lostinube

So for the airing of this year's World Cup in Japan, as per tradition they split the airing of the Japan games between three broadcasters (they also split events for the Olympics). Some mixture of NHK channels will air the other games but not everyone has access to those channels. Streaming service Abema TV will be airing all 64 games free. I hear it is possible to watch the streams if one has certain letters of the alphabet available to them. Abema TV is majority owned by CyberAgent, which owns CyberFight which owns DDT Pro and NOAH.

Main event is Fujinami and Tanahashi. Semi-final features a six-man tag of ZSJ, Jake Lee and Masakatsu Funaki against Naito, Takagi and Mitsuya Nagai. Full card here: https://www.dradition.jp/news/2022/11/09.html

They haven't announced the final line-up yet but Kaito Kiyomiya took part in the celebrity audition for the next edition of SASUKE (Ninja Warrior). He appears at around the 10:45 mark. Recently the show has been airing around the end of the year, with the taping sometime in November. Just before covid-19 hit they had been airing the show on New Year's Eve because they would air a live Final Stage from Yokohama. A friend made the final in 2019 and I went up to Yokohama to watch. That was the last time I went to Tokyo (or really anywhere north). Haven't really left my area since then.

Natsu Bar

The website says doors opened at 1:30 and the opening act was slated to start at 3:00 and the whole thing should have ended around 8:15. They might not be officially an idol unit but they performed under the name of meltear.

Bushiroad had a concert celebrating their 15th anniversary on the 13th. The acts that performed are connected to their various games - idol groups and voice actresses and actors. Tam and Natsupoi have their own idol unit called meltear. They performed one song out of the sixty-five songs performed during the concert.

I haven't heard of anything about Cobb actually being injured so it might be a work to get Henare in and Cobb doing other things during the WTL.

I think Cobb got hurt during the FTR match. O-Khan and Henare was set up pretty quickly after that show.

Wedding receptions in Japan are just excuses to have a party. You are officially married whenever you register your marriage at your designated city hall. There may be a ceremony involved but it's not a legally binding thing. You just pick a good day for everyone involved and when you can book the place you want and have it whenever. It could happen months or even years after a couple is officially hitched.

Here is Sayaka's version of what went down:

I feel SANADA is step above the Ishiis and TAICHIs and Narita can lose to him while still looking strong. If KENTA had won I would say Narita makes it to the final easy. Plus, I think the 15 minute time limit is the best use of SANADA right now. Of course none of this really matters to me since my one true pick, YOSHI-HASHI, is now gone.

Was busy this weekend and didn't get to see much of anything but the TV title semis are Zack/EVIL and SANADA/Narita. Not sure where they go with that. SANADA/Zack has been done to death. It feels like it's too early to put Narita over SANADA right now. So I guess SANADA over EVIL?

D'oh. The bracket is finally truly busted as Yano beat O-Khan due to In the other match, Ishii naturally put Narita through hell before falling to the youngster. The Korakuen crowd was solidly behind Narita. YOSHI-HASHI all the way.

C'mon, man. You know better than to shorten Japanese like that.

They allowed cheering at the 10/16 show in Nagaoka. The main event was SANADA and TAICHI with SANADA winning at 14:57. Toshiaki Kawada was on commentary for the second half of the show. TAICHI went up to him after and said that Kawada isn't quite retired so before he's really done let's have a match.

Sure. Sure. You know what? Screw it. YOSHI-HASHI all the way. Also, Master Wato winning the four-way would be so great.

CS TV Asahi 2 is in the middle of three nights of Inoki matches. From the 14th to the 16th three hours per night for a total of nine hours from 9 PM JST. https://www.tv-asahi.co.jp/ch/contents/sports/0573/ https://www.nikkansports.com/battle/news/202210140000273.html Matches shown:

There was a funeral and memorial service for Antonio Inoki today. Among non-current NJPW people who attended were Shinsuke Nakamura, Masakatsu Funaki, Muto, Chono, Sasaki, Takada, Fujita, Ogawa and Ichiro Furutachi. I'm sure there were more but those are the main names most stories have. Edit to add: There was a wake the night before on the 13th and some of the attendees were different. Kobashi attended the wake but was not at the funeral today.

Ishimori/Hiromu/Despy/Wato four way for the Junior title. Wato beat Ishimori at the 10/10 show and Hiromu and Despy showed up postmatch to set up the match.

The second Japan Pro-Wrestling Hall of Fame induction show was held today. The inductees were Masa Saito (represented by his wife), the Great Kojika and the Great Kabuki. http://battle-news.com/?p=90249 There was of course a show to go with the induction ceremony. The main was a six man of Kento Miyahara/Shiro Koshinaka/Kouta Minoura beating Yuma Aoyagi/Hideki Suzuki/Madoka Kikuta. The semi-main was Jake Lee and Kengo Mashimo going to a twenty minute draw. Minoura should probably sue whoever took the photo in the article. Or consider changing his hairstyle.

Tonight's NJPW show, the first in Japan since Inoki's passing, starts with a video tribute to Inoki and a ten bell salute with Seiji Sakaguchi holding Inoki's portrait. They start playing Inoki Bom Ba Ye but it gets dubbed over on NJPW World.

Mashimo is participating in the very indy-summit Glocal Tag League

Rossy Ogawa of Stardom Onita

Yahoo news Japan says the official cause of death is amyloidosis. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/24b35ddcbefd2e240aca03cbf969209e43037f4d If you have NJPW World they've put up a link to the archive of his matches. On youtube NJPW has a playlist called Thank you Antonio Inoki.

Antonio Inoki has passed away. https://news.yahoo.co.jp/articles/24b35ddcbefd2e240aca03cbf969209e43037f4d