The Week in Japanese Wrestling (20/4/2024 — 26/4/2024):
New Japan Pro Wrestling:
The most interesting things from New Japan this week weren’t actually on screen. The newly crowned IWGP World Heavyweight Champion, Jon Moxley, made his first successful defence against Powerhouse Hobbs on AEW Dynamite, while New Japan were busy fully acquiring Stardom. The companies had been working on a close basis under Bushiroad, but now New Japan directly owns the company in its entirety. The aim for this is to create better crossover between the two promotions and better working relations.
Pro Wrestling NOAH:
In NOAH, Kaito Kiyomiya defeated Jake Lee to become the number one contender for El Hijo Del Dr Wagner Jr’s GHC Heavyweight Championship. The pair will face off at Wrestle Magic on May 4. Morris and Greene will continue their string of open challenges on that show as well, after defeating Dragon Gate’s M3K for the titles on Monday Magic. That show will also feature a triple threat for the Jr Tag titles when GLG defend the belts against Los Golpeadores and the team of Shuji Kondo, and an unknown “X”. Also, a giant eagle in a suit seems to be making an appearance at Wrestle Magic… More updates on that to come…
Ganbare Pro Wrestling:
In their first show removed from Cyber Fight, Keisuke Ishii upset Shuichiro Katsumura to become Ganbare World Openweight Champion. Congrats to the new champ.
Joshi:
Sadly, Arisa Nakajima has announced she’ll be retiring from professional wrestling after a long and successful career. She suffered a neck injury not too long ago, which seems to be the cause of this. Her final opponent will be fro seaDlinnng against the returning Hiroyo Matsumoto on August 23.
