Silva vs. singh cancelled! and other stuff...

[Guest Stuart]

In big news, Giant Singh's injury has caused the cancellation of his match with Giant Silva at the Tokyo Dome. Singh is having surgery to his left checkbone, after Yoshie hit him hard with a backfist a few days ago. The 5/2 rally will now be an 11-match show. Yoshie provoked NOAH today, not sure if that means another NJPW vs. NOAH match will be added, or just that there'll be more matches after 5/2. It was determined that Riki Choshu will have a retirement ceremony at the Dome. Colosseum 2000 are trying to set up Choshu vs. Rickson Gracie for a super-show down the road. In other news, Yuji Nagata has replaced Junji Hirata as chairman of the wrestlers. He and Chono are trying to persuade Choshu to stay, but it seems unlikely. Misawa vs. Chono will be shown on 5/4, two days after the live Tokyo Dome feed.

 

Despite so many absences, New Japan managed to put on a strong TV taping today. The undercard was highlighted by a junior tag, which went over 16 1/2 minutes, before Kanemoto pinned El Samurai. However, T2000's luck ended there, as Black Tiger 3 failed to dethrone Minoru Tanaka, falling, like Gedo, to the Minoru Special. Tanaka is doing as he promised, mowing through T2000, a match against Kanemoto now clearly in sight. The main event saw the IWGP Tag Team Champions finally given a worthy test, as they were taken to a 30:00 draw by Nakanishi & Nishimura. Overtime was granted, but still there was no conclusion, so we had a 35 minute draw to cap off the show. Nakanishi & Nishimura are expected to be the next challengers for the tag belts, but nothing is official yet.

 

NJPW, 4/26/02 (TV)

Kurume Prefectural Gymnasium

2,500 Fans

 

1. Masahito Kakihara beat Wataru Inoue (8:04) with the Kaki Cutter.

2. Shane beat Katsuyori Shibata (5:50) with an inside cradle.

3. Tatsutoshi Goto beat Blue Wolf (5:36) with a reverse chickenwing hold.

4. Koji Kanemoto & Gedo beat Jushin Thunder Liger & El Samurai (16:36) when Kanemoto used a Japanese leg roll clutch hold on Samurai.

5. Yuji Nagata, Tadao Yasuda & Yutaka Yoshie beat Kensuke Sasaki, Rick Steiner & Dan Devine (13:53) when Nagata used the Nagata Lock II on Devine.

6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Title: Minoru Tanaka © beat Black Tiger 3 (13:54) with the Minoru Special (2nd defense).

7. Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan went to a draw (35:00) when the time limit expired.

 

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NJPW, 4/27/02 (SXW)

Beppu Beacon Plaza

 

1. Blue Wolf vs. Wataru Inoue

2. Katsuyori Shibata vs. Dan Devine

3. El Samurai vs. Masahito Kakihara

4. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Jr. No. 3 Vol. 3: Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru Tanaka & Shane vs. Koji Kanemoto, Black Tiger 3 & Gedo in an Elimination Match

5. Tatsumi Fujinami & Yutaka Yoshie vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiro Saito

6. Kensuke Sasaki & Rick Steiner vs. Hiroyoshi Tenzan & Tatsutoshi Goto

7. Yuji Nagata & Tadao Yasuda vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura

[Guest]

Gee, and I was looking foward to the show.