New Japan Pro Wrestling and Women of Wrestling are moving to Saturday nights on AXS TV.
AXS TV announced today that, beginning on July 13, NJPW on AXS and WOW are moving from Friday to Saturday nights. WOW will air at 8 p.m. Eastern time, with NJPW then airing at 9 p.m. Eastern.
Moving from Fridays to Saturdays means that NJPW and WOW won’t be going against SmackDown when it comes to Fox in October.
The opening night of this year’s NJPW G1 Climax will also air live on AXS at 6 p.m. Eastern on Saturday, July 6. The show is taking place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas.
That July 6 show will be the start of six weeks of same-day G1 coverage on AXS. After the shows take place on Saturday morning, two-hour broadcasts of them will air on AXS that night.
The A Block finals will take place on Saturday, August 10 and air on AXS later that night, the B Block finals are on August 11 and will air on AXS on Saturday, August 17, and the G1 finals will be held on August 12 and will air on AXS on Saturday, August 24.
Starting with the move to Saturdays on July 13, the first season of WOW on AXS will be replayed over eight weeks. The second season will then premiere on Saturday, September 7. There will be 24 episodes in the second season.
AXS TV officials have confirmed to the Wrestling Observer that Jon Moxley’s first match since leaving WWE, where he faces Juice Robinson for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship at the Best of the Super Juniors finals, will air on the network on a two-day tape delay.
Moxley vs. Robinson is scheduled for Wednesday, June 5 at Sumo Hall in Tokyo. It will air in AXS TV’s regular New Japan 8 p.m. Friday night slot on June 7.
Moxley, who was the mystery man being built up for a few weeks on New Japan shows as Robinson’s opponent, was revealed right after Double or Nothing. It was later announced that Moxley will have other matches with New Japan as well as several matches for Northeast Wrestling over the summer.
At this point Moxley’s other NJPW matches haven’t been announced. He will be able to work some dates with New Japan even after AEW starts on weekly television but AEW will have first dibs on his dates.
Moxley will next appear for AEW at Fyter Fest on June 29 in Daytona Beach.
AEW officials have also confirmed Chris Jericho will be wrestling on Fight for the Fallen on July 13 in Jacksonville.
Tony Khan of AEW when noting that Moxley, the former Dean Ambrose, real name Jonathan Good, had signed a multi-year contract with the promotion, said after Double or Nothing that he would be working international dates and some independent dates.
Moxley’s first known U.S. independent date will be against Darby Allin on June 14 in Waterbury, Connecticut for Northeast Wrestling. He will also appear on June 15 in Jackson, New Jersey for the promotion at Six Flags. His major match with Pentagon Jr. will be on August 16 in Poughkeepsie, New York on a show that also includes Fenix, Dustin Rhodes, LA Park, and Jerry Lawler.
Moxley also has NEW dates on August 17 in Norwich, Connecticut and August 18 in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Khan said that Moxley would be a regular with the promotion once they started television. It is believed he will only be working U.S. independent dates until AEW starts television, but would work New Japan big shows.
Ahead of Wrestle Kingdom 13, AXS TV will be airing a 10-hour marathon on IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kenny Omega.
AXS TV has announced that Omega will host a “Kenny Omega-thon” on the station starting at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Friday, December 28. The marathon will begin with Omega’s G1 Climax 2016 win and conclude with his IWGP Heavyweight title defense against Kota Ibushi and Cody Rhodes from King of Pro Wrestling 2018.
Omega will defend the IWGP Heavyweight title against Hiroshi Tanahashi in the main event of Wrestle Kingdom 13 on January 4. Wrestle Kingdom will air live on New Japan World, and a two-hour broadcast of the top matches from the show will air on AXS TV on a same-day delay at 8 p.m. Eastern time on January 4.
Here’s the full lineup for the Omega marathon (all times listed are Eastern):
2 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Hirooki Goto in the G1 Climax tournament finals (G1 Climax 2016 Finals)
3 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Wrestle Kingdom 11)
4 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Dominion 2017)
5 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Tomohiro Ishii in the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament finals (G1 Special in USA)
6 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship (Wrestle Kingdom 12)
7 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Jay White for the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship (New Beginning in Sapporo 2018)
8 p.m. — Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega in a no time limit, two-out-of-three falls match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (Dominion 2018)
10 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (G1 Special in San Francisco)
11 p.m. — Kenny Omega vs. Kota Ibushi vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship (King of Pro Wrestling 2018)
The top matches from NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 show at the Tokyo Dome will air on a same-day tape delay on AXS TV on January 4.
AXS has confirmed what had been expected in some form. This will be the first time AXS has had same-day coverage of a pro wrestling show from Japan.
In addition, with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett finishing up with New Japan commitments at the end of the year, the Tokyo Dome matches will use the New Japan World commentary team of Kevin Kelly and Don Callis. Kelly will be full-time on the AXS commentary team going forward.
Both the Kenny Omega vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi IWGP Heavyweight Championship match and the Chris Jericho vs. Tetsuya Naito IWGP Intercontinental title match will air on January 4, on a two-hour show from 8 to 10 p.m. Eastern time.
The rest of the Dome show will air with a two-hour show on January 11 in the same time slot, and a one-hour show on January 18.
“Same-day coverage of NJPW’s Wrestle Kingdom 13 ushers in a new era of NJPW on AXS TV,” said AXS TV Fights CEO Andrew Simon. “Based on the tremendous growth of NJPW on AXS TV, we are making changes to reward wrestling fans by offering NJPW in prime time on Friday nights as close to when it takes place as possible.”
The company also announced that the new Beginning in Sapporo show will air in three one-hour installments on February 8, February 15, and February 22.
New Year’s Dash, the show that takes place on January 5 and features the angles that start the new year, will air on AXS on January 25 and February 1.
AXS TV is celebrating Kazuchika Okada’s ongoing reign with the IWGP Heavyweight Championship by looking back at all of its matches.
Starting tomorrow, AXS will be airing all of the matches from Okada’s reign on consecutive weekdays. The first 12 matches will be shown at 5 a.m. Eastern time, leading up to Okada’s record-breaking defense against Hiroshi Tanahashi from night two of Wrestling Dontaku 2018 premiering on the station at 8 p.m. Eastern on June 15th.
Okada broke Tanahashi’s record of 11 straight title defenses when he retained the championship at Dontaku. Okada’s current reign, which is now over 700 days, is the longest in the history of the title.
This is Okada’s fourth time holding the belt.
Okada’s next defense will take place before AXS’ programming block ends. He’ll be facing Kenny Omega in a two-out-of-three falls, no time limit match in the main event of Dominion on June 9th.
Here’s AXS’ schedule for the title matches:
May 30th – Okada vs. Naito (Dominion, June 19th, 2016)
May 31st – Okada vs. Naomichi Marufuji (King of Pro Wrestling, October 10th, 2016)
June 1st — Okada vs. Omega (Wrestle Kingdom 11, January 4th, 2017)
June 4th — Okada vs. Minoru Suzuki (New Beginning in Sapporo, February 5th, 2017)
June 5th — Okada vs. Katsuyori Shibata (Sakura Genesis, April 9th, 2017)
June 6th — Okada vs. Bad Luck Fale (Wrestling Dontaku, May 3rd, 2017)
June 7th — Okada vs. Omega (Dominion, June 11th, 2017)
June 8th — Okada vs. Cody Rhodes (G1 Special in USA, July 1st, 2017)
June 11th — Okada vs. EVIL (King of Pro Wrestling, October 9th, 2017)
June 12th — Okada vs. Naito (Wrestle Kingdom 12, January 4th, 2018)
June 13th — Okada vs. SANADA (New Beginning in Osaka. February 10th, 2018)
June 14th — Okada vs. Zack Sabre Jr. (Sakura Genesis, April 1st, 2018)
June 15th — Okada vs. Tanahashi (Wrestling Dontaku, May 4th, 2018)
AXS TV will be televising three hours from Wrestle Kingdom 12 tonight, with the special airing from 8-11 p.m. Eastern time and again from 11 p.m. to 2 a.m. Eastern time, with the idea of it being prime time for both the East and West Coast.
The three-hour show was produced on Thursday after the Dome show ended with Jim Ross and Josh Barnett doing the commentary.
In order to air complete matches with video pieces building them up, there will only be four matches shown, which will be the IWGP title match with Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, the United States title match with Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, the IC title match with Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White, and the Kota Ibushi vs Cody match.
AXS will also be broadcasting matches from the Tokyo Dome in its usual Friday night at 8 p.m. time slot from January 12th to February 9th, so that every match on the main card will be airing.
AXS is currently doing an all-day New Japan marathon that started at Noon Eastern time.
The first three hours of the marathon will be built around Omega matches from 2017, in particular his US title win over Tomohiro Ishii, his G1 final match with Tetsuya Naito, and his US title defense against Juice Robinson.
They will broadcast the October King of Pro Wrestling show from Sumo Hall at 3 p.m. Eastern and follow with the top matches from Power Struggle in November from 6-8 p.m., which include Omega vs. Beretta for the US title and the classic Tanahashi vs. Ibushi singles match.
AXS TV officially announced today that Jim Ross and Josh Barnett have signed new contracts and will continue to host New Japan Pro Wrestling on the station.
“I’m excited to be returning to AXS TV, and with my partner, Josh Barnett, we look forward to another exciting year with AXS TV and their NJPW programming,” Ross said. “NJPW has some of the finest athletes in the world performing for them and it’s an honor to be able to add a narrative to their bouts.”
It was noted in the Observer earlier this month that Ross and AXS had verbally agreed on a new contract, with WWE not standing in the way of the deal. Ross’ agreement with WWE allows him to continue doing his existing work.
“Together, Jim Ross and Josh Barnett form one of the strongest and most unique commentary teams in pro wrestling,” AXS Fights CEO Andrew Simon said. “J.R.’s experience is second to none and his iconic voice provides a captivating soundtrack for NJPW, while Josh’s career in both pro wrestling and combat sports allows him to add compelling depth and a combatant’s perspective to the action.”
This will be the fourth season of NJPW on AXS and will feature more up-to-date programming than ever before, notably the January 4th Tokyo Dome show in which the top three hours of the show will be edited and broadcast on January 6th, just two days after it takes place.
On Sunday, AXS TV will officially announce a three-hour Wrestle Kingdom 12 special to air on Saturday, January 6th, starting at 8 p.m. Eastern time, the main focus of 11 straight hours of New Japan programming starting at noon that day.
All of the top main card matches — IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada vs. Tetsuya Naito, US Champion Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho, and IC Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Jay White — will be on the special.
The marathon will feature many of the biggest matches in New Japan from the last six months, including Omega’s matches with Tomohiro Ishii in Long Beach where he won the tournament to be crowned the US Champion, Omega vs. Naito in the G1 Climax final, and Omega vs. Juice Robinson for the US title.
From 5-8 p.m., they will replay the recent King of Pro Wrestling special from Sumo Hall in Tokyo that featured Okada vs. EVIL and Naito vs. Ishii.
They will be airing matches from Wrestle Kingdom 12 starting January 12th through February 9th, broken down into five one hour programs in their regular Friday night timeslot.
“While NJPW has delivered some of the greatest matches in wrestling history over the past year, we’ve seen viewership growth on AXS TV thanks to New Japan’s expansion in the U.S. and our commitment to air matches closer to when they take place,” said Andrew Simon, the CEO of AXS TV Fights.
“With Wrestle Kingdom as their marquee annual event, we thank NJPW and TV Asahi for their support and are proud to kick off 2018 with this historical prime time Saturday night special featuring the dream match-up Kenny Omega vs. Chris Jericho.”
AXS TV has made the call that its June 30th New Japan television show, originally set to be two episodes, each one hour and airing from 7-9 p.m., will now be one two-hour episode.
The change was to allow the entire Kazuchika Okada vs. Kenny Omega IWGP Heavyweight Championship match to air in its entirety, which would have been impossible in a one-hour format.
The June 30th show will be airing two hours from this past Sunday’s Dominion event. The Tetsuya Naito vs. Hiroshi Tanahashi match for the IWGP Intercontinental Championship will be shown as well.
This also means that the original plan to air the Okada vs. Omega match from Osaka on July 1st, immediately after the live Long Beach show, has been changed. Instead, the two-hour version of Dominion will be replayed from 6-8 p.m. Eastern time, as the lead-in for the live show from Long Beach, featuring the United States title tournament and Okada vs. Cody.
AXS will be airing New Japan matches starting at 8 a.m. Eastern time, with 12 hours of footage that is said to contain all the significant match of the year candidates from the promotion in 2017.
The Long Beach show is scheduled from 8 p.m. to midnight live, and will be covered as a sports event and not as a pro wrestling show, which means no commercial breaks during long matches.
There is no hard-and-fast finish time for the event like a television show, in the sense that if early matches go long, there is no incentive to trim the later matches or the main event for a midnight exit. In theory, they have blocked off until 1 a.m. if need be for the live show.
The plan for now is that immediately after the live show ends, to air the January 4th Okada vs. Omega match from the Tokyo Dome, and then after that, air a replay of the Long Beach show.
This week’s show was part two of AXS TV’s look at WrestleKingdom 10, which took place on January 4th, 2016.
Togi Makabe welcomed us to the show.
The Briscoes & Toru Yano defeated Yujiro Takahashi, Bad Luck Fale & Tama Tonga to win the NEVER Six-Man titles
I’m still not sure why NJPW needed another set of titles, let alone ones with the NEVER brand, but hey, here we are. This was fine, but just felt like something was missing. It was clear the Briscoes were the best workers in the match, but the crowd didn’t know them so they only reacted for big moves. Yano hit Tama Tonga with a chair and the Briscoes executed the Doomsday Device for the win.
Hirooki Goto defeated Tetsuya Naito
This was one of those matches that was pretty good, and pretty heated, but not all that memorable in the grand scheme of things. There was the usual ref bump that allowed LIJ to run in, but didn’t last long as Goto warded them off and hit the Shouten Kai not too long after that for the win. It’s tough to remember what I thought of this match earlier this year, so in the end this was pretty good, but nothing memorable.
After the match, Goto said it was a refreshing victory because it was the tenth WrestleKingdom, mentioning how he’s never headlined a show. He wants to make this a turning point, to become one of the top wrestlers. This year, he will become the face of NJPW.
Makabe put over Honma, saying he is always over even without a belt. It was honorable to have won the Tag League with him. He has nothing to say about Gallows and Anderson. They have power and height, particularly Gallows. They have that X factor.
Great Bash Heel (Togi Makabe & Tomoaki Honma) defeated Karl Anderson & Doc Gallows to win the IWGP Tag Team Championship
Anderson and Gallows dominated a lot of the match. It wasn’t that interesting, to be honest. They were always decent to okay in New Japan, very rarely was there anything out of this world. Once Homna started making the comeback, things got better and the crowd picked up a bit. Honma got the win for his team with the Kokeshi headbutt. Nice storyline conclusion for Honma — he was always the underdog in NJPW, and he’s gone from getting his first big win to winning gold.
Makabe said now that we have a belt, it’s just the beginning. We must show the fans a dramatic fight. Honma said it’s been his dream since he was little, this is a dream come true. He is happy he won with Makabe and he plans to be champions with him for a long time.
In a post-match interview, Makabe said his opponents were incredible, but he won the honor and the belt. It was great that we got the result we wanted. Where we go from here is up to Honma. He shouldn’t be a show off, but he can be a show off and get results.
This week was pretty okay, but nothing special. These three matches weren’t bad by any means, but not the best on this card.
Tetsuya Naito welcomes (?) us to the show this week, which features highlights from last year’s Destruction in Kobe show that took place on September 27th.
IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hirooki Goto vs. Shinsuke Nakamura
This is one of those matches that I initially didn’t mind at all, because these two are great and ended up having a good match, but it was actually better than I remembered. Nakamura is just so great in his style and how he applies it to each match.
But beyond match quality, I wasn’t a fan of the actual result as it felt stale and tired. I don’t think Nakamura winning the title back added anything to him, whereas Goto winning the title meant a breath of fresh air. It felt like a step backward more than a step forward. Nakamura won back the title with the Bomaye.
Karl Anderson comes out and challenges Nakamura for a title shot, even using Nakamura’s “Yeaoh” catchphrase. Nakamura does the catchphrase the right way, making it seem like the match is on.
Nakamura says that it seems the next challenger has been decided. The only thing to do is to continue fighting.
Katsuyori Shibata vs. Tetsuya Naito
Naito says ever since the G1, he’s been making up for the loss. He mentioned how Shibata called him out. He thought it would be the right time to finish this once and for all. He doesn’t hate Shibata but he’s on a different path. Shibata is really straightforward, while he is not, as he keeps his cool. He gradually had more fun teasing him.
I liked the story behind this match as it was Naito teasing Shibata and looking to avenge a loss he suffered at the G1 just a month prior. The match itself was pretty good, though I think the previous match was a lot better. I think this got the better slot as Nakamura isn’t with the company any longer.
Naito won the match after two low blows and the Destino. Makes sense as they’re trying to get Naito’s new character over.
Naito asks who is the winner here and says Shibata is the uncontrollable one. He’s happy for him, he got to show off those gleaming eyes of his. Shibata, as well as the rest of the crowd, should thank him. The G1 is over, he beat the most bothersome guy in the tournament.
When mentioned that Tanahashi wants to challenge him, he says if he wants to face him he should challenge him face-to-face.
In his reflective interview, Naito says he had fun. Everyone watching Shibata in that match should thank him, and Shibata should thank him for getting that glistening feel from three years ago.
Final Thoughts:
Nice, solid show this week. Watch the first match if you can.
