Japanese Pro-Wrestling in 2013, A Year in Review

Below you will see a look back from the major events that happened in the year of 2013 in the land of the rising sun. This year in particular saw a few ups and downs… maybe some bigger downs in regards to some. But with 2013 coming to close, 2014 is looking to solidify a strong beginning and the time to begin fresh and anew.

Keep in mind that I have no covered everything that has been posted throughout this year, but I at the top of every month I have linked back to the archive for all the posts I that I have made this year. So be sure to double check there if you seem an event or news that catches your attention. Thanks for supporting PS this year, and as every years comes I hope to continue growing in my knowledge and in turn providing you will all with the latest news and more from Japan.



JAN FEB MARCH APRIL MAY JUNE JULY AUG SEPT OCT NOV DEC

JANUARY 2013

[ARCHIVE] *note if any of the results do not link back correctly, please change the url to puroresuspirit.wordpress.com, sorry for the inconvenience.

[1/1] ZERO1 kicked off the new year at the Korkuen Hall. Main event of the show saw Shinjiro Otani & Masato Tanaka vs. Daisuke Sekimoto & James Raideen. The International & NWA World Junior belts were defended as Takuya Sugawara defeated Ikuto Hidaka



[1/2] AJPW held their first show of the year at the Korakuen Hall. The event saw the GHC Junior Heavyweight and AJPW World Junior Heavyweight belts defended in a double title match-up. Shuji Kondo would walk out as a double crown champion. “GET WILD” Takao Omori & Manabu Soya defended the AJPW World Tag belts against the “Stack of Arms” team of Masakatsu Funaki & Masayuki Kono. As well as the one night only reformation of GURENTAI with Taiyo Kea, Minoru Suzuki, Yoshihiro Takayama, NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA.

[1/2] BJW held their first show of the year at the Korakuen later that night. The main event saw Shuji Ishikawa becomes the 27th BJW Deathmatch Heavyweight Champion after beating Abdullah Kobayashi. Yuko Miyamoto & Isami Kodaka set of their BJW Tag Championship reign by successfully defending their belts for their first defense against Tommy End & Michael Dante. All Japan’s Manabu Soya officially became the 2nd BJW World Strong Heavyweight Champion after defeating Yoshihito Sasaki.

[1/3] AJPW held the second day of their back-to-back Korakuen Hall shows. The headlining match saw Seiya Sanada defend the GAORA TV belt against Tomoaki Honma in which Sanada would claim his 3rd successful defense for the belt. “Junior Stars” Minoru Tanaka & Koji Kanemoto defended their Asia Tag belts against Kaz Hayashi & Shuji Kondo. Akebono defeated Joe Doering to become the next contender for the Triple Crown belts. Taiyo Kea would have a special 10 man tag match held in his honor as he embarked on temporarily leave to go back to school and earn a degree in business management. Masahiro Chono signed a contract publicly to become an advisor to All Japan.

[1/3] DDT held their first show of the year at the Korakuen Hall later that night. The event saw Yoshiaki Fujiwara lose the Iron Man Heavy Metal Championship to Yoshihiko.



[1/4] NJPW kicked off the year with their biggest show of the year at the Tokyo Dome. The main event saw Hiroshi Tanahashi successfully defend the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against Kazuchika Okada. The IWGP Intercontinental Champion Shinsuke Nakamura defended his belt against Kazushi Sakuraba. Togi Makabe defeated Katsuyori Shibata. A special tag match with Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Satoshi Kojima taking on Keiji Mutoh & Shinjiro Otani (originally scheduled to be Daichi Hashimoto). Prince Devitt successfully defended his IWGP Junior Heavyweight Championship in a 3WAY match against Kota Ibushi and Low Ki. Killer Elite Squad, Lance Archer & Davey Boy Smith Jr., successfully retained their IWGP Tag belts against the “World Tag League 2012” winners Hirooki Goto & Karl Anderson. Masato Tanaka also defended his NEVER Openweight Championship against Shelton Benjamin.

[1/6] NOAH held their first show of the year at the Korakuen Hall. The event saw KENTA defeat Takeshi Morishima in a non-title match. Maybach Taniguchi defeated Takashi Sugiura and Yoshihito Takayama claimed the win over Naomichi Marufuji. It was NO MERCY’s night. Maybach & Takayama then challenged Sugira & Marufuji to a GHC Tag title match. Hitoshi Kumano, NOAH’s first rookie in 7 years, made his official pre-debut in a battle royal.

[1/12] DDT crowned their first ever KO-D 6 Person Tag Champions as Keisuke Ishii, Shigehiro Irie & Soma Takao defeated Sanshiro Takagi, Makoto Oishi & Akito at the Nichikumin Center in Osaka.

[1/13] LEGEND kicked off the new year with a show at the Korakuen Hall. The event saw a big 6 man tag match as Tatsumi Fujinami teamed with Riki Choshu and Yukio Sakaguchi, son of Seiji Sakaguchi, as they took on Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, and Jushin Thunder Liger. Tenzan would claim the win over Yukio. Kuniaki Kobayashi also made his return to the ring as he teamed with his formal rival The First Tiger Mask (Satoru Sayama) to take on Atsushi Onita & Ichiro Yaguchi.

[1/14] UNION held a show at the Shinkiba 1stRING in which Isami Kodaka defeated Keisuke Ishii to be crowned the 21st DDT EXTREME Champion.

[1/16] TOKYO GURENTAI held their first show of the year at the Shinjuku FACE. The main event saw NOSAWA Rongai & MAZADA defeat DRAGON GATE’s CIMA & Gamma to be crowned the first ever Tokyo World Tag Champions. (Minoru) FUJITA also defeated Sanshiro Takagi to be crowned the 3rd ever Tokyo World Heavyweight Champion.

[1/17] NOAH held a show at the Nagoya Telepia Hall in which saw the debut of a new masked wrestler in Maybach Taniguchi Jr. Maybach Jr. would align himself in NO MERCY and he and Genba Hirayanagi claimed their first win over Lance & Harlem Bravado.

[1/18] All Japan Pro-Wrestling’s BUSHI officially joined New Japan Pro Wrestling.

[1/19] NJPW: Shinsuke Nakamura defended the IWGP IC belt against La Sombra at the Korakuen during the CMLL FANTASTICA MANIA mini-tour.

[1/20] DRAGON GATE held a show at the Osaka BODYMAKER COLOSSEUM, in which the main event saw CIMA successfully defend the Open the Dream Gate Championship against Ryo “Jimmy” Saito, for his 10th defense.

[1/20] DDT held a show at the Nagoya Telepia Hall which saw HARASHIMA & Yasu Urano defend the KO-D Tag Championship against Kota Ibushi & Kenny Omega.

[1/21] TARU announced his official return to the ring after the controversy surrounding himself and the Nobukazu Hirai controversy. He declared that he will make his first appearance back at the DIAMOND RING show on February 11 at the Korakuen Hall. The “VOODOO MURDERS” would be reunited.

[1/23] Kenta Kobashi finally announced that his retirement match will be held on May 11 at the Nippon Budokan. “FINAL BURNING in Budokan Kenta Kobashi’s Retirement Event”. The event would be held in collaboration with Pro Wrestling NOAH.

[1/25] WNC held a show at the Shinjuku FACE, Hiroki Murase made his official debut.



[1/26] AJPW held their first big show of the year at the Ota Ward Gymnasium. The main event saw Masakatsu Funaki defend the Triple Crown Championship against Akebono. Funaki would win the match and solidify his 4th successful defense. Suwama stepped forward as Funaki’s next challenger. This event was also scheduled to see Ric Flair in competition, but due to a sudden unforeseen complication Flair was unable to compete. Flair’s son Reid competed in his place as he temaed with Keiji Mutoh to take on the team of Tatsumi Fujinami & Seiya Sanada. “Jonestsu Hentai Baka” Hiroshi Yamato & Hikaru Sato defeated Minoru Tanaka & Koji Kanemoto to become the 90th Asia Tag Champions. Manabu Soya would also successfully defend the BJW World Strong Heavyweight belt in a rematch against BJW’s Yoshihito Sasaki. Masahiro Chono enter the All Japan ring as he teamed with Suwama & Joe Doering to tkakew on Takao Omori, Ryota Hama, and Yasufumi Nakanoueno. Jun Akiyama, Go Shiozaki, Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Kotaro Suzuki, and Atsushi Aoki made an appearance in the All Japan ring to announce that they will be joining the promotion following their resigning from NOAH.

[1/27] NOAH held their first big show of the year at the Osaka BODYMAKER COLOSSEUM. The show would see KENTA defeat Takeshi Morishima to be crowned the 19th GHC Heavyweight Champion. Takashi Sugiura & Naomichi Marufuji officially defend their GHC Tag belts against Yoshihiro Takayama & Maybach Taniguchi following their singles losses to them earlier in the month. Then Taiji Ishimori defeated Shuji Kondo to become the 26th GHC Junior Heavyweight Champion.

[1/27] DRAGON GATE held a show at the Kobe Sambo Hall in which Masaaaki Mochizuki & Don Fujii retained their Open the Twin Gate Tag Championship belts against Genki Horiguchi HAGee.Mee!! & Jimmy Kanda, 4th successful defense.

[1/27] Dramatic Dream Team (DDT) held a show at the Korakuen Hall. The main event saw a double title match as Isami Kodaka defended the KO-D Open-weight Championship and the DDT EXTREME Championship against Kenny Omega. Omega would emerge the victor and the new double champion. Sanshiro Takagi & Yuzuki Aikawa defeated the team of Danshoku Dino & Yoshiko. Shigehiro Irie officially joined DDT. Irie, Ishii & Takao lost the KO-D 6 Person Tag belts to the “Monster Army” Antonio Honda, Daisuke Sasaki & Yuji Hino. Then lastly, Toru Owashi announced that he would be making his full return to active competition.

[1/31] Hajime Ohara officially announced his resigning from TAJIRI’s Wrestling New Classic.

Share this: Twitter

Facebook

Reddit

Tumblr

Like this: Like Loading... Related