#njwgs

[puroresu-musings]

[gdwessel]

Wrestle Grand Slam STARDOM Matches Announced; NJPW Strong Moving to Saturdays 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on 9/18/2021; More Autumn Attack Matches Announced; Minoru Suzuki v. Dominic Garrini in Timebomb Pro on 10/21/2021

NJPW has announced the two opening STARDOM exhibition matches for both nights of Wrestle Grand Slam in MetLife Dome. The Queen’s Quest tandem of Momo Watanabe & Saya Kamitani will be working both nights it appears. Tomorrow, they will face off against Donna del Mundo’s Maika, who will be teaming with the currently unaffiliated Lady C. Then on Sunday, the QQ pair will go against the current Artist of Stardom tag team champions, Donna del Mundo’s Giulia & Syuri, in what appears to be a non-title match. NJPW is taking great pains to point out Giulia will be less than 24 hours removed from a 5-Star Grand Prix tournament match against current World Of Stardom champion Utami Hayashishita, so they expect that to play a factor in the match in Saitama on Sunday morning.

Again, for the first time since Bushiroad purchased the company from Rossy Ogawa, STARDOM matches will be shown on NJPWWorld, having been prevented from doing so previously due to STARDOM’s existing contracts with NTV, a direct competitor to NJPW minority partner TV Asahi, who facilitates NJPWWorld. Again, I don’t know the ins and outs of how this was made possible, but it’s good STARDOM is now getting to be shown to an even wider potential audience that will hopefully be receptive to the womens promotion.

Tonight, NJPWWorld will show the “BBQ Brawl” episode of NJPW Strong. This is hands down one of the all-time worst titles they have ever come up with for an NJPW event of any kind. That said, the first match tonight looks to be very good, as Impact Wrestling’s X Division champion Josh Alexander returns, this time to face Daniel Garcia, who once again will be wrestling on two TV shows in one night as he is also due to take on Darby Allin on tonight’s live AEW Rampage from my home base in Hoffman Estates, IL. (I was never due to be at this show, but if you still need a ticket for GCW/BLP 3 Cups Stuffed or tomorrow’s BLP show, hit me up.)

The real point of this entry, is that NJoA have announced that in two weeks’ time, starting 9/18/2021, the show will be moving to Saturday nights from Friday nights, at 8pm EDT / 7pm CDT on both NJPWWorld or FITE TV (for a fee). One wonders if this is in fact due to AEW Rampage taking place at the same time now, and their continued partnership. With AEW being a much hotter product than NJPW at the moment, I can’t imagine there are too many people skipping Rampage to see Strong on Fridays, but I can see a lot of people skipping Strong for Rampage. I am guessing with the big move happening, that the Fighting Spirit Unleashed set of matches will start airing with this show.

NJPW Strong started life last summer as Lion’s Break Collision, an experimental empty-arena TV show during the peak of lockdown, and has run ever since. There have been some memorable moments on the show, it has to be said, but lost a lot of its luster once NJPW proper started running again. Now that shows are starting to happen outside of Thunder Studios, maybe interest will start picking back up.

On that note, NJPW have announced four more matches for the September NJPW Strong taping shows Autumn Attack, 9/25 & 9/26/2021 at the Curtis Culwell Center in Garland, TX, have been announced.

One that looks to be a highlight of Night 1 is “Filthy” Tom Lawlor v. Ren Narita. Curiously, the NJPW hype piece for this does not mention Lawlor being the current NJPW Strong Openweight Champion, so one wonders if that’s an accidental spoiler. Also added to Night 1 is an 8-man tag match, as Juice Robinson, Lio Rush (possibly the Strong champion now?), Clark Connors & TJP will take on a Bullet Club tandem of Taiji Ishimori, El Phantasmo, Hikuleo & Impact’s Chris Bey. This would be Bey’s first NJPW event since joining the Bullet Club in Impact.

On Night 2, the indie flavor of the month Daniel Garcia is booked against Switchblade, Jay White, in a non-title match against the NEVER Openweight Champion. Then, a tag match has been booked, where Karl Fredericks & Clark Connors will face off against the United Empire’s Will Ospreay and a mystery opponent. This could be Jeff Cobb, this could be Great O-Khan, this could be Aaron Henare... or this could be a new member of the Empire (most likely). We’ll see at the end of the month.

The announcements for Minoru Suzuki’s tour of the US indies continue. Now announced for Thursday 10/21/2021 in Dilwroth, MN, is Suzuki going into Timebomb Pro, a promotion based in Fargo, ND. No, it’s not just a movie/TV show, it turns out. At this show, Suzuki will have a first-time dream opponent in Dominic Garrini, an amateur wrestler/shooter type who’s been big on the indies the last few years, often teaming with Kevin Ku as Violence Is Forever, which is the name this show is taking on. Tickets for that event at TimeBombPro.com if you feel so inclined and are in that neck of the woods.

I actually am starting to keep track of all of Suzuki’s bookings now, so once we get closer in another week or so, I’ll post the entire list.

[gdwessel]

Road to Wrestle Grand Slam Night 3 - 5/25/2021; Now Taichi, Jay White, David Finlay Revealed As Positive For COVID-19; Ren Narita + Rocky Romero on AEW Dark: Elevation 5/24/2021 With RPG Vice Reunion!; Some Words On Ospreay And Other Rumors

Days Of Thunder + Strong Style History Present: Collision In Korea

The tour continued today, with a show you can see now on NJPWWorld. - 5/25/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Chase Owens [Bullet Club] d. Yota Tsuji (Package Driver, 8:34)

Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] v. Yujiro Takahashi & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Sabre > Yujiro, Barry From Eastenders, 9:44)

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] d. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato (Tonga > Wato, Magic Killer, 12:44)

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] & Ryusuke Taguchi (Takagi > Taguchi, Made In Japan, 17:11)

Kota Ibushi & Hiroshi Tanahashi d. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire] (Ibushi > O-Khan, Kamigoye, 15:53)

Ibushi restated he wants a singles match against Cobb. Dominion seems likely. Naito and Ishii got into it once more. ZSJ has YET ANOTHER finisher with a wacky name.

In the wake of Kazuchika Okada’s revelation that he tested positive for COVID-19, Tokyo Sports ran a piece that now Taichi (Taichiro Maki) has confirmed he too was positive for the coronavirus, coming down with fever after wrestling in Fukuoka. Taichi said in the piece that he spent his time playing PS5 but is now back in training. Taichi appeared on commentary at yesterday’s show which, erm, that’s kind of a brave move, hope it works out for them.

It’s also been revealed that Jay White and David Finlay Jr. both tested positive, however that came from a statement by Finlay’s father, former WCW/WWE wrestler and trainer David “Fit’ Finlay in an appearance on the Stories With Briscoe And Bradshaw podcast. According to Fit, White and Finlay were both on their way out when their positive tests came back, and were told to quarantine at the New Japan Dojo, rather than at a government sponsored hotel. If this is the root of some of the dissatisfaction by the non-Japanese wrestlers, I can pretty well see that. If I was told I can go home, and then I couldn’t when I was already travelling, either because of a positive COVID-19 test, or because NJPW decided last second to runs shows in May, I’d be seriously pissed off too. However, this is hearsay, even if it is from one of the people involved’s father. Whatever the case, we hope everyone involved will be OK. Taichi certainly seemed to be yesterday.

Last night on AEW's Monday-night YouTube show Dark: Elevation (which is very pre-taped), we got two matches at the top of the card featuring NJPW talents via the so-called "Forbidden Door." In the semi-main, Ren Narita defeated Royce Isaacs in a back-and-forth affair with Narita getting the win with Narita Special #4. In the main event, Rocky Romero beat the much bigger JD Drake of the Wingmen with a flash La Magistral cradle. Afterwards, the rest of the Wingmen attempted a beatdown of Romero, but was saved by Chuck Taylor, Kris Statlander, Orange Cassidy and TRENT BARETTA. A magic moment was had as Rocky and Trent reunited, the old Roppongi Vice theme playing whilst doing the jumping high five shtick for the first time in... a long time. Rocky was then part of the Best Friends group hug, because, as they say, you got to give the people what they want. There is still a lot of chatter about Will Ospreay, the reasons why he left Japan to go back to the UK, the legitimacy of his injuries, and the unrest among the non-Japanese talents in NJPW right now. What's really infuriating is hiding a lot of this behind paywalls and paid podcasts in the name of Sk00pz! Quite a bit of this is speculation on both Ospreay's mental health and personal life at the moment (i.e. the OsCutter to Bea Priestley was the in-ring way of writing her out as they have split as a couple now). None of which is, frankly, any of our concern, no matter what other shitty things Ospreay has done or said. Regardless of what we all collectively think of William Ospreay, and the situation with vacating the IWGP World Heavyweight title, he doesn't even rank in the Top 5 (Bottom 5?) All-Time Worst IWGP Heavyweight Title Reigns, and is not even the worst one of the last five years. Recency bias is a thing, sure, and things are not great creatively (although? These last two shows? Not bad!). 

There are rumblings of a mass exodus of non-Japanese wrestlers in January, either until quarantine procedures end, or just going elsewhere. But then, there always is. Not four months ago the internet was convinced Jay White was heading to AEW or NXT. Minoru Suzuki was a lock to start with Pro Wrestling NOAH in January 2020. Kenny Omega was going to be a surprise entrant into the Royal Rumble 2017. None of these things ever happened. We're not even in June; let's worry about January closer to the date eh? The last of the three Korakuen Hall shows is tomorrow. - 5/26/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Yota Tsuji v. Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato v. Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club]

Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] v. Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club]

Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables]

Days Of Thunder + Strong Style History Present: Collision In Korea

[gdwessel]

Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome - 7/25/2021: Ibushi Out, Tanahashi In Main Event World Heavyweight Title Match

After being delayed two months, Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome took place earlier today. You can see it now on NJPWWorld, or pay $30 to see it on FITE TV. This is the first Tokyo Dome event NJPW has run outside of the annual January 4th show, now known as Wrestle Kingdom, since Toukon Souzou New Chapter on 10/8/2005, where one of the worst matches in NJPW history main evented. 

Originally due to take place on 5/29/2021, and with a completely different main event, it was postponed due to the state of emergency enacted at the time in Tokyo and elsewhere. This one took place under a state of emergency as well, but at this point, it was now or never. This did affect the attendance of the show, listed as 5,389 persons, probably the lowest drawing Dome show in recent times (maybe ever? Hard saying, considering there are also quite a lot of worked numbers in those Dome attendances through the years, both from Antonio Inoki, previous owners Yuke’s, as well as Bushiroad) but with restrictions in place for attendances, and the mystery surrounding whether the event would take place or not, there was not much that could be done there.

Kota Ibushi was announced prior to the event that he would not be making it, due to his aspiration pneumonia. Hiroshi Tanahashi, in his 11th Tokyo Dome main event, would take his place in the main event IWGP World Heavyweight Championship match v. Shingo Takagi, after making himself available at yesterday’s Summer Struggle in Nagoya. There are a lot of parallels to be drawn between this show and All Japan Pro Wrestling’s recent Champion Night 2021 megacard. Both had to be postponed due to a state of emergency, and both had their main event changed due to illness of one of the participants - Ibushi we just discussed above, whereas then-Triple Crown champion Suwama had to miss and vacate the title due to testing positive for COVID-19. Illnesses will occur, especially in a pandemic. 

Results:

Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome - 7/25/2021, Tokyo Dome (NJPWWorld / FITE)

KOPW2021 New Japan Ranbo With Handcuffs: Chase Owens [Bullet Club] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] (c), Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma, Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG], YOH [CHAOS], SHO [CHAOS], Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima, BUSHI [Los Ingobernables], Tiger Mask IV, Master Wato, DOUKI [SZKG], Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], Dick Togo [Bullet Club], Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], Yuji Nagata, Great O-Khan [United Empire], KENTA [Bullet Club], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club] - Owens is the Provisional KOPW2021 Champion

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] © d. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Phantasmo > Taguchi, CRII, 20:56) - Ishimori/ELP succeed their 1st defense

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] d. El Desperado [SZKG] © (Ron Miller Special, 19:56) - Despy fails his 3rd defense - Eagles is the 90th champion

Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] d. Jeff Cobb [United Empire] (Pinfall, 19:23)

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] d. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] © (Sabre > Naito, European Clutch, 37:58) - Naito/SANADA fail their 1st defense - Dangerous Tekkers are the 91st champions

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] © d. Hiroshi Tanahashi (Last Of The Dragon, 37:26) - Shingo succeeds his 1st defense

Shingo gets his v1 defense in, and declares he will hold onto the title until Ibushi is ready to challenge for it again. With that, the lights go out, and EVIL attacks Shingo, demanding a shot at the belt. The Internet by and large was not amused, and honestly, I’m not sure what will make anyone happy at this point. The adage was right -- when you are hot, you can do no wrong, when you are in a down cycle (which NJPW is in, let’s not make any bones about it), you can do nothing right. The same folk who say the main event scene is stale have been given three brand new champions in 2021 and have complained every step of the way. Including me in places! Shingo v. EVIL is a new match, and there is a history there that never really got addressed! Just yesterday I was saying how EVIL needed the win over Ishii to build credibility back up, tho I said for G1 Climax; maybe THIS is the story, that he IS NOT ready to challenge but thinks he is?! I just don’t understand fans anymore. The complaints are always about stale things are, and then when something different IS actually offered it’s always “No not THAT way!” Maybe I just need to divorce myself from Twitter for a while.

Complaints are also coming in for the IWGP Heavyweight tag title change. Naito & SANADA want a rematch, but then Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI step in and plead their case for a shot as well. Hey, multiple teams vying for the belts, what a time to be alive. I can understand complaints about Robbie Eagles beating El Desperado for the title more than any other ones, especially since Hiromu Takahashi was on hand at the start of the show proper to challenge today’s winner. Hiromu v. Despy is a money match, tho one that’s been done a lot, even tho the champion v. challenger spots would be switched. Eagles v. Hiromu is a relatively new match, I will grant, but I am also not as high on Robbie Eagles as a lot of others are. 

Chase Owens becomes the first person to hold the KOPW trophy besides Toru Yano since the trophy’s inception last summer. The match was ridiculous. It’s a Ranbo, and a KOPW match, it’s supposed to be ridiculous. Wrestling is ridiculous! It’s OK!

Essentially, the complaints here, the complaints online about last night’s GCW show with Nick Gage v. Matt Cardona... I just don’t know anymore. 

What I do know is there is a show Tuesday from Korakuen Hall, starting a string of NINE shows in a row from Korakuen Hall, and no lineups for those are announced yet. They will probably announce them when I’m in bed. In the meantime I’m going to watch the GLEAT show from today and catch up on GCW from last night. And stay off Twitter. UGH.

[puroresu-musings]

Ibushi’s out, Tanahashi’s in!

[gdwessel]

Summer Struggle in Sapporo 2021 Night 1 - 7/10/2021: Ibushi Out Due To “Vaccine Side Effects”; Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome Will Go On, Ticket Sales End Tomorrow; NJPW Strong Episode 48 - 7/9/2021; Kojima Challenges Lawlor on Strong 7/23/2021 Episode, Looks To Be Done In Impact

The first night of Summer Struggle in Sapporo, and the first night of the entire Summer Struggle tour itself, took place earlier today, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. An IWGP Juniorheavyweight title match was the main event. Kota Ibushi was scheduled for this show, but had to sit out, officially due to “side effects of the COVID-19 vaccine,” ergo he was knackered after getting jabbed, which, hey, it happens. Hiromu Takahashi also made an appearance before the opening bell rang once more.

Summer Struggle in Sapporo - 7/10/2021, Hokkaido Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena (NJPWWorld)

Master Wato d. Yuya Uemura (RPP, 9:09)

EVIL & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] d. Tomohiro Ishii & YOH [CHAOS] (EVIL > YOH, Scorpion Deathlock, 11:37)

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] d. KENTA, Yujiro Takahashi & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Yujiro, High Fly Flow, 15:00)

Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire] d. Kazuchika Okada & SHO [CHAOS] (Cobb > SHO, Tour Of The Islands, 11:41)

Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., Yoshinobu Kanemaru & DOUKI [SZKG] (Takagi > DOUKI, Pumping Bomber, 13:40)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship: El Desperado [SZKG] © d. Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Pinche Loco, 28:54) - El Desperado succeeds his 2nd defense

Taiji Ishimori fails to become a double-crown junior champion, like Despy was earlier this year. Post-main, Robbie Eagles challenges Despy via video message. I had honestly forgotten Robbie Eagles was still a NJPW wrestler, although he had taken part in Best of the Super Juniors XXVII just this past December. Whoops!

KENTA, Rocky Romero and Jeff Cobb all returned to the lineups today. Cobb looks to be in a feud with Okada, whilst KENTA is engaging with Tanahashi. Cobb returning is good because it means we can get more Great O-Khan.

Last post, detailing the now fourth state of emergency in Tokyo, I said nobody knew exactly now this would affect the already-postponed-once Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome, the rescheduled date being 7/25/2021. Now we do know: the show will go on, but ticket sales will be ending tomorrow (Sunday 7/11/2021).

On July 25, ‘Godzilla vs Kong presents: Wrestle Grand Slam in Tokyo Dome’ will proceed as planned, with NJPW continuing its commitment to safe events as held across Japan with fans for the past year.

However, in light of the recent announcement of another state of emergency across Tokyo and the subsequent restrictions this enforces on live events, we regret to announce that ticket sales for Wrestle Grand Slam will end at midnight JST on July 11.

We deeply apologize for the inconvenience this causes. We look forward to welcoming fans on July 25, with fan safety given the utmost priority.

So there’s that, then. I am not altogether certain which attendance cap will apply here (5000 spectators or 50% capacity -- previous enforcement took the *higher* number into account), so I guess we will find out. I am going to guess it won’t be Wrestle Kingdom levels, but I could be wrong.

Last night’s NJPW Strong was the Road to Tag Team Turbulence, that tournament beginning with next Friday’s episode. Here, three singles matches act as prelude, including the return of someone we could really do without.

Barrett Brown d. The DKC (Schoolboy, 7:02)

Alex Coughlin Challenge Match Series: PJ Black [ROH] d. Alex Coughlin (Bad Habit, 9:33)

Josh Alexander [Impact] d. Rocky Romero [CHAOS] (Divine Intervention, 11:51)

Amazing how that main event happened what with Rocky in Japan this morning and Josh Alexander in Chicago last night wrestling Jake Something in AAW. Ahem. PJ Black also returns to Strong, but was also still spouting off anti-vaxxer bullshit on Twitter just yesterday, so fuck that guy. 

The tournament starts next episode, with these matches taking place (not sure of order):

TJP [FREE] & Clark Connors v. Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows [Impact]

Kevin Knight & The DKC v. Jorel Nelson & Royce Isaacs

Yuji Nagata & Ren Narita v. Fred Yehi & Wheeler Yuta

Brody King [ROH] & Chris Dickinson v. JR Kratos & Danny Limelight [Team Filthy]

Strong’s 50th episode (which I’ve now “corrected” my episode count above, so there’s no Episode 47 here on this blog. However, they had a special recap/best-of episode around XMas or New Year’s last December and I didn’t count that as an ep, but clearly they do. So now we’re in line, I guess.) will happen during the tournament, and it will be main evented by “Filthy” Tom Lawlor’s 3rd defense of the NJPW Strong Openweight Championship, taking on Satoshi Kojima, who challenged him several episodes ago, and had been feuding with Team Filthy’s JR Kratos.

In other Bread Club news, Kojima looks to be done in Impact Wrestling, as he tweeted out on Thursday. Since Impact is still no-fans and pre-taped, who knows how much more material will make it to air. He was not on this Thursday’s episode of Impact, but there’s another episode to go before the Slammiversary PPV next Saturday 7/17/2021. My guess would be if Kojima is on that, he will face William Morrissey as that was who seemed to be calling him out on last week’s Impact episode. We’ll see as the Slammiversary card gets announced.

Tomorrow is the second night of Summer Struggle in Sapporo, with another title match main event. Kota Ibushi is still listed for this show, but the card is, as always, subject to change.

- 7/11/2021, Hokkaido Makomanai Sekisui Heim Ice Arena (NJPWWorld)

SHO [CHAOS] & Yuya Uemura v. El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

Tomohiro ishii [CHAOS], Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] v. EVIL, Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Yota Tsuji v. KENTA & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

Kazuchika Okada & YOH [CHAOS] v. Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire]

Kota Ibushi & Master Wato v. Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables]

IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team Championship: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr. [SZKG] © v. Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables]

[gdwessel]

Two NJPW Wrestlers Test Positive For COVID-19; Yokohama Stadium Show A Doubt; Government Considering Extending and Widening State of Emergency

Let’s just cut to the chase: earlier today, NJPW released information that two unnamed wrestlers tested positive for COVID-19. They have not mentioned who it was that tested positive, but if you look at the names of who got dropped from yesterday’s show, you can make an educated guess. These are the first documented cases from NJPW of positive COVID-19 diagnoses, after nearly a year of activity following return from lockdown on 6/15/2020. There have been several close calls, but all negative, up until now. The bubble works until it doesn’t.

As I said yesterday, there’s a discussion to be continued about whether wrestling should be happening at all in the pandemic. This news dropping the same day AEW announces they are opening up Daily’s Place for full capacity for the Double Or Nothing PPV on 5/30/2021, in Florida, a state way above the national rate of infections, is not a good look for the industry trying to keep going. 

What we can definitely glean from this, is that there is the possibility of an outbreak in the New Japan Pro Wrestling locker room, Three shows have already been cancelled on account of the state of emergency. There is every possibility that an active outbreak is going to scupper the Wrestle Grand Slam in Yokohama Stadium show. Two wrestlers definitely won’t be making it as they’ll be in quarantine, or worse. Six wrestlers total were pulled yesterday, and the other four are the most likely next to test positive. I’ll do my best to keep on top of this. The most important thing is everybody comes out of this safe and well.

In the midst of this, the government is considering extending the current state of emergency beyond 5/11/2021, and indeed, possibly expanding it to other areas not currently covered. That decision will apparently be made by Friday. Irrespective of pro wrestler, Japan currently has a 1% vaccination rate, currently have a record number of seriously affected persons in hospital, and the new variants are running wild. It isn’t India-levels of catastrophic, yet, but the outlook is not good. There are many and varies reasons why Japan’s vaccination rates are so low. There is also the insistence of a government hell-bent on holding the Olympics, despite a majority of public opinion being against it. 

The pandemic is nowhere close to being over, and this is just another reminder of that. 

[gdwessel]

Road To Wrestle Grand Slam Night 4 - 5/26/2021: Okada Makes Surprise Appearance; Feliz Aniversarios Tetsuya Naito (and Happy Belated Birthday YOSHI-HASHI); Ospreay Gives Vague Update; Tide May Be Turning In Japan

The tour without an event to be on a Road To has had its concluding show, and you can see it now on NJPWWorld. Prior to the start of the card, Kazuchika Okada made a surprise appearance, asking everyone how they were doing, and reiterating that he was the next challenger for the IWGP World Heavyweight title, no matter who he has to face to have that challenge. Okada v. Shingo for the belt at Dominion seeming very likely. Okada said backstage regarding his COVID-19 status, “The company has decided to keep everybody’s names private… although I went and blabbed on my own, heh.” Seems pretty on-brand.

Results:

- 5/26/2021, Tokyo Korakuen Hall (NJPWWorld)

Shingo Takagi [Los Ingobernables] d. Yota Tsuji (Referee Stoppage, 11:09) 

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Master Wato d. Yujiro Takahashi, Chase Owens & Taiji Ishimori [Bullet Club] (Tanahashi > Yujiro, Texas Cloverleaf, 10:58)

Tama Tonga & Tanga Loa [Bullet Club] d. Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] (Loa > DOUKI, Powerbomb, 11:56)

Jeff Cobb & Great O-Khan [United Empire] d. Kota Ibushi & Tomoaki Honma (Cobb > Honma, Tour Of The Islands, 12:04)

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] (Naito > YOSHI-HASHI, Jackknife Hold, 23:24)

Naito challenged YOSHI-HASHI/Goto/Tomohiro Ishii to defend the NEVER Openweight Comedy 6-Man Tag Team titles against Naito/SANADA/BUSHI, which YOSHI-HASHI accepted. Ironic this -- yesterday was Nobuo Yoshihashi’s 39th birthday, whilst today is not one but three anniversaries for Tetsuya Naito: his debut on 5/26/2006, his arrival in Mexico on 5/26/2009, and probably most crucially, his acceptance of La Sombra’s offer to join Los Ingobernables on 5/26/2015. Happy belated birthday to YOSHI-HASHI and feliz aniversario to Naito.

The GOD hit a Magic Killer on Sabre post-match. Shingo basically beat the piss out of poor Tsuji. Shingo is definitely wrestling Okada for that vacant title.

Yesterday, Will Ospreay tweeted out what is supposed to be an X-ray of his neck, and yeah, that looks kinda messed up. Today, he tweeted a vague update that “things ain’t looking good,” and he may have spinal issues as well as neck issues.  Whatever the truth is, it seems it’s somewhere in between he is injured and the rumors of his being pissed off/homesick/depressed/you pick. As the truth usually is. We’ll see where this goes, but it’s obvious NJPW has other ideas at the moment.

Whether or not NJPW will be running up against the Tokyo Olympics is another story, as the tide of public opinion is turning against them, and now sponsors are getting involved. The major newspaper Asahi Shimbun, one of the sponsors of this Olympiad, has posted an editorial declaring the Games must be cancelled. When one of the country’s biggest daily publications, who have thrown money at the event, is saying this can’t happen because of the pandemic and the divisions this will make in society, you know it’s time to hang it up. Reports are that the government will be deciding Friday 5/28/2021 on another extension, or even tightening, of the state of emergency.

In the meantime, with the Tokyo Dome show postponed, the next scheduled NJPW event is on Tuesday 6/1/2021 from Tokyo Korakuen Hall, the first Road to Dominion show. No lineups are out for that yet. Stay tuned.

Days Of Thunder + Strong Style History Present: Collision In Korea