So much happened this week- probably one of the two or three busiest of the year- that I’m going to take a different approach to covering it.
Tuesday
New Japan announced that Takayama and Suzuki had until 1/18/05 to defend the IWGP tag titles (6 months after their 7/18/04 defense) or else they’d be stripped. They also announced Naoya Ogawa for the Osaka Dome show, an expensive booking made by Inoki. Last but not least for them, it was announced that they have $2 million in the bank.
A split between Zero-One and Hashimoto surfaced, with a likelihood that Hashimoto would take other wrestlers with him, and in the process cause one or two new promotions as Zero-One would be legally closed (one for Hashimoto, one for Ohtani and backstage boss Nakamura).
Wednesday
Naoya Ogawa’s match was given priority over two of the top three announced Osaka Dome matches. Kawada vs Tenzan and Tanahashi vs Nakamura were scrubbed. In their wake: Ogawa & Kawada vs Tenzan & Tanahashi, plus a new match for Nakamura. All Japan was not pleased with how the Triple Crown match was casually discarded. New Japan’s top American star (in theory), Josh Barnett, was said to be out six months following a shoulder injury suffered in a shootfight.
NOAH essentially announced Kobashi vs “Gladiator” Mike Awesome for the GHC title on 12/4, along with Mike Modest & Donovan Morgan challenging Misawa & Ogawa for the tag titles (which makes absolutely no sense).
Thursday
New Japan announced Shinsuke Nakamura’s match at the Osaka Dome, as he would team with Nakanishi against Kaz Fujita and Kendo KaShin. Nakamura vs Fujita had been predicted as a potential IWGP title match back in July, but Fujita of course lost the belt to Sasaki. This was also an Inoki brainchild. Zach Arnold of Puroresupower.com hypothesized that this had to do with Inoki’s ties to K-1 kickboxing, and that signs pointed to New Japan losing their contract with TV-Asahi. New Japan predicted that they would only half-fill the Osaka Dome, though they’d planned on a smaller than usual seating arrangement; this figure included thousands of tickets given away.
Zero-One officially announced Hashimoto’s departure. At the show with the announcement (which saw a very empty Korakuen Hall), Steve Corino beat Kohei Sato for his US title. NOAH was reported to be planning a 40 man tournament in 2005. They also revealed their new dojo facilities, as they’ve only debuted three new wrestlers since forming four years ago.
Saturday
New Japan ran their Osaka Dome show. Minoru Tanaka again retained his junior title over Koji Kanemoto. Sasaki retained the IWGP title over Minoru Suzuki, and they then formed an alliance out of mutual respect. Nagata & Nishimura beat Chono & Choshu; Nishimura did a stretcher job (perhaps legit) for the first elimination, then Chono and Choshu struck each other to allow Nagata to pin them both. Kawada & Ogawa, using their personas from HUSTLE, beat Tenzan & Tanahashi when Kawada pinned Tanahashi. This was called match of the night, with Tanahashi looking very good. In the main event, Fujita pinned Nakamura. Afterwards, Inoki attacked Nakamura for lacking fighting spirit.
Perhaps the most important long-term event was Inoki promoting K-1’s New Years Eve show, which airs on a network rival of TV-Asahi. This proved the suspicions of Zach Arnold and others, and New Japan could wind up with a worse time slot on a lesser network. The Zero-One show, also in Osaka, had a very, very confusing event. Choshu, who also worked the Zero-One show in its main event, was attacked afterwards by Chono and Chono’s heel stable. While Chono vs Choshu in New Japan was set up at New Japan’s show, this hints at New Japan wrestlers feuding with Zero-One as a whole… which makes no sense because Hashimoto split with Zero-One in order to hook up with New Japan.
Meanwhile, NOAH’s tour opener saw Marufuji pin KENTA to end KENTA’s singles match series in a match that was acclaimed by fans. They also did more to set up the respective title matches coming up.
Sunday
New Japan announced more of its next tour, with the main highlight being a New Japan vs Black Hole (Chono’s stable) show on 12/9, featuring Kanemoto vs Liger, Nishimura vs Chono, Nagata vs Norton and Tenzan vs Nakanishi. The tour-ender on 12/12 will feature the crowning of new IWGP tag champions, as Takayama/Suzuki are apparently not going to be able to defend before February. Sasaki vs Tenzan on 12/11 for the IWGP title was confirmed.
Monday
All Japan announced the main event of its 12/5 Sumo Hall show: Kawada vs Tenzan for the Triple Crown. That most likely satisfies All Japan’s complaint over it being dropped from the Osaka Done show, as they get to profit from it by almost certainly selling out the 12/5 show. This means Tenzan challenges for two of the three major Japanese titles in the same week, which is more than a little unprecedented.
New Japan set up a bevy of matches for its 1/4 Tokyo Dome show, including Choshu taking on Chono or Nakanishi, Kawada vs Tanahashi, retired legend Sakaguchi vs Naoya Ogawa, and a rematch of Shibata vs Tenryu (which was in the Osaka Dome midcard).
Next Week: I finally get around to writing about the connection between puroresu and US indies because there should be a lull in news/results.
Also, look for more commentary and analysis from me this week on Puroresupower.
