BJW Sees Rise in Attendance At Last Two Korakuen Hall Events

By: Lewis Carlan

Big Japan Pro-Wrestling held it’s last two year-end events on Dec. 30 & 31 with both shows being held at the famed Korakuen Hall.

On Dec. 30th, BJW held a six match event that featured two title bouts as the BJW Tag Team and BJW Jr Heavyweight Titles were defended.

Ryuji Ito & Kankuro Hoshino defended their BJW Tag Team Titles against Toru Sugiura & Kazumi Kikuta in a THE FINISHING DEATH TOUCH Fluorescent Light Tubes Death Match.

Image Credit: BJW

The 191 day reign of Ito & Kankuro came to end as Kikuta & Sugiura prevailed and became the new champions. It was a Kikuta’s Kowloon’s Gate to Ito that ended the match at 21:39 mark as the new champions were crowned.

The BJW Jr Heavyweight Champion Kosuke Sato retained his title in a STRONG-J 15 Minute MAX Time Rumble as he defeated Takato Nakano, Tatsuhiko Yoshino, Kaji Tomato, Joji Otani & Masaki Morihiro. The rules of the match were whoever scored the last fall and was champion at the 15 minute mark would lay claim to the title.

Kosuke Sato hit Tatsuhiko Yoshino with a Bloody Sunday with 30 seconds left in the bout which was enough for a pinfall win and ensured Sato would remain champion.

In other action, Daichi Hashimoto defeated Jacob Crane by referee stoppage in a BJW STRONG Rules No Rope Bout.

Here are the full results for BJW at Korakuen Hall on Dec. 30th courtesy of purolove.com:

• Yuya Aoki, Kazumasa Yoshida & Fuminori Abe defeat Ryota Hama, Yasufumi Nakanoue & Shota Takanishi (7:42) after a tombstone piledriver by Yoshida against Takanishi.
• Hardcore Match: Hideyoshi Kamiya & Masaya Takahashi defeat Abdullah Kobayashi & Takumi Sakurai (10:43) after a backdrop by Kamitani against Sakurai.
• Minoru Fujita defeats Ryuma Sekimo (14:59) with a double-leg Nelson.
• BJW STRONG Rules ~No Ropes Match: Daichi Hashimoto defeats Jacob Crane (11:38) via Referee Stop.
• BJW Jr. Heavyweight Title ~ STRONG-J 15 Minute MAX Time Rumble: Kosuke Sato (c) defeats Takato Nakano, Tatsuhiko Yoshino, Kaji Tomato, Joji Otani & Masaki Morihiro (15:00) (5th defense). Order of Pinfalls: Masaki Morihiro defeats Kosuke Sato with the Morihiro Lock (3:54). Kaji Tomato defeats Masaki Morihiro with speed (5:31). Kosuke Sato defeats Tatsuhiko Yoshino with a running low kick (6:26). Takato Nakano defeats Tatsuhiko Yoshino with the Takagari (9:02). Joji Otani defeats Tatsuhiko Yoshino with a frog splash (9:47). Tatsuhiko Yoshino defeats Kosuke Sato with the messenger (12:47). Kosuke Sato defeats Tatsuhiko Yoshino with a Bloody Sunday (14:30).
  * The rules of the match stated that whoever stood as the champion at the end of 15 minutes would receive the title. All other victories were only considered provisional.
• BJW Tag Team Title ~ “Finishing Touch” THE FINISHING DEATH TOUCH Fluorescent Lighttubes + α Death Match: Toru Sugiura  & Kazumi Kikuta defeat Ryuji Ito & Kankuro Hoshino (c) (21:39) after Kikuta’s Kowloon’s Gate vs. Ito – title change.

On Dec. 31st, BJW returned to Korakuen Hall for their KING OF DEATH MATCH WORLD GP II ~LIGHT TUBE CRUSADERS tournament.

One of the featured bouts of the BJW Dec. 31st event was a highly anticipated bout between Jun Kasai and Hideyoshi Kametani as they faced each other in a Death Match that included numerous light tubes. Kametani prevailed in this encounter after landing a backdrop suplex on Kasai for the pinfall victory.

The KING OF THE DEATH MATCH WORLD GP II – LIGHT TUBE CRUSADERS Tournament was won by MASADA & Rina Yamashita as they defeated Beast Man & Mickie Knuckles in the finals, It was a Yamashita Splash Mountain with light tubes onto Knuckles which ended the bout at the 15:21 mark.

Photo Credit: BJW

Here are the full results for BJW at Korakuen Hall on Dec. 31th courtesy of purolove.com:

• King of Death Match World GP II – Round 1: Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto  defeat I Am The Provider & Dmitri Alexandrov (8:51) after a reverse U Crash Kai by Takeda against Provider.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Round 1: Abdullah Kobayashi & Michael Weaver defeat Yuko Miyamoto & Jimmy Chondo Lyon (9:53) after a running double kneedrop with lighttubes by Weaver against Lyon.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Round 1: MASADA & Rina Yamashita defeat Yusaku Ito & Takumi Sakurai (8:57) after a brainbuster by MASADA against Sakurai.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Round 1: Beast Man & Mickie Knuckles defeat Ryuji Ito & Yuki Miyazaki  (9:51) after a Husk Driver from Beast against Ito.
• Fuminori Abe & Ryuma Sekimo defeat Joji Otani & Jacob Crane (9:56) after a Modified Cutie Special by Sekimo against Crane.
• Yasufumi Nakanoue, Daichi Hashimoto, Yuya Aoki & Kazumasa Yoshida defeat Kankuro Hoshino, Masaya Takahashi, Kazumi Kikuta & Shota Takanishi (9:21) after a Shawn capture by Hashimoto against Takanishi.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Semi Final: Beast Man & Mickie Knuckles defeat Abdullah Kobayashi & Michael Weaver (15:30) when Beast Pinned Weaver after a Union Body Press.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Semi Final: MASADA & Rina Yamashita defeat Masashi Takeda & Takumi Tsukamoto  (12:48) after a Diving Body Press with Lighttubes by Yamashita against Tsukamoto.
• Hideyoshi Kamitani defeats Jun Kasai  (21:39) with a backdrop suplex.
• King of Death Match World GP II – Final: MASADA & Rina Yamashita defeat Beast Man & Mickie Knuckles (15:21) after a Splash Mountain with Lighttubes by Yamashita against Knuckles.

BJW saw an increase in attendance at Korakuen Hall for these two events.

The Nov. 25th BJW event at Korakuen Hall had an attendance of 407 fans which was deemed as disappointing. On Dec. 30th, a crowd of 607 fans were on hand for the event and on Dec. 31st that attendance number leaped to 934 fans.

The increase in attendance numbers for BJW is encouraging news for the promotion. They had indicated that they want to start drawing 1,000 fans again to Korakuen Hall and came very close on Dec. 31st.

BJW is hoping the trend of increasing fans to Korakuen Hall will continue going into 2026. BJW returns to Korakuen Hall on Jan. 2nd with their 2026 NEW YEAR BATTLE BEGINNING event.