Puroresu wrap up #20

[Guest Stuart]

About ten months after the first, it's time for Puroresu Wrap Up #20. Not a whole lot to talk about and not a whole lot on the horizon because of Football's World Cup in Japan (go England!), but I'll see what I can dig up.

 

All Japan: Only one show in June and it's being booked by Kojima. Titled "BAPE STAR!! PROWRESTLING", this event at Zepp Tokyo is being done in conjunction with some fashion place. Kojima, who seems infactuated by fashion (there are tons of photos of him holding clothes up against himself), wants to experiment with a modernized ring design for All Japan and wants to give the show a "colourful" feel. Only the main event is announced, as everything else will be set on the day (6/9). The main event makes me wonder whether Kojima or Tenryu is booking, as it's all about the bizarre randomness. It pits Kojima & The Apeman vs. Anjo & Naniwa. Kojima, Anjo and Naniwa are opposites. I get the feeling Apeman will join that list. I suspect it'll be a trained pro wrestler under a hood. "Crazy Monkey" Jun Kasai is a possibility, as his injury might have healed by then, but it could be a way of introducing someone like Kamikaze. Alternatively, it could just be an All Japan undercarder doing the gimmick. Also booked are Nagai, Arashi, Ka Shin, Araya, Hayashi, Hirai, Okumura, Hosaka, Honma, Hijikata and Miyamoto, so a lot of their better undercard guys will be there. All Japan's "Royal Road 30" (30th anniversary) Nippon Budokan shows will take place on 7/20, 8/30, 8/31 and 10/27. They'll have nostalgia themes. The 8/30 and 8/31 ones will be the tough draw, as they're being done back to back. I'd expect Riki Choshu to be heavily involved, because there aren't many other big draws with the existing roster. Tenryu vs. Kawada would sell out Budokan, but Kawada will still be injured. Tenryu vs. Muto could, but it's been done to death lately. For the July tour, Gran Hamada has been booked, and will face Kaz Hayashi in a singles match on 7/12. These two are familiar with each other from Michinoku Pro. There are a couple of shows where Hamada tags against Gran Naniwa, the guy who walked out on Michinoku in late 2000, so that should be interesting too. Overall, while the same fundemental problems exist as usual, All Japan's next tour looks like an improvement over the last. Full lineups can be found at http://www.puroresufan.com/njpw/ajpw/results/summer02.php. Finally, Fuji TV is showing renewed interest in airing All Japan nationally. AJ haven't gotten a national deal as quick as they thought they would, but may finally have a chance. It would be very cool to see New Japan, NOAH, All Japan and ZERO-ONE national (just NJ and NOAH have deals right now), as it'd heat things up and force companies to put their best product out.

 

BattlARTS: BattlARTS announced the full lineup for it's restart show on 6/9. Naohiro Hoshikawa (ZERO-ONE) vs. Sambo Oishi (Kaientai Dojo) opens the show. Despite the revived ZERO-ONE/BattlARTS alliance, no other Z1 guys are booked for the show. The second match features another K-Dojo guy, True Mashimo, facing U-File Camp's Takashi Echigo. Muga's Nobuyuki Kurashima faces a Nakano next. I thought this was Shinichi Nakano (who retired on the 10/7/01 Tokyo Dome Eve show apparently), but the first name kanji doesn't match. The first BattlARTS guy, Carl Malenko, faces Rick Mathis. Manabu Sato, a BattlARTS rookie, then goes against Takada Dojo's Daijiro Matsui. Finally, in an all-BattlARTS match, Yuki Ishikawa faces Katsumi Usuda. This show seems very thin, with a lot of former talent missing. No Otsuka, Hidaka, Ono, Hijikata, Yone, junji.com and Oba. Not sure what's keeping some of them away. Yone is with NOAH and Hijikata is with All Japan, but the others are free. Otsuka is associated with DSE, but PRIDE guys have worked BattlARTS before. Hidaka is freelancing in MPro and ZERO-ONE, but he has no contract that I know of. Ono hasn't been seen much, but was with Fujiwara and Ishikawa at the second Rainbow show. junji.com hasn't been seen since BattlARTS went under late last year, while Oba is a former BattlARTS rookie, so it's a surprise that he's not booked too.

 

Big Japan: The current tour is totally uninspired. With several guys absent and some unknowns in feature matches, this is one of the weaker tours lately. Block C of the World Extreme Cup is already decided, despite one day of group matches remaining. Kanemura and Mamushi (Red Viper) just breezed through, both beating O.D.D. (Original Dudley Dudley) and Mark Manson. There are rumours that Mamushi is Shadow WX, but I haven't seen a picture of him yet. He's getting a strong push for a "last minute replacement" (for Kasai) though. He and Kanemura meet on the Korakuen Hall tour climax. Elsewhere, not much has happened on the tour. Just a bunch of regular tags mostly. They drew 1,111 to Nagaoka Welfare Hall on 5/24, which is bad, but given the WEAK lineup, it could have been worse. The main event saw Yamakawa & Daisaku Shimoda beat Teioh & Ryuji Ito (18:36) when Shimoda used a Dragon suplex hold on Ito. This was probably a real good match, but it's not a drawing match. On 5/29 at Shizuoka Kira Messe, The Winger defended his BJW Jr. Heavyweight Title for the first time, beating Ito in 16 minutes. Also probably good. There's still debate over whether Winger or Trent Acid holds the Jr. Title. Clearly, Winger's DQ win over Acid was a title change. If Big Japan says Winger holds the title, he does. There's no argument, they control the belt, so say what goes on with it. In typical Zandig fashion though, it's not above him to continue milking Acid as the champion. The current tour ends at Korakuen Hall on 6/3.

 

IWA Japan: IWA ran a show on 5/26 at Otsu Swimming Club. According to <a href="http://members.fortunecity.de/ddtrules2001/index.html">Picksi</a>, the show was hampered by rainy weather. In what was probably a real good junior match, Yukihide Ueno (former FMW wrestler, more recently of Osaka Pro, where he wrestled as Policeman) beat Asian Cougar (12:19). Then a match between former W*INGers went down, Hido beating Ryo Miyake. Weird how after so many changes, two W*INGers end up meeting in the company that was originally the follow-on from W*ING. The main event saw Shoichi Ichinomiya, Dick Togo & Tomohiro Ishii beat Keizo Matsuda, Ultra Seven & Masahiko Kochi (16:31) when Ichinomiya pinned Kochi. IWA made a big mistake giving NOAH's Jun Izumida half of their new tag titles. Izumida hasn't been back once yet, when these belts could have been defended. Unless Misawa grants him permission to work IWA shows, we could see him vacate his belt shortly.

 

Kaientai Dojo: In their biggest show for a while, K-Dojo drew 800 fans to Tokyo Differ Ariake (1,800 seats) on 5/25. They actually had a long match for once, probably since a title was on the line, as Silver Wolf downed Hi69 (14:01) to win the vacant UWA Middleweight Title. This belt was formerly held by Willow the Whisp (Jeff Hardy), who beat Ikuto Hidaka for it (shown on the B-Files comm tape, famous for the Ishikawa vs. Ikeda match), before abandoning the title. TAKA Michinoku made his big return for the main event (he was on a dojo show prior to this, squashing some undercard guys), but was typically selfish and big-headed about things. Minoru Fujita & MIYAWAKI beat TAKA & Daigoro Kashiwa in a 2/3 Falls Match that only lasted around 10 minutes. TAKA put away MIYAWAKI in barely a minute. Fujita beat Kashiwa to take the second fall, then did likewise to seal the match. TAKA won't put his own guys over, even Fujita, who is supposed to be the top heel. This promotion is structured like WWF, with (short) matches playing second fiddle to glitz and glamour.

 

New Japan: New Japan is currently the only big league on tour. The annual Best of the Super Jr. Tournament is going down, with some rather odd results. Liger is trying to be as unpredictable as ever in the group stages, booking tons of upsets and making everyone's predictions look stupid. It's been a good tour, but not as many tournament matches as last year are screaming "YOU MUST WATCH THIS!". However, last year's tournament had many surprises, so it's premature to judge this one without seeing the TV footage first. On the 5/25 SXW taping, Jado suffered a bad injury that caused his body to go numb. Kanemoto beat him with his own crossface hold, but Jado's injury was serious enough to make him forfeit all remaining matches. One of the better matches, Liger vs. Black Tiger 3 (Silver King), can only be seen on the internet show, so we'll have to wait for the commercial tape for that. There are less regular TV tapings this year, as they've phased the ISM show on Samurai! TV out, seemingly replaced by this NJTV Internet thing. However, there are still plenty of SXWs and regular TV tapings. The biggest show of the tour so far was on 5/28 with a live PPV at Miyagi Sports Center. Though numbers have been bad in recent times, they've been far better for this tour, and New Japan managed to draw a 4,300 crowd, which is bigger than any of their shows in this building for years.

 

1. Masayuki Naruse, Masahito Kakihara & Curry Man [Michinoku Pro] beat Black Tiger 3, Gedo & GOKU-DO (8:29) when Kakihara used the Kaki Cutter on GOKU-DO. Sounds like a good, fast-paced opener. Kind of short, but not too short to prevent an entertaining sprint. Curry Man has gotten over on the tour, receiving some nice responses from the fans. He even got Naruse and Kakihara to dance with him here!

2. The Bloody [Jd'] beat Sachie Abe [Jd'] (7:21) with the Bloody EX. I haven't seen Abe, but I've seen Bloody and she's very good. Again, maybe a little short, but 7 1/2 minutes still gives them time to have a good match. It's good that Chono is giving small groups like this exposure, and shows that New Japan isn't overly paranoid about the other promotions (they even offered All Japan the chance to have a match).

3. Tatsumi Fujinami, Osamu Nishimura & Katsuyori Shibata beat Yutaka Yoshie, Blue Wolf & Wataru Inoue (6:22) when Nishimura used a spinning toehold on Inoue. This was also short, but probably too short. 6 1/2 minutes isn't enough time for six guys to do their thing. It was probably decent while it lasted. None of these are bad. Fujinami's timing was way off when I last saw him (March TV), but he's in a six man here, so can pick his spots more. Yoshie has improved tons, and is quite a passable old style strong man now. Plus he saved us from Silva vs. Singh on 5/2, thus is god. Given the lack of heavyweight natives, now might be the time to re-push Yoshie a bit, maybe as a credible tag title contender.

4. Best of the Super Jr. - Block B: Minoru Tanaka [3] beat Tiger Mask 4 [Michinoku Pro] [2] (10:22) with a cradle. This sounds very disappointing on paper, because it went 10 minutes and ended with a flash cradle. We won't know for sure until the tape hits western shores. Couldn't have been any worse than "good" though.

5. Best of the Super Jr. - Block A: Koji Kanemoto [3] beat Jushin Thunder Liger [3] (17:17) with a standing heel hold. I had a feeling that this match would be better than the last one, and given the time and their history together, I may have been right. These two have had some great, great matches together, and we'll see if they can continue that tradition. This gave Koji hope, but as I'll explain later, his chances of winning the group are now slim.

6. 30th Anniversary Fighting Spirit Match: Manabu Nakanishi beat Yoshiaki Yatsu [sPWF] (13:17) with a German suplex hold. This was one of the feature matches, pitting one of the new generation amateur stars against one of the old generation amateur stars. Yatsu is long past his prime, but this is one of those bouts that has meaning beyond just being good or bad, it's done to help commemorate the past era ("History? Whut'z dat?"). Nakanishi won and said he will use Yatsu's Prison Deathlock from now on. Hopefully he'll beat Takayama with it, because a loss there would be bad for him after the Rutten loss.

7. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Tug of War 1st: Tatsutoshi Goto [T2000] beat Tadao Yasuda [NJPW] (0:49) with a backdrop suplex. An even bigger "WTF!?" result than Ogawa beating Akiyama, I think. I was just stunned when I saw this result. But unlike Ogawa vs. Akiyama, this is good, GOOD, GOOOOD! As good as it is to see Yasuda finally sent plummeting back to the midcard, the timing is odd, because he faces Sasaki on 6/5, and one would have thought he'd be kept strong until then. Unless... nope, lets not consider that. Yasuda used his forearm choke on Goto, but got hit out of nowhere with a backdrop suplex apparently, being counted down in only 49 seconds. Yasuda is supposed to be fighting LeBanner again, maybe on UFO's 8/8 show, so this is even weirder.

8. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Tug of War 2nd: Kensuke Sasaki [NJPW] beat AKIRA [T2000] (0:38) with a lariat. This is a squash I have some issues with, because this could have actually been a very good match if given time. Both of these guys, especially AKIRA, are very good wrestlers. They're making Kensuke seems as strong as possible for his match with Nagata I guess, but it's a waste of AKIRA's massive talent.

9. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Tug of War 3rd: Hiroyoshi Tenzan [T2000] beat Kenzo Suzuki [NJPW] (9:41) with the Tenzan Tombstone Driver. Finally, back to normality. This should have been nice, because Tenzan has shown he can carry anyone not named Giant Singh, while Kenzo continues to improve. Tenzan was probably given some scares by the upstart, but Suzuki isn't ready to upset a guy like Tenzan yet.

10. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Tug of War 4th: Hiroshi Tanahashi [NJPW] vs. Scott Norton [T2000] went to a draw (15:00) when the time limit expired. Ring announcer and PR guy, Hidekazu Tanaka, said this was the best match of the show. Well, if this was better than Liger vs. Kanemoto, miracles will be at work. Tanahashi is New Japan's best prospect, but is several years off carrying someone as bad as Norton yet. Then again, maybe Norton decided to step up for once. And maybe not. Regardless of quality, this is a big "growth" match for Tanahashi, as he took New Japan's top gaijin to a draw.

11. New Japan vs. Team 2000 Tug of War 5th: Masahiro Chono [T2000] beat Yuji Nagata [NJPW] (12:36) with a Yakuza kick. The main event and a big match for mid-tour. This was a necessary result for several reasons. Firstly, when was Chono's last *real* meaningful singles win? Nope, nope, nope, that's it. 7/20/01 at the Sapporo Dome, when he beat Muto, almost a YEAR ago. His win over Tenzan in the G1 can be argued, but that was less than a month later. Secondly, it gives him revenge from his G1 Climax semi loss to Nagata, following the payback tradition. It's important to keep Chono strong, because he's their only huge draw now. This also ensures that Nagata's push won't hit overkill territory, as he'll probably be beating Sasaki at Budokan, and this sets Chono up as a future challenger and maybe opponent in the G1 Climax. By winning this, Chono became the first entrant into the G1.

--- <i>Team 2000 won the series 3-1-1</i>.

 

5/29 and 5/30 were both spot shows. The 5/29 one saw them return to Kesennuma City Gymnasium, where two years before, Masakazu Fukuda suffered the elbow shot from Shibata that would cause him to slip into a coma and die days later. Nagata, Nakanishi and Yoshie teamed in the main event. Although G-EGGS (which Fukuda was part of) disbanded a year ago, these three have continued to team as part of the New Japan army. For this show they wore G-EGGS t-shirts and after Nagata took the fall from AKIRA, Fukuda's theme music played. The 5/30 show saw Liger beat Curry Man to lead the group on four points. His next opponent is Jado, but unless Jado can work through his injury, Liger will get the forfeit point and win the group. The only guys who can win Block B are Tanaka, Samurai and Tiger Mask 4. Tanaka vs. Liger would be another outstanding, world class match, but it'd also be a repeat of last year's final. Tanaka finally beating Liger would be a great story... if he hadn't beaten Liger last March. Samurai seems unlikely, but that could be an interesting twist, perhaps one last Liger vs. Samurai match. Tiger Mask would be a GREAT, GREAT guy to push, but he's with Michinoku still. If Liger can sign him to a contract, this guy could be his successor. He basically has it all and really molds into the Tiger Mask persona. The 6/2 SXW is pretty big for a cable taping. BOSJ matches are Naruse vs. Tiger Mask (I'm picking Naruse in an upset), Kanemoto vs. Shibata (Kanemoto wins for sure), Tanaka vs. Samurai (tough to pick, but probably Tanaka), and Liger vs. Jado (probably won't happen, but there's a thin chance it will. If it does and Jado wins or they draw, Kanemoto only has to win and he'll tie with Liger, meaning he'd advance, since he beat Liger in their match). The main event is Nakanishi & Nishimura vs. Norton & Tenzan. I see Nakanishi pinning or submitting Tenzan here, making he and Nishimura seem like a big threat to Chono & Tenzan going into their title match. The 6/3 show has that special 2/3 Falls Match with Liger, Tanaka, Samurai, Tiger Mask & Curry Man vs. Kanemoto, AKIRA, Black Tiger 3, Jado(?) & Gedo. I could see this becoming an eight man tag, unless GOKU-DO replaces Jado. 6/5 is the tour climax, with the matches I talked about last week. With Yasuda being jobbed and Sasaki being so dominant, I have some fears about Sasaki vs. Yasuda, which is apparently a #1 contender match now. Nah, there's NO way they'd do Nagata vs. Yasuda at Nippon Budokan. It couldn't even sell out the 4,000 seat Budokan Hall, so would be death in 16,000 seat Nippon Budokan. In an odd angle, Minoru Fujita has been barging in on shows and demanding he be allowed to compete in New Japan. I've said for a long time that New Japan should have signed Fujita, and his appearance (attacking CHONO) was unexpected. There's talk he wants to face heavyweights, which makes no sense. He's tall enough, but not close to heavy enough. The possibility of Fujita vs. Yoshie at Budokan arose, which would be an odd match and total style clash. I'd love to see Fujita brought in as a full-time junior, as he could slot into either side (New Japan or T2000) and is an excellent wrestler. But I can't see him becoming a full-timer so soon after hooking up with TAKA and K-Dojo.

 

NOAH: NOAH's "NAVIGATION WITH BREEZE" tour ended on 5/26. It was the usual NOAH tour, with deep lineups that are hit and miss, but certainly don't leave the fans wanting more. They ran at Sapporo Media Park Spica on both 5/25 and 5/26, drawing 2,400 sell outs for both. 5/25 had a poor lineup, with the highlight no doubt the two GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title Tournament semis. The first was a huge upset, as KENTA beat Kikuchi in only 4:24, using a high-angle back cradle for the win. KENTA is too inexperienced for the title, but there's nothing wrong with him getting upset wins. He's a Marufuji-level prospect and has stayed injury-free for a while now, after some problems in 2000 and 2001. The second went as expected, Kanemaru using a brainbuster to beat Hashi (15:43) in what was probably a good match. Two throw-together teams met, Double Jun (Akiyama & Izumida) beating Omori & Yone. The main event saw Taue & Inoue upset Ogawa & Misawa when Taue used an inside cradle (...) on Ogawa. This gave away the main event result of the next show, but didn't make said result any less disappointing. On to 5/26 for the second of the Sapporo shows. This had four feature matches, the first of which was the "No Fear Farewell Match". Rather than team up though, they were on opposite sides. Takayama & Sugiura beat Omori & Yone (19:06) when Takayama used a high-angle German suplex hold on... Omori. Why am I not surprised? Misawa has needed a scenario to push Takayama above Omori for a while now, and here it is. In the GHC Jr. Heavyweight Title match, Kanemaru beat KENTA (16:01) with a brainbuster, beginning his second reign (almost one year ago exactly he won the tournament to crown the first champion). I'm really looking forward to seeing this, as NOAH juniors always seem to deliver. Kanemaru is probably their best choice with Marufuji out, but one has to wonder if he's warming the belt up for Liger or another New Japan junior. New Japan's Yoshie beat Takeshi Morishima (17:17) with a backfist. Kind of long for these two, probably slow, but very stiff. This is a great win for New Japan, as one of their midcard guys, who serves as a #3 jobber in many matches, beats NOAH's top heavyweight prospect and one half of their tag champions. It also gives Yoshie revenge for his loss in the tag title match in April, so he wins the blowoff match, unless we get Yoshie vs. Rikio (SUMO POWAH!). And then came the main event, with Ogawa, possibly the most unworthy world champion in Japanese wrestling history, defending his title against Taue. Well, at least this wasn't another 5 minute special, but Ogawa won, inside cradling Taue for the 3 count (15:05). I don't know what's sadder, that Ogawa has the belt or that they based this feud around the "small package" pinning cradle. Taue is dead forever as a threat now, and will probably never challenge for the title again. Even in his deteriorated state, I'd MUCH rather have seen him play transitional champion. It'll take some doing after Coffee Boy has lost the belt to regain any credibility Akiyama gave it through his lengthy reign, which was unspectacular, but solid. His next defense is unscheduled. But fear not, Seer Stuart looks ahead,

 

GHC Heavyweight Title: Yoshinari Ogawa © beat Vader (7:31) when Vader tripped running the ropes and Ogawa used a figure-four jackknife hold/cradle (2nd defense).

 

NOAH has two shows planned for June, both stand-alone. Since they're off-tour, only natives will be involved, none of the regular gaijin (Vader, Scorpio, Modest, etc.). The first is titled simply "NAVIGATION" and takes place on 6/2 at Differ. The saddest match may be the opener, which is Akira Taue, Rusher Kimura & Mitsuo Momota vs. Haruka Eigen, Jun Izumida & Masashi Aoyagi. Yes, Taue is certainly dead as a threat, and I really hope they aren't going to make him a regular in these matches (probably not yet, but definitely in the future like Baba and Jumbo). There are three singles matches in the middle, all easy to pick. Takuma (Naoki) "Who is this guy?" Sano faces Kotaro Suzuki, an easy win. Still haven't seen Suzuki, but have heard great things about his potential. I'll be picking up some footage soon. Takeshi Rikio faces KENTA, an easy win because he's a heavyweight. Morishima beats Hashi. See my last comment. Both of these could be good big man vs. junior matches, because Rikio vs. Hashi last year was a ton of fun. Ogawa & Misawa face Ikeda & Yone. Gee, who do you think will win this? A very thin chance of maybe Ikeda pinning Ogawa to set him up as Ogawa's next fodder. Yone seems to be moving up cards, which is a good thing, because I think he's underrated and more suited to pro style than the BattlARTS shootish style. The main event should be very good, with Akiyama & Kanemaru facing Omori & Sugiura. These are the sort of main events I'd like to see more of in NOAH, with a good senior wrestler and a good underling in tags. The next stand-alone show is the "wrestler's meeting" rally, booked by Jun Akiyama. It's titled "THE TRUTH" and takes place at Korakuen Hall on 6/12. The show is certainly interesting, given some of the matches. However, it must be noted that all the singles matches have 10 minute time limits, so expect some draws. Opener has Masao Inoue vs. Kishin Kawabata. Won't be bad, but probably won't be good either. I've always thought that if he had more charisma, Inoue could have been much more than eternal undercarder. Even without charisma, he's better than Ogawa. Izumida faces Yone next. I must admit that I used to be a bit of a closet Izumida mark, but he's beyond hope now and suited for the comedy matches. He'll likely beat Yone here, since Yone continues to pay dues in NOAH, and whether he's ever pushed anyway remains a mystery, because he's an outsider. In a rematch from the GHC #1 contender match last year, Honda faces Ikeda. Ikeda is owed a revenge win, so if this doesn't go to a draw, he should win. Honda has been phased out as a threat, while Ikeda has never been a threat, (again) since he's an outsider. The only tag of the show features the juniors in a six man Captain's Fall Elimination Match. Yoshinobu Kanemaru, Takashi Sugiura & Kotaro Suzuki © face Tsuyoshi Kikuchi, Makoto Hashi & KENTA ©. The fall guys are captains, meaning this match probably won't be a draw (it has a 20 minute time limit). Should be very good. Next come the big three matches. Firstly, Morishima vs. Sano. Sano once again plays fodder for Misawa's boys, unless this goes the distance. I have no real problem with the Takeshis' push, other than the fact Omori is THERE, they don't have to rush guys when they have Omori who could EASILY main event if he wasn't buried every week. In the SEMI main event, Akiyama faces Omori. Either Omori gets buried again, or he's able to stretch Akiyama to 10 minutes. This will be his last match before his American excursion. We can only hope he finally gets a singles push upon return, but maybe Misawa just wants to get rid of him without letting him join the opposition. The main event is Ogawa vs. Rikio. I just can't believe this is above Akiyama vs. Omori, which is a potential Budokan main event. I think Akiyama is only booking this show in a worked sense, because Ogawa and Rikio are Misawa's pet projects. One has to think this will be a draw, but if Misawa has any sense, he'll show the fans that Ogawa's title reign is a fluke and have Rikio maul and destroy to make him even scarier. The 10 minute time limits are a little annoying, but this should be quite an interesting show. It isn't listed as a TV taping yet, but I'm pretty sure it will be with matches like Akiyama vs. Omori.

 

Osaka Pro: Super Delfin & Super Demekin beat Daio QUALLT & MA-G-MA to win the 2002 Osaka Pro Tag Festival. What's that you say, Delfin putting himself over again in his own promotion? NEVER!

 

Toryumon 2000 Project: T2P returned to the Japanese tour circuit on Wednesday with a show at Kokura City Gymnasium. Like most T2P, it sounded wildly entertaining. The main event of Milano, YOSHINO & Brother Yashiini vs. Ryo, Mori & Second Doi sounds great, but the big shows are 6/2 in Osaka and 6/6 at Korakuen Hall, with Milano vs. Don (Sumo Dandy/Big) Fuji(i) headlining the latter. Milano's NWA International Light Heavyweight Title will be on the line.

 

Toryumon Japan: On 5/19, Magnum TOKYO turned heel and joined M2K. TOKYO's dancing stripper character was beyond stale, so this was a necessity. Whether he can run as a heel remains to be seen. Masaaki Mochizuki is now ace of the Toryumon Army, so those two have switched positions. In any role Masaaki remains the company's best worker.

 

WEW: Kodo Fuyuki's WEW ran it's latest show on 5/27 at Korakuen Hall, drawing 1,700 fans. Weak lineup, as many of the "old guard" seem to have abandoned Fuyuki or just aren't working right now. Not even loyal old Ricky Fuji worked. Only Kanemura, Kuroda, Biomonster DNA and Chocoball are still with Fuyuki. The big draw was a tribute to Shoichi Arai, as none of the matches looked anything special. Many former FMW wrestlers, not associated with Fuyuki now, showed up for the parade, including Masato Tanaka, Hideki Hosaka, Shinjuku Shark, Megumi Kudo and Combat Toyota. It's been revealed that Fuyuki tried to get Arai to rename FMW to WEW from the time they changed the names of the belts. I'm going to restrain from saying anything bad about Fuyuki, since he's just defeated cancer, but this would have outraged many diehard FMW fans. Three show puroresu (pro wrestling with an "entertainment" direction) companies have teamed up. Fuyuki's WEW, Takagi's DDT and TAKA's Kaientai Dojo. Members of all three groups were on the WEW show. The main event was the only real match of interest, and saw Tetsuhiro Kuroda & Kintaro Kanemura beat Sanshiro Takagi & Dick Togo (15:52) when Kanemura pinned Takagi. Kuroda & Kanemura want to challenge Otani & (Masato) Tanaka for the NWA Intercontinental Tag Team Title in ZERO-ONE. Should be very good if it happens. Main event of WEW's 6/30 show is Kuroda & Kanemura vs. Takagi & TAKA Michinoku. Lets see if that world class TAKA Michinoku, the top 10 worker before he left, still lives.

 

ZERO-ONE: Z1 ran the second half of it's "GENESIS" series from 5/19 to 5/23. 5/19 had two matches I really want to see and one that holds novelty value. Masato Tanaka beat Katsumi Usuda (11:02) with the Diamond Dust. This could have rocked. I watched Tanaka vs. Yone from BattlARTS' 5th anniversary show last year, and it was a very good match, even under the BattlARTS rules. Tanaka kept knocking Yone down, but Yone kept getting up, until he no longer could. In probably the show-stealer, Shinjiro Otani beat Tatsuhito Takaiwa (15:36) with the Spiral bomb. These two met in a very good BOSJ 2000 final and Takaiwa wasn't as good as he is now. The main event saw Naoya Ogawa's very first six man tag, as he, Hashimoto & Yoshiaki Fujiwara beat Tom Howard, The Predator & Steve Corino (20:39) when Hashimoto pinned Howard after his and Ogawa's German suplex/STO double team thing. 5/21, despite not being taped, had a big upset with Corino pinning Fujiwara in a singles match. 5/22 also wasn't taped, which is a shame, since it had Otani vs. Corino for 15 minutes, Otani winning with his Spiral bomb. The big tour climax drew 1,800 to Korakuen Hall, with eight matches on offer. In a match that should have rocked, Ikuto Hidaka beat Naohiro Hoshikawa (13:07) with the Shawn Capture. After the match, Dick Togo showed up, challenging Hoshikawa and Takaiwa. Togo & Hidaka vs. Takaiwa & Hoshikawa is set to go down, and could be one HELL of a match. It's weird, although they're freelancing around, Togo and Hidaka are with MPro, which means Sasuke is working with New Japan, All Japan and ZERO-ONE now. Takaiwa beat Sabu (13:02) by DQ. Takaiwa is one of the best wrestlers in the world, but Sabu is so washed up and not easy to carry, since he won't stray from his schizo style. Howard & Predator beat Otani & Tanaka (15:27) when Predator used a muscle buster on Otani. For a supposed head booker, Otani sure does take a lot of falls. Either Hashimoto is telling him to, or Otani is doing it for the "good" of the company to strengthen the gaijin monsters. I'd rather see Otani strengthened, as he's showed several times that he has the goods to be a main eventer. He's still only 29 though, which is younger than a lot of "young lions" in Japan, so has time on his side. The main event saw Hashimoto destroy Hotstuff Hernandez in only 4:43 to win the NWA National Heavyweight Title. I have no problem with this. Hernandez isn't close to Hash's status and this gives Z1 a heavyweight singles title for a while. Howard, Predator and Corino are their heavily pushed foreigners, and two of them (Howard and Corino) are far better than Hernandez, who isn't anything special. Not sure if Hashimoto gets to keep this belt, but if he does Z1 will soon have three titles, that one, the NWA IC Tag Title, and the junior title that is being fought for in America right now. If they can get Choshu and New Japan guys to work big shows, and can get all these new guys over as names, Z1 could be looking at a national TV deal soon. After the "CREATION 2002" tour (6/27 to 7/6), ZERO-ONE's big Tokyo Sumo Hall show, "IMPOSSIBLE TO ESCAPE", will take place, the live PPV airing on 7/7. Talk of New Japan guys working this show, which could be great (Chono & Tenzan vs. Hashimoto & Otani is a match I'd love to see). Z1 will run a hopefully better organized Fire Festival than last year, as this year's goes from 7/28 to 8/4.

 

Miscellaneous: Here is the current schedule for the first half of June in Japan.

 

6/1: Toryumon Japan, Osaka Pro, Kaientai Dojo, NEO Ladies, Smackgirl

6/2: New Japan, NOAH, K-1, Onita's FMW, Toryumon Japan, Osaka Pro, All Japan Women, JWP, GAEA, Jd', ARSION, Shinjuku Pro (an indy group that runs in expensive nightclubs with some big names, while strippers and other entertainers perform. This show has Sasuke vs. GOEMON)

6/3: New Japan, Big Japan, ARSION

6/4: Toryumon Japan, Kaientai Dojo

6/5: New Japan, Asian

6/6: Toryumon Japan, DDT, Kaientai Dojo, Asian

6/7: New Japan, Toryumon Japan, Asian, All Japan Women

6/8: Osaka Pro, Kaientai Dojo, Pro Wrestling Nightmare, Asian, NEO Ladies

6/9: BattlARTS (restart), Osaka Pro, International, DEEP 2001, Jd'

6/11: Kaientai Dojo

6/12: NOAH

6/13: DDT, Kaientai Dojo, Capture International

6/15: Kaientai Dojo, LLPW