Welcome to the first edition of what I hope to be a brand new series here on Voices of Wrestling!
Over the years, we’ve come to hear about the traditional “big 3” promotions in Japanese professional wrestling: New Japan, All Japan, and Pro Wrestling NOAH. The purpose of this series will be to cover what’s coming up in the next two weeks in each of these promotions, which will both let us cover NJPW’s Road To shows (which don’t really get any coverage on this site at all but nowadays often feature some interesting matchups), plus give more written coverage to NOAH & AJPW as well.
And for fun, we’ll throw in the largest women’s promotion in the country, too, the World Wonder Ring STARDOM.
We’ll focus only on shows that will air in some fashion, whether live or on demand, and we’ll let you know how you can watch them as well.
Sound good? Then, let’s get started!
Wednesday, January 22
NJPW Road to The New Beginning Night 1
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in Japanese (English VOD to follow)
The first official night of the New Beginning tour (not counting this past Sunday’s Blue Justice show, which ended up being little more than a Road to the New Beginning Night 0) is also the least interesting card of the tour by far, featuring almost nothing of note. When the most noteworthy match of the show is Hiroshi Tanahashi kicking off his series against the current Young Lions in the opener (he’ll face Shoma Kato), you know this isn’t exactly a major card. The main event does at least serve up a 2 vs. 2 tag team match previewing both the upcoming World Heavyweight & Junior title matches, as Hirooki Goto will team with El Desperado to face TMDK’s Zack Sabre Jr. and Kosei Fujita. Zack and Goto, of course, happens on February 11 in Osaka, while we’ll get to Despe vs. Fujita much later in this article. But of all the NJPW Road to New Beginning Korakuens, this is easily the most skippable.
Thursday, January 23
NJPW Road to The New Beginning Night 2
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in Japanese (English VOD to follow)
Night 2 of the New Beginning tour at Korakuen gives us a singles match main event, as Ryohei Oiwa will take on YOSHI-HASHI. This matchup was set up by both men chopping their way all the way to the back during the New Year Dash event on January 5, and seems likely to give Oiwa a nice win over a midcard stalwart in the company. It also represents Oiwa’s first ever singles match main event in New Japan, though not his first singles main event in Korakuen Hall (he main evented this building in NOAH during his excursion before, most recently against Kaito Kiyomiya back on September 14). Given both Oiwa’s strong potential and YOSHI-HASHI’s tendency to deliver in major singles matches nowadays (when he actually gets in them at least), this is possibly the single biggest sleeper match of the entire tour.
Elsewhere on the card, the semi-main will see ZSJ team with one-half of the IWGP Jr. Tag Team Champions Robbie Eagles to face the CHAOS tandem of Goto & YOH. All five Japanese members of Los Ingobernables de Japon will team up for a 10-man tag against the BULLET CLUB War Dogs, as Naito, Tsuji, Shingo, Hiromu & BUSHI will face Gabe Kidd, the newly heavyweight Drilla Moloney, Clark Connors, Gedo, and the newest War Dog Taiji Ishimori. The opener sees Tanahashi’s singles match series against the Young Lions continue against Katsuya Murashima. All in all, quite a bit better of a card than the previous day’s Night 1.
STARDOM 14th Anniversary! New Year Unit League – Championship Deciding Match
STARDOM 14th Anniversary! New Year Unit League – Championship Deciding MatchShin Kiba 1st Ring, Tokyo, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on STARDOM World
STARDOM’s anniversary show from a sold out Shin-Kiba 1st Ring has finally been confirmed as airing live on STARDOM World, much to the rejoicing of all (it had been listed as “delivery TBD” right up until I was about to publish this article, on the morning of Tuesday January 21). We do not yet have a full card for this show, but we do know two major things about it: 1) it will feature the finals of the New Year Unit League that took place over the course of three shows this past weekend (and were a great deal of fun), with Blue Block winners NEO GENESIS facing Red Block winners e neXus V to determine the champions & 2) H.A.T.E. are boycotting the show due to being left out of the finals, so presumably none of their wrestlers will appear. I do kind of love the idea of Saya Kamitani & co. essentially boycotting the concept of math here, as they’re not in the finals because they simply got less points than NEO GENESIS- it’s a very on brand thing for them to do, honestly. In addition to H.A.T.E., Tam Nakano, Natsupoi & Saori Anou (the top three of Cosmic Angels) and God’s Eye’s Hina will also miss the show, for reasons less clear.
It’ll be exciting to see who wins the first New Year Unit League- NEO GENESIS (the unit featuring Wonder of STARDOM champion Starlight Kid, AZM, and the very promising Future of STARDOM champion Miyu Amasaki, among others) or e neXus V (featuring Maika, Mina Shirakawa and the giant rookie HANAKO, plus more) end up our first winners of this unique tournament. If you missed the first three nights, each tournament match between the two units was essentially a 2 out of 3 falls match where the two sides used a different team of three wrestlers for each fall (they had to use both a different combination of wrestlers each time and also all the wrestlers in their unit overall- honestly, it sounds more convoluted on paper than when you actually see it play out in practice, I promise!). This was a clever way to make the tournament work given that the units each have different numbers of wrestlers.
A few more additional matches were added to this card just before press time, though we still don’t have a full card yet. A STARS vs. God’s Eye tag team match will see IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani team with one-half of the Goddesses of STARDOM tag champions Hanan to face Syuri & Saki Kashima, which is a nice little addition. The only other normal match we have confirmed so far is a pretty standard undercard 10-woman tag, except for the fact that Cosmic Angels & God’s Eye members will actually team up in that one. In addition, the two trainees (who we now know actual debut dates for, which we’ll get to in a sec) Akira and Yuria will have a public sparring session, likely before the actual belltime.
Saturday, January 25
STARDOM AWARD 2024 in TAKADANOBABA ~Day 1 Match~
Bella Salle Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan
1:00 pm local time; Friday 1/24 11:00 pm eastern; Friday 1/24 8:00 pm pacific
Live on STARDOM World
As the name implies, the first of two STARDOM shows of the weekend will also feature the announcement of various best of awards for the promotion in 2024. We don’t have much in the way of actual matches announced for either card yet, but we do know that we’ll see a Future of STARDOM title match at least. Champion Miyu Amasaki will attempt her second defense against H.A.T.E.’s Azusa Inaba. These are two of STARDOM’s very talented younger wrestlers (well, technically Azusa is a JTO product, but she may as well be full time at this point), a category they happen to be quite deep in at the moment- Miyu in particular I’ve seen more and more “future ace” type whispers about lately. It will be little shock if they end up having a great title match here.
A couple more additional matches were announced for both Takadanobaba shows just before press time. Most notably, rookie Akira will have her debut match as she goes one-on-one with Suzu Suzuki. The other announced match is a 12-woman tag which sees three units come together- Mayu Iwatani & Hazuki from STARS, Syuri & Saki Kashima from God’s Eye and Maika & Mina Shirakawa from e Nexus V- to face H.A.T.E. (represented here by Saya Kamitani, Natsuko Tora, Momo Watanabe, Thekla, Ruaka and Rina). H.A.T.E. feels like a unit to watch out for future movement from- fans have long speculated that Momo’s time as a heel may be drawing to a close, and in addition there may be some tension between current World of STARDOM champion Saya and Tora over who the actual leader of the unit is, as Tora looked more than a little annoyed when Saya declared it to be herself recently. So perhaps we’ll see something start to come to a head here in this 12-woman tag.
NOAH Sunny Voyage 2025
EDION Arena Osaka 2nd Stadium, Osaka, Japan
5:30 pm local time; 3:30 am eastern; 12:30 am pacific
Live on Wrestle Universe
It’s all about Team 2000X to kick off 2025 in NOAH, as the surprisingly likable bunch of ruffians who “sold their souls to pro wrestling” have managed to turn this promotion on its head and inject it with a sense of organic life and change that it hasn’t seen in many years. Japanese fan reaction to the unit seems to have been almost universally positive (with tons of people praising them for finally shaking up the long staid promotion just as they’ve been hoping for forever), which is an interesting development on a few different levels. T2KX is, at the end of the day, a heel unit that engages in cheating and interference, and though it’s not quite on the level of peak House of Torture it wasn’t that long ago that NOAH fans pointed to the total lack of such heel tactics in their chosen company as a point of pride in comparison to NJPW. But regardless, T2KX has quickly gotten over with NOAH crowds, and seems to have caused a modest but noticeable bump in attendance for them as well.
This event from EDION Arena Osaka’s smaller of their two gymnasiums will feature two title matches on top. In the main event, T2KX’s Jack Morris & Omos will make their first defense of their GHC Tag Team Titles, as they will take on the team of Kaito Kiyomiya and Galeno. A couple different things make me wonder if we might see a title change here (even though it would be relatively quick since Omos & Morris just won the belts back on January 1 at the Budokan): Galeno will also be receiving a shot at OZAWA’s GHC Heavyweight Title coming up on February 11, so a win here for him with his new All Rebellion partner Kaito would give him some momentum. Jack Morris also seems to be heading back to Europe for a little while after this (he’s already been announced for some dates there in early February), and it wouldn’t surprise me if WWE wanted Omos back already to enter the Royal Rumble either, even if he does then eventually return to NOAH for more seasoning.
The other title match on this card will feature Eita making his first defense of the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title against one-half of the Jr. Tag Champions, HAYATA. Not much to say about this one except I really, really hope they don’t just go right back to HAYATA again after Eita finally got his big win on January 1; you wouldn’t really expect it, but the way NOAH books their juniors especially you really never know. The usual assortment of tags fills out the rest of the card for the most part, except for young lion Daiki Odashima facing Saxon Huxley in a singles match.
Sunday, January 26
STARDOM AWARD 2024 in TAKADANOBABA ~Day 2 Match~
Bella Salle Takadanobaba, Tokyo, Japan
12:00 pm local time; Saturday 1/25 10:00 pm eastern; Saturday 1/25 7:00 pm pacific
Live on STARDOM World
Originally, this was going to be the shortest preview I wrote for this article, as we had nothing announced for this show at all when I originally put it together, but thankfully, STARDOM announced a bunch of matches just before press time. Yuria will have her own debut match on this show when she faces Maika, plus we’ll have a U-style (as in UWF) rules match when the High Kick Angel Aya Sakura takes on God’s Eye’s Kiyoka Kotatsu. The only other confirmed singles match for the show sees Saori Anou face off against Rina, an interesting step up in competition for the young H.A.T.E. member.
Besides the singles matches, we’ll also see Hazuki & Koguma from STARS face God’s Eye’s Syuri & Ranna Yagami, as the seemingly neverending “Syuri vs. Bear Magic” feud continues. She really hates that bear! Plus, an 8-woman tag match pits Cosmic Angels vs. STARS, as Tam Nakano, Natsupoi, Yuna Mizumori & Sayaka Kurara take on Mayu Iwatani, Hanan, Saya Iida & Momo Kohgo.
AJPW New Years Wars 2025
Makuhari Messe International Exhibition Hall 4, Chiba, Japan
5:00 pm local time; 3:00 am eastern; 12:00 am pacific
Live on AJPW.tv & GAORA Sports
Our pals at Zen Nihon finally checked in with their only televised show for this two-week period, and it just so happens to be the biggest show any of the companies have scheduled in the upcoming weeks. It’s a stacked card featuring four title matches, among seven total. In the main event, Jun Saito will attempt his first defense of his Triple Crown Title as he takes on Yuma Anzai. Anzai earned this title shot the hard way when he defeated Shotaro Ashino on the January 3 Korakuen, getting bloodied and then later seemingly getting his bell legitimately rung on a brutal powerbomb in the process. Rough night! He’s apparently still good to go here against Jun as he’ll be looking to become Triple Crown Champion for a second time already in his young career. Though I would not expect a title change here, this is still a hell of a first defense for Jun, and one I can’t wait to see.
Elsewhere, Naruki Doi will attempt V6 of the AJPW World Jr. Heayvweight Title when he faces MUSASHI in a battle of ex-Dragongate (well, Doi still appears there but he’s technically a freelancer) vs. ex-Michinoku Pro. NJPW viewers may also remember MUSASHI from his brief team with fellow Japanese Northeasterner YOH in 2023’s Super Jr. Tag League, but he’s since made All Japan his full-time home. A run with the Jr. title could very well be in the cards for MUSASHI as a result, as it also kind of feels like Doi has gotten about as much out of this reign as he can given AJPW’s limited junior roster (in fact, he already beat MUSASHI during this reign back in August for his first defense!).
In another title match, Yuko Miyamoto of the small but distinct indie promotion 666 (perhaps best known for his longtime team with BASARA’s Isami Kodaka, who still do team together even if it’s gotten less frequent) will attempt his second defense of the GAORA TV Title against the aforementioned Shotaro Ashino. Though this would be a relatively quick title change given Yuko just won the belt from Seigo Tachibana back on December 8th, I think many are both expecting and hoping for an Ashino win here. He hasn’t had much to do in AJPW of late, so giving him a run with this sometimes-neglected secondary title might be just what the doctor ordered.
Finally, our last title match sees Yuma Aoyagi, Fuminori Abe and Hikaru Sato defend their AJPW TV 6-Man titles against the Hokuto Army trio of Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi and, yes, Aja Kong. Aja’s spot was originally listed as TBA when he promised it would be “a monster”, and well, promises made and promises kept I guess!
The undercard features participation from Chiba-based 2AW, as Kengo Mashimo teams with Ayumu Honda to face Hideki Suzuki & Dan Tamura. Rei Saito and Senor Saito will face young lion Taishin Nagao (who just had a nice Shin Kiba main with Kento Miyahara this past weekend) and Seiki Yoshioka in the opening match, and finally Miyahara, Atsuki Aoyagi & Ryo Inoue will team up to face ELPIDA’s Ren Ayabe, Rising HAYATO & Ryuki Honda.
NOAH Sunny Voyage 2025 ~ Junta Miyawaki’s Triumphant Return ~
Kagawa Takamatsu Symbol Tower 1F Exhibition Hall, Takamatsu, Japan
6:00 pm local time
VOD on Wrestle Universe
This smaller show for NOAH will be delivered to us video-on-demand on Wrestle Universe on January 27, though there’s not much of note here. It’s a hometown show for Junta Miyawaki, and as such he’ll team with Naomichi Marufuji and AMAKUSA in the main event to face Team 2000X’s Jack Morris, Daga & Owada-san (the new name for Yu Owada by the way, in case you missed that). A very random guest appearance for Dragongate’s Mondai Ryu- he’ll face Takashi Sugiura in a singles match, and I’m guessing that won’t go great for him- is about the only other thing of note here.
Thursday, January 30
NJPW Road to The New Beginning Night 3
Sendai Sun Plaza Hall, Sendai, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
Back to the home of the Shin Nihon freaks, as NJPW brings us our third Road to the New Beginning event, which also happens to be the only televised Road To not in Korakuen Hall. Here’s a fun fact for you: the NEVER 6-Man Champions Hiroshi Tanahashi, Boltin Oleg & Toru Yano have made two previous defenses before this. Both were against House of Torture. Guess who they’re facing on this show? You guessed it: the House of Torture. Hey, you gotta give the House points for persistence at least. The exact team in this case will be Ren Narita, Yujiro Takahashi & SHO- no EVIL, who has apparently quit the company. I’d give you roughly even money on him returning here and helping his House teammates finally take these NEVER 6-man belts, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see how it ultimately plays out.
That aforementioned title match is actually the semi-main of this show, as the main event will feature Hirooki Goto, El Desperado & YOH facing TMDK’s champion trio of World champion Zack Sabre Jr. & Jr. Tag champions Robbie Eagles & Kosei Fujita. Not much else to note here, although if Tomohiro Ishii is able to go (he seemed to suffer a leg injury during his match with our old pal Kazuchika Okada on the January 18 episode of AEW Collision) I always love seeing him get in there with Tetsuya Naito even after all these years. Ishii will team with Honma to face Naito & Hiromu on the undercard in Sendai.
Sunday, February 2
STARDOM Supreme Fight in Korakuen
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
11:30 am local time; Saturday 2/1 9:30 pm eastern; Saturday 2/1 6:30 pm pacific
Live on STARDOM World
Even though the STARDOM World upcoming schedule page doesn’t have anything in February listed yet, this has already been confirmed to be airing live on World as well via their English Twitter account. We again only have one match so far, but it’s a big one, as Saya Kamitani will attempt her first defense of the World of STARDOM title against Suzu Suzuki. Suzu appears to be kind of a classic first defense here for Saya, so needless to say I don’t expect a title change, but you can also expect the hard-nosed Suzu to make Saya earn it at least. They would be crazy to take the belt off of Saya right now, though, as fans seem to have really taken to her since her heel turn last fall. Another thing worth noting- this is the first World of STARDOM title match (the “red belt” to the Wonder’s “white belt”) to take place at Korakuen since the July 15, 2024 Just Tap Out show, where Maika defeated Xena. If you’re looking for the last time a World title match took place on an actual STARDOM Korakuen show, that would be all the way back on January 17th of 2021, when Utami Hayashishita (who is both no longer with the company and is also not Miyu Yamashita, by the way!) defeated Maika. So yeah, it’s definitely been a while!
Monday, February 3
NJPW Road to The New Beginning Night 6
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
NJPW heads back to Korakuen for two more nights before the big Osaka show, and both feature a title match main event this time. The first night will see El Phantasmo defend the NJPW World TV Title against Jeff Cobb in a rematch from Battle in the Valley. That contest featured a very creative finish- with both men on the outside as the referee was approaching the 20 count but Cobb knowing he had no chance to get back in the ring in time (as he was still behind the railing), the big man grabbed one of the ringside attendants and quite literally heaved him up into the air, sending him flying into ELP and wiping him out. A countout loss thus became a double countout draw instead, which meant that Cobb was owed this rematch. Very clever. I expect an actual result this time either way, and if Cobb is actually sticking around with NJPW (it’s contract season and there’s been rumors out there, so who knows) he very well could just win back the title here. They’ve shown in the past they’re not afraid to do quick title changes with this belt before.
The rest of the card features the standard array of tag matches, besides Hiroshi Tanahashi finishing up his series against the current crop of young lions when he faces Daiki Nagai in the opener. There’s a rare appearance from Togi Makabe on the undercard (teaming with longtime GBH mate Honma against Naito & Hiromu), and a big 10-man tag that sees TMDK’s ZSJ, Oiwa, Eagles, Fujita & Hartley Jackson face Goto, YOSHI-HASHI, Desperado, YOH & Ishii.
Tuesday, February 4
NJPW Road to The New Beginning Night 7
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo, Japan
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
Finally, we wrap things up with NJPW’s last Korakuen show of the New Beginning tour. In the main event, El Desperado will attempt his second defense of the IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title when he faces Kosei Fujita. This will be the first time the junior title has been defended at Korakuen since last year’s New Beginning tour, which also featured Desperado as champion (he successfully defended against House of Torture’s Yoshinobu Kanemaru on January 23rd). I expect the result will be the same here as it seems a bit early to give Kosei Fujita the belt, especially since he’s busy with the junior tag titles at the moment, but Fujita is clearly the future of this division either way. This is his first time challenging for the title but certainly won’t be his last.
Nothing really else to note about the undercard here, as this is very much a one match show, but it’s one of my most anticipated matches of this entire two weeks. Fujita has become so technically proficient under the tutelage of ZSJ, and I suspect he and the equally ground-minded Desperado will have little trouble having a great match.
Conclusion
That wraps it up—every televised event for the next two weeks from New Japan, All Japan, NOAH, and STARDOM! I hope this helps you keep track of everything coming up in all four of these great promotions! Since this feature is brand new, I’d love to hear any feedback or suggestions you have- you can always find me on the VOW Discord, or via Twitter or Bluesky. Enjoy the wrestling!
