ has a policy of letting their members forge their own paths and create their own success, instead of letting them fall back on the power of the group.

Maybe the only exception to this rule is Hiromu Takahashi, who owes a lot of his success to the faction as well as his mentor Tetsuya Naito. Hiromu is very talented and has a very unique style both in his wrestling and his fashion sense. Unbiased corner ahead I like him a lot. He holds junior wrestlers in very high regard and recently organized the All Star Junior festival to showcase junior heavyweights from all around japan (njpwworld ppv) (vk link). He has a plush cat named Daryl. Hiromu is kind of the ace of the junior division right now, he is on his fifth title reign and is trying to defend the belt 12 times to beat the current defense record of 11 held by Minoru Tanaka. Currently he is 4 defenses into this streak, having defeated YOH, Lio Rush, Robbie Eagles and Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Despite being champion he entered BOSJ, a tournament he’s won four times, three times in a row. If he wins, he’ll get to hand pick his opponent at Dominion.

I have no clue what to say about Tetsuya Naito. To quote my friend Jay, “it’s naito. he is an indescribable force of non-functional knees and the driest hair you've ever seen. he takes ten years to remove his entrance gear. he is naito”. You fucking know who Tetsuya Naito is.

This year, the main thing he’s done is defeating his mentor Keiji Muto at his retirement show in Febuary (njpwworld link) (vk link). He has a very hands off approach towards leading his group, sort of letting everyone figure their things out, which is why he didn’t really seem worried about his match against his stablemate Sanada in the New Japan Cup. You can imagine his surprise when Sanada not only defeated him but then declared that he would be leaving the faction, but more on that later. He also recently had a singles match against DOUKI, which was incredible.

Also members of LIJ are Shingo Takagi, winner of KOPW 2022 and former KOPW 2023 provisional champion, and also living legend. He made his name in Dragon Gate, a different japanese promotion you should also watch (I’m not at all being held at gunpoint by people whose names start with J), Bushi and Titan, who are both junior heavyweight luchadors I don’t know as much about as I should. They’re really good and they are both in BOSJ this year.

Bullet Club

Do I even need to explain. Don’t worry I will.

Jay White lost his loser leaves Japan match to Hikuleo, but there was hope. He promised Gedo he would go to America and wrestle on Strong and right his wrongs. So obviously he immediately lost a loser leaves New Japan match to Eddie Kingston, barring him from ever wrestling in a New Japan ring ever again. After weeks of radio silence, he showed up on Dynamite, forming Bullet Culb Gold (2 bullet 2 club) with Juice Robinson and you all know what happened after that.

It’s spring which means it’s Bullet Club infighting season. After Jay’s loss, his long time rival David Finlay waltzed into the ring all goth and angry, cutting a promo about how the japanese fans never appreciated him and he is an outsider wherever he goes. If this didn’t make it clear to you that he was the new leader, don’t worry it wasn’t clear to me or El Phantasmo either.

ELP was friends with Jay White, and made the rest of the Club agree that they will let Jay ride off into the sunset. A peaceful transfer of power is however impossible in Bullet Club, which is kind of a Stanford prison experiment for closeted gay men. It started bothering Phantasmo, that everyone in his faction so readily accepted Finlay as the new leader, like they weren’t fully behind Jay only a week ago. And anyone who questions the leader has to go.

Then came a months long game of gay betrayal chicken. Every postmatch, Phantasmo would assure Finlay that they were doing it for the club, refuse to too sweet the new leader, and the two slapping eachother in place of a tag. Meanwhile the faces in Hontai were increasingly more accepting towards ELP, Shota Umino even gave him one of his bracelets. The tension came to a boil at Sakura Genesis, where in a tag team match against Guerillas of Destiny and Master Wato, Phantasmo refused to commit the clubs usual heel antics and was brutally kicked out in response. Despite his close friendship with Taiji Ishimori and Kenta, both men readily betrayed him for David Finlay.

Phantasmo returned as a face to beat Finlay up after he defeated Tama Tonga for the NEVER belt, and the two have a title match set at Dominion.

As I mentioned Kenta and Taiji Ishimori are both members of Bullet Club, and Finlay recently recruited Clark Connors to be the clubs newest junior. He entered BOSJ alongside Taiji. Gedo, the head booker of NJPW is also a member of BC but he mainly stands ominously in the background and in kayfabe doesn’t have a massive role in storylines.

HOUSE OF TORTURE

I have to explain what’s going on here. Bullet Club has sort of a subesction? Called House of Torture. They’re only really part of BC in name only, and merch sales. Their thing is gratuitous cheating, if one HoT member has a match, the rest of them aren’t far behind making every match a handicap. Their members are EVIL, the leader of the group and former LIJ member, Yujiro Takahashi the incredible slow motion man whose joints creak audibly with every move, Dick Togo and SHO, who joined after betraying YOH and turning heel. SHO is actually pretty good but the presence of HoT at every match really ruins. Everything. I try not thinking about them.

JUST 5 GUYS

NOW baby. The reason I’m even writing this. The worst faction name in the history of pro wrestling. This faction is made of four ex-Suzuki-gun members and Sanada. Originally called Just Four Guys when Taka Michinoku, Taichi, Yoshinobu Kanemaru and DOUKI announced they would be forming a faction at New Year’s Dash. Taka made some baseless claims about how they will defeat everyone and change the landscape of New Japan. He also came up with their new catchphrase “You already die”. Commentary and everyone else immediately dismissed them as a joke that will last maybe a couple of months. Oh how wrong we were.

Initially, the group did not have much success. Douki and Uncle Nobu lost to Catch 2/2 in their title match against them, Taka kept getting pinned and they failed to deliver on their promises to destroy everyone who stood in their way.

Taichi, as their only heavyweight, entered the New Japan Cup. His first match was against Sanada, a man he’s had some history with when he was still tagging with Zack Sabre Jr as Dangerous Tekkers. Sanada was a man not really renowned for anything, he hasn’t seen any singles success since joining LIJ by helping Tetsuya Naito cheat, except for a US title run cut short with no defenses due to an injury. He had blonde hair and the best or the worst move in pro wrestling history, depending on if you ask my friend Ryan or me. He never hits a moonsault. I don’t think Naito even knew who he was.

Safe to say, absolutely no one expected Sanada to defeat Taichi, much less his superior Naito. What we expected the least is for him to announce he is leaving LIJ for Just 4 Guys, which was now to be renamed JUST 5 GUYS. With dark hair, a clean shaven face and soon, new gear as well, Sanada really found his footing among this motley crew, the way he never managed in his seven years during LIJ. He went on to blaze through the competition in the Cup, winning it and subsequently defeating Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP world heavyweight championship. Absolutely no one has expected this to happen, ever. Yet somehow, it is also one of the coolest things to happen, ever.

His former faction members in LIJ mostly seemed to just sort of accept he left, except for Hiromu. He said while he understood Sanada’s reasons for leaving, he felt betrayed. Hiromu challenged Sanada to a match for the heavyweight championship. No junior heavyweight has been able to defeat the heavyweight champion in the history of the company, although this match is not the first of its kind.

When Sanada defeated Hiromu, the returning Yota Tsuji walked out into the ring and beat him up, held up the LIJ fist and carried Hiromu out of the ring. We don’t really know if this means he’ll be joining the faction, but it’s very likely, and the two have a match set at Dominion.

Obviously other stuff has happened but this is already 4000 words long and I still have things to explain to you.

Whats happening right now

As I’m writing this, the 30th Best of the Super Juniors is just beginning. BOSJ is a round robin style tournament, just like the G1 where wrestlers are divided into two blocks and everyone fights everyone in their block. Usually, the winners of the two blocks face off against each other to win the tournament, but this year, the winner of each block faces off against the person who came second in the other block, and the winners of those matches are the finalists. The winner has the right to challenge for the IWGP junior heavyweight championship at Dominion.

This year’s participants are as follows.

I think this is absolutely the perfect time to get int New Japan. The junior division is full of incredibly talented wrestlers who focus more on fast paced high flying style matches and every one of them is easy to watch and very entertaining. The entire tour will be broadcast with full english coverage.

How do I watch all of this

New Japan conveniently has a streaming service called NJPW world, membership is 999 yen per month. Dont forget to toggle it to english in the upper left corner! Most shows have english commentary and in my opinion it is pretty good commentary. Even if you don’t want to pay for the site, it has a schedule page (upper right corner) which even displays multiple timezones, and links to the card for every upcoming show.

The site also has some free content, for example the backstage comments after every show. Backstage comments are essentially short interviews with the wrestlers directly after every match, which makes for very fun adrenaline fuelled nonsense. Search backstage comment on the site, or check the njpwworld youtube channel. The videos always have subtitles, but it takes the transcribers time, subs are usually out a day after shows air.

PIRACY

In case you’d like to sail the high seas, you have a couple of options.

Watching show’s live I would recommend watchprowrestling.org for. They upload the shows and you can watch them live as well with a bit of delay.

If you’re looking for older stuff, you should try searching on bilibili (dont be intimidated by the language barrier, its quite easy to use) or this specific user on vk.com.

MATCHES TO WATCH

Title changes and defenses:

Kazuchika Okada vs Jay White (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kenny Omega vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Master Wato vs El Desperado vs Taiji Ishimori (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Zack Sabre Jr vs Ren Narita FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tomohiro Ishii FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Shota Umino FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Tom Lawlor FREE MATCH

Zack Sabre Jr vs Jeff Cobb FREE MATCH

Catch 2/2 vs YOH and Lio Rush (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Catch 2/2 vs Intergalactic Jetsetters (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:35:08)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Lio Rush (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs YOH (njpwworld) (unofficial link2:48:13)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Robbie Eagles (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Yoshinobu Kanemaru (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Kazuchika Okada vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld)

Kazuchika Okada vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Sanada vs Hiromu Takahashi (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Aussie Open vs Bishamon (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs TMDK (njpwworld)

Aussie Open vs Motor City Machine Guns vs the Dream Team (Okada & Tanahashi) (njpwworld ppv)

Kairi vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Tam Nakano (njpwworld)

Kairi vs Mercedes Moné (unofficial link)

Mercedes Moné vs Kairi vs Hazuki (njpwworld)

Mercedes Moné vs Mayu Iwatani (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs El Phantasmo (njpwworld)

Tama Tonga vs David Finlay (unofficial link)

Taichi vs Shingo Takagi (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:44:00)

Strong Style vs Kazuchika Okada, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Hikuelo vs Kenta (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Story matches

Tetsuya Naito vs Sanada (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Hikuleo (njpwworld)

Jay White vs Eddie Kingston (njpwworld) (unofficial link 1:04:00)

Bullet Club (David Finlay, Kenta, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo) vs Guerillas of Destiny (Tama Tonga, Hikuleo & Jado) & Master Wato (njpwworld link)

just fun

Mark Davis vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld) (unofficial link)

Mark Davis vs EVIL (njpwworld)

Tetsuya Naito vs DOUKI (njpwworld) (unofficial link 2:11:32)

El Desperado vs Tomohiro Ishii (njpwworld ppv)

Shota Umino vs Tetsuya Naito (njpwworld)

Hiromu Takahashi vs Speedball Mike Bailey FREE SHOW

Taichi vs Will Ospreay (njpwworld)

#njpw #wrassle #yall this is nearly 5000 words please read it and watch njpw i worked so hard. for you to watch njpw. its so extensive #i explain literally everything

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zsjtmdk · 1 year

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Of course, I had to bring my beautiful NJPW World TV Championship as I am the best champion in the company. Excited to represent TMDK and have a great time tonight.

#unityversehq: event

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schadentekkers · 2 years

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FIRST NJPW WORLD TV CHAMPION ↳ ZACK SABRE JR

#zack sabre jr #zsj #njpw #mygifs #these look bad bc i could barely see through the tears in my eyes

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puroresu-musings · 9 months

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NJPW NEW YEAR DASH!! 2024 Review (Jan 5th, Sumida Ward Gymnasium, Tokyo)

NJPW World TV Championship - Hiroshi Tanahashi (c) vs. Ryusuke Taguchi **1/2

Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI vs. Kaito Kiyomiya & Ryohei Oiwa ***

El Phantasmo & Hikuleo vs. Yuto Nakashima & Oskar Leube **1/2

Tama Tonga, Shota Umino, El Desperado, Master Wato, Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma vs. EVIL, Ren Narita, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, SHO, Yujiro Takahashi & Dick Togo *1/2

Will Ospreay, Jeff Cobb, HENARE, TJP & Frencesco Akira vs. David Finlay, Gabe Kidd, Alex Coughlin, Clark Conners & Drilla Moloney ****

Tetsuya Naito, Shingo Takagi, Yota Tsuji, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI vs. SANADA, Taichi, Yuya Uemura, DOUKI & TAKA Michinku **1/4

KOPW 2024 Championship ~ Pinfall Only 10 Minute Sprint - Toru Yano vs. Great-O-Khan vs. YOH vs. Taiji Ishimori *1/2

Kazuchika Okada, Bryan Danielson, Jon Moxley & Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr., Mikey Nicholls, Shane Haste & Kosei Fujita ***3/4

Photos.

This was your typically fun, brisk NEW YEAR DASH!! show, that was as always was more about the angles and story progressions into the year ahead (or indeed, lack there of) as opposed to great matches or anything. Debuting in the Sumida Ward Gym, the show was a mystery card, with the matches only becoming apparent once the participants entered. Things kicked off with Tanahashi defending the World TV Title against Ryusuke Taguchi, in an inoffensive, but totally superfluous opener. It only went 5:40, and was pretty much all your typical Taguchi comedy bout, which Tana obviously won with a cradle. The post match was eventful as a video aired of none other than Matt Riddle challenging Tanahashi, so that's certainly an interesting development. Tana claimed to have no idea who Riddle was. Next up, NOAH Ace Kiyomiya and NJ Young Lion Oiwa put in a losing effort against former tag champs Bishamon. This was a nice little match which saw Goto pin Oiwa after the Shoto in 7:40.

The next outing was Young Lion's Nakashima and Leube's official last match before their excursion. They took on the new Tag Champs, ELP and Hikuleo in a standard tag match. Phantasmo pinned Yuto at the 8 minute mark with Thunder Kiss 86. After bidding the Young Lions farewell, Chase Owens attacked the champions, and announced himself and KENTA as their next challengers. Fab. It was 12 man tag action next as the entire House of Torture took on the New Japan Babyface All-Stars. This was pretty bad, and devolved into the usual HoT nonsense. Umino pinned Togo in 8 minutes after a Death Rider, then the heels beat everyone down in the post match. Narita focussed on Shota, so their feud continues, Kanemaru laid out Despy with a whiskey bottle, so there's his next Jr. Title challenger, and EVIL laid out Tama, cut his hair, and posed with the NEVER Title, which he then stole. I can't possibly pretend that any of these pairings interest me in the slightest, but if there's one positive, it's that at least EVIL isn't anywhere near the main event scene.

United Empire battled the Bullet Club War Dogs next in a 10 man. This was all excellent. The match itself only went 5:10, but it was all-action and super intense; they brawled around the building, Akira hit a balcony dive, Connors Speared and beatdown the referee, Gabe Kidd juiced a gusher after hitting the exposed buckles, the War Dogs all threw chairs and guardrails from the crowd into the ring, and the match was thrown out, ruled a No Contest. There was a crazy post-match beatdown, which included the heels trying to gouge Akira's eye out with a metal object, and he juiced too. Just when it looked like they were done, the UE fought back and cleared house, only for Gedo to blindside Ospreay with a lowblow. They were about to take him out when TJP made the save by Misting Finlay, and Ospreay hit Gedo with a running Powerbomb through an upright table in the corner. Ospreay then said his last night in New Japan is New Beginning in Osaka on February 11th, and challenged all 5 guys to 10 man war fare, and he'd let Finlay choose the stipulation. The new Global Champion chose a Cage Match, so that should be outstanding stuff. This was the highlight of the show by far.

LIJ and Just Five Guys faced off next in a total House Show affair. It wasn't bad, but certainly wasn't good, and the post match didn't fill me with much excitement. TAKA scored his first win in maybe 15 years when he pinned BUSHI with a Michinoku Driver II at 8:47. The post match saw SANADA challenge Naito to a rematch (meh). I'd much rather someone else challenge for the World Heavyweight belt at this point, maybe even Taichi, but this was the inevitable issue with putting the belt back on Naito. There just aren't many/any fresh matches for him. The 2024 KOPW Champion was decided in the next match, which was a pinfalls only 10 minute sprint. This sucked, the crowd was dead, the action uninspired and even though it only went 10 minutes, it felt 30. After O-Khan pinned everyone, Ishimori snuck in, stole a pin, then ran away to beat the clock and win the Championship. Whatever. I think this belt is way past its Use By date now.

And then it was main event time, as the Dream Team of Okada, Ishii, Mox and Danielson took on the TMDK guys. This was lots of fun, everyone looked great and all the individual stories made for a compelling watch. Ishii tore the house down every time he got in there, and Danielson and ZSJ's exchanges were the best wrestling on the show. Obviously. The finish saw Haste and Nicholls put Ishii away with the Tank Buster whilst Sabre had Danielson tied up in a Manjigatame at the 13:50 mark. The post match saw Zack challenge Danielson (now THAT'S a rematch I can get behind!), with both guys promising to tap each other out (despite all the talk of submissions, their last match ended in a pinfall), then Fujita said he, Nicholls and Haste were next for the NEVER 6 Man Titles. Okada was very annoyed at this, saying Fujita was in no way ready to face him, then they stared down Tanahashi on commentary to end and eventful show.

NDT

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aussiekyle · 3 months

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Kyle Thompson aka Kyle Fletcher

Australian professional wrestler signed to AEW and ROH. Member of the Don Callis Family. at ROH, he's formerly half of tag team champs and World TV Champion. He also wrestles for NJPW.

Kyle is single. Would like to find his love. Kyle is bisexual(men leaning)

Connections as well as plotting open

#btc.starter #btc.intro

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renee-ckstrong · 1 year

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THIS MATCH MAKES ME VERY EXITED, HERE'S WHY

I can't wait for Bound For Glory, the main event is set. The Challenger is, The Walking Weapon Josh Alexander Vs one half of the Motor City Machine Guns and current IMPACT World Champion Alex Shelley. Let's talk about it.

Now I'm not that big of an impact girlie. I was, when I was younger in the UK I couldn't get WWE on TV but I had access to TNA/IMPACT so that was the wrestling I watched in my youth and actually kept watching it for a while. In fact I'm going to go to see IMPACT live in the UK with my dad soon, which is brilliant remembering the time we spent watching IMPACT before. We're going to have such a good time.

This doesn't stop me from being VERY excited about this match. I've still been aware of the product even while I haven't been watching and I watched IMPACT 1000, saw their segment and WOW it was good.

Let's start with Alex Shelley, my little Motor City Blorbo, Shelley was brought into IMPACT using their old business strategy of 'Sign ultra talented ROH guys' that got them Styles, Sabin, Joe and Daniels. From 2004 to 2007 he would be a exciting feature of the X Division winning said title once. His true success would come between 2007 and 2012 in the team known as 'The Motor City Machine Guns' Shelley and partner Chris Sabin became on of the most influential and defining teams in IMPACT history before Shelley left IMPACT to work for ROH and NJPW.

On the other hand Josh Alexander came into IMPACT in 2019 (annoying just after I stopped watching so I missed out) also in the tag division having a lengthy singles run with Ethan Page as 'The North' who, despite being in a company that doesn't usually get considered for being the best, were considered to be one of the best tag teams in the world. And to stress, this was at the same time as The New Day, The Usos, The Young Bucks and FTR so being considered one of the best teams in this time is saying something. When Page departed the company Alexander got the big push, winning the X Division title then cashing in option C to become IMPACT World Champion. Then Moose beat him and ran him out of impact. But upon Alexander's return he reclaimed the title and became the longest reigning IMPACT World Champion of all time. A near year long reign that ended with Alexander having to relinquish the title because of a triceps tear.

Here in lies our conflict. Alexander wants to reclaim his title but he is also exited to wrestle Alex Shelley as he says "No one is a bigger fan of Alex Shelley than I am." or something like that. But Shelley wants to keep this belt at all costs. That's why he belittled Alexander at IMPACT 1000, because Alexander is trying to take away the biggest achievement of his life. An achievement that Alexander has had twice, but in his long career this is Shelley's first IMPACT World Championship reign. And one more detail in this story, that I only realised while writing this, is that while Alex Shelley is the tag partner who left (and then came back) out of him and Chris Sabin, Josh Alexander is the tag partner who stayed out of him and Ethan Page. As much of and IMPACT guy as Shelley wants to claim he is, Josh Alexander stayed and became one of the faces of IMPACT during it's resurgence and continued to be a defining 'IMPACT guy' during the pandemic. As much as I personally love Alex Shelley, there are lots of reasons to cheer Josh Alexander come the 21st.

And I think that's a large part of it. I used to watch IMPACT. I am nostalgic for IMPACT's past, people like Alex Shelley. But presently Josh Alexander is the guy. Alexander doesn't want this to be personal, but Shelley desperately wants to be the guy.

They are the past and present of IMPACT fighting for it's future.

Goddamn I deserve a job backstage working on hype packages.

And I have no idea who's going to win. Maybe people who watch more IMPACT have an idea but I don't. And that's exciting. I am so hyped for this match thank you for listening. I'm so excited to be an IMPACT fan again.

#impact wrestling #bound for glory #josh alexander #alex shelley #motor city machine guns #i am so hyped #get hyped with me #this is gonna be sick

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grave-queen-jakrabitt · 2 months

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Kyle Fletcher rules (and has for a while)

With the attention he’s been getting this year with aew I thought I’d take some time to lay out how I feel his pre AEW/ROH run set him up for success and offer up some recommendations, this is NOT meant to be a hipster “his Indy work was better” or anti aew take I just fucking love sharing and getting recommendations for wrestling

IPW/Defiant

My first exposure to Aussie open was during the IPW UK invasion of defiant around I wanna say 2018. They had some really good matches with CCK and the south coast connection and the entire promotion barring a few shows is completely accessible and honestly really fucking good.

Progress wrestling

I honestly believe that the Swords of Essex vs Aussie Open feud is what got my boys into the United empire, I’m not gonna say LITERALLY ANYTHING OTHER THAN THIS FUCKS SEEK IT OUT ITS ON DEMAND PROGRESS. That aside I think it set up the first big step for Kyle to break out

Mark Davis’s injury and the Paul Robinson feud

Progress had something called the proteus championship where the title holder picked the rule set for their defense, I will confess to not having seen these matches yet for myself but I did watch any related promo content I could find. The defining champion for this belt was a little pitbull by the name of Paul Robinson, he was a viscous little street fighter with an iron jaw so naturally the only way to win was knock out or tap out. Which surprisingly Kyle manages to beat him. I can’t really give much more information but this is around the time he added the grimstone to his moveset.

When progress had a vacant world title you know who they put in a fatal 4 way for it? Cara Noir, ilja dragunov, Paul Robinson, and Kyle Fletcher. He might not have won but he was a credible contender FOR A WORLD TITLE.

Why I don’t think AEWs roster problems affect him right now

Ok look we all know the bloated roster problem for both aew and wwe I’m not gonna beat a dead horse. Instead let break down why I personally don’t think it’s an issue for Kyle Fletcher at the moment.

Honestly it’s because he has too many options, he went toe to toe with mjf so that could turned into a feud to keep both of them busy and legitimize the American championship. But what if it goes nowhere? He’s been ROH tv champ and that could translate very laterally into either a TNT title or an international title. If mark Davis comes back you have one of the best teams of the last few years, you want to know what I would want to see done? Fuck it make him the international champion, make him a killer, you could have him only defend it against non Americans because “you guys already have a belt” use it like the international version of the tnt open challenge, it would be a near perfect way to utilize the partnership with cmll and njpw more often, hell maybe even get some freelance players in for a one off like axel ticher from Germany, augil Leblanc from France (forgive the misspelling). I think that would rule

#pro wrestling #aew #kyle fletcher #progress wrestling

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wrestlingisfake · 1 year

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G1 Climax Day 2 preview

D Block: Tetsuya Naito vs. Jeff Cobb - Naito is 3-0 against Cobb, which might explain why this match doesn't have any sizzle for me. It's just kind of there, and it feels like it's the main event just because Naito's the biggest star on the card.

Naito is my pick to win the whole tournament; pitting him against SANADA at Wrestle Kingdom for the world title just makes a lot of sense. If I'm right, that means New Japan has to spend the whole tour trying to convince you he's not the obvious favorite. And their favorite way to do that is book a guy into a 0-2 or 0-3 start to put them on the brink of elimination. The fact this match is going on last almost telegraphs that the big story of the show will be Cobb getting a win over Naito.

C Block: Tama Tonga vs. EVIL - I don't expect either of these guys to do better than 4-3 in the block. Actually, Evil could do a lot worse if they book him like his buddy SHO in the Best of the Super Jr. a couple of months ago. Tama's cool and I'd like to see him pushed, but seeing as Tanga Loa is finally back those two should get back in the tag title hunt as soon as the G1 ends. I don't think the outcome of this one is going to make much difference in anything.

D Block: Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi - Sabre is the NJPW World television champion; Tana is one of the NEVER trios champions. I could see either of these guys winning the block, with Naito barely squeaking by as runner-up.

A few years ago it felt like Sabre had Tana's number, but in singles matches Tana leads the series 6-4, and Sabre hasn't beaten him since 2019. I could see Sabre winning to even the score up a little. Although it would make sense for Tana to get a win to set up a TV title match. Note that this year's block matches have a 20-minute time limit, whereas Sabre's whole deal as TV champ is that nobody can beat him in fifteen. So if Tana does win, I expect it to be about 17 minutes in.

C Block: Eddie Kingston vs. Shingo Takagi - Eddie is the new STRONG champion, having won the belt from KENTA on July 5. I think all of Eddie's New Japan matches have been under the Strong brand, but now he's really in New Japan, y'know? Beating a former IWGP world champion in his G1 debut would be huge, even if Shingo isn't protected as much as some other former world champs. I'd go ahead and do it, but New Japan is more conservative than I am about giving out big statement wins like that.

I was going to say I don't think either guy is going to make it to the knockout stage, but as I look over all of C Block, none of those guys seem like strong candidates. So hell, maybe the idea is to keep the tippy-toppy guys out of the way so Eddie can win the block. It wouldn't be the worst idea in the world. I'll certainly be rooting for that to happen, but I bet I'll be disappointed a lot.

D Block: Alex Coughlin vs. Shane Haste - Coughlin is one of the STRONG tag team champions, alongside his partner Gabe Kidd. I'm sure at some point Coughlin and Kidd will have to contend with Haste and his own partner, Mikey Nicholls. But for now they're just two tag team guys in a singles tournament, so I don't expect much from either of them. I'd put Haste over to remind everybody he exists, but they may want all the new Bullet Club guys to shine in the early going.

C Block: Mikey Nicholls vs. Aaron Henare - I don't think Nicholls will do any better than Haste in this tournament, but chances are he can beat Henare. I really thought last year Henare would make a big impression in the G1, but now I've given up on the poor guy. If he can beat Nicholls, good for him, but I don't expect him to do better than 1-6.

D Block: Hirooki Goto vs. Toru Yano - Goto is a co-holder of the IWGP heavyweight tag team championship. Yano is mainly a comedy bullshit guy in the G1, but occasionally his comedy bullshit leads to a win that shakes up the standings. Interestingly, Yano has not beaten Goto in nine years. Something tells me he's due.

C Block: David Finlay vs. Tomohiro Ishii - Finlay is the NEVER singles champion and Ishii is one of the NEVER trios champions. I'm very confused this is the opening match. Finlay is getting the strangest "new leader of Bullet Club" push I've ever seen. This is a rematch from Finlay beating Ishii in the New Japan Cup, which suggests Ishii might get his win back. If it's me I have Finlay go 5-2 and at least finish second in the block. But I'm not so sure they're as committed to him as I think they should be.

#njpw #g1 climax

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celestial-thoughts · 1 year

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june 26, 2023 - weekly women's pro wrestling news roundup: week of june 19-25, 2023

this week's news roundup includes:

News & results from last week’s editions of Monday Night Raw, NXT, and Friday Night SmackDown.

News & results from last week's editions of WWE Main Event and NXT Level Up.

News & results from last week’s editions of AEW Dynamite, AEW Rampage, and AEW Collision.

News & results from AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door.

Other updates and news from last week.

Things to look forward to in women’s wrestling this week!

spoilers below the cut for shows/events listed above!

Notable news & results from TV last week:

Monday Night Raw (6/19):

Kayden Carter & Katana Chance defeated Sonya Deville & Chelsea Green. Katana pinned Sonya after hitting the Afterparty. match length-2:01.

WWE Women’s World Champion Rhea Ripley was set to take on Natalya in a non-title match, but Rhea attacked Natalya before the match could begin.

In a backstage interview, Raquel Rodriguez was being interviewed ahead of her Money in the Bank qualifying match. Raquel said that she would win the contract and cash in on Rhea Ripley, before being interrupted by Rhea coming backstage through the curtain. The two stared each other down, before Raquel made her entrance.

Trish Stratus defeated Raquel Rodriguez by disqualification to qualify for the women’s Money in the Bank ladder match. Trish won after Becky Lynch came out and attacked Zoey Stark, and in the chaos also attacked Trish, resulting in the DQ finish. match length-5:55.

NXT Gold Rush part 1 (6/20):

There was a video package of Gigi Dolin, followed by Kiana James talking trash about Gigi. Kiana called Gigi mediocre, and said that she is fueled by winning.

Duke Hudson hosted a pep rally to celebrate Thea Hail becoming the number one contender for the NXT Women's Championship. Thea was interrupted by NXT Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton, who called Thea dumb and crazy. Thea got Tiffany in the Kimura Lock, before Tiffany escaped the ring, and Thea stood tall with the title in her hand.

Cora Jade defeated Dana Brooke by referee stoppage. At one point, medical officials tried to remove Dana from the ring after her knee buckled, but she got off of the stretcher and re-entered the ring. Cora locked in a Single Leg Crab, and the official made the decision to call for the bell. match length-10:46.

Lash Legend & Jakara Jackson defeated Yulisa Leon & Valentina Feroz. During the match, Elektra Lopez and Lola Vice came out and watched from the ramp. Lash Legend scored the pinfall win with a pump kick. match length-3:22.

A match between Gigi Dolin and Kiana James was announced for week two of NXT Gold Rush.

AEW Dynamite (6/21):

Kris Statlander defeated Taya Valkyrie to retain the TBS Championship. Kris landed Big Bang Theory to get the win, and successfully defend the TBS Championship once again. match length-8:55.

WWE Main Event (6/22):

Dana Brooke defeated Xia Li. Dana pinned Xia after hitting a somersault neckbreaker. match length-5:07.

Friday Night SmackDown (6/23)

Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler (WWE) defeated Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn (NXT) to become the new Unified WWE Women's Tag Team Champions. The match ended with Ronda locking in an armbar and forcing Isla to tap out, while Shayna submitted Alba with the Kirifuda Clutch at the same time. match length-10:22.

After the match, Ronda and Shayna were confronted by Raquel Rodriguez, who said that she wanted a rematch for the titles that she had been forced to vacate. Raquel was then joined by a returning Liv Morgan, who has been out of action since the May 12 episode of SmackDown when she suffered a shoulder injury.

Charlotte Flair defeated Lacey Evans. Charlotte hit Lacey with a big boot, before she submitted her with the Figure 8. match length-2:43.

After the match, Charlotte stayed in the bridge and held Lacey in the figure 8. Charlotte was then attacked by WWE Women's Champion Asuka.

WWE official Adam Pearce told Bianca Belair that she would be barred from ringside for the WWE Women's Championship match next week on SmackDown, in order to prevent her from getting involved.

NXT Level Up (6/23):

Jacy Jeyne defeated Ivy Nile. match length-5:19.

AEW Rampage (6/23):

Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round: Skye Blue defeated Anna Jay A.S. Skye defeated Anna after hitting Code Blue, picking up her second win in a row in her hometown of Chicago. She will face the winner of Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. vs. Ruby Soho (which takes place on the June 28 episode of Dynamite). match length-8:17.

AEW Collision (6/24):

Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round: Willow Nightingale defeated Nyla Rose. Willow pinned Nyla after hitting the Doctor Bomb. She will face the winner of Athena vs. Billie Starkz (which takes place at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door: Zero Hour). match length-8:54.

Notable news & results from PPVs last week:

AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door (6/25): Disclaimer: I didn't actually watch Forbidden Door, but I got updates and results from the internet, as well as a friend of mine who was watching.

Women’s Owen Hart Cup Tournament first round: Athena defeated Billie Starkz. Athena pinned Billie after hitting a fireman's carry into a spinning double knees to the face. In addition to competing in AEW, Athena is currently the Ring of Honor Women's World Champion. She will face NJPW Strong Women's Champion Willow Nightingale in the semi-finals. match length-7:50.

AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm defeated. Willow Nightingale to retain the AEW Women’s World Championship. Toni was aided by the rest of The Outcasts, Ruby Soho and Saraya, in the opening of the match, but the duo were eventually ejected from ringside. Toni ultimately was able to get the pinfall win over Willow, after racking the eyes of her challenger and following it up with Storm Zero. match length-10:30.

Other news & updates from last week:

On The Pat Mcafee Show on Tuesday, June 20, Paul Heyman announced that WWE Fastlane will be held on Saturday, October 7 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Fastlane takes the October Premium Live Event spot that was held by Extreme Rules last year. This will be the first Fastlane event since 2021. Prior to that year, Fastlane was held annually from 2015 until 2019, with the 2017 and 2018 events being exclusive to Raw and SmackDown, respectively.

There is a press conference planned for directly after Money in the Bank this weekend. WWE have not held a post show press conference since WrestleMania, as the media events for Backlash and Night of Champions were both held the day before the show.

In the hours leading up to SmackDown on June 23, fans on Twitter pointed out the the match between Bayley and Shotzi for Bayley’s Money in the Bank ladder match spot had been removed from previews for the show. This match did not end up taking place on SmackDown, and was replaced by Charlotte Flair vs. Lacey Evans. It's unclear why Bayley vs. Shotzi was scrapped, but Sean Ross Sapp of Fightful did note on Twitter that Smackdown got "Vinced" tonight, saying that a lot of changes had been made.

Liv Morgan made her return on the June 23, 2023 episode of SmackDown. Liv had been out of action due to a torn shoulder, and recovered much faster than had originally been expected.

During the Women's Tag Team Title unification match on SmackDown last Friday, Michael Cole stated that the Women's Tag Team Championships will now be defended on all three brands, which was the original intention for the titles when they were created.

Speaking of the unification match, shortly after SmackDown ended last week, the NXT Women's Tag Team Championship was officially listed as "retired" on the WWE website. Alba Fyre & Isla Dawn are officially listed as the final NXT Women's Tag Team Champions, with their reign lasting 83 days.

On last week’s edition of The SmackDown Lowdown, it was announced that Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler will defend the Undisputed Women’s Tag Team titles against former champions Raquel Rodriguez & Liv Morgan.

At Stardom Sunshine on June 25, Giulia (who is currently one-third of the reigning Artist of Stardom Champions), called out NJPW Strong Women’s Champion Willow Nightingale and issued a challenge for the title.

Following her match at AEW x NJPW Forbidden Door on Sunday, June 25, the NJPW official Twitter account posted a video of NJPW Strong Women's Champion Willow Nightingale, who accepted Giulia's challenge. It is currently unclear when this match will take place.

It was officially announced on Sunday, June 25 that AEW All Out will be held on Sunday, September 3 at the United Center in Chicago. The pay-per-view will take place just one week after AEW All In, which is on Sunday, August 27 in London.

Things to look forward to this week:

This Monday, June 26 on Monday Night Raw, a women's Money in the Bank summit will be held.

This Tuesday, June 27, NXT Gold Rush continues. After winning a number one contender battle royal a few weeks ago, 19 year old Thea Hail challenges NXT Women's Champion Tiffany Stratton for the title. This will be Thea's very first opportunity at a title in her professional wrestling career.

Also this Tuesday at NXT Gold Rush, Gigi Dolin goes one-on-one with Kiana James.

This Wednesday, June 28 on AEW Dynamite, Dr. Britt Baker, D.M.D. takes on Ruby Soho of The Outcasts in the final first round match of the Women's Owen Hart Cup Tournament.

This Friday, June 30 on SmackDown live from London, WWE Women's Champion Asuka defends the title against 14 time world champion Charlotte Flair.

This Saturday, July 1 live from the O2 Arena in London, it's WWE Money in the Bank. The show will have a special start time of 3 pm Eastern time.

Current Women's Champions in WWE, AEW, ROH, & NJPW:

WWE: - Women's World Championship: Rhea Ripley - WWE Women's Championship: Asuka - NXT Women's Championship: Tiffany Stratton - WWE Women's Tag Team Championship: Ronda Rousey & Shayna Baszler

AEW: - AEW Women's World Championship: Toni Storm - TBS Championship: Kris Statlander

ROH: - ROH Women's World Championship: Athena

NJPW: - IWGP Women's Championship: Mayu Iwatani - Strong Women's Championship: Willow Nightingale

#weekly women's wrestling news roundup #celestial talks wrestling news #spoilers #monday night raw #wwe nxt #wwe main event #friday night smackdown #nxt level up #aew dynamite #aew rampage #aew collision #aew x njpw forbidden door #wwe #aew

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