Road To New Beginning

The Road To New Beginning iPPV from the second of February has made it's way on to youtube. The show is main evented with a Six Man Tag Team Match: CHAOS (Kazuchika Okada, Shinsuke Nakamura & Tomohiro Ishii) vs. Hirooki Goto, Hiroshi Tanahashi & Tetsuya Naito and you can see it, and talk about it on the forum at THIS LINK.

New Beginning Card(s)

New Japan continue to confuse their iPPV issue by announcing that Road To New Beginning Night one will also be available on the platform alongside the TWO New Beginning Events themselves in Hiroshima and Osaka. Splitting New Beginning over two shows has allowed them to headline both the IWGP Intercontinental Title rematch from Wrestle Kingdom as well as the IWGP Heavyweight title itself.

Here are the cards for the announced iPPV shows:

NJPW Fantasticamania 2014

Fantasticamania is an annual show hosted by New Japan that features both New Japan and CMLL talent on the card. This year saw five Fantasticamania shows take place with the final three featuring on iPPV.

Some kind sole has uploaded all three to youtube so here, for your pleasure, are those final three shows:

KENTA To WWE?

A couple of major news sites are currently reporting that Japanese Superstar and former GHC Heavyweight Champion for NOAH; KENTA was at the WWE Performance Center yesterday for a tryout.

KENTA lost the title on January 4th and that could well be a coincidence or NOAH preempting his joining WWE. William Regal is said to be the reason for his tryout.

(Wanna talk about this, GO HERE!)

They are also reporting that an offer is currently on the table for Prince Devitt to join the promotion.

More on both of these stories as they happen.

Wrestle Kingdom 8 - Full Show & Results

I don't want to condone watching top quality wrestling pay-per-views via any means other than one that will see the company promoting the show make money. That said, these two videos of New Japans Wrestle Kingdom 8 have been on youtube since the day of the show and the company have showed no signs of having them taken down.

To clarify, these videos are nothing to do with TWF, Pro Wrestling Planet or any of our friends or affiliates, we're just letting you watch them with minimal effort.

Theres a block of white text under the second video that contains the full results of the show, highlight it if you want to read it.

Wrestle Kingdom 8 Preview

Over the last eighteen months NJPW has been on a tremendous role.  Last year Wrestle Kingdom 7, Invasion Attack, Dominion and the King of Pro Wrestling iPPV events were all spectacular shows. Both Wrestle Kingdom and Invasion Attack (alongside day 4 of the G1 Climax) were all in the running for The Wrestling Media Nation Pay-Per-View of the Year Award, which one of them may well have won by the time this preview goes up.

On this Day in Pro Wrestling History

1983 - Rick Patterson and Randy Rich defeat Star Rider and Snake Williams in Cloverdale, British Columbia to win the vacant Vancouver NWA Canadian Tag Team Title.

1984 - Kevin, Kerry and Mike Von Erich win their third World Class Six-Man Tag Team Title, by defeating Chris Adams, Gino Hernandez and Jake Roberts in Fort Worth, Texas.

1989 - New Japan held an event at Luzhniki Stadium in Moscow, Soviet Union. The results were:
- Kuniaki Kobayashi defeated Takayuki Iizuka.
- Jushin Liger defeated Black Tiger.
- Masahiro Chono defeated Chimur Zarasov by submission.
- Wahka Eveloev and IWGP Tag Team Champion Shinya Hashimoto fought to a draw.
- Riki Choshu defeated Victor Zangiev.
- Bam Bam Bigelow defeated Vladimir Berkovich.
- Habieli Victachev defeated Hiroshi Hase by submission.
- Salman Hashimikov defeated Manny Fernandez.

NJPW Road To Tokyo Dome 12/23 Report

The WK8 co-main events clash in a huge tag match.

Prior to every New Japan iPPV, there are a set of "lead-up" events that build the upcoming show in the sort of way that Raw & Smackdown do for the WWE. So naturally, the December 23rd edition of Road To Tokyo Dome (just under two weeks prior to Wrestle Kingdom 8) is pretty much the equivalent of a "go-home" RAW before WrestleMania. The card for this show isn't completely stacked, but we've got ourselves one hell of a main event tag match that should be a terrific final effort at garnering some last minute buys. So without further ado, here is my review of NJPW's Road To Tokyo Dome event live from Korakuen Hall in Tokyo, Japan:

New Japan Book Dates In Taiwan

New Japans English language site has announced that the promotion has two dates scheduled to appear in Taiwan on April 12 & 13. The event is named Wrestling World 2014 and the Press conference will be held in Taiwan on January 10th, it be will have Hiroshi Tanahashi and Jushin Liger in attendance.

No other information is known at this time.

Wrestle Kingdom 8 - The Great Muta Returns!

Muta Returns!

New Japan have completed the line-up for their January 4th card, Wrestle Kingdom 8 by announcing an eight man tag-team match and Toru Yanos' mystery partner.

You can check out the participants of that eight-man below but far more importantly, that tag-team match featuring Yano will now be; Shelton X Benjamin & Minoru Suzuki vs Toru Yano and THE GREAT MUTA!

This will be Mutas first appearance for New Japan since the 2008 Tokyo Dome show.

Here's the full announced card:

Classic Rivalries: Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Kazuchika Okada

Between February 2012 and October 2013, these two met in six major single matches. Five of those were for the IWGP Heavyweight Title (the main title in New Japan Pro Wrestling) with the sixth occurring during this year's G1 Climax tournament.

All of those matches are considered to be excellent, with at least two of them securing ***** ratings, their feud as been compared to such legendary rivalries such as Flair vs.Steamboat or Misawa vs. Kobashi.

2013 Champions & Title Defenses

Info Credit Pro Wrestling Torch

The Pro Wrestling Torch have posted an updated list of ongoing title holders for 2013. I've brought them over here so you can take a look and because we'll be doing a similar thing with the promotions we follow: WWE, TNA, ROH & NJPW in 2014.

Behind The Scenes At The G1 Climax & An Intro To Top NJPW Stars

I spotted this video on G9Zwrestling and thought I'd share it on PWP. Hosted by MVP its a brief look behind the scenes at the 2012 G1 Climax tournament. In it he talks to some of New Japans top stars including Shinsuke Nakamura and Kazuchika Okada.
Stay tuned for Okadas response when asked if he has anything to say to TNA (whom, when they had Okada - the guy that's just been named the best wrestling in Japan for a second straight year - decided the best use for him was as a sidekick character named Okato, based on the Green Hornet film...)
It's worth a watch. Also, there's an official New Japan produced introduction video here!

Tokyo Sports Grand Prix Award Winners

The Best In Japan... The Best In The World Too?

Credit: Open The Puroreso Gate

The winners of the 2013 Tokyo Sports Grand Prix Awards have been announced by Tokyo Sports. These are revered as THE official annual year-end awards that honor the best in puroresu.

The biggest winner was New Japan star Kazuchika Okada, who won the top prize, MVP, for the second straight year. The last time someone won back-to-back MVPs was Genichiro Tenryu in 1986-87. It also marks the 3rd straight year New Japan has claimed that award (Hiroshi Tanahashi won in 2011). 

One streak and 3-peat bid that obviously ended was the Joshi Puroresu Grand Prize, which Yuzuki Aikawa didn’t win, if only because she retired in April. In mild surprise to some it went to Sendai Girls star Meiko Satomura.

The full list of winners:

Wrestle Kingdom 8 Full Card And Match Order

New Japan Pro Wrestling have announced the full card and run order for their biggest show of 2014; Wrestle Kingdom 8, which will take place January 4th at the Tokyo Dome.

Over the last few months the promotion has been asking fans to vote on which match will main event the show - the G1 Climax Winner Tetsuya Naito challenging for the IWGP Heavyweight title against Kazuchika Okada OR Hiroshi Tanahashi challenging Shinsuke Nakamura for the IWGP Intercontinental title.

The voting went pretty much as expected and the IWGP Intercontinental Championship match will go on last, which suggests that Naito isn't as over as New Japan would have hoped after the push they've given him.

Either way, this is an absolutely stacked card and will almost certainly turn out to be one of the best shows of the year, if not THE best.

Here's the announced card:

World Tag League Results

The Finals of New Japans World Tag League took place yesterday via iPPV. The winners of the tournament are pretty much guaranteed a shot against the IWGP Heavyweight Tag-Team Champions; The Killer Elite Squad (Davey Boy Smith jnr and Lance Archer) at Wrestle Kingdom 8.

Here are the results of the iPPV as well as the shows leading up to it:

World Tag League Update

New Japan are currently in the middle of their World Tag League (formerly the G1 Tag League) - The winners of the tournament will earn an IWGP World Tag Team title shot at Wrestle Kingdom 8.

These are the results for the 23rd November through the 28th - the competition will end on December 8th.

Also note "Doc" Gallows (formerly DOC in TNA and Luke Gallows of the Straight Edge Society in WWE) making his debut for the promotion.

On this Day in Pro Wrestling History

In 2007, NJPW Destruction was held in Tokyo, Japan. The event featured a series of 3 NJPW vs TNA matches

– Tiger Mask defeats Ron Killings by forfeit (NJPW 1-0 TNA)
– Christopher Daniels & Senshi defeat Minoru & Prince Devitt (NJPW 1-1 TNA)
– Rhino defeats Toru Yano (NJPW 1-2 TNA)
– Riki Choshu, Masahiro Chono, Super Strong Machine, Jushin Liger & AKIRA defeat Takashi Iizuka, Takashi Uwano, Mitsuhide Hirasawa, Tetsuya Naito & Taichi Ishikari
– Dick Togo & TAKA Michinoku defeat Jado & Gedo to retain the IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Titles
– Shinsuke Nakamura & Giant Bernard defeat Yuji Nagata & Manabu Nakanishi
– Hiroshi Tanahashi defeats Hirooki Goto to retain the IWGP Heavyweight Title

Wrestle Kingdom 8 Announcements

Credit Open The Puroresu Gate

The first 5 matches for New Japans biggest show of the year, Wrestle Kingdom, were announced today.

The show takes place on Jaunuary 4 at the Tokyo Dome and is normally a 9-10 match event so we're looking at about half of the card. Four big title matches have been announced including, after nearly two and a half years, the renewal of “The Rivalry”. 

Power Struggle Results

The full results for Power Struggle, credit Strong Style Spirit.