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JAPANESE GOVERNMENT EXTENDS STATE OF EMERGENCY, NJPW WRESTLE GRAND SLAM ON FITE.TV, DDT, ONITA AND MORE FROM JAPAN

Japanese Government

Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga has reportedly decided to extend Japan’s ongoing state of emergency in Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto and Hyogo until May 31 and has added Aichi and Fukuoka to the list of affected areas. The official announcement is expected tomorrow.

However, restrictions on events will be relaxed. All events will be allowed to go ahead with the lesser of 5,000 people in attendance or any number lower than 50 per cent of the venue’s capacity.

In theory, this should allow wrestling events to go ahead as currently scheduled. Any postponements or cancellations will be reported on as announced.

An article from Kyodo News in English covering the news can be read here.

Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Explosion

Deathmatch wrestling legend Atsushi Onita has launched his own wrestling company called Frontier Martial-Arts Wrestling Explosion.

The ‘E’ in the company’s name stands for explosion and its main focus will be on exploding barbed wire deathmatches.

FMW-E’s debut show will take place on July 4 at the Tsurumi Fruit & Vegetable Market in Yokohama.

Onita, 63, said Jon Moxley and Kenny Omega’s exploding barbed wire deathmatch at All Elite Wrestling’s Revolution pay-per-view was the catalyst for the company’s birth.

Hidetaka Kajiki, owner of Japanese construction company Kofu-Field Co Ltd and FMW-E president, promised the company will have worldwide distribution. It remains to be seen what broadcasting deals FMW-E is able to secure.

FMW-E’s introductory press conference has been uploaded onto its YouTube channel, which can be watched on the attachment below. The first portion of the video has English subtitles until the 5:24 mark.

The company already has its own website, which can be viewed here.

An article from Yahoo (in Japanese) covering the news can be read here.

Big Japan Pro Wrestling

Big Japan Pro Wrestling held the third night of its Hokkaido tour today.

The full results were:

• Keiki Suzuki and Masaki Morihiro def. Kazumasa Yoshida and Kazuki Hashimoto
• Kazumi Kikuta def. Yuichi Taniguchi
• Abdullah Kobayashi and Jaki Numazawa def. Brahman Kei and Brahman Shu
• Kosuke Sato and Takuya Nomura def. Kota Sekifuda and Yuko Miyamoto
• Daisuke Sekimoto, Shigehiro Irie and Yuji Okabayashi def. Daichi Hashimoto, Yasufumi Nakanoue and Yuya Aoki
• Hardcore: Drew Parker, Hideyoshi Kamitani and Yuki Ishikawa def. Akira Hyodo, Kankuro Hoshino and Ryuji Ito

Big Japan will hold the fourth night of its Hokkaido tour tomorrow. The full card is:

• Kazumasa Yoshida vs. Yuichi Taniguchi
• Kazuki Hashimoto and Masaki Morihiro vs. Keiki Suzuki and Kota Sekifuda
• Akira Hyodo and Drew Parker vs. Jaki Numazawa and Yuki Ishikawa
• Abdullah Kobayashi, Ryuji Ito and Yuko Miyamoto vs. Brahman Kei, Brahman Shu and Kankuro Hoshino
• Daisuke Sekimoto and Kazumi Kikuta vs. Takuya Nomura and Yasufumi Nakanoue
• Daichi Hashimoto, Hideyoshi Kamitani and Yuya Aoki vs. Kosuke Sato, Shigehiro Irie and Yuji Okabayashi

New Japan Pro Wrestling

New Japan Pro Wrestling has announced FITE will air its two Wrestle Grand Slam shows with English and French commentary this May.

Night one on May 15 in Yokohama Stadium and night two on May 29 in the Tokyo Dome will be available live and on demand for $19.99 each or both shows can be purchased for $29.99.

The Grand Wrestle Slam bundle on FITE can be viewed here. There are also individual links to night one and night two.

DDT Pro-Wrestling

The CyberFight Festival will air exclusively on WRESTLE UNIVERSE.

The show will take place on June 6 in Saitama Super Arena with stars from DDT Pro-Wrestling, Ganbare Pro, Pro Wrestling NOAH and Tokyo Joshi Pro Wrestling.

The announced card, although incomplete, is:

• Junta Miyawaki, Kinya Okada and Yasutaka Yano vs. Keigo Nakamura, Toi Kojima and Yuki Iino
• Atsushi Kotoge, Daisuke Harada and Hajime Ohara vs. HAYATA, Seiki Yoshioka and Yoshinari Ogawa
• Akito, Hideki Okatani, Kazusada Higuchi, Naomi Yoshimura, Sanshiro Takagi, Yukio Naya and Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Haoh, Katsuhiko Nakajima, Kenoh, Manabu Soya, Masa Kitamiya and Nioh
• Kaito Kiyomiya and Yoshiki Inamura vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Yuki Ueno
• Princess of Princess Championship: Miyu Yamashita (c) vs. Yuka Sakazaki
• GHC Heavyweight Championship: Keiji Mutoh (c) vs. Naomichi Marufuji
• KO-D Openweight Championship: Jun Akiyama (c) vs. HARASHIMA

DDT has announced the full card for its empty arena show on May 9. The full card is:

• Hideki Okatani vs. Toi Kojima
• Akito and Keigo Nakamura vs. Danshoku Dieno and Super Sasadango Machine vs. Kazuki Hirata and Toru Owashi vs. Sanshiro Takagi and Yukio Naya
• Kazusada Higuchi, Saki Akai and Yuki Iino vs. Mad Paulie, Soma Takao and Tetsuya Endo
• Yukio Sakaguchi vs. Yusuke Okada
• HARASHIMA and Naomi Yoshimura vs. MAO and Yuki Ueno
• Antonio Honda and Chris Brookes vs. Makoto Oishi and Jun Akiyama
• Daisuke Sasaki and Yuji Hino vs. Konosuke Takeshita and Shunma Katsumata

DAMNATION will produce its next show on July 26 in Shinjuku FACE.

GLEAT

GLEAT upload its GLEAT RUMBLE onto its YouTube channel today.

The full match can be watched on the attachment below.

All Japan Pro Wrestling

All Japan Pro Wrestling junior heavyweight star and Hard Hit owner Hikaru Sato will fight Kanto Fuchigami at PANCRASE 322 on June 27.

The fight will be an openweight bout. Sato’s last PANCRASE fight was in August 2017 when he lost to Ryuta Sakurai.

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