Former IWGP World Heavyweight Champion SANADA has been pulled from a slate of upcoming NJPW events.
After already missing two shows, NJPW has announced that SANADA is off the remainder of its Wrestling Dontaku tour. He will miss two more Road to Wrestling Dontaku events, both nights of Wrestling Dontaku, and All Together 2024.
SANADA has been out of action since April 26 due to illness.
NJPW wrote that he’s returning to Tokyo for a medical appraisal:
After missing two events on the Road to Dontaku, it has been determined that SANADA be absent from the remainder of the Dontaku tour, as well as All Together as he returns to Tokyo for a medical appraisal.
We apologise to fans looking forward to seeing SANADA wrestle and appreciate your understanding. :
Wrestling Dontaku is being held this Friday (May 3) and Saturday (May 4). At night one, SANADA, Taichi & Yuya Uemura were supposed to face Great-O-Khan, Callum Newman & Francesco Akira. It will now be a two-on-two tag match with Taichi & Uemura facing O-Khan & Newman.
SANADA & Taichi were scheduled to face Hiroshi Tanahashi & Nic Nemeth at night two of Wrestling Dontaku. That match will now be Taichi & TAKA Michinoku vs. Tanahashi & Nemeth.
All Together 2024 is a cross-promotional show under the United Japan Pro-Wrestling banner. It’s taking place next Monday (May 6). At the event, SANADA was going to team with Dragon Gate’s Kai against Zack Sabre Jr. & DDT wrestler Chris Brookes. With SANADA off the card, it’s been changed to Taichi & KAI vs. Sabre & Brookes.
An All-Star junior heavyweight tag match is the latest addition to the card for All Together 2024.
The cross-promotional event is taking place at Budokan Hall in Tokyo on Monday, May 6. It’s the first show from United Japan Pro-Wrestling, a new collaborative group consisting of nine Japanese wrestling promotions (NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT, Ganbare, Big Japan, Dragon Gate, Stardom, and Tokyo Joshi Pro).
A tag match with Hiromu Takahashi, Dragon Bane, Alpha Wolf, Tetsuya Endo & YAMATO facing El Desperado, HAYATA, Ninja Mack, MAO & Kota Minoura will take place at All Together. NJPW wrote about the match:
Another big matchup has been added to All Together on May 6, with the junior heavyweight s getting in on the action. With Best of the Super Jr. getting started in Chiba on May 11 just five nights later, some key entrants will be doing battle alongside more names from the junior heavyweight landscape.
Kota Minoura of DRAGONGATE and MAO from DDT join BOSJ 31 entrants Ninja Mack, HAYATA and El Desperado to face DRAGONGATE’s YAMATO, DDT’s Tetsuya Endo, NOAH’s Alfa Wolf and Dragon Bane, and Hiromu Takahashi. 25 year old Minoura is the 2023 King of Gate winner and a four time Triangle Gate champion, while MAO has recent previous with El Desperado, the two having teamed together at All Star Junior Festival USA last August. On the other side of the ledger, Tetsuya Endo and MAO are very familiar opponents in DDT, while Alpha Wolf and Dragon Bane bring former GHC Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Championship credentials to the bout, and YAMATO and Hiromu Takahashi have some measure of mutual respect started at All Star Junior Festival last spring and further honed in singles competition at DRAGONGATE’s marquee Kobe World card.
It’ll be a stunning junior showcase on May 6 as ALL TOGETHER continues to take shape!
United Japan Pro-Wrestling was formed in December 2023 with the goal of advancing pro wrestling in Japan following the COVID-19 pandemic. The nine promotions in the organization are continuing to operate separately.
A portion of the proceeds from All Together are being donated toward helping victims of the Noto Peninsula earthquake that happened earlier this year. The show will stream live on Abema pay-per-view.
A Stardom tag match is the latest addition to All Together 2024, a cross-promotional event featuring several Japanese wrestling promotions.
AZM & Miyu Amasaki vs. Starlight Kid & Natsupoi will take place at the Monday, May 6 event. Rivals Starlight Kid & Natsupoi are uniting for the bout:
A ‘supernova’ prospect for STARDOM, Amasaki made her debut in 2022, and instantly joined Queen’s Quest. On May 6 she joins a regular teammate in AZM, who is riding high from her first US tour, albeit one that saw her fall short to Stephanie Vaquer for the STRONG Women’s Championship. AZM will be more than happy to show her high speed expertise against familiar foes though, in the form of Starlight Kid and Natsupoi.
With SLK representing Oedo Tai and Natsupoi Cosmic Angels, this is certainly a team of strange bedfellows. In fact, the two women are best known for their fierce rivalry over the High Speed Championship a couple of summers ago, and have never once teamed together. Aligned against a unified and common foe, might this be an exhibition that has wide reaching influences on STARDOM at large? Find out May 6!
AZM made her AEW debut on Collision last week, losing to AEW Women’s World Champion Toni Storm in a title eliminator match.
All Together is the first event under the United Japan Pro-Wrestling banner. It was announced in December 2023 that NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT, Ganbare, Big Japan, Dragon Gate, Stardom, and Tokyo Joshi Pro had come together to form the industry group.
The nine promotions are continuing to operate separately while collaborating to advance pro wrestling in Japan following the COVID-19 pandemic.
A portion of the proceeds from All Together are being donated to victims of the Noto Peninsula earthquake that happened at the beginning of 2024. The show is taking place from Budokan Hall in Tokyo and will stream live on Abema pay-per-view.
Two new matches have been added to the card for May’s All Together event, the first show under the United Japan Pro-Wrestling banner.
It was announced in December 2023 that nine promotions had come together to form the United Japan Pro-Wrestling industry group. Their first collaborative show is being held at Budokan Hall on Monday, May 6.
A singles match between Pro Wrestling NOAH star Kenoh and NJPW’s Kosei Fujita has been added to the All Together event. A tag team match with SANADA (NJPW) & KAI (Dragon Gate) facing Zack Sabre Jr. (NJPW) & Chris Brookes (DDT) is also now set.
NJPW, AJPW, NOAH, DDT, Ganbare, Big Japan, Dragon Gate, Stardom, and Tokyo Joshi Pro are the nine promotions in the industry group. While still operating separately, they’ve come together to advance pro wrestling in Japan following the COVID-19 pandemic.
The mission statement for the group is:
To further the presence of pro-wrestling and its cultural merit in Japanese society at large, allow professional wrestling to contribute further to cultural and sporting sectors, and work toward continued health and prosperity of the industry.
All Together is airing as a pay-per-view on ABEMA. A portion of the proceeds from the event are being donated to the victims of the Noto Peninsula earthquake that happened at the beginning of this year.
