Puroresu comments

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

I forgot all about this one:

 

Hiroshi Tanahashi defied the odds, handing the bigger and stronger Shinsuke Nakamura his first major defeat since returning from America. Tanahashi's successful V2 defense means that he will defend against Kea at the Tokyo Dome in his V3 defense. The show was said to have been excellent overall, with the title matches all delivering in some way. Tanahashi vs. Nakamura was called "the best possible match they could have at this stage of their career" and may have raised both of their stock. Today's show was also New Japan's first packed house in Aichi for quite a while. Details to follow whenever I can get them done.

 

NJPW, 12/10/06 (WPW)

Aichi Prefectural Gymnasium

9,500 Fans - Super No Vacancy

 

1. NEW JAPAN DOJO SPIRIT: Yujiro beat Tetsuya Naito (6:42) with a crab hold.

2. New Japan vs. CTU Challenge Singles: Tiger Mask beat Prince Devitt (9:27) with a Tiger suplex hold.

3. New Japan vs. CTU & BROTHER: Minoru & Milano Collection AT beat Koji Kanemoto & Wataru Inoue (13:00) when Minoru used the Minoru Special on Kanemoto.

4. New Japan vs. GBH FUSION Tag: Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Toru Yano & Tomohiro Ishii beat Takashi Iizuka, Naofumi Yamamoto & Ryusuke Taguchi (13:25) when Tenzan used the TTD on Ishii.

5. New Japan vs. BLACK FUSION Tag: Masahiro Chono, Giant Bernard & Jushin Thunder Liger beat Riki Choshu, Yuji Nagata & Takashi Uwano (9:49) when Bernard used the Bernard bomb on Uwano.

6. IWGP Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title - Mexican Rules: Jado & Gedo © beat Negro Casas & El Texano Jr. (9:19). Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Texano (6:40). Jado used the Crossface of JADO on Casas (9:19) (1st defense).

7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Manabu Nakanishi & Takao Omori ZERO1-MAX © beat Togi Makabe & Shiro Koshinaka (17:17) when Nakanishi used the Hercules Cutter on Koshinaka (1st defense).

8. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Hiroshi Tanahashi © beat Shinsuke Nakamura (22:44) with a Dragon suplex hold (2nd defense).

[Wyld Cannon 0]

It's a very bad for the short-term for Misawa to get the belt back. He's not going to hold the belt long as it's pretty much set in stone that Morishima is their next ace and is getting the GHC title from Misawa, maybe even as soon as the next GHC Title match. Where that becomes a problem is that it would make three of the last four GHC Champions short-term champions and that damages a title. One short term champion isn't bad, and can help if means avoiding a match you want to build to for a long time, but to have two in a row would be distinctly un-Japanese and I don't think it would make the GHC Title look strong at all. Where this can be good long term is if Misawa does drop the belt to Morishima and Morishima has a long, very long, run with the title. A, hopefully, legendary title run would do wonders for making the GHC Title special again, which it hasn't been since the Kobashi reign.

 

I generally agree with this, but overall I don't think the title has been tarnished that bad. Rikioh was bad, but Taue and Akiyama didn't necessarily bring the value of the belt down, they just had less than stellar reigns. I think it was important for Taue to have his day in the sun, and I think the experiment of of a Junior as heavyweight champ was important and was handled decently enough.

 

I think once Morishima gets it he will have that "super reign" (6 or 7 defenses, no reason to top Kobashi first time out) and I personally think when he does drop it down the road it should (and probably will) be to Kenta.

[dubq 0]

Damnit. I really wanted Shinsuke to kick Tanahashi's ass.

[Wyld Cannon 0]

I wanted Nakamura to beat Tanahashi too, but I think a title change here would've been more damaging than the GHC title change was.

[Wyld Cannon 0]

I saw Marufuji vs. Misawa last night. The match wasn't anything extraordinary IMO, but there were some really cool spots such as

 

Shiranui off the ramp

Tiger Driver '91

Shiranui Kai

Vertical Suplex to Emerald Frosion

Avalanche Tiger Suplex '85 (with crazy bounce oversell!)

Avalanche Emerald Frosion

 

I still mark out for unecessary headdrops, I just love em so much. I could watch a million of 'em Norm.

[dubq 0]

Puroresufan.com is reporting that WWE has this up on their site - I can't confirm, since their site seems to be down at the moment (for me at least):

 

New Japan meets with WWE

December 14, 2006

 

During his visit to the United States, President of New Japan Pro Wrestling Antonio Inoki stopped by WWE World Headquarters in Stamford, Conn. to meet with Executive Vice President of Talent Relations John Laurinaitis.

 

During the brief, cordial meeting, both sides discussed possible business ventures in the future between WWE and New Japan Pro Wrestling - the largest wrestling promotion in Japan.

 

Check back with WWE.com as more details on New Japan and WWE become available.

 

First off, they screwed up. It's Simon Inoki, not Antonio. Second, Christ I hope nothing comes from this.

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

NOAH announced the foreign talent for their next tour and we have the latest sign of the working agreement with ROH:

 

-Doug Williams (All shows)

-Nigel McGuinness (All shows)

-Dakota (All shows)

-Jay Briscoe (All shows)

-Mark Briscoe (All shows)

[Hawk 34 0]

The Briscoe's are going to be huge in Japan, I can feel it. Just wonder how much longer before NOAH and ROH wait before the supershow...

[Hunter's Torn Quad 0]

 

 

NOAH, 1/7/07 (NTV/G+)

Tokyo Differ Ariake

1,800 Fans - Super No Vacancy

 

7. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe beat Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Takashi Sugiura © (20:45) when Mark Briscoe pinned Kanemaru after a swan-dive Double Impact to become the 5th champions.

[Hawk 34 0]

Yeah. The NOAH/ROH feud is going to be incredible and this was a good move.

[The Flamboyance 0]

What the shit?!

The Briscoes actually won the titles?

That's awesome!

[World's Worst Man 0]

Crowd was shocked when they won, although their swandive doomsday finish got a nice reaction. The building was fairly quiet throughout the match, only really reacting to Sugiura and Kanemaru (outside the finisher obviously). I wonder how the Kotaro/Marvin defense will be received at the Budokan.

[Bruce Blank 0]

I have a question that some of you may be able to answer - is there a site or sites outthere with NJPW/AJPW etc show results going way back? I've gotten a bunch of Japanese matches (bunch of muta matches, some old Road Warriors in Japan, Vader etc) and I'm looking for the dates of these matches.

 

Anyone know where I'd be able to look up when the Muta/Hase match happened for instance - or Vader/Inoki?

[Guest CWMwasmurdered]

Which Muta/Hase match? The Muta Scale match? Vader/Inoki had more than one match also IIRC.

[Bruce Blank 0]

Definitly Muta scale, and the Vader/Inoki match is I believe Vader's debut with the gimmick (or one of his very early matches, pre-WCW for sure)

[The Flamboyance 0]

I finally watched the Briscoes winning the GHC JR heavyweight tag titles after searching for it forever. It was a pretty good match.

[Pegasus Kid 0]

What's the word on Angle's opponent at the February Sumo Hall show?

[Hawk 34 0]

There will be a press conference on Monday in Tokyo to announce the debut of ROH in Japan. The deal is not 100% but it is being reported in Japan that there will be a 7/16 show in Tokyo, working with Pro Wrestling NOAH, and a 7/17 show in Osaka, working with Dragon Gate. ROH owner Cary Silkin taped a message for the press conference and there is an ROH rep who will be at tomorrow's Budokan Hall show (Mitsuharu Misawa vs. Takeshi Morishima for the GHC title). Samoa Joe's opponent for the 2/16 show in New York from NOAH is also expected to be announced in the next few days.

[Hawk 34 0]

21 Tokyo Nippon Budokan Results by RD - 20 Jan 2007

NOAH, 1/21/07 (NTV/G+)

Tokyo Nippon Budokan

15,500 Fans - Super No Vacancy

 

1. Kentaro Shiga, Yoshinobu Kanemaru & Dakota beat Mohammed Yone, Taiji Ishimori & Atsushi Aoki (14:33) when Kanemaru used the Touch Out on Aoki.

2. Akitoshi Saito, Masao Inoue & Kishin Kawabata beat Tamon Honda, Junji Izumida & Tsuyoshi Kikuchi (14:42) when Inoue used a schoolboy on Izumida.

3. Akira Taue beat Makoto Hashi (9:11) with a cradle.

4. Doug Williams & Nigel McGuinness beat Yoshinari Ogawa & Shuhei Taniguchi (10:49) when Williams used the Chaos Theory on Taniguchi.

5. Takuma Sano beat Takashi Sugiura (15:02) via referee stop after a rolling savate kick to the face.

6. Jun Akiyama beat Go Shiosaki (11:55) with the Wrist-Clutch Exploder.

7. GHC Jr. Heavyweight Tag Team Title: Kotaro Suzuki & Ricky Marvin beat Jay Briscoe & Mark Briscoe © (26:26) when Suzuki used the Blue Destiny on Mark Briscoe to become the 6th champions.

8. Takeshi Rikio, Naomichi Marufuji & KENTA beat Yoshihiro Takayama, Minoru Suzuki & SUWA (16:52) when KENTA used the Go 2 Sleep on SUWA.

9. GHC Heavyweight Title: Mitsuharu Misawa © beat Takeshi Morishima (20:05) with a running elbow smash (1st defense).

[Hawk 34 0]

Gabe is seriously pushing a big surprise announcment for midnight tonight involving NOAH. Since the aforementioned trip to Japan has already been leaked and he even addressed it, it's likely to be a seperate issue.

 

Edit: It'll concern the first four installments of the Festival Series (NYC, Philly, Dayton and Chicago).

[Hawk 34 0]

[Scroby 0]

Does anyone know where I could get any Hustle dvds? I miss Tajiri matches plus Hustle looks really intresting to watch.

[The Flamboyance 0]

I've been wondering the same thing for the past few weeks now. It looks like such a fun promotion. Their website is great.

[Corkscrew_Senton 0]

Anyone heard or read about Riki Chosu's New Japan off-shoot "LOCKUP"? They ran a card in Kouraken over the weekend that looks pretty awesome, including a cage deathmatch between Mammoth Sasaki and Togi Makabe. I like this NJPW concept of running the two offshoot promotions with LOCKUP focusing strictly on wrestling, and WrestleLand being a sports entertainment promotion. Now I just need to find a place to get DVDs.

[dubq 0]

Bumping this thread just because I feel like an ass creating a new one everytime I have a puro comment.

 

Anyway, Puroresufan.com is saying that Devitt & Minoru are getting a shot at the Jr. Tag Titles held by Dick Togo & TAKA at the next Korakuen Hall show on the 27th. I'm psyched to hear this as they're two of my favourite Juniors right now. Devitt especially is a real cool dude, I've met him a few times over in Tokyo and he's always willing to just hang out and shoot the shit before or after a show.

 

Anyway, also upcoming - NJPW, 2/17/08 (WPW) - Tokyo Ryogoku Kokugikan

1. IWGP Heavyweight Title Unification Match - IWGP 2nd vs. IWGP 3rd: Shinsuke Nakamura © vs. Kurt Angle TNA Wrestling ©

 

Is it wrong for me to hope that Nakamura shoots on Angle? I mean, I know he won't unless Angle pulled shit first.. but man.. Angle's just been a complete embarassment to the sport for a while now. Either way I hope this finally ends with NJ getting the 3rd title back and puts an end to this multiple belt retardation.

[AboveAverage484 0]

Definitly Muta scale, and the Vader/Inoki match is I believe Vader's debut with the gimmick (or one of his very early matches, pre-WCW for sure)

 

12/14/92 and 12/27/87, respectively.

[The Buzz 0]

I'd like to see Angle unify the belts, but with his TNA contract there is no way he could defend it on a regular basis.

[theintensifier 0]

That's not true.

 

Tomko is a tag team champion, and defends regularly.

[The Buzz 0]

Good point, well then I hope Angle unifies the belts and has a nice run as IWGP champion and TNA champion.

[vermilion 0]

Good point, well then I hope Angle unifies the belts and has a nice run as IWGP champion and TNA champion.

 

Oh god, I hope this never, ever happens. Kurt Angle is probably my least favorite wrestler, and that's saying a lot. I hate his stupid yelling, veins bulging, roid raging gimmick (if you can call it a gimmick....the WWE of all places let him go b/c of his drug problems. Think about it). He's all over TNA, which is bad enough, but he doesn't need to go over the future of New Japan in Shinsuke Nakamura. I hope Nakamura Landslides the shit out of him and unifies the IWGP belts and uses the newer one as the main belt; it's so cool looking. Shortly after this, I hope TNA realizes they shouldn't build their company around washed-up, overrated drug addicts and cut back on the amount of time he's on TV so people like Murder/Motor City Machine Guns and AJ Styles get showcased even more.