After the condensed schedule post to get through the rest of February last time, we’re back with a massive new update covering the first two weeks of March and we’ve got a ton of major shows coming up in all four of our promotions! Two tournaments! A double title match! A LOSER LEAVES PROMOTION match (that’s going to stream for free on Youtube!). And a whole lot more! So let’s get right into it!
Saturday, March 1
STARDOM NEW BLOOD 19
Bellesalle Shibuya First, Tokyo
1:00 pm local time; Friday 2/28 11:00 pm eastern; Friday 2/28 8:00 pm pacific
Streaming FREE on STARDOM’s Youtube channel
We kick things off with STARDOM’s latest event in their NEW BLOOD series, which focuses on younger and less experienced wrestlers from both their own roster and the wider world of joshi in general. Like all NEW BLOOD events, this event will stream free for all on their Youtube channel.
The main focus of the show will be on the NEW BLOOD tag team titles current held by the towering HANAKO and the hip attack-focused Waka Tsukiyama. The two young members of E neXus V will attempt their first defense of the belts since they won them from the HATE duo of Rina & Azusa Inaba back at NEW BLOOD 17 on 12/26. They’ll take on a team of challengers from the Pro Wrestling DIANA promotion, Nanami (who is also considered a member of God’s Eye when she wrestles in STARDOM) and Himiko. Himiko by the way would be 52 years old….but only 3 years into her wrestling career. I guess it’s never too late to start!
In addition to this title match, there will also be a one-night, four-team tournament to decide the next challengers for the NB tag titles as well (note this was NOT one of the tournaments I was talking about in the intro, haha, so I guess technically there’s three!). In the first round, Cosmic Angels’ Yuna Mizumori & Aya Sakura will face the team of Rian & Kaori Yoneyama (who has actually been wrestling since the tail end of the second Clinton administration, but she always gets booked on these NB shows for some reason- maybe they just need someone to fill a spot because Fukigen never seems to be available, hmm). The other first round match will pit the new Future of STARDOM champion Hina & Ranna Yagami of God’s Eye against the rookie team of Akira Kurogane & Yuria Hime. The two winning teams will then face off in the final later, in the semi-main event spot of the show.
Another match on this show will see Sayaka Kurara, who is fresh off remaining a member of the Cosmic Angels after she and Tam Nakano defeated Saya Kamitani & Natsuko Tora on STARDOM’s 2/24 PPV (in a match where Sayaka would have had to join HATE against her will if she had lost), taking on a young freelancer named Miku Kanae. Miku mostly wrestles in Ice Ribbon these days after getting her start in Actwres Girl’z, and AG’Z to Ice Ribbon to STARDOM has been a path others have followed, so her getting her first real booking in STARDOM does make you go hmmm here. I guess we’ll have to wait and see. I’ve seen others who watch independent level joshi way more than I do say she has a lot of potential, for whatever that’s worth.
Finally, there’s one more match left on this show- a team from SEAdLINNNG will make an appearance, as Honori Hana & Mirai Koga will take on the HATE team of Rina (coming off an absolutely star making performance against Starlight Kid on 2/24 in her home prefecture- if you missed that one, you owe it to yourself to check it out) and Ruaka. Hana is likely looking for payback after Ruaka intruded into SEAd and defeated her on their 2/12 show from Shinjuku FACE. All in all, a pretty sweet little card here for a free show on Youtube.
Sunday, March 2
STARDOM in CHIBA 2025 Mar.
TKP Garden City Chiba, Chiba
1:00 pm local time
VOD on STARDOM World
I’m not gonna spend a lot of time on this one for a pretty simple reason- this show isn’t airing live, it’s being released on VOD later. And given that there’s a much, much bigger STARDOM show from Korakuen the next day that IS airing live (with an absolutely massive main event), well. If they release this after that one, I’m betting a lot of even hardcore STARDOM fans will probably never watch it.
It’s a pretty standard house show card of six-woman tags (only one match isn’t a 6-person tag and it’s a straight 2 vs. 2 tag with one of the rookies in it), so really nothing of note here. Let’s save some valuable space because we have a LOT more to get to!
NOAH 25th Anniversary Tournament ABEMA Presents MEMORIAL VOYAGE 2025 in Yokohama ~ NOAH Jr. Tag League 2025
Yokohama Budokan, Yokohama
3:00 pm local time; 1:00 am eastern; Saturday 3/1 10:00 pm pacific
Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE & ABEMA
Geez NOAH, are you sure that’s a long enough show name? Any more words you wanna fit in there? Were there people backstage in a smoky room arguing to include “Kanagawa Prefecture” or “Jr. Tag League FINAL” too or something before they finally got shut down?
Regardless of lengthy show titles, NOAH will present another big show from the Yokohama Budokan, and I’ve seen some grumbling that this isn’t exactly the best card for a “big show”. The main event has been built in a kind of weird way- Manabu Soya lost the GHC National Title to Tetsuya Endo back on 1/11 at Korakuen Hall, when Team 2000X interfered and helped Endo steal the title from Soya (Endo joining the unit in the process). Soya fired back by bringing in RATEL’s, who helped him regain the title from Soya on 2/11 back at Korakuen again in a weird match that only went a little over 12 minutes. And then Soya….joined the previously junior-only RATEL’s in a weird, weird move. I guess technically they had teased it when Tadasuke challenged Soya for the National title back on 1/2 at Shinjuku FACE and the two had kind of shaken hands afterward, but it still feels bizarre having him actually in the unit (look at his hair now, oh my god).
Then after Soya won back the GHC National Title, he immediately challenged GHC Heavyweight Champion OZAWA to a double title match. So that’s what we’re getting as the main here- a match with both titles on the line, that’s also a lumberjack match to boot (with members of T2KX & RATEL’s at ringside). This is also all despite OZAWA repeatedly telling us he doesn’t care about the National title at all, by the way! It all just feels very strange and haphazardly booked. The actual match itself could very well overdeliver- Soya has a tendency to do well in big spots, and OZAWA has basically been cooking nonstop since his heel turn- but the path taken to get here still feels bizarre. Whoever wins this will be the first person to walk out with both the GHC Heavyweight & National titles at once since the National belt was first created in November 2019- there have been two other double title matches (both involving Kenoh as National Champion- he faced the heavyweight champions at the time Go Shiozaki on 8/10/20 and Katsuhiko Nakajima on 11/28/21) but they both ended in 60 minute draws. I would be pretty stunned if that happened a third time, though I guess some kind of no contest is possible.
In addition to the main event, we will see the finals of the Jr. Tag League that’s been playing out on recent smaller shows in NOAH (again, not one of the two tournaments I mentioned in the intro- we’re still getting to those!), as British wrestlers Mark Trew & Kieron Lacey will face ALL REBELLION’s AMAKUSA & Junta Miyawaki. I’ve seen all the Jr. Tag League shows and this tournament has been…..fine. Really nothing more than that. Trew & Lacey have been one of the few highlights, though, and we’ll see if they can finish up the tournament with a win.
The undercard is then mostly pretty uninspiring stuff. You have a Naomichi Marufuji vs. Masa Kitamiya singles match third from the top, which is a fine little match but nothing all that special. Right below that, KENTA & Kenoh will continue their new team as they take on Kazuyuku Fujita (making his first NOAH appearance since the 2/11 Korakuen, having skipped the whole Jr. Tag League tour that followed) and Ulka Sasaki, and that’s a little tastier just to see KENTA & Fujita interact for the first time ever (they’ve never wrestled each other at all before, at least according to Cagematch!).
Jack Morris & Daga, who are claiming to be the GHC Tag Team Champions (Morris & Omos were the actual champions, having won them from Marufuji & Takashi Sugiura on 1/1, and then Omos tried to hand his belt over to Daga when he went back to WWE to, uh, not do anything, but NOAH declared the belts vacant) make their first appearance since 1/26 when they team up with fellow T2KX members Tetsuya Endo & Owadasan to face HAYATA, YO-HEY, Tadasuke & Yuto Kikuchi of RATEL’s. Masao Inoue will make his first appearance in NOAH since the 1/1 Budokan show when he teams with Takashi Sugiura to face ALL REBELLION’s (and can we just say how stupid that name is now that Kenoh isn’t even in the unit anymore? did I already make that point in one of these schedule posts already?) Kaito Kiyomiya & Galeno. Shuhei Taniguchi & Black Menso-re face Anthony Green & Zozaya. And finally, an 8-man junior opener sees Eita, Daiki Odashima, Alejandro & Kai Fujimura face Atsushi Kotoge, Hajime Ohara, Jun Masaoka & Gaia Hox. Feel the excitement? Yeah, this is a pretty thin card. I’d call it a two-match show and that’s assuming you really care about seeing KENTA vs. Fujita in 2025 (I’m into it personally but I can’t blame you if you’re not I guess). NOAH has been on a pretty good run this year so far, but this show just doesn’t look very appealing on paper. Guess we’ll wait and see if it can overdeliver.
Monday, March 3
STARDOM NIGHTER 2025 in Korakuen Mar.
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on STARDOM World; Main event will also stream live on STARDOM’s Youtube channel
Oh boy, where do I even start with this one?
Okay, so- as I mentioned back up in the NEW BLOOD preview, on STARDOM’s 2/24 PPV there was a tag match pitting World of STARDOM champion Saya Kamitani & Natsuko Tora against Tam Nakano (the woman she beat for said title back at the end of December in Sumo Hall) & Sayaka Kurara, with the stipulation that the young Sayaka would have to join HATE if she lost. This match had been very well built for weeks, and featured an emotional Sayaka finally hitting her spear on the right person (her aim had been, uh, a little off for a while, even earlier in the same match) leading to Tam pinning Saya for the victory. Afterward, Tam challenged Saya to a match on 3/3, and watching this live with a bunch of fellow shaky (at best) Japanese speakers was quite the experience. At first, we all thought she was challenging Saya to some kind of Cosmic Angels vs. HATE unit vs. unit match where the loser of the fall would have to leave their respective unit (as STARDOM has done in the past). Then it became clear she was challenging her to a singles match, but we still thought it was loser has to leave their unit. Then everyone started figuring out the shocking truth- for some reason, STARDOM was booking a singles match between their two biggest stars in the company the following Monday at Korakuen Hall where the loser will have to leave the promotion entirely. Yes, it’s Loser Leaves STARDOM. Huh???
Keep in mind that STARDOM has a number of bigger shows coming up- they’ll have four internet PPVs in the month of March alone, including a show from the larger Yokohama Budokan just five days after this one on 3/8, and a show from Ota Ward Gym on 3/15. They also have an enormous show from the even more gigantic Yokohama Arena on 4/27, which isn’t THAT far away. So you’d think, on paper, a loser leaves STARDOM match between their two biggest stars would be something you’d want to save for a bigger show, right? This has only increased the rampant speculation on what the possible finish here could be, and I’ll give a few of the more prominent theories below:
1) Someone has to leave STARDOM very quickly for some reason (and perhaps just dropped that bomb on the promotion at the last minute), whether because they’re signing with another promotion or because they’re hurt or sick and just can’t continue wrestling.
2) There’s going to be a major angle here that will set something up even bigger at one of the following big shows. Tam Nakano losing and then doing an official retirement match would certainly qualify, and would maybe explain why the match is streaming free on Youtube- to get it in front of the most possible eyes who could then buy tickets or PPV streams for her retirement match. Another theory I’ve seen thrown out there is that Tam could lose and Sayaka Kurara could step up and offer to join HATE after all as a sacrifice if Saya allows Tam to stay, which would be another major angle.
3) Sort of a variation of the above, with the annual Cinderella Tournament starting on 3/8 (where the winner is allowed a “wish’, which is usually simply a shot at either the World or Wonder title), Tam is going to lose here to set up a scenario where Sayaka wins the Cinderella and uses her wish to bring her back. That would explain why they’re doing this before the Cinderella starts, of course. And then with Tam brought back to the promotion, you can do the final Saya vs. Tam blow off for the World of STARDOM title on 4/27 at Yokohama Arena.
So what we have here is an absolutely gigantic match with basically the biggest stakes possible. The reaction from Japanese fans especially has been utter horror at the idea of either of these two wrestlers having to leave, and you can understand why- Tam is their most popular wrestler by far (witness her results in the 2024 Shupro awards if you don’t believe me), and Saya is a super hot top heel who’s been an enormous factor in the promotion seemingly being as hot as it’s been in years. Either girl actually leaving would be a huge blow, even though STARDOM has possibly one of the deepest rosters in the entire world at the moment. But all we can do now is sit back and see what happens in one of the most intriguing, unpredictable scenarios in quite a long time.
Two title matches will also take place on this show- Fukigen (who as I mentioned in my last column has been winning constantly on spot show undercards lately, and now I guess we know why) will challenge Mei Seira for her High Speed title, while Mei’s NEO GENESIS teammates Starlight Kid, AZM & Miyu Amasaki will attempt their first defense of the Artist of STARDOM titles against the God’s Eye trio of Lady C, Tomoka Inaba and Ranna Yagami. Those are, uh, not exactly the two strongest title matches of all time, but I guess you don’t exactly need a strong undercard on a Korakuen show with Tam vs. Saya loser leaves STARDOM as the main- tickets moved very fast after that was announced and I’d expect another overflow crowd here just like their last Korakuen. Nothing else of note on the undercard full of multi-woman tags, as this is pretty much the definition of a one match show. But what a match it is.
Thursday, March 6
NJPW Anniversary Event
Ota City General Gymnasium, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
With apologies to the Fantasticamania tour, which of course is more of a CMLL event hosted by New Japan, NJPW hasn’t had a “real” show since their critically acclaimed 2/11 New Beginning in Osaka show. That long absence finally ends on March 6th, when they head back to where things all began at the Ota Ward Gym for their 53rd annual anniversary show. And the card is…..eh. It’s really nothing special. I would be a little surprised if J. Michael even asked me if I wanted to do a group preview of it, because it’s really mostly just standard Road To level tags with a few somewhat underwhelming title matches.
Interestingly, this is actually the first year since 2022 and only the second time since 2019 that we’re not getting any New Japan Cup first round matches on the anniversary show, which might help explain why this card feels very meh. We do still get three title matches, as mentioned. The main event will see Hirooki Goto attempt his first defense of the IWGP World Heavyweight Title against Hiroshi Tanahashi, a match that makes complete sense from a kayfabe perspective- Goto wants to defend his title against the man who was responsible for three of his eight unsuccessful IWGP Heavyweight title challenges in the past (Okada also got him three times, along with one each for Nakamura and Keiji Mutoh, on an AJPW show of all places). But it probably goes without saying that a Tanahashi major singles match in 2025 is a major question mark. Can they power through and produce something great on pure vibes and historical significance? Or will we get some really, really rough looking spots like we saw in the Tana/Makabe match that opened NB in Osaka that just derail things too much?
The semi-main will see IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Champion El Desperado try for defense number three against Francesco Akira. I’d be pretty stunned if this doesn’t end up being the match of the show, and Akira is someone with a ton of untapped potential in NJPW still- witness some of his BOSJ performances each year for starters. Where the match is hurt a little is it still feels way, way too early for Akira to win the junior strap here, so a Despe win seems pretty well guaranteed.
The last of the three title matches will actually open the show, with El Phantasmo taking on the dreaded X in his third defense of the NJPW WORLD TV Title. There was a lot of speculation going around about this possibly being the spot for a debuting outsider who recently left WWE, but ELP himself seemed to shoot that down on Instagram. So who are some NJPW wrestlers who are booked for the New Japan Cup tour but aren’t booked on this show so far? Well Jeff Cobb for one, but he just had two title shots in a row so presumably it won’t be him. David Finlay is another one, but he has a first round bye in the NJC and doesn’t live in Japan so might not be joining the tour for a little bit. But here’s one more: Shota Umino, who also has a first round bye in the NJC but definitely lives in Japan. And we all saw what happened in Osaka of course, where he lost to Great-O-Khan and shaved his own head. So is this a moment for Bald Shota to make some kind of big return, maybe with an entirely new presentation (including maybe even a heel turn, or at least a start or tease of one???), and make a statement coming in as X and beat ELP for this title? I wouldn’t rule it out!
The rest of the show is all tags as mentioned. Probably the most notable thing on the show is the start of the (BC?) War Dogs vs. House of Torture feud following the angle where the House turned on Gabe back in Osaka, as Gabe Kidd & Drilla Moloney face Ren Narita & Yoshinobu Kanemaru. Other than that, not much else of note unless you’re really excited to see Bad Luck Fale & Chase Owens back in Japan.
Friday, March 7
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 1
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
The New Japan Cup gets underway the following night, and interestingly enough we don’t actually have any of the undercard tag matches for even the first round shows yet (usually we would at this point). It makes me wonder if there’s some kind of angle going down at the anniversary show that they don’t want to give away, although it could all just be whether Fale & Chase are siding with the War Dogs or the House in the latest BC fight. Either way, all we’ve got for this show and all the other ones you’ll read about here are the actual Cup matches. Korakuen sees two pretty big ones: IWGP Global Heavyweight Champion Yota Tsuji vs. EVIL, and Yuya Uemura vs. SANADA. The Yota/EVIL winner will be facing off against David Finlay in the second round, while Yuya/SANADA’s winner faces YOSHI-HASHI (both on 3/11). I’d be pretty surprised if EVIL doesn’t put Yota out of the Cup here using the usual House tactics, since the two of them are clearly at the start of a feud after Osaka. That will likely set up a Global title match for either Sakura Genesis or perhaps even the Dontaku tour that follows shortly thereafter. Meanwhile, Yuya vs. SANADA could go either way- SANADA could put him out via similar cheating to kick off a longer feud, but I think it’s more likely they give Yuya the win and set him off on a deep run in the tournament.
Saturday, March 8
STARDOM Cinderella Tournament 2025 ~Opening Match~
Yokohama Budokan, Yokohama
4:00 pm local time; 2:00 am eastern; Friday 3/7 11:00 pm pacific
Live on Internet PPV (2200 yen)
STARDOM’s annual single elimination Cinderella tournament will take place over three shows, and it kicks off at the Yokohama Budokan on Saturday 3/8. We don’t currently know the bracket or even the participants, nor do we have any confirmed matches for this show yet. But if it follows the rules of recent years, you will not be eligible to participate if you are a current or former World or Wonder of STARDOM champion, so you can come up with a list of people on the roster who are not going to be in it right away. The whole idea here is that it provides a major elevation for someone new- last year’s winner, Hanan, ended up losing her “wish”, as she challenged Saori Anou for the Wonder of STARDOM title unsuccessfully at All Star Queendom on April 27th, but was still clearly elevated afterward. Ultimately she ended up finishing the year by winning the Goddesses of STARDOM tag league alongside her partner Saya Iida and then the tag titles as well. With STARDOM having such a burgeoning young roster with tons of names who feel like they’re on the verge of breaking out, I’d expect this tournament to have a loaded field this year.
Update 3/5: Just jumping in here now to add the internet PPV link and the full card, so may as well update this description real quick! We have the participants now for the tournament as well as the full bracket, which I’m placing in an image below. It’s an even more youth-focused tournament than some expected, with really the only person even resembling a veteran in the tournament being last year’s winner Hanan. Even other wrestlers who have never held the World or Wonder but have been around a long time like AZM are not in the tournament this year, as they’re really spotlighting their youth movement.
The first round of the tournament looks like this: Sakura Kurara vs. Ruaka, Ranna Yagami vs. Akira Kurogane, HANAKO vs. Aya Sakura, Azusa Inaba vs. Rian, Miyu Yamashita vs. Lady C, Rina vs. Yuria Hime, Hina vs. CMLL’s Tabata, and Hanan vs. Tomoka Inaba. It’s an exciting tournament full of fresh talent, and I can’t wait to see how it plays out. Meanwhile, there will be some non-tournament matches on this show as well, most notably newly freelance Tam Nakano teaming up with Wonder of STARDOM champion Starlight Kid to face World of STARDOM champion Saya Kamitani and Konami (who will challenge Kid on the 3/15 Cinderella final show from Ota Ward Gym). This show will also see Mina Shiarakawa’s first match since 2/2, after she made a surprise return from injury on the 3/3 Korakuen to help save her E neXus V partners from a HATE attack- she & Maika will take on Natsuko Tora and Thekla.
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 2
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
NJPW’s second straight night at Korakuen brings us two more first round matches in the Cup: Ryohei Oiwa vs. Chase Owens (winner faces Zack Sabre Jr. on 3/11) and Gabe Kidd vs. Ren Narita (winner faces Taichi on 3/12). Hopefully we don’t live in a timeline where Chase actually beats Oiwa. Narita vs. Kidd on the other hand feels like a real coin flip. On one hand, it would make sense for Narita to win the match via outrageous cheating as part 1 of a longer term War Dogs vs. House of Torture feud. On the other hand, Kidd really should start winning some matches this year, you’d think they’d like to book him to go deep in this tournament at a minimum with the momentum he has, and Taichi vs. Kidd in the second round sounds sick as hell.
NOAH Sunny Voyage 2025
Shinkiba 1st Ring, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 4:30 am eastern; 1:30 am pacific
Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE
Well, this will be a quick one: at press time, we have exactly one match for NOAH’s Shinkiba event on March 8th. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Champion Eita will face his own partner from the Jr. Tag League Daiki Odashima in a non-title match. Yeah. Not much else to say really! Did you know that Shin Kiba is kind of a pain in the ass to get to from central Tokyo? Well, now you do. A good thing you could do if you’re going to a show at Shin Kiba is the evening is plan that day to be the day you go check out Odaiba- it’s only about 20 minutes from the artificial island, since Odaiba also happens to be kind of in the middle of nowhere relative to central Tokyo. Go see the Gundam and the fake smaller Statue of Liberty, then go to a tiny wrestling venue next to some train tracks! What a day!
Sunday, March 9
AJPW Dream Power Series 2025 Night 1
Korakuen Hall, Tokyo
11:30 am local time; Saturday 3/8 9:30 pm eastern; Saturday 3/8 6:30 pm pacific
Live on AJPW.TV
All Japan finally checks in with their first show since their 2/24 event in Hachioji. That show saw Yuma Aoyagi come up short challenging Jun Saito for the Triple Crown Title, just like he failed to win the AJPW World Tag Team Titles alongside his brother Atsuki on 2/9 in this very building. Now he gets yet another shot at winning a title from Jun Saito when he reunites with his “Business Tag” partner Kento Miyahara to take on Jun & Rei for the tag belts once again. Also worth noting: we already know that Kento is the next challenger for Jun’s Triple Crown title, on 3/29 at Ota Ward Gym.
The Saitos have already tied the all-time record for most title defenses in a single reign at 8- they now co-hold that record with the legendary team of Jumbo Tsuruta & Yoshiaki Yatsu, who did it all the way back in 1989 (during their fourth of five reigns with the belts). If they defeat Kento & Yuma here to make their ninth successful defense, they would set the all time record on their own. Do they get it done? Or do Kento & Yuma finally break the Saito tag title stranglehold?
Two more title matches are on this show, as MUSASHI defends his AJPW World Jr. Heavyweight Title against Seigo Tachibana (attempting his second defense), while Yuko Miyamoto attempts his fourth defense of the GAORA TV Title against Naruki Doi. This isn’t the deepest or biggest lineup- the other three matches on this show are all tags. But it’s a pretty major tag title match featuring four of AJPW’s top stars at least, and that’s more than enough to carry a Korakuen show.
STARDOM Cinderella Tournament 2025 in KARIYA
Kariya City Industrial Promotion Center Aioi Hall, Kariya City
2:00 pm local time; 12:00 am eastern; Saturday 3/8 9:00 pm pacific
Live on STARDOM World
STARDOM’s second of three nights of the Cinderella Tournament heads out to Kariya City in Aichi Prefecture. This is a city of about 153,000 people just outside of Nagoya (which for comparison’s sake is a city of 2.3 million)- about 25 minutes or so away by train. Once again, we don’t know any of the field for the Cinderella tournament yet, but hey, at least we know this is not a separate cost PPV unlike the other two Cinderella shows! Small victories!
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 3
Baycom General Gymnasium, Amagasaki
4:00 pm local time; 3:00 am eastern; 12:00 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
New Japan heads out to Amagasaki, another smaller city in a prefecture with a more famous city (in this case, Amagasaki is about 35 minutes away by train from Kobe in Hyogo prefecture). This show features the final four first round matches of the Cup: El Phantasmo takes on Great-O-Khan where the winner advances to face Shota Umino on 3/12, then three more matches where the winners all advance to second round bouts on 3/14: Tetsuya Naito vs. Callum Newman (winner faces Jeff Cobb), Tomohiro Ishii vs. Drilla Moloney (winner faces TJP), and Boltin Oleg vs. Bad Luck Fale (winner faces Shingo Takagi). I personally think Drilla and Boltin are both pretty solid picks to win their matches- Drilla getting another scalp over Ishii to cement rising up to the heavyweight ranks after he beat Shingo in Osaka seems very likely, and I honestly have no idea why anyone would ever consider jobbing Boltin to Fale at this stage.
Naito vs. Callum on the other hand is a match where I think the first instinct would be to pick Naito to obviously move on, but when you really think about it, it probably is going to be one of the first round’s big upsets. Callum is just coming back from an injury and a win over Naito would be a major statement for him. Plus, it would pay off their little mini-feud from last summer, where Naito beat him twice (at Dominion and then again in the G1), and would also set up a likely future tag title challenge for Callum & a partner from UNITED EMPIRE against Naito & Hiromu. ELP vs. O-Khan is probably the biggest pure toss-up here, a match that really feels like it could go either way. Maybe a lot depends on how ELP vs. X for the TV Title goes back at the anniversary show- if ELP is coming off of losing his TV Title, maybe even to the guy who would be waiting for him in the second round, this could be a bit of a bounce back win for him here. But if ELP retains against X, an O-Khan win in the first round would both set up a future O-Khan TV title challenge as well as give us a rematch of Umino vs. O-Khan from Osaka. So again, kind of a tough call right now that might be a little more clear after we see what happens at the anniversary show.
(By the way, the times I have listed back up at the top for this show aren’t wrong- this is the first show that takes place after daylight savings time ends in the US, meaning Japan goes back to being 13 hours ahead of us instead of 14. Very annoying for us east coast fans who like to stay up late for the occasional weekend shows especially!)
NOAH Sunny Voyage 2025
Shinkiba 1st Ring, Tokyo
6:30 pm local time; 5:30 am eastern; 2:30 am pacific
Live on WRESTLE UNIVERSE
NOAH’s second straight night at Shin Kiba again has exactly one match announced so far at press time: another junior singles match pitting AMAKUSA against Yuto Kikuchi. There’s been a lot of speculation about Yuto possibly turning heel and joining Team 2000X, and the heels have certainly been recruiting him. Perhaps that will have taken place already by the time this match happens- as you may remember, there’s a lumberjack double title match involving T2KX & RATEL’s back on 3/2.
Tuesday, March 11
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 4
ZIP Arena Okayama, Okayama
6:30 pm local time; 5:30 am eastern; 2:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
The New Japan Cup second round kicks off in Okayama, the capital city of Okayama Prefecture with a population of about 700k (it’s to the west of the Kansai region that includes Osaka/Kyoto/Kobe, pretty much halfway between that and Hiroshima, and just to the north of the island of Shikoku). This NJC show tends to be the one and only NJPW event the good people of Okayama get most years- in fact, the last time they got a non-NJC event was 2021, when they also were blessed with a World Tag League show.
As mentioned earlier, the three second round matches on this show will be: David Finlay vs. the winner of EVIL/Tsuji, YOSHI-HASHI vs. the winner of Uemura/SANADA (which I’m now just realizing might mean SANADA is winning that given all the history he has with Y-H, oops!), and Zack Sabre Jr. vs. the winner of Oiwa/Chase. There could be some tasty stuff on this show depending on who wins in the first round- again, assuming we live in a world that isn’t horrible enough to see Chase go over Oiwa, we’d be getting a hell of a mentor/student match in ZSJ vs. Oiwa at minimum. Finlay vs. EVIL or Tsuji are both pretty awesome options as well- either Finlay goes for revenge against the guy who beat him three straight times, twice in the G1 and then again for the Global title on 1/4, or the leader of the War Dogs takes on the leader of the House.
Wednesday, March 12
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 5
Uwajima-city General Gymnasium, Uwajima
7:00 pm local time; 6:00 am eastern; 3:00 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
The second round of the New Japan Cup continues the following night in Uwajima, a city of just 70,440 in Ehime prefecture, on the island of Shikoku (kind of the most forgotten of the four main Japanese islands I think- obviously everyone knows the main island of Honshu where all the most famous cities are, and I think Kyushu, home to cities like Fukuoka & Kumamoto, and Hokkaido, home to Sapporo, are probably far more famous than Shikoku as well). Uwajima became a stop on the New Japan Cup only starting last year- it had never hosted an NJC show before 2024, and in fact this will only be the fifth NJPW show in total in the city since 2015 (there were no shows held at all here for eleven years before that!).
Two more second round matches take place here: Taichi vs. the winner of Kidd/Narita, and Shota Umino vs. the winner of O-Khan/ELP. Taichi’s match will either see him face Gabe Kidd in a singles match for the first time ever (and in fact, these two guys have only even been in the same ring together twice before this- a short eight-man tag on a G1 undercard on 8/10/23, and the pre-show rambo from WK 18 on 1/4/24), or will see him go for revenge against Ren Narita, the man who knocked him out of the NJC in the first round last year. Meanwhile, it will be interesting to see what ‘Bald’ Shota Umino looks like in what could be his first singles match since the O-Khan head shaving incident in Osaka (again, assuming he isn’t the X challenging ELP for the TV Title at the anniversary show).
Friday, March 14
NJPW New Japan Cup Night 6
Kanaoka Park Gymnasium, Osaka
6:30 pm local time; 5:30 am eastern; 2:30 am pacific
Live on NJPW World in English & Japanese
The second round of the New Japan Cup wraps up in southern Osaka, in another venue we saw get its first ever New Japan Cup show last year. Jeff Cobb faces the winner of Naito/Newman, TJP faces the winner of Ishii/Moloney, and Shingo Takagi faces the winner of Boltin/Fale. Again, there’s some potentially tasty matches here depending on who wins in the first round. Shingo vs. Boltin seems pretty likely to happen and would be a first time ever singles match (and another one where the two wrestlers haven’t even faced each other in tags much- only twice, on a World Tag League undercard six-man on 12/1/23, and an eight-man tag on the 3/6/24 anniversary show). TJP and Moloney have a lot of history together from the junior tag division, while Cobb would either face his fellow UE member Callum for the first time or face a guy he’s got quite a bit of history with in Naito (and a 1-4 record against- Naito beat him in the 2019 G1, a singles match at WK 16 in 2022, the NJC quarterfinals also in 2022, and defended his WK IWGP title shot against him at KOPW in 2023; Cobb’s lone win came during the 2023 G1).
That’s all for this time- we’ll pick things back up next time with 3/15, as we talk about the end of the New Japan Cup & Cindarella tournaments, a major AJPW show from Ota Ward Gym, a Korakuen show from NOAH and much more! Until then, enjoy the wrestling!
