By Oliver Taylor

Pro Wrestling NOAH

Every team is tied with a 1-1 record in Pro Wrestling NOAH’s Global Tag League.

Tomorrow’s episode, airing on DDT Universe at 8pm JST, 12pm BST, 7am ET, is the last day of block competition.

The lineup for tomorrow’s episode is:

• Akitoshi Saito & Masao Inoue (1-1) vs. Hideki Shrek Sekine & Takashi Sugiura (1-1)

• Daisuke Sekimoto & Yoshiki Inamura (1-1) vs. Go Shiozaki & Katsuhiko Nakajima (1-1)

• El Hijo de Dr. Wagner Jr. & Rene Dupree (1-1) vs. Masaaki Mochizuki & Naomichi Marufuji (1-1)

• Kaito Kiyomiya & Shuhei Taniguchi (1-1) vs. Kenoh & Masa Kitamiya (1-1)

Then, the final will be held on April 18 at 7pm JST/11am BST/6am ET on DDT Universe and Samurai TV.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Samuari TV is advertising the Strong Climb tournament finals on April 26 at 7pm JST, 11am BST, 6am ET.

Image via Samurai TV

The semi-finals, previously set for April 12, are:

A Block winner Daichi Hashimoto (2-1-1 record) vs. B Block winner Daisuke Sekimoto (3-1-0 record)

C Block winner Quiet Storm (2-1-1 record) vs. D Block winner Jake Lee (3-1-0 record)

It was previously expected that the Strong Climb tournament winner would challenge for the BJW World Strong Heavyweight Championship at the Endless Survivor show on May 5.

However, Endless Survivor has been postponed.

It is also possible that should Daichi Hashimoto defeat Daisuke Sekimoto, then Hashimoto would defend the World Strong Heavyweight Championship in the Strong Climb tournament final.

A similar situation occurred in 2018, when Hashimoto lost in the tournament final, and subsequently lost the championship, to Hideki Suzuki.

It is also worth noting that if the winner was planned to challenge for the championship at Endless Survivor on May 5, the show would have occurred on the same day as All Japan Pro Wrestling’s Champion Carnival tournament final.

This obviously would have a great affect on All Japan wrestler and Strong Climb semi-finalist Jake Lee.

Dragon Gate

Major League Wrestling owner Court Bauer confirmed on Twitter that plans for the MLW and Dragon Gate alliance will still unfold.

It will ALL happen. The timeline just slides. Health/safety first but we'll get there and I can't wait! Stay well. https://t.co/hbCqAjXwl5 — Court Bauer (@courtbauer) April 13, 2020

Dragon Gate will send four wrestlers to a future MLW taping, including Ben-K and Shun Skywalker.

Meanwhile, reigning MLW World Heavyweight champion Jacob Fatu will tour with Dragon Gate.

Dragon Gate’s Dead or Alive shows in 2017, 2018 and 2019 have been made available for a limited time on the Dragon Gate Network.

The links to the show can be found below:

Dead or Alive 2017

Dead or Alive 2018

Dead or Alive 2019

All Japan Pro Wrestling

It appears All Japan Pro Wrestling is making an effort to appeal to more English speaking fans.

The company posted a video tutorial on Twitter of how to switch the language setting to English on the AJPW TV streaming service.

* *For English Speakers * *



How to switch the All Japan Pro-Wrestling website from Japanese to English: Click "Language(言語)" icon -> Select and click "English(英語)" -> That's all!



Please join and watch at: https://t.co/P50Qsuuk6y#ajpw #ajpwtv #StayHome pic.twitter.com/KAafwu4lQf — AJPW TV/全日本プロレスTV (@AjpwTv) April 11, 2020

New All Japan star Shotaro Ashino also gave an interview to PKDX, which Eastern Lariat translated to English:

In an interview with @PKDX Shotaro Ashino said he had offers from “many different organizations” since he went freelance, but “All Japan was the most attractive among them”. The pivotal reason he went to AJPW was so he could wrestle bigger opponents “to encourage his evolution”.

Ashino also talked about his former WRESTLE-1 colleagues: “Ashino, Kodama, Higuma (Kuma Arashi) & Ikemen. If these four guys make it to All Japan, I think I can show them that WRESTLE-1 is capable of doing it [winning titles]. From the point of view of All Japan fans …

… the promotion was split up. That’s how people look at us, but we can provide proper professional wrestling. I want the All Japan Pro Wrestling fans to think that we’re better than them. If you don’t do that, there was no point in WRESTLE-1.”

In an interview with @PKDX Shotaro Ashino said he had offers from "many different organizations" since he went freelance, but "All Japan was the most attractive among them". The pivotal reason he went to AJPW was so he could wrestle bigger opponents "to encourage his evolution". — Eastern Lariat (@EasternLariat) April 11, 2020

Ashino also talked about his former WRESTLE-1 colleagues: "Ashino, Kodama, Higuma (Kuma Arashi) & Ikemen. If these four guys make it to All Japan, I think I can show them that WRESTLE-1 is capable of doing it [winning titles]. From the point of view of All Japan fans … — Eastern Lariat (@EasternLariat) April 11, 2020

… the promotion was split up. That's how people look at us, but we can provide proper professional wrestling. I want the All Japan Pro Wrestling fans to think that we're better than them. If you don't do that, there was no point in WRESTLE-1." — Eastern Lariat (@EasternLariat) April 11, 2020