We’re back for another puro schedule covering all upcoming televised events for the traditional Japanese “big 3” as well as STARDOM! This will be a shorter version than usual, due to the simple fact that two of our promotions (STARDOM & AJPW) do not yet have their March televised event schedule up, but we left off with 2/22 last time. So we’ve got a short semi-week of events from 2/24 to 2/28 to cover (there are no televised events on Sunday 2/23), and then we’ll pick up again for the start of March next time.
There’s a few pretty major events covered during this short period still though, so let’s get right into it! Just as a sidenote, there’s nothing from NOAH this coming week at all (they’re back on 3/2 for the finals of their Jr. Tag League), but we do have some pretty big NJPW, AJPW & STARDOM shows to get into!
Monday, February 24
STARDOM Path of Thunder 2025
Light Cube Utsunomiya 1F Large Hall, Utsonomiya
1:00 pm local time; Sunday 2/23 11:00 pm eastern; Sunday 2/23 8:00 pm pacific
Live on Internet PPV (4620 yen)
STARDOM will present a major show from the Light Cube Utsnomiya in Tochigi prefecture, about 2 hours to the northeast of central Tokyo. This show features a number of title matches as well as a major tag team match with a big stipulation that they’ve built very well throughout their most recent shows. Fans outside of Japan can purchase it on internet PPV at the link above for the price of 4620 yen (about $31 USD).
The focus of much of the most recent tour has been on Saya Kamitani really living up to the “harass” part of her unit H.A.T.E.’s name, focusing her attention almost exclusively on the young Cosmic Angels member Sayaka Kurara. Sayaka has been an active wrestler for just a little over a year now, having made her debut on Christmas Day in 2023 (her opponent for that debut match just so happened to be….Saya Kamitani!). The H.A.T.E. leader has taken a very, um, distinct fascination in the young Angel, while also posting all sorts of photos on social media supposedly showing Sayaka looking repulsed by the touch of Cosmic Angels leader Tam Nakano. Tam has responded by, uh, revealing that she has a doll of Saya whose tongue grows on its own (!) so she cuts it with scissors regularly (!!) and plans to do the same to the real Saya’s actual human tongue (!!!). Yes. There’s pictures and everything. It’s a whole thing.
Thus we have a tag team match between the two sides on this show, with a big stipulation involved- should Saya’s team win, Sayaka must leave the Angels and join H.A.T.E. But if Tam & Sayaka win, Tam will get “a wish”, which seems almost certain to be a rematch for the World of STARDOM title she lost to Saya back at the end of December in the big Sumo Hall main event (likely as the main event of their upcoming Yokohama Arena show on 4/27). The other interesting note about this match is it originally had Saya’s partner listed as TBD, which lead to all sorts of fan speculation about a possible other turn in Cosmic Angels (Aya Sakura??). Then Saya revealed that her partner is….Natsuko Tora. Kind of weird they even did the mystery partner thing for weeks when it was just another H.A.T.E. member, but perhaps it will play into the hints that Tora doesn’t exactly love that Saya seems to have usurped her as the head of the heel unit.
Besides this huge match, we also have three big title matches: Starlight Kid will defend the Wonder of STARDOM title for the first time since winning it from Natsupoi back in December when she takes on H.A.T.E.’s Rina (a big step up for the young Pink Devil), Hanan & Saya Iida will also make their first defense of the Goddesses tag titles against Suzu Suzuki & Mei Seira from NEO GENESIS, and Miyu Amasaki will attempt defense number three of the Future of STARDOM title against God’s Eye’s Hina. Astute readers will probably have noticed that all three title matches here each involve one of the “three sisters” of Hanan, Rina and Hina who just so happen to be from Shimotsuke, a city in…..Tochigi prefecture! So yes, we’ll see if any of the local kids can make good here.
Meanwhile, the ongoing Syuri/Konami feud will continue in a tag match, as Syuri will team with her God’s Eye partner Kiyoka Kotatsu to take on Konami and her fellow H.A.T.E. member Azusa Inaba. A three-way trios match will see STARS’ Hazuki, Koguma & Momo Kohgo face H.A.T.E.’s Momo Watanabe (fresh off a trip to Australia to challenge Mercedes Mone for the TBS Title- that match will happen on AEW’s 3/9 Revolution PPV from Los Angeles), Thekla & Ruaka as well as E neXus V’s Maika, HANAKO & Rian. There will also be a 4-way singles match pitting rookie Akira Kurogane against AZM, Waka Tsukiyama and Fukigendesu (who has been on a bit of a winning streak on recent shows). An 8-woman tag will see Cosmic Angels’ Natsupoi, Saori Anou, Yuna Mizumori & Aya Sakura face Saki Kashima, Lady C, Ranna Yagami & Tomoka Inaba from God’s Eye. Finally, IWGP Women’s Champion Mayu Iwatani will take on the other rookie, Yuria Hime, in a non-title singles match that is likely to open the show.
All in all, a pretty stacked card, and one I’m definitely looking forward to watching live on Sunday night in the US. By the way, if you’re wondering what’s with the 1 pm local start time on a Monday, it’s another holiday in Japan- in this case, since the current Emperor’s birthday falls on a Sunday this year, everyone gets off on a Monday to celebrate.
AJPW Excite Series 2025 Night 4
Esforta Arena Hachioji Main Arena, Haichioji
4:00 pm local time; 2:00 am eastern; Sunday 2/23 11:00 pm pacific
Live on AJPW.TV & GAORA Sports
AJPW wraps up their Excite Series tour with another show celebrating the Emperor’s not-birthday, from the western Tokyo suburb of Hachioji. The main event will see Jun Saito attempt his second defense of the Triple Crown when he faces Yuma Aoyagi. Yuma seems to be a very divisive figure among the current western AJPW fanbase as far as I can tell- some seem to enjoy the way he’s fully embraced comedy wrestling (and I’ve even seen some even claim AJPW’s minor attendance turnaround dating back to around last year has a lot to do with the promotion’s very lighthearted undercards in general), while others seem to find him a completely repellant figure at this point. I guess that will give both sides something to root for here if they manage to watch this match unspoiled or live, as it seems very few AJPW viewers don’t have a strong take on Yuma these days. Well, except for me I guess, as I think he’s….totally fine, personally! But it definitely feels early to take the title off of Jun here, so I’m guessing they won’t (although Jun pinning Yuma in the brothers vs. brothers tag title match instead of his junior heavyweight brother Atsuki back on 2/9 does give me a little pause).
In the semi-main, the two brothers of Jun & Yuma will face off when Rei Saito takes on Atsuki Aoyagi. As I just mentioned, neither of these two were involved in the fall of that tag title match, but it would be kind of a stunner here if the junior Atsuki defeated the enormous Rei.
Besides the main event we have two more title matches as well: first, Yuko Miyamoto will make his third defense of the GAORA TV Title against Kuroshio TOKYO Japan, who recently filled in ably for Jun Saito on a couple of the smaller Excite Series shows when Jun suffered a minor injury back at Korakuen. The former Ikemen had a shockingly good ten minute match with his longtime friend and frequent tag partner Seigo Tachibana on the 2/11 show from Fujisan Messe (a show that got just a LITTLE overshadowed by NJPW’s New Beginning in Osaka that same day, I’d wager), so I’d definitely recommend checking that one out if you missed it. I could easily see him walking away with this title here, a belt he’s held before but quite a long time ago now (he won it in late November 2015, only holding it for 80 days).
The other title match on this show sees ELPIDA’s Yuma Anzai & Rising HAYATO attempt their third defense of the All Asia Tag Titles when they face the Astronauts Fuminori Abe & Takuya Nomura, a match that definitely has show stealer potential. This feels unbelievable to me, but somehow the Astronauts have never actually held the All Asia belts before- in fact, they’ve never even challenged for them (Abe did challenge unsuccessfully on September 1st of last year but with Seigo Tachibana as his partner instead of Nomura). This one smells like a title change to me, but I guess we’ll have to wait and see.
Squished in between those two title matches is an 8-man tag pitting the junior champion MUSASHI, Shotaro Ashino, Dan Tamura & Ryo Inoue against Hideki Suzuki, Hikaru Sato, Kengo Mashimo & Seiki Yoshioka. Match 2 will see a 6-man tag as Hokuto Omori, Kuma Arashi & Jack Kennedy of Hokutogun face off against ELPIDA’s Ryuki Honda, Ren Ayabe & Seigo Tachibana. Finally, the opener will pit Kento Miyahara & Taishin Nagao against Naruki Doi & Senor Saito. Overall, a pretty nice little card here, with the All Asia tag title match especially sticking out as one that you likely won’t want to miss.
Thursday, February 27 & Friday, February 28
NJPW Presents CMLL Fantastica Mania 2025
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World with Japanese commentary; English to follow VOD
Full Match Card (3/27)
Full Match Card (3/28)
We wrap up this mini-schedule post, as well as the month of February, with NJPW finally hitting the airwaves again for the first time since their very well-received New Beginning in Osaka show from February 11. The traditional Fantastica Mania tour, in which New Japan brings over the stars of CMLL from Mexico, used to take place almost directly after the Wrestle Kingdom & New Year Dash events at the start of the year, before the New Beginning tour in January. Starting in 2023 (after a two year hiatus during COVID), the tour was instead moved to AFTER the New Beginning tour, between it and the Anniversary Show. In a bit of a disappointing move, NJPW reduced the number of televised events this year to just two- the final two nights of the tour at Korakuen Hall. These are always the biggest shows of the tour of course, but traditionally we usually got at least one or two other televised events as well (usually either the Osaka stop, the stop at Makuhari Messe in Chiba, or both).
CMLL wrestlers making their first appearances as part of Fantastica Mania are: NEON, Max Star, Xelhua, Rugido and Raider.
Since I’m not much of a lucha viewer, I decided to get a little assistance from a couple members of the VOW staff as far as how these cards look on paper (thanks to Case Lowe & Griffin Peltier!). Both agreed that the second night was the stronger card, but also that both shows look like a lot of fun. Case in particular mentioned that they aren’t bringing over any deadweight this year, which I’m sure helps the lineups.
As far as highlight matches go, Case mentioned that NEON vs. Zandokan Jr. (who NJPW fans will likely remember teamed up with Yota Tsuji in the 2023 World Tag League, though he didn’t end up joining LIJ) is “one for the real heads.” He also highlighted the three singles matches at the end of night 2- Barbaro Cavernario vs. Hechicero, Mascara Dorada vs. Soberano Jr. and Mistico vs. Averno for the MLW World Middlweight Title- as all having a ton of potential. Griffin added that the Barbaro/Hechicero match could be a potential MOTYC. Thanks to both again for their help with this!
In addition to the main event on night 2, a second MLW title will be defended on night 1 when Satoshi Kojima & OKUMURA defend their MLW World Tag Team Titles against Magnus & Rugido. Two more singles matches wrap up night 1, as Atlantis Jr. faces Ultimo Guerrero and Templario takes on Volador Jr.
That’s it for this truncated schedule post- we’ll be back to cover the first two weeks of March next time, featuring the start of the New Japan Cup as well as STARDOM’s annual Cinderella tournament! Enjoy the wrestling!
