[Results] NJPW, 6/5 (BOSJ final, 60:00 draw)

[Guest Stuart]

Today's big tour climax had some eventful happenings. Naruse is in full "Bas Rutten mode", having beaten young lions, Shibata and Inoue, convincingly on consecutive shows. Curry Man finished his first tour in New Japan with a bang, pinning Gedo in a six man tag. Curry has become popular with fans and will most likely return in the future. NK Gun, Nagata & Kakihara, began their chase towards the IWGP Tag Team Title, beating Norton & AKIRA today. Bas Rutten, as expected, made short work of Tanahashi. If he can get past Naruse at the Budokan, Rutten wants a shot at the IWGP Heavyweight Title. Due to Yasuda showing up late again (as he did as the L.A. dojo a couple of months ago), the IWGP Tag Team Title match had to be brought forward. In a return from their 35 minute draw, Chono & Tenzan and Nakanishi & Nishimura hit broadway again, having the longest match of any IWGP title in history and going to the 60 minute time limit! It seemed to be over after the 30 minute mark, Nakanishi and Nishimura hitting German and northern lights suplex holds in stereo. Nakanishi was the legal man, but he pulled a right thigh muscle, causing the bridge in his suplex to collapse. Nishimura had to fight on alone, showing great bravery. Then Nakanishi returned, injured, fighting to the finish. Tenzan broke his nose as well. Following the match, Chono provoked Tanaken, leading into their match at Budokan. Then came Sasaki vs. Yasuda, with Kensuke in a very bad mood today, having shouted at Nagata earlier. He took it out on Yasuda, destroying him in 5 1/2 minutes, becoming #1 contender for Budokan. He and Nagata got into a brawl, slapping each other. Hidekazu Tanaka said "Yasuda has dug his own grave and is in trouble". And finally, in their much anticipated first meeting since the betrayal, Koji Kanemoto defeated Minoru Tanaka to win the Best of the Super Jr. Tournament for a second time. That makes it two years in a row that Tanaka has lost the BOSJ final as IWGP Jr. Champion. Overall, a very interesting show.

 

NJPW, 6/5/02 (TV)

Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium

5,200 Fans

 

1. Masayuki Naruse beat Wataru Inoue (3:29) with a cross armbreaker.

2. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto beat El Samurai & Blue Wolf (8:38) when Goto used a backdrop suplex on Samurai.

3. Shiro Koshinaka & Kenzo Suzuki beat Yutaka Yoshie & Katsuyori Shibata (8:27) when Koshinaka used a powerbomb on Shibata.

4. Jushin Thunder Liger, Tiger Mask 4 & Curry Man beat Black Tiger 3, Gedo & GOKU-DO (13:29) when Curry used the Spicy Drop on Gedo.

5. Yuji Nagata & Masahito Kakihara beat Scott Norton & AKIRA (10:34) when Kakihara used the Kaki Cutter on AKIRA.

6. Bas Rutten beat Hiroshi Tanahashi (3:41) with a sleeper hold.

7. IWGP Tag Team Title: Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan © vs. Manabu Nakanishi & Osamu Nishimura went to a draw (60:00) when the time limit expired (1st defense).

8. IWGP Heavyweight Title #1 Contender Match: Kensuke Sasaki beat Tadao Yasuda (5:35) with a lariat.

9. Best of the Super Jr. - Final: Koji Kanemoto beat Minoru Tanaka (14:12) with a Dragon suplex hold.

 

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Full 6/7 card and match order will be announced tomorrow afternoon. For now it's,

 

NJPW "BATTLE ZONE 6-7", 6/7/02 (TV)

Tokyo Nippon Budokan

 

1. Mariko Yoshida , Michiko Omukai , Rie Tamada , Ai Fujita & baby A vs. Lioness Asuka , GAMI , noki-A , Fabi Apache & Bionic J

2. MIKAMI & Takashi Sasaki vs. Poison Sawada JULIE & Hebikage

3. Masayuki Naruse vs. Bas Rutten

4. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masahiro Chono & Hiroyoshi Tenzan

5. Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

6. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Yuji Nagata © vs. Kensuke Sasaki

[Guest Black Tiger]

I'm not up to par on NJPW booking so help me out if I'm wrong.

 

I know that Kanemoto winning gets him a shot at the IWGP Jr Title, which is held by the man he just beat Minoru Tanaka.  Would traditional booking have Tanaka win their title match since Kanemoto won the tourny?

[Guest PlatypusFool]

Either way, I want to get myself some recent NJPW stuff soon, it all looks pretty good. Chono is doing a damn good job, and i'll laugh if he somehow manages to get control of the company completely from Inoki, although god knows how this might happen.

[Guest Stuart]

I'm not up to par on NJPW booking so help me out if I'm wrong.

 

I know that Kanemoto winning gets him a shot at the IWGP Jr Title, which is held by the man he just beat Minoru Tanaka.  Would traditional booking have Tanaka win their title match since Kanemoto won the tourny?

Traditionally, there is a big chance he will lose, yeah, but there are times when the booker has pulled a swerve so to speak and had a guy win twice in a row. Heck, Nagata beat Yasuda three times in a row (6/01, 8/01, 10/01), before his loss to Yasuda in 2/02 (which was only because of the 12/31 shoot results), so who knows. If Tanaka beats Koji though, he'll have beaten almost everyone. He'll be 1-2 against Liger, so Liger would be his next major challenger I guess, unless Liger pushes someone like Black Tiger 3 more.

[Guest Stuart]

The full lineup for tomorrow's Budokan card was announced. It's a big one. Several matches were added, including an eight man junior tag, which looks awesome. K-DOJO's Minoru Fujita gets his wish, as he will work the show, facing Yutaka "Giant Killer" Yoshie. Due to Tenzan's broken nose/fracture, he's off the show and out for as much as a month (since the next tour starts on 6/20, he should only miss the first part of the grueling one month long summer tour), replaced by Norton. With Tenzan and Nakanishi both hurt yesterday, I think New Japan shouldn't run anymore matches that long until the roster is deeper. Tadao Yasuda has been demoted to the midcard after turning up for work FOUR hours late yesterday. Thankfully Nakanishi will work through the pain of his injured right thigh muscle, going ahead and facing Takayama.

 

NJPW "BATTLE ZONE 6-7", 6/7/02 (TV)

Tokyo Nippon Budokan

 

1. El Samurai & Blue Wolf vs. Katsuyori Shibata & Wataru Inoue

2. MIKAMI [DDT] & Takashi Sasaki [DDT] vs. Poison Sawada JULIE [DDT] & Hebikage [DDT]

3. Mariko Yoshida [ARSION], Michiko Omukai [ARSION], Rie Tamada [ARSION], Ai Fujita [ARSION] & baby A [ARSION] vs. Lioness Asuka [ARSION], GAMI [ARSION], noki-A [ARSION], Fabi Apache [ARSION] & Bionic J [ARSION]

4. Tadao Yasuda & Osamu Nishimura vs. Hiro Saito & Tatsutoshi Goto

5. Jushin Thunder Liger, Minoru Tanaka, Tiger Mask 4 [Michinoku Pro] & Curry Man [Michinoku Pro] vs. Koji Kanemoto, AKIRA, Black Tiger & Gedo

6. Yutaka Yoshie vs. Minoru Fujita [Kaientai Dojo]

7. Masayuki Naruse vs. Bas Rutten

8. Kenzo Suzuki & Hiroshi Tanahashi vs. Masahiro Chono & Scott Norton

9. Manabu Nakanishi vs. Yoshihiro Takayama

10. IWGP Heavyweight Title: Yuji Nagata © vs. Kensuke Sasaki

 

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- The main event for UFO's 8/8 Tokyo Dome show was announced as Naoya Ogawa vs. PRIDE Heavyweight Champion, Antonio Rodrigo Nogueira. Of all the possible matches, this is one of those that guarantee a huge turnout for the show. Mitsuharu Misawa and Shinya Hashimoto are also rumoured to work the show. Thankfully, it won't be taking New Japan's live G1 Climax slot on TV-Asahi, but will be aired live on Nippon TV (home of NOAH) instead.

 

- NOAH's 32-year-old sensation, Takashi Sugiura, an accomplished amateur, will fight Daniel Gracie at PRIDE 21 on 6/23. Sugiura debuted in NOAH amidst much hype, and it was only a matter of time before he started considering PRIDE.

 

- The outline for this year's G1 Climax was announced. No really new info, just the obvious, such as that there will be two blocks of six wrestlers, each group match will have a 30 minute time limit, etc.

 

- After winning the Best of the Super Jr. Tournament, Koji Kanemoto said that Chono will appoint him as a junior matchmaker on the next series. Kanemoto promised "black army corps monopolization", meaning T2000 would book both divisions.

 

- Bas Rutten said that after being punched in the face by Tanahashi yesterday, he lost a contact lense and had trouble seeing. Rutten warned that he will soon become IWGP Heavyweight Champion, possibly facing the winner of Nagata vs. Kensuke at one of the two big Sapporo shows in July (which will have to draw 24,000 fans over two days to sell out).

 

- Keiji Muto announced that on All Japan's 7/20 Tokyo Nippon Budokan show, he wants to wrestle as Muto (AKA himself), MUTA (his new Great Muta name) and Kokushi. Meanwhile, the new MUTA will face Bam Bam Bigelow on 6/22 at IWS' Atlantic City show. Satoshi Kojima will face Tatanka on the same show. Kendo Ka Shin and Kaz Hayashi will compete on AAA shows in Mexico during All Japan's time off touring.

[Guest Stuart]

 

LATE ADDITION: New Japan just posted details of the G1 Climax press conference.

 

CONFIRMED PARTICIPANTS: Masahiro Chono, Hiroyoshi Tenzan, Yuji Nagata, Kensuke Sasaki, Manabu Nakanishi and Osamu Nishimura

 

SIX TO BE ADDED. CANDIDATES SO FAR: Tatsumi Fujinami, Shiro Koshinaka, Tadao Yasuda, AKIRA, Jushin Thunder Liger, Koji Kanemoto, Masahito Kakihara, Kenzo Suzuki, Hiroshi Tanahashi, Yoshihiro Takayama

 

The winner of Yoshie vs. Fujita will also be considered. Chono said Tenzan will miss three weeks with his nose fracture.

[Guest Black Tiger]

I like Tanaka but I hope Kanemoto wins, only because Lyger and Tanaka are already IWGP Jr Tag Team Champions.