#Queen Of JTO Championship

[wrestlingmgc]

EVE International Champion, Queen Of JTO Champion & Sendai Girls Tag Team Champion Yuu

[wewerecore]

CORE Pro presents The Co-Op 2023 JTO vs. CORE 03/31/23 Pico Union Project - Los Angeles, California Attendance: 311

Match #1

JTO: Yasu Urano vs. CORE: Kerry Morton - Kerry Morton tried for his inverted facelock into an elbow drop, Yasu Urano countered into a backslide but only got a two count. Urano picked Morton up and hit a straight jacket powerbomb, but before he could follow up DDT wrestler and former JTO competitor KANON appeared at ringside eyeing up both Urano's King Of JTO championship belt and Morton's NWA World Junior Heavyweight belt. Morton rolled Urano up from behind, but Yasu kicked out at two. Morton met Urano with a superkick as Urano got back to his feet and got the pinfall. Winner: Kerry Morton

- The JTO locker room stormed out and chased off KANON. Ryuuya Takekura got on the microphone and challenged KANON to a match at TAKA Michinoku's These Days II event later this weekend.

Match #2

JTO: GIRLS 2 TOP (Tomoka Inaba and Yuu Yamagata) vs. CORE: Billie Starkz and Kenzie Paige - Billie Starkz split Yuu Yamagata's nose open with a forearm strike and then hit her with the tombstone. Starkz positioned Yamagata half way out of the ring and tried for a swanton bomb on the apron but Tomoka Inaba grabbed Yuu by the ankles and pulled her out of the way. As Starkz crashed on the apron, Kenzie Paige wrapped a chain around her fist and swung on Inaba, but Tomoka ducked under and landed a right hook to Kenzie's liver. Yuu Yamagata hit Kenzie with an enzuigiri and Inaba followed with a PK. Yamagata locked Kenzie in the Just Facelock until Paige tapped out. Winners: GIRLS 2 TOP

Match #3

JTO: Ryuuya Takekura and Akira Juumonji vs. CORE: Starboy Charlie and Marcus Mathers - Marcus Mathers with the 450 splash on Akira Juumonji and Starboy Charlie with the second rope skytwister press on Ryuuya Takekura, but they both missed and landed hard on the mat. Brogan Finlay came out of the crowd brandishing a steel chair but was cut off by Eagle Mask who was seconding at ringside. Akira and Ryuuya hit Marcus Mathers with stereo PKs, one to the sternum and one to the spine. Takekura hoisted Starboy Charlie up and drove him into the mat with a delayed chokeslam and picked up a win for the JTO side. Winners: Ryuuya Takekura and Akira Juumonji

Match #4

JTO: Aoi, Misa Kagura, and Sumika Yanagawa vs. CORE: Athena, Raychell Rose, and Queen Aminata - Queen Aminata landed a headbutt on Aoi followed by a superkick to the back of Aoi's head from Raychell Rose. Aminata and Rose knocked Kagura and Yanagawa off the apron as Athena hit The O-Face on Aoi and made the cover. Winners: Athena, Raychell Rose, and Queen Aminata

Match #5

JTO: TAKA Michinoku vs. CORE: Nick Wayne - Nick Wayne went for the rebound cutter on TAKA Michinoku, Michinoku caught Nick and turned it into the Just Facelock but Wayne reached the ropes. Kerry Morton, Starboy Charlie, Marcus Mathers, Billie Starkz, and Kenzie Paige made their way out of the locker room but they were held off by CORE officials and the rest of the JTO roster who had been on high alert since KANON's early appearance. This did prove to be a distraction for TAKA who turned around into a superkick from Nick Wayne. Wayne went to the top for a swanton bomb, but TAKA got the knees up. TAKA spiked Nick Wayne with a Michinoku Driver and got the three count fall. Winner: TAKA Michinoku

Match #6

JTO: Ren Ayabe and Fire Katsumi vs. CORE: The Last Wave (Titus Alexander and Mr. Takeshita) - Ren Ayabe had Titus Alexander suspended in his lifting full nelson lock but was saved by a running knee to Ayabe's back by Mr. Takeshita. Titus Alexander slipped behind Ayabe and drove him into the corner for the Chaos Theory, but Fire Katsumi broke up the pin. Katsumi tried for a jumping knee of his own on Titus Alexander but was hit in mid-air by a cloud of salt thrown by the devious Mr. Takeshita. Titus caught Fire and hit the northern lights suplex to gain the pinfall. Winners: The Last Wave

[gdwessel]

Wrestle Kingdom 16 Night 2 - 1/5/2022: NOAH Wrestlers Make Appearance, STARDOM Wrestlers On Main Card

The second day of NJPW’s biggest event of the year, Wrestle Kingdom 16, has taken place, and you can see it now on both NJPWWorld and FITE TV. I did not watch this one live, after the lacklustre first night on Tuesday. 

Wrestle Kingdom 16 - January 5, 2022, Tokyo Dome (NJPWWorld, FITE)

Togi Makabe, Yuji Nagata & Tomoaki Honma d. Bad Luck Fale, Gedo & Jado [Bullet Club] (Honma > Gedo, Kokeshi, 6:40)

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Master Wato d. El Desperado [SZKG], Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] & TAKA Michinoku [JTO] (Wato > Desperado, Bendabar, 9:23)

Shingo Takagi, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] d. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr. & DOUKI [SZKG] (Takagi > DOUKI, Last Of The Dragon, 10:28)

IWGP Juniorheavyweight Tag Team Championship 3-Way Match: Robbie Eagles [CHAOS] & Tiger Mask IV © d. Ryusuke Taguchi & Rocky Romero [CHAOS] and Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club] (Eagles > Romero, Ron Miller Special, 12:07) - Flying Tiger succeed their 1st defense

STARDOM Offer Match: Tam Nakano [Cosmic Angels] & Saya Kamitani [Queen’s Quest] d. Mayu Iwatani [STARS] & Starlight Kid [Oedo Tai] (Kamitani > Starlight, Phoenix Splash, 9:14)

KOPW2022 4-Way Match: Minoru Suzuki [SZKG] d. Toru Yano [CHAOS] , Chase Owens [Bullet Club] & CIMA [GLEAT] (Suzuki > Yano, Gotch Style Piledriver, 6:08) - Suzuki is the Provisional KOPW2022

NEVER Openweight 6-Man Tag Team Championship: EVIL, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO [Bullet Club] © d. Hirooki Goto, YOSHI-HASHI & YOH [CHAOS] (SHO > YOH, pinfall, 9:37) - House Of Torture succeed their 1st defense

SANADA [Los Ingobernables] d. Great O-Khan [United Empire] (O’Connor Bridge, 13:21)

Tetsuya Naito [Los Ingobernables] d. Jeff Cobb [United Empire] (Destino, 15:34)

IWGP US Heavyweight Championship No-DQ Match: Hiroshi Tanahashi d. KENTA [Bullet Club] © (High Fly Flow from a ladder, 22:40) - KENTA fails his 1st defense - Tanahashi is the 12th champion

IWGP World Heavyweight Championship: Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] © d. Will Ospreay [United Empire] (Rainmaker, 32:52) - Okada succeeds his 1st defense

The year of Okada begins proper, beating the pretender Ospreay. I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the angle with one man declaring himself the true champion is a very good and traditional wrestling trope, everyone just hated it because it was Ospreay. Afterwards, Naito challenged Okada to be his next defense. Okada closed out the show tearfully imploring Antonio Inoki to come back to the ring (it won’t happen, the man is not in good health in any way). The Empire did not have a good night once again at WK, with Cobb and O-Khan both losing. O-Khan of all of them should have won.

Tananashi does the highest Fly Flow he’s ever performed, regaining the US title back from KENTA. Does make me wonder where we go from here.

The interminable House Of Torture bullshit continued tonight, with Goto demanding a rematch for what are quickly becoming the Comedy titles again, and EVIL/Yujiro demanding a shot at the IWGP tag belts in return. Stay tuned. Toru Yano does NOT become the first provisional KOPW2022 champion, instead the King Of America Minoru Suzuki does. Yano will get it soon enough I am sure. 

The IWGP junior tag match was innnnteresting -- it actually became Flying Tiger v. Mega Coaches, after Bullet Club’s Cutest Tag Team was removed from the match once it was it finally proven once and for all that Sudden Death was a loaded-boot superkick, so ELP was kicked out of the match. Nice to see that FINALLY paid off.

Talents from two other companies (well, three if you count CIMA) made featured appearances tonight. STARDOM’s match being featured on the main card rather than as a pre-show (THREE pre-show matches?! At least one of them has some value, as now Master Wato can challenge for the IWGP junior title.) is a big deal, and hopefully will lead to more STARDOM featuring on big NJPW shows.

During the intermission, the entire NOAH roster that is booked for Saturday’s big NJPW v. NOAH show in Yokohama appeared, lead by Keiji Muto and Kongo’s leader Kenoh. Shingo Takagi and BUSHI were the lone NJPW reps to stare them down, however Takagi decided not to brawl with them, leading Kenoh to call Shingo a coward. 

NOAH ran a show at Korakuen Hall earlier today as well. I will write about that tomorrow however, along with other shows from all over Japan. I have other things to tend to today, including a podcast later tonight, so I’m leaving this post with just WK16. 

The next NJPW show is the big NJPW v. NOAH rally at Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena this Saturday. Once again, this will ONLY be on ABEMA PPV first-run, only coming to NJPWWorld (and possibly Wrestle Universe and/or FITE TV) later on.

Wrestle Kingdom 16 in Yokohama Arena - 1/8/2022, Kanagawa Yokohama Arena (ABEMA PPV; NJPWWorld on tape delay)

Kosei Fujita v. Yasutaka Yano

Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata v. King Tany, Muhammad Yone & Akitoshi Saito

SHO [Bullet Club] v. Atsushi Kotoge [STINGER]

Taiji Ishimori & Gedo [Bullet Club] v. HAYATA & Seiki Yoshioka [STINGER]

El Desperado & DOUKI [SZKG] v. YO-HEY & NOSAWA Rongai [Perros del Mal de Japon]

Tomohiro Ishii [CHAOS], Hirooki Goto [CHAOS], YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS], Ryusuke Taguchi & Master Wato v. Daisuke Harada, Hajime Ohara, Daiki Inaba, Yoshiki Inamura & Kinya Okada

Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], Taichi [SZKG] & TAKA Michinoku [JTO] v. Takashi Sugiura [Sugiura-gun], Kazushi Sakuraba [Sugiura-gun] & KENTA [Bullet Club]

Zack Sabre Jr. & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG] v. Naomichi Marufuki [M’s Alliance] & Yoshinari Ogawa [STINGER]

EVIL & Dick Togo [Bullet Club] v. Go Shiozaki & Masa Kitamiya

Hiroshi Tanahashi & Kazuchika Okada [CHAOS] v. Keiji Muto [M’s Alliance] & Kaito Kiyomiya

Shingo Takagi, Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, Hiromu Takahashi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Tadasuke & ALEJA [KONGO]

[gdwessel]

Full WTL2021/BOSJ28 Final Card Announced; Shingo Wins Tokyo Sports MVP, O-Khan, Tekkers Win Awards Too; STARDOM WK16 Match Announced; RIP Jimmy Rave (12/8/1982 - 12/12/2021)

NJPW have announced the full card for Wednesday’s event at Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan, with the finals of both the World Tag League 2021 and Best Of The Super Juniors 28 taking place here. This show will be live on NJPWWorld. Jeff Cobb returns to the lineup, which is a bit of a surprise, as does Shingo Takagi and Kazuchika Okada, as we begin the build to their match at WK16.

- 12/15/2021, Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

Ryusuke Taguchi, Yuto Nakashima & Kosei Fujita v. Minoru Suzuki [SZKG], TAKA Michinoku [JTO] & DOUKI [SZKG]

Tiger Mask IV & Ryohei Oiwa v. Taiji Ishimori & El Phantasmo [Bullet Club]

Toru Yano [CHAOS], Togi Makabe, Tomoaki Honma & Master Wato v. Taichi, Zack Sabre Jr., El Desperado & Yoshinobu Kanemaru [SZKG]

Hiroshi Tanahashi, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Satoshi Kojima & Yuji Nagata v. Tama Tonga, Tanga Loa, Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens [Bullet Club]

Tetsuya Naito & SANADA [Los Ingobernables] v. Great O-Khan & Jeff Cobb [United Empire]

Shingo Takagi & BUSHI [Los Ingobernables] v. Kazuchika Okada & Robbie Eagles [CHAOS]

World Tag League 2021 Final: Hirooki Goto & YOSHI-HASHI [CHAOS] v. EVIL & Yujiro Takahashi [Bullet Club]

Best Of The Super Juniors 28 Final: YOH [CHAOS] v. Hiromu Takahashi [Los Ingobernables]

Tokyo Sports announced their annual Puroresu Awards for 2021, and once again an NJPW wrestler is MVP. This time, the choice was the obvious one: IWGP World Heavyweight Champion Shingo Takagi, who really has been carrying this company in 2021. The only other candidate that was seriously considered was Keiji Muto, following his pretty amazing first-half of 2021, where he became the GHC Heavyweight Champion in NOAH and held it for a number of months. Indeed, the match he won it from Go Shiozaki became the first Best Bout to not be from NJPW or involve any NJPW talents since Jun Kasai v. Ryuji Ito in Big Japan on 11/20/2009 in the 2009 Awards.

Great O-Khan won this year’s Technique Award, whilst Dangerous Tekkers (Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr.) became the first NJPW tandem to win the Best Tag Team Award since Manabu Nakanishi & Strong Man (Jon Andersen) in 2010. They do both deserve recognition for being some of the few bright spots in the NJPW year as well, so good for them. Bushiroad’s other wrestling company STARDOM also garnered an award, with Utami Hayashishita winning the Women’s Wrestling Grand Prize for this year. You can read heavily kayfabed comments from the NJPW winners here.

Last year’s Award ceremony was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we will see if it happens this year. The full list of winners are below.

MVP: Shingo Takagi, NJPW Best Bout Award: Go Shiozaki (c) v. Keiji Muto, GHC Heavyweight Championship, Pro Wrestling NOAH, 2/12/2021 Outstanding Performace Award: Jake Lee, AJPW Fighting Spirit Award: Konosuke Takeshita, DDT Technique Award: Great O-Khan, NJPW Best Tag Team Award: Taichi & Zack Sabre Jr., NJPW Best Newcomer Award: Yuki Arai, Tokyo Joshi Pro Women’s Wrestling Grand Prize: Utami Hayashishita, STARDOM Achievement Award: Rumi Kazama

Speaking of STARDOM, their match at WK16 Night 2 on 1/5/2022 has now been set. At their show on 12/12/2021, representatives from five units in STARDOM (Cosmic Angels, Queen’s Quest, Donna del Mundo, Oedo Tai and STARS) each drew a straw in the ring. Two of them color-coded blue, two red, and one with no color. The one who drew the uncolored straw was eliminated, which was Syuri, the SWA Champion, of Donna del Mundo. 

So with that, the match will now be: Mayu Iwatani [STARS] & Starlight Kid [Oedo Tai] v. Tam Nakano [Cosmic Angels] & Saya Kamitani [Queen’s Quest]. It’s actually a good way to get nearly every unit represented in one match, and there will be drama between Iwatani and SLK, as SLK was forced to join Oedo Tai in a stipulation match earlier this year, but she has broken out in the unit, and is a full member now. Should be a fun match.

James Michael Guffey, aka wrestler Jimmy Rave, died yesterday in Philadelphia at the far too young age of 39, just days after his birthday. Rave is best known for his time in both Ring of Honor and TNA, between 2003 - 2013, including feuds with AJ Styles, CM Punk, and others. Rave also had a long battle with drug addiction, which he was open about. Over the last year, due to various MRSA infections, Rave had not only his left arm (which prompted his retirement from wrestling in 2020) but both his legs amputated. The latter only happened this past October; a mere six weeks later and he was gone. 

Rave only ever wrestled a handful of matches in NJPW in 2008, whilst part of TNA. He did take part in Best Of The Super Juniors XV, finishing third in B Block on 6 points (he beat Tetsuya Naito and AKIRA, plus 2 points for a forfeit by the injured Prince Devitt; his losses were to Tiger Mask IV and Koji Kanemoto.), tied with Koji Kanemoto, but Kanemoto had the head-to-head win. He would also take part in the IWGP Juniorheavyweight Championship tournament that took place the next month, but would be eliminated by Kanemoto there as well.

He leaves behind two kids from a previous marriage, as well as a fiancee, wrestler Gabby Gilbert. It’s a real shame how this ended. Our best wishes to his family, friends and loved ones.