Tag: njpw us

First night of NJPW G1 Climax 29 taking place in United States

Posted on by Joseph Currier

This year’s G1 Climax will be kicking off in the United States.

Between the Wrestle Kingdom 13 pre-show match and the start of the main card, New Japan Pro Wrestling revealed the schedule for some of their upcoming big shows. That included significant announcements concerning this year’s G1, with the first show of the tournament set to take place at the American Airlines Center in Dallas, Texas on July 6.

NJPW also announced some G1 dates for Japan. There will be shows in Otaku on July 13 and July 14, along with an event in Hokkaido on July 15. The tournament will again conclude with three straight nights at Budokan Hall, with those shows taking place on August 10, August 11, and August 12.

Later in the Wrestle Kingdom 13 broadcast, NJPW confirmed another event for their New Beginning USA tour. The additional show will take place in Nashville, Tennessee on February 2. The other New Beginning USA tour stops are in Los Angeles, California on January 30 and Charlotte, North Carolina on February 1. Kevin Kelly noted that additional tickets for the show in Los Angeles will be made available soon.

The New Beginning USA shows will feature young lions from the NJPW dojo in California and wrestlers who aren’t on the New Beginning tour in Japan.

NJPW reveals full G1 Special night two card

Posted on by Joseph Currier

Following the completion of last night’s show, New Japan Pro Wrestling has revealed the full card for G1 Special night two.

The complete lineup couldn’t be announced until the first round of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament took place. The semifinals will see Kenny Omega face Jay Lethal and Tomohiro Ishii square off with Zack Sabre Jr. Whoever wins those will go on to the finals, with the inaugural champion being crowned in the main event.

Those who lost in the first round of the tournament are involved in multi-man tag matches on night two. Kazuchika Okada and Cody Rhodes will also be on opposite sides in an eight-man tag after their title match last night, with Okada teaming with The Briscoes & Will Ospreay against Cody, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll.

Two title matches that were known about in advance will take place on the show as well. Hiroshi Tanahashi will defend his IWGP Intercontinental Championship against Billy Gunn and The Young Bucks will put their junior tag titles on the line against Roppongi Vice.

Tonight’s show will air live on New Japan World (with English commentary available) everywhere in the world. It will then be shown on AXS TV on Friday. The full card is:

  • The finals of the IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament
  • IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Billy Gunn
  • Kazuchika Okada, Will Ospreay & The Briscoes vs. Cody, Bad Luck Fale, Yujiro Takahashi & Marty Scurll
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defending against Roppongi Vice
  • Michael Elgin & War Machine vs. Hangman Page & Guerrillas of Destiny
  • Juice Robinson, Jay White, Volador Jr., Dragon Lee & Titan vs. Tetsuya Naito, SANADA, EVIL, BUSHI & Hiromu Takahashi
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in an IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament semifinal match
  • Kenny Omega vs. Jay Lethal in an IWGP United States Heavyweight Championship tournament semifinal match
  • KUSHIDA, Jushin Thunder Liger & David Finlay vs. Yoshitatsu & The Tempura Boyz (Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu)

NJPW announces matches for Long Beach shows

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

Additional notes added by Bryan Rose

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced many of the matches for the shows in Long Beach on July 1st and 2nd.

The July 1st live show on AXS TV will be headlined by Kazuchika Okada vs. Cody for the IWGP Heavyweight title and will also feature first round matches in the United States Heavyweight title tournament. Those are: Kenny Omega vs. Michael Elgin, Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page, Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito, and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. Juice Robinson.

The semifinals and finals of the tournament will be on July 2nd, plus a weird match with Hiroshi Tanahashi defending his Intercontinental title against Billy Gunn.

The card for July 1st is —

  • IWGP Heavyweight Champion Kazuchika Okada defending against Cody
  • Michael Elgin vs. Kenny Omega in a US title first round match
  • Tomohiro Ishii vs. Tetsuya Naito in a US title first round match
  • IWGP Tag Team Champions Guerrillas of Destiny defending against War Machine
  • David Finlay, Jay White, KUSHIDA & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Sho Tanaka, Yohei Komatsu, Yoshitatsu & Billy Gunn
  • Juice Robinson vs. Zack Sabre Jr. in a US title first round match
  • Jay Lethal vs. Hangman Page in a US title first round match
  • Titan, Dragon Lee, Volador Jr. & Jushin Thunder Liger vs. Hiromu Takahashi, BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA
  • Roppongi Vice, Will Ospreay & The Briscoes vs. The Young Bucks, Marty Scurll, Yujiro Takahashi & Bad Luck Fale

July 2nd will have (with more matches to be announced) —

  • The semifinals and finals of the US title tournament
  • IWGP Intercontinental Champion Hiroshi Tanahashi defending against Billy Gunn
  • IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team Champions The Young Bucks defending against Roppongi Vice

Before Long Beach, three Kizuna Road shows will air live on New Japan World. The June 20th card has a NEVER Six-Man tag title match pitting KUSHIDA, Juice Robinson & Ryusuke Taguchi against champions BUSHI, EVIL & SANADA. Davey Boy Smith Jr. will also make his return to NJPW in a six-man Suzuki-gun vs. Chaos tag match.

Minoru Suzuki will defend his NEVER Openweight Championship against YOSHI-HASHI on June 26th.

The final Kizuna Road show on June 27th will have KUSHIDA defending his newly won IWGP Junior Heavyweight title against BUSHI, who attacked him at Dominion.

Announcements for the G1 (participants, blocks, and matches) will be made across the three shows.

NJPW announces broadcast plans and roster for Long Beach shows

Posted on by Dave Meltzer

New Japan Pro Wrestling made a number of announcements today at a Los Angeles press conference covering the July 1st and July 2nd shows in Long Beach.

As reported here already, AXS TV will be airing both shows. The July 1st show will air live at 8 p.m. Eastern and 5 p.m. local time. The July 2nd show will air live on New Japan World with a replay airing on AXS on July 7th with AXS airing it in a four-hour window from 8 p.m. Eastern to midnight.

The first night will only be shown live on NJPW World for those outside of the United States.

The IWGP Heavyweight, IWGP Intercontinental, IWGP Heavyweight Tag Team, and IWGP Junior Heavyweight Tag Team titles will all be defended over the two days. A tournament will also be held to create the IWGP United States Championship, which will be the key territorial belt when New Japan opens up a full-time U.S. outpost in 2018.

The press conference featured Kenny Omega, Cody Rhodes, and The Young Bucks, and they spoke about the show in Long Beach as well as all three talking about their matches on the June 11th Dominion show in Osaka where Omega faces Kazuchika Okada for the IWGP title, The Young Bucks challenge Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta for the IWGP Junior tag titles, and Rhodes faces Michael Elgin in a singles match.

Wrestlers who will be appearing over both nights in Long Beach were also announced, with them being organized by the factions and promotions that they represent. The lineup is:

NJPW —

  • Hiroshi Tanahashi
  • Michael Elgin
  • KUSHIDA
  • Jushin Thunder Liger
  • Juice Robinson
  • David Finlay
  • Sho Tanaka & Yohei Komatsu
  • Jay White
  • Billy Gunn
  • Yoshitatsu

Chaos —

  • Kazuchika Okada
  • Tomohiro Ishii
  • Will Ospreay
  • Rocky Romero & Trent Barreta

Los Ingobernables de Japon —

  • Tetsuya Naito
  • Hiromu Takahashi
  • SANADA
  • EVIL
  • BUSHI

Suzuki-gun —

  • Zack Sabre Jr.

ROH —

  • Jay Lethal
  • The Briscoes
  • War Machine

CMLL —

  • Dragon Lee
  • Volador Jr.
  • Titan

Bullet Club —

  • Kenny Omega
  • The Young Bucks
  • Cody Rhodes
  • Marty Scurll
  • Bad Luck Fale
  • Hangman Page
  • Guerrillas of Destiny
  • Yujiro Takahashi

NJPW to crown first IWGP United States Champion in Long Beach

Posted on by Joseph Currier

New Japan Pro Wrestling will be crowning the first IWGP United States Champion when the company comes to Long Beach, California in July.

The announcement was made in the ring prior to tonight’s co-branded ROH/NJPW War of the Worlds pay-per-view at the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City. There will be a round robin tournament held over the two nights in Long Beach to determine the first champion.

Jay Lethal was confirmed as the first entrant in the tournament. Hangman Page confronted Lethal and will likely be in as well.

The shows in California will take place on July 1st and 2nd. Aside from initial announcements about which NJPW wrestlers will be appearing, this is the biggest news that has been revealed about them so far. The cards should take shape after NJPW’s Dominion PPV on June 11th.

Both shows will air live on NJPW World. Jim Ross also posted that AXS TV is set to announce their broadcast plans for the events on May 18th. Ross wrote that fans will like what they hear.

Approximately 2,150 to 2,200 tickets per show were initially put on sale, with them selling out within hours. Limited additional seats were also added earlier this month and sold out almost instantly.