Nakamura and Tanahashi have faced each other a number of times before in New Japan Pro Wrestling, and were considered the top rivals in the company.
Both of them have main evented Wrestle Kingdom, in 2008 and 2014 for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship and Intercontinental Championship respectively.
Another Match Added To Chris Jericho’s Cruise
Ring of Honor Wrestling has announced that their Sea of Honor Tournament on Chris Jericho’s upcoming Rock ‘N’ Wrestling Rager cruise will feature another match. “Hangman” Adam Page will go against Kazarian in singles action:
New Japan Pro Wrestling named a new President back in May. Dutch businessman, Harold Meij, was given the role. At NJPW’s show in Osaka Jo Hall recently, Meij appeared in the ring to address the fans.
“I will work with all my heart so that you fans can feel a stronger sense of inspiration, and enjoy yourselves even more,” Meij said. “I would like to take New Japan Pro-Wrestling to the next level.”
The 54-year-old recently sat down for an interview with Japanese media outlet, the Mainichi. He explained why he chose to address the crowd in Osaka.
“I think there are long-time fans that must be worrying, ‘What? The operator is a foreigner? What’s going to happen?’ Because I look like a foreigner, you know?” Meij said. “They worry that New Japan might change. I wanted to come myself as the president and talk with the fans to alleviate any anxiety they might have.”
NJPW Plans For Increased International Expansion
Meij would continue to say that 40% of the subscribers to New Japan World are from outside of Japan. Currently, the promotion has 100,000 subscribers to their streaming service.
“I want to expand the fan-base regardless of age, gender or nationality,” Meij explained. “New Japan has fantastic content, so it has the possibility of picking up popularity overseas. At the moment, there are some 100,000 registered members on our video streaming service ‘New Japan Pro-Wrestling World,’ and 40,000 of them live outside Japan. I would like to aim for the international market with things like videos in English or events for foreign tourists.”
Meij continued to say he plans to become a pioneer of sports marketing.
“Even though there are a plethora of markets abroad, many Japanese companies aren’t making any use of them. As someone not bound by language or cultural barriers, I would like to become a pioneer in sports marketing.” Meij continued. “In three years at least, I will achieve profits of 10 billion yen. The figure is close to the 10.2 billion yen made by the Japan Sumo Association in 2016.” He continued, “I will continue to show up at more and more matches because I have to judge the reactions of the fans for myself. To that end, I will speak with fans whenever I have the chance.”
On Friday night, Kenny Omega produced a live CEOxNJPW show which aired on Twitch. After the show, word began to spread that one of the wrestlers booked for the show was a registered sex offender.
Fans took to social media to voice their concern over the wrestler being booked. Omega issued the following response to the situation:
Big thanks to all that made #CEOxNJPW possible, but I wanted to address a terrible oversight on my part, in depth, for all to read. pic.twitter.com/JKBiqcuzGK
Earlier in the day, Omega released a series of Tweets addressing the matter:
“Here it is: I produced all matches from dark match #2 on. I gave the ring crew (also a wrestling school) carte Blanche to have our first dark. No entrances, no name graphics. And thus they had a match. I met Chasyn once in 2004 so his name was familiar. The other guy I’d never met.”
“Regardless of their history or whatever, this crew of people were all very helpful in set up, tear down, and various odd jobs around the arena. I’d felt giving them the opportunity to have a dark match was the least I could do as a way to show appreciation.”
“I’m gutted that people feel betrayed by their involvement, but at no point did I feel I was working with criminals or anything of the sort. As I’d said earlier, they were nothing but polite and helpful throughout the entire experience.”
“I’ll know better for next time to only use those I’m absolutely familiar/comfortable with”
Ring Of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star Cody Rhodes recently participated in a media conference call to promote the G1 Special Tournament. Cody will challenge IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega at the event for his title.
“The American Nightmare” first talked about what it would mean for him to win the ROH World Heavyweight Title before he heads into his IWGP match against Omega:
“As far as the Ring Of Honor World title heading into the G1 Special, I have these title matches. I have the Ring Of Honor one at Best In The World: Baltimore [Maryland], June 29th [2018], the day before my birthday.
“July 7th [2018] on AXS TV, what we’re talking about today, I have the IWGP Heavyweight Championship. And then, at All In, the show I’m executive producing, I have the NWA World’s Championship title match. So the world is not enough for someone like me. The character you see in the screen is very not… there’s not much difference. I think that might disappoint some people, I’m a bit of a dick in real life. And I don’t want to go 0-3. I don’t want to go 1-3. I don’t want to go 2-3.
“I want to go 3-3. I want to take this completely and it would mean a great deal to show up at Bay City [California], The Cow Palace, on AXS TV as Ring Of Honor Champion. And I think it would also be really good for Ring Of Honor. The Dalton Castle experiment didn’t pay off and this is my opportunity to get back to where I was because as their Champion, and even not as their Champion, I’ve continued to grow their business.
“And they’re very grateful for it and I’m very grateful for them. It’s an opportunity for me. But yeah, I’d very much like to show up and be able to hold my title up alongside [Omega’s] and see where it gets us.”
Cody then talked about wanting to compete in the G1 tournament this year. Unfortunately an acting gig presented a scheduling conflict. He promised he’d be in the G1 tournament next year or the year after:
“I would’ve wanted to be in the tournament this year, but there’s this other part of my life that’s not [pro] wrestling and that’s… I’ve been working to break into acting a little further. I had my guest roles in a couple of past seasons [of Arrow] and there was something I was able to accrue or book.
“It hasn’t been announced yet and that’s eating up my schedule. I actually don’t have a day off until the Wednesday before All In. After, I think I start July 1st [2018] and then go all the way till the Wednesday before All In. No days off at all.” Cody added, “that was the reason I wasn’t able to be in the G1. I think, I’ll just guarantee it. I’ll Joe Namath it.
“I will absolutely be in the G1 if not next year, the year after that. I give you my word. I’ll be in the G1. If I have to move Heaven and Earth to do it, I will compete in one. I’ve seen the importance of it.”
You can listen to Cody’s media conference call by clicking this link here.
There has been some concern in NJPW about low ticket sales for their upcoming G1 Special in San Francisco on July 7th. A recent report from the Wrestling Observer Newsletter is stating that the company has sold a little over 5,000 tickets to the event. The venue is believed to hold approximately double that for wrestling events.
Despite the low ticket sales, the revenue generated is still expected to produce the highest gate in venue history. This is due to the high cost of ticket prices. It is also notable that while only half the tickets have been sold, it is primarily the most expensive seats which have been purchased.
There has also been speculation that most of the tickets sold have gone to fans traveling from out of town. The tickets available on the secondary market have gone from being 95% local sellers to 86%, indicating recent ticket sales are going to people outside the Bay area as well.
A reader of the Observer Newsletter wrote in to say they have not seen any local advertising for the event. This leads to further speculation the fans who have purchased tickets are from the hardcore wrestling base and not casual fans located in the area.
NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco
Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, Gedo, YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS) vs Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, and King Haku (Bullet Club)
Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs Zack Sabre Jr and Minoru Suzuki (Suzuki-Gun)
KUSHIDA and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Marty Scurll and Hangman Page (Bullet Club)
NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto (CHAOS) (c) vs Jeff Cobb
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
the Young Bucks (Bullet Club) (c) vs SANADA and EVIL (LIJ)
Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS) vs Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI (LIJ)
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi (LIJ) (c) vs Dragon Lee (CMLL)
IWGP United States Championship
Jay White (CHAOS) (c) vs Juice Robinson
Former IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion Will Ospreay recently offered a Q&A for his Twitter followers (@WillOspreay) ahead of his Frontline Promotions’ debut show ‘Build Me An Empire’ which takes place tomorrow night from the Stratford Circus in London.
Several topics came up during the Q&A including Will’s all time dream opponent, his favourite New Japan Pro Wrestling bout, who his ideal opponent in WWE would be and much more. Check out the highlights below.
@notyash1If you were to join NXT, who would you face & why? – Me & Ricochet as a team Vs Tyler & Trent
@DRose502If you were to wrestle any wrestler past or present, who would it be and why? – Eddie Guerrero
@BondzillaTbFavourite Njpw match? – Okada vs Kenny. All of them
@bmaheshp1Who is your favourite wrestler from NXT? – Gargano is like the man
@juan_rafael12Why would not you like to go to WWE? – Right now I offer nothing. I wanna be able to say I satisfied myself on the independents & in Japan. Then if I ever went go knowing I can help and not just be another guy
@jyoonhorsebackIf you moved up to heavyweight would you change up your wrestling style or would you continue to be a flippy lad? – I’ve changed my style anyway. Look at my first match with Kushida in Invasion Attack to my match with Hiromu in Dominion. I’ve evolved over time. In fact my strikes are now on the same level as my high flying
@JoshuaVisserWho would you’re ideal opponent be in the WWE? – Gargano or Rollins
Ring Of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star Cody Rhodes took part in a recent media conference call to promote the upcoming NJPW G1 Special on AXS TV. Rhodes first discussed how writers and producers in WWE have more power than talent creatively, when it’s the performers that will suffer on behalf of poor instruction:
“I don’t look at it as being in control of my creative.” Cody explained, “I literally look at it as just knowing myself. I guess knowing my act, knowing what I would do, and what I wouldn’t do, and going out there and trying it out. The fans will tell you if you got it right or if you got it wrong. I think that’s one of the most backwards ass things about [pro] wrestling in the first place is writers. What are you writing? What on Earth are you writing?
“I have some friends who are writers at WWE and the most thing they could ever offer was, as far as pre-tapes and backstage interviews, they were there to provide a little bit of direction, a little coaching. But they were there to look at the shot. In that vein, they were very valuable, so I see the importance there. But as far as this industry, if people ever say that it’s scripted, I dare you to find me a wrestling script. It doesn’t exist. We’re a rare thing, a rare bird in the world of entertainment, an important bird.
“Same with producers! I love all those legends. I love them to death. Some of them are like family to me, but how the hell are you going to tell me what to do out there? You don’t! And that was my biggest mistake with WWE is ever listening. There’s a difference between collaboration, and advice, and being told to do this because that’s not how it works. You go out there and you’re the one on TV. You’re the one who gets heat if you suck and you reap the rewards if it’s a grand slam.”
Rhodes then discussed the differences in the locker rooms of WWE and NJPW, as Japan’s locker room is a lot more traditional:
“There’s a huge difference in the locker room philosophies between WWE and New Japan Pro-Wrestling.” Cody elaborated, “I can tell you, it’s not a knock on WWE, New Japan Pro-Wrestling understands much more how to do their locker room. The individual factions are separated.
“Chaos has their own locker room. Bullet Club has their own locker room. But there are no outsiders, no celebrities, they can be somewhere else, but they can’t be in the locker room. It’s a real traditional space. You ride on a bus with your crew and no other crew. You don’t stay at the same hotel. It’s a real traditional space.
“And it’s something just as an old school [pro] wrestling fan, I really value when I go. But I think they have the locker room. I think that’s the philosophy in the locker room as far as company goes, it’s much different.”
Recently The Elite challenged The New Day at E3 for a battle in the Street Fighter video game. WWE provided some extensive coverage and promotion of the event, mentioning Omega and The Young Bucks by name a few times. Rhodes offered his thoughts on the company doing this:
“I thought that was really, I hate using this expression, but good for business.” Cody continued, “that’s something that The New Day, and The Elite, I guess now, The Golden Elite, that cross-promotional element is something that they wanted to do for a long time and [WWE] can’t pretend that people don’t exist anymore.
“Kenny Omega is a revered star worldwide. He’s the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion and I think it was good for business. I had a nice little banter back-and-forth with some of my friends from the WWE locker room, but I kept saying, ‘hey, you guys are welcome for the rub.’ And then, they kept saying pretty much the same thing back to me.
“But yeah, no, I’m glad The Elite won regardless of whether Kenny’s my best friend or if I could [not] care less about him. But The Elite, in this case Kenny, defeated Xavier Woods and they put that one to rest. But who knows? I think The New Day/Golden Elite rivalry might just be getting started.”
You can listen to Rhodes on the AXS conference call at this link here.
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega recently spoke to Tokyo Sports in Japan on a variety of topics including his involvement in the upcoming G1 Climax Tournament.
Due to the ‘block’ structure of the round robin tournament the IWGP Champion will be facing his longtime friend and ‘Golden Lovers’ tag team partner Kota Ibushi. When asked how he felt about facing the ‘Golden Star’ Omega gave the following response:
“Honestly I don’t like it. Six Years ago after the Budokan match, we had an agreement. ‘If we do this again, one of us might die. If it isn’t a bigger match than this, let’s never wrestle a singles match again.’ If it was the G1 final, or the Tokyo Dome main event, that level. But the group selection is random, you can’t help that...”
Omega went on to say; “I don’t want there to be an injury and I don’t want to hurt him. But I am the Champion, and I don’t want to lose in that situation. In all honestly, he’s on a level that he could be a legitimate challenger whether he wins the G1 or not but he wants to earn his spot, that’s the type of guy he is. So he’s going to come at me with all he has.”
New Japan’s G1 Climax Tournament begins on Saturday July 14th and will be available to view on NJPWWorld.com
IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega was recently a guest on Sean Waltman’s X-Pac 1,2,360 podcast and talked about his match with Kazuchika Okada at Dominion 6.9.
It was arguably the greatest match in professional wrestling history. The two-out-of-three falls match lasted about 65 minutes and Omega revealed it took “a lot of thought and care” to put together parts of the match.
The Cleaner also divulged that he and Okada didn’t want to do too much in the two falls leading up to the third in order to keep the audience intrigued. Creatively, Omega and Okada didn’t want to exhaust themselves creatively, leaving the door open for a fifth possible meeting between the two rivals:
“It’s what story are we going to tell that complements the other three matches that we’ve done,” said Omega.
“What story do we tell that leaves something open for a possible fifth match, because even though we were never told that there was gonna be a fifth match, I have a feeling that there’s gonna be a fifth match. So I didn’t want to blow everything in that match, and I wanted to leave it for that there is gonna be another one.”
For a fifth meeting between himself and Okada, Omega wants to bring something different to the table “whenever it happens.”
You can listen to Omega on the X-Pac 1,2,360 podcast by clicking this link here.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed the official website for the upcoming G1 Climax tournament. The annual two block/round robin tournament is regarded by many as the pinnacle of tournament grappling and we are just 19 days away from the start in Ota City, Tokyo.
Here are the entrants for the 2018 iteration of the tournament:
Kenny Omega (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
Michael Elgin (4 time entrant, 4th consecutive entry)
Jay White (G1 Debut)
Hiroshi Tanahashi (17 time entrant, 17th consecutive entry)
Togi Makabe (15 time entrant, 15th consecutive entry)
Juice Robinson (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
Kazuchika Okada (7 time entrant, 7th consecutive entry)
Hirooki Goto (11 time entrant, 11th consecutive entry)
Tomohiro Ishii (6 time entrant, 6th consecutive entry)
Toru Yano (13 time entrant, 12th consecutive entry)
YOSHI-HASHI (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
Bad Luck Fale (5 time entrant, 5th consecutive entry)
Tama Tonga (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
Hangman Page (G1 Debut)
Tetsuya Naito (9 time entrant, 9th consecutive entry)
EVIL (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
SANADA (3 time entrant, 3rd consecutive entry)
Minoru Suzuki (8 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
Zack Sabre Jr. (2 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
Kota Ibushi (4 time entrant, 2nd consecutive entry)
As we reported recently the full card for the tournament has been released by New Japan, the first night’s action in A Block will feature Hiroshi Tanahashi facing Minoru Suzuki and former IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada battling Jay White. Night 2 will see the first bouts in B Block and Kenny Omega vs Tetsuya Naito and Kota Ibushi vs Zack Sabre Jr are the highlight bouts scheduled.
Following New Japan Pro Wrestling’s recent Dominion event, Chris Jericho spoke with Taylor Allen of the Winnipeg Free Press about two ‘Winnipeggers’ (he and Kenny Omega) leaving that show with NJPW’s two top championships.
Jericho is proud to be at the forefront of NJPW’s global expansion and feels the company is starting to gain ground on WWE.
“[New Japan] is a company that’s slowly but surely increasing its worldwide popularity and basically breathing down the neck of the WWE. It’s a Japanese wrestling company, the top stars are Japanese, but there we were, two foreigners, headlining and main eventing the Tokyo Dome. It would be like two Japanese football teams in the Super Bowl. The fact it’s two guys from Winnipeg is a really huge deal.”
WWE is such a well-oiled machine that it would be nearly impossible to knock them off the pedestal as the top wrestling promotion in the world. Several promotions have made the mistake of trying to compete with WWE by emulating them, but history shows that companies must take a different approach to compete. As successful as WWE is, their distinct product is not the only way to present pro wrestling. Jericho sees opportunity there and believes New Japan can continue growing by accentuating strengths that WWE does not have.
“Obviously, you’ll never beat WWE, but to carve out a niche for yourself within the market, you have to do something different, and New Japan is a completely different animal. Yes, it’s still pro wrestling, but it’s a completely different style and much more reformed, more hard-hitting and, in a lot of ways, more fun, depending on what you’re looking for.”
27 years into his wrestling career, Jericho, now 47, is still at the top of his game. He continues to reinvent himself and captivate fans around the world with his can’t-miss performances. He plans to return to WWE at some point, but for now, he’s invested in New Japan’s success.
Visit Winnipeg Free Press to read the full interview, which also includes quotes from IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega.
New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star Jay White has a lot on his plate at the moment. White is set to participate against some of Japan’s best in the G1 Climax tournament, but also is scheduled to defend his IWGP United States Title against Juice Robinson at the G1 Special on July 7th in San Francisco.
White recently participated in a media call to promote the G1 Climax and was asked about his preparation for the tournament. Unfortunately, due to how hectic his schedule is at the moment, White isn’t able to specifically train for the tournament:
“In terms of preparation we’re on tour at the moment,” White said. “If anything I don’t have the chance to prepare because I go home for two and a half days and I fly over for two Strong Style Evolved events in the UK. I’ll get home for another two and a half days and I fly straight to San Fransisco [for the G1 Special at the Cow Palace].
“Then I get home for another two and a half, three days and I go to the G1. A lot of those breaks is just going to be recovering,” the IWGP United States Champion continued. “I just need to get some food in me and some good training do what I can. But it’s not like I’ve got a month off. I’m not doing any kind of crazy cardio leading up to it I’m just trying to keep my body in healthy shape until then.”
Yesterday, Kenny Omega took part in an AXS TV media conference call to promote the G1 Special in San Francisco. During the press conference, Omega mentioned Matt Riddle as someone who he feels should do well in NJPW.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how Jeff Cobb and Matt Riddle do in Japan,” Omega said. “Matt Riddle should have a very successful career in Japan. It’d be cool if he became the foreign Shibata.”
Word reached Riddle about comments made by Omega and he responded in a way consistent with his moniker as “the King of Bros”.
The former UFC fighter is no stranger to receiving praise. After winning “Rookie of the Year” and “Most Improved” in the 2016 Wrestling Observer Newsletter awards, Riddle turned in a solid 2017 which saw him ranked at 116th in the PWI 500.
Riddle is the current Evolve champion, former WWN Live champion, and also held the PWG tag titles along with Jeff Cobb. In May, Riddle made it down to the final 2 competitors in Smash Wrestling’s Northern Tournament. The Northern runs a similar format to BOLA and was eventually won by Tyson Dux. Other competitors in the tournament included Joey Janela, Joey Mercury, Mia Yim, Kimber Lee, and Andrew Everett.
Kenny Omega Interview Notes
During the press conference, Omega also noted that he is proud of the Golden Lovers storyline.
“I’m proud of it. I’m not going to lie, that story was created for us,” Omega said. For myself and Ibushi…we built to it for years and years and years. For it to finally culminate and to hear the positive feedback, it was overwhelming.”
Omega also took some shots at Los InGobernables and most notably, their leader Tetsuya Naito.
“Naito is a pseudo-Steve Austin. I really don’t appreciate his message,” Omega said. “It only works in Japan. They live rough lives, it’s easier to fit in than rock the boat. Naito’s message is to calm down and not care. I think that message only has life in Japan.”
IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega was Sean Waltman’s guest this week on the X-Pac 1-2-360 podcast. Omega spoke about a wide variety of topics, including:
His “7-Star” match with Kazuchika Okada at NJPW Dominion
If he feels pressure to fill Okada’s Shoes
His reaction to WWE promoting The Elite’s video game battle against New Day
His upcoming match against Kota Ibushi at NJPW G1 Climax
Wanting to defend the IWGP title against Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi
Here are some highlights of what Kenny Omega said about:
WWE Supporting The E3 Gaming Battle Between New Day & The Elite
“The amount of support I had from their side [WWE] was certainly surprising. And I’m thankful for it, we really went out and tried to do something new…I really think that we need to get out and explore other options as to how to make wrestling fun and cool again. How to kinda introduce what we do to a brand new audience and gaming was a way to do that. And The New Day… well especially Austin Creed/Xavier Woods himself, he has that really popular Youtube gaming channel and he’s always involved in anything gaming and we sort of have the video gaming rivalry because we can’t have an in-ring rivalry being part of two different companies.
To have the blessing of both companies, and the overwhelming support by WWE was really cool. It’s a possible big game changer, we broke a lot of records with just that event alone and I think it goes to show that all the companies and these wrestlers, we can play nice with each other and it is entertaining and that’s the type of involvement as champion that I want to have.”
His “7-Star” Match with Kazuchika Okada at NJPW Dominion
“A lot of thought and care went into all of that stuff [match layout].What moves are we gonna do? What are the finishes going to be? Of course that’s all part of it. It’s what story do we tell that compliments the other three matches that we’ve done? What story do we tell that leaves something open for a possible fifth match because even though we were never told there was gonna be a fifth match. I have a feeling there’s gonna be a fifth match. So I didn’t want to blow everything in that match.
I wanted to leave it so that there is gonna be another one. And I also still wanted to make it sort of based in reality where this is sort of the be-all-end-all and the match decides which one of us is superior for at least this point in time but I didn’t feel like we had to overkill anything. And there’s so many factors that go into it and I really tried to carefully consider them all. The story surrounding the match, the story within the match, the story that happens before, the story that happens after…
There’s so much to go over and I wanted each fall to look different enough from one another so that it did really look like three different matches. And I wanted all the matches to make both of us look good, I wanted them to highlight our strengths as performers.”
If He Feels Pressure To Fill Okada’s Shoes and His Goals As IWGP Champion
“No, I would feel pressure if there was the pressure to be a textbook wrestler, to be a textbook wrestler and have a textbook wrestler-ish run. Okada had that covered completely and he had done things that no one else could really ever do, he was one of the greatest title runs of all time.
Luckily, I’m kind of not the conventional wrestler and a lot of my matches visually appear similar to one another so my hope is to kind of have a very original looking run, where I am digging deeper into everyone’s character and kind of adding layers to the people I work with, so that way all of the defenses look different from one another. The matches themselves may even be different or original or whatever, so I don’t feel like I have to fill Okada’s shoes… Even though people may not prefer my run over Okada’s, I want them to kind of recognize it as something original and unique and hopefully enjoyable.”
His Upcoming Match With Golden Lovers Partner Kota Ibushi at NJPW G1 Climax
“I mean both of us think it’s too soon, both of us really had it in our minds that we don’t want to re-visit it unless it’s the Tokyo Dome because we get sort of too crazy with one another. And we push each others limits too far and it’s scary, especially Ibushi and I always feel like I can’t be in this guy’s shadow so I have to meet his craziness and that just creates an endless circle of one-upmanship.”
Wanting To Defend The IWGP Title Against Tetsuya Naito and Hiroshi Tanahashi
“I would love to wrestle Naito in an actual championship capacity rather than just the G1. I’d love to wrestle Tanahashi because I feel that he was always the protected ace of the company and now he’s getting run down and beaten down and he knows that he’s sort of on his way out of being a top four guy. And I really want to have sort of a special moment with him if it’s possible. And I know he kinda hates me in real life… it’s like a professional jealousy thing that’s all it is {laughs}. Not actually hates me hates me, you know I love him but we love to hate each other because we have very different views on wrestling.”
Remembering Vader and How He Helped Kenny Legally Wrestle In Japan
“Terrible news. I was absolutely shocked when it happened. Especially since he just had just gone through that crazy surgery where it was just miraculous that he got through it all. You can never be prepared for news like that and luckily all the memories I have of Vader when I’ve met him in person were really really pleasant. He was always a very pleasant individual.
He was actually the reason I was able to get my first work visa in Japan. Because he had a promotion in Japan for a moment in time where he was running shows every three or four months. And if it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t have been able to legally work in Japan until actually signing with New Japan. Mostly because of Vader I was able to legally wrestle and make money in Japan.”
Celebrating His IWGP Title Win With The Young Bucks
“It’s funny we’d created this storyline where we would all kind of go splitsville. And we really pushed it to the extreme where we wouldn’t be seen in public we’d only talk to each other in private. In the Being The Elite storyline, we weren’t in any scenes together and the only actual physical altercation we ended up having was the match in Long Beach. So we sort of worked ourselves into a shoot brother. Where we were sort of actually forced to live out this lie where we were at odds with each other. So for us to finally kinda come together and in Japan too.
Another thing to mention is, it’s really Kayfabed out there. You can’t just go out to a restaurant after a show cause ‘hey it’s not the show anymore’. You have to continue, you have to keep faith and stay true to the angles. So we couldn’t hang out before shows, after shows, nothing like that unless it was in private. And usually, I’m always tied up with whatever after the shows… We never saw each other so for us to finally come together and have that as our first moment. Where it’s like ‘yes it’s okay to be friends again’ it was really emotional.”
Visit AfterbuzzTV for more information on Sean Waltman’s show.
New Japan Pro Wrestling has released the full lineup for the upcoming G1 Special in San Francisco. The show takes place just outside city limits in the Cow Palace on July 7th, 2018.
NJPW G1 Special in San Francisco Lineup
Sho, Yoh, Rocky Romero, Gedo, YOSHI-HASHI (CHAOS) vs Chase Owens, Yujiro Takahashi, Tanga Loa, Tama Tonga, and King Haku (Bullet Club)
Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs Zack Sabre Jr and Minoru Suzuki (Suzuki-Gun)
KUSHIDA and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Marty Scurll and Hangman Page (Bullet Club)
NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto (CHAOS) (c) vs Jeff Cobb
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
the Young Bucks (Bullet Club) (c) vs SANADA and EVIL (LIJ)
Will Ospreay and Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS) vs Tetsuya Naito and BUSHI (LIJ)
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship
Hiromu Takahashi (LIJ) (c) vs Dragon Lee (CMLL)
IWGP United States Championship
Jay White (CHAOS) (c) vs Juice Robinson
Omega vs Cody was announced shortly after Dominion. It will be the second time the two have faced each other since the Bullet Club civil war angle began. In the first meeting, Cody defeated Omega at Ring of Honor’s Supercard of Honor show this April.
Jay White has been attacking Juice Robinson after matches during the Kizuna Road tour. Robinson’s arm is now in a cast and could still be by the time this match comes around in a few weeks.
Takahashi challenged Dragon Lee to a title match after he defeated El Desperado in Tokyo last week. There has been some speculation the two longtime rivals could end up in a mask vs hair match somewhere down the line.
Goto lost the NEVER Openweight title to Elgin at Dominion but then won it back on the 1st night of the Kizuna Road tour. Jeff Cobb challenged him to a match immediately after he won back the title.
Last but certainly not least, King Haku will return to New Japan Pro Wrestling on July 7th. He will be teaming with his sons, Tama Tonga and Tanga Loa. HIKULEO, his youngest son, is still out with a leg injury.
Ring Of Honor (ROH) and New Japan Pro Wrestling (NJPW) star Cody Rhodes recently participated in an AXS TV conference call to promote the G1 Special in San Francisco. The former ROH World Champion commented on wanting to see NJPW run a tour in the United States:
“The next time you come over, if you’re NJPW, you should make a tour of it,” Cody said. “When I say a tour, I mean, let’s hit Los Angeles, let’s hit New York, let’s grow a pair — which they have — and make a run of all the ‘A’ markets and see how you do. That might be the first step into seeing what you can do consistently in the United States. “I think, next time, make a tour of it.
“They won’t, but it’d be really cool if they did. It may take some time, but I think if you hit all the ‘A’ markets you’re going to sell out or come close to it everywhere you go. And I think it’s also real important that you give them New Japan Pro Wrestling, don’t dress it up with something that they might be comfortable with … you don’t have to decorate it with American stars. What’s got them to where they are is the Japanese talent and Japanese stars. “Don’t do enough market research that you change your product.”
Rhodes went on to call 2018 an “era of choice”:
“I don’t consider this an era of competition as much as I consider it an era of choice,” Cody said. “Look at the competition and where it got us. We ran WCW out of business, we destroyed an entire region in the US in terms of their love of wrestling and WWE has had to rebuild it. I’m from Georgia, I felt the fallout of a company losing in a competition before. I don’t think it’s about competition anymore, I think it’s about choice. I hope to see more efforts made to cross those bridges.”
New Japan Pro Wrestling has just announced the full schedule for this year’s G1 Climax tournament.
In the final night of the round-robin for Group A, Hiroshi Tanahashi will take on Kazuchika Okada. Meanwhile, on the final night in Group B, Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi will go one-on-one for the 3rd time in their careers.
New Japan Pro-Wrestling presented another show from Tokyo’s Korakuen Hall this morning. They’ll be in the venue tomorrow for a special retirement ceremony for Super Strong Machine as well.
The main event for the show was an IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship match between champion, Hiromu Takahashi and El Desperado.
NJPW Kizuna Road
Monday, June 18th, 2018
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Yota Tsuji vs Yuya Uemura – Time Limit Draw
Taiji Ishimori and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club) defeated Ren Narita and Shota Umino
Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata defeated Tomoyuki Oka and Hiroyoshi Tenzan
Sho, Yoh, Yoshi-Hashi and Toru Yano (CHAOS) defeated Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, David Finlay, and Togi Makabe
Bushi, Evil, Sanada, and Tetsuya Naito (LIJ) defeated Taka Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, and Takashi Iizuka (Suzuki-Gun)
Kushida, Jeff Cobb, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin and Hiroshi Tanahashi defeated Gedo, Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, Hirooki Goto, and Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS)
In the closing moments of the main event, El Desperado landed a low blow with the referee down. Takahashi countered by unmasking El Desperado (who made little attempt to shield his face). Desperado then hit Takahashi with the title belt and placed his mask back on. As the referee came to, Desperado hit his opponent with a sit-down piledriver for a near-fall. Takahashi countered Desperado’s next attempt into a triangle, however. Shortly after, Takahashi hit the Time Bomb for the win.
Yoshi-Hashi scored the win for his team. He made Henare tap out to a Butterfly Lock. As he doesn’t normally win matches for his team, this was likely done to build Yoshi-Hashi up a bit since he’ll be included in this year’s G1. Togi Makabe, who will be in the same G1 Block as Yoshi, attempted to get in his face after the match as well.
Following Los InGobernables’ victory over the Suzuki-Gun team, Sanada and Naito shared a moment in the ring. The two will be in the same Block for this year’s G1 tournament. Naito attempted to give a fist-bump to Sanada but Sanada left him dry.
Following the semi-final match, Jeff Cobb and Hirooki Goto brawled to back, previewing their upcoming title match.
As he did on Sunday as well, White attacked Juice Robinson after the match. The two will meet for the IWGP United States Championship on July 7th from the Cow Palace. This time Juice was able to fight back, however. As Juice was going for the Pulp Friction, however, White low-blowed him. He then proceeded to hit Juice with a series of elbows from the crucifix position. After that, he then attacked Juice’s arm with a chair shot.
NJPW Super Strong Machine Retirement Ceremony
June 19th, 2018
Tokyo, Japan
Korakuen Hall
Ren Narita and KUSHIDA vs Taiji Ishimori and Yujiro Takahashi (Bullet Club)
Tiger Mask, Jushin Liger, Togi Makabe vs Shoto Umino, Tomoyuki Oka, and Toa Henare
Sho, Yoh, and Rocky Romero (CHAOS) vs Taka Michinoku, El Desperado, and Yoshinobu Kanemaru (Suzuki-Gun)
Toru Yano and Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS) vs Taichi and Takashi Iizuka (Suzuki-Gun)
David Finlay, Juice Robinson, Jeff Cobb, and Michael Elgin vs Yoshi-Hashi, Jay White, Hirooki Goto, and Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS)
SS Machine No.69, SS Machine Don, SS Machine Justice, SS Machine Buffalo, SS Machine Ace vs Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, SANADA, EVIL, and Tetsuya Naito (LIJ)
This morning in Tokyo, Japan, NJPW released the block groupings for the G1 Climax 2018 tournament. The announcement was made at the Kizuna Road show held in Tokyo’s famed Korakuen Hall.
The promotion unveiled the participants on Sunday’s show and will release the schedule in the coming days.
Block A
Togi Makabe (GBH)
Michael Elgin
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Kazuchika Okada (CHAOS)
Jay White (CHAOS)
Yoshi-Hashi (CHAOS)
Bad Luck Fale (Bullet Club)
Hangman Page (Bullet Club)
EVIL (LIJ)
Minoru Suzuki (Suzuki-Gun)
Notable matches which will occur during the round-robin portion of Block A include Hiroshi Tanahashi facing his longtime rival, Kazuchika Okada. Also of note, is that recent CHAOS newcomer, Jay White, will get to face Okada as well, something he said he wanted to do not long after joining the stable. White is also the only Champion in the block so far. Any matches he loses during the tournament could lead to a future title defense. He will have to defend his title against Juice Robinson on July 7th, 2018 before the G1, however.
B Block
Juice Robinson
Hirooki Goto (CHAOS)
Tomohiro Ishii (CHAOS)
Toru Yano (CHAOS)
Tama Tonga (Bullet Club)
SANADA (LIJ)
Tetsuya Naito (LIJ)
Zack Sabre Junior (Suzuki-Gun)
Kenny Omega (Bullet Club)
Kota Ibushi
These groupings mean Kenny Omega and Kota Ibushi will face each other at some point during the round-robin portion of the tournament. The two Golden Lovers teammates have met twice in single’s action before. Both matches took place in DDT. Ibushi won both matches, the first in 2008 and the second in 2012.
As of this writing, Omega and Goto are the only champions in the block. Any losses they incur during the tournament could lead to future title defenses. Juice Robinson will have the chance to win the IWGP United States title before the G1 stars as well, however.
Omega and Tama Tonga will also meet in the G1 this year. Omega previously beat Tonga in the tournament in 2017. Leading up to the match, Tonga complained that Omega was too focussed on the Elite and not on Bullet Club as a whole. Tonga has also been complaining through social media about the recently unveiled “Golden Elite” faction. He will get to wrestle Kota Ibushi at this year’s G1 as well.
New Japan Pro Wrestling will be presenting the third night of their Kizuna Road tour tomorrow (6/18) live from Japan’s historic Korakuen Hall. Day Two featured the end of the shortest NEVER Openweight title run ever when Hirooki Goto defeated Michael Elgin and reclaimed his belt. New Japan also announced the full lineup for their upcoming G1 Climax tournament this summer and you can find the full lineup right here.
Here’s the full lineup for Night 3:
Kizuna Road Night #3 Monday, June 18th, 2018 Tokyo, Japan
Yota Tsuji vs Yuya Uemura
Ren Narita and Shota Umino vs Taiji Ishimori and Yujiro Takahashi
Tomoyuki Oka and Hiroyoshi Tenzan vs Manabu Nakanishi and Yuji Nagata
Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare, David Finlay, and Togi Makabe vs Sho, Yoh, Yoshi-Hashi and Toru Yano
Bushi, Evil, Sanada, and Tetsuya Naito vs Taka Michinoku, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Taichi, and Takashi Iizuka
Kushida, Jeff Cobb, Juice Robinson, Michael Elgin and Hiroshi Tanahashi vs Gedo, Tomohiro Ishii, Jay White, Hirooki Goto, and Kazuchika Okada
IWGP Junior Heavyweight Champion
Hiromu Takahashi (c) vs El Desperado
Night 4 of the Kizuna Road tour will be extremely special as it will feature the Super Strong Machine Retirement Ceremony with Los Ingobernables de Japon in the main event against Machine Ace, Machine Buffalo, Machine Justice, Machine Don and Machine Number 69.
Check back here on SEScoops for the full Day 4 preview tomorrow.
Former WWE Undisputed and 9-time Intercontinental Champion Chris Jericho defeated ‘Los Ingobernables’ leader Tetsuya Naito at last weekend’s Dominion show to become the new IWGP Intercontinental Champion.
New Japan’s newest IC Champion has recently stated that he will not be taking part in some upcoming US events both for NJPW and Cody Rhodes/The Young Bucks. During an interview with Inside The Ropes he claimed that “I got asked to do Long Beach, I said no. I got asked to do Cow Palace, I said no. I got asked to do All In, I said no. I’m not going to work anywhere else unless you wanna pay six f******g figures. This is Mayweather-McGregor type s**t for me.”
Dave Meltzer also confirmed that Jericho will not be returning to New Japan for quite some time during a recent episode of the Wrestling Observer Radio show, he stated that there would be (when asked about upcoming NJPW events) “No Jericho. In fact there’s no Jericho for a long, long time. It’s really interesting they put the IC title on him, because now that title’s gonna be iced for a long long time.”
What do you think about Jericho only appearing sporadically for NJPW whilst IC Champion? Let us know in the comments.
Hirooki Goto defeated Michael Elgin for the NEVER Openweight Championship today from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan. Shortly after doing so, however, he was challenged to a future match by Jeff Cobb. Elgin and Cobb were teammates in the World Tag League last year.
The likely time and date for Cobb vs Goto for the NEVER Openweight Championship is July 7th at NJPW’s G1 Special in San Fransisco.
Elgin’s run with the belt was the shortest in history. It lasted only 8 days and did not include a single successful title defense. Goto is now a 3x champion and has defended the title 6x in total.
Jeff Cobb, KUSHIDA, Ryusuke Taguchi, Toa Henare & Togi Makabe defeated Rocky Romero, SHO, Toru Yano, YOH & YOSHI-HASHI
BUSHI, EVIL, Hiromu Takahashi, SANADA & Tetsuya Naito defeated El Desperado, Taichi, TAKA Michinoku, Takashi Iizuka & Yoshinobu Kanemaru
Jay White, Kazuchika Okada & Tomohiro Ishii defeated David Finlay, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Juice Robinson
NEVER Openweight Title Hirooki Goto defeated Michael Elgin (c)
Kizuna Road Developments
Jay White and Juice Robinson built up their upcoming title match on today’s show. White attacked Juice after their tag match and attempted to injure his rival’s arm with a chair. Juice fought back and punched the chair into White’s face to end the melee, however.
White also chose to enter the ring separately from his fellow CHAOS stablemates again.
Tetsuya Naito and Hiromu Takahashi had a weird exchange after their match. Takahashi set the Best of the Super Juniors trophy on the mat in front of Naito. Although Naito initially looked like he was going to bow to the trophy, he instead kicked it and broke off a piece. Takahashi was upset by this. He picked up the trophy and walked away from an apologetic Naito. Whenever he is around a title belt or trophy, Naito can’t help but want to destroy it it seems.
Updated G1 Special In San Francisco Card
IWGP Heavyweight Championship
Kenny Omega (c) vs Cody
IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championships
the Young Bucks (c) vs Evil and Sanada
IWGP United States Championship
Jay White (c) vs Juice Robinson
Kazuchika Okada and Will Ospreay vs Tetsuya Naito and Bushi
Likely to be announced soon:
NEVER Openweight Championship
Hirooki Goto (c) vs Jeff Cobb
Early this morning from Tokyo, Japan, NJPW announced the full participant list for this year’s G1 Climax tournament. The promotion will announce the full schedule and tournament blocks in the coming days.
The announcement came during the first of two back-to-back shows from Korakuen Hall as part of the Kizuna Road tour.
G1 2018 Participants
Kenny Omega
Michael Elgin
Jay White
Hiroshi Tanahashi
Togi Makabe
Juice Robinson
Kazuchika Okada
Hirooki Goto
Tomohiro Ishii
Toru Yano
YOSHI-HASHI
Bad Luck Fale
Hangman Page
Tetsuya Naito
EVIL
Sanada
Minoru Suzuki
Zack Sabre Jr
Kota Ibushi
Not many changes in the tournament this year. Hangman Page and Jay White both enter the tournament for the first time this year. Nagata said last year would be his last tournament so he’s no longer entered. All heavyweight single’s champions are entered, which should set up some future title matches as well.
NJPW also said that all 19 shows will air live and with English commentary available. Normally, only a select few shows are available live with weekday matches usually being posted later in the day and with no English commentary available.
In addition to the upcoming G1 tournament, NJPW is building towards the show at the Cow Palace on July 7th, 2018. Cody vs Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship will be the main event of the show. The Cow Palace show creates a unique opportunity for Cody. He will have a chance to win the ROH World Championship, the IWPG Heavyweight Championship, and the NWA World Heavyweight Championship in matches on June 29th, July 7th, and September 1st, 2018.
New Japan Pro Wrestling saw one of the greatest main events in the history of the company last Saturday when Kenny Omega defeated Kazuchika Okada to become the new IWGP Heavyweight Champion. Omega’s longtime tag team partner Kota Ibushi was ringside for the bout and he recently gave his thoughts on the incredible ‘7 Star Bout.’
Ibushi stated that “the moment he won I was delighted. I wanted to congratulate him from the bottom of my heart but a few seconds later I was thinking ‘why aren’t I in this ring having wrestled tonight?’ I wasn’t booked. It felt weird. Honestly, I was thinking ‘what am I even doing here?’”
The former Junior Heavyweight went on to “It’s easy to think he’s going to keep moving forward and we’re going to move apart. But tranquilo. Asssen na ya. People can think that but I just have to get results and that starts in the G1.”
Ibushi has also been confirmed for the upcoming ‘All In’ event which takes on September 1, 2018, at the Sears Centre in Hoffman Estates, Illinois. His opponent for the show has not yet been named.
After winning the IWGP Intercontinental Championship from Tetsuya Naito at Dominion, Chris Jericho spoke to the Winnipeg Free Press to talk about New Japan Pro Wrestling’s (NJPW) growing popularity lately.
Jericho admitted that the promotion is growing “slowly but surely” and also said that NJPW is “basically breathing down the neck of the WWE.” His full comments can be found below:
“(NJPW) is a company that’s slowly but surely increasing its worldwide popularity and basically breathing down the neck of the WWE. It’s a Japanese wrestling company, the top stars are Japanese, but there we were, two foreigners, headlining and main eventing the Tokyo Dome. It would be like two Japanese football teams in the Super Bowl. The fact it’s two guys from Winnipeg is a really huge deal.”
You can read Jericho’s full interview with the Winnipeg Free Press by clicking this link here.
