ROH in Japan

[Hawk 34 0]

Night One (Toyko)

ROH World Title Match

Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness

 

Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe & Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA, Ricky Marvin & Matt Sydal

 

Bryan Danielson vs. Go Shiozaki

 

Fight Without Honor

Delirious vs. Roderick Strong

 

Jack Evans & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero

 

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Rave

 

Night 2 (Osaka)

ROH World Tag Team Title Match

Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Shingo & Susumu Yokosuka

 

KENTA & CIMA vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero

 

Dragon Gate Rules Six Man

Matt Sydal, Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid vs. Delirious, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino

 

Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong

 

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave

 

Nigel McGuinness vs. BJ Whitmer

[CheesalaIsGood 0]

There has to be more than that on the card. Didn't I hear that Austin Aries was going to be booked for both shows?

 

Night One (Toyko)

ROH World Title Match

Takeshi Morishima vs. Nigel McGuinness - I just DL'd the first one the other day but I haven't seen it yet. The PPV got me sold on the idea of these two really tearing it up. So far... good on paper.

 

Jay Briscoe, Mark Briscoe & Naomichi Marufuji vs. KENTA, Ricky Marvin & Matt Sydal - Did Marufuji and KENTA have a falling out anglewise? I have a hard time keeping track of who is allied with who in NOAH. Maybe they are just rivals now that Marufuji beat KENTA last year when he was champ. This looks like it can be a MOTY candidate considering who is involved. Not really a big Marvin fan but I see what other folks see in him so I also can't talk too bad about him. The Briscoes are the best act in wrestling IMO. This should be great.

 

Bryan Danielson vs. Go Shiozaki - Am Drag is going to whup him good but Go will look tough as usual.

 

Fight Without Honor

Delirious vs. Roderick Strong - Not a fan of either guy so blah.

 

Jack Evans & Kotaro Suzuki vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero - This could be a good chance for these four to try to step up and steal the show. All four guys could use that rep to elevate themselves and outperform the top of this card. We'll see I suppose.

 

BJ Whitmer vs. Jimmy Rave - Eh, I'm indifferent to both of these guys. So I hope there is some other talent on this show to fill things out.

 

What? No Chris Hero for the NOAH show?

 

Night 2 (Osaka)

ROH World Tag Team Title Match

Jay & Mark Briscoe vs. Shingo & Susumu Yokosuka - I love me some SHINGO but I know nothing about Yokosuka. Might be good.

 

KENTA & CIMA vs. Davey Richards & Rocky Romero - The NRC ain't going over the super-star team here but this should be fun. Richards and Romero need some real solid matches underneath them as a team to solidify themselves as a unit. Hopefully, they can hold their own an step up. Get ready for a stiff fest.

 

Dragon Gate Rules Six Man

Matt Sydal, Ryo Saito & Dragon Kid vs. Delirious, Naruki Doi & Masato Yoshino - Will... be... awesome...

 

Jack Evans vs. Roderick Strong - Evans will add some color by making Strong look great. Not a big Strong fan, but this is a good pairing.

 

Bryan Danielson vs. Jimmy Rave - I thought there title match got more love than it deserved even if it wasn't as horrible as I thought it would be. It's Am Drag so he should kill him dead here.

 

Nigel McGuinness vs. BJ Whitmer - I guess BJ will continue his losing streak gimmick. Not much interest here. BJ is only interesting to me when Jimmy Jacobs is killing him.

 

Overall, not a bad couple of cards but I am curious about certain names not being booked. No Hero? No Claudio? Aries? WTF?

[Hawk 34 0]

Not every match has been announced. However, since most shows are usually 7-8 matches, that's pretty much the entire card. A funny note about the Briscoes tag match on night 2, Yokosuka was the 3rd man named to team with Shingo. The first two were called out due to injury.

[Hawk 34 0]

From MSNBC

 

A strong earthquake jolted northwestern Japan on Monday morning and caused buildings in the capital Tokyo to sway. The Meteorological Agency said small tsunamis as high as 20 inches were believed to have hit coasts in the area.

 

Three nuclear reactors in the region automatically stopped but no irregularities were reported, public broadcaster NHK said.

 

The quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.6 and was centered off the coast of the prefecture (state) of Niigata, the agency said in a statement. The tidal waves were believed to have hit the Niigata coasts, the agency added.

 

Several bullet train services linking Tokyo to northern Japan have been suspended, NHK said

.

[JustJoe2k5 0]

When, in our time, will these shows take place?

 

I don't know what to think about the earthquake, I just hope everyone is alright. MSNBC makes it sound minor while a guy on the Ring of Honor boards makes it out to sound like a major disaster.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

ROH booker Gabe Sapolsky posted the following results on the Ring of Honor message board from this morning's ROH debut in Tokyo, Japan: Just walked in from the show, we are about to run out for more sushi, but after a quick glance I don't see results yet so here they are in quick form:

 

1) Delirious came out to welcome the Japanese fans to ROH. NRC jumped him until Jack Evans & Suzuki made the save. Evans challenged Romero & Richards to have their match right now. Romero & Richards defeated Evans & Suzuki after Romero kicked Evans in the head several times. This was a hot opener.

 

2) In a suprise NOAH match Taniguchi defeated Ito.

 

3) Jimmy Rave defeated BJ Whitmer

 

4) Bryan Danielson defeated Go Shiozaki in a long match that was an absolute classic. The Tokyo fans were chanting "ROH" after the match and gave Danielson a huge ovation. Danielson challenged the main event winner to a title match in the future.

 

KENTA came out right after intermission and told the crowd he injured his leg last night at Budokan Hall and would be unable to compete. The crowd was very understanding.

 

5) Delirious defeated Roderick Strong in a Fight Without Honor that saw the crowd really cheer Delirious and boo Strong. This was the best match between these two and they both agreed.

 

6) Naomichi Marufuji, Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated Matt Sydal, Ricky Marvin & Aoki. Let me just saw this match was amazing.

 

7) Takeshi Morishima defeated Nigel McGuinness in another outstanding match. This had Budokan main event title match heat. At the end of the match Bryan Danielson entered the ring with the belt. He told Morishima it was his belt. Danielson then acted like he was going to hand Morishima the belt but instead slapped him. Before Morishima could kill Danielson, he tried to run off. However, Danielson ran right into Nigel who hit him with an uppercut. Nigel then picked up the belt and Morishima extended his hand. In a show of respect they shook hands and Nigel handed Morishima the belt to end the show.

 

On another note, Naomichi Marufuji will replace KENTA in Osaka.

[Garth 0]

Sounds like a thoroughly successful debut for ROH in Japan by the sounds of things.

 

I'm fairly suprised Nigel didn't take the title at this show. They're clearly painting Danielson to be the next great ROH hope. If ROH booking continues anything like it has in the past the title clearly isn't going back to him.Of all the World Title changes it could be debated that only one of the changes was the obvious guy to take the strap. (Gibson/Danielson) Leaves me wondering who the next champ will be. If the matches the Morishima is putting forth are as good as everyone says then roll on his reign I say.

[Hawk 34 0]

On top of being a success with the in-ring product, it also sold out.

[Garth 0]

What's capacity at Budokan Hall?

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

Budokan holds 16,000+. ROH was at the Differ Ariake in Tokyo, which holds 1,800. Gabe's line about Budokan was just a way to say "We got crowd heat! Awesome!"

 

Tokyo is the hottest place in Japan for Pro-wrestling. There's fans there that will see ANYTHING. Korakuen Hall probably has some of the hottest fans in the world.

 

ROH selling out Differ is impressive, but at the same time it's not due to Tokyo's hardcore fanbase and other factors. On paper it sounds awesome...but the Japanese fans aren't like us. They will go see anything the first time it comes due to curiousity alone. It's AFTER the first few shows when lasting potential is tested. ROH did a smart thing by apparently having a fantastic show though, so who knows.

 

As for the person who asked why Aries isn't on these shows: He's touring Dragon Gate right now. It's their annual "WrestleJam" tour where they bring in indy guys from around the world. Aries is considered "super important", and is pushed like a world beater. Hence why he missed the ROH shows.

[Garth 0]

I did think it slightly odd for ROH to be holding an event in such a large and important setting.

 

Results from Osaka from the ROH board:

Ring of Honor in Japan

Osaka Perfectural Gym #2

Osaka, Japan

7/17/2007

 

Attendance: 800

 

Main Event Dream 6-Man Tag Match

CIMA & Bryan Danielson & Naomichi Marufuji defeat Rocky Romero & Davey Richards & Masaaki Mochizuki

- CIMA Schwein on Rocky Romero

(25:01)

 

ROH World Tag Team Championships

Jay & Mark Briscoe defeated SHINGO & Yokosuka

- Doomsday Device on Yokosuka

(17:55)

 

6-Man Tag Match

Matt Sydal & Dragon Kid & Ryo Saito defeat Delirious & Masato Yoshino & Naruki Doi

- Sydal Shooting Star Press on Delirious

(21:02)

 

Grudge Match

Jack Evans defeated Roderick Strong

- 630 Splash

(14:47)

 

Special Challenge Match

Nigel McGuinness defeated BJ Whitmer

- Jaw Breaker Lariat

(9:14)

 

ROH World Tag Team Championships

Jay & Mark Briscoe defeat Jimmy Rave & Genki Horiguchi

- Spike Jay Driller on Jimmy Rave

(9:22)

 

They changed the card up a fair bit from the originally planned one. Briscoes defending the belts twice seems a little over the top. Would adding a minute or two to all the other matches been that hard. I suppose they wanted to use Rave and Horiguchi, but I'm sure the card could have been rejigged some other way to fit them in.

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

That show did not do well. The Osaka Prefectural Gymnasium #2 holds 1,800. Doing 800 paid (if that) is not good. I say if that, because Japanese companies inflate their number. I could easily see DG and NOAH insisting on inflating the number so ROH doesn't look "indy" and by their association, them as well.

 

Using Dragon Gate to run Osaka is a little weird. DG doesn't run Osaka much. Would have made much more sense to hold that show in a DRAGON GATE power base, or Tokyo...even then, that lineup isn't a drawing show by any stretch. The main event is almost hilariously one-sided. No way in hell would a team of CIMA and Marufuji lose to anyone in ROH. Or DRAGON GATE...or Any junior team in NOAH. Throw in Danielson, and that's amazingly telegraphed who is going to win.

 

ROH would be smart not to try this again until they get more name value in Japan. Running Japan is a completely different beast then any other market in the world. Chalk it up to experience and move on.

 

 

[Jingus 0]

Why was their heavyweight champ Morishima not even on the second show, anyway?

[Hawkius Maximus 0]

The only reason I can think of, is they attempted to divide the two shows clearly between the two feds. Night one was NOAH, which is where Morishima is from. Night two was DRAGON GATE. ROH works with both, and they probably did this to keep the inter-promotional issues as low as possible.

 

The problem is, NOAH's stronger across Japan. DRAGON GATE can draw crowds that rival quite a few NOAH shows, but only in their main bases. Plus, like I said the second night wasn't even half as strong as Night One. Also, like I said in a previous post, Tokyo is the hotbed for Pro-Wrestling. Osaka, while a big market isn't as hot as Tokyo.

 

Combine all those factors, and ROH's relative lack of power in the Japanese market, and it's easy to see why they did that number.